Section VI.

The Orkneys and Shetland Isles—NaturalFeatures.—Population.—Oppression.

The Orkneys and Shetland Isles—Natural

Features.—Population.—Oppression.

We might expect that the most northern isles of Scotland, which lie exposed in a stormy sea, should possess the same wild and mountainous character as the Faroe Isles and Iceland. Such a belief gains strength when, for the first time, in passing from Scotland, we obtain a view of the southern Orkneys, especially the considerable mountain heights of the Isle of Hay. Indeed Hay obtained its name (originally “Haey,” or the high island) from the old Northmen, on account of the mountains which distinguish it from the rest of the Orkneys; for on sailing farther northwards, past Hay and the adjacent South Ronaldshay (formerly “Rögnvaldsey”), we soon discover that the Orkneys are in general flat and sandy, although with cliff-bound coasts. Their heath-covered hills scarce deserve the name of mountains, though here and there called by the inhabitants “fjolds,” or Fjelde (mountain rocks). The islands are destitute of wood, and exhibit frequent ling moors and desert tracts of heath. But there is also much, and by no means unfertile, cornland to be found; and an improved system of agriculture has made such advances, that the stranger is sometimes surprised, in these distant isles, by the sight of luxuriant fields of wheat.

The waves of the sea, and the powerful currents, have intersected the Orkneys with innumerable winding bays, or sounds. Besides Mainland, the chief island (first called by the Norwegians “Hrossey,” and afterwards “Meginland,” or the continent), the archipelago includes a great number of islands of different sizes, which spread themselves in a north-east direction from the north coast of Scotland. The farthest of the Orkneys is Fairhill, or Fair Isle (formerly “Friðarey”). It lies almost midway between the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands, in the midst of the rapid current now called Sumburg Roost, but which the Norwegians in former times called Dynröst (from “röst,” a maelstrom, or whirlpool); whence, again, the most southern promontory of the Shetland Islands has obtained the name of Dunrossness (Dynrasternes). The Shetland archipelago (the old Northern “Hjaltland,” “Hjatland,” or “Hetland”), like that of the Orkneys, forms a long-extended line, but differs from it in consisting principally of one large island, Mainland (“Meginland”), surrounded by a great number of proportionately small and insignificant ones.

The most southern point of Dunrossness, on Mainland, forms the promontory of Sumburg Head (“Sunnbœjar-höfði”), which, however, is of no very great height; indeed the highest mountain in Shetland is only about fifteen hundred feet above the sea. Although the Shetland Islands, with regard to mountains, are not to be compared with the Faroe Isles, still they exhibit a sort of transition from the flatter Orkneys to the mountainous character of the Faroe group. Before the coasts of Shetland stand many high and ragged rocks, called “stacks” (old Norsk, “stackr”). The coasts themselves are steeper, and the mountains larger than in the Orkneys. On the other hand, however, the valleys are both longer and broader than the mountain valleys of the Faroe Islands. Heath and moorland abound, whilst the corn-fields are small, and the corn harvest in general very uncertain and difficult to gather. Fishing is the most important source of profit for the inhabitants.

The Orkneys and the Shetland Isles were, as is well known, completely colonized by Norwegians in the ninth and tenth centuries. They were, however, known and inhabited much earlier. It is possible that the Shetland Islands were the “ultima Thule” spoken of by Roman authors in the first centuries after Christ; but it is certain that the Romans at that time knew the Orkneys by the name of “Orcades:” whence it appears that the primitive rootOrk, in the later Norwegian name of the islands, is very ancient, and probably of Celtic origin. Before the arrival of the Norwegians, both the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands seem to have been inhabited by the same Pictish or Celtic race that was settled in the rest of Scotland. Of these older inhabitants memorials still exist in different kinds of antiquities of stone and bronze that are dug out of the earth, as well as in numerous ruins of castles, or Pictish towers, originally built of flag-stones laid together, without any cement of loam or mortar. There are also cairns and stone circles; the most prominent amongst which are the “Stones of Stennis,” on each side of Brogar Bridge, in Orkney. They are, like Stonehenge and Abury circle in England, surrounded with ditches and ramparts of earth; and, after Stonehenge, must be regarded as amongst the largest stone circles in the British Islands. The immense masses of erect stones are remarkable evidences both of the strength and of the religious enthusiasm of the old Celtic inhabitants; and it is no wonder that they made in ancient times such an impression on the Norwegians, on their arrival at these islands, as to induce them to call the promontory on which the largest circle stands “Steinsnes” (Stones-naze) and the adjoining firth, “Steinsnesfjördr” (Stones-naze Firth, now Loch of Stennis).

No sooner had the Scandinavian Vikings settled themselves, in the ninth century, securely in these islands, than they became a central point for the Northmen’s expeditions not only to the British Islands, but also to Iceland and Greenland. Thus when Floke Vilgerdesön, or “Ravnefloke,” went on a voyage of discovery from Norway to Iceland, he landed on Hjaltland, or Shetland, in a bay which obtained from him the name of “Flokavágr.” This bay must probably be sought on the east coast of Mainland, about Cat Firth (Kattarfjörðr); for in its neighbourhood lay the Loch of Girlsta (originally “Geirhildarstaðir”), which is said to have obtained its name from the circumstance of Floke’s daughter, Geirhilde, having been drowned in it during her father’s short visit to the country. By degrees the islands became the rendezvous of a great number of discontented Norwegian emigrants, who, to avoid the new order of things, had withdrawn themselves from their old paternal home, and from this distant place of refuge continually harassed the coasts of Norway.

This induced King Harald Haarfager to undertake an expedition against the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles, as well as against the Hebrides, on the west coast of Scotland; all of which he succeeded in subjugating. He gave the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles, as an earldom under the crown of Norway, to Ragnvald Möre-Jarl’s family. This family produced some great men, who extended their dominion over large tracts in the adjacent kingdom of Scotland. The islands continued, however, to be the resort of many malcontent and fugitive Norwegians. The renowned Ganger-Rolf, the founder of the royal Norman house, is said to have dwelt a long time on them before he undertook his expedition against Normandy. When King Erik Blodöxe, Harald Haarfager’s son, was driven with his queen, the atrocious Gunhilde, from Norway, he fled to Orkney, whence he carried devastation far and wide. Subsequently he obtained a kingdom in Northumberland; but, after his fall, his sons again sought the Orkneys; where they remained till they succeeded in obtaining the kingly power in Norway. Snorre Sturlesön states, that after the fall of this dominion, Gunhilde again fled to Orkney, where her daughter, Ragnhilde, had married a member of the Earl’s family. Ragnhilde trod entirely in her mother’s footsteps by occasioning dissension, and even murder, in the family of the Earl. Somewhat later the Orkneys were visited for a time by Kalf Arnesön, so well known in the more ancient history of Norway, who, at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030, was one of the chief leaders of the peasant army against King Olaf, the saint. He came to the Orkneys just in time to take part in a severely-contested naval battle, fought in the year 1046, near Rödebjerg (Rauðabjörg) in Pentland Firth, between the Jarls Thorfin and Ragnvald Brusesön. Kalf supported Thorfin with six long ships, and thus decided the victory in his favour.

The older history of the islands exhibits an almost uninterrupted series of bloody combats between members of the Norwegian Jarl’s family. This, however, did not prevent them from making violent inroads on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Long after the Vikings’ mode of life had ceased in the Scandinavian North, it continued to be preserved in these islands. This was not only owing to their remote situation, opposite hostile coasts, and to their characteristic independence, but also to the population having inherited the old Viking spirit, and carefully preserved the ancient Norwegian institutions. As long as Norwegian jarls ruled, Norwegian laws, customs, and habits, as well as the Norwegian language, were absolutely paramount in the islands. The connections which the jarls and other powerful leaders maintained with Scotch and Irish chiefs, and which often resulted in intermarriages between their families, do not seem to have had much effect on the Scandinavian national character of these island colonists. It was not till the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the male line of the old Norwegian jarls had become extinct, and when the Scotch Lord Saint Clair, who had married a daughter of Magnus, the last jarl, had obtained possession of the earldom, that the ancient liberties, customs, and manners of the inhabitants, began to be seriously threatened; nor did it suffice to protect the islands against the progress of Scottish influence, that they continued to be under the supreme authority of Norway. When, at length, the Danish-Norwegian king, Christian the First, on the occasion of the marriage between his daughter Margaret, and the Scotch king, James the Third, in the year 1469, pledged to Scotland the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles as part of Margaret’s dowry, the last tie was severed that bound those countries to their Scandinavian friends. The Scottish kings and their successors, who also ascended the English throne, acknowledged indeed the right of the Danish-Norwegian kings to redeem the islands; but they continually found subterfuges to prevent its being exercised. The lawful claims of redemption, repeatedly urged by Denmark in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were perfectly fruitless. The islands were too important, and far too conveniently situated with regard to Scotland, for Great Britain to give them up, without being compelled by the last necessity. The undoubted right of the Danish-Norwegian kings was forced to give way to the superior power and political influence of the British sovereigns.

The conduct observed towards the Norwegian population of these islands after their union with Scotland was quite as unjust as their separation from Norway and Denmark, and assuredly far more revolting to all proper feeling. A large part of the inhabitants had till then been in the free possession of their lands as freeholders, or “udallers” (Odelsmænd), and had likewise possessed their old Norwegian laws and privileges, which should of course have been respected when the islands were pledged to Scotland. But the Scotch nobles, who, partly as vassals, partly as royal lessees, obtained the government of the islands, took care to destroy all traces of the ancient liberties and Scandinavian characteristics of the people. The resistance of the islanders was fruitless. In the year 1530 they took up arms under the command of their governor, Sir James Sinclair, in order to oppose the appointment of a crown vassal over the islands. The Earl of Caithness himself, who had been dispatched against them, fell, with five hundred of his men, in a sanguinary action near the “Stones of Stennis.” But though the islanders thus asserted their rights for a short period, the Scotch regents soon afterwards succeeded in establishing crown-vassals in the islands.

Among these vassals none has left behind him a more despised or hated name than Earl Patrick Stuart, who from 1595 to 1608, or about thirteen years, oppressed the islands in the most shameful manner. He violently deprived the holders of allodial farms of their right of possession, and converted almost all the freeholders into leaseholders. He arbitrarily changed the weights and measures, so that the taxes and imposts became intolerable. Law and justice were not to be procured, for the Earl’s creatures everywhere occupied the judgment-seats. To appeal to Scotland was no easy matter, as Lord Patrick’s soldiers guarded all the ferries. In the Orkneys the Earl compelled the people to build him a strong fortress at Kirkwall, and in Shetland another at Scalloway; from which places armed men ranged over the country, to punish and overawe the malcontents. The ruins of these castles form a still-existing memorial of “the wicked Earl Patrick,” who, for his tyranny, was at length recalled to Scotland, accused of high treason, and beheaded.

The Scottish kings, it is true, now promised the islanders that they should have relief in their need, and that no vassal of the crown should be placed over them. But this promise was not kept; and so far from the islanders again recovering their lost freedom, the feudal system of England and Scotland continued to take firmer root in the islands. Oppression stalked on with regular and steady step until it arrived at such a pitch that not only did the Norwegian laws and liberties disappear, but the islands themselves, with some few exceptions, became the private property of a few individuals. The successors of the mighty Vikings, descended from kings and jarls of Norway and the North, who in winter dwelt as chiefs, or at least as freemen, in roomy mansions, whilst in the summer they gained glory and booty in their long ships, are now in general obliged to content themselves with inhabiting as leaseholders, or rather as annual tenants, a poor cottage on a small piece of land, where, by hard labour, they are able to gain, at best, a very frugal subsistence. Their dwellings, particularly in Shetland, are of the most wretched description. The walls are formed of small unhewn stones, with turf and sea-weed thrust into the interstices, and, instead of a chimney, the smoke escapes by a hole in the roof. Within the house there are generally sleeping-places in the thick stone wall; but men and cattle live together in friendly harmony in the same apartment. The fire burns freely on the floor, and envelopes all in a dense smoke. If the people seek their living on the sea by fishing, it is usually in boats belonging to the proprietor of the estate, who consequently receives a large share of their profits. The condition of the common people in the Orkneys, and in the Shetland Isles, is certainly not at all enviable, even in comparison with that of their Scandinavian kinsmen on the poor and more remote Faroe Islands and Iceland; although commerce is still limited and oppressed there by a monopoly which was soon abolished in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles after their separation from the united Norwegian-Danish kingdoms. But in spite of all their calamities, the inhabitants of the Faroe Isles and Iceland have for the most part preserved to our times that freedom of landed property which they inherited from their forefathers.

Shetland.—The People.—Songs.—Sword-Dance.—Language.—Namesof Places.—Tingwall.—Burg of Mousa.—Tumuli.—Bauta Stones.[9]

Shetland.—The People.—Songs.—Sword-Dance.—Language.—Names

of Places.—Tingwall.—Burg of Mousa.—Tumuli.—Bauta Stones.[9]

9.Partly from S. Hibbert, P. A. Munch, and Chr. Plöyen.

If the present originally Norwegian population in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands possessed, on the whole, any strongly-marked Scandinavian characteristics, they would naturally occur most in the islands farthest towards the north. But the oppressions and political changes that have occurred there have done their work so thoroughly, that even the Shetlanders no longer bear in their character and natural disposition any strongly-marked feature of their Norwegian origin. The only ones remaining are, perhaps, their love of the sea, and their skill in contending with its dangers. Even their bodily frame has, through many years of want and debasement, lost much of its strength and nobleness. In the parish of Coningsburgh, in Mainland, precisely where the largest and strongest-built people are to be found, the Scandinavian population are said to have kept themselves most free from mixture. The inclination for disputes and fighting amongst the people of Coningsburgh is well known in Shetland. This trait is, at all events, more Scandinavian than moroseness and want of hospitality to strangers, which are almost unknown in the North, but which in the last century were alleged to be vices of these same men of Coningsburgh. It was said that they would not willingly give a traveller a night’s lodging, and that directly at day-break they awoke him, saying:—“Myrkin i livra; lurein i liunga; timin i guestin i geungna;” that is, “It is dark in the smoke-hole, but it is light on the heath, and for the guest it is now time to depart.” That this sentence, which was written down in the year 1774, consists of old Norwegian words, though in a corrupted form, is quite evident.

The Shetlanders still retained, in the last century, many of the customs of their Scandinavian forefathers. Thus surnames were given both to sons and daughters, according to the genuine Scandinavian custom, from the father’s Christian name. The eldest son, for instance, of Magnus Anderson was called Anders Magnuson, and all the other sons had likewise the surname of Magnuson; whilst the daughters, in like manner, were all called Magnus-daughter, of course with different Christian names. Even the Norwegian language is said to have been spoken at that time by some few old persons in the most remote islands. The traditions and songs handed down by their forefathers still lived among the people, whose poets and poetical feeling have been celebrated from the earliest times. It was customary to revive the memory of former days by festal assemblies, in which the youth of both sexes danced to songs (“Visecks”) and ballads, as they did in ancient times throughout the North, and as is still the custom in the Faroe Isles. At Yule time (Christmas), which was the chief festival, and the beginning of which was always announced at daybreak by playing an ancient Norwegian melody, called “the day-dawn” (Dan., Daggry), all kinds of merriment took place. A favourite amusement was the so-called sword-dance, the origin of which may be traced with sufficient certainty to the times of the heathens. The Vikings were frequently very dexterous in playing with naked swords, throwing several at once into the air without allowing them to fall to the ground. This practice was easily converted into a dance, performed by several men with drawn swords; and consisting of many windings and figures calculated to develope a dexterous agility, which, in those warlike times, must naturally have excited a lively interest among the spectators. Later in the middle ages the sword-dance in the Shetland Isles lost by degrees the wildness of its character, the number of dancers being limited to seven, representing the Seven Champions of Christendom, viz., St. James of Spain, St. Denis of France, St. Anthony of Italy, St. David of Wales, St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Andrew of Scotland, all under the command of St. George of England, who both opened and closed the dance by reciting some English verses appropriate to the occasion.

All this, however, is now much changed. In the farthest island towards the west, that of Papa stour (“Papey stœrri,” the great Pap Island, in contradistinction to the neighbouring Papa little, “Papey litla”), a last shadow of the old warlike sword-dance is occasionally to be seen. Instead, however, of being clothed in armour or shirts of mail, the dancing knights have shirts of sackcloth; and, in place of huge swords, they brandish straightened iron hoops, stripped from some herring-cask. The old Norwegian songs are no longer heard. Of the ancient Norwegian popular language the only remains are partly a few words, which, however, appear conspicuously in the English dialect now used; and partly a peculiarly sharp pronunciation, with a considerable rising and sinking of the voice, not unlike the vulgar pronunciation in the Faroe Isles. The old Norwegian words are particularly employed for certain objects and implements which have been in use from time immemorial.

Thus, for instance, the hole through which the smoke escapes (Dan., Lyre) in the roof of houses covered with flat turf (flaas) is sometimes still called by the name of “livra” (in the Færoic language “ljowari”). The high seat for the mistress of the house is called, in remote districts, “hoy-saede” (Dan., Höisæde); her “bysmer,” which serves her for weighing, exactly agrees, both in name and nature, with the “Bismer” common in the North. The hand-mill, which is fast disappearing, is called as in the Danish part of north England, “qvern.” The turf-spade, called in the Faroe Isles “torvskjæri” (Dan., Törveskjærer), is here named “tuysker.” The land-tax also, according to Scandinavian fashion, is paid in “merk” and “ure” (Mark and Öre). The outlying fields are called “hogan,” “hagan” (Old Norsk, “hagi,” an inclosed field). The deep-sea fishery (Dan., Hav) is called “the haaf;” the fishing itself, “haaf-fishing” (Dan., Havfiskerie); and the necessary lines, “tows” (Dan., Touge). To the present day the Shetlanders use, in these fisheries, boats imported from Norway, which are peculiarly suited, by their construction, for the high seas and rapid currents on the coasts of Shetland. The dress worn by the fishermen when out at sea bears a striking resemblance to that of the Faroe men. The head is covered with a cap knit in the form of a night-cap, and ornamented with the most motley colours. They wear a coat of tanned sheep-skin, reaching down to the knees, where it generally meets a pair of huge and capacious skin boots, very carefully sewed. On land the Shetlanders use only a simple kind of shoe called “rivlins,” consisting of a square piece of untanned cow-hide, covering little more than the sole of the foot, and fastened with a fishing-line or a strip of skin. The men of Faroe have similar shoes, called “skegvar,” which, however, are far better made.

But what particularly reminds the Scandinavian traveller in Shetland of finding himself in a country formerly altogether Norwegian, is the names of places, all of which bear the impress of their Norwegian origin. This remark applies to the names of the islands themselves, as well as to the names of towns, farms, promontories, and bays existing in them. They, of course, resemble, in a great degree, the old Scandinavian names of places farther south, in Scotland and England. Thus, for instance, a fiord is generally called “firth” (fjorðr); a creek “wick” (Dan., Vig); a holm, or small island, “holm;” a promontory, or naze, “ness;” a valley, “daill,” or “dale.” But it is peculiar to these districts, that the forms of names of places which occur most frequently in the old Danish part of the north of England, namely, those ending inby,thwaite, andthorpe, are extremely rare in Shetland, and in the rest of the old Norwegian possessions in Scotland. Of those inby, only a few instances are to be found; those inthwaiteare still more rare; and those inthorpeare not to be met with at all. On the other hand, these districts possess several Scandinavian names of places which are also most frequently found in the old Norwegian colonies in the north and west of Scotland, but which are perfectly unknown in the old Danish part of the north of England. For instance, a small bay (Dan., Vaag) is called “voe” (vágr); whence, on Mainland, we find “West-voe,” “Aiths voe” (the bay by the tongue of land), “Lax-voe” (Lax, or Salmon-bay), “Selia-voe” (sildavágr, the “Silde Vaag,” or herring-bay), “Hamna-voe” (hafnarvágr, the Havne Vaag, or harbour bay), together with others. A still smaller bay, navigable only by boats, is called “gjo,” or “goe” (Old Norsk, gjá, an opening or cleft). For the rest, many farms have names with such endings asseter(Old Norsk,setr),sterandsta(Old Norsk,staðr, a place); and alsobusta,buster, andbister(contracted from “bolstaðr,” a dwelling-place); whence, for instance, Kirkbuster (formerly Kirkjubólstaðr); all of which names agree just as well with those found in the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and the mother-country, Norway, as the names of places in the north of England ending inby,thwaite, andthorpe, agree with those in the corresponding mother-country, Denmark. Although the difference between the present traces of Danish colonization in England, and of Norwegian in Scotland, is not considerable, still it may be recognised in this manner. In consequence of the remote situation of the Shetland Isles, the names of places, in spite of all revolutions, remain so much the same, that the old political and religious institutions of the islands are visible, as it were, through them. In the south part of Mainland lies the farm of Howff, where in ancient times there was certainly a “Hof,” or house of God; and far northwards, near Hillswick (formerly Hildiswik), is the promontory of Torness (Þórsness), which probably once had a Hof for the god Thor. Nor far from thence is the Lake Helgawater (Helgavatn), or the holy water. Heathenism, however, lasted but a short time in the islands. The Irish Christian priests (Old N., “Paper”)—the memory of whom still lives in the names of the islands Papa (Papey), as Papa stour (great) and Papa little—seem to have worked indefatigably; insomuch that the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvesön was able, at the close of the tenth century, to introduce Christianity throughout the islands. In place of the old god-houses there speedily arose a number of chapels or small churches, consecrated to different saints: viz., to the Norwegian saints, St. Sunifva (the daughter of an Irish king who suffered shipwreck in Norway), St. Olaf, as well as, at a somewhat later time, to St. Magnus, the patron saint of the Orkneys, after whom a great bay on the north-west coast of Mainland is to the present day called St. Magnus’ Bay. St. Magnus seems also to have been the patron, or rather the chief saint, of Shetland; at least, the principal church in Shetland is consecrated to him. This church did not stand in Lerwick, the present chief town in Shetland, which has risen far later in the south-eastern part of Mainland, on the site of an old sea-side town near Bressasound (formerly “Breiðeyjarsund”). It lay about four miles to the north-west of Lerwick, in the parish of Tingwall; where, as the name (Þingavöllr) denotes, the chiefThingof the islands was held for centuries, and where, in heathen times, the chief place of sacrifice undoubtedly existed. The parish of Tingwall comprises one of the prettiest and best-cultivated valleys in Shetland. The oldThingplace is still to be seen near the church, in a small holm, or island, in a lake, connected with the land by a row of large stepping stones. Secure against a sudden attack, here sat, when the island was free, the “foude” (Dan., Foged), or magistrate, with his law-officers, whilst the multitude of the common people stood round about on the shores of the lake, and listened to what passed. Popular tradition says that the church was at that time a free place, or sanctuary, so that a person condemned to death was entitled to a pardon, if he could succeed in running from the holm over the stones, and reaching the church without being killed by the people. If this was really the case the commonalty must consequently have had power to pardon a convicted person by suffering him to escape into the church.

During the holding of the chiefThing, which in the olden times was generally accompanied with great sacrificial offerings, as well as with fairs and all sorts of merry-making, a multitude of persons always assembled, and a great many tents and booths were erected, both at theThingplace itself and in the immediate vicinity. Hence it undoubtedly arose that about three miles to the west of Tingwall, near a bay of the sea, there was a collection ofSkaaler, or wooden booths; whence the present Scalloway (Skálavágr) which, next to Lerwick, is the most important trading place in the islands.

In Mainland alone there were at least seven lesserThings, under the jurisdiction of the chiefThingin Tingwall. The names of five of these are still preserved in Sandsthing (Sandsþing), Aithsthing (Eiðsþing), Delting (Dalaþing), Lunziesting (Lundeiðisþing), and Nesting (Nesþing); but the two other names, which are known from records, Rauðarþing—probably the most northern parish, Northmavine—and Þveitaþing (the most southern parish?), have disappeared. SpecialThingswere, of course, also held on the larger islands, such as Yell (“Jali”) and Unst (“Aumstr,” “Örmst”); but it is certainly very incorrect to infer, as many persons do, from some stone circles near Baliasta, close by Unst, that the chiefThingof the islands was held there in the most ancient times of heathenism.

These stone circles belong simply to low graves encircled by stones, like those so frequently found in Norway, and whose date is of the latest period of heathenism, or what is called the iron age. Skeletons have been found in several similar graves in Shetland; and at different times urns containing burnt bones and ashes have also been discovered, together with other distinct traces of their having been burial-places. For the rest, barrows or tumuli, bauta stones, runic inscriptions, and similar monuments and antiquities of the heathen times, are by no means frequently to be met with; the reason of which must naturally be sought in the short duration of heathenism in these islands. The remains of only a single insignificant runic stone, and that of the Christian æra, have been discovered near Crosskirk, in the north of Mainland. The numerous round towers, or castles, of loose flag-stones laid together, which are often built on islands in lakes, and are called by many “Danish burghs,” are, as before stated, of Pictish or Celtic origin. They have no resemblance whatever to the old fortresses in the Scandinavian North; whilst, on the other hand, buildings entirely corresponding with them are to be found in the Celtic Highlands of Scotland, and on the coasts of Ireland. The most that can be said is that the Norwegians availed themselves of these buildings after their conquests and settlements in these districts. Thus the remains of a tower are to be seen on a holm in Burra Firth (Borgarfjörðr, or Borgfjord,i.e.Castle fiord), in the west of Mainland, which may have been inhabited in the beginning of the twelfth century by the chief Thorbjörn, whom the Earls Magnus and Hakon attacked and killed in “Borgarfjörðr.” The ground plan of the ruin (after Hibbert) shows how the chambers were disposed in the thick stone wall.

[++] Tower: Burra Firth

Another ancient Celtic tower, which tradition decidedly states to have been occupied by Norwegians, and which, on that account, has a particular interest for a Scandinavian, lies on the little island of Mousa (the ancient “Mösey”), close to the sound that separates the island from the south-eastern coast of Mainland. The tower is, fortunately, the best preserved one of the kind in the British Islands. It rises to the height of between forty and fifty feet, like an immense and perfectly round stone pillar, but bulging out towards the middle. Its appearance from without is quite plain, and no other opening can be perceived in the wall than the entrance-door, which even originally was so low that it was necessary to creep through it. To attack the tower, even when the door stood open, was not easy, and the bulging of the wall in the middle rendered the scaling of it almost impossible. The entire tower is about fifty feet in diameter, and consists of two concentric stone walls, the innermost of which encloses an open space of about twenty feet wide. The two concentric walls are each five feet thick, and stand at a distance of five feet from each other. The small space between them formed the habitable part of the tower. From the open yard we ascend a stone staircase, and, before we reach the top, seven divisions or stories are passed, separated by large flag-stones, which form a ceiling for one story and a floor for the next. In the different compartments, which quite encircle the tower, are small square openings, or air holes, one above the other, and looking out into the inner yard. The annexed drawings and sections (taken from Hibbert’s description of Shetland), which represent the tower in its evidently original state, will serve to explain still more clearly the nature of this simple, yet remarkable, building.

[++] Tower: Mousa

[++] Tower: Mousa - Interior

This tower appears to have stood deserted as early as the tenth century. Whilst Harald Haarfager reigned in Norway, a distinguished Norwegian Viking and merchant, Björn Brynjulfsön, carried off his beloved Thora Roaldsdatter (Roalds-daughter) from the fiords. He brought her first to his father’s house; but, as his father would not permit him to celebrate his marriage there, he fled with her in the spring, on board his ship, and sailed westwards. After suffering much from storms and heavy seas, the couple landed at last on Mösey, and took up their temporary abode in the castle there, whither they brought the whole of the ship’s cargo. In “Möseyjarborg,” Björn celebrated his marriage with Thora, and dwelt there through the winter. But next spring he learned that King Harald, at the entreaty of Thora’s friends, had exiled him from Norway; and that commands had even been sent by Harald to the jarls and chiefs in the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and in Ireland, to put him to death. He therefore again put to sea, and landed safely with his Thora in Iceland.

A few centuries later, the chief Erlend Junge fled from the Orkneys with Margaret, mother of the Jarl Harald Maddadsön, who was as much celebrated for her beauty as for her wantonness, and shut himself up with her in “Möseyjarborg.” The Jarl Harald, who had opposed their marriage, set out in pursuit of them, and blockaded the castle for a long time, in order, if possible, to cut off their supply of provisions, and thus compel them to surrender; for, by force, says the Saga, the castle could scarcely be taken. But Harald at last became weary of the siege, and concluded an agreement with Erlend that he should have Margaret to wife on condition of swearing fealty to him as jarl.

This old and venerable tower has, therefore, not only been the scene of sanguinary battles and deeds of cruelty, but its strong walls have also afforded a secure asylum to sincere and all-sacrificing love.

The Orkneys.—“Þingavöllr.”—Monuments of the Olden Time.—Kirkwall.—St.Magnus Church.

The Orkneys.—“Þingavöllr.”—Monuments of the Olden Time.—Kirkwall.—St.

Magnus Church.

The Orkneys, on account of their greater fertility, and of their lying nearer to Scotland, were in ancient times, as indeed they are at present, of much more importance than the distant Shetland Isles. As the chief seat of the Norwegian jarls, they formed the central point of the Norwegian power in the north of Scotland. According to the Sagas, most of the many Danes and Norwegians who settled on the islands to the north of Scotland, resorted to the Orkneys; by which means, the jarls who governed them were enabled easily to assemble large fleets, and to man them with picked Scandinavian warriors. It was chiefly, therefore, Norwegians from the Orkneys, who, under the command of the jarls of Orkney, made such extensive conquests in the territories of the Scottish kings.

Jarl Sigurd the Stout (Dan., Digre), who, as before mentioned, was married to a daughter of the Scotch king, Malcolm the Second, and Jarl Thorfin, his son by King Malcolm’s daughter, pre-eminently distinguished themselves by bold Viking expeditions into the neighbouring countries, and particularly by their conquests on the Scotch coast. They extended these as far south as Moray; nay it is even said that at times they went as low as to the Firth of Forth. Thorfin was the last of the jarls of Orkney in whom the old Scandinavian Vikings’ spirit lived and stirred. His power was greater than that of any of his predecessors or successors; for he ruled, say the Sagas, over no fewer than eleven earldoms (Jarledömmer) in Scotland, over all the Hebrides, and a large kingdom in Ireland. But after the many warlike expeditions, raids, and incendiarisms, in which he had played a part, he at length became penitent, and undertook a journey through Denmark and Saxony to Rome, where the pope gave him an indulgence for his sins. After his return, he governed his kingdom peacefully till his death, which took place about the year 1064. Notwithstanding that a new and Christian æra had irresistibly established itself under this fierce Viking, the Orkneys continued for more than a century after his death to foster men who were Christians only in name, but in reality, both in their way of thinking and conduct, were heathen Vikings. Svend Asleifsön, who, in the middle of the twelfth century, lived on the little island of Gairsay (Gareksey), close to the north-east side of Mainland, occupies a prominent place among these Vikings. He was surrounded by a band of eighty men, with whom in the winter he remained at home in his mansion, living well on the booty that had been won. In the spring, after seed-time, he set out with them on expeditions to the Scotch, English, and Irish coasts. In the autumn he returned home for a short time, in order to gather the corn into his barns; and then again set out and harried the before-mentioned countries until the beginning of winter. On one of these autumnal Viking expeditions he even took Dublin; but whilst he fancied himself secure, the inhabitants suddenly fell upon and killed him, together with a great number of his men, who defended themselves with the utmost bravery.

In consequence of these important Viking expeditions, as well as of the greater life and bustle which prevailed in the Orkneys, not only are more historical accounts preserved of them than of the Shetland Isles, but they likewise exhibit more conspicuously how the warlike spirit of the Scandinavian population, when it began to be curbed by Christianity and the abandonment of piratical expeditions, preyed upon itself, and exhausted its strength in sanguinary internal conflicts. Memorials of this are found on almost all the islands. In going from Shetland, the first island made after passing Fairhill, and when approaching the proper group of the Orkneys, namely, North Ronaldshay (“Rinansey”), was the scene of a terrible revenge taken by Jarl Einar on King Harald Haarfager’s son, Halfdan Haaleg (Long-legs), who had murdered Einar’s father, Ragnvald Mörejarl, in Norway. Jarl Einar is said to have avenged his father in the same manner as, according to the Saga, the sons of Regner Lodbrog punished their father’s murderer, King Ella of Northumberland; namely, by cutting a blood eagle on Halfdan’s back. At Lopnes (“Laupandaness”), in the neighbouring island of Sanday (“Sandey”), Jarl Einar Sigurdsön was killed in the following century (the eleventh) by Thorkel Fostre, so called because he had brought up, or fostered, Einar’s brother, subsequently the famed Thorfin Jarl. Not long afterwards, Thorfin’s nephew, Jarl Ragnvald Brusesön, was killed by the same Thorkel on Little Papa Island (“Papey”), to the north-west of Sanday. Thorkel and Thorfin had previously surrounded and set fire to the house, wherein the jarl was with his men. The jarl’s corpse was then conveyed to and buried on the neighbouring isle of Papa Westray (“Papey hin meiri,” the Great Pap Island), adjacent to Westray (“Vestrey”) and the most northern of all the Orkneys. Thorkel Fletter, surnamed the restless, was burnt in his house in Eday (“Eiðey”), in the twelfth century; and in the year 1137 the Jarl Paal was surprised by Svend Asleifsön on Rowsay (“Rolfsey”), and carried away prisoner to Athol, in Scotland. About twenty years previously (1110) the celebrated jarl, Magnus Erlendsön, was attacked and murdered by his kinsman, Jarl Hakon Paalsön, on the adjacent island of Egilshay, (“Egilsey”). In honour of Magnus, who was afterwards canonized, and became the patron saint of the Orkneys, a church was built on Egilshay, which still exists, though in a somewhat altered form.

Between the last-named islands and Mainland are the small isles Enhallow (“Eyin helga,” the holy isle) and Wire (“Vigr”). On the latter Kolbein Ruga had, in the twelfth century, a castle, the site of whose ramparts can still be clearly distinguished. But Mainland itself is naturally the island with which the most numerous and remarkable memorials of the Norwegian dominion are associated. For centuries numberless Vikings’ fleets constantly rode at anchor in its bays and in the adjacent straits; and almost every spot on the island is famous in the Orkneyinga Saga as having been the residence of some distinguished man, or the scene of some important historical event. The numerous Norwegian names of places ending inwall(vágr),wick,firth,ness,buster,toft,holm, and so forth, which are everywhere met with in the island, do not, however, merit particular consideration, since they resemble those in the rest of the Orkneys and Shetland Isles; yet they serve to establish that the Norwegians must have superseded here, no less than in the other islands, the older Celtic population. We soon discover that the vicinity of the Orkneys to Scotland, and their brisk intercourse with that kingdom, as well as with England, have contributed, both in Mainland and in the surrounding islands, to do away with many of those names of places which are still found in Shetland as witnesses of the old Norwegian judicial institutions. Thus we should look in vain in Mainland for that “Þingavöllr,” or Tingvalla, which anciently was the chiefThingplace of the island, as is expressly mentioned in old records. We should be just as unsuccessful in finding traces of the lesserThings, which, in Shetland, as we have seen, can almost all be still pointed out in the names of places; and this notwithstanding we know for a certainty that the Orkneys had a court of justice in common with Shetland, till the year 1196 at least; from which time Shetland was governed by its own laws. The same powerful Scottish influence has likewise effaced in the Orkneys most of the few Norwegian words, customs, and manners which still sustain a feeble existence in the remote islands of Shetland. The Norwegian language, some vestiges of which might be traced, in the last century, in the parish of Haray (Herað), has left behind it only a peculiar singing pronunciation, and some few characteristics in the English language now in use there; thus, for instance, in addressing a person, the nominative and accusativethouandtheeare used, instead ofyou. The present language of the Orkneys is almost a purer English than that of the Scotch Lowlands; which is a natural consequence of English having begun at a later period to be the ruling language in the islands. The present population of Mainland, together with the other inhabitants of the Orkneys, has undeniably preserved a certain Scandinavian appearance; and English civilization has, among other things, both sharpened the people’s innate inclination for a maritime life, and increased their coolness towards, not to say ill-will and contempt for, the Gaelic Highlanders. On the whole, however, Scandinavian characteristics are by no means conspicuous among the people. English civilization, and Scotch-English institutions, have been introduced to such a degree into Mainland, and thence into the other islands, that a traveller would not know he was in the chief country of the former mighty Norwegian jarls, unless he were able to decipher the frequently transformed names of places; or, above all, unless he had such a general knowledge of the island’s history and antiquities that he could apprehend, and in some degree interpret, the hints given by silent monuments of the brilliant but long-departed age of heroes.

The memory of the warlike life of heathenism is conspicuously preserved in Mainland by the many large barrows, or tumuli, which meet the eye on all sides. It is, indeed, certain that several of these—viz., what are called the “Picts’ houses,” which form in their interior stone chambers, covered by small flag-stones laid over one another—must be ascribed to the older inhabitants of the island; yet enough remain which we may with good reason attribute to the Norwegians and Danes. They are not, like those tumuli, or “cairns,” which are found most frequently in the north of Scotland, a mass of small stones heaped together without any filling-in of earth, but are formed, like our Scandinavian barrows, of earth thrown up to a very considerable height. As in Scandinavia, they are met with mostly on hills, and near the firths or seacoasts, whence there is an uninterrupted view of the sea. To the ancient Northman it was evidently an almost insufferable thought to be buried in a confined or remote corner, where nobody could see his grave or be reminded of his deeds. The greater chief a man was the more did he desire that his “barrow” should lie high and uninclosed, so that it might be visible to all who travelled by land and by sea. United with this desire to live in the memory of posterity, the Viking certainly also indulged the secret belief, that his spirit, or ghost, would at times arise from the barrow to look out upon that beloved sea, and to refresh itself, after the gloomy closeness of the grave, with the cool breezes which play upon its bosom.

Some of the largest and most prominent barrows in the Orkneys are found about the middle of Mainland. To the west of the deep fiord in the middle of the east coast, (formerly Örreðfjord “Aurriaðfjördr,”i. e.Trout firth, but now called Firth), and cutting its way northwards far into the land, is the before-mentioned Loch of Stennis, with its famous old Celtic stone circles. But the largest of these, which lies on the ridge of a naze, or promontory (from Old N. “Steinsness”), is encompassed by twelve considerable, and partly perhaps Norwegian or Scandinavian, barrows; amongst which two in particular, to the north-east and north-west of the circle, are distinguished by their size and circumference. As the Saga informs us that it was on Steinsnæs that the chief, Einard Klining, at the instigation of Erik Blodöxe’s daughter, Ragnhilde, killed her husband Jarl Haavard, it is not impossible that one of the last-named large barrows may be the jarl’s grave. At all events it is natural enough that the Norwegians should have had a predilection for being buried on that lofty promontory, which was regarded even by the earlier inhabitants of the island as a holy place, and had been adorned by them with a truly imposing circle of immense blocks of stone. Future excavations will doubtless more clearly show which of the barrows are really Norwegian; but this much is certain—that the naze, with the circle of stones and the surrounding barrows, as well as the view of the three immense monumental stones, placed erect in a semicircle on the opposite side of Loch Stennis, afford a prospect not only interesting to the antiquarian, but which must strike every beholder.

Here and there, on Mainland, we meet with graves of the heathen times, which are not at all uncommon in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles. They are, however, of much lower elevation than those previously mentioned, and in general rise very little above the surface of the soil. In some of these, as in Shetland, besides urns, containing burnt bones and ashes, bodies have at times been found that have been buried without being burnt; together with swords of the Scandinavian kind before described, heads of lances, daggers, and knives; as well as bone combs, bowl-formed brooches of brass, and various other ornaments, evidently of Norwegian workmanship.

Just as the barrows, or grave hills, in Mainland, indicate by their peculiar size that in the heathen times the island was the chosen place of assembly for the mightiest men in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, so also do the monuments of the early middle ages show that it continued to maintain its former pre-eminence after heathenism had ceased. Farthest towards the north-west, in the parish of Birsay, (Birgisherað), are to be seen considerable remains of the old castle, inhabited in the most ancient times by the jarls. Near the coast lies the Island of Brough (Burgh) of Birsay, on which also are seen traces of fortifications that have served to protect the jarls’ castle on the side of the sea. In the neighbourhood of this castle, Jarl Thorfin built a church, called Christ Church, in which both he and Jarl Magnus were buried. The latter, however, being afterwards canonized, his body was taken to Kirkwall. In the twelfth century, Bishop Wilhelm, the first bishop of the Orkneys, had his throne in this church. In Orphir (“Orfjara”), on the south coast of the island, was another castle where the jarls usually dwelt, until, together with the bishops, they fixed their abode at Kirkwall.

This town, which lies close to an excellent harbour, and opposite the Island of Shapinsay, has for about seven hundred years been the capital of the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles. It seems, however, to have existed even earlier, as a village, or small trading place. Its name, “Kirkjuvágr” (“Kirkevaag,”Eng.Church-bay), since corrupted into Kirkwall, was derived from a church which stood there. The elevation of the town to be the residence of jarls and bishops took place in the twelfth century, after Jarl Ragnhild had built a large cathedral there, to which he caused to be conveyed the body of St. Magnus, the patron saint of the island, to whom the cathedral was consecrated. Thus the body of the saint effected for the town what its excellent harbour had not been able to accomplish. In the parish of St. Ola’, within the town, there was formerly also a church consecrated to St. Olaf, the patron saint of Norway, but it has long since been demolished.

The traveller cannot but dwell, when in Kirkwall, on the remembrance of the departed splendour of the island, as he views the proud ruins of the jarls’ castle, which, however, in its last form was not built till the fifteenth century, and of the bishops’ castle, in which King Hakon Hakonsön of Norway died on the 16th of December, 1263. But what is still more striking to him who has leisure to examine it thoroughly, is the magnificent Church of St. Magnus, incontestably the most glorious monument of the time of the Norwegian dominion to be found in Scotland. Only one other cathedral church in all Scotland, namely, St. Mungo’s, in Glasgow, has in its most essential parts escaped perfectly uninjured from the violent religious commotions produced by the Reformation. The annexed sketch (partly after a drawing by Billings) will, at least, better serve to convey an idea of the remarkable appearance of this cathedral than any detailed description. Its length is 230 feet, its breadth 55 feet, or, if the transepts be included in the measurement, 101 feet, and its height about 50 feet. The arched vaults of the nave rest on 28 pillars, of which the four, in particular, that bear the tower are distinguished by their size and tasteful forms.

According to the Orkneyinga Saga, Jarl Ragnvald, by the advice of his father Kol, made a vow to St. Magnus that he would build a splendid church in his honour, if he (Ragnvald) succeeded in gaining the mastery over the islands. He obtained the dominion of them in the year 1137, and immediately afterwards began to lay the foundation of St. Magnus’ Church. “At first,” says the Saga, “the work went on so rapidly that subsequently there was not done near so much in four or five years. Kol was the person who, in fact, defrayed the expenses of the building, and determined how everything was to be. But by degrees, as the work proceeded, the expenses became burthensome to the jarl, whose pecuniary means were much exhausted. He therefore asked his father what he should do? Kol advised him to alter the law by which, upon the death of the owners, the jarls had hitherto succeeded to all the allodial land in the islands, so that the heirs had to redeem it, which they found very hard. The jarl, therefore, summoned the inhabitants to aThing, and offered to sell them their right of Udal, so that they should no longer be obliged to redeem it. The matter was easily arranged on both sides. The jarl obtained a mark for every acre throughout the islands, so that there came in money enough for the building of the church, which is very handsome.”

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