General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> King of /Argyll/
http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/manxsoc/msvol22/note_12.htm
This Sumarlid or Somerled, the celebrated ruler of Argyle,who is also
mentioned in the Orkney saga, and in the saga of King Hacon Haconsson as
the founder of his dynasty, is styled king or " petty king" only in this
Chronicle and the Irish annals. The sagas do not mention his father, but
from a genealogy, preserved it would seem among his descendants, the
MacDonalds, and printed in Johnstone's Antiquitates Celto-Norinannic
152, we learn that he was son of Gilbrigid, and grandson of Gil-Adomnan
Skene (Highlanders in Scotland, V. ii. p. 40, 41) informs us, from two
curious old Gaelic MSS., that Gil-Adoninan was driven out from his
possessions in Scotland by the violence of the Lochians and Fingalls
(i.e., the Norwegians), and took refuge in Ireland, and that Gillebridd,
as it would appear, made an unsuccessful attempt to recover his paternal
lands, which, however, was at last effectedby Somerled, who " put
himself at the head of the inhabitants of Morven, andby a series of
rapid attacks succeeded, after considerable struggle, in expelling the
Norwegians, and making himself master of the whole of Morven, Lochaber,
and north Argyle," to which he soon afterwards added the southern
district of Argyle. Perhaps we may be able to carry the genealogy still
farther up than to Gil-Adomnan. In the Annals of the Four Masters it is
stated that "Somerled, son of Gilbrigid, king of Innsie Gall " (i.e., t
Sudreys), died in1083. It seems evident from the repetition of the
personal names that this Somerled was the father of Gil-Adomnan, and
that, being originally and properly Lord of Argyle, he had also acquired
some of the adjacent isles, as Jura, Mull, etc., enough to procure him
the title of Insular king. We might even be inclined to think that
Gil-Adomnan, being, as we presume, his son, was expelled his dominio
Godred of Man, not, as Mr. Skene suggests, by Magnus of Norway, who
already found Godred and Lagman fully established in the Isles. Indeed
the chief family possessions of Godred, being as demonstrated above, the
island of Isla, which is next to Jura and Argyle, we may guess that not
only in the earlier years of Godred, before he conquered Man, but ev
the times of their respective ancestors, there existed constant feuds
between bothfamilies, such as generally used to rage among neigh-bouring
clans in those days, and that the expulsion of Gil-Adoninan to Ireland
was only a continuation of ancient conflicts. Seeing, farther, that the
Norwegian name of Somerled, which appears twice in the dynasty, indicat
some connection with Norwegian families, and that the powerful Earl
Sigurd, the father of Thorfinn, had really a son his first-born, named
Somerled, while the husband of his sister, the Sud reyan earl, is called
" Gille " (i.e., Gilbrigid, Gilchrist, Gil-Adomnan, or another similar
name), we find it rather likely that Somerled the elder u-as a descenda
of Earl " Gille " by the sister of Earl Sigurd, arid thathis nanie, as
well as that of Earl Sigurd's son, was derived from the same common
ancestor ; nay, it is even probable that Somerled of the Isles, who see
to have been born about 1020, was immediately named after the Orkneyan
earl who died about that time.
http://www.erie.net/~skye/thelords.htm:
In 1098A. D. the Western Isles were ceded to Norway in the Treaty of
Tarbert by Scotland. Somerled was born in 1100 AD and was named after t
Vikings who called themselves "somerledi" or "summer sailors". Becau
his Norse name, somehave supposed him to be of Viking stock however he
had both Celtic and Viking blood in his veins. These two races made up
the majority of Gaelic blood and these Island and Highland Gaels were
known as "scotti" which is said to be the Gaelic for the term "to
plunder". It is als