Ring of Tomrair — Symbol of the Uí Ímair Kings in Dublin

The Ring of Tomrair was a royal emblem of the Ui Imair kings of Dublin between the ninth and tenth centuries. They honoured the memory of their kinsman, Tomrair or Tomar, by treating the arm ring as a sacred object.

Amlaíb Conung, also known as Olaf the White and Ímar, or Ivar the Boneless, esteemed the Ring of Tomrair as a treasured heirloom of their illustrious family.

A pagan priest cared for the Ring of Tomrair and Sword of Carlus at a temple in the Viking town of Dublin. He wore the arm ring during rituals honouring Thor, the Norse god of thunder, strength, fertility and sacred groves.

The Ring of Tomrair and Sword of Carlus were famed in Ireland as the royal emblems of the Hiberno-Scandinavian kings of Dublin.

Scholars believe the Ui Imair dynasty revered the Ring of Tomrair to honour a jarl of the same name.

The Book of Leinster and Annals of Ulster are among the Irish texts that mentioned a high-ranking jarl called Tomrair. They referred to Tomrair as a tanist, meaning the “son and heir”, of the king of Lochlann.

Tomrair arrived in Ireland at the head of a large fleet in 848. He plundered the monasteries and settlements along the River Barrow in County Kildare.

Lorcán mac Laigin, King of Leinster, and his ally, Ólchobar mac Cináeda, King of Munster, defeated Tomrair and his army at the Battle of Sciath Nechtain in 848.

Jarl Tomrair and twelve hundred of his warriors died during the fierce fighting on the battlefield.

Sciath Nechtain is near the present-day town of Castledermot in the south-east of Ireland.

Historians suspect Tomrair was the tanist, or the son and heir, of Gofraid, King of Lochlann.

The kingdom of Lochlann, or Kingdom of the Isles, encompassed the Norse colonies in Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The chroniclers described Amlaíb Conung, or Olaf the White, as “the son of the king of Lochlann” in 853 and 871.

The Saga of Erik the Red recounted Olaf the White was the son of the Hiberno-Norse chieftain, Ingjald Helgason.

The descriptions suggest Tomrair may have been the brother or cousin of Amlaíb Conung.

Olaf the White was active in the Irish Sea region during the mid-ninth century. He arrived in Ireland at the head of a Viking fleet in 853. His warriors expelled the Danes from the longphort at Áth Cliath, or Dublin.

The Irish Annals recounted Amlaíb Conung proclaimed himself king of the Vikings in Ireland. He shared the kingship of Dublin with his kinsmen, Imar or Ivar the Boneless and Auisle.

Amlaíb Conung and Imar ruled over the Norse colonists from their stronghold in Dublin for the next twenty-five years.

Imar founded the powerful Hiberno-Scandinavian Uí Ímair dynasty in Ireland.

Amlaíb Conung and Imar esteemed the Ring of Tomrair in memory of the warrior hero, Tomrair.

Tomrair may be another derivation of Tomair, meaning “Thor”.

Jarl Tomrair may have belonged to the warrior cult of the Norse god, Thor. A hammer symbol was probably engraved on the arm-ring to invoke the divine protection of the god on the battlefield.

The Irish Annals noted evidence of the cult of Thor among the Norse inhabitants in Dublin.

The Annals of Innisfalen reported Brian Boru, king of Munster, burned down Caill Tomair, meaning “the sacred wood of Thor”, during the siege of Dublin in 1000.

Archaeologists found a pendant with the symbol of Thor’s hammer in a Viking grave dating to the tenth century.

The Dublin Vikings traditionally swore oaths on the Ring of Tomrair.

Scholars believe the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle referred to the Ring of Tomrair during an oath-swearing ceremony involving the Danish leader, Guthrum, in 876,

Guthrum and his Danish nobles swore oaths to Alfred, King of Wessex, on a “holy ring”.

Guthrum promised to leave the Kingdom of Wessex during the peace negotiations with Alfred the Great. He accepted the terms of the Anglo-Saxon king during the siege of Wareham in Dorset.

The Kjalnesinga Saga also told of the Norse using a large silver armband during oath-swearing ceremonies in Iceland. The armband was kept in a temple dedicated to the Norse god, Thor.

A pagan priest collected the sacrificial blood of an animal or man in a copper bowl during the ritual.

The Ring of Tomrair was mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters in 995.

Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, High of Ireland, took possession of the Ring of Tomrair and Sword of Carlus when he captured Dublin in 995.

The Gaels regarded the Ring of Tomrair and Sword of Carlus as symbols of the power wielded by the Uí Ímair dynasty in Ireland. Their seizure represented the downfall of the Uí Ímair kings and the Norse colonists in Erin.

Tomrair lived on the poems of Ireland. The fili, or professional poets, often described the Norse settlers as Muintir Tomar.

Muintir Tomar is Gaelic for “Tomar’s nobles” or “Thor’s people”.

Olaf the White and Ivar the Boneless — The Viking Kings of Dublin on Amazon provides an in-depth account of the Vikings in Ireland.

References

Wikipedia — Tomrair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomrair

Wikipedia — Castledermot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castledermot#:~:text=The%20River%20Lerr%20(a%20tributary,Castledermot%20Abbey%2C%20a%20Franciscan%20friary.

Wikipedia — Ingjaldr Helgason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingjald_Helgasson

Wikipedia — Heathen hof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathen_hof

Wikipedia — Lorcán mac Cellaig: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorc%C3%A1n_mac_Cellaig

Wikipedia — Gofraid of Lochlann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gofraid_of_Lochlann

Wikipedia — Alfred the Great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great

Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ivarr to A.D. 1014 By Clare Downham: https://books.google.ie/books?id=_1hwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT63...

Project Gutenberg — The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Translator: J. A. Giles

J. Ingram: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/657/pg657-images.html

UCC — Annals of Ulster: https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T100001A/index.html

UCC — Annals of Inisfallen: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100004/index.html

LibraryIreland — History of Ireland and Her People by Eleanor Hull: The Northmen: https://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/Northmen1.php

Icelandic Saga Database — Saga of Erik the Red translated by by J. Sephton: https://sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en

Irish Archaeology — Thor’s Wood, a sacred grove near Viking Age Dublin? by Colm: http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/07/thors-wood-a-sacred-grove-in-viking-dublin/#:~:text=Associated%20primarily%20with%20thunder%20and,affinity%20with%20the%20thunder%20god.

JSTOR — Family Relics and Viking Kingship in Ireland by Mary A. Valante: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26193963