Somerled mac Gillebhride

Somerled was a clan leader of the twelfth century, often referred to by historians, pejoratively, as a ‘warlord’ who made trouble for kings of Scotland. He has also been dismissively referred to by some as ‘Somerled the Viking’.  ‘Warlord’ is a modern term (mid-19th century) that could be applied to just about any and every leader in Britain right up to and including the English Civil War. Clan Chief or tribal leader might be a less emotive description and perhaps a more accurate representation of the role that such men played in the affairs of those times.  ‘Viking’ is justified by some because he had a Norse mother, and therefore a Norse name. He also had Norse DNA in his male lineage. So do most modern Europeans. Notice how referring to him as having a ‘Norse name’ seems less prejudicial than a ‘Viking name’. Somerled’s actions clearly stated where his loyalties lay.

Walter fitz Alain

Walter was the third son of a Breton knight who had been brought to England by Henry I to help defend England’s border with Wales. He fought against the tradition of lower ranking sons becoming priests, to seek his fortune as a knight. His travels eventually took him to Scotland where the opportunities seemed boundless.

Where Do I Come In?

When holidaying in Scotland with my wife, I did some research on my Scottish ancestry - my mother was Scottish. She had met my father, an English soldier, when he was stationed in Edinburgh. They married, and about a year later, my brother was born – a Scot! Ten years later my father left the Army, and the family moved south to Eastbourne, where he had grown up. I was born soon after – English! Although being born to the same parents we spent our formative years in different places. Consequently my brother and I claimed different nationalities, and there’s no changing it. Scotland-England football matches were fun in our house. The fact is, it seems to me, you are what you feel. I found Somerled during that holiday in Scotland, via some music that was being played in a tourist shop. I bought the CD - Sons of Somerled, by Steve McDonald. As I had never heard of Somerled before, I did some research. Historians seemed to paint a different picture of the person that I knew from the hero that was in the songs. Whatever modern scientists and historians may say about Somerled’s origins, he was a Scot - because he declared it so. But why I felt the need to write my version of Somerled’s story has puzzled me – until…

…The Awakening

I have to thank Neil Oliver for alerting me to a fact that I had never fully appreciated. In the introduction to his book A History of Scotland, Neil described the impact on him of seeing the evidence of the precise position of a flint knapper’s knees and toes as he knelt by a loch, creating his stone tools. Neil described how he was moved by being able to occupy exactly the same space as that flint knapper, even though they lived thousands of years apart. That, caused me to reflect on my own experiences. During the holiday in Scotland when I did the family research, I found the actual farm cottage, modernised now (tiles instead of thatch, and an upper storey added), in which my mother was born in 1907, and the building where she first went to school in 1912. I remember a feeling of great satisfaction putting it down to the success of the research rather than what those places might mean to me. After reading Neil’s piece, I looked again at a photo I took of the cottages and realised that I felt a warm glow that I had found ‘where my mum was born’, rather than ‘the cottage in which my mother was born’. Now, because I am looking for it, I find the emotional content of those experiences. It had been there all along, just under the surface, but I had never recognised it before. The cumulative effect of recognising the import- ance of these associ- ations to me, has been that I feel for the first time that I am not half- English and half- Scottish: I am English, and I am Scottish. But there are some situations in which I have to make a choice, and when I do, it’s being English that wins. Like me, Somerled had options; but when he had to make a choice, being a Scot (a Gael) was what he felt himself to be. Of course I have known of my Scottish ancestry all my life, but only at the level of knowing as I write this, that ‘today is Wednesday’; a fact, but for the most part, not a significant one. This awakening to the emotional content of history, explains a lot. Like, why I cared about events that happened 800 years before I was born, in a place some 500 miles from where I have lived for most of my life, and cared enough to research the events and to learn enough about the impact on the people of the time, to write my version of what happened and why.

It’s Not About Me

This site is mainly about the book A Wolf in His Belly, the people who inhabit it, and the places where they lived out their lives. The buttons at the top of each page will, I hope, help you to get more from the book by providing maps and other information about the events and peoples of Somerled’s time. The rest of this page is about how I got hooked on Somerled’s story - I hope you enjoy the song (see below) that got me started.

The Story Starts Here

Below, is the song I heard in that tourist shop. It sounded like a Scottish song - but one I hadn’t heard before. A member of staff told me that they were playing a CD called “Sons of Somerled”: new songs by Steve McDonald.

About Steve

Born in New Zealand, Steve’s career has been in writing and performing music, initially as a member of rock groups then as a solo artist. He has written for TV dramas and documentaries and, since the early 1990s, has developed an interest in his ancestry and produced a number of Celtic-themed albums. He visited Scotland to research his clan’s history. The result was The Sons of Somerled CD, a collection of hauntingly beautiful music, telling of Somerled and his clan’s struggle against the Vikings. The CD also includes a couple of traditional Scottish songs to which his rich, powerful voice gives a new depth of emotion. His music has proved popular, enabling him to perform to Scottish Societies all around the world and sell 400,000 copies of ‘Sons of Somerled’. Click on Steve’s picture to go to his fans’ web site and find out more.

The Book - A Wolf In His Belly

After listening to the CD over and over again, I became completely captivated by the story that Steve tells in his songs. He had woken the Scottish blood in me that had lain dormant for most of my life, I wondered why little seems to be known about Somerled outside a few dedicated historians - and members of the MacDonald clan. The songs inspired me to find out more about the man called Somerled, and early Scottish history:  Who were the Gaels?  Where did they come from?  What was the “clan system”?  Why did the clans object to the introduction of feudalism by Scotland’s kings?

What was really happening in Scotland

so long ago?

While writing the book, I realised that there was something else going on besides Somerled’s efforts to get his clan’s highland territory back from the Vikings - something that gives lie to the view by many that Somerled was just a troublesome warlord, fighting to fulfil his own ambitions. Scotland was “going feudal” - changing the traditional clan system in favour of the Normans’ system of rule. The Scottish kings were effectively stripping the people of their ancient land rights, freedom of movement and, through their clan leaders, the right to choose who their future national leader would be; rights they had enjoyed for over a thousand years - and they were using Norman and other European nobles to enforce the changes. One of the knights brought in was Walter fitz Alain, an ambitious knight who had all the qualities the Scottish king was looking for. He was to play a major role in Scotland’s affairs, and Somerled’s life. Somerled and Walter influenced Scottish and British life for centuries to come!