Undiscovered Scotland

 

"Lords of the Salt Road: The Norse Earls of Orkney and the Viking World" by Angus Konstam is a wonderful book for anyone who lives in or has ever visited Orkney and wants to gain a deeper understanding of what makes this special place so special. Scratch the surface in Orkney and it bleeds archeology. Some of it is very ancient, and some of it dates back to the wars of the last century. But a great deal of the culture and atmosphere of Orkney can be traced back to the four centuries during which the Norse earls of Orkney held power from here over a 500 mile swathe of territory that extended from the Isle of Man in the south to Shetland in the north.

The book is engagingly and accessibly written and you don't have to browse through the notes and bibliography at the back to realise that it is also widely and carefully researched. When you visit Orkney you inevitably bump into parts of the story told in this book, whether it's in the names of some of the inter-island ferries or in the story of Kirkwall's remarkable cathedral, and it is fascinating to be able to read such a compelling account of what actually happened during these centuries. Many of the stories from the age were recorded eight hundred years ago in the "Orkneyinga Saga", but as Angus Konstam says in his preface, there are lapses and gaps in the saga, and he has drawn on other contemporary sources in order to present a more complete and rounded picture.

The publisher's description gives a good sense of the book: "Lords of the Salt Road reveals the dramatic history of the Norse earls of Orkney, who owed their allegiance to the Kings of Norway and ruled their own semi-autonomous empire with lands in mainland Scotland and the Western Isles..."

"Drawing on contemporary sagas as historical sources, and capturing some of their spellbinding narrative drive, renowned historian and Orkney native Angus Konstam describes how these Norse earls and their followers led Viking raids around the British Isles and even further afield. For over four centuries their warriors and longships battled alongside Scandinavian kings and Norse rebels, and as Norse kingmakers these warlike earls sometimes paid the ultimate price for dabbling in international affairs. They were the key players in Viking Britain. Using a wide range of historical sources such as Celtic-Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon chronicles, this is a spellbinding tale of love, war, triumph, tragedy, treachery, murder, rebellion and greed."