337 



ordinary. It would, however, be a great mistake to suppose 

 that the Danes or Norsemen came to Ireland only to plunder 

 and commit murder. The fact that the Norsemen in Ireland 

 had their principal settlements in towns, as in Dublin, Limerick, 

 Waterford, and Cork, is sufficient to shew that they must 

 have carried on trade and commerce. The Icelandic sagas 

 contain frequent accounts of men going, with their vessels, 

 for trade to Dublin ; and one saga adds, " as many now" (in 

 the tenth century) "do." The Irish annals give some infor- 

 mation relating to the Danish or Norse merchants in Dub- 

 lin, where some families, supposed to be descendants of the 

 old Norse merchants, still exist, and where a part of the town, 

 called Oxmantown, or originally Ostmantoivn (in old docu- 

 ments, Villa Ostmannorum), to this day records the influence 

 which they once possessed. The Norsemen were called by the 

 Irish "Ostmen," and the Norsemen in return gave to the 

 Irish the name of " Westmen." Some islands to the south of 

 Iceland retain the name " Westmannaeyar," originally given 

 because some Irish slaves, nearly a thousand years ago, were 

 killed there. 



It is often, though incorrectly, asserted, that " the Danes" 

 were so completely defeated at the battle of Clontarf, that 

 they never ventured to Ireland after that defeat. It is true 

 that after that engagement the Danes, or rather Northmen, 

 came less frequently to the shores of Ireland ; but the reason 

 was, not so much that they had been defeated at the battle of 

 Clontarf, as that they became Christians, and their predatory 

 excursions to the country became, on that account, less fre- 

 quent. The battle was fought in the year 1014 ; at that time the 

 Anglo-Danish king, Canute, succeeded his father, and com- 

 pletely introduced Christianity into Denmark. Norway also 

 was Christianized about the same time. And it was the natural 

 effect of Christianity to put an end to all single expeditions 

 of vikings. In the year 1038, twenty-four years after the 

 battle at Clontarf, the Ostmen appointed a bishop, Dona- 



