Blog Post: Orkney and the Whale Road Chronicles -Tim Hodkinson
My generous host today set me the task of writing about why I chose Orkney as a setting for my new novel, Odin’s Game, and what my plans are for the rest of the series.
I’ve always found Orkney a fascinating place. Remote to modern, London-centric eyes but when the map is turned upside down and the clock rolled back by a few centuries, the islands lie at the centre of another ancient world, that of the Vikings.
The name of the islands itself is ancient and the many Neolithic and other prehistoric sites remaining there point to the importance of Orkney in the Stone Age. Several of these sites also have direct links to a later Norse age of Orkney’s history. The stunning Ring of Brodgar, a Stone Age henge and stone circle that sits on a ness between two lochs has stones dates to the Neolithic era. Some of its stones bear Norse runic carvings and local tradition says the Norse used it for their own pagan rituals. Maeshowe, a prehistoric chambered cairnsunk in a mound thought to date back to 2700 BC, also has inscriptions carved by Norsemen who took shelter there one stormy night millennia afterwards. This place inspired a scene in Odin’s Game which touches on the Orcadian folk belief in “Trows”, creatures whose name comes from the Norse Troll,but refers not to the gigantic creatures of Scandinavian folklore but to the local supernatural “little people” the Norse found when they arrived in Orkney.
The Vikings arrived at a time in the Eight to Ninth centuries now lost in the mists of time.An Icelandic Saga from the later Middle Ages (13th Century) known as Orkneyinga Saga,relates their history. It’s a fascinating tale in which legendary characters with names like Kari,Snaer, Logi, Frosti and Nor(Storm, Snow, Flame, Frost and North) mix in a maelstrom with semi-historical figures like Sigurd the Stout, “Turf” Einar and Thorfinn Hausakljúfr,“the SkullSplitter”. Thorfinn now has a beer named after him and his nickname proved too irresistible for me not to include a character inspired by him, though I chose to translate kljúfras“cleaver” which is basically the same word. Kljúfr perfectly illustrates how Old Norse and Old English were sister languages, and modern English is a hybrid of the two. Similarly the belief in Trows/Trolls illustrate the compelling blend of Norse and indigenous (call is Scottish/Pictish/British what you will) culture that Orkney itself represents, and what drove me to use it as a setting.
In Norse times Orkney was centred on a vast trade route that went in an arc from Dublin in the West to Hedeby in Denmark in the East and even beyond, past Novgorod and south as far as Constantinople. Norse traders and adventurers plied these routes in their longships, a network of sea lanes that they referred to as “the Whale Roads”.
Odin’s Game is the first book in a series called The Whale Road Chronicles. The story will follow Einar Thorfinnsson as he journeys across the Norse world, seeking to learn the truth about his family as he builds his power, skills and alliances so he can finally confront his ultimate enemy, the powerful and deadly Jarl Thorfinn of Orkney.
Odin’s Game is published by Aria Fiction and is available in ebook format from Amazon and through all the usual channels .
No comments:
Post a Comment