Before the Norse came to Orkney and took over the islands in the 9th Century, it was a successful, fertile land of the Christianised Picts. Taking over such a land of plenty with excellent sea routes back to their homeland and for the Western routes to Ireland was a non brainer. The Viking migrants farmed, traded and raided to support their lifestyle. The Orkney islands were changed forever as they eliminated the indigenous language and culture of the Picts.

According to new research by a team of University of Aberdeen archaeologists the Viking settlers in Orkney found that ‘the plough was mightier than the sword’.

Professor Marc Oxenham, from the University of Aberdeen, explained:

“Scandinavians who settled in Scotland and Ireland were immigrants into existing communities and had to negotiate their way into these communities, whilst colonisers of Iceland settled a previously uninhabited land and settlers in Greenland were concentrated in isolated communities with what seems little interaction with the native inhabitants of the island and in ecologically very challenging conditions.

“We found the demographic health of Viking settlements in Greenland was relatively poor. Greenland was a challenging environment in which to seek out a living, and the Viking settlements were eventually abandoned by the 15^th century AD.

“On the other hand, the research team was intrigued to find that the Viking communities that had settled in Scotland, particularly in the Orkney islands, had relatively good rates of fertility and higher rates of natural population increase.

“This suggests that a long history very effective of land management in Orkney – including the use of seaweed and manure, an increased focus on fishing, which along with evidence for good Pictish-Viking relations in the Orcadian Islands, likely contributed to a much healthier and vibrant community.”

I’m not sure the Christianised Picts would agree with that last comment but they had no choice when faced with the men and women from across the North Sea who came in increasing numbers and took over their farms.

“A Comparative Study of Norse Palaeodemography in the North Atlantic” is published in the Journal of the North Atlantic. It examined archaeological evidence for Viking cemeteries from both Viking homelands in Scandinavia and Viking colonising sites in Britain, Ireland, and Greenland in order to better understand Viking populations, their size and composition.

And, of course, it wasn’t just in Orkney:

Fiona Grahame

The Orkney News has a series of stories about the Norse Earls of Orkney including :

• Earl Thorfinn The Mighty
• Earl Sigurd I: The Mighty
• Earl Sigurd – ‘The Splendid Pagan’
• A Tale of Two Gunnhilds: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters
• Bishop William I, a ‘clerk of Paris’