Saint Olaf

‘The conscript fathers of Jarlshof, having settled their own matters, took next under their consideration the case of Swertha, the banished matron who had been expelled from the castle, whom, as an experienced and useful ally, they were highly desirous to restore to her office of housekeeper, should that be found possible. But as their wisdom here failed them, Swertha, in despair, had recourse to the good offices of Mordaunt Mertoun, with whom she had acquired some favour by her knowledge in old Norwegian ballads, and dismal tales concerning the Trows, or Drows (the dwarfs of the Scalds), with whom superstitious eld had peopled many a lonely cavern and brown dale in Dunrossness, as in every other district of Zetland. 'Swertha,' said the youth, 'I can do but little for you, but you may do something for yourself. My father's passion resembles the fury of those ancient champions — those Berserkars, you sing songs about.'

'Ay — ay, fish of my heart,' replied the old woman, with a pathetic whine; 'the Berserkars were champions who lived before the blessed days of St. Olave, and who used to run like madmen on swords, and spears, and harpoons, and muskets, and snap them all into pieces, as a finner* would go through a herring-net, and then, when the fury went off, they were as weak and unstable as water.'…’

Walter Scott managed to bring a saint into a book on piracy.  Saint Olaf was King of Norway from 1015 to 1030.  His influence on Orkney and the Faroes, where ”The Pirate” was set  is remembered still.  Olaf's historical range is wide, from the Baltic countries to England and Normandy (at least).  Samuel Pepys, a frequent source for this blog, is buried at Saint Olave's Chuch Hart Street, in London. King Olaf II Haroldsson’s beatification took place on August 3^rd, 1031, about a year after his death at the Battle of Stiklestad.

Battle of Carbisdale

April 27th, 1650 was a black day for the great Montrose, James Graham.  On that day,

the Royalist Montrose and a host of Orcadians, fighting in support of King Charles I,

lost the Battle of Carbisdale, to a Covenanter force led by the the Marquess of Argyll,

Archibald Campbell.  Montrose was supported by the Sinclair clan, and survived the battle,

escaping with the help of one of the Sinclairs.  Montrose surrendered shortly afterward to

Neil MacLeod, who sent him to Edinburgh to meet his end.

Another family name from the Battle of Carbisdale is that of Whitefoord.  In

“The Whitefoord Papers”, edited by W. Hewins, is found a description of Walter Whiteford.

‘…Colonel Walter Whitefoord, a stout and desperate man,  was one of the Scottish followers

of Montrose, many of whom were at the Hague in 1649. When the Commonwealth sent over

Dr. Dorislaus, the regicide, as their special envoy in April of that year, Whitefoord took part in

the scheme to murder him. On the evening of May 2, just as Dorislaus was sitting down to

supper, Whitefoord and five others burst into his room, and while some of them secured his

servants, Whitefoord, ' after slashing him over the head, passed a sword through his body.

He escaped into the Spanish Netherlands. He is next heard of with Montrose in Scotland,

in 1650. With Sir William Hay of Dalgetty, and 100 men, he was left in Dumbeath Castle,

when Montrose marched to Glenmtiick. After the battle of Carbisdale (April 27, 1650),

the garrison of Dumbeath Castle were forced to surrender, and were sent to Edinburgh…’

The Whitefoord family is one whose history Walter Scott drew on more than once in

his work.  The following comes from the introduction to “The Whitefoord Papers”. 

‘SIR WALTER SCOTT once apologized to the late Mr. Whitefoord for misspelling the family

name in the preface to the Chronicles of the Canongate. ' Dearly as I am myself particular,'

he wrote, ' in the spelling of my name to a " T," I had no right to treat your "O" as a cipher,'

and when he transferred the story of Colonel Charles Whitefoord, in which the mistake

occurred, from the Chronicles to Waverley, he took care to introduce the additional letter.

But the name is, in fact, spelt in at least twelve different ways in authentic documents.

Before the main branch of the family settled down to Whitefoord, the forms Quhitefurd,

Quhitefurde, Quhitefuird, and other variations, frequently occur. The first of the family is

said to have been a certain Walter, who, for his services against the Norwegians at the

Battle of Largs in 1263, received the lands of Whitefoord near Paisley, in the shire of

Renfrew. It is much more likely that Walter derived his name from the lands,

than that they were named after him.’

Feast of Saint Magnus the Martyr

"Bones of Saint Magnus!" said the Udaller, "I used to think I took off my can like a gentleman; but to see your men swallow, Captain, one would think their stomachs were as bottomless as the hole of Laifell in Foula, which I have sounded myself with a line of an hundred fathoms.  By my soul, the Bicker of Saint Magnus were but a sip to them!"

Saint Magnus's bones are believed to be in St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.  Earl Magnus Erlendsson's martyrdom is remembered on April 16, with the year being 1115, or 16, or 17.  Magnus was known for his piety.  He was killed in a dispute over sovereignty of the Orkneys.  Sir Walter Scott remembered Magnus in his novel "The Pirate" (text above).

John Rae

Orcadian John Rae was born on September 30, 1813.  Rae is known as an explorer of Northern Canada.  Rae traveled to Canada to work as a surgeon for the Hudson Bay Company.  While there, he met and befriended local Inuits, a connection which significantly contributed to his success as an explorer.  Rae has a strait, ariver, an isthmus, a mount, a fort, and a village named after him.  More importantly for Walter Scott's work, Rae had two older sisters.

Scott visited Orkney on his trip to the Northern Lights.  On August 16, 1814, he visited Clestrain House, which is where Rae was born.  While there he met Rae's sisters who, as explained on the Orkney Boat House website (http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/obm/index.asp?pageid=2659) became the models for sisters Minna and Brenda in Scott's novel; "The Pirate".

James III of Scotland

One of the most unpopular of Scottish monarchs, James III was born on July 10, 1451 or 52.  His reign is marked by efforts to expand Scottish territory, by injustice, and by infighting amongst his family.  Perhaps his most significant contribution to Scotland was the acquisition, through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark of Orkney and the Shetlands. 

James quarreled often, including with his brothers, Alexander Stewart, the Duke of Albany, and John Stewart, the Earl of Mar.  Scott treats these episodes, which serve to illustrate James' sense of justice as well, in his "History of Scotland".  It ended poorly for Mar:

...The king, on his part, resorted to diviners and soothsayers to know his own future fate; and the answer (probably dictated by the favourite Cochrane) was, that he should fall by the means of his nearest of kin. The unhappy monarch, with a self-contradiction, one of the many implied in superstition, imagined that his brothers were the relations indicated by the oracle; and also imagined that his knowledge of their intentions might enable him to alter the supposed doom of fate.


Albany and Mar were suddenly arrested, as the king's suspicions grew darker and more dangerous; and while the duke was confined in the castle of Edinburgh, Mar was committed to that of Craigmillar. Conscious, probably, that the king possessed matter which might afford a pretext to take his life, Albany resolved on his escape. He communicated his scheme to a faithful attendant, by whose assistance he intoxicated, or, as some accounts say, murdered the captain of the guard, and then attempted to descend from the battlements of the castle by a rope. His attendant made the essay first; but the rope being too short, he fell, and broke his thigh-bone. The duke, warned by this accident, lengthened the rope with the sheets from his bed, and made the perilous descent in safety. He transported his faithful attendant on his back to a place of security, then was received on board a vessel which lay in the roads of Leith, and set sail for France, where he met a hospitable reception, and was maintained by the bounty of Louis XI.


Enraged at the escape of the elder of his captives, it would seem that James was determined to make secure of Mar, who remained. There occur no records to show that the unfortunate prince was subjected to any public trial; nor can it be known, save by conjecture, how far James III. was accessary to the perpetration of his murder, which was said to be executed by bleeding the prisoner to death in a bath. Several persons were at the same time condemned and executed for acts of witchcraft, charged as having been practised, at Mar's instance, against the life of the king...

Prince Henry Sinclair Lands in Nova Scotia in 1398

"...This adventurous huntsman married Elizabeth, daughter of Malice Spar, Earl of Orkney and Stratherne, in whose right their son Henry was, in 1379, created Earl of Orkney, by Haco, king of Norway. His title was recognized by the Kings of Scotland, and remained with his successors until it was annexed to the crown, in 1471, by act of Parliament. In exchange for this earldom, the castle and domains of Ravenscraig, or Ravensheuch, were conferred on William Saintclair, Earl of Caithness " (Scott).

From the notes to Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel", which contains several St. Clair references.

Not all are convinced that Prince Henry Sinclair's voyage to what later became America occurred, but today, June 2, in 1398, is the date credited with Prince Henry's landing at Chadebucto Bay (now Trin Bay), in Nova Scotia (http://sinclair.quarterman.org/timeline.html).

Orkney and the Shetlands Annexed by Scotland

On February 20, 1472, Scotland annexed the Orkney and Shetland Islands from Norway.  The annexation occurred due to Norwegian King Christian I pledging the islands against a dowry for his daughter's marriage to King James III.

Annexation, as passed by Parliament (on the date above), formalized the transfer of power from Earl William Sinclair to Scotland, in exchange for the castle and lands of Ravenscraig in Fife.  The Sinclairs had been Earls of Orkney since 1379, when Henry Sinclair, Baron of Roslin gained the title over two rival claimants.  Henry has been the subject of much recent attention over a possible voyage taken to the New World nearly a century before Columbus' visit.  Earl William built Roslin Chapel.

Walter Scott visited the Orkney Islands and the Shetlands as part of his trip with the Northern Lighthouse Service in 1814, using these islands as setting for "The Pirate".  The pirate character is taken from several real accounts of John Gow, who was executed in 1725 (covered by Daniel DeFoe).

Washington Irving

Author Washington Irving passed on November 28, 1859. Irving was the son of William Irving, originally from Orkney, who arrived in Manhattan with his English wife Sarah Sanders about 1763. Washington was born in April of 1783, just as the Revolutionary War was ending. Irving is named for American hero General George Washington. Irving's last contribution as a writer was his five volume "Life of George Washington" (1855-1859).

Irving is probably best known for his stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories appeared in his "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (the Sketch Book)". This work was published in London, and became enormously popular with Europeans. Publication was facilitated by Sir Walter Scott.

Irving met Scott in 1817 through an introduction by author Thomas Campbell. Scott wrote to Campbell afterwards to thank him for one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances he had met in many a day. When Irving couldn't find a publisher for his "Sketch Book", Scott introduced him to his publisher John Murray, who gave Irving L200 for the copyright, later doubling that figure.