Note 270 — Chapter XVIII · EARL RÖGNVALD SLAIN.

The two Papeys, the great and the little (anciently Papey meiri and Papey minni), now Papa Westray and Papa Stronsay, are both mentioned in the Saga. Fordun, in his enumeration of the islands, has a “Papeay tertia,” which is not now known. There are three islands in Shetland called Papey, and both in Orkney and Shetland there are several districts named Paplay or Papplay, doubtless the same as the Papyli of Iceland. Munch considers that these names betray a Kelto-Christian origin. They probably indicate the settlements of Irish ecclesiastics in the islands previous to the arrival of the Northmen. The recent discoveries in Orkney of ecclesiastical bells of the early square form, and of stone monuments with Ogham inscriptions (in one case associated with a figure of the cross of an early form), seem to point to the settlement of ecclesiastical communities in the islands at a very early period. (See Introduction.)