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 …
Christmas in Orkney: the most wonderful time of the year (for killing someone)
17/12/2024
Christmas (ON jól) is perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when we think of the Saga of the Earls of Orkney (Orkneyinga Saga) and yet it is referenced fifty times within the text(s). Over the next few days we will take a look at some of those instances… 1. The host with most …
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 …
‘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 …
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 …
Who were the Papar of Papay?
07/09/2024
The place-name Papay (officially known as Papa Westray) derives from the ON term papi /papar meaning priest/priests and ON ey ‘island’ giving a meaning of ‘island of priests’. There are in fact several Papar names in Orkney, Papa Stronsay, the Steeven of Papy (North Ronaldsay), Papleyhouse (Eday), Papdale (Kirkwall, Mainland), Paplay (Holm) and Papley (South …
The skaill-sites of Viking and Late Norse Orkney
23/07/2024
The Orkneyinga saga follows the triumphs, tribulations and travels of the earls of Orkney. The earldom is frequently ruled by two or three earls – often brothers or cousins – usually sharing power uneasily. So the saga shimmers with tensions and rivalries. In this febrile atmosphere, many of the earls do not die in their …
Cairston: a strategic place?
15/07/2024
There are three Cairstons in Orkney all in close proximity to each other, the modern settlement so-named near Stromness on Orkney’s west Mainland, Cairston Roads offshore near Inner and Outer Holm, and Bu of Cairston on the coast of the Bay of Ireland. Cairston occurs twice in the Saga of the Earls of Orkney and …
A Clerical Conundrum
07/07/2024
Two anecdotes in the Saga of the Earls of Orkney involve close encounters between the 12th-century Earl of Orkney Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson and some strange-looking clergymen. In Chapter 71, we’re told that ‘Earl Rǫgnvaldr had arrived in Westray’, and in Chapter 72 that: On Sunday Earl Rǫgnvaldr attended the service there in the village, and …
Weelie’s Taing… a weelie interesting place-name…
10/06/2024
Weelie’s Taing is a tidal feature found at the top of North Wick on the east side of Papay, south of Hundland. Thought by some to be a natural feature, or possibly a fish trap, it has what might be a sheep refuge on the south-eastern end. The inclusion of the apostrophe in this Ordnance …