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The Pentland PiratesThe Pentland Pirates
01/02/2007 12:09:00
GREGOR LAMB author of the highly-praised new book 'The Place-Names of South Ronaldsay and Burray,' delves into the Sagas to find pirates of old in Swona.
WRITERS who draw our attention to the saga age of Orkney history make frequent mention of Orphir, Birsay, Kirkwall and the area around the Bay of Firth, but I cannot recall seeing very much written about South Ronaldsay; so today we shall try to redress that balance. Straddling as it does the Orkney and Caithness parts of the Norse domain and with a share of Hoxa Sound, the preferred entrance to Scapa Flow, it stands to reason that it must have played a significant part in our Norse history and the Orkneyinga Saga gives us brief but tantalising glimpses.
When Earl Harald the Young was granted the Earldom of Orkney by King Magnus of Norway, to assert his right he first of all had to remove Earl Harald the Old. Accordingly he sent his brother-in-law Lifólf on a mission from Caithness to Orkney.
It says in the Orkneyinga Saga that Lifólf landed on the east coast of South Ronaldsay and climbed a hill where he found three of Harald's watchmen; he killed two of them and took the other with him for information. From this hilltop viewpoint he could see the Earl's fleet, most of them large vessels. With this intelligence he went down the hill to his boat and returned to Caithness.
He would have landed in Wind Wick and climbed the Ward Hill where he disturbed the watchmen. From that vantage point he would have had an uninterrupted view of Scapa Flow where the Earl's fleet lay at anchor. Although there are nine Ward Hills in Orkney, this is the only record in the Orkneyinga Saga of watchmen in such a position. The word has its origin in Norse 'var_a', to defend.
Although there are references to the place 'Scapa' in the Orkneyinga Saga, there are no references to Scapa Flow as such, only to the many bays within it. One of the named bays is Barswick in South Ronaldsay where, at one point, we find Earl Erlend with his fleet of ships lying at anchor. By far the most interesting reference to this bay however is in its connection with Sveinn Asleifarson of Gairsay. After Sveinn murdered his namesake Sveinn Breastrope in Orphir, he took refuge for some time in a cave in Barswick in South Ronaldsay.
We cannot be certain that the coastline here is the same as it was in Norse times but if we can assume that there have been no dramatic changes, there is only one cave in that area where he could have hidden. It lies in Shortie Geo and we can say with some degree of confidence that this is where he took refuge.
It is said in the saga that whenever he could, he crept out of the cave and went to a house for food. He would not have dared to go very far. Would it not be interesting to assume that he took his meals on the site of the old house of Greenvale!
At this point we must ask ourselves the question, 'Why did Sveinn hide here? His domicile was Gairsay in the North Isles. He could not have any detailed knowledge of this part of Orkney. He must have had a very close friend in the locality. Who was he?'
These facts are interesting in themselves but by far the most significant entry relating to the Viking period gets the briefest of mentions and at that, a misleading one. It relates to the island of Swona which has always administratively been part of South Ronaldsay. It says that on the island of Swona at that time dwelt Grim, a poor farmer and his two sons Asbjorn and Margad.
Now the word used for 'poor' in the saga is ambiguous; it could mean that he merely had no sheep - the original meaning of the word 'fé-lítill' which was used. This is by far the most likely meaning, since the saga gives scant reference to the poor. Why can we draw such a conclusion? The reason is that scattered throughout the saga are little jigsaw pieces of information which when put together give us an undisputed picture of the lives of these men.
They were pirates. These men, like all Swona men would have been skilled navigators and since they lived in such a position probably made a good living from rich pickings in the Pentland Firth.
One can imagine them challenging the masters of vessels with the threat, 'Allow us to pilot you through at a price or if you don't we'll have your cargo.'
This assumption about their means of livelihood is borne out by the fact that all three, despite the bare reference in the saga were powerful and influential men. They were all very much in the mould of a close friend who happened to be none other than Sveinn of Gairsay!
We are told elsewhere in the saga that Sveinn gave Grim a gold ring for taking him from Swona to Scapa which was surely, in the context of the time, one of the most expensive ferry crossings ever!
The giving of a gold ring - even though it was probably looted - was a mark of great personal affection. No doubt it was the Swona men too who told Sveinn that the best place to hide was the cave in Barswick, and that there was a nearby farm where he would get food whenever he wanted.
When Sveinn fled from Orkney to escape from Earl Erlend, who do we find on the boat with him but Margad - and where did they end up but at the court of King David of Scotland!
Is it likely that King David entertained a poor man? They were given a warm welcome by King David but they did not tell him that on the way they had plundered the monastery on the Isle of May!
The king might have been expected to become very angry when he learned of this typical Viking raid on his subjects but on the contrary he said nothing and made reparations to the monks for their losses! This seems almost unbelievable.
The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Swona men and Sveinn were in the pay of the Scottish king, i.e. they did not touch Scottish vessels. If this assumption is correct we may draw another conclusion about the Swona men. Not only were they Pentland pirates, they were part of the Orkney mafia! No tears need be shed for these 'poor' early inhabitants of Swona!
There is an interesting postscript to this interpretation of the saga. On 22nd April 1889, George Petrie of Little Wart was cutting peat above Ourequoy in Burray, when he came across a wooden bowl, buried in the moss, containing tarnished pieces of metal and coins. It was later established that he had stumbled upon a Viking hoard which included torcs, armlets and tenth and early eleventh century Anglo-Saxon coinage.
Now there has never been very much deep peat in South Ronaldsay or Swona and so when Sveinn knocked on Grim's door one dark night and said, 'Beuy can yi tell me whar tae pit aal this stuff I hiv in the boat,' no doubt Grim replied, 'I ken a right fine piece whar nobody'll think o gan.' Nobody but George Petrie.