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LIFE OF CHARLES HALIDAY. liii
Scotland and England are kept in view, Dublin will be seen
to have held a very central and convenient position for the
Scandinavians.
About the time when Dublin was founded by Aulaf the
White, in A.D. 852, the Scandinavians held not only
Sutherlandshire and Caithness on the mainland, but also all
the northern and western islands of Scotland ;
In England they held all north of the Humber.
as well as Man.
For a maritime people like the Scandinavians, Dublin was
thus central and accessible.
It therefore naturally became a place of great importance
during the sway of the Scandinavians.
But besides the natural importance of Dublin in Scandi-
navian history, it so happens that all early Scandinavian
history is derived from Iceland, and Iceland being largely
colonized fi-om Dublin, it received in these histories its due
share of notice, as will be found in Mr. Haliday's references
to Scandinavian literature.
It was in the year 874 that Iceland began to be colonized Iceland first
by the Norsemen, and they have recorded that they found
on landing there that it had been previously inhabited by
Irish Christians, called Papae, who had left behind them
" Irish books, bells, and crosiers." Dicuil, in his work already
cited, when treating of Thule (Iceland), says, that at midsummer
there is scarcely any night there and at the winter
solstice scarcely any day; and in proof of this statement
adds :
" It is now thirty years since I was told by some Irish ecclesi-
astics who had dwelt in that island from the 1st of February to
the 1st of August, that the sun scarcely sets there in summer, but
always leaves, even at midnight, light enough for one to do any
ordinary business, such as to pick lice, for instance, from one's
"
shirt, and this as well as in full daylight (pediculos de camisiA
dbstrahere tanquam in pretentid suits).
These ecclesiastics who gave this account to Dicuil were
probably visitors to anchorites already settled in Iceland,