| Part ofa series on |
| Celtic Christianity |
|---|
 |
History |
| Portal Christianity |
ThePapar (Icelandic pronunciation:[ˈpʰaːpar̥]; fromLatinpapa, viaOld Irish, meaning "father" or "pope") were Irish monks who tookeremitic residence in parts ofIceland before that island's habitation by theNorsemen ofScandinavia. Their existence is attested by the earlyIcelandic sagas and recent archaeological findings.[1][2]
The firstNorsemen began settling in Iceland in AD 874. The oldest Scandinavian source mentioning the existence of thePapar, however, theÍslendingabók (Book of the Icelanders) by Icelandic chroniclerAri Þorgilsson, was written between 1122 and 1133, some time after the event. Ari writes of "Christian men", titled thePapar by the Norsemen, who departed the island because of their dislike of the 'heathen' Norse, pointing to the possibility of thePapar having arrived before the Norse.[3]
An earlier source that could possibly refer to thePapar is the work ofDicuil, an early 9th-century Irish monk and geographer, which included mention of the wandering of "holy men" to the lands of the north. However, it is not known whether Dicuil is speaking about Iceland, asGaelic-Irish hermits also settled in other islands of the north such asOrkney andShetland.[4]
Several Icelandictoponyms have been linked to thePapar, including the island ofPapey and theVestmannaeyjar ("islands of theWestmen"), but no archaeological evidence in these places has yet confirmed the link.[citation needed]
Another theory is that the two sources were conflated and that Þorgilsson based his history on the writings of Dicuil.[citation needed]
TheLandnámabók (The Icelandic Book of Settlements), possibly dating from the 11th century in its original form, clearly states on page one that Irish monks had been living on Iceland before the arrival of Norse settlers. According to this account, the basis behind this knowledge was monks' leaving behind numerous reminders of their stay, including Irish books, bells andcrosiers, helping the Norse to identify their predecessors. According to theLandnámabók, the Irish monks left the island either when the Norse arrived or were no longer living there when the Norse arrived.
There are also several toponyms relating to the Papar in theFaroe Islands. Among these are Paparøkur nearVestmanna, and Papurshílsur nearSaksun. Vestmanna, in fact, is short forVestmannahøvn, meaning the "harbour of theWestmen" (Gaels). A churchyard on the island ofSkúgvoy also has tombstones which display a possible Gaelic origin or influence.[5]
Some of the sagas suggest thatGrímr, a Norse explorer, may have been responsible for driving them out, despite probably being aNorse–Gael himself:
According to the Faereyinga Saga... the first settler in the Faroe Islands was a man named Grímur Kamban –Hann bygdi fyrstr Færeyar, it may have been the land taking of Grímur and his followers that caused the anchorites to leave... the nickname Kamban is probably Gaelic and one interpretation is that the word refers to some physical handicap, another that it may point to his prowess as a sportsman. Probably he came as a young man to the Faroe Islands by way of Viking Ireland, and local tradition suggests he then settled at Funningur in Eysturoy.[5]
The 12th-centuryHistoria Norwegiæ speculatively identifies the nativePicts andPapar as those that the Norse discovered when they invadedOrkney in the early ninth century.
Originally those islands were inhabited by Pents and Papes. Of these races, the Pents, only a little taller than pygmies, accomplished miraculous achievements by building towns morning and evenings but at midday every ounce of strength deserted them and they hid for fear in underground chambers. [...] The Papes were so called on account of the vestments in which they clothed themselves like priests, and for this reason all priests are known as papen in the German tongue. However, as the appearance and letter forms of the books that they left behind them testifys that they were from Africa and clove to theJewish faith.[6]
Ekrem and Mortensen point out: "The author of HN does not agree with the earlier work of Ari (Íslendingabók), who writes that they were Christians and Irish. More recent research confirms the Irish Celtic Christian missionaries, principally through Dalriadic Gaels prior to Norwegian rule.[7]
Historian Joseph Anderson noted in hisIntroduction to Orkneyinga Saga several Island toponyms deriving fromPapar, suggesting their influence upon the region:
The two Papeys [of Orkney], the great and the little (anciently Papey Meiri and Papey Minni), [are] nowPapa Westray andPapa Stronsay...John of Fordun in his enumeration of the islands, has a 'Papeay tertia' [third Papey], which is not now known. There are three islands in Shetland called Papey, and both in Orkney and in Shetland, there are several districts named Paplay or Papplay, doubtless the same as Papyli of Iceland.[8]
William Thomson suggests that "perhapsPapay Tercia was theHolm of Papay – not a separate papar-site but aholm subsidiary to Papa Westray".[9]
The Outer Hebrides have numerous Papar-influenced toponyms, but with the crucial difference that the Norse language died out early in this area and it is arguable whetherScottish Gaelic ever died out at all. There are at least three islands originally namedPapey and renamed "Pabbay" (Scottish Gaelic:Pabaigh) in theOuter Hebrides of Scotland:
57°09′10″N7°20′07″W / 57.1527°N 7.3353°W /57.1527; -7.3353
