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York, and expelled Olaf Cuaran and Ragnvald, following
this action by a raid into Cumbria. There can
be little doubt that his object was to break the power
of the growing settlement of Vikings, of which we
have seen traces in the story from the History of St.
Cuthbert, relating to events of thirty years earlier.
The story of the English chroniclers is that he fought
and ousted Domhnall, son of Owain, king of Cumberland
and Strathclyde, and granted the country to
Malcolm, king of Scots, on condition of his alliance.
In other words, he gave back to Scotland a territory
which he had conquered from Scotland, but did not
choose to hold as part of England ; for Cumbria was
in no sense English, being inhabited by Welsh and
Vikings under the tanist of the Scottish crown. To
maintain any kind of English government in Cumberland
and Westmorland would have been difficult and
useless, but to keep down the Viking power in that
region was important for the peace of England.
Olaf Cuaran’s restless personality and romantic
career made him the hero of legends now world-famous.
Historically, so far as his biography can be
summed up from Irish and English annals, he was
born about 920, and after childhood at Dublin spent
his boyhood at York, and early youth at the court of
Constantine. In 937 he seems to have fought, but
not fallen, at Brunanburh ; in 941 he became king of
York. Expelled in 944 or 945, he went back to
Ireland, and drove out his cousin Blákári, who had
been reigning in Dublin, but does not appear to have
held the kingdom long during this first tenure. In
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