Viking Sage

Today began the moving of stuff belonging to student young people. We have 3 of them at college with the first of them graduating in a few weeks time. On the way back from Dublin with the car wallowing and groaning under the weight of load number one, we stopped off in Wicklow Town to take in the delights of the Wicklow Arts Festival.
In the reconstructed Viking Village we were both entertained and educated in the ways of these visitors from abroad who arrived as opportunistic pillagers and eventually settled and even intermarried with the native Irish. It's a bit of a myth that Irish people are red haired. We are not but those of us who are can trace the gene back to these Norsemen who founded many of the coastal towns including Wicklow and our local town Arklow.
This Viking appeared to be the wise man or sage of the village and he spent a lot of time explaining the history of the Viking people and their role in Ireland in the 10th and 11th centuries.