The Northern Isles

Book excerpt: The Northern Isles stand at a crossroads of North Atlantic Europe, subject to the competing influences of Scandinavia and Scotland. Sandy Fenton's detailed study of the material culture of Orkney and Shetland is combined with thorough linguistic analysis and is based on years of study and sifting of a mass of detail. Much of the material is new, based on extensive research by the author, on manuscript and other written sources and on knowledge freely imparted by many local inhabitants. It illuminates the complexity of numerous interlocking factors, draws a picture of a fascinating and varied existence and reveals the past not as a static tableau but a process of continuous change. This book recreates the physical environment in which the people lived, their crops and livestock, the harvest of the sea, their houses, the food they ate. These things dominated their lives and form the background which is the key to understanding the character of these fascinating islands. This major work has earned its place as a key contribution to European ethnology and won the Dag Stromback Award of the Royal Gustav Academy, Sweden.