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 …
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 …