The history of the Isle of Man before the Vikings landed will be the topic of a talk at the weekend.

The lecture will begin at 2.30pm on Saturday at the Manx Museum.

Its subject is Manew of the Britons: The Pre-Viking Kings of the Isle of Man.

It has been organised by the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society.

In his lecture, Dr Ben Guy, a research associate in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University, will consider the rulers in Man in one of the earliest periods of the island’s recorded history, between the seventh and ninth centuries AD.

It is argued that in that period the island was ruled by Britons, and that more can be said about them than is usually thought thanks to the voluminous corpus of medieval Welsh genealogy.

Dr Guy said: ‘As a hub of Irish Sea communication and interchange, the Isle of Man has been home to many cultures and languages over the centuries: English, Gaelic, Norse.

‘But in the eighth century, the Venerable Bede was quite certain that Man was an island of the Britons (meaning “Welsh”): he paired Man and Anglesey together as the “Mevanian islands”, and claimed that they had briefly been brought under the sway of Edwin, king of Northumbria, in the seventh century.

‘Bede was not alone in perceiving Man as an island of the Britons. Embedded within the vast and labyrinthine corpus of genealogies surviving from medieval Wales is authentic information concerning the Brittonic dynasties that ruled Man during the eighth and ninth centuries.’

There is evidence that these same dynasties drew on Irish legends preserved in the famous ‘Book of Invasions’, in order to place Manx dynastic history within the panorama of Irish and British legendary history.

‘This lecture will explore these themes and suggest that more can be said about Manx history during these murky centuries than is usually thought possible.’

Ben Guy’s presentation will be followed by tea or coffee and biscuits.

People going to the society’s lectures should arrive early to be sure of a seat and non-members will have the opportunity to give a voluntary contribution if they wish.

The next event coming up in the IOMNHAS winter programme will take place on Saturday, March 25, starting at the earlier time of 2pm for IOMNHAS to hold its annual general meeting, followed by Katie King, Curator – Social History at Manx National Heritage, speaking on ‘Museum 100 – Celebrating 100 Years of the Manx Museum.’