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10 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

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Speaker 1: Chapter nine of the Vikings by Ellen Mauer. This libryvox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Kevin Johnson,
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Speaker 1: Chapter nine Scandinavian Influence in the Orkneys, Shetlands, the Western
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Speaker 1: Islands and Man. Of all the countries visited by the Vikings,
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Speaker 1: it is undoubtedly the British Isles which bear most definitely
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Speaker 1: the marks of their presence. The history and civilization of Ireland,
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Speaker 1: the Orkneys and Shetlands, the Western Islands and Man. Scotland
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Speaker 1: and England were profoundly affected by the Viking movement, and
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Speaker 1: its influence is nonetheless interesting because it varies greatly from
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Speaker 1: place to place in both character and intensity. These variations
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Speaker 1: are doubtless due in part to differences of political and
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Speaker 1: social organization, as between Norsemen and Danes, between men coming
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Speaker 1: from scattered districts of the as yet loosely co ordinated
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Speaker 1: kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. But their chief cause lies
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Speaker 1: in the wide divergences in the social and political conditions
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Speaker 1: of the lands in which they settled. The Orkneys and
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Speaker 1: the Shetlands were settled by the Norsemen earlier than any
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Speaker 1: other part of the British Isles, and they formed part
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Speaker 1: of the Norse kingdom till fourteen sixty eight. It is
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Speaker 1: not surprising, therefore, that the great Norse historian Munch describes
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Speaker 1: them as ligesau norskt som Norge salve as no as
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Speaker 1: Norway itself. The old Norse's speech was still spoken there
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Speaker 1: by a few people until the end of the eighteenth century,
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Speaker 1: and we have a version of the Ballad of King
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Speaker 1: Orpheo taken down from recital at the close of that century,
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Speaker 1: with the Norse refrain still preserved. Scawen urtla grun wargiorten
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Speaker 1: and grun oorlach i e probably skovn arlegron kforhyurtenhangar erlig
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Speaker 1: early greens the wood where the heart goes yearly place
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Speaker 1: nomenclature is almost entirely Norse, and the modern dialects are
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Speaker 1: full of Norse words. Several Runic inscriptions have been found,
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Speaker 1: the most famous being that at Mayeschau in Hrasi, made
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Speaker 1: by Norse crusaders when they wintered there in eleven fifty
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Speaker 1: two to three and amused themselves by breaking open the
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Speaker 1: how probably to look for treasure, and scoring their ruins
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Speaker 1: on the walls of the grave chamber. In the system
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Speaker 1: of land holding, the oodalers are an interesting survival of
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Speaker 1: the old Norse freeholders. The udaler held his land without
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Speaker 1: condition or limitation in any feudal sense, says mister Gilbert
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Speaker 1: Gaudi I e. He held his oodol on precisely the
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Speaker 1: same free terms that the native Norsemen did his othol.
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Speaker 1: From the Shetlands and the Orkneys, the Norsemen crossed to
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Speaker 1: the Scottish mainland Sutherland Bracket i e. The lands south
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Speaker 1: of the Orkneys and a bracket Caithness, Ross and Cromarty
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Speaker 1: are full of Norse place names, and Norse influence may
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Speaker 1: be traced even further south. The Hebrides were also largely
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Speaker 1: influenced by the Norsemen. Together with Man, they formed a
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Speaker 1: Norse kingdom down to the middle of the thirteenth century.
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Speaker 1: Many of the islands themselves and their chief physical features
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Speaker 1: bear Norse names. Many personal names bracket e g. Macaulay,
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Speaker 1: son of Ale or Oloff and a Bracket are of
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Speaker 1: Norse origin, and there are many Norse words in the
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Speaker 1: Gaelic both of the islands and the mainland. These words
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Speaker 1: have undergone extensive changes and much corruption. In a language
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Speaker 1: very different in form and sounds from that of their
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Speaker 1: original source, and their recognition is a difficult problem. There
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Speaker 1: is at present a danger of exaggerating this Norse element,
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Speaker 1: the existence of which was long overlooked. Similarly, affinities have
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Speaker 1: been traced between Scandinavian and Gaelic popular tales and folklore,
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Speaker 1: but the evidence is too vague and uncertain to be
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Speaker 1: of much value. It is, however, in Man that we
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Speaker 1: get the most interesting traces of the presence of the Norsemen.
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Speaker 1: Here as elsewhere, we have place names and personal names
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Speaker 1: bearing witness to their presence, but we have much else besides.
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Speaker 1: Some twenty six run inscribed crosses have been preserved to us.
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Speaker 1: The crosses are Celtic in form and to a large
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Speaker 1: extent in ornament also, but we find distinct traces of
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Speaker 1: the Scandinavian animal ornamentation. The inscriptions are short and for
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Speaker 1: the most part give only the name of the memori razor,
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Speaker 1: and the memorized one bears the roon writer's own proud boast.
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Speaker 1: Gout made this and all in Man. More interesting than
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Speaker 1: the ruins are the sculptured figures. On four of the crosses,
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Speaker 1: we have representations of incidents from the Sigurd story Sigurd
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Speaker 1: slaying Fafner, Sigurd roasting Fafner's heart and cooling his fingers
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Speaker 1: in his mouth after trying too soon if the heart
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Speaker 1: was done, Loki slaying the Otter. We also have pictures
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Speaker 1: of Thor's adventure with the serpent of Mithgarthur, and of
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Speaker 1: Odin's last fight with Fenerer's wolf. These sculptured stones are
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Speaker 1: probably among the latest of those found in Man, and
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Speaker 1: have their chief parallel in stones found in Sweden. Possibly
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Speaker 1: it was the settlers from Man also that we owe
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Speaker 1: the famous Gossforth Cross in Cumberland, with its picture of
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Speaker 1: Thor's fishing for the serpent in a day. To all this,
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Speaker 1: we have the Manx legal system as a standing witness
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Speaker 1: to Norse influence. The chief executive and legislative authority in
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Speaker 1: the island bracket after the governor under bracket is the
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Speaker 1: Tynwald Court. That court takes its name from the old
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Speaker 1: Norse Thingwatler, the plain where the thing or popular assembly meets,
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Speaker 1: and the House of Keys, which is the oldest division
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Speaker 1: of the court, consisted originally of twenty four members, a
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Speaker 1: number perhaps due to Scandinavian influence being a combination of
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Speaker 1: two groups of twelve law men. These men, who have
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Speaker 1: the keys of the law in their bosom, closely resemble
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Speaker 1: the law men or speakers of the Icelandic Assembly. All
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Speaker 1: laws to be valid must be promulgated from the Tynwald Hill,
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Speaker 1: which corresponds to the Loegburg or law hill of the
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Speaker 1: Icelandic Balding. When the court is held, the coroner fences
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Speaker 1: it against all the disturbance or disorder, just as in
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Speaker 1: the old Norwegian gule thing we hear of they bond
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Speaker 1: or sanctuary ropes drawn around the Assembly. It was possibly
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Speaker 1: from Man that a good number of the North settlers
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Speaker 1: in Cumberland, Westmorland and North Lancashire came, and others may
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Speaker 1: have settled in Galloway. End of Chapter nine