Vikings of the Isle of Man.

[Cubster]

I'm planning to get the Saga game with a voucher I won recently and rubbed my chin for a while wondering what force I might collect. They all have their appeal and obviously the Welsh were calling to me, but then I remembered that my family name came originally from the Isle of Man and wondered if that might be an option.

I did a little light Googling and discovered that the 'ownership' of the Isle of Man (ie. who they paid fealty to) changed from Welsh to Irish Norse to Scottish over the course of the Dark Ages and then Medieval period. I've got a book on the way called 'Vkings of the Isle of Man' which should be interesting and help me in my studies and I have the Ospreys 'Vikings' book, but can anyone else recommend an affordable title (ie. up to about £15 max, don't mind second hand) that might be a useful source book for painting, collecting and just general fun research into the Isle of Man and Long Isles warriors of this sort of time?

PS. If ti also covers the forces of Lord Stanley in the WOTR that would be a bonus!

[Invisible officer]

I think you know the Isle of Man Government bibliography about military history of the Isle of man:

http://www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/library/ ... istory.xml

[Cubster]

Yeah, thanks IO, I've been lurking around the IoM sites for a couple of days and searching for stuff. The wife wants us to visit next year for my 40th birthday and I'm a wee bit excited by it. As far as I know, none of my living family has been to the isle and it will be a voyage into my family heritage as much as a holiday. It already feels odd, I'm getting that same sort of feeling of ... I don't know, enlightenment? ... that I get when I walk into a cathedral or old ruined building.

[Invisible officer]

Family history research can be very interesting. But you might find some roots on the island..... . Pirates, tax collectors.

In my family tree I found a renegade who became Osmanian ambassador to the holy Roman empire's imperial court, low officials of the Livland Knight order, officers and soldiers of diverse armies, artists and clerks and a surprising wide range of nationalities. But not a single honest peasant or craftsman, all working with pen, brush or sword.

May be the reason for my diverse interests .

[Centurio Marcus T]

Sounds like a great project Cubster.Saga will be my next purchase some time next year and im looking forward to painting some Dark age armies

[zedeyejoe]

I am afraid that simple honest peasants are mostly ignored. You have to be a criminal or a noble before someone takes notice of you.

[clivethecelt]

Not wishing to stick a spanner in your search for your Manx roots, but ... I do know of a few folk called McCubbin in the Dumfrieshire area - not a million miles away from the IoM. Is there a Cubbin clan from which the name arises (or, more likely, that it's from another name, but someone wrote it down as they heard it)??
BTW, the IoM is great, but it costs an arm and a leg (or three) to get there; I seem to recall a useless factoid that the IoM Steam Packet Company run, mile for mile, the most expensive ferry service in the world!

[Cubster]

Yes, the McCubbin's are an offshoot and there's a whisper that my Grandfather dropped the 'Mc' for some reason, but he was born on the IoM. It's one of those names that is relatively rare but we crop up every now and then and usually find a common relative ancestor not too many generations back, usually from Western Scotland or the Western Isles.

[Cubster]

Anyhoo, update on the family tree is that as far back as we can find thus far (my Grandfather's Great Grandfather) the family have been based in Lancashire, but there are some tantalising hints that this offshoot is from someone who worked on the IoM ferry and came across from the island to the mainland.

Anyhoo, bit of a chin-rubber this and I wanted to think out loud and invite advice, comments, dirty limericks etc.. The history of the IoM is hazy but it seemed to swap between the control of Welsh, Irish, Norse and Scots around the Dark Ages and early Medieval period. For the sort of time I'm looking at - around 10th century - it seems that the lords of the island were Scandinavian but that the general populace were left in situ to keep tilling the soil and fishing as they always had. Does this mean an IoM force should have Viking thegns with some Welsh levy?

[Cubster]

Incidentally, I'm thinking of buying some 'Redbox Games' Njorn characters - http://red-box-games.com/njorn.html -as leaders and heroes. In case no-one's heard of Redbox, it's a one-man operation in America run by a guy called Tre Manor, who makes some truly superb models. They are aimed as Fantasy ranges but some of them are very nice for heroic fantasy/historical types.

He's desperately trying to find a UK distributor (come on Warlord! If you can supply that Sodapop stuff, you can supply this!) and last I heard he was talking to 'Miniature Heroes'. He is happy to do orders for the UK and Europe; the postage costs are extremely reasonable but it's a very long wait until your stuff comes through.