The Manx are people of the isle of Man (also known as Mann and Ellan Vannin). They are descended in large part from the Celts. The island, with its strategic position in the irish Sea and mild semitropical climate, was a focus of competition for territory between the Irish and Welsh and later the Vikings, especially Norse from Norway, during the first millennium C. E. As a result the Manx culture can be characterized as Hiberno-Norse, a mixture of mostly Irish Celtic and Viking influences. Hiberno-Norse building styles and Norse folk beliefs contributed to Manx culture. The most important contribution of the Vikings to the Isle of Man however, was the Tynwald, the Manx legislative body or parliament.
ORIGINS
The Isle of Man has been inhabited since 7000 B. C.E. in the Mesolithic Age, by which time the climate had improved enough from earlier Ice Age conditions to allow subsistence. By 4000 B. C.E. people on Man had become farmers. As elsewhere in the Atlantic coastal zone the arrival of farming was accompanied by the practice of building megalithic monuments. Around 2000 b. c.e. the Bronze Age Beaker culture appeared on the Isle of Man.
The chronology of finds in the area of Billdown north of Castletown is typical of Manx prehistory. It is extremely rich in Neolithic constructions and artifacts, the former represented by a causewayed enclosure, stone circles, standing stones, and round cairns. After 1000 b. c.e. ritual use of the area had ceased and intensive farming began, possibly suggesting the arrival of newcomers. A number of roundhouses built there during the first millennium b. c.e. show that people were living an Iron Age Celtic lifestyle.
LANGUAGE
Manx is related to the Gaelic (Goidelic) branch of the Insular Celtic languages, which includes Irish and Scots Gaelic. The Manx language, however, has an overlay of Norse words. The last native speaker of Manx died in 1974, but a revival movement is under way to teach children Manx.
HISTORY
Between the fifth and ninth centuries C. E. possession of the Isle of Man was contested by the Dalriadic SCOTS of eastern Ireland and western Scotland and the Welsh. In 625 Edwin, king of Northumbria of the Anglo-Saxons, conquered Welsh Anglesey and the Isle of Man. Anglo-Saxon control of Man was brief, and at Edwin’s death it reverted to the Scots and again, in about 825, to North Wales.
Vikings and Manx
The Vikings who most strongly impinged on the Isle of Man were from the settlements on the east coast of Ireland, especially Dublin. They made Man a prime staging ground for forays elsewhere around the rim of the Irish Sea during the ninth century and later. The island for the first period of Viking raids seems to have been subject either to the Norwegian kings of Dublin or to independent Viking chieftains. During the 10th and 11th centuries the Viking earls of Orkney laid claim to Man, as did chieftains loyal to the Crown of Norway, but in the 12th century the king of the Island swore fealty to King John of England. Thereafter the English Crown continued to assert the right to fealty from the kings of Man—a right that did not become a reality, however, for 200 years. Scottish kings fought against the Viking Norse on Man and the surrounding islands, and in 1265 what was known as the Kingdom of Man and the Isles was transferred to Alexander III of Scotland. In 1290 the people, voting in their Tynwald or parliament, voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of Edward I of England.
After this the island became a prize contested between Scotland and England, with control passing time and again from one to the other. In 1405 Henry IV of England finally defeated the Scots and made the English Crown’s sovereignty over Man a reality. It has never, however, been a part of the United Kingdom in terms of ceding the self-governing powers of the Tynwald to the English Parliament.
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries as a result of its strategic position in the Irish Sea the island became a center of extensive smuggling into the United Kingdom. To curtail this the island was placed under the almost complete control of the imperial government. In 1866 Westminster restored some of its self-governing powers to the Tynwald. The island’s current status is that of a Crown dependency with a royal governor, the queen’s representative, appointed every five years.
Manx time line
MANX
Location:
Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, located midway between Britain and Ireland
Time period:
1000 B. C.E. to present
Ancestry:
Primarily Celtic
Language:
Manx (from the Gaelic branch of Insular Celtic) and English
C. E.
Fifth-ninth centuries Possession of Isle of Man contested by Dalriadic Scots of eastern Ireland and western Scotland and by Welsh.
Ninth century Viking raids begin; Viking Norse begin settlements, establish Tynwald.
1265 Kingdom of Man and Isles transferred to Alexander III of Scotland.
1290 Tynwald votes to place Isle of Man under protection of Edward I of England.
18th century Isle of Man put under almost complete control of British government.
1866 Westminster restores some self-governing powers to Manx; Tynwald becomes a popularly elected assembly.
CULTURE (see also Celts)
Economy
The Isle of Man’s semitropical climate and fertile soil have long made agriculture an important part of the economy; more than half of the land is farmed. The many good harbors contributed to fishing; in the Middle Ages the island had a major herring fishery. Viking settlers in the ninth century c. e. established trading towns and included Man in their overseas trading networks. Man’s location off the coast of Britain made it ideal for smugglers. Vast amounts of commodities, including spirits, wines, tea, coffee, tobacco, and East India goods, were imported to Man during the 17th and 18th centuries and then smuggled to England to avoid duties.
With their Tynwald (from the Norse Tingvollr, “assembly field”), the Manx claim the oldest continuously running parliament in the world. The Norse kings who ruled Man after the ninth century C. E. introduced the Norse system of legislation and open-air assemblies, where laws were promulgated (read aloud to the people), where the ruling elite’s authority was displayed, and where wrongdoers were punished. During the time of the later Norse kings the Isle of Man formed the center of a large maritime kingdom, together with the Scottish Hebrides, called the Kingdom of Man and the Isles. This kingdom was ruled by a Tynwald with 32 members: 16 from the Isle of Man and 16 from the Isles of Lewis, Skye, Mull, and Islay During the 12th century the Isles of Mull and Islay (and their eight representatives) were lost to the Argyll Scots, and the Tynwald was reduced from 32 to 24 members.
Because of this early establishment of the Tynwald the development of democracy on the Isle of Man at times was more advanced than in England. With the House of Keys election bill (referring to the building in Castletown where the Tynwald long met) in 1866 the Tynwald became a popularly elected assembly.
Literature
Little literature has been written in Manx over the centuries. Aside from translations of religious works, including the 1610 English Book of Common Prayer, there are ballads and what are known as carvals, a form of Christmas carol. The Bible was not translated into Manx until the 18th century.
The Isle of Man is named for a Celtic sea god called Manannan Mac y Leir, who figures in Irish as well as Manx mythology In Manx belief Manannan, although he had left the Isle of Man, dwelled on an island nearby under the sea and continued to cast his protective mists over Man. From time to time his island rose out of the sea, letting him look on his namesake land.
Christianity was introduced to the Manx from Ireland in the sixth century c. E. by Irish monks. Many Manx churches are dedicated to Irish saints. Cross slabs, some with ogham inscriptions, which almost certainly date to the period between the sixth and 10th centuries, are in the tradition of the Irish high or ringed cross, which had its origins in the standing stones of the PICTS. In the ninth century chapels called keeils were built, with associated burial grounds; the ruins of these are found throughout the island. Many holy wells on Man still commemorate the names of early Celtic saints. After the Norse on Man became Christian, they created some of the finest stone crosses on the island.
Inhabiting an island that is in some ways a microcosm of the larger islands of Britain surrounding it, the Manx have contrived to chart an independent course from the other insular peoples and with their Tynwald have been in the forefront of the political evolution, undertaken eventually by all the European nations, to democracy
Further Reading_
John Belcham, ed. New History of the Isle of Man, Vol. 5, The Modern Period, 1830-1999 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2001).
Richard Chiverrell and Geoffrey Thomas, eds. New History of the Isle of Man, Vol. 1, The Evolution of the Natural Landscape (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005).
Sean Duffy, ed. New History of the Isle of Man, Vol. 3, The Medieval Period, 1000-1406 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005).
D. Robert Elleray. Isle of Man: A Pictorial History (Chichester, U. K.: Phillimore, 1989).
Christopher Killip. Isle of Man: A Book about the Manx (Westfield, N. J.: Eastview, 1980).
Arthur William Moore. Manx Ballads and Music (New York: AMS, 1996).
World History
