to be plundered may have escaped the Vikings' attention. One of the first named Viking leaders was Thorgest (in Latin Turgesius). The Annals of the Four Masters connect him with attacks on Connacht, Mide and the church at Clonmacnoise in 844. He was captured and drowned in Lough Owel by Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, King of Mide. However the existence of Thorgest is uncertain as he was recorded in books written over 200 years after his death in a period of strong anti-Viking sentiment. He was often depicted as a villain and his wife was said to be a witch that would perform pagan rituals on altars. It is highly likely that this was war propaganda as we have very little evidence of his existence from his own period, and it is unlikely those close to him would record this themselves. In 848 a Norse army was defeated at Sciath Nechtain by Ólchobar mac Cináeda of Munster and Lorcán mac Cellaig of Leinster. For the first time the leader of the Vikings is described as royalty from Lochlann. Máel Sechnaill, now High King, defeated another army at Forrach the same year. These victories form the background of an embassy sent to the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald, reported in the Annales Bertiniani. In 853 Olaf, identified as a "son of the king of Lochlann", came to Ireland. Lochlann has been understood as (a district of) present Norway; it is now considered more plausible that it refers to a Scandinavian colony in the Western Isles of Scotland. Olaf assumed leadership of the Vikings in Ireland, probably in some way shared with his kinsman Ivar, first mentioned in the Irish Annals in 857. Olaf and Ivar remained active in Ireland and around the Irish Sea for the next two decades. The descendants of Ivar, the Uí Ímair, would be an important political factor for the next two centuries. Shifting alliances and struggle for power A significant new trait from the middle of the 9th century was that the Norse now also entered alliances with various Irish rulers. Cerball mac Dúnlainge had become king of Osraige in 842. Cerball had defeated Viking raiders in 846 and 847, but from 858 he is allied with Olaf and Ivar against Máel Sechnaill, campaigning in Leinster and Munster, and in 859 also raiding Máel Sechnaill's heartlands in Mide, though Cerball had to submit to Máel