Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... THE OLD SHETLAND DIALECT. tunga," or "Danish tongue" was spread over nearly the whole north of Europe. It was not at all confined to Denmark: it was spoken in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), whose centre it was; it was spoken in Iceland, Faroe, Shetland, Orkney, to a great extent in the western Scottish Isles, the Isle of Man, and also to some extent in Britain itself--in part of Scotland, especially in the north and along the coast, in the north of England and part of Ireland, and finally along the south and east border of the Baltic Sea. It was the Scandinavian vikings who carried the Danish tongue so far: the Norwegians and Danes went west, the Norwegians taking a more northerly, the Danes a more southerly direction (in Scotland, and especially language called "Donsk A the islands north of Scotland, it was chiefly the Norwegians who settled; in England it was the Danes); the Swedes went more to the eastward and occupied f. i. the east border of the Baltic Sea, and even formed a little kingdom in the heart of Russia. I need not here say much about how Shetland was peopled, first by Picts, who came from Scotland, and then by Norwegians, especially those who at the close of the 9th century crossed the North Sea, flying from the tyranny of King Harald Haarfager and trying to find new homes. It is a general belief that the Norsemen extinguished the Picts in Shetland. But it was not the custom of the Norsemen to kill those who did not oppose them sword in hand -- at any rate, they would never have killed the women. And besides, we are not told anything about the Picts having fled anywhere from Shetland. There would be far more sense in tracing the un-Norselooking people in some of the more secluded districts of Shetland back to...
