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 …
Fishing for solutions: the place-name Stronsay
03/12/2024
Stronsay occurs several times in the various manuscripts containing the Saga of the Earls Orkney (Orkneyinga Saga). The name occurs as Straumsey Streaumsey, Striansey, Striensø, Strionsey, and Strionsø. The last element is ON ey ‘island’, common in Orkney place-names. What then of the first element? In 1915 Magnus Olsen proposed that Norwegian place-names containing the …
Egilsay: Earls, Churches, and Island(s)
26/11/2024
Egilsay is a relatively small, carrot-shaped island which lies around 19 miles north of Kirkwall, Mainland. The island forms one of the Inner North Isles, alongside Wyre and Rousay, and is connected to both islands and Tingwall, Mainland by ferry. Though not mentioned exceptionally frequently in Orkneyinga saga, appearing only six times, Egilsay provides the …
Kolr Kalason, the forgotten hero of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney
16/11/2024
Working in the Orkney Archive not long ago, I came across an intriguing booklet called The Saga of Kol Kalison, about the Norwegian father of the twelfth-century Earl of Orkney Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson: The author, Charles Grant, kindly sent me the following information about it: The book was written for the Jarl Squad 2008 Lerwick …
‘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 …
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 …
Crossing the Sea of Orcs
16/09/2024
The Pentland Firth is the large body of water which separates the Orkney Isles and mainland Scotland. Ferries that run to the islands cross this body of water, which is roughly 7.5 miles (12km) in length. As such a prominent water feature, and the main crossing point to Orkney from the south, it is not …