En angelsaksisk steinkirke på opphavsstedet til Norges tidligste helgenkult? Nye spor funnet på Selja - St Sunnivas og Seljemennenes helligdom

The island Selja on the Norwegian West coast is the alleged martyr site of the saints of St Sunniva and the Seljumen, who according to the legend lived and died in the 10th century. The concentration of ruins on the island reveals the importance of the site during the Middle Ages which was closely connected to the legend of saints. The site shows the remains of a bishop’s church, a Benedictine abbey, a rockshelter chapel and a terrace complex in the hillside. The additional ruins of a pilgrim’s church which stand in front of the rockshelter, have now been investigated in relation to an ongoing conservation. The investigation has revealed unknown traces of an early building phase in the pilgrim’s church, which is interpreted as a stone chapel constructed before the episcopal see was established at Selja c.1068-70. Previously undocumented architectural features indicate Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, which is further supported by the site’s historical context. The article further argues that this unusual early stone chapel must be the result of impulses from across the North Sea, at a time when Anglo Saxon priests and Christian conceptions were brought with the efforts of conversion and royal conquest. It also discusses what it meant for the development of cult of saints on the island and Selja as a holy site.