‘Cancelled, no room to write’!
06/11/2024
The Ordnance Survey Name Books are a valuable and productive resource for place-names research… but for places like the small island of Fair Isle it seems there just wasn’t enough room to write all the names that were collected onto the map! A bit of background first: these books contain place-name information and the sources …
‘Hope’ of finding Viking harbours in Orkney…
05/10/2024
We learn in the Saga of the Earls of Orkney that Sveinn Ásleifarson and Anakol sailed to Stronsay from Sanday and whilst there they ‘laid up by Huip Ness for some nights’ (ch. 92). Occurring as viþ Haufn, vid Hofn and viþ Hofsnes and vid Hofsnes in the saga manuscripts, it is thought that this …
The First Bird-Watcher on North Ronaldsay
25/09/2024
Chapter 8 of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney contains a very well-known episode in which Turf-Einarr kills Hálfdan High-leg, one of the sons of King Haraldr of Norway who killed Einarr’s father, Earl Rǫgnvaldr of Møre in Norway. After a battle in an unspecified location, the victorious Einarr and his men scour the …
Who is Ragna, What is She?
24/08/2024
Readers of this blog might be wondering why our project is named after Ragna, a slightly obscure woman, and what her islands were. In fact, while the female characters of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney play a much more low-key role than the many warlike, poetical, ambiguous, saintly or evil male characters, the …
Woo… Hoo… Hooking and Hookin
18/06/2024
Whilst walking in North Ronaldsay we were struck by the fact that the geographical setting of Hooking was markedly similar to Hookin in Papay. The North Ronaldsay Hooking lies on the east coast of the island in Linklet Bay, on its landward side is the Loch of Hooking with a, now canalized, watercourse serving a …
Ragna’s Islands: A New Saga
01/05/2024
Ragna’s Islands is the latest in a series of AHRC-funded projects initiated by The Centre for the Study of the Viking Age exploring the Viking Age history and Norse culture of different parts of Britain and Ireland. In 2013-14, Languages, Myths and Finds sent teams of academics and students to Cleveland, Dublin, the Hebrides, the Isle of …