Viking Tourism in Orkney

[@angersay]

Excellent video. I believe as an Orcadian fiercely proud of my Norse Heritage that more needs to be done at grassroots level here in Orkney with regards to Education. The Viking age in Orkney was worthy of its own saga but is only given lip service by locals and incomers alike. Heritage is something that is felt as much as anything and I don't think in this day and age it is encouraged. We live in a place where we spoke a completely different language in Norn but recently wanted to teach our kids Gaelic? (Why not Nynorn?) We live in a place where we gather to wave Norwegian flags but have little understanding of the independence felt through generations at the time,and conflict we had with Norway to keep the independence in check? From place-names and surnames being forgotten and watered down to the forgetting of history that is uncomfortable to some, I fear that the "Norse Heritage " will ultimately go the way of Norn. In terms of tourism, the sites will be reduced to just a list of names and a few piles of stones. We never touch on how the Scots earls treated the indigenous Norse population after annexation but look to see how the Norse affected the picts? I work at the St Magnus Centre and there is a huge thirst for information on our Norse Heritage out with the building itself (I have been guilty of pointing out some disparities between St Magnus's Saga and others at the time) Shetland started burning a boat in 1881 ( just after our language died) and has a far greater sense of it's Norse Heritage than we do (despite being an outpost when it wasn't part of the earldom) They have a lot more pride than what we do for some reason? I'd like to see the Norse part of our history embraced (warts and all) before it is forgotten. I'd also like people to stop putting horns on helmets 🤣

[@fionawilson3500]

I totally agree with you comments. When I was at school we were told about how we were treated by the Scots earls and that when we were pawned to Scotland we entered the dark ages. But then, we were taught about our own history and even one the books we had to read in English was Njal's Saga. Yes our language Norn should be taught rather than Gaelic. We need to take more pride in our Norse Heritage and promote it, if Shetland can do it so can we. The Fire Festival held in 2015 in Stromness was a great success and should be a regular feature.

[@grahamfleming8139]

The old gaelic name for Orkney was innse orc or islands of the boar and Shetland was called innse cat or islands Of the cat people was firmly part of pictland, and. was only part of vikings world for 5 hundred years much the same of much of Scotland. Ogham an old gaelic tree language and scattered through the islands are gaelic Christian hermitages? So why not learn gaelic alang wi Norse ? SCOTLAND along wi Orkney should seriously consider the Nordic Council! Orkney islands have a rich history back to neolithic times.

[@angersay]

@@grahamfleming8139 The pictish population of Orkney is wide open to debate as it is thought that the population of Orkney in pictish times could perhaps have been the original iron age population but under pictish rule. (682AD there is an account of a pictish king " brude son of bili" "ravaging" Orkney) The lack of pictish place-names might also suggest that the population was small at the time of the Norse arriving (already ravaged?) Your point about Gaelic arriving with Christianity makes no sense to me either as Irish monks travelled all over (non Gaelic speaking Europe) Gaelic has never been spoken here. Old Norse and subsequently Norn was.

[@grahamfleming8139]

@@angersay the old gaelic for Orkney comes from it innse orc and was adopted by the viking invaders gaelic was originally spoken in the faroes and Iceland innis tile before the vikings Ogham has been found through out North America( tir nan og) certainly the original blood lines of Orkney are not viking but much of modern Scotland is!

[@fionawilson3500]

@@grahamfleming8139Why should we learn gaelic and for that matter Orkney and Shetland should be independent of Scotland and the UK.