Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 283
Christian sculpture in Norse Shetland
291
Old Churchyard, Edzell, Angus, Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. 92 (1958—59) 42—3.
Thomas, C.: Scultured Stones and Crosses, in Small, A (ed.) St Ninian’s Isle and
its Treasure (1973) 8—44.
Waimvright, F .T. (ed.): The Problem of the Picts. 1955. (Repr. 1980, Perth).
SYNOPSIS
This paper suggests that there is acceptable evidence for the continuation of
Christian sculpture and Pictish writing in Shetland in the period 800—1050,
which Professor Thomas did not consider in his discussion of the finds from St
Ninian’s Isle and Papil. Following her more recent excavations in Orkney Dr A
Ritchie has reopened the questions of cultural and physical survival of the pre-
Norse population in the northern isles of Britain, and of assimilation. A tenth-
century date has long been proposed for the Bressay cross-slab with its Pictish
inscription in ogam letters, which includes two Gaelic words, and one Norse,
and has uniquely : between the words as in runes. A fragment from Papil which
clearly resembles tombstones at Iona should also belong to that century. So does
the knot-design reconstructed in fig. 1, for it is only known otherwise from
a group of monuments in Scandinavian northern England. Its use of little bosses
is a link with the same area. Some ogam letters also survive on this stone.
Features of the sculpture from St Ninian’s Isle are reconsidered, and argu-
ments put for a date no earlier than mid-ninth century rather than before 800,
by comparison with Pictish sculpture in east-central Scotland and in Caithness.
Although the fine processional scene from Papil is older, it may also belong to
the ninth century. The writer agrees with Professor Thomas that, despite the
representation of a monumental cross, it too is in the east-coast tradition rather
than influenced direct from Iona.
ÚRTAK
í ritgerðini verður víst á, at nóg góð prógv eru fyri, at kristin myndaskurður
og piktiskt skrivikynstur hava hildið fram í Hetlandi í tíðini 800—1050. Hetta
tekur Thomas professari ikki við í síni umrøðu av fundunum frá St. Ninian’s
Isle og Papil.
Sambært sínum nýggju útgrevstrarúrslitum i Orknoyggjum hevur Dr. A.
Ritchie tikið upp aftur spurningin um fólkið, sum búði í bretsku norðuroyggj-
unum, áðrenn norðbúgvar komu, livdi áfram mentunarliga og í blóði og um
samruna millum hetta fólk og norðbúgvar.
Tíggjunda øld hevur leingi verið skotin upp sum tíðarfesting fyri Bressay
kross-steinum, sum við síni piktisku áskrift í ogam bókstøvum, ið telur tvey
gælisk orð og eitt norrønt og sum eindømi hevur : millum orðini eins og í rúnum.