Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 21

PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT . .
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context dealt with here. Adamnan and
Brendan cannot be used as historical evi-
dence in any real sense, while Dicuil’s so-
ber information, without any religious mis-
sion, belongs to quite a different category
of historical sources.
On the other hand, according to early
Medieval historical sources, at least some
Irish became seafarers, not persuing the
golden things of this World, but peace and
solitude for the adoration of their Lord,
conceived as a physically existing pheno-
menon, and, perhaps also as results of
secular sentences, having to leave their
native lands and to find some other places
to live.7
So, was it piety or necessity - or was it
banal inquisitiveness — that called the
newly-christianised Irishmen to the sea? I
shall give no answer. But at least some of
them sailed. Heinrich Zimmer talks of
»ein Hang zum Anachoretenthum. Was
den egyptischen und syrischen Christen
die Wtiste war, das wird den Iren die See
um Irland«.8
Of course, the basic logical assumption
for Zimmer’s theory of pre-Viking con-
tacts between Norsemen and peoples of
Irish origin before the explosion of the
Viking expansion can be doubted. The
turning-point of his theory is the attack on
Eigg and Tory Island is recorded in the
Annals of Ulster, and credited to the
Christian Picts. To Zimmer the assailants
are not likely to have been Picts, who in no
way were in possession of a fleet of the size
described, and were not unknown to the
Irish. In Zimmer’s conception, such a
»Meerflotte« can hardly have been a Pict-
ish, but rather a Norwegian one, especially
as linguistic indications can, or must, be
interpreted that this fleet was »ubers Meer
gekommen«. To him a Pictish attack could
have been no surprise to the Irish, since
they had known them since the middle of
the 4th century, so that they had become
»vollkommen vertraut« to them. There-
fore, this shocking attack must have been
made by some other, unknown, people, in
this case obviously Scandinavians, or rath-
er Norsemen, thus proving, or at least
making likely a much earlier date of the
beginning of the Norse expansion than was
generally believed at his time.
Heinrich Zimmer mentions several inci-
dences from Irish sources which indicate
that Irish seafarers, also according to
Dicuilus, might have landed in the Faroe
Islands.9 There can be little doubt that
sources which Dicuilus did not know can
contribute - even if everything cannot be
proved - to a story ranging in time farther
back than that of Dicuilus. Adamnan’s
Vita Sancti Columbae from the beginning
of the 7th century, mentioned in the great
work of the Venerable Bede, may make
this assumption likely,10 although nothing
can be proved. And this specific Faroese
question is not a unique one in early Medi-
eval history.
On the other hand, all these possibilities
can be discussed as far as their historical
importance is concerned. Anchorites are
not supposed to produce new generations.
So, Irishmen, forsaking the pleasures or
the evils of this World of sin, cannot be
suspected of being the forefathers of the
people that eventually became the Faroese
nation! Consequently, an eventual Irish
settlement in the Faroe Islands can hardly
have left any marks upon our history. A
recognized Gaelic element in Medieval