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No third-party direct links in posts. Written web addresses instead. Regrets. Until the issues noted at www.bitlaw.com, in the internet and copyright areas are resolved (please, somebody - unleash the web somehow), we are not doing the blue underline quick-links.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Orkney; view near Kirkwall
Orkney view, near KirkwallOrkney, near Kirkwall.
Orkney views are not as rough as I expected. People said that the Shetlands were mountainous, but these are agricultural, flattish, rocky shale, and lovely, but not fierce. This is Norse by settlement, and many places have Norse names. In the tales of King Arthur, as I remember, there was King Lot and his wife, Queen Morgause from Orkney. Long way to Cornwall.
The area is some 70 islands in all. And the Neolithic sites inland are part of the World Heritage sights. Being off the usual tourist track means they are less well known, but probably better preserved. There are also artist colonies here - lovely silk screening, for example.
Kirkwall is another main city, in addition to Stromness. There is an airport there. A good website for Kirkwall is www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kirkwall/kirkwall/index.
More blogs about Orkney Road Ways.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Anchoring your road trips - Graveyards
What do you do when you land, with car, off a ferry in a totally unknown place. We aim immediately out of the town, to anywhere for coffee, a look at the guidebook, and any place names from family - graveyards. See Geneologies: Graveyards and marriage/ death records. See www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/OKI/ for Orkney records.
We were looking for distant relatives who lived here in the 19th Century for a time. We found them later at Sanday, but spent enjoyable hours in churchyards, up and down roads. There is a calming effect of graveyards.
Dr. James McConaghy: We were looking for family here, who moved from Scotland's in the 1800, the husband (a doctor), died, and the wife and children went to Australia. Trail then lost. We had not done any Orkney family-tracking source-work before leaving the US, however, because we never dreamed we'd end up here. So we did what we could by car, trooping around the graveyards and hoping to get lucky, rather than stay a day in records offices.
That was excellent. Graveyard wandering is pensive and the clues to life and death are like our own. Looking for names gave us exercise and gave us an anchor for stopping at every church yard we could - and strolling or running wildly through (if noone was around) to spot the names. One thing about driving yourself is this: you need to get up and run around.
We were looking for distant relatives who lived here in the 19th Century for a time. We found them later at Sanday, but spent enjoyable hours in churchyards, up and down roads. There is a calming effect of graveyards.
Dr. James McConaghy: We were looking for family here, who moved from Scotland's in the 1800, the husband (a doctor), died, and the wife and children went to Australia. Trail then lost. We had not done any Orkney family-tracking source-work before leaving the US, however, because we never dreamed we'd end up here. So we did what we could by car, trooping around the graveyards and hoping to get lucky, rather than stay a day in records offices.
That was excellent. Graveyard wandering is pensive and the clues to life and death are like our own. Looking for names gave us exercise and gave us an anchor for stopping at every church yard we could - and strolling or running wildly through (if noone was around) to spot the names. One thing about driving yourself is this: you need to get up and run around.
Ring of Brodgar, Standing Stones, OrkneyRing of Brodgar Standing Stones www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/stones.htm. For an overview of the islands that comprise Orkney, see www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usmapindexes/orkney. There is a map of the Orkney Islands there. Click on the towns and place names for the best overview.
These date from 2500-2000 BCE, see ://www.orkneyjar.com/history/brodgar/
We put the car on the Scrabness Ferry from Scotland mainland, and went the route past Hoy (that is a tall stovepipe stone formation called the Old Man of Hoy) to the town of Stromness. We had no reservations, so were on line at the ferry at 5:30 AM. Fun once in a while, and great food on the ferries. Huge breakfasts,with the addition of baked beans to the fried eggs, sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, breads. Big ferries, lots to walk around and see, or just nap.
Standing stones: if you get your pictures mixed, internet photos help identify. See that fine site for an overview of much of Orkney, at www.orkneyjar.com/history/brodgar/. There are some 27 of an original 60 stones originally set in the ground there, for more on the Ring of Brodgar. It is considered a "henge" because of the outer earthwork area, a large ditch. The alignments were important.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
World Heritage at Orkney
Overview: This is a World Heritage Site, see www.orkneyjar.com/history/worldheritagesite/index. Artists, sculptors, crafts. We missed the St. Magnus Festival, that started in 1977 by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, see Financial Times June 7-8, 2008, at page 12 Life and Arts section.
We thought we would see barrens and isolated people - not so. See also www.hi-arts.co.uk/Default. That shows artists in Orkney. The rest of the address is: aspx.LocID-hianewlx6.RefLocID-hiacg5002.Lang-EN.htm;%20%3Ca%20.
See also www.tcweb.co.uk/art-in-orkney/page1. for specific artists' works.
Orkney artists' colonies. Orkney silkscreening. St. Magnus. ://www.stmagnusfestival.com. See lovely silk squares, shawls, painters, sculptors. Programs encourage artists to settle there. Crafters: you will enjoy it here. See the variety of crafts at www.scotexchange.net/news_item.htm?newsID=39492
St. Magnus Cathedral - founded by viking Earl Rognvald in 1137, to honor his uncle, Magnus Erlandson, Earl of Orkney, see ://gouk.about.com/od/picturegalleries/ig/Orkney-in-Pictures/St-Magnus-Cathedral.htm/
We thought we would see barrens and isolated people - not so. See also www.hi-arts.co.uk/Default. That shows artists in Orkney. The rest of the address is: aspx.LocID-hianewlx6.RefLocID-hiacg5002.Lang-EN.htm;%20%3Ca%20.
See also www.tcweb.co.uk/art-in-orkney/page1. for specific artists' works.
Orkney artists' colonies. Orkney silkscreening. St. Magnus. ://www.stmagnusfestival.com. See lovely silk squares, shawls, painters, sculptors. Programs encourage artists to settle there. Crafters: you will enjoy it here. See the variety of crafts at www.scotexchange.net/news_item.htm?newsID=39492
St. Magnus Cathedral - founded by viking Earl Rognvald in 1137, to honor his uncle, Magnus Erlandson, Earl of Orkney, see ://gouk.about.com/od/picturegalleries/ig/Orkney-in-Pictures/St-Magnus-Cathedral.htm/
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Scrabster to Kirkwall.
Scrabster to Kirkwall. See map at www.orkneyjar.com/orkney/map. The benefit of a car.
Getting there - There is an airport at Kirkwall, see www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kirkwall/kirkwall/index. We went by car ferry from Scrabster, Scotland. See www.scrabster.co.uk/ for Scrabster. Scrabster is near John o'Groats, the most northern tip of Scotland mainland. John o'Groats corresponds in the north to Land's End at the south, the tip of Cornwall, England. Seeing the British Isles from literal top to bottom.
If you have no reservations for the Scrabster ferry, get on line in the car at the ferry about 5:30 A.M. We were lucky - fine, big ferry with full Scottish breakfast -- baked beans, eggs, meats, mushrooms, tomatoes, breads, porridge. We waddled off. On the way, the ferry passes the Old Man of Hoy - a big rock. There was an old magical battle fought at Hoy, where the dead were revived to fight again. See orkneyaccommodation.co.uk/old_man_of_hoy. There you will find the Old Man of Hoy. The formation is called a seastack - see www.orkney-seastacks.co.uk/oldman.
The Old Man of Hoy is a favorite for climbers, but you will be on your own. See www.readingmountaineeringclub.org.uk/images/Hoy/image. Climbing the Old Man.
For getting around Orkney without a car, see www.orkneyjar.com.
Getting there - There is an airport at Kirkwall, see www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kirkwall/kirkwall/index. We went by car ferry from Scrabster, Scotland. See www.scrabster.co.uk/ for Scrabster. Scrabster is near John o'Groats, the most northern tip of Scotland mainland. John o'Groats corresponds in the north to Land's End at the south, the tip of Cornwall, England. Seeing the British Isles from literal top to bottom.
If you have no reservations for the Scrabster ferry, get on line in the car at the ferry about 5:30 A.M. We were lucky - fine, big ferry with full Scottish breakfast -- baked beans, eggs, meats, mushrooms, tomatoes, breads, porridge. We waddled off. On the way, the ferry passes the Old Man of Hoy - a big rock. There was an old magical battle fought at Hoy, where the dead were revived to fight again. See orkneyaccommodation.co.uk/old_man_of_hoy. There you will find the Old Man of Hoy. The formation is called a seastack - see www.orkney-seastacks.co.uk/oldman.
The Old Man of Hoy is a favorite for climbers, but you will be on your own. See www.readingmountaineeringclub.org.uk/images/Hoy/image. Climbing the Old Man.
For getting around Orkney without a car, see www.orkneyjar.com.
Skara Brae settlement
Skara Brae. People there for 6000 years. Until you are there, it is hard to appreciate just how old the cultures are that still show on Orkney. Look at this timeline, and see that Skara Brae settlement and the standing stones of Stenness was there 500 years before the pyramids in Egypt.
See www.orkney.org/tradition/timeline for a view of the history here, stretching so far back. Go to www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kirkwall/kirkwall/index. for more on Kirkwall.
Get an overview of the historical sights at www.orkney.org/tradition/sites. See its museums at www.orkney.org/museums/index. Next time, I would get to the Orkneys fast, and spend a week there and on up to the Shetlands . See what we missed at www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/areashet/index. Shetland Islands. We broke our own rule. We saw a ferry sign to the Shetlands and did not hop on. No time! No time!
See www.orkney.org/tradition/timeline for a view of the history here, stretching so far back. Go to www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kirkwall/kirkwall/index. for more on Kirkwall.
Get an overview of the historical sights at www.orkney.org/tradition/sites. See its museums at www.orkney.org/museums/index. Next time, I would get to the Orkneys fast, and spend a week there and on up to the Shetlands . See what we missed at www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/areashet/index. Shetland Islands. We broke our own rule. We saw a ferry sign to the Shetlands and did not hop on. No time! No time!
Bishop's Palace - ruin with tales
A ruin not to miss. See the Bishop's Palace at www.orkneyjar.com/history/bishop.
This is a skeleton now, but one of the stories was a murder after services, where the assassin walked in front of the doomed after nightfall, in a small procession, and ducked into a wall cavity. As soon as the doomed man behind him passed(a King? A Bishop?), the assassin then immediately darted out again, stabbing the King/Bishop, and then ducked back again in the dark. The King/Bishop turned, and mistook the person behind him for the assassin, big melee and many deaths. Gives a whole scary flavor of reality to ruins.
There is a fine visitor's center with exhibits, and films. This was one of the stories, as I recall. Trying to find it and fix any wrong details. The fun of the research later.
This is a skeleton now, but one of the stories was a murder after services, where the assassin walked in front of the doomed after nightfall, in a small procession, and ducked into a wall cavity. As soon as the doomed man behind him passed(a King? A Bishop?), the assassin then immediately darted out again, stabbing the King/Bishop, and then ducked back again in the dark. The King/Bishop turned, and mistook the person behind him for the assassin, big melee and many deaths. Gives a whole scary flavor of reality to ruins.
There is a fine visitor's center with exhibits, and films. This was one of the stories, as I recall. Trying to find it and fix any wrong details. The fun of the research later.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
NORSE SURNAMES, The SkarfR. Old Norse Cormorants on Water, Cliffs, and in (family) Trees
Names. Important. Name a cow and she gives more milk, and those who study that fact get a Nobel Prize for Veterinary Science 2010, see ://www.vetsweb.com/news/ig-nobel-prize-naming-cows-raises-milk-yield-518.html/
Name us Skarf, as in the not-admirable Otkell Son of Skarf, and we look up more. The form SkarfR with the capital R at the end is also written in OW. Norse, Old Norse as Skarfr, and refers to skarfr -- "bird, green cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus)" Also found as scraef, or scraeb; see Cormorant entering the English language in 1320, ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_to_Old_English_vocabulary/.
In the Runes, it becomes, accusative case (this is not our field) skarf, or s:karf\; with the spaces, punctuation symbols and slash. Find it at ://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONMensNames.shtml/. Scroll down to SkarfR. Source there is given as NR s.n. SkarfR. NR means Lena Peterson's Nordiskt runnamnslexikon, a 2002 Dictionary of Names from Old Norse Runic Inscriptions, and see further identification at vikinganswerlady.com. The Nordiskt runnamnslexikon is not in English, so we are stumped.
It is also a by-name. Initial research is where the name, for us, ended up: In Ireland, see Scarf-Scharfe-Scharf. In Burnt Njall's Saga, where appears the in-admirable Otkell Son of Skarf, the motto on the old frontispiece for the Njall side is "But a short while is hand fain of blow." Fain means a warding off, a forbidding, contented, satisfied, constrained - not long before the hand blows yet again.
After that, a name that comes from Cormorant seems tame. It gets worse.
Skari is a young sea-gull.
Now we look at the Cormorant, with Skarfskerry just across the water in northern Scotland, the flat coastal farmland past the Highlands.
Cormorants have differing crests. They are black, a little coloring around the bill. The Phalacrocorax aurius has two crests, a double-crested cormorant. Those are little tufts that appear on the heads of both sexes in mating season These flourish in North America. They have taken over some small islands in Long Island Sound, and their droppings smother part of Maine. Poor snowy egrets, pretty as they are, find themselves pushed off. Bluefish and flounder numbers dwindle. It is a crime here to kill migratory birds, but folks have set out to do just that. A Michigan vigilante group killed 500, no action taken. There are indeed new rules now, allowing culling - read, egg-oiling and nest destruction.
There are 27-38 species, related to pelicans, frigate birds, anhingas - says March 2009's Natural History magazine, at page 255 (the source of the info so far). Richard J. King wrote it. Some cormorants can't fly - they are on the Galapagos. There are pygmy cormorants in Eastern Europe.
The Great Cormorants, like our double-crester: They can dive over 100 feet down in the water. In the Southern Hemisphere, they go down 475 feet. They build nests most anywhere - rocks, sand, you name it. They grunt. They do not sing.
Bible: I read that there is a reference to it as unclean, connected with death. Where? Or Milton, he writes of Satan sitting like a cormorant on the Tree of Life. Raven Ravenous. Shakespeare uses cormorant, the article in Natural History says, four times to mean "voracious."
But they eat less than a pelican; but their problem may be heightened visibility. Docks, bays, see them all over.
Name us Skarf, as in the not-admirable Otkell Son of Skarf, and we look up more. The form SkarfR with the capital R at the end is also written in OW. Norse, Old Norse as Skarfr, and refers to skarfr -- "bird, green cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus)" Also found as scraef, or scraeb; see Cormorant entering the English language in 1320, ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_to_Old_English_vocabulary/.
In the Runes, it becomes, accusative case (this is not our field) skarf, or s:karf\; with the spaces, punctuation symbols and slash. Find it at ://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONMensNames.shtml/. Scroll down to SkarfR. Source there is given as NR s.n. SkarfR. NR means Lena Peterson's Nordiskt runnamnslexikon, a 2002 Dictionary of Names from Old Norse Runic Inscriptions, and see further identification at vikinganswerlady.com. The Nordiskt runnamnslexikon is not in English, so we are stumped.
It is also a by-name. Initial research is where the name, for us, ended up: In Ireland, see Scarf-Scharfe-Scharf. In Burnt Njall's Saga, where appears the in-admirable Otkell Son of Skarf, the motto on the old frontispiece for the Njall side is "But a short while is hand fain of blow." Fain means a warding off, a forbidding, contented, satisfied, constrained - not long before the hand blows yet again.
After that, a name that comes from Cormorant seems tame. It gets worse.
Skari is a young sea-gull.
Now we look at the Cormorant, with Skarfskerry just across the water in northern Scotland, the flat coastal farmland past the Highlands.
Cormorants have differing crests. They are black, a little coloring around the bill. The Phalacrocorax aurius has two crests, a double-crested cormorant. Those are little tufts that appear on the heads of both sexes in mating season These flourish in North America. They have taken over some small islands in Long Island Sound, and their droppings smother part of Maine. Poor snowy egrets, pretty as they are, find themselves pushed off. Bluefish and flounder numbers dwindle. It is a crime here to kill migratory birds, but folks have set out to do just that. A Michigan vigilante group killed 500, no action taken. There are indeed new rules now, allowing culling - read, egg-oiling and nest destruction.
There are 27-38 species, related to pelicans, frigate birds, anhingas - says March 2009's Natural History magazine, at page 255 (the source of the info so far). Richard J. King wrote it. Some cormorants can't fly - they are on the Galapagos. There are pygmy cormorants in Eastern Europe.
The Great Cormorants, like our double-crester: They can dive over 100 feet down in the water. In the Southern Hemisphere, they go down 475 feet. They build nests most anywhere - rocks, sand, you name it. They grunt. They do not sing.
Cormorant. There goes one. Look left. Bible: I read that there is a reference to it as unclean, connected with death. Where? Or Milton, he writes of Satan sitting like a cormorant on the Tree of Life. Raven Ravenous. Shakespeare uses cormorant, the article in Natural History says, four times to mean "voracious."
But they eat less than a pelican; but their problem may be heightened visibility. Docks, bays, see them all over.
NORSE SURNAMES. Scharf - Everywhere the Vikings Went. Scharfe, Skarfr. Cormorant, and Construction roots, Scarff, sgarbh
Norse roots elsewhere: The cormorant, and construction.
See Ireland, where Sgeir nan Sgarbh, or "skerry of the cormorants", is the Gaelic with the Norse root skarfr. See: A New History of Ireland, at //books.google.com/books?id=SJSDj1dDvNUC&pg=PA632&lpg=PA632&dq=cormorant+in+old+norse&source=bl&ots=Z-SDPG11yu&sig=DuZ6nziQ45ye9TdRW8o6ShyXqpw&hl=en&ei=JzkSTNigB8H7lweF6pjyBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false/.
Skarf, scarf. Etymology Old Norse, see Etymology Online Dictionary: Another root line -- construction, not cormorant: good nest-builders?
The connections seem to continue between Norse roots and the name Skarf, Scharf, Scharfe. The ending "e" is arbitrary, added by my grandfather in 1890 or so in Ottawa where the family farms were, to distinguish his line from all the others relatives around, and so 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 the Viking?
See the wingspan of the name - at Scarff spelling form, ://www.ancestry.com/facts/scarff-family-history.ashx/ and ://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.scarff/25/mb.ashx/.
See Ireland, where Sgeir nan Sgarbh, or "skerry of the cormorants", is the Gaelic with the Norse root skarfr. See: A New History of Ireland, at //books.google.com/books?id=SJSDj1dDvNUC&pg=PA632&lpg=PA632&dq=cormorant+in+old+norse&source=bl&ots=Z-SDPG11yu&sig=DuZ6nziQ45ye9TdRW8o6ShyXqpw&hl=en&ei=JzkSTNigB8H7lweF6pjyBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false/.
Skarf, scarf. Etymology Old Norse, see Etymology Online Dictionary: Another root line -- construction, not cormorant: good nest-builders?
"connecting joint," 1276, probably from O.N. skarfr "nail for fastening a joint." A general North Sea Gmc. ship-building word (cf. Du. scherf, Swed. skarf, Norw. skarv), the exact relationship of all these is unclear. Also borrowed into Romanic (cf. Fr. écart, Sp. escarba); perhaps ult. from P.Gmc. *skerf-, *skarf- (cf. O.E. sceorfan "to gnaw, bite").
The connections seem to continue between Norse roots and the name Skarf, Scharf, Scharfe. The ending "e" is arbitrary, added by my grandfather in 1890 or so in Ottawa where the family farms were, to distinguish his line from all the others relatives around, and so help out the post office), and other spellings.
See
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 the Viking?
See the wingspan of the name - at Scarff spelling form, ://www.ancestry.com/facts/scarff-family-history.ashx/ and ://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.scarff/25/mb.ashx/.
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