📚 Treasures of the Vikings - My new book is out on May 19th!
A Bifröst of a book that bridges Marvel, VIKINGS, The Northman, and academia, it pairs beautiful photos with the latest thinking on the Viking world, all written in an engaging and accessible style.
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Stenness: The northern lights over Stenness, May 2025. Three impressive uprights, originally a stone circle of twelve stones 30m diameter, in a rock-cut ditch like the nearby Ring of Brodgar. The enormous height and narrowness of the huge slab must be seen.
Those archaeologists are multiskilled!
Also in ch. 88 of #Orkneyingasaga in which the 'Saraceni' are said to be Máumet's heretics ('villumenn').
@dgplacenames.bsky.social P.S. the photo you posted is not clear enough to be certain, but I might go for the flat bit on land as perhaps distinctive when approaching by sea. Not sure how green it would necessarily have been 1000 years ago. Also, no sign of a skerry.
As regards Fleshwick, I'm guessing the phonology requires the fem. form but that does not seem to be a problem (see above). Is there a skerry (perhaps even a flat one) in the bay at Fleshwick? Or even a distinctive flat bit on land? Fieldwork is needed! 4/4
Not sure where CV's 'green spot' meaning came from. The Icel. diploma cited by @onp.ku.dk is pretty specific about the location which suggests to me that it might be a particularly Icel. meaning and that 'skerry' is the most common meaning. See Jakobsen for this word in Shetland place-names. 3/4
Both Fritzner and CV classify 'fles' as fem. The former only has the 'skerry' meaning, and this meaning is also very common in Norwegian place-names. Broderick does not seem to have looked beyond CV for his interpretation 2/4 www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegr...
Just a few thoughts. @onp.ku.dk has two 'fles' words, one neut. and one fem. The 'skerry' meaning is mainly attached to the n. form though they give one example under the f. form. There is quite a bit of back and forth between f. and n. nouns in ON because of overlapping morphology. 1/4
Photo of yellow crepuscular rays stretching down onto a puddle of yellow light on dark blue sea in front of the outline of a small humped island silhouetted against an orange stripe of sunset sky. In the foreground, bare trees are silhouetted against those pastel blue sea nearer the shore.
Sunset over Ynys Enlli / Bardsey Island just now.
Two VERY cool sonnets based on #Orkneyingasaga
💥 A Whole Lot of History 💥
📰 Tiberius carved as Pharaoh on newly-discovered stele 🏛
📰 Unexploded mortar shell from the Battle of Culloden unearthed 💣
📰 C6th Runic Gold Pendant found in Gotland Flowerbed 🏅🌷
📰 Northern Norway's Sutton Hoo ⛵️
open.substack.com/pub/historyh...
#JustAnotherManholeMonday A lovely circular Stanton with a cobweb designed grill. Southwell Road, Farnsfield, Notts.
Wensleydale Storm clouds are gathering
#ArtDD2026
Little #watercolour doodle
#YorkshireDales dales in the Dales
#fingerpost
@drrjwarren.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social
Forresten er det ganske mye slåsskamp og t.o.m. drap i forbindelse med drikkelag, av både orknøyinger og nordmenn. 4/4
Jeg har alltid synes det er morsomt, at i slutten av kap. 20 har Þorfinnr den mektige gjort det prisverdige å holde folk vekk fra puben ved å servere mat og drikke hjemme hele vinteren. 3/4
Men det er interessant at i kap. 57 sies det uttrykkelig at de (i Shetland) begynner først å drikke etter å ha spist (britene pleier ikke å spise før de har drukket). 2/4
Hm. @onp.ku.dk mener 'dagdrykkja' er 'morgenmåltid' onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php?.... Som kompromiss har jeg oversatt som 'morning drink' (typisk britisk ihvertfall på flyplassen på veien sørover!) 1/4
Thanks!
The liquorice now sounds very Icelandic! Don't know about the Opal Fruits....
@hildur.bsky.social can you help?
Love a good and/or.
Sheep stealing the limelight from #stile @lakesstiles.bsky.social
'Ida in an Interior.' (1897) Amongst his contemporaries, Vilhelm Hammershøi most clearly absorbed aspects of the style of Whistler; both artists worked in muted monochomatic tones, resulting in a style in which mood dominates subject.
Also shelters my shopping trolley from the rain. Win-win.
Hard to imagine keeping track of your numbers as you hurtle through the air! 🪂
'One one thousand', 'two one thousand', etc.
Mind you, here in central Nottingham I thought it was WWIII...
Many years ago, when they were talking of closing the line down, I thought I had better experience it while I could. I have no idea what the weather was like because there were only two passengers on the whole train, the cars were overheated, and I just couldn't keep awake and slept the whole way! 🚂
Apropos absolutt ingenting, har dere hørt episoden av Strid som handler om kong Sverres krangel med paven i Roma? open.spotify.com/episode/06kl...
And @abi-on-a-hill.bsky.social, recently of this parish @namestudies.bsky.social @uonenglish.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social
