Reports
Programme
Organising Committee
The Shetland weather was on its best form for the conference field trip to the south mainland:
St Ninian's Isle with its tombolo.
On April 4th - 8th 2003 Shetland played host to the first SPNS/SNSBI/NORNA joint name-conference Cultural contacts in the North Atlantic Region, which was held at the Lerwick Hotel in Lerwick. Being a joint conference of three societies whose members are primarily found in the British Isles and in the Scandinavian Countries, the conference was truly international in character with more than 60 participants from 8 countries. Therefore, the focus of the conference was most appropriately on names in the North Atlantic area, the region where Scandinavians and people from the British Isles have had longstanding contacts with each other. The conference itself was most beautifully organised with the papers placed together in appropriate sections and with interesting tours to various sites throughout Shetland.
Given the situation of the conference, some of the papers focused specifically on Shetland, such as the papers given by Eileen Brooke-Freeman: The Shetland Place-Name Project and organiser Doreen Waugh: Some Westside Place-Names from Twatt. Other contributions offered an invaluable insight into such topics as the place-names found along the Ham Burn in Foula (John Baldwin), the farm-names found in Andro Smyth's papers (Brian Smith) and the names of islands and islets in Shetland (Peder Gammeltoft). A large number of the papers compared Shetland place-names with the place-name material of neighbouring regions, as e.g. the public lecture given by Bill Nicolaisen: Shetland Place-names in a Wider Context and the papers by Svavar Sigmundsson: Place-Names in Iceland and Shetland - A comparison and Gunnstein Akselberg: Names Composed in -staðir in Shetland and Western Norway - Continuity or discontinuity. Other comparative studies were offered by Barbara Crawford: 'Papar' Names - Multi-Disciplinary pitfalls and international potential, Inge Særheim: Norse Settlement Names in -land in Shetland and Orkney and Gunnel Melchers: The Structure of Mead Names.
The rich body of place-names of Scandinavian origin in the British Isles was explored in various ways by a number of participants. A couple of papers heralded a re-evaluation of the established ideas and theoretical aspects of the discipline. Richard Coates, for instance gave a thought-provoking paper titled: The Grammar of Scandinavian Place-Names in England: A Preliminary Commentary, whereas the paper What is Norse, What is Scots? A Re-Evaluation of Orkney Place-Names by Berit Sandnes furnished us with the tools with which to distinguish formally between Old Norse and Scots place-name constructions. A detailed study of The Semantics of stöng, stang was given by Diana Whaley, whereas Alison Grant and Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig supplied us with fine overviews of the Ayrshire by-names and the Scandinavian place-names in Ireland, respectively.
Personal names may also yield information about cultural contacts in the North Atlantic throughout time. A rewarding paper by David Sellars explored how Scandinavian Personal Names in Gaelic Scotland and the Isle of Man may shed light on the naming traditions and peculiarities in the Scandinavian Viking-Age and post-Norse colonies Scotland and Isle of Man period, whereas Tom Schmidt's paper: Onomastic Evidence of Faeroese and Shetlanders in Norway? delved into medieval and later Norwegian sources for evidence of Norwegian-North Atlantic contacts.
The question of the relationship between the incoming Scandinavians and the indigenous peoples is closely linked to the study of place-names of Scandinavian origin in the British Isles. It is, therefore, only natural that the question should be touched upon in varying degrees at these conferences, in particular Arne Kruse's paper: Worlds Apart - Gaelic and Norse in the West of Scotland and: Extermination or Economic Exploitation? by Gillian Fellows-Jensen. And last, but not least, conference ended on a musical note with Katherine Campbell's paper 'Trowie' names, accompanied and followed by tunes from the Shetland folk music treasury.
All in all, the conference was a very focused and relevant experience to everyone with interests in names and cultural contacts in the North Atlantic area - and not least very enjoyable! A final piece of good news is that a publication of the proceedings of the conference is planned in the near future - something to look out for.
Peder Gammeltoft
Institute of Name Research,
Department of Scandinavian Research,
University of Copenhagen
The Shetland Times wrote:
The conference was a complete success, truly international in its scope and content. Delegates and local people alike enjoyed a programme of 21 lectures, three field trips and a civic reception by Shetland Islands Council.
At the outset delegates heard about the Shetland Amenity Trust's place name project, now halfway through its pilot stage. In a long, fascinating paper Eileen Brooke-Freeman described her aims and methods. She also dealt with pioneering surveys of names in Shetland, especially the collection made by John Stewart of Whalsay and helpers 50 years ago, and showed how new technology of various kinds can help us build on Stewart's and Jakob Jakobsen's work, especially by pinpointing the location of places.
Your reporter (Brian Smith) also spoke on Friday morning, about an important source of information about Shetland farm names: rentals and taxation lists drawn up by Andro Smyth of Hurteso in Orkney between the 1620s and 1640s. These papers are priceless, but need to be used with care.
In the afternoon two speakers dealt head-on with current controversies. Arne Kruse of the University of Edinburgh, in a tour de force, considered old island names like Shetland and the Orkneys, and Unst, Yell and Fetlar, and pointed out that they are the sole remaining traces of pre-Norse naming in the area. He then turned his attention to the lack of aboriginal names in the Western Isles, and to the consternation of some delegates suggested that Vikings slaughtered the native inhabitants there as well as in Shetland and Orkney.
In a parallel paper Gillian Fellows-Jensen of the university of Copenhagen considered developments in the Isle of Man, the English Danelaw and Normandy, and showed that different outcomes had occurred in each of these places when Scandinavians arrived. She made it clear that Vikings could intermarry and borrow parts of the native culture in some of their colonies, whatever happened elsewhere.
The grand old man of the conference, Bill Nicolaisen, gave a public lecture in the Garrison Theatre on Friday night. In his humorous and discursive way he warned his audience that place names might not be able to answer important historical questions. He showed that the Viking colonists of Shetland and Orkney comprehensively renamed the islands, but refused to guess what happened to their Pictish predecessors.
On Saturday Barbara Crawford told the conference about her important investigation of "papar" names and communities in the north and west of Scotland. She explained lucidly the question which is now exercising scholars: were these names bestowed by Vikings when they arrived in the west, to describe islands and townships inhabited by priests whom they left alone; or were the islands named decades later, their inhabitants long slaughtered or chased out?
Peder Gammeltoft of Copenhagen dealt with names given to islands in Scandinavian Shetland. An interesting discussion about Hascosay ensued: does it mean 'sea-fog island', as Peder believes? Tom Schmidt from Oslo discussed place names in Norway which seem at first sight to contain references to Shetlanders and Faroese people. Using records from the early modern period, he suggested that some of the names may not be connected with the islands at all; but had found convincing proofs of connections in other cases.
Three speakers dealt in detail with the place names of districts in Shetland. Doreen Waugh spoke about Twatt in Aithsting, and discussed modern names as well as venerable ones, sometimes with humour. John Baldwin introduced us to Norse and later names along the Ham Burn in Foula, as he has collected them during the past 35 years. Gunnel Melchers, from Stockholm, took as her subject the manifold "meads" around the coast of the islands, the marks that fishermen use to locate fish. She drew our attention to interesting comparative material from communities elsewhere.
Three Scandinavians gave papers from an older place name tradition. Inge Saerheim dealt with names ending in -land in the Northern Isles, and speculated about when and why they were used. Svavar Sigmundsson compared farm name elements in Iceland and Shetland, using material not available to John Stewart when he made a similar comparison. Gunnstein Akselberg looked at stair names in Shetland and Norway, and sharply criticised Jakobsen and Stewart for their explanations of them - although he had not had time to furnish alternative explanations.
The final offering was novel, and richly illustrated. Katherine Campbell reported on her investigation of trowy knowes, their names and music, throughout Shetland. She used old accounts of fiddlers and their misanters on mounds - and in them. There was a feast of other material. Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig of the Irish Placenames Commission took the conference on a tour of Scandinavian place names in Ireland; Alison Grant considered names with the termination -by in Ayrshire, an area where we didn't know that Scandinavian people had penetrated; David Sellar looked at Scandinavian personal names (rather than place names) in the west of Scotland and Man.
Berit Sandnes mounted an important critique of Hugh Marwick's tendency to regard all Orkney names as Nordic. Richard Coates, building on the magnificent resources of place name collections in England, discussed grammatical problems afflicting English and Scandinavian nomenclature in the Danelaw Counties. Last, but certainly not least, Diana Whaley considered the puzzling names from the Lake District to Shetland, and points further east, with the element stöng, such as Stonganess in North Yell. Conference members reeled away on Monday night, drunk with names.
Brian Smith
© The Shetland Times Ltd.
Friday 4 April
11.00 - 12.00: Eileen Brooke-Freeman: Shetland Place-Name Project
Abstract: The current Shetland Place Names Project aims to systematically record all available information on Shetland's place names (including previously unrecorded information) on a comprehensive database, and link this to digital maps. Information will be made available to a range of users in different ways. Volunteers of all ages are using a range of techniques - sound recordings; maps and recording sheets; walking the ground; photographing features; extracting information from documentary sources; and using maps, aerial photographs and lists of names as triggers. We are also building on work already done by Jakobsen, Stewart and others - verifying names and pinpointing their locations on maps.
12.00 - 1.00: Brian Smith: Andro Smyth's database of Shetland farm-names, 1628-1643
Abstract: Andro Smyth, born near Perth at the beginning of the 17th century, an Orkney laird for most of his life, had a very practical view of Shetland farm-names. He and his brother were sub-lessees of the crown rents and duties of Shetland in the 1620s-40s. Andro drew up a 'rental' of them, and elaborated on it during his life. From this work, and because of its form, it is possible to make judgments about the likely age and status of the various farms in the islands which paid tax and rent. It is an important document for place-name scholars.
2.00 - 2.45: Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig: Scandinavian place-names in Ireland
2.45 - 3.30: Arne Kruse: Worlds apart - Gaelic and Norse in the west of Scotland
This talk will focus on the early contact between the natives and the Norse in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland and reflect on the possibility of establishing an early stratum of names.
4.00 - 5.00: Gillian Fellows-Jensen: Extermination or Economic Exploitation?
Abstract: One of the unsolved problemas about Viking settlement in the islands to the north and west of Scotland is the lack of a satisfactory explanation for the difference between the practically blanket coverage of Scandinavian place-names in Shetland and Orkney and the varying more or less limited degrees of Scandinavian influence betrayed by the place-names of the Western Isles. In a learned but provocative article in the journal Northern Studies entitled 'The Picts and the Martyrs or Did Vikings kill the native population of Orkney and Shetland?', Brian Smith has recently accused earlier scholars, archaeologists and philologists alike, of being too mealy-mouthed in refusing to expect the worst from the Viking settlers in the Northern Isles. Without expecting to be able to convert Brian Smith to my own mealy-mouthed point of view, I shall try to throw some light on the place-name situation in Shetland and Orkney by drawing comparisons with the situations in the Isle of Man on the one hand and the English Danelaw on the other.
6.00 - 7.30: Civic Reception
7.30 - 8.30: W F H Nicolaisen: Shetland Place-Names in a Wider Context
Abstract: A brief survey of the place-nomenclature of Shetland will be followed by an attempt to reconstruct a kind of chronological and linguistic stratification. While the need for internal field-work and research by people belonging to, or at least with sound local knowledge, is obvious and cannot be over-emphasised, Shetland is obviously not isolated or unique in the nature of its toponymic evidence, and it makes sense therefore to look beyond the archipelago to Norway, Orkney and the Western Isles, and perhaps even to the Faeroes and Iceland. The knotty problem of the virtual absence of pre-Norse names will have to be addressed, even if it would be over-optimistic to expect an answer that will satisfy everybody. Naturally, the ever-growing inventory of post-Norse names will require attention. The presentation will be explorative rather than definitive.
Saturday 5 April
9.00 - 10.00: Barbara Crawford: 'Papar' names. Multi-disciplinary pitfalls and international potential
This lecture will present a progress report on a project which attempts to acquire a better understanding of the geographical, environmental and cultural factors which lie behind the Norse naming of islands and locations in the North Atlantic after Celtic priests . It will look at the historical and toponymic evidence for the 'papar' and some of the sculptural and archaeological evidence in Shetland and Orkney, the Hebrides and Iceland. The nature of the locations named after the 'papar' will also be compared. What light can these names throw on the relationship between the Norse raiders and settlers and the Christian establishment in the islands? Can they really indicate a contemporary situation or do they reflect a later, retrospective nostalgia for Christian antecedents? Our comprehension of who the 'papar' were has
to be based on a sound appreciation of all the places named after them, and an increased awareness of the common environmental factors may have significance for our better understanding of their role in the Celtic ecclesiastical world which the Norse raiders and settlers impinged upon.
10.00 - 10.30: Peder Gammeltoft: Islands great and small: a study of the islands and skerries of Shetland, and their significance
Abstract: Names of islands constitute an interesting and important group of place-names. A significant share of island-names in Shetland seemingly ranges among the oldest place-name material of Scandinavian origin, thus being an invaluable source for Viking-Age life in the archipelago. However, an almost equally significant number of island-names - particularly the ones denoting smaller islands - are relatively modern names, either as the result of name change or simply because they have not been named earlier. This group of names provides a fine insight into motives guiding name-change (resulting from e.g. changes in ownership or changes in utilisation) and into naming motives in the local Shetland or Insular Scots dialect. Comparisons will be made with island-names in Scandinavia and Orkney and general rules for island-name formation in the Northern Isles will be set up.
10.30 - 11.00: David Sellar: Scandinavian personal names in Gaelic Scotland and the Isle of Man
Abstract: The paper describes the reception of Scandinavian personal names into Gaelic, and eventually into English, after the initial period of settlement. The focus is not on etymology but on the transfer of names across languages and traditions, and also on the significance of names. This is an area which has seen comparatively little study in Scotland.
11.30 - 12.00: Tom Schmidt: Onomastic Evidence of Faeroese and Shetlanders in Norway?
Abstract: A number of Norwegian place names seem to bear evidence of contact across the North Sea from the Faeroes and from Shetland, and possibly also of immigration from the islands to the mainland. Among such names are Færøya, Færevik, Færingsholmane - Hjelten Hjelthavna, Hjeltnes. In the standard work on Norwegian names, Norske Gaardnavne, these names - when included - are without exception interpreted differently and in most cases problably rightly so. I have in another context - and in my own opinion not entirely successfully - struggled with the settlement name Hjälteby, which may possibly contain a byname Hjalti, 'person from Hjaltland'. In my paper I will discuss possible interpretations of these and similar names and the extent to which it is possible to ascertain whether they do indeed refer to Shetlanders and Faroese in Scandinavia.
12.00 - 12.30: Alison Grant: The Ayrshire '-bý' names
Abstract: The six Ayrshire -bý names present something of an onomastic mystery, as they seem to represent Scandinavian settlement in an area for which there is little other evidence of Scandinavian presence. The lack of ancillary toponymics in Northern Ayrshire might suggest that these names were transplanted from the Danelaw in the twelfth century, when supporters of David I were granted lands in Scotland. Alternatively, as at least some of the Ayrshire -bý names have parallels on the Western Seaboard of Scotland and in Galloway, it is possible that the names are connected to the Gaelic-Scandinavian toponymic continuum stretching from the Hebrides down to the North-West of England
1.00 - 5.00: Afternoon excursion to Tingwall, Scalloway and Papil
8.00 - 8.30: Berit Sandnes: What is Norse, what is Scots? A re-evaluation of Orkney place-names
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that although Norse influence is very visible in Orkney place-names, it may not be as massive as suggested by Marwick in Orkney place-names. Some of the place-name elements regarded by Marwick as Norse, are actually borrowed into the Scots dialect of the islands, and may be used in Scots coinages. Marwick tends to assume Norse origin for morphologial endings, even when a Scots origin is more plausible, e.g. -ie/-y-endings. As Norse names have only survived in a Scots context, adaption to Scots is to be expected. On the other hand, patterns assumed to reflect outside influence may be of Norse origin. Reversed word order has been explained as Celtic influence. But this word order was common in older Old Norse, and seems to have survived in Orkney.
Sunday 6 April
9.00 - 10.30: Society AGMs and other meetings
11.00 - 11.30: Richard Coates: The Grammar of Scandinavian place-names in England: a preliminary commentary
Abstract: An examination of structural types of names where the first element is a personal name and the second a habitative element, based on published materials from selected areas of the Danelaw counties. The key points at issue are the (non-)expression of case in such constructions, and, where the genitive is expressed, what form it takes. I reflect on similarities and differences between patterns involving English and Scandinavian elements, and inch my way towards some conclusions.
11.30 - 12.00: Diana Whaley: The semantics of stõng, stang
The semantics of stõng, stang.ON stõng and its reflexes occur widely in place-names throughout the Scandinavian-speaking lands, and although its basic meaning is clearly 'pole, stave', there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what this might refer to in particular place-names. Starting from some medieval and post-medieval examples from the English Lake District but casting the net more widely, this paper will consider the possible range of meanings in the light of collocational and topographical evidence.
12.00 - 12.30: Inge Særheim: Norse settlement names in -land in Shetland and Orkney
Abstract: A substantial number of Norse settlement names ending in -land are found in Shetland and Orkney. These names have much in common with the land-names in Southwest-Norway, which is the key area of settlement names of this type in Scandinavia. The land-names of Norse origin in Shetland and Orkney reflect cultural contact in the North sea area in the Viking Age. These names are valuable sources when studying the Scandinavian settlement names of this type, e.g. concerning the semantics of this name element and the dating of the names.
1.00 - 6.00: Afternoon excursion (south mainland)
8.30 - 9.00: John Baldwin: Anatomy of a Watercourse: Norse and later names along the Ham Burn, Foula
Many of the tiniest watercourses on Foula retain a name that may be essentially Norse, Scots or English in origin. Together they reflect social, economic and cultural change over many centuries. Over the past 130 or so years, various collectors have visited Foula, to the extent that Foula place-names appear in several printed and manuscript collections, and these have been augmented by further fieldwork carried out over the past 35 years. All collections are in some way 'incomplete', and most have sought mainly to collect and preserve names that were considered 'old' rather than necessarily in current usage. All can contribute to an understanding of Foula's natural environment and man's inter-relationship with that environment. This paper explores names relating specifically to streams, lochs, bogs and valleys. It is not always easy to uncover earlier forms, buried under centuries of Scots and more recently English influence, but an attempt is made to unravel cultural and linguistic origins and to help chart the impact of population and cultural change.
Monday 7 April
9.00 - 9.30: Gunnel Melchers: The structure of Mead names
Abstract: The word mead ('meid', 'meith', 'mid') refers to a fishing-ground as well as a landmark, taken in sight when finding a fishing-ground, when two or more marks, mostly prominent pieces of land, are brought in a certain relation to each other. This paper focusses on the latter meaning of the word.Mead names are currently being collected on a large scale within the framework of the Shetland Place Name Project. This paper is based on a limited set of data, partly collected by myself and partly supplied by the Shetland Archives. Comparisons are made with Swedish and Norwegian mead names as documented in studies by Falck-Kjällquist and Hovda. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss the formation and classification of mead names, which do not seem to fit nicely into a traditional onomastic typology.
9.30 - 10.00: Doreen Waugh: Some Westside place-names from Twatt
Abstract: Twatt is a small village situated in the part of Shetland known as the Westside. This paper will discuss place-names from Twatt - both habitative and topographical - using local knowledge as well as documentary sources to build up a picture of the names. There is an intermingling of Norse and Scots in the place-nomenclature which is very typical of Shetland as a whole. The name Twatt itself appears regularly in documents from the 16th century at least. It derives from ON þveit 'a parcel of land, etc.' which occurs in the form twatt in a few Shetland farm-names, all in "Westside". Twatt (Aithsting), Brunatwatt …, Foratwatt, Germatwatt…, Stennestwatt… (Walls). Other names in the village are not so well documented but there are many fascinating tales about their origin and about local usage. The main purpose of this paper is to give a snapshot of these names and, where possible, of their history and when they came into being.
10.30 - 11.00: Svavar Sigmundsson: Place-names in Iceland and Shetland. A comparison
Abstract: The place-names in these two countries are in many cases similar, as more or less the same words, of Norse origin, have been the basis for the name-giving. It has been maintained that about 90% of the place-names in Shetland and the Orkneys are of Scandinavian origin. The similarity between the two countries can be illustrated by giving examples of parallel names in both areas.
Firstly generics expressing natural features:
-dalur (Fogradaal Shetl. - Fagridalur Icel.)
-fjörður (Burrafirth Shetl. - Borgarfjörður Icel.)
-nes (Brimness Shetl. - Brimnes Icel.)
-vík (Culswick Shetl. - Kollsvík Icel.
Secondly generics expressing habitation, like:
-bær (Melby Shetl. - Melbær Icel.)
-staðir (Tresta Shetl. - Tréstaðir Icel.)
On the other side several elements in the place-names in Shetland have not been productive in Iceland, like the following:
bjálki, glenna, hytta, pund, stilli, vist.
These similarities and differences will be discussed in the paper.
11.00 - 11.30: Gunnstein Akselberg: Names composed in -staðir in Shetland and Western Norway. Continuity or discontinuity?
12.30 - 5.30: Afternoon excursion (west mainland)
8.00 - 8.30: Katherine Campbell: 'Trowie' names
Abstract: There are a number of stories in oral tradition concerning the trows or fairy people in connection with the fiddle in Shetland. Many of these name the locations where the music of the trows was said to have been heard. In summer 2002 I visited the Shetland Isles to take photographs of these locations, which were primarily on the mainland but also on the islands of Fetlar, Yell and Unst. This paper will present some of these images along with their accompanying stories and fiddle tunes. It will also map the locations allowing us to see the distribution of them. The paper will conclude by discussing the types of locations where trowie music was most likely to be have been found.
Tuesday 8 April
9.00 - 11.00: Visit to Clickhimin Broch/ Shetland Museum
Those who are staying on for one more day will depart for a full-day tour to the north mainland and the Northern Isles of Yell and Unst on Tuesday and will visit Clickhimin Broch/Shetland Museum on Wednesday 9 April.
Scottish Place-Name Society: Doreen Waugh
Society for Name Studies in Britain & Ireland: Jennifer Scherr
NORNA: Michael Lerche Nielsen