On a mission to crack the Norse code [ Orkney ]

Scot Herald ^ | Monday, January 11, 2010 | Gavin Francis

[SunkenCiv]

The guide's voice began to conjure other shadows from the past. The neolithic people crept away as she switched on her torch and began to tell us about the runic writing on the walls, now known to have been written by Norse inhabitants of Orkney some time in the 12th century. The tension dissolved and laughter broke out as she translated:

"Ingibjorg the fair widow; many a woman has had to lower herself to come in here, despite her airs and graces."

"I bedded Thorni. By Helgi."

And then some boasting about how well-travelled these Norsemen were:

"These runes were carved by the greatest runester in the Western Ocean."

And close to a rude carving of a crusader's cross, "Jerusalem-farers broke into this mound."

[SunkenCiv]

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[Last Dakotan]

Any limericks found?

[Fred Nerks]

...Five miles to the north stands another memory in stone, the neolithic burial mound of Maeshowe. The following day I made my way there. It is at least 4000 years older than the church at Orphir, but it is not ruined yet. It was already ancient when the Pyramids were new. The people who built it had a skill that still baffles archaeologists. They had no iron, no wheels, and yet they dragged vast slabs of stone through bog and field to build a structure that seems to speak of magic, of a forgotten power...

[NorwegianViking]

Many thanks for the post! I am bookmarking it for later. Apreciate you.

[21twelve]

“Unravelling from the dark tunnel back into the wind was like being reborn into a living land of flung grasses and calling birds, made all the sweeter by the promise of a warm pub. Orkney did not feel so isolated after all.”

Gavin Francis is the author of True North, Travels In Arctic Europe (Polygon, £10.99).

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Interesting topic, and I like the way the guy writes! Thanks!

[JoeProBono]

Visitors look at the 5,000 year-old remains of Skara Brae village in the Scottish Orkney Islands, July 19, 2005, which was revealed by a huge storm in 1850