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Hákon Pálsson, Earl Of Orkney
Haakon Paulsson (Old Norse: ''Hákon Pálsson''; died 1123) was a Norwegian ''jarl'' who ruled the earldom of Orkney together with his cousin Magnus Erlendsson from 1105 to 1123. Their lives and times are recounted in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', which was first written down in the early 13th century by an unknown Icelandic author. Family background Haakon's father was Paul Thorfinnsson who, along with his brother, Erlend Thorfinnsson, had ruled as a joint earl of Orkney. Paul and Erlend remained on friendly terms until their children grew to adulthood, after which disputes between their sons led to a quarrel and open hostility between the brothers. Paul, who was the elder of the two, was "very much the one in charge" initially.''Orkneyinga saga'' c. 33 He married an unnamed daughter of Norwegian earl Hakon Ivarsson and they had two sons and four daughters. Of these siblings, Haakon played the greatest part in later Orcadian events. Their other children were Thora, Brynjolf, Ingi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earl Of Orkney
Earl of Orkney, historically Jarl of Orkney, is a title of nobility encompassing the archipelagoes of Orkney and Shetland, which comprise the Northern Isles of Scotland. Originally Scandinavian Scotland, founded by Norse invaders, the status of the rulers of the Northern Isles as Norway, Norwegian vassals was formalised in 1195. Although the Old Norse term ''jarl'' is etymologically related to "earl", and the jarls were succeeded by earls in the late 15th century, a Norwegian ''jarl'' is not the same thing. In the Norse context the distinction between jarls and kings did not become significant until the late 11th century and the early jarls would therefore have had considerable independence of action until that time. The position of Jarl of Orkney was eventually the most senior rank in medieval Norway except for the king himself. The jarls were periodically subject to the kings of Kingdom of Alba, Alba for those parts of their territory in what is now mainland Scotland (i.e. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigurd The Crusader
Sigurd the Crusader (; ; 1089 – 26 March 1130), also known as Sigurd Magnusson and Sigurd I, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1130. His rule, together with his half-brother Øystein (until Øystein died in 1123), has been regarded by historians as a golden age for the medieval Kingdom of Norway. He is otherwise famous for leading the Norwegian Crusade (1107–1110), earning him the eponym "the Crusader",Literally "Jerusalem-farer", but commonly translated into English as "the Crusader". and was the first European king to participate in a crusade personally. Early life Sigurd was one of the three sons of King Magnus III, the other two being Øystein and Olaf. They were all illegitimate sons of the king with different mothers. The three half-brothers co-ruled the kingdom from 1103 to avoid feuds or war. Sigurd ruled alone after Olaf died in 1115 and Øystein in 1123. Before being proclaimed King of Norway, Sigurd was styled as King of the Isles and Earl of Orkney. Neither Ø ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Mackay Brown
George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orkney, Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life and career George Mackay Brown was born on 17 October 1921, the youngest of six children. His parents were John Brown, a tailor and postman, and Mhairi Mackay, a descendant of Clan Mackay who had been brought up in Braal, a hamlet near Strathy, Sutherland, as a native speaker of the Reay Country dialect of Scottish Gaelic. Except for periods as a mature student in mainland Scotland, Brown lived all his life in the town of Stromness on Mainland, Orkney. One of his Stromness neighbours was his friend the artist Sylvia Wishart. Because of illness, his father was restricted in his work and he received no pension. The family had a history of depression and Brown's uncle, Jimmy Brown, may have died by suicide: his body was found in Stromness harb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harald Maddadsson
Harald Maddadsson (Old Norse: ''Haraldr Madda̡arson'', Gaelic: ''Aralt mac Mataid'') (c. 1134 Р1206) was Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness from 1139 until 1206. He was the son of Matad, Mormaer of Atholl, and Margaret, daughter of Earl Haakon Paulsson of Orkney. Of mixed Norse and Gaelic blood, and a descendant of Scots kings, he was a significant figure in northern Scotland, and played a prominent part in Scottish politics of the twelfth century. The ''Orkneyinga Saga'' names him one of the three most powerful Earls of Orkney along with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdsson.''Orkneyinga Saga'', c. 112. Background In the early twelfth century, the Earldom of Orkney, although weakened since the time of Earl Thorfinn, remained in control of Caithness and was dominant in Sutherland and parts of the Outer Hebrides. Thus the succession of the earldom was of great interest to the Scots king David I. The marriage of Matad and Margaret is believed to have ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of The Isles
The Kingdom of the Isles, also known as Sodor, was a Norse–Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The islands were known in Old Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. In Scottish Gaelic, the kingdom is known as . The territory is sometimes called the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, although only some of the later rulers claimed that title. The historical record is incomplete, and the kingdom was not a continuous entity throughout the entire period. At times the rulers were independent of external control, although for much of the period they had overlords in Norway, Ireland, England, Scotland or Orkney. At times there also appear to have been competing claims for all or parts of the territory. The islands have a total land area of over and extend for more than from north to south. Viking influence in the area began in the late 8th c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 1153)
Óláfr Guðrøðarson (died 29 June 1153) was a twelfth-century King of Mann and the Isles. As a younger son of Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles, Óláfr witnessed a vicious power struggle between his elder brothers in the aftermath of their father's death. At some point, the young Óláfr was entrusted to the care of Henry I, King of England, and like the contemporaneous Scottish monarchs, Alexander I, King of Scotland, Alexander I and David I, King of Scotland, David I, Óláfr appears to have been a protégé of the English king. As King of the Isles, Óláfr contracted marital alliances with neighbouring maritime rulers. Although he appears to have overseen successful military operations to reclaim the northernmost territories once controlled by his father, he may have witnessed the loss of authority in Galloway as well. Like his counterpart David I, Óláfr was a reformer and moderniser of his realm. However, his four-decade reign ended in abrupt disaster whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ingibjörg Hakonsdóttir Of Orkney
Ingibjörg Hakonsdóttir (), also known as Ingibiorg, was the wife of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, king of the Isle of Man. She was also the daughter of Helga Moddansdóttir and Haakon Paulsson, Earl of Orkney. Not much is known about her life other than her descent from noble blood and marrying Óláfr Guðrøðarson, king of Man, of the Crovan Dynasty. Additionally, she was also the mother of Ragnhild, who married the Norse-Gaelic King of the Isles, Somerled, from whom Clann Somhairle and numerous other clans descend. Ingibiorg's marriage to Óláfr Guðrøðarson was strategic for the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles due to Ingibiorg being the daughter of Haakon Paulsson who was a Jarl of Orkney which would help strengthen ties between Mann and Orkney. Ingibiorg was one of many of Olaf's wives and concubines and in many sources Olaf is often written as having another wife ''Affraic'' Oram, RD (1988) p. 79; Anderson (1922) p. 137 n. 2. who was the daughter of Fergus of Galloway whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirkwall
Kirkwall (, , or ; ) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub with ferries to many locations. It is the centre of the St Magnus Festival, St Magnus International Festival and is also a popular stopping off point for cruise ships. St Magnus Cathedral stands at the heart of the town. Etymology The name Kirkwall comes from the Old Norse, Norse name meaning "church bay", the settlement having been established by the Norsemen in the 11th century. As late as 1525 the name is recorded as Kirkevaag. This became in time "Kirkwaa" and then eventually Kirkwall - but how the second syllable came to be spelled "wall" is not certain. MacBain quotes F. W. L. Thomas: "How, I ask, could ''vágr'' come to be represented by wall? Whence came the ''ll''? Was it that Scottish immigrants finding the sound of ''vá'' repre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Magnus Cathedral
St Magnus Cathedral dominates the skyline of Kirkwall, the main town of Orkney, a group of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. Originally Roman Catholic, it is the oldest cathedral in Scotland and the most northerly cathedral in the United Kingdom – a fine example of Romanesque architecture built when the islands were ruled by the Norse Earls of Orkney. The building is owned by Orkney Islands Council as successor of the burgh of Kirkwall as a result of an act of King James III of Scotland following Orkney's annexation by the Scottish Crown in 1468. Construction began in 1137 and it was added to over the next 300 years. The first bishop of Orkney was William the Old and it was for Bishop William that the nearby Bishop's Palace was built. Before the Scottish Reformation, the cathedral was presided over by the Bishop of Orkney. Today, it is a parish church of the Church of Scotland (with a presbyterian system of Church governance). As of 2024, the congregation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egilsay
Egilsay (, ) is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, lying east of Rousay. The anglicized name of Eagleshay was used in past centuries. The island is largely farmland and is known for St Magnus Church, Egilsay, St Magnus Church, dedicated or re-dedicated to Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney, Saint Magnus, who was killed on the island in 1117 by an axe blow to the head. For hundreds of years the story of St Magnus, part of the Orkneyinga saga, was considered just a legend until a skull with a large crack in it, such as it had been stricken by an axe, was found in the walls of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Etymology Unusually for the Northern Isles, it has been suggested that Egilsay may have a partly Gaelic name. While at first sight, it appears to be Egil's island, "Egil" being a Norse personal name, the Gaelic ''eaglais'' (Celtic "eccles") meaning church, may be part of the root, as the island is dominated by a church of pre-Norse foundation. The island of Kili Holm just ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thing (assembly)
A thing, also known as a folkmoot, assembly, tribal council, and Thing (assembly)#Etymology, by other names, was a governing assembly in early Germanic peoples, Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a lawspeaker. Things took place regularly, usually at prominent places accessible by travel. They provided legislative functions, as well as social events and trade opportunities. In modern usage, the meaning of this word in English and other languages has shifted to mean not just an assemblage of some sort but simply an object of any kind. Thingstead () or "thingstow" () is the English term for the location where a thing was held. Etymology The word appears in Old Norse, Old English, and modern Icelandic language, Icelandic as , in Middle English (as in modern English), Old Saxon, Old Dutch, and Old Frisian as (the difference between ''þing'' and ''thing'' is purely orthographical), in German language, German as , in Dutch language, Dut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eystein I Of Norway
Eystein Magnusson (, ; – 29 August 1123), also called Eystein I, was King of Norway from 1103 to 1123 together with his half-brothers Sigurd the Crusader and Olaf Magnusson, although since Olaf died before adulthood, only Eystein and Sigurd were effective rulers of the country. While Sigurd gained fame as the "warrior king" (although owed almost exclusively to his three-year crusade to the Holy Land), Eystein was in contrast portrayed in the sagas as the "peace king" who stayed home in Norway and improved the country. As Eystein never engaged in warfare, considerably less information is written and known about him than about his brother Sigurd, despite his twenty-year-long reign, just a few years short of Sigurd. Eystein nonetheless gained the affection of his people, and was highly regarded by the saga writers for his deeds. Eystein and Sigurd's reign became the longest joint rule in Norwegian history. Although the later saga literature narrates stereotypical accounts about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
