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Maeshowe

Entymology of Maeshowe — discussed with experts

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BigSweetie B
BigSweetie May 3, 2005 21:38:28
Replying to follow that cow

> Also, the Orkneys were the vital stop off point on all travels west for the Vikings and I cannot
> believe that they would have asked permission from the indigenous population to allow them to
> use the islands on a kind of 'lease back' scenario.
>
> But there is a vociferous school of thought that argues the opposite, that the Orcadians and the
> Vikings coexisted in a mutually beneficial community.

well there are reports of Picts and Scandinavians working together to harry the Romans (and later the Anglo-Saxons) on raids into England, so i still have to go with the possibility of a friendly and gradual adoption of Viking culture

> I would guess that the distinctive Orkney accent should be attributed to the Norse influence more > than any thing else.

that's probably true, I was just thinking out loud really

Cheers
Andy S

P PeterH
PeterH May 3, 2005 22:01:13
Replying to BigSweetie

Yes I think the accent is based on Norse and I seem to remember that the DNA survey done in conjunction with "Blood of the Vikings" showed that there was a lot of Norwegian DNA in Orkney.

Norse settlement in Orkney was gradual but complete, but that doesn't mean that the indigenous people were exterminated there or anywhere else. Who are you going to get to work the land if you kill everyone? Landless men from Norway came over by the boatload, killed any men who looked troublesome, bedded the women and put the rest to work. Vikings were great slave traders too so would have exported any surplus human livestock especially to Iceland where Scottish and Irish slaves (thralls) were in great demand. Like white slave owners in cotton belt of USA - you owned the slaves so you could use them, dispose of them or sleep with them - and so the genes mingled.