The Orkney book: Readings for young Orcadians

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The Orkney book : Readings for young Orcadians by John Gunn is a regional educational anthology written in the early 20th century. Aimed at school readers, it blends local history, geography, natural history, and legend to root learning in the islands themselves, drawing on Orcadian experts and illustrated extracts. Its core focus is Orkney’s story from prehistory through the Norse earldom, alongside portraits of the landscape, wildlife, crafts, and lore that shape island identity. The opening of the collection sets a proud, homesick tone with a poem to the “Sons of the Isles,” then a preface stating its purpose: to begin knowledge at home, offer suggestive readings rather than exhaustive study, and acknowledge the many local contributors and patrons. A detailed contents map leads into brisk chapters on prehistoric Orkney—flint tools, chambered cairns like Maeshowe, brochs, and standing stones—followed by early glimpses in classical and church sources, Culdee traces in place-names, and the likelihood that Norse settlers met few inhabitants. It then explains the Viking world and the Sagas as key sources, and narrates the early earldom: Harald Fairhair’s reach west, Sigurd the Mighty and Torf-Einar, a violent “dark century,” Olaf Tryggvason’s forced conversion, and the battle of Clontarf. The section proceeds to Thorfinn the Mighty, the martyrdom of Earl Magnus at Egilsay, and Rognvald Kali’s vow to raise St. Magnus Cathedral as he moves to reclaim the isles, ending mid-plot with the clever beacon ruse.