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EXPANSION OF IRISH TRADE 31
Eyrbyggia Saga tells 1
of both Th6rodd, the owner of a
large ship of burden, and Guthleif,
8 who went with other
traders on voyages
"
west to Dublin." Still more interesting
is the account in the same saga of a merchant-ship that came
from Dublin in the year 1000 to Snaefellsness in Iceland
and anchored there for the summer. There were on board
some Irishmen and men from the Sudreyar (Hebrides) but
only a few Norsemen. One of the passengers, a woman named
Thorgunna, had a large chest containing
"
bed-clothes
beautifully embroidered, English sheets, a silken quilt, and
other valuable wares, the like of which were rare in Iceland."*
Limerick is heard of only once in Icelandic sources ; a
trader named Hrafn was surnamed
"
the Limerick-farer
"
(Hlymreks fari)
4
because he had lived for a long time there.
The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill gives a detailed descrip-
tion of the spoils gained by the Irish after the battle of
Sulcoit (968) whence it would seem that the I,imerick
Vikings had been engaged in trade with France, Spain and
Jhe East.
"
They carried away their (i.e.,
’
The Vikings ’) jewels
and their best property, their saddles, beautiful and foreign, \
(their
gold and their silver ; their beautifully woven cloth
of all colours and of all kinds ; their satins and their silken
cloths, pleasing and vaiiegated, both scarlet and green,
and all sorts of cloth in like manner." 5
Reference has already been made to the numbers of Irish
women captured by Viking raiders ; many of these captives
were afterwards sold as slaves in Norway and Iceland. In
Laxdaela Saga we hear of Melkorka, an Irish princess, who
1
Eyrbyggia Saga, ch. 29.
8
Ib., ch. 64.
3
/6., ch. 50.
^Landndmabok, II., ch. 21, etc.
of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 79.
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