The íÍUí Ímair (; meaning ‘scions of Ivar’), also known as the Ivar dynasty or Ivarids, was a Norse-Gael dynasty which ruled much of the Irish Sea region, the Kingdom of Dublin, the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides and some part of Northern England, from the mid 9th century.
The dynasty lost control of York in the mid 10th century, but reigned over the other domains at variously disputed times, depending on which rulers may be counted among their descendants. This has proved a difficult question for scholars to determine, because reliable pedigrees do not survive. Additionally, for between three and four decades, the Uí Ímair were overkings of the Kingdom of Scotland itself, distinct from the Kingdom of Strathclyde, of which they may also have been overkings, and later briefly the Irish province of Munster, dominated from Waterford, and later still, briefly the English kingdom of Mercia. In the west of Ireland, the Uí Ímair also supplied at least two kings of Limerick, from which they may have attempted to conquer Munster again.
Two members are styled queens of Ireland in the Irish annals (they were also queen of Mide and queen of Munster, respectively), while another was queen of Leinster (and Osraige). In the Norse sources, another was queen of Norway. Finally, another may have been queen of Brega. The name Uí Ímair in Old Irish means "grandchildren" or descendants of Ivar, but the dynasty includes its progenitor and his sons. The Irish annals describe Ivar as the brother of Amlaíb Conung and of Auisle, and the Annals of Ulster record his obituary under the year 873, reading: Imhar, rex Nordmannorum totius Hibernie & Brittanie, uitam finiuit ["Ivar, king of all the Norse of Ireland and Britain, ended his life"]. Probably the senior leader of the Great Heathen Army, Ivar may thus have become the inspiration for the legendary Ivar the Boneless (fl. 865–860), son of Ragnar Lodbrok. In any event, Uí Ímair dynasts may also have exercised power as overkings of East Anglia during their career in Britain.
Alex Woolf points out it would be a mistake to view the lordship as a "unitary empire"; it was, rather, a collection of lordships ruled by the same kindred, with only varying degrees of unity depending on the political circumstances of the moment and the charisma of individual leaders. Especially in the early period, a great portion of the dynasty's wealth, probably the majority, came from the international slave trade, both as slavers themselves and from the taxation of it, for which they were infamous in their time. In this role they star as the principal antagonists in the early 12th-century Irish epic political tract The War of the Irish with the Foreigners, although the account is exaggerated.
One of the greatest dynasties of the Viking Age, the Uí Ímair were at their height the most fearsome and wide-reaching power in the British Isles and perhaps beyond. Like the contemporary Rurikids in the East they ultimately integrated with the native population but their impact on the histories of Scotland and Ireland are still visible through the cities they founded and the Norse-Gael descendants they left behind.
Ancestral homeland
Some historians believe Ímar and Ivar the Boneless to be identical, others claim they are two different individuals. According to Irish annals, Ímar was the son of Gofraid (also Goffridh, Gothfraid or Guðrøðr), who was the king of Lochlann. The Norwegians at this point were often referred to as Lochlanns by the Irish. Lochlann was widely accepted among scholars as being identical to Norway; recently, however, this has been questioned by Donnchadh Ó Corráin and other. His and others' theory is that Lochlann was the "viking Scotland" (Norse/Norwegian settlements on the Scottish islands and northern mainland). Whether the Irish annals used the term Lochlann to refer to Norway or to the Norse settlements in Scotland is still a matter of debate; however, by the 11th century the term had come to mean Norway. According to Donnchadh Ó Corráin, there is no evidence that any branch of the royal Danish dynasty ruled in Ireland. He also claims that Ímar's brother, Amlaíb Conung (the name "Conung" is from the Old Norse konungr and simply means "king"), who often has been identified as part of the royal Norwegian dynasty (Ynglingene), was in fact not. He argues that both Ímar and his brothers were part of a Norse dynasty centered in and around the Scottish mainland.