Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu
# Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu

Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu, also known as Seljumanna þáttr, is a short tale (þáttr) about the Irish princess Sunniva who, not wishing to marry a heathen king, flees to the Norwegian island of Selje with her brother Albanus and a number of followers. The residents of the island suspect Sunniva and her companions of killing their livestock and ask Jarl Hákon to kill these ‘bandits’. On seeing Jarl Hákon and his men approach, Sunniva and her companions retreat to their caves and pray that God will not allow them to be killed by the evil men. In answer to their prayers, the caves collapse on the group. Their bodies stay buried until discovered by Olaf Tryggvason, who has them exhumed and has a church built in dedication to them. Together with Sörla þáttr, Tóka þáttr Tókasonar, Norna-gests þáttr and Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, the tale is part of a subgenre of "pagan-contact þættir".

The tale is recorded in Oddr Snorrason’s Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar and the later Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta. Oddr’s work was originally composed in Latin and only survives in Old Norse-Icelandic translation. Oddr’s work in turn derives from an earlier Latin account, Acta sanctorum in Selio.

Albanus was identified in Norwegian tradition with Saint Alban, to whom the monastery at Selje was dedicated. However, the original dedication to Alban at Selje may not have been to the British saint, but a German saint of the same name.

