88 



]i,^th — Vie concluded to be Cancora ; and then adverted to the 

 minor localities of Iniskillen (perhaps Inisclothran, in Lough 

 Ree), Themar (Tara), and Glendelaga (Glendalogh). 



The name Smertvick, laid down as Smjorvik on the map, 

 but left unexplained in the essay, was traced by the author 

 to two sources. The first derivation — from smjor " butter," 

 and vik " bay," or " town" — was supported by the frequency 

 of the former word as an element of Norse local nomencla- 

 ture, and the probability that some trade in butter was car- 

 ried on between the Northmen and the south-western Irish. 

 A curious tradition, connected with the fortunes of Leif, 

 the son of Hrodmar, was adduced, in which the name mynn- 

 tliak occurs — that is, meal and butter blended together — a 

 word apparently identical with the Irish momceac " boggy," 

 and somehow connected with the discovei'y of butter, or an 

 adipocere resembhng it, in the Irish bogs. The second deri- 

 vation was founded on a tradition current in Munster, that 

 Smerwick is a contraction of St. Marys Wick ; and a tradi- 

 tion from Olave Tryggvason's Saga was adduced, showing 

 the probability that, if it be so, the name is due to him. 



Kaupmannaey, laid down on the map at the entrance of 

 Belfast Lough, and also left unexplained in the essay, was 

 shown to be Copeland Island. 



Mr. Downes prefaced the latter part of his subject by 

 briefly adverting to the principal countries, in which the 

 Northmen have left topographical traces of their invasions — 

 namely, Normandy, Eastland, (extending from Mecklen- 

 burgh to the White Sea), and the British Islands — alluding to 

 various classes of Norse names occun-ing in Normandy, a few 

 solitary instances inEastland,and dwelling at some length on 

 those found in Ireland. A minute analysis of the Irish loca- 

 lities, ending in ford, was closed by the inference, that as 

 Odins Ford, in the county of Carlow, is certainly a Norse 

 locality, so Urlingford, Freshford, and F^rke, in the adjacent 

 county of Kilkenny, are Norse likewise. A less minute ana- 



