Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 46

Steffen Stummann Hansen and John Sheehan
Figiire 10. Conjectural reconstruction of the early
(after White Marshall and Walsh 2005, fig,19b).
The Skúvoy evidence.
If it is accepted that the origin of the
Leirvík-type of ecclesiastical site in the
North Atlantic region may ultimately
lie in Ireland, then it remains to con-
sider the mechanism by which it was
transmitted northwards (Fig. 11). It is
tempting to relate this to the tradition
of Irish monks - the papar - travelling
to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in the
pre-Viking period. This is a possibility,
and the writings of the Irish ecclesiastic
Dicuil, c.825 AD, may well serve to sup-
port this interpretation (Tierney 1967).
Indeed, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, a
fabulous tale of sea-going pilgrimage that
was originally composed during the last
church at lllaunloughan, Co. Kerry, Ireland
quarter of the eighth century, at the latest,
may also be of relevance in this regard. It
has been described as a tale that “cannot
be described as having no foundations in
reality, for there are indications that the
tale may represent an amalgam of sailors’
yarns and lore .... There are too many
similarities between the places described
in the Navigatio and what we now know
of the many islands along the north Atlan-
tic face of Europe for the resemblance to
be merely fortuitous” (Harbinson 1991,
41). It is interesting to note, furthermore,
that there were no technical reasons why
Irish boats could not have reached the
Faroe Islands and other locations in the
North Atlantic region, being far more
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