the idea that he was such a great leader as he is generally represented to be. On the other hand, the Annals of the Four Masters, which are very full in their record of the Danish incursions, only mention his name once, and the events which they narrate for the years in which he is said to have held sway would have been quite impossible if a tithe of the story of his oppression were true. The principal source of our information respecting him comes from English authors, like Giraldus Cambrensis, who imagined that the number and fierceness of the Danish warriors in England was to be taken as the measure of their strength in Ireland; and who, when they met with a good story, had not the remotest idea that it was the duty of a historian to reject it, merely because it was not true.
On this whole subject of the Danish invasions there has been an immense amount of exaggeration. On the one hand, their insignificant piratical expeditions have been spoken of as if they were great national movements; and on the other, they have been credited with the introduction of that art and civilization which they did their best to destroy. There is perhaps no better corrective to the extraordinary statements which have been made on this subject than the study of local names. Nearly fourteen hundred names of Danish origin have been enumerated in the middle and northern counties of England. This tells us that there was a real invasion, carried on by an overwhelming and victorious force. Not more than fifteen of such names can be found in the whole of Ireland, and these are nearly all on the east coast.[1] We may therefore conclude that nothing more than small seaport settle-
- ↑ See Joyce, Irish Names of Places, vol. i. p. 105.
