Download or read book The New History of Orkney written by William P. l. Thompson and published by Origin. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of its history, Orkney had its own language, culture and institutions. The prehistoric inhabitants created monuments which are unmatched anywhere in Europe, and the medieval period saw the magnificent earldom that expressed itself through the Orkneyinga Saga and the building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Like Shetland, Orkney was heavily influenced by Viking traders and raiders from Scandinavia, and for a long period it formed an outlying part of the kingdom of Norway.Over 500 years ago, however, the islands lost their Scandinavian links and since then have had a sometimes difficult association with mainland Scotland. More recent times have seen the use of Orkney as a strategic stronghold during two world wars, and the far-reaching impact of oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea. This classic book covers the whole fascinating story and will be of interest to readers far beyond the rocky shores of Orkney itself.
Download or read book Orkneyinga Saga written by and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1981-07-30 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written around AD 1200 by an unnamed Icelandic author, the Orkneyinga Saga is an intriguing fusion of myth, legend and history. The only medieval chronicle to have Orkney as the central place of action, it tells of an era when the islands were still part of the Viking world, beginning with their conquest by the kings of Norway in the ninth century. The saga describes the subsequent history of the Earldom of Orkney and the adventures of great Norsemen such as Sigurd the Powerful, St Magnus the Martyr and Hrolf, the conqueror of Normandy. Savagely powerful and poetic, this is a fascinating depiction of an age of brutal battles, murder, sorcery and bitter family feuds. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book The History of Orkney Literature written by Simon Hall and published by John Donald Publishers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the middle ages, Orkney has proved remarkable for the volume and the quality of its literary output. From the skalds and sagamen of the Viking age, through to the colourful folklorists, polemicists and translators of the Victorian era, and the internationally acclaimed poets and novelists of the twentieth century, Orkney has continually and self-consciously developed a unique literary culture of its own. This clearly defined artistic territory resembles a sub-nation at times, and is characterised not by insularity, but by what might be termed a positive 'insularism' - defining, reinventing and presenting itself to the world. "The History of Orkney Literature" is the first full survey of literary writing from and about the Orkney Islands. The book presents readings of uncomplicatedly Orcadian writers such as Walter Traill Dennison, Edwin Muir, Eric Linklater, Robert Rendall and George Mackay Brown. It also considers major texts written by 'outside' authors which are nevertheless demonstrably Orcadian in terms of their setting, style and influence. "The History of Orkney Literature" charts the development of this distinctly Orcadian strand within Scottish Literature, and shows how the archipelago, rather than the nation, can indeed be the defining locus of a compact and vibrant literary tradition.
Download or read book The Stewart Earls of Orkney written by Peter David Anderson and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost a century the islands of Orkney and Shetland were under the rule of the Stewart earls, father and son, a rule remarkable for its infamous reputation in island history. Robert Stewart was an illegitimate son of James V, king of Scots, who seized power in Orkney in the 1560s and was created earl of Shetland in 1581. Robert's son was the extraordinary and ill-starred Earl Patrick, 'Black Patie', whose execution for treason in 1615 brought the era to a close. This book has its foundations in two previous books by Peter Anderson, one on each character.
Download or read book The Other British Isles written by David W. Moore and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their names bespeak a rich past. From the Norse Hjaltland comes the modern Shetland: islands nominally Scottish, steeped in Nordic culture, closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Important Neolithic sites are at Skara Brae and Maes Howe in the Orkneys. Holy Iona, island center of Celtic Christianity, the Isle of Man, former seat of rule over the Irish Sea, and Anglesey and Islay, homes of medieval courts at Aberffraw and Loch Finlaggan, are just a few of the more than 6,000 islands that form the archipelago known as the British Isles. The offshore isles are home to half a million people. Focusing on the eight islands or chains that have long supported substantial populations, this history tells the stories of Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, Anglesey, the Channel Islands, the Scilly Isles, and the Isles of Man and Wight, from their Neolithic settlement, to Roman, Norse and Norman occupation, to the struggle to maintain their uniqueness in today's world. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Download or read book Orkney written by Caroline Wickham-Jones and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orkney lies only 20 miles north of mainland Scotland, yet for many centuries its culture was more Scandanavian than Scottish. Strong westerly winds account for the scarcity of trees on Orkney and also for the tradition of well-constructed stone structures. As a result, the islands boast a large number of exceptionally well-preserved remains, which help us to form a detailed picture of Orcadian life through the ages. Sites and remains to be explored include settlements from the Stone Age, stone circles and burials from the Bronze Age, Iron Age brochs, Viking castles, the magnificent cathedral of St Magnus in Kirkwall, Renaissance palaces, a Martello tower from the Napoleonic Wars and numerous remains from the Second World War. In this updated edition of her best-selling book, Caroline Wickham-Jones, who has worked extensively on Orcadian sites for many years, introduces the history of the islands and provides a detailed survey of the principal places and sites of historic interest.
Download or read book Orkney Folk Tales written by Tom Muir and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2014-03-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Orkney Islands are a place of mystery and magic, where the past and the present meet, ancient standing stones walk and burial mounds are the home of the trows. Orkney Folk Tales walks the reader across invisible islands that are home to fin folk and mermaids, and seals that are often far more than they appear to be. Here Orkney witches raise storms and predict the outcome of battles, ghosts seek revenge and the Devil sits in the rafters of St Magnus Cathedral, taking notes! Using ancient tales told by the firesides of the Picts and Vikings, storyteller Tom Muir takes the reader on a magical journey where he reveals how the islands were created from the teeth of a monster, how a giant built lochs and hills in his greed for fertile land, and how the waves are controlled by the hand of a goddess.
Download or read book Energy at the End of the World written by Laura Watts and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world. The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world. Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages—Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon—are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga—an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.
Download or read book Monuments of Orkney written by C. R. Wickham-Jones and published by Explore Scottish Monuments. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orkney-based archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones explores more than 60 of Orkney's monuments in concise and accessible terms, set in context by a brief history of the islands.
Download or read book Tracing Orkney s Origins written by Laird Scranton and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-11 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just after 4000 BCE, a group of settlers took up residence in the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland. They established the earliest family farms of the United Kingdom, and later the UK's first known farming village, Skara Brae. This same group later erected some of the earliest and finest megalithic structures in the British Isles - centuries before Dynastic Egypt. There is no academic consensus regarding who these first Orcadian farmers were, or from where they originated, in part because each societal element found on Neolithic Orkney is either seen as unique to the region, or else fails to point definitively to any particular place of origin. Each might conceivably have arrived on Orkney by any number of different paths. . However, there is another approach to these questions of origin. It begins with recognizing several distinct clusters of founding elements on Orkney - some agricultural, others architectural, some linguistic, some that pertain to animal husbandry - still others that are symbolic or cosmological in nature. Some rest with cultural practices that likely existed on the island from earliest times. These clusters share a common origination point and we can show that they migrated hand-in-hand with each other, and by what likely path. As we follow that track of transmission we shed new light on how ancient cultural traditions must necessarily have related to one another. Certain mysteries of word etymology, choice of locality for various ancient sites, naming of sites, matching architectural forms, and common mythological themes seem to intuitively resolve. We come to see certain references as constants across the tradition. These threads sensibly tie an archaic symbolic tradition to Orkney through a series of historical eras and geographical regions.
Download or read book An Orkney Tapestry written by George Mackay Brown and published by Polygon. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1969, An Orkney Tapestry, George Mackay Brown's seminal work, is a unique look at Orkney through the eye of a poet. Originally commissioned by his publisher as an introduction to the Orkney Islands, Brown approached the writing from a unique perspective and went on to produce a rich fusion of ballad, folk tale, short story, drama and environmental writing. The book, written at an early stage in the author's career, explores themes that appear in his later work and was a landmark in Brown's development as a writer. Above all, it is a celebration of Orkney's people, language and history. This edition reproduces Sylvia Wishart's beautiful illustrations, commissioned for the original hardback.Made available again for the first time in over 40 years, this new edition sits alongside Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain as an important precursor of environmental writing by the likes of Kathleen Jamie, Robert Macfarlane, Malachy Tallack and, most recently, Amy Liptrot.
Download or read book The People of Orkney written by Robert James Berry and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Records of the Earldom of Orkney 1299 1614 written by Joseph Storer Clouston and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Orkney written by Amy Sackville and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A haunting novel” about sex and obsession, set off the coast of Scotland and “full of otherworldly emotion and strange impulses” (Marie Claire). A professor marries his prize student, a woman forty years his junior, and at her request, he takes her to the sea for their honeymoon. His life’s work is a book about enchantment–narratives in literature, most of them involving strange girls and women—but soon he finds himself distracted by his own enchantment with his new white–haired young wife. They travel to the Orkney Islands, the ancient Mesolithic and Neolithic site north of the Scottish coast, a barren place of extraordinary beauty known as “the Seal Islands.” And as the days of their honeymoon pass, his desire and his constant, yearning contemplation become his normality. His mysterious bride becomes his entire universe. He is consumed . . . From the author of The Still Point, a winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, this is a novel that “will appeal to literature aficionados: a Lolita–esque love, a romance born out of academia, and folklore come to life” (Booklist). “What begins as a familiar, almost fairytale–like narrative ends as something more fragmented, unsettling, and odd . . . Providing a brooding, bruised, ever–changing backdrop to all this is Orkney, the book’s most compelling character of all. In a tribute to Virginia Woolf’s experimental masterpiece, The Waves, the sea in Orkney functions as a kind of rhythmic talisman, its ebb and flow mirrored in the actions, ideas, and themes of the book. More than anything, Sackville’s Orkney is a breathtaking place in the most literal of senses.” —The Scotsman
Download or read book The Book of Bere written by Liz Ashworth and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bere is the native barley of Orkney. In the past it was an important multi-use crop and a staple of the Scottish diet, though its use declined as more easily-processed crops were introduced. Bere is still grown on Orkney farms by an agricultural contractor employed by the Birsay Heritage Trust who run the Barony Mill, Orkney's last operating water mill. Here the grain is milled into beremeal, a cream-coloured flour with a distinctive, earthy, nutty flavour. In this book acclaimed food writer Liz Ashworth traces the story of bere from its Neolithic origins to the present day, providing useful culinary tips and recipes on how this ancient grain can be introduced to the modern kitchen for enjoyment. Recipes are included for Breads, Scones, Tea Breads, Cakes, Tray Bakes, Puddings, Pastry Dishes, and Sweet and Savoury Biscuits.
Download or read book History of Orkney written by William P. L. Thomson and published by Mercat Press Books. This book was released on 1987 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orkneyøernes historie fra forhistorisk tid og op til det 20. århundrede
Download or read book The Orkney Book of Birds written by Tim Dean and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pictures are so nice, that the book would also be useful as a source of artistic reference pictures. All of the images are of birds in standing poses, rather than in a range of positions, however the images are skillfully drawn and reproduced on good paper, using what appears to be artist's colouring pencils.
