I was reading about the potential for Gaelic or Pictish priests inhabiting various isles north of Britain before the Viking age, and the Wikipedia page for "Papar" had this to say "Originally those islands were inhabited by Pents and Papes. Of these races, the Pents, only a little taller than pygmies, accomplished miraculous achievements by building towns morning and evenings, but at midday every ounce of strength deserted them and they hid for fear in underground chambers. [...]The Papes were so called on account of the vestments in which they clothed themselves like priests, and for this reason all priests are known as papen in the German tongue. However, as the appearance and letter forms of the books that they left behind them testify, they were from Africa and clove to the Jewish faith". And this had me wondering, have I lost my ability to digest text or does the "Historia Norwegiæ" say there were African Jews in the North Sea before the Viking age? Or is this speaking of the BOOKS being from Africa and Jewish of content? And if so, why/how the hell would Celtic monks have African Jewish books??? If I've missed something crucial, please help me!
Thank you.
Link to Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papar
Not a direct answer but perhabs an interesting point about Papar.
It is "common knowledge" in Iceland that Papar were the first inhabitants of the island. There are references to them in [Landnáma] (https://www.snerpa.is/net/snorri/landnama.htm) which is unfortunately not available as far as i can find in English. I'll translate the relevant passage here: "Before Iceland was populated by Norway, there were men that northmen called Papar; they were christian and men believe they came from the west, for they found irish books, bells, "baglar" and many more things, that led men to believe they were westmen.(Landnáma, Formáli)" (En áður Ísland byggðist af Noregi, voru þar þeir menn, er Norðmenn kalla papa; þeir voru menn kristnir, og hyggja menn, að þeir hafi verið vestan um haf, því að fundust eftir þeim bækur írskar, bjöllur og baglar og enn fleiri hlutir, þeir er það mátti skilja, að þeir voru Vestmenn)
So it is widely believed that they were original inhabitants and we have numerous references to them in landmarks and placesnames. But archaeology has yet to find a single proof of their existence,despite numerous attempts and extensive excavations in the 80's and the 70's. So for now all we have is the word of Landnáma that Papar inhabitated the island.
Where am i going with this?
Well, anything more is just speculation and i hesitate to do so without more sources. But given that we have so little evidence of their existence,we are at the whims of our primary sources.