Isle of Man Guide

The latest evening lecture in the Manx National Heritage winter event programme will be held at the Manx Museum Lecture Theatre on Friday 14th December, at 7.30pm. And as the ancient Scandinavian festival of Yule gets nearer, what better way to usher in the season by hearing about Manx Vikings!

During the 1100s and 1200s AD, the Isle of Man and its rulers were hugely influential in the politics and skirmishes around the western seaboard of the British Isles. Professor Andrew McDonald, Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Associate Professor of the Department of History, Brock University in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada will be talking about the subject of his recently launched publication, ‘Manx kingship in its Irish Sea setting 1187-1229: King Rognvaldr and the Crovan dynasty’.

The lecture and book will reflect its focus on one of the longest-reigning, most powerful, and best documented of the sea-kings and it has plenty to say about Rognvaldr’s predecessors and successors.

Professor McDonald commented:

“The lecture will attempt to simultaneously raise awareness of the significance of the Isle of Man in the middle-ages as the power-centre for an important and fascinating dynasty of sea-kings, and to demonstrate how those sea-kings were major players in the history and politics of the Irish Sea basin and the Hebrides in the middle age”.

Following Professor McDonald’s talk, Manx National Heritage Curators, Andrew Johnson and Allison Fox, will talk about how the use of research and science were used in the creation of the new Viking and Medieval Gallery which opened earlier this year at the Manx Museum.

Allison said:

“There is a wealth of academic knowledge about the Isle of Man’s past and one of our jobs in the new gallery was to present this in a relatively concise and accessible way. The work of academics, as well as professional archaeologists, amateur historians and fieldworkers all adds to what we know about the past. Our challenge was to distil this vast amount of knowledge and tell the main stories of a thousand years of Manx history and we called upon some of the latest scientific techniques and academic research to help us with this.”

To coincide with the lecture, the Manx Museum’s Heritage Shop will also be hosting another special Christmas shopping event on the evening, from 5pm to 9pm. The evenings have so far proven very popular and offer the ideal opportunity for people to look for locally produced gifts and fair trade products, whilst enjoying the welcoming atmosphere of mulled wine and mince pies before the lectures. In conjunction with the evening’s lecture, visitors on the evening will be offered an exclusive 10% discount on copies of Professor McDonald’s new book ‘Kingship in its Irish Sea setting 1187-1229: King Rognvaldr and the Crovan dynasty’.

Full details of forthcoming lectures and events at the Manx Museum and House of Manannan are available by telephoning 648000 or visiting www.storyofmann.com.

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