Scharf - Everywhere the Vikings Went, the Name Was Sure to Go

The connections seem to continue between Norse roots and the name Skarf, Scharf, Scharfe (arbitrary e added by my grandfather in Ottawa to distinguish his family from all the others around, and help out the post office), and other spellings.

See Surname Scharfe, Yorkshire, England - Vikings?.  It fits the history.  There are also many, many Jewish Scharfs we now find. 


See the reference at the localhistories site here to Viking conquest of Orkney. See ://www.localhistories.org/viking.html/; and throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, trading with the Byzantine Empire.  Now to look for Byzantine Scharfs. The name itself would predate the Middle German use of it; so we are not convinced the name was originally germanic; it went where the raiders went. And settled.  And intermarried. And simply took.  And slaved, and did what they did. Is that so? Would a slave or apprentice of a Viking take in any way the name of theViking? 

The Orkneyinga Saga - History of the Earls of Orkney

The Norse colonized Orkney, with Harald Fairhair. Read the history of the colonization from Norway at ://www.orkneyjar.com/history/vikingorkney/index.html. The Earldoms were established about 850 AD.

Beginning with 874 AD, read the list of the rulers of Orkney, known as the Earls, at ://www.orkneyjar.com/history/vikingorkney/earls.htm. That list stops at 1231, and another takes over, "the Angus line" until 1321. After that, the Sinclair line 1379-1471, see ://sinclair.quarterman.org/who/earls_of_orkney.html

Events of the earliest times: the Norse took Rouen, France (now) in about 841; and established a settlement at Dublin in 853. Great period of Norse expansion. In 885, the Norse besieged Paris. Read the entire timeline at ://www.orkneyjar.com/history/timeline.htm.

That Orkneyjar website is excellent - hop from one topic to another. Then, read details of the lives and deaths of the Earls (much murder) at http://www.geocities.com/missourimule_2000/earlsoforkney.html.

This brings us to the Orkneyinga Saga, an actual document that lays out the lives of Earls from 900-1200 AD. The places where events occurred are still traceable, and you can follow with your guide pamphlet. The Saga is also in paperback (://www.amazon.com/Orkneyinga-Saga-History-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140443835).

At the Bishop's palace in particular, see the corridor where the assassin ducked into the shadows in front of the group, then leaped in behind the Bishop as he passed, and then ducked aside again. The Bishop, as I recall, immediately struck the man behind him, thinking that was the assailant, and it wasn't.

There are some 14 Saga sites.

Layers of culture. Standing stones. Ancient: Neolothic, Picts, Norse, Scots.

Scapa Flow. These lovely waterways also were the scenes of World War tragedies - //www.orcadian.co.uk/features/20thcentury/7.htm- October 13, 1939. Scapa Flow, the anchorage thought to be secure, was breached by the Germans and a battleship, The Royal Oak, lost. I believe this is Scapa Flow, but there are so many waterways I cannot be sure.

The site says that the first German bomb landing on British soil was here, at Hoy, Orkney. The "Old Man of Hoy" is a famous rock seastack, a sole upcropping chimney in the sea. Do an images search, or go to //www.orkney-seastacks.co.uk/oldman.htm

All in a name: "Orkney" is also The Orkney Islands, or The Orkneys. See easy source for this kind of noncontroversial subject at //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_Islands. The Wikipedia site is an excellent information and photo overview.

Read the news and find that the communities that are near these ancient places face the same issues as more accessible places - see http://www.orcadian.co.uk/archive/index.html. Wind turbines, football, drugs.

Surname roots - skarf, scarf, scharfe, scharf, cormorant, iron-forger

Finding roots - recreation only. A birth name, Scharfe, with connections to the Shetlands and Iceland. See this fair-use quote (the whole thing is very long) at www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook.manxb. Do a search there for skarf. We had thought the name was somehow Irish, because in 1840, a Scharf pair (the e was later added for the convenience of the post office in Ottawa, Canada, to keep the households separate) came to Canada from Kilkenny.

"Scarff.Dr. Vigfusson suggests this name is probably derived (O.N.) skarð, ' a mountain . Then there is a reference to "see Gill"

SKARF is common in local names in Iceland, and we find scarf-gap in Cumberland, so that the surname may have been taken from one of the places so called. Other possible derivations are from skarði, 'hare-lip,' a nickname which was a frequent Danish proper name on Runic stones, or from skarf, 'a cormorant' which is used as a nickname in the Landndmaboc. The cormorant is still called the Scarf' in the Shetlands. SCHARF is found in the Hundred Rolls.

The name is now far less common.

MacSkerffe [1408], Skerf [1417], MacSkarff [1511], Scarff [1620]." [add Scaife? looks similar]

And another: ://www.northvegr.org/lore/landnamabok/019.php:

"45. This word Skard occurs often in the Book of Settlement and is worthy of special note as entering into the origin of many place names. Skard, as a common noun, means (1) a notch or chink in the edge of a thing, (2) a mountain pass, as in the phrase 'vestr yfir skordin' = west over the mountain passes; with this meaning it is used of the place names in the text, and also as the origin of many names in Iceland, e.g., Skard, Skord, Skardverjar = the men from Scard, Skardaleid = the way through Skard or the mountain pass (compare Scarf Gap, a pass in Cumberland). Skardsheidr, Skardsstrond, Vatnsdal's Skard, Ljosavatns Skard, Kerlingar Skard, Haukadale Skard, Geita Skard."

These quoted references are a small portion of the whole, so are fair use. If you disagree, let me know - not looking for difficulties and copyright is impossible to fathom.

For the Norse heading to Ireland, see http://irelandroadways.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html.

Standing Stones o' Stennis

Standing Stones o 'Stenness. See the Timeline that puts them at 2800 BC, at ://www.orkneyjar.com/history/timeline.htm. The pyramids in Egypt were constructed about 2700 BC.

Especially fine ones here, wild and lonesome vistas, as those on Harris, in the Hebrides. Orkney sites. Good overview at Standing Stones o' Stenness.

See World Heritage writeup at World Heritage.