SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN THE ORKNEYS, SHETLANDS, THE WESTERN ISLANDS
AND MAN
Of all the countries visited by the Vikings it is undoubtedly the
British Isles which bear most definitely the marks of their presence.
The history and civilisation of Ireland, the Orkneys and Shetlands, the
Western Islands and Man, Scotland and England, were profoundly affected
by the Viking movement, and its influence is none the less interesting
because it varies greatly from place to place, in both character and
intensity. These variations are doubtless due in part to differences
of political and social organisation as between Norsemen and Danes,
or between men coming from scattered districts of the as yet loosely
co-ordinated kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, but their chief cause lies
in the wide divergences in the social and political conditions of the
lands in which they settled.
The Orkneys and the Shetlands were settled by the Norsemen earlier than
any other part of the British Isles and they formed part of the Norse
kingdom till 1468. It is not surprising therefore that the great Norse
historian Munch describes them as _ligesaa norskt som Norge selv_,
'as Norse as Norway itself.' The old Norse speech was still spoken
there by a few people until the end of the 18th century, and we have a
version of the ballad of _King Orfeo_ taken down from recital at the
close of that century with the Norse refrain still preserved '_Scowan
ürla grün--Whar giorten han grün oarlac_,' i.e. probably _Skoven årle
grön--Hvor hjorten han går årlig_ = 'Early green's the wood--where the
hart goes yearly.' Place-nomenclature is almost entirely Norse and the
modern dialects are full of Norse words. Several runic inscriptions
have been found, the most famous being that at Maeshowe in Hrossey,
made by Norse crusaders when they wintered there in 1152-3 and amused
themselves by breaking open the how, probably to look for treasure, and
scoring their runes on the walls of the grave-chamber. In the system of
landholding the 'udallers' are an interesting survival of the old Norse
freeholders. 'The Udaller held his land without condition or limitation
in any feudal sense,' says Mr Gilbert Goudie, i.e. he held his _udal_
on precisely the same free terms that the native Norseman did his
_óðal_. From the Shetlands and the Orkneys the Norsemen crossed to the
Scottish mainland. Sutherland (i.e. the land south of the Orkneys),
Caithness, Ross and Cromarty are full of Norse place-names, and Norse
influence may be traced even further south.
The Hebrides were also largely influenced by the Norsemen. Together
with Man they formed a Norse kingdom down to the middle of the 13th
century. Many of the islands themselves and their chief physical
features bear Norse names, many personal names (e.g. MacAulay, son of
Aulay or Olaf) are of Norse origin, and there are many Norse words in
the Gaelic both of the islands, and the mainland. These words have
undergone extensive changes and much corruption in a language very
different in form and sounds from that of their original source, and
their recognition is a difficult problem. There is at present a danger
of exaggerating this Norse element, the existence of which was long
overlooked. Similarly, affinities have been traced between Scandinavian
and Gaelic popular tales and folk-lore, but the evidence is too vague
and uncertain to be of much value.
It is however in Man that we get the most interesting traces of the
presence of the Norsemen. Here as elsewhere we have place-names and
personal names bearing witness to their presence, but we have much else
besides. Some 26 rune-inscribed crosses have been preserved to us. The
crosses are Celtic in form and to a large extent in ornament also, but
we find distinct traces of the Scandinavian animal-ornamentation. The
inscriptions are short and for the most part give only the name of the
memorial-raiser and the memorised. One bears the rune-writer's own
proud boast 'Gaut made this and all in Man.' More interesting than
the runes are the sculptured figures. On four of the crosses we have
representations of incidents from the Sigurd story--Sigurd slaying
Fafnir, Sigurd roasting Fafnir's heart and cooling his fingers in his
mouth after trying too soon if the heart was done, Loki slaying the
Otter. We also have pictures of Thor's adventure with the serpent of
Miðgarðr and of Odin's last fight with Fenrir's Wolf. These sculptured
stones are probably among the latest of those found in Man and have
their chief parallel in stones found in Sweden (_v. supra_, p. 111).
Possibly it was to settlers from Man also that we owe the famous
Gosforth cross in Cumberland with its picture of Thor's fishing for the
serpent.
In addition to all this we have the Manx legal system as a standing
witness to Norse influence. The chief executive and legislative
authority in the island (after the Governor) is the Tynwald Court.
That court takes its name from the Old Norse _Þing-völlr_[13], the
plain where the _Þing_[14] or popular assembly meets, and the House of
Keys, which is the oldest division of the court, consisted originally
of 24 members, a number perhaps due to Scandinavian influence, being
a combination of two groups of 12 lawmen (_v. supra_, p. 103). These
men who have the 'keys of the law' in their bosom closely resemble
the 'lawmen' or speakers of the Icelandic assembly. All laws to be
valid must be promulgated from the Tynwald Hill which corresponds to
the _lögberg_ or law-hill of the Icelandic _althing_. When the court
is held the coroner 'fences' it against all disturbance or disorder,
just as in the old Norwegian Gulathing we hear of _vé-bönd_ or
sanctuary-ropes drawn around the assembly.
It was possibly from Man that a good number of the Norse settlers in
Cumberland, Westmorland and North Lancashire came (_v. infra_, pp.
126-7), and others may have settled in Galloway.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall
among place-names.
[14] The word is familiar to us in the form -_ting_ in _hus-ting_,
house assembly (originally _hús-Þing_), a council held by a king or
earl and attended by his immediate followers, in contrast to the
ordinary _Þing_ or general assembly of the people.