1883.] THE INDUSTBIES OF SHETLAND. 23 



THE INDUSTBIES OF SHETLAND. 



BY HENRY EVERSHED. 



iHE landlords of Shetland are generally Scotchmen, successors 

 to the feudatories to whom the land was granted two centuries 

 ago. I shall therefore commence this brief statement with 

 a short sketch of the history of the islands. All the historical 

 accounts of Shetland commence with Harold Harfager ; or, at any rate, 

 they soon overtake that fair-haired king, and invariably enlarge on his 

 career. 



While Iceland was being peopled by emigrants from Norway, 

 Shetland was being conquered and peopled by the same parent race 

 under Harold Harfager. There is a legend that the noble heathens 

 who then colonised the habitable strips and patches of the shores, ■ 

 found among their predecessors a certain number of Christians, as in 

 Iceland, where the Papce are said to have preceded the Norsemen. 

 The island of Papa in Shetland was perhaps the retreat of the last of 

 the original race, and their burial ground on their extermination. 

 The men who danced the sword dance before Magnus Troil and his 

 guests, were from Papa, and here and in Eoula there were, till lately, 

 a few remaining performers. 



Most of the existing names of places in Shetland date from the 

 Norwegian invasion. Haroldswick, in the north of Unst, is the name 

 of the bay first entered by the ships of Norway. Hermaness close by 

 is named' from Herman, a giant of that period. Vallafeld, Crucifeld 

 and Hanger Heag are other Norse-named hills in Unst, the latter being 

 a place of execution, while a heap of stones on a neighbouring peak, 

 marked the spot which the law allowed the criminal a chance of 

 reaching by favour of the spectators. 



But the principal court of justice was on the margin of a small loch 

 near Scalloway, at Tingwall, or the valley of the Ting, a name corres- 

 ponding to Thinga- valla in Iceland, and Dingwall in Scotland. The 

 site of the present church of Tingwall was the ancient sanctuary, or 

 refuge, of the criminal. 



It is impossible to keep Harold out of this narrative, since it was 

 his conquest which rendered Shetland a colony of Norway and a 

 Scandinavian earldom, held of the kings of Norway and Denmark 

 during many centuries, mortgaged at length by a king of Denmark 

 to Scotland, and finally accepted in 1468 by James III. as the dowry 

 of his consort Margaret, Princess of Denmark. 



The islands, having been annexed to the Crown, were granted %0 



