caithness-1911/05_029

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS, ETC., IN COUNTY OF CAITHNESS. -- xxvii

a powerful fleet, and subdued the northern and western isles, con-
ferring on Rognvald, Earl of Moeri, the isles of Orkney and Shetland,
with the title of Earl of Orkney. Rognvald made over his new
possessions to his brother Sigurd; Sigurd, allying himself with
Thorstein the Red, son of Olaf the White, king of Dublin, crossed
to the mainland, and, subduing the Catti who occupied Caithness and
Sutherland as far south as Ekkialsbakki, now identified as the Oykel,
added their lands to the earldom. Throughout the period of the
Norse Earldom, however, the dominion of the king of Scots in regard
to Caithness was probably never relinquished, and it appears to have
received early acknowledgment. The Norse udal system of tenure
was productive of much ill-will between the joint holders of the
earldom, and appeals for support to the king of Scots, from one or
other of the rivals, occur from an early date. Sigurd the Stout, who
fell at Clontarf in 1014, married a daughter of Malcom II,. and
many other blood ties were doubtless formed between the two races.
Duncan, the native maormor or chief, is mentioned in the Orkneyinga
Saga as marrying the daughter of Thorstein the Red, about the year
875 A.D., and one Maddad is referred to as "appointed over Caithness
by the king of Scots" nearly 200 years later.
To the end of the 10th century the Norsemen still retained their
pagan faith, but there is no record to show that they interfered with
the Celtic church in Caithness. In the year 995, Olaf Trygvison,
who had established the Christian religion in Norway, encountering
Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, as he returned from a cruise in the western
seas, forced him to accept the faith. Earl Sigurd, however, a convert
by compulsion, retained a lingering affection for his old belief till his
death in 1014. This year may thus be taken to mark the termina-
tion of the pagan period of the Norse rule in Caithness.
The date of the foundation of the bishopric is unknown, but it is
assumed that Andrew, who received a grant of land from King David
in 1153, was the first bishop. The see included Sutherland as well
as Caithness, and the cathedral church was at Dornoch, where, as well
as at Halkirk and Scrabster, the bishop had a residence.
With the murder of Earl John in 1231, while taking refuge at
Thurso, in the cellar of an inn which had been set on fire, there ended
the line of the Norwegian earls who, for a period of 350 years, had
ruled Orkney and Caithness. The tale of their rule may be read in
the graphic narrative of the Orkneyinga Saga, believed to have been
written in the 13th century by Biarni Kolbeinson, Bishop of Orkney
from 1188 - 1223 A.D.
The Scandinavian influence on the topography and ethnology of
the county has left its impress to a remarkable degree, though the
absence of any peculiar system of tenure, or of customs of Scandi-
navian origin, such as are to be found in the neighbouring islands,
tends to show that the Norwegian occupation did not imply the
extirpation or eviction of the older inhabitants. The Celtic influence
still remains predominant in the west and southwest, while an
imaginary line drawn from the north of the Forss Water southwards
to Latheron, roughly divides the areas of the Celtic and Scandinavian
place-names.
There are in Caithness no remains of churches of distinctly Norse
type, though the chapel and hospital dedicated to St Magnus may