Aulaf, Or Anlaf, a name borne by several Northumbrian kings of Danish origin, about the second half of the 10th century. I. A Northumbrian petty king and a pagan, died in 980. His family having been expelled from Northumbria by Athelstan, he fled into Ireland, fought against the native tribes in that island, in 937 endeavored to recover Northumbria, but was repulsed by Athelstan, returned to Ireland, and ravaged Kilcullen. After the death of Athelstan, Northumbria fell away from the English crown, and Aulaf recovered his inheritance after defeating Edmund at Tamworth and Leicester. Edred, the English king, successor of Edmund, made him do homage and embrace Christianity. In 952 Aulaf was driven out by the Christian Northumbrians, and, tired of struggling against the English, he went over to lead the Ostmen of Dublin against the Irish. He defeated Murdoch, king of Leinster, in 956, and put him to death the next year. Two more Leinster princes suffered the same fate in 977. At this time he called himself king of Ireland and the Isles. In 980 Aulaf lost his son and heir, Reginald or Regnell, in an engagement against the Hibernian aborigines, and in the same year, heart-broken, he went on a pilgrimage to Iona, where he died, after a stormy life.

II. Son of Guthfrith, and uncle of the preceding, lived in the latter half of the 10th century. He,joined in the wars of his nephew against the Saxons in south Britain and the Celts of Erin. He ravaged Armagh in 932, and Kilcullen in 938. In 939 he was obliged to shut himself up in Dublin. He made an irruption into England with his nephew, conquered Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, in 943, and recovered Northumbria. He lived and died a pagan and a hater of the Christian clergy.