Amlaíb mac Gofraid (died 941)

Amlaíb mac Gofraid (or Olaf Guthfrithsson) (Old Norse: Óláfr Guðrøðarson; Old English: Ánláf,^[1] Modern English: Olaf Guthfrithson) (died 941), a member of the Norse-Gael Uí Ímair dynasty, was King of Dublin from 934 to 941. Gofraid ua Ímair, his father, held both Dublin and York until Athelstan of England expelled him from York in 927.

Amlaíb married the daughter of Causantín mac Áeda. He also allied himself with Owen I of Strathclyde. In 937, Amlaíb led his allies into battle against Athelstan, king of England, in the Battle of Brunanburh and was decisively defeated.

After Athelstan's death in 939, Olaf again invaded York the same year, forcing Athelstan's successor, Edmund, into a treaty which ceded to Amlaíb Northumbria and part of Mercia. Uniquely, the legend of his silver penny minted at York (illustration, right) is not in Latin or Old English but in Old Norse; the bird emblem perhaps represents the raven associated with the battle-god Odin.^[2] He did not get to enjoy his new lands for long, dying just two years later in 941. He was succeeded by Amlaíb Cuarán.

Cammán mac Amlaíb, who is possibly identical to Sitriuc Cam, has been identified as one of the sons of Amlaíb mac Gofraid.

See also

• Amlaíb Cenncairech
• History of the English penny (c. 600–1066)

Notes

1. ^ Amlaíb's patronymic does not appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; his presumed brother Ragnall or Rægenald is called "Guðferþes sunu" (Ms. A, s.a. 944)
2. ^ Noted in Richard Hall, Viking Age Archaeology 1995:25 and fig. 9.

References

• The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001. [1]