Northern Isles Connections

A fresh insight into the Orkney and Shetland past, and the islands' longstanding links with Norway. The rich and complex medieval world is reconstructed in detail, through landscape, Church and society, along with a radical new appraisal of early Christianity in the north.

This book of essays is presented to Professor Per Sveaas Anderson by friends and colleagues in Scotland in appreciation of his knowledge, understanding and interest shown in the historic bonds between Norway and the Northern Isles throughout his academic career. He has upheld the vigorous intellectual links which P. A. Munch established in the mid-nineteenth century and furthered the understanding of our common ancestry with the same breadth of interest. 

These essays cover many different aspects of the mysterious Celtic papar whom the Vikings met when they arrived in these islands, to a notable Shetland woman who lived at the time when Scottish customs were replacing Norse. There is an attempt to reconstitute the medieval landscape of Birsay, perhaps the most significant of the Orkney earls' and bishops' estates: and there are some very diverse studies of the medieval church.

These concern the constitution of St Magnus Cathedral, the identity of a familiar but unstudied medieval statue, and the position of the powerful archdeacons of Shetland. Finally we learn how the famous Viking Congresses were initiated in Shetland in 1950. The fruits of many historians' innovative researches into the rich history of the Northern Isles are collected here in honour of a Norwegian who has shared in a common pursuit and in the study of a shared background.