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considerable relics of Norse language and folklore
have been recognised in the islands.[1]
One curious survival is the sea-language (noticed by the late
Karl Blind, in Saga-book of the Viking Club, i., p. 163)
by which, for example, at sea a church is called a
"bell-house," the sea is named as "holy toyt," and
a cat is spoken of as "footie," "snistal," or "vanega."
Perhaps we need not accept Dr. Blind’s suggestion
that the last word means Vanadis and relates to
Freyja ; nor is it quite certain that the rhyme he
collected–"Nine days he hang fra de rütless tree,"
etc.–is a survival, through nearly 1000 years, of the
famous lines of Hávamál about Odin’s self-sacrifice.
But of all Britain, Orkney and Shetland are the
most completely Scandinavian parts, and the story of
the suppression of Norse life under Scottish rule is
still remembered as an ancient grievance :–"The subversion
of the native laws, the imposition of the
feudal system upon the odalism of the north, the
appropriation of the greater part of the land by adventurers
from Scotland–in short, the ruin of the native race"
(Gilbert Goudie, Antiquities of Shetland, p. 214).
The old system in Shetland was that of
government under Fouds, Lawrightmen and Ranselmen.
The Great Foud (Fógeti) was the chief civil
official, appointed by the Crown, with a Lawman elected
by the Thing at Tingwall as legal adviser and judge
of assize. Parish Fouds were appointed by the
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