Note 35 — Chapter I · THE VIKINGS IN IRELAND (795-1014).

Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin (ed. by J. T. Gilbert), II. 81; Chartularies of St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin (ed. by Gilbert), I. 258; II. 251; Giraldus Cambrensis: Topographia Hibernica, V. 187.

The name “Ostmen” is generally supposed to have been first given to them by the English, but the word is Norse (i.e., Austmenn, plural of Austmathr, “a man living in the East”) and therefore must have been current in Ireland before the English invasion. It may be suggested that the name was applied to the original Scandinavian settlers in Ireland, to merchants and other later comers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Cf. the nickname Austmathr, given to a certain Eyvindr by the Scandinavian settlers in the Hebrides because he had come there from Sweden.