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 the Saintes

April 12^th, 1782 saw English Admiral George Rodney defeat a French fleet under the command of Comte de Grasse in the West Indies.  As published in Chambers’ “Book of Days”, fighting began about seven AM.  The French had fewer ships, but larger and more powerful.  The battle took nearly half a day, ending with an English victory that was a blow to French naval power in the region.  It also saved Jamaica from French invasion.

Admiral Rodney figures in the development of Walter Scott’s “The Pirate”, if the quote from Scott’s friend Will Clerk is accurate.  The quote is found in John Gibson Lockhart’s “Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott”.

‘When, many years afterwards, Clerk read The Pirate, he was startled by the resurrection of a hundred traits of the tabletalk of this lugger; but the author has since traced some of the most striking passages in that novel to his recollection of the almost childish period when he hung on his own brother Robert’s stories about Rodney’s battles and the haunted keys of the West Indies.’

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).

Longitude

English clockmaker John Harrison was born March 24, 1693.  Harrison solved a problem that mariners had faced since the beginning of sea-travel; being able to establish an east-west, or longitudinal position.  Dava Sobel's book on the topic is worth the read.  Sir Walter Scott uses the term longitude to add some color to "The Pirate":

'Amongst others, the little bard, who had now got next to our friend Mordaunt Mertoun, evinced a positive determination to commence and conclude, in all its longitude and latitude, the story of his introduction to glorious John Dryden; and Triptolemus Yellowley, as his spirits arose, shaking off a feeling of involuntary awe, with which he was impressed by the opulence indicated in all he saw around him, as well as by the respect paid to Magnus Troil by the assembled guests, began to broach, to the astonished and somewhat offended Udaller, some of those projects for ameliorating the islands, which he had boasted of to his fellow travellers upon their journey of the morning...'

Drake Norris Expedition

'...But war was again raging, the history of Sir Francis Drake, Captain Morgan, and other bold adventurers, an account of whose exploits he had purchased from Bryce Snailsfoot, had made much impression on his mind, and the ofl'er of Captain Cleveland to take him to sea, frequently recurred to him, although the pleasure of such a project was somewhat damped by a doubt, whether, in ihe long run, he should not find many objections to his proposed commander. Thus much he already saw, that he was opinionative, and might probably prove arbitrary; and thai, since even his kindness was mingled with an assumption of superiority, his occasional displeasure might contain a great deal more of that disagreeable ingredient than could be palatable to those who sailed under him. And yet, after counting nll risks, could his father's consent be obtained, with what pleasure, he thought, would he embark in quest of new scenes and strange adventures, in which he proposed to himself to achieve such deeds as should be the theme of many a tale to the lovely sisters of Burgh-Westra—tales at which Minna should weep, and Brenda should smile, and both should marvel!...'

Part of the history of Sir Francis Drake alluded to in Walter Scott's "The Pirate" (above) was an attempted invasion of Spain in 1589, the year after the Spanish Armada was defeated by the English.  Drake led this expedition, which had a primary aim of sinking the survivors of the Armada.  There was also to be an invasion at Lisbon led by Sir John Norreys (Norris).

In "Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography" by Hans P. Kraus, a view of the financing for this expedition is provided.  It shows funding provided by Queen Elizabeth (£16k), Drake and other "adventurers" (£10k combined).  The document, which is dated December 17, 1588, was saved by diarist John Evelyn, and is available for online viewing at the Library of Congress Rare Books Reading Room http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-9-begoftheend.html.

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".

Huntly Burn

July 12 (1827).—Unpacking and arranging; the urchins are stealing the cherries in the outer garden. But I can spare a thousand larch-trees to put it in order with a good fence for next year. It is not right to leave fruit exposed; for if Adam in the days of innocence fell by an apple, how much may the little gossoon Jamie Moffatt be tempted by apples of gold in an age of iron! Anne and I walked to Huntly Burn—a delicious excursion. That place is really become beautiful; the Miss Fergusons have displayed a great deal of taste.

Scott's journal entry above leads us to a follow up diary entry written by Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, who was a Scottish politician after Scott passed on (Duff lived: 1829-1906).  The publication is titled "Notes from a Diary, 1892-1895".  Duff must have been a Walter Scott fan.  The Huntly Burn house was once owned by Scott.  It was known as Toftfield House, when Scott purchased it in 1817.  Duff visited Huntly Burn in 1893, commenting:

(August) 28. Drove over to Huntly Burn on the other side of Melrose, where a cricket match was going on. Mrs. Kerr, who lives there, took me up to see the house where Sir Adam Fergusson lived in the days of Sir Walter, who gave the place its present name. Much of the building, as it now stands, was added by Mr. Hope Scott. Thence we went on to Chiefswood, which has also been much added to, but which in its earlier day was inhabited by Lockhart and his wife.


My guide pointed out the window of the room in which The Pirate was written, and then took me to the opening of Rhymer's Glen, where Thomas of Ercildoun, a fragment of whose ruined and ivy-clad 1893 HUNTLY BURN tower is still to be seen in the village of Earlston, had his interview with the Queen of the Fairies.


I walked up as far as the second of the two small bridges which span the stream, accurately described by Scott, not as a brook but as a runnel; then gathered some Enchanter's Nightshade with several sprigs of yew, and returned, meeting on my way back a son of Mrs. Maxwell Scott's, whom Lady Reay had sent to rescue me from the spirits of the place, and who told me that his mother, who is still living near Dresden, had almost finished an account of Mary Stuart's last days at Fotheringay.

Photo Credit: Walter Baxter:

Walter Baxter / CC BY-SA 2.0

Lord Byron's Death

The rock star of his generation, George Gordon Byron died on April 19, 1824.  Byron's meeting and friendship with Walter Scott was covered in an earlier post.  One of Lord Byron's main contributions to literature was the idea of the Byronic hero; the flawed hero.  Scott employed this notion in his characterization of Captain Cleveland in his novel "The Pirate".

On Byron's death, Scott wrote a piece titled "A Character of Lord Byron", which was published in "The Life and Genius of Lord Byron" by Cosmo Gordon:

Amidst the general calmness of the political atmosphere, we have been stunned from another quarter by one of those death-notes which are pealed at intervals, as from an archangel's trumpet, to awaken the soul of a whole people at once. Lord Byron, who has so long and so amply filled the highest place in the public eye, has shared the lot of humanity His Lordship died at Missolonghi on the 19th of April. That mighty genius which walked amongst men as something superior to ordinary mortality , and whose powers were beheld with wonder, and something approaching to terror, as if we knew not whether they were of good or of evil, is laid as soundly to rest as the poor peasant whose ideas never went beyond his daily task. The voice of just blame and of malignant censure are at once silenced; and we feel almost as if the great luminary of heaven had suddenly disappeared from the sky, at the moment when every telescope was levelled for the examination of the spots which dimmed its brightness. It is not now the question what were Byron's faults, what his mistakes? but how is the blank which he has left in British literature to be filled up? Not, we fear, in one generation, which, among many highly gifted persons, has produced none who approach Byron in originality, the first attribute of genius. Only thirty seven years old: — so much already done for immortality,—so much time remaining, as it seems to us short-sighted mortals, to maintain and to extend his fame, and to atone for errors in conduct and levities in composition; who will not grieve that such a race has been shortened, though not always keeping the straight-path — such a light extinguished, though sometimes flaming to dazzle and to bewilder ? One word on this ungrateful subject ere we quit it for ever.



The errors of Lord Byron arose neither from depravity of heart,— for nature had not commited the anomaly of uniting to such extraordinary talents an imperfect moral sense, — nor from feelings dead to the admiration of virtue. No man had ever a kinder heart for sympathy, or a more open hand for the relief of distress; and no mind was ever more formed for the enthousiastic admiration of noble actions, providing he was convinced that the actors had proceeded upon disinterested principles. Lord Byron was totally free from the curse and degradation of literature, — its jealousies, we mean, and its envy. But his wonderful genius was of a nature which disdained restraint even when restraint was most wholesome. When at school, the tasks in which he excelled were those only which he undertook voluntarily ; and his situation as a young man of rank , with strong passions, and in the uncontrolled enjoyment of a considerable fortune, added tho that impatience of strictures or coercion which was natural to him. As an author, he refused to plead at the bar of criticism; as a man, he would not submit to be morally amenable to the tribunal of public opinion. Remonstrances from a friend, of whose intentions and kindness he was secure, had often great weight with him; but there were few who could venture on a task so difficult. Reproof he endured with impatience, and reproach hardened him in his error, — so that he often resembled the gallant war-steed, who rushes forward on the steel that wounds him. In the most painful crisis of his private life, he evinced this irritability and impatience of censure in such a degree, as almost to resemble the noble victim of the bull-fight, which is more maddened by the squibs, darts, and petty annoyances of the unworthy crowds beyond the lists, than by the lance of his nobler, and, so to speak, his more legitimate antagonist. In a word , much of that in which he erred was in bravado and scorn of his censors, and was done with the motive of Dryden's despot,



« To show his arbitrary power. »


It is needless to say that his was a false and prejudiced view of such a contest; and if the Noble Bard gained a sort of triumph, by compelling the world to read his poetry, though mixed with baser matter, because it was his, he grave in return an unworthy triumph lo the unworthy, besides deep sorrow to those whose applause, in his cooler moments , he most valued.


It was the same with his politics, which on several occasions assumed a tone menacing and contemptuous to the constitution of his country; while, in fact, Lord Byron was in his own heart sufficiently sensible, not only of his privileges as a Briton, but of the distinction attending his high birth and rank , and was peculiarly sensitive of those shades which constitute what is termed the manners of gentleman. Indeed, notwithstanding his having employed epigrams and all the petty war of wit, when such would have been much better abstained from, he would have been found, had a collision taken place between the aristocratic parties in the State, exerting all his energies in defence of that to which he naturally belonged. His own feeling on these subjects he has explained in the very last canto of Don Juan; and they are in entire harmony with the opinions which we have seen expressed in his correspondence, at a moment when matters appeared to approach a serious struggle in his native country : —


« He was as independent—aye much more,
Than those who were not paid for independence

As common soldiers, or a common—Shore,

Have in their several acts or parts ascendance

O'er the irregulars in lust or gore,

Who do not give professional attendance.

Thus on the mob all statesmen are as eager
To prove tbeir pride as footmen to a beggar 1

We are not, however, Byron's apologists, for now, alas! he needs none. His excellencies will now be universally acknowledged, and his faults (let us hope and believe) not remembered in his epitaph. It will be recollected what a part he has sustained in British literature since the first appearance of Childe-Harold, — a space of nearly sixteen years.  There has been no reposing under the shade of his laurels, no living upon the resource of past reputation; none of that coddling and petty precaution, which little authors call « taking care of their fame. » Byron let his fame take care of itself. His foot was always in the arena, his shield hung always in the lists; and although his own gigantic renown increased the difficulty of the struggle, since he could produce nothing , however great, which exceeded the public estimates of his genius, yet he advanced to the honourable contest again and again and again, and came always off with distinction, almost always with complete triumph. As various in composition as Shakspeare himself (this will be admitted by all who are acquainted with his Don Juan) he has embraced every topic of human life, and sounded every string on the divine harp, from its slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones. There is scarce a passion or a situation which has escaped his pen ; and he might be drawn, like Garrick , between the weeping and the laughing Muse, although his most powerful efforts have certainly been dedicated to Melpomene. His genius seemed as prolific as various. The most prodigal use did not exhaust his powers, nay, seemed rather to increase their vigour. Neither Childe-Harold, nor any of the most beautiful of Byron's earlier tales, contain more exquisite morsels of poetry than are to be found scattered through the cantos of Don Juan amidst verses which the author appears to have thrown off with an effort as spontaneous as that of a tree resigning its leaves to the wind. But that noble tree will never more bear fruit or blossom! It has been cut down in its strengh, and the past is all that remains to us of Byron. We can scarce reconcile ourselves to the idea —scarce think that the voice is silent for ever, which, bursting so often on our ear, was often heard with rapturous admiration, sometimes, with regret, but always with the deepest interest:


« All that's bright most fade ,
« The brightest still the fleetest »


With a strong feeling of awfull sorrow, we take leave of the subject. Death creeps upon our most serious as well as upon our most idle employments; and it is a reflection solemn and gratifying, that he found our Byron in no moment of levity, but contributing his fortune, and hazarding his life, in behalf of a people only endeared to him by their past glories, and as fellow-creatures suffering under the yoke of a heathen oppressor. To have fallen in a crusade for freedom and humanity, as in olden times it would have been an atonement for the blackest crimes, may in the present be allowed to expiate greater follies than even exaggerated calumny has propagated against Byron.»


We were going to allude again this week to the question between Mr. Thomas Moore and the public, respecting the destruction of Lord Byron's Memoirs. We have received several letters expressing the extreme mortification of the writers on learning the fact, and venting their indignation in no very measured terms against the perpetrators. And we should not have concealed our own opinion , that, however nobly Thomas Moore may have acted as regards his own interest, his published letter makes out no justification either in regard to his late illustrious friend, whose reputation whas thus abandoned without that defence which probably his own pen could alone furnish of many misrepresented passages in his conduct; or in regard to the world, which is thus robbed of a treasure that can never be replaced. But we have learnt one fact which puts a different face on the whole matter. It is., that Lord Byron himself did not wish the Memoirs published. How they came into the hands of Mr. Moore and the bookseller — for what purpose, and under what reservations —we shall probably be at liberty to explain at a future time; for the present we can only say that such is the fact, as the Noble Poet's intimate friends can testify.



1 The hit about aristocracy smacks of the Baronet and Courtier; and the quotation upon which he founds it, is exceedingly unfair, since for this one stanza we could quote twenty out of the same poem full of the most contemptuous satire upon the upper orders , if indeed the whole spirit of the poem were not a better authority.

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).