Scapa…part one…
09/03/2025
Skálpeið is mentioned several times in the Saga of the Earls of Orkney and we find the place-name ‘Scapa’ applied to a number of places in Orkney: Scapa Flow and Scapa Bay in the sea, and on land at two farms (Upper and Nether Scapa), Scapa House, not to mention the modern Scapa Distillery near …
In the wake of Sveinn Ásleifarson: the lost place-names of Hellisey and Vǫlunes
15/02/2025
In chapter 95 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney we hear of one of the many scrapes of the ever-quarrelsome Sveinn Ásleifarson. On leaving Gairsay after a failed attempt to confront Earl Haraldr ( who was not there as he ‘had gone to a small island to hunt hares’), Sveinn ‘made for Hellisey; …
Islands and Islandness: a Poetry Workshop with Charlotte Eichler
26/01/2025
On Thursday 20th February Charlotte Eichler, the Ragna’s Islands poet in residence, will be running an online poetry workshop with an ‘islands’ theme! The workshop is aimed at beginners and experienced writers alike, as well as the merely curious. It will be a friendly and relaxed session with plenty of writing time and the chance …
8. At last… some Christmas presents and games
24/12/2024
We conclude our quick tour through the Christmases of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney with some presents and some party games! In chapter 85 Earl Rǫgnvaldr ‘had a great Christmas feast and invited people and gave gifts’. Having distributed the gifts, Rǫgnvaldr proceeded to play some twelfth-century Christmas games: He reached out a …
7. A choice: more ale or more prayers?
23/12/2024
Elsewhere (see the last blog!) we hear that at the Earl’s palace, the then earl being Páll Hákonarson, at Orphir, there was a church next to a large drinking hall, and that whilst there ‘during the night people got up to listen to the canonical hours, and after high mass people went to eat’. Thus …
6. A strange Christmas visitor in a (blue) cape and a hood
22/12/2024
Religion does occasionally creep into Christmas in the saga, and does when we hear that once ‘Earl Rǫgnvaldr had ruled for two winters’… he attended a Christmas feast at his estate by the name of Knarston’. Here, on the sixth day of Christmas, a ship arrived and off the ship came ‘a man in a …
5. Time to relax (and worry) with friends… plus some Christmas travel chaos
21/12/2024
With the tendency to gather in followers and retainers in winter’s darkest days Christmas seems to have also been a good time to find people at home, and with the men in the saga acting like… men in a saga… this was a good time to go visiting. In Gairsay we find Sveinn Ásleifarson at …
4. Now behave! More family squabbles and some politicking
20/12/2024
Þorfinnr’s murder of his nephew in episode 3 is a reminder of the stresses of familial relationships around Christmas and how one might take out one’s frustrations a little too far. Families, Christmas and fighting remain linked in the saga. In chapter 54 we are told that Earl Haraldr had to pay compensation for killing …
3. Christmas preparations, a time for family… and killing (the family)
19/12/2024
Returning to Earl Þorfinnr from ‘The host with the most…’, the saga tells us that he was in the midst of a conflict with his nephew Rǫgnvaldr who also had a claim to the earldom: ‘And a little before Christmas Earl Rǫgnvaldr went with a great troop to Papa Stronsay to get malt which was …
2. Christmas, a time for family… and killing
18/12/2024
Given the number of festive passages in the saga, some only passing references to the time of year, we know that Christmas loomed large and punctuated the year. It was, as we have seen, a time for great lords to show generosity and to be seen showing that largess. In one passing reference to Christmas …