Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib
Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib ("The War of the Irish with the Foreigners") is a medieval Irish text that tells of the depredations of the Vikings and Uí Ímair dynasty in Ireland and the Irish king Brian Boru's great war against them, beginning with the Battle of Sulcoit in 967 and culminating in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, in which Brian was slain but his forces were victorious. The chronicle, which compares King Brian to Augustus and Alexander the Great, was written in the early twelfth century, at least a hundred years after the events it describes. Much of the narrative is drawn from the earlier Annals of Ulster. Date Based on internal evidence and on the nature of the text's allusions to Brian's great-grandson Muirchertach Ua Briain (d. 1119), it has been suggested that the work was composed sometime between 1103 and 1111. Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib has been found in three texts. These three are the Books of Leinster c. 1160, the Dublin Manuscript dated to the fourteenth century and the Brussels Manuscript from 1635. Characterization of Brian and the foreigners The author makes extensive use of long, elaborate passages that describe and highlight the contrast between the