CHAPTER IX 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.

[13] This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall among place-names.