Scandinavian-Britain

74 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINheld the sacred relics of Columba was hastily buried,and most of the monks fled to hiding-places on themoors of the island. Some few remained to resist,and were slain. Blathmac stood to his post at thealtar, saying mass, until he was seized and requiredto give up the treasure for the Vikings were wellaware of its existence; they had not come withoutinformation. He on his part knew enough aboutthe strangers to reply in their language. This maymean that he had studied Danish, or that a fewwords of English sufficed; for no doubt Blathmacspoke English as many an educated Irishman musthave spoken it, and as, vice versa, Englishmen likeKings Oswiu and Aldfrith spoke Gaelic. He protestedthat he did not know where the treasure washidden, but added that, if he did, he would not tell ;whereupon they cut him down, and he attained hisdesire of martyrdom.In the little building called St. Columba's tomb,close to the west end of the cathedral of lona, thereare two stone cists, which Skene thought, on theanalogy of a similar oratory at Temple Molaga inIreland, must have been made to contain the mostvalued of the relics. If so, that on the south musthave held the bones of St. Columba, and as Walafridespecially mentions a miracle-workingshrine of St.Blathmac, the cist on the north side of the cell mayhave been made as the coffin of the martyr.With 825, the year of Grim Kamban in the Faeroes,while Dicuil was finishing his book in France, beganthe serious and strenuous attempt on the inland