xxxviii HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



sense from the Norse name for Skye, viz., "Skid," which 

 means, literally, "a piece of board." In both cases, these 

 forms were obviously the Norse rendering of pre-existing 

 names.* 



The modern " Lewis " is not a corruption of the earliest 

 form of " Leodus " ; it is, in point of fact, its English (or 

 Welsh) equivalent. The name of the Pictish King Loth, 

 who is supposed to have given his name to the Lothians, 

 appears in the Welsh annals as " Llew," and " Lothus " 

 is thus " Lewis." Loth or Hlod, Leodus or Leod, Lloyd, 

 Ludwig, Louis, and Lewis, are all identical names. Is it 

 possible that Ossian's " streamy Lutha " had an existence 

 in fact after all, and that the Island of Lewis was the home 

 of the fair Malvina, Toscar's daughter ? The only other 

 place-name in Lewis which need be noticed is that of its 

 capital, Stornoway, and there need be little hesitation in 

 deriving it from the Icelandic stjbrna = to govern, and 

 vdgr a bay, thus denoting that the centre of the Norse 

 administration lay at Stornoway. 



"Harris" is unquestionably of Scandinavian origin. Just 

 as Birsay and Harray in the Orkneys formed, until modern 

 times, one parish under the name of Bergisherad (meaning 

 hunting-territory), and just as the topography of Iceland 

 furnishes similar examples, so were Lewis and Harris com- 

 bined during the Norse occupation, and known, probably, 

 by the appellation of Ljodusherad, the abbreviated form of 

 Lj6dus comprehending both. "Harris" is therefore a cor- 

 ruption of Jierad, and herad means a province or terri- 

 tory ruled by a hersir who was not only the hereditary 

 head of the community, but its "prophet, priest, and king." 

 In the charters relating to Harris, it is called " Ardmanach 

 in herag (a corruption of htrad) de Lewis," and occasionally 

 " Ardmanach de Lewis," the name " Ardmanach " 

 which was also the old name of the Black Isle in Ross- 

 shire being probably derived from the monastery at 

 Rodil. In the Red Book of Clan Ranald, Harris appears 



* The Sagas mention a place-name in Sweden named " Ljodus," but it 

 would be rash to assume that it had a common origin with " Leodus." 



