Hostings And Harvests
Irish annalistic dating around this period is not always straightforward. The Annals of Ulster entry labelled U1012 gives the kalends of January as a Tuesday and adds the note “AD 1011 alias 1012”, while the Annals of Inisfallen explicitly mark 1012 as a leap year. The agreement of the calendrical details makes these entries especially useful for reconstructing the calendar year. Later compilations, including the Annals of the Four Masters, preserve additional material under 1012, but some of it corresponds more closely to events placed in 1013 by other annals. For that reason, the account below gives greatest weight to events securely attached to 1012 by the nearer chronological witnesses, while noting broader tensions without pretending that every later notice can be fixed to this exact year.