94 Mr. DowNES on the Norse Geography of Ancient Ireland. 



Ulster, and must therefore have been living when the allied monarchs ravaged 

 Leinster ; and, even if the conjecture that he gave name to Urlingford be 

 groundless, it may have been called after some other Erling, a participator in one 

 of the numerous expeditions, undertaken by the Danes from their settlements on 

 the coast, during which they penetrated even to Clonmacnoise, in the very heart 

 of the island : as Urling this name appears to be still extant in these countries, in 

 connexion with a branch of manufacture. It is true that Urlingford is aspi- 

 rated by the peasantry ; but, as no tradition appears to exist, which would connect 

 the name with a popular pastime, I would rather suppose the aspirated pronun- 

 ciation to have originated in the circumstance, that the word hurling expresses 

 an idea familiar to the mind, which Urling does not, in the same way as Regi- 

 nald's Tower, on the quay of Waterford, has been converted into Ring Tower, 

 to which corrupt denomination its round form gave a shade of plausibility. 



Wexford, otherwise written Weisford, has a Saxon aspect: it may, how- 

 ever, mean West j^or^r, or "firth," as the Irish were denominated Westmen 

 by the Northmen, in contradistinction from the name Eastmen, which they 

 assumed themselves. Thus Vestmannseyiar, off the south of Iceland, means 

 " Irishman's Islands ;" and they owe their name to the following circumstance, 

 which forms the sequel of the tradition respecting Leif, the sea-rover. Hav- 

 ing at length effected a landing in Iceland, at a place called after him Hjiir- 

 leifsli6f'6i, or " Cape Hjorleif," where he built two houses, he in the following 

 spring set about preparing the ground for sowing ; and, although possessed of an 

 ox, commanded his Irish slaves to yoke themselves to the plough. Duvthak, 

 thereupon, concerted with his countrymen to destroy the ox, and say that a bear 

 had killed it ; and, when Leif and some of his followers went in quest of the bear, 

 the Irish surprised and slew him, after which they fled in boats to the islands just 

 mentioned, taking with them Leif's wives, and some of his effects. Meanwhile, 

 two slaves, belonging to his foster-brother Ingolf, while in quest of the columnar 

 seat-posts which had been flung into the sea, and on which the site of his future 

 habitation was to depend, discovered the body of Leif, and informed their master 

 of the circumstance. Ingolf, thereupon, having ascended a promontory to view 

 the country, and ascertain, if possible, whither the homicides might have fled, 

 descried the islands, and, rightly conjecturing that they had taken refuge there, 

 pursued them, and slew them in a place thence called the Slave's Isthmus. As to 



