Brodir and Ospak of Man - Historicity and Legacy

Historicity and Legacy

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that the Irish surname Ó Bruadair — frequently anglicised as "Broder" or "Broderick" — may be an amalgamation of the Irish element "Ó" ("grandson of") and the Norse name Brodir. However, although Norse origins are often claimed for the surname, it has been on record in Ireland for centuries before the Anglo–Norman invasion. The name occurs most commonly in Munster and south-east Leinster.

An article on the historicity of the Icelandic sagas notes that "Brodir" is not a Norse proper name at all, and is itself derived from the Irish name variously written as Bruattar, Bruadar or Brodur. According the article, the name first appears in the Annals of Ulster in the year 853, when a princeling of south-east Ireland named Bruattar mac Aeda was involved in the murder of a rival before being slain himself. The name only appears in Norse context twice — at the Battle of Clontarf, and in 1160 for the King of Dublin, Brodur son of Porkel — and had a longer circulation in Irish literature. The same article also suggests that while the there is no doubt about the historical truth of the Battle of Clontarf, the name "Ospakr", along with other names in the Njál's saga account of the Clontarf episode, may have been borrowed from the Landnámabók.