Note 24 — Chapter XI

Sunniva was an Irish king’s daughter. In order to escape compulsory marriage with a heathen, she took ship, and was driven by tempests on the Isle of Selia, near Stad, in Norway, and, with her attendants, found shelter in a cave. The heathens on the mainland, on the look-out for windfalls, observed that there were people on the desert island, and immediately put off to it. At this juncture, through the prayers of Sunniva and her friends, the rocks split, the cave became blocked up, and the savages drew the island blank. In 1014, when Olaf Trygveson landed here from Northumberland, breathing slaughter against the pagans, he discovered the bones of Sunniva, and she was at once canonized.