Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (English: The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill) is a medieval Irish text that tells of the depredations of the Vikings in Ireland and the Irish king Brian Boru's great war against them, beginning with the Battle of Sulcoit in 967 and culminating in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, in which Brian was slain but his forces were victorious. The chronicle, which compares King Brian to Augustus and Alexander the Great, was written in the early twelfth century, at least a hundred years after the events it describes.
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Based on internal evidence and on the nature of the text's allusions to Brian’s great-grandson Muirchertach Ua Briain (d. 1119), it has been suggested that the work was composed sometime between 1103 and 1111.[1] Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib has been found in three texts. These three are the Books of Leinster c. 1160 C.E., the Dublin Manuscript dated to be from 14th Century and the Brussels Manuscript from 1635.
The author makes extensive use of long, elaborate passages that describe and highlight the contrast between the Irish king Brian and the foreign army he wars against. Brian and his followers are described in terms of their virtue and courage, often emphasizing their Christian background and piety:
The text goes on to say that Brian and his Dál Cais are comparable to Augustus and Alexander the Great, even going on to suggest that Brian's son Murchadh "was the metaphorical Hector of all-victorious Erinn, in religion, and in valour, and in championship, in generosity, and in munificence."[3] The text draws heavily on figures of mythology and the Bible, attributing characteristics of Hercules and Samson to Murchadh.
In contrast with the lavish praise bestowed on the Dál Cais, the text describes the Vikings with vehemence and condemnation, though in terms no less hyperbolic:
The text's censure of the foreigners elevates the Irish and Brian even further, setting up a striking difference in moral and religious character between the two groups.
The main purpose of the chronicle seems to be to eulogize Brian Boru and thereby to show that the record of achievements of Brian's Dál Cais dynasty proved that they deserved Ireland's high kingship. This was an issue because the Ua Briain sept of the Dál Cais was struggling to remain High Kings of Ireland at the time of the chronicle's writing.
There are similarities to a part of the Icelandic Njals saga, which was composed in about 1280. In 1954 the scholar Einar Olafur Sveinsson postulated the incorporation into Njals saga of a slightly earlier and lost thirteenth-century Icelandic saga, Brjánssaga ("Brian's Saga") The relations between the accounts remains a matter of debate, and all the Icelandic written sources are considerably later that the chronicle.
The chronicler of Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib depicts the Vikings as vicious barbarians and suggests that the Dubliners are like their ancestors. In short, it may have been partly an attempt to "put the Dubliners in their place."[5]
Modern scholars consider Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib to be a piece of "brilliant propaganda" written in a "bombastic style and full of patriotic hyperbole." Although the chronicle remains a valuable source of information about the Viking Age in Ireland, its accuracy is uncertain.[6]
Comparable works include the earlier Fragmentary Annals of Ireland and the later Caithréim Chellacháin Chaisil.
The narrative of the Cogad actually begins with the arrival of the tyrannical Ivar of Limerick,[7] this only after a long introduction, the "first part" of the chronicle, which is composed primarily of valuable annalistic material taken from sources mostly no longer extant today.[8]
The Munster section comprises a full quarter of the Cogad in total and a third of the narrative proper. The principal characters are: