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held the sacred relics of Columba was hastily buried,
and most of the monks fled to hiding-places on the
moors of the island. Some few remained to resist,
and were slain. Blathmac stood to his post at the
altar, saying mass, until he was seized and required
to give up the treasure—for the Vikings were well
aware of its existence; they had not come without
information. He on his part knew enough about
the strangers to reply in their language. This may
mean that he had studied Danish, or that a few
words of English sufficed; for no doubt Blathmac
spoke English as many an educated Irishman must
have spoken it, and as, vice versa, Englishmen like
Kings Oswiu and Aldfrith spoke Gaelic. He protested
that he did not know where the treasure was
hidden, but added that, if he did, he would not tell ;
whereupon they cut him down, and he attained his
desire of martyrdom.
In the little building called St. Columba’s tomb,
close to the west end of the cathedral of lona, there
are two stone cists, which Skene thought, on the
analogy of a similar oratory at Temple Molaga in
Ireland, must have been made to contain the most
valued of the relics. If so, that on the south must
have held the bones of St. Columba, and as Walafrid
especially mentions a miracle-working shrine of St.
Blathmac, the cist on the north side of the cell may
have been made as the coffin of the martyr.
With 825, the year of Grím Kamban in the Færoes,
while Dicuil was finishing his book in France, began
the serious and strenuous attempt on the inland
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