Hall, Simon W. (2009) The history of Orkney literature. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2365/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The History of Orkney Literature Thesis submitted for degree of Ph.D. © Simon W. Hall, 2004 1 Synopsis: The History of Orkney Literature is the first full survey of the literature of the Orkney Islands. It examines fiction, non-fiction and poetry that is uncomplicatedly Orcadian, as well as that which has been written about Orkney by authors from outside the islands. Necessarily, the work begins with the great Icelandic chronicle Orkneyinga Saga. Literary aspects of the saga are examined, as well as its place within the wider sphere of saga writing. Most significantly, this study examines how the saga imposes itself on the work of the subsequent writers. The book goes on to focus on the significance of Orkney and Orkney history in the work of a number of key nineteenth- and twentieth-century figures, including Sir Walter Scott, Edwin Muir, Eric Linklater, Robert Rendall and George Mackay Brown. The Victorian folklorist and short story writer Walter Traill Dennison is re-evaluated: The History of Orkney Literature demonstrates his central significance to the Orcadian tradition and argues for the relevance of his work to the wider Scottish canon. A fixation with Orkney history is common to all the writers considered herein. This preoccupation necessitates a detailed consideration of the core historiography of J. Storer Clouston. Other non-fiction works which are significant in the creation of this distinctly Orcadian literary identity include Samuel Laing’s translation of Heimskringla; the polemical writings of David Balfour; and the historical and folklore studies of Ernest Walker Marwick. The study welcomes many writers into the fold, seeking to map and define a distinctly Orcadian tradition. This tradition can be considered a cousin of Scottish Literature. Although the writing of Orkney is a significant component of Scottish Literature at various historical stages, it nevertheless follows a divergent course. Both the eighteenth century Vernacular Revival and the twentieth century Literary Renaissance facilitate literary work in the islands which nevertheless remains distinctly independent in character. Indigenous Orcadian writers consider themselves to be Orcadians first and Scots or Britons second. Regardless of what they view as their national or political identity, their sense of insular cultural belonging is uniformly and pervasively Orcadian. What emerges is a robust, distinctive and very tight-knit minor literature. 2 INTRODUCTION From the middle ages onwards, the small north Atlantic island community of Orkney has produced or drawn to itself a remarkable number of highly successful literary writers of the first calibre. While indigenous Orcadian culture undoubtedly finds its fullest expression through the islands’ prolific literary art, there have also been visitors to Orkney who have found themselves compelled to write about the archipelago. Although many of the key local figures who have enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success furth of Orkney have themselves been the objects of extensive study, the continuities, progressions and reactions which exist within this community of writers have not been considered before. This, the first full survey of the literature of Orkney, sets out to consider their collective work and to chart the development of an independent island literature which begins in the twelfth century and continues into the present. Orcadian writing inhabits the intersection of three spheres - those of English Literature, of Scottish Literature, and of medieval Norse Literature. Orkney’s position as a medieval Norse principality or minor nation state poised at the epicentre of the viking sea routes has proved a durable element in the definition of her quasi-national cultural self image. Geographical distance from the centres of political power and a dividing line at 1468 - when Orkney ceased to come under Scandanavian jursidiction and was handed over to Scotland - have enabled a cultural identity which is neither entirely Nordic nor wholly Scots. In the period following 1707, Orcadian literary and cultural history follows a similar pattern to that of mainland Scotland. There is a slightly later “vernacular revival” of sorts in Orkney. This is followed by vigorous Orcadian participation in the twentieth century Scottish Literary Renaissance. There are also significant contributions to the literature of post-modern, post-war Scotland. The prose and poetry covered in this study comes from various stages of Orkney’s fragmentory history and there are certainly lengthy periods where literary output is scant or altogether non-existent. It is likely that a great deal has also been lost. The tradition described herein is not the product of a single language community. The language of Orkney’s early medieval literature is Old Norse and the great Icelandic chronicle Orkneyinga Saga belongs rightly in the Scandinavian tradition. It is included here, however, because of its central significance to the work of later, uncomplicatedly Orcadian writers. Indigenous oral material and some writing from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is in Orcadian Scots (which has a significant Scandinavian dimension). Most of the best known writing to come out of Orkney in the twentieth century, however, is in English. Despite these considerable discontinuities in history and language, unique and clearly identifiable trends and themes become apparent when this literature is granted the dignity of being considered as a minor tradition in its own right. If Orkney’s history has been characterised by turmoil and fragmentation, her insular geography has provided a stable and permanently defined local environment enabling her literature to thrive. While some of the writers considered in the present work are active at very different historical periods - in complete temporal isolation from one another, sometimes centuries apart - each artist is clearly and keenly aware of his or her predecessors in the islands. Close, insular, spatial proximity is the key to cross- fertilisation in this tradition. Continuities in theme and subject matter abound. Reactionary and revisionary approaches to material used by earlier writers are also 3 apparent. Cairns Craig has argued recently that “the nation need not be the defining boundary of significant tradition, even if we continue to use ‘tradition’ as a central concept in our critical vocabulary”1. It is but a short step from this statement to the hypothesis that a sea-girt island group like Orkney can become the locus for a literature of its own distinct character which looks simultaneously northwards to Scandinavia and southwards to Scotland and England. Centripetal connections across different historical periods and centripetal influences from three discrete traditions result in a literature which is independent in character and resists being drawn in by the powerful centrifugal forces of the Scottish Central Belt or the London/Oxbridge literary hegemony. The movement toward pluralism and literary devolution should allow this argument a fair hearing, and the degree of intertextuality between the writers considered herein confirms the existence of the tradition. There is no Orcadian drama as such. In a small community unable to provide large audiences, let alone sustain a professional theatre, this is to be expected. We cannot simply say that because there is so little Orcadian drama that an Orcadian literary tradition does not exist: this would be a pointless and defeatist exercise, measuring Orkney Literature against English Literature. This study focuses accordingly on poetry and prose. As well as presenting readings of all of Orkney’s major indigenous writers - Walter Traill Dennison, Edwin Muir, Eric Linklater, Robert Rendall and George Mackay Brown - and a number of less well-known figures, the work is unapologetic in drawing in literary texts composed outside Orkney, but which use Orkney as subject matter. Orkneyinga Saga is the prime example of this. Sir Walter Scott’s The Pirate (1821) is the second such text and is included here because it is the first novel to be written about the northern isles and, as such, has a pervasive influence on subsequent writings in Orkney. Margaret Elphinstone’s novel Islanders (1994) has arguably the most fragile Orcadian connection of all. Elphinstone is originally from Kent and her novel is set in Fair Isle, which is now part of Shetland. Islanders is also set in the twelfth century, however, when Fair Isle was a part of the Orkney Earldom, and the novel exhibits the influences of both Orkneyinga Saga and George Mackay Brown to a considerable extent, as well being at the same time a reaction to these predecessors. In our inclusive critical age, these texts have to be considered alongside those written from within the archipelago.