began to flourish. We read of his offering twenty ounces of gold on the altar at Armagh; and his name, inscribed in his presence, may yet be read in The Book of Armagh, preserved in Trinity College. His yoke was peculiarly galling to the Danes, who had been able to extend their sway over England and other parts of Europe. There was also latent dissatisfaction among the minor Irish princes. The spark to kindle the flames of war among such combustible materials came from Maelmordha, King of Leinster, who received a fancied insult at Kincora, Brian's palace near Killaloe, from the hands of Murrough, son of Brian, over a game of chess. His anger was increased by some insulting remarks on his supineness under Brian's yoke, passed by his sister Gormlaith, Brian's third wife, said to be the most beautiful woman in Ireland at the period. A league was formed against Brian, and the preparations made for a contest evinced how much depended on the issue. The Northmen summoned to their aid all of their nation in Ireland who could possibly attend; they also sent to Denmark for reinforcements; and the Orkneys and Hebrides furnished contingents. To these were added the forces of Leinster under Maelmordha, Dunlaing (ancestor of the O'Tooles), and Brogarbhan, tanist of Offaly—indeed of all the country east of the Nore and Barrow, and south of the Liffey. To meet this array, Brian and Malachy marshalled the forces of Munster and south Connaught, with levies from the Eoganachts of Scotland. The two armies, of about 20,000 each, met at Clontarf on Good Friday, the 23rd of April 1014. "Few particulars of this remarkable battle have descended to us deserving of being set down as true history. That a great and decisive victory was gained by the Irish troops is undoubted. That it was attended with severe loss to the victors is equally certain. … If to the 4,000 Danes, who are thus included in the slain, we add the 3,000 of the Leinster troops, it will render highly probable the correctness of the estimate of the Ulster annalists, that the whole loss on the side of the Danes did not exceed 7,000. The loss on the part of the Irish leaders is nowhere stated … There fell of the monarch's family, himself, his eldest son Murrough, Turlough, son of Murrough, a youth of fifteen years of age, and who was, according to the Annals of Clonmacnoise, 'found drowned near the fishing weir of Clontarf, with both his hands fast bound in the hair of a Dane's head, whom he had pursued to the sea at the time of the flight of the Danes,' and last, Conaing, nephew to Brian." 263 Besides minor chiefs, about twelve great Irish leaders fell. The following particulars of Brian's death are given in the account of the battle and of the names of the slain, in The Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill. Brian had retired to his tent in the middle of the engagement to pray: "The attendant perceived a party of the foreigners approaching them. The Earl Brodar was there, and two warriors along with him. 'There are people coming towards us here,' said the attendant, 'Woe is me, what manner of people are they?' said Brian. 'A blue stark naked people,' said the attendant. 'Alas!' said Brian, 'they are foreigners of the armour, and it is not to do good to thee they come.' While he was saying this, he arose and stepped off the cushion, and unsheathed his sword. Brodar passed him by and noticed him not. One of the three who were there, and who had been in Brian's service, said—'Ciug, Cing,' said he, 'this is the King.' 'No, no, but Priest, Priest,' said Brodar, 'it is not he' says he, 'but a noble Priest.' 'By no means,' said the soldier, 'that is the great King, Brian.' Brodar then turned round, and appeared with a bright, gleaming, trusty battle-axe in his hand, with the handle set in the middle of it. When Brian saw him, he gazed at him, and gave him a stroke with his sword, and cut off his left leg at the knee, and his right leg at the foot. The foreigner dealt Brian a stroke which cleft his head utterly; and Brian killed the second man that was with Brodar, and they fell both mutually by each other. There was not done in Erinn, since Christianity, excepting the beheading of Cormac MacCuilennain, any greater deed than this. In fact he was one of the three best that ever were born in Erinn, and one of the three men that most caused Erinn to prosper … For it was he that released the men of Erinn, and its women, from the bondage and iniquity of the foreigners, and the pirates. It was he that gained five and twenty battles over the foreigners, and who killed and banished them, as we have already said." 144 Brian was aged about 73 at the time of his death. After the battle, his body and the bodies of the other members of his family slain, were carried to the monastery of St, Columcille at Swords, where they were received by the Bishop of Armagh and his clergy, and carried to Armagh, where they lay in state for twelve nights, after which they were interred in a new tomb. The general adoption of surnames in Ireland is supposed, perhaps erroneously, to have first taken place in Brian's reign—Mac being prefixed for son; Ua or O for grandson; Ni, daughter or grand-daughter, Brian's an-
