The history of the Isle of Man in the Middle Ages has something of a Zelig-like quality. Man played a role in the bitter wars between the Irish kingdoms of the sixth century, the Viking invasions of Britain between the ninth and eleventh centuries, the campaigns of the Scottish warlord Somerled in the twelfth century, and the battles between England and Scotland over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. For four hundred years, it was the center of a distinct--if not always independent--kingdom with the evocative name of the Kingdom of Man and the Isles. Perhaps most intriguingly, it was the site of Arthur’s betrayal and execution of the rebellious Hoel in Caradog of Llancarvan’s Vita Gildae. Yet despite the significant role played by the Isle of Man in medieval British history and culture, modern scholarship all too often relegates it to the background. It’s the British historian’s equivalent to the “plus one.”
It is this perception that R. Andrew McDonald seeks to correct in his volume The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles, c. 1066-1275. This is neither the only nor the first book to reassess the history of Man during the medieval period. Its predecessors include valuable studies by Seán Duffy, Harold Mytum, Peter Davey, and McDonald himself. The volume under review, however, is the first to attempt to bridge the divide between formal scholarship and the non-specialist. Over the course of eleven chapters--two introductory, five chronological, and four thematic--McDonald guides the reader through Manx history and culture from the beginning of fifth century to the end of the thirteenth. The prose is clear and engaging, and for the most part he manages to balance the needs of the lay reader with the interests of the scholar. The latter will be particularly grateful for the roughly one hundred pages of notes and bibliography. Indeed, though McDonald does not explicitly characterize it as such, Sea Kings could serve well as an inviting vade mecum for the new scholar seeking to study early Manx history.
The core of McDonald’s narrative is the rise and fall of the “Sea Kings,” that is, the rulers of Scandinavian background (though with some exceptions) who governed the Kingdom of Man and the Isles during its brief existence. McDonald wisely distinguishes the characterization of these rulers as sea kings from their traditional portrayal as vikings. As McDonald notes, the whiff of primitivism that attends the term viking is hardly an accurate description of the sophisticated model of royal governance that developed in Man over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Terming the kingdom’s rulers sea kings has the additional advantage of highlighting the extent to which Man’s identity was shaped by its position within the British archipelago. The intermixing of Norse, Scottish, Irish, English, and even Orcadian populations resulted in a heterogeneous community constantly aware of both its independence (at times more aspirational than actual) from the more powerful kingdoms on mainland Britain and its many connections to other north Atlantic cultures. This emphasis on the influence of overlapping cultures allows also for an expansive analysis that takes into account the oft-overlooked roles played by competing concepts of gender, ethnicity, and religious practice in the kingdom’s political development. As McDonald convincingly demonstrates, identity in the Kingdom of Man and the Isles was in a state of constant change, shaped and reshaped by repeated conquests, evolving patterns of immigration, and its use as a stopover point on north Atlantic trade routes.
It must be said that McDonald’s attempt to balance the expectations of scholarly and popular audiences is not without its shortcomings. Some are unavoidable: despite McDonald’s best efforts, keeping track of the various conquerors, dynasties, and battles can tax the patience of even the most dedicated of readers. In trying to impose a coherent narrative infrastructure for the reader’s benefit, McDonald does at times err on the side of oversimplification, particularly when trying to account for political dissent and the sometimes unexpected alliances forged by otherwise hostile parties (it is difficult not to wince a little at the hoary chestnut, “the enemy of my enemy...” [113]). More seriously, McDonald largely neglects the ways in which Manx culture was influenced by the kingdom’s place in the literature of the period. Its portrayal in Arthurian texts may not have been strictly accurate (or, indeed, accurate at all!), but it nonetheless contributed to the perceptions of the kingdom, both by its subjects and its visitors. Likewise, the exemplum of St Maughold in the Chronicles of the Kings of Man and the Isles contains enough curious features to warrant a greater discussion than that given here. (As a side note, the inconsistency in calling the saint as “Maughold” or “Machutus” can be a bit misleading if the reader does not know that the two names refer to the same person.)
These are criticisms of the most minor sort. A more serious issue--and one entirely beyond the author’s control--is the book’s price: $92.00 in hardcover and $45.00 in paperback. Academic readers have had to accustom themselves to such prices (not without complaint), but it is unlikely that the non-academic will be willing to pay so much.
These niggling points aside, it must be said that this is a splendid volume. It is a testament to the author’s expertise, built up over two decades of study, that he is able to bring coherence to such a complex history. Medievalists who read this--and they should--will be rewarded with a clearer, more nuanced understanding of the interconnectedness of the cultures of the north Atlantic and a better sense of the oversized role played by a small kingdom in the history of twelfth and thirteenth century Britain.