Sir Henry Dryden recognises the following styles in the building:—1st
style, 1137 to 1160; 2d style, 1160 to 1200; 3d style, 1200 to 1250;
4th style, 1250 to 1350; 5th style, 1450 to 1500. (Guide to St.
Magnus’ Cathedral by Sir H. Dryden, Daventry, 1871.)
Footnote 178:
Magnus Helga Saga (edidit Jonæus: Hafniæ, 1780), pp. 536, 538.
Footnote 179:
The present church of St. Olaf’s, which is not older than the 16th
century, and is said by Wallace to have been built by Bishop Reid, in
all probability stands on the site of the older one. The veneration of
St. Olaf extended both to Scotland and England. There was a church
dedicated to him at Cruden, and among the articles enumerated in an
inventory of the treasury of the cathedral of Aberdeen in 1518, there
is “a small image of St. Olaf of silver decorated with precious
stones.”—(Regist. Episc. Aberdonense, ii. p. 172.)
Footnote 180:
Neale, in his Ecclesiological Notes (p. 116), states that Earl
Rögnvald’s remains were first interred in the church of Burwick, South
Ronaldsay, but gives no authority for the statement. The Saga, on the
other hand, states expressly that his remains were taken to Kirkwall,
and interred in the cathedral. It is not likely that the founder of
the cathedral would have been interred anywhere else.
Footnote 181:
See p. liii, _antea_.
Footnote 182:
In the engraving given of this church by Hibbert, the church and tower
are both represented as covered by a stone roof, that of the tower
being a conical cap resembling the usual termination of the Irish
Round Towers.
Footnote 183:
In Jo. Ben’s description of the islands (1529) it is said that the
church of Egilsey was dedicated to St. Magnus. But as he adds that St.
Magnus was born in Egilsey, and brought up there from his infancy, and
that he gave a piece of ground to his nurse, on which she made an
underground house with all its furniture of stone, it is plain that he
is merely repeating the absurd traditions of the time.
Footnote 184:
There were three towered churches in Shetland (see p. ci.)
Footnote 185:
“Its style of architecture,” says Sir Henry Dryden, “discarding
certain indications of an earlier date, prevents our assigning to it a
date later than the beginning of the 12th century. When we contrast it
with the Kirkwall Cathedral begun in 1137, we are forced to give an
earlier date than that to Egilsey, and this opinion is corroborated by
the churches at Orphir and Brough of Birsay.”—(Ruined Churches in
Orkney and Shetland, in the _Orcadian_ of 1867.)
Footnote 186:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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