After the Battle of Clontarf the Norsemen became gradually absorbed in the general population except in a few coast towns, where they continued to live more or less distinct and governed by petty kings until the English Invasion (1169). In the chronicles of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they are generally alluded to as “_Ostmen_” (corruptly _Houstmanni_, _Nosmani_, etc.),[35] and it would seem that when Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford were captured by the English the “Ostmen” had to withdraw to certain districts outside the walls of these towns. Thus, near Dublin, north of the River Liffey, we hear of Ostmaneby[36] (_i.e._, _Austmannabyr_) afterwards called Ostmanstonry, and now known as Oxmanstown. Mention is also made (c. 1200) of a “‘cantred’ of the Ostmen and holy isle,” near Limerick and (c. 1282) of a “vill of the Ostmen”[37] near Waterford.[38] In the records of the fourteenth century, however, there is an almost total absence of references to the “Ostmen” in Ireland.[39] FOOTNOTES [1] Zimmer was of the opinion that the Norsemen made their way to Ireland as early as the seventh century. He bases his theory on an entry in the _Annals of Ulster_ and in certain other Irish annals (under the year 617) recording “the devastation of Tory Island by a marine fleet.” (_über die frühesten Berührungen der Iren mit den Nordgermanen_, p. 279 ff. in _Sitzungsberichte der kgl. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften_. 1891. Bd. I., pp. 279-317.) But this attack is likely to have been due to Saxon or Pictish raiders rather than to the Norsemen. [2] _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 807. [3] _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 811, 820-824, 827, 830. [4] Some writers would identify Turgeis with Thorgils, son of Harold Fairhair, who with his brother Frothi went on a viking expedition to Ireland. They captured Dublin, and Thorgils reigned there for a long time as king. In the end, however, he was betrayed by the Irish and was killed. (_Heimskringla: Haralds saga hins hárfagra_, ch. 35.) This account of Thorgils certainly bears a resemblance to that of Turgeis contained in the Irish chronicles and Giraldus Cambrensis (cf. Todd: Introduction to _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, I., ii.), but it is of course incorrect to say that Turgeis was a son of Harold Fairhair. [5] _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 841. [6] _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 13. [7] _Ib._, p. 15.