His grey eyes danced. ‘We’ll keep each other warm,’ he assured me. ‘After all, we survived the ice-palace.’ He rose and took my plate. ‘Is this kettle for washing up, or for coffee?’
‘I don’t want coffee this late, but go you. The dishes can sit in cold water overnight, and the rest of the kettle’s for a hot water bottle.’
He pumped water on the dishes, and I reached into my berth and hauled out my bedding. I had to wriggle right into the forepeak to tuck the sheet and blanket around the foot of the v-berth, then try not to dislodge it as I wriggled back.
‘It’s a mad little house,’ Gavin said, watching me, ‘yet there’s a reality about it somehow. I wouldn’t have felt we were really together without staying here, on board.’ He smiled and put up a hand to smooth my hair. ‘All I’d planned for this weekend was going through the last of the apples in the loft, and starting to spread the muck-heap on the vegetable garden ... and instead, here we are.’
I knew what he meant. ‘I didn’t mean to see quite so much of mad opera singers. I thought I was only in for one performance, then doing some pre-sleeping, ready for the voyage.’ I filled the hot water bottle, and tucked it under the downie, impartially central. ‘Can you manage with just one pillow?’
‘I can manage,’ Gavin said. He reached out one arm, turned the lamp down and drew me to him. His cheek was warm on my temple. ‘Let’s hope nobody’s watching the mast.’
I’ll come unbidden, and stay as I please,
I’ll chain dee in misery, drag dee in mire,
Or make dee dat blyde at du’ll walk i da air,
For me du’ll clim mountains, or walk into fire,
But if I’m da right een, sic gladness du’ll see;
If du’ll bide in me, den I’ll bide athin dee.
A note on Shetlan
Shetland has its own very distinctive language, Shetlan or Shetlandic, which derives from old Norse and old Scots. In Death on a Longship, Magnie’s first words to Cass are, ‘Cass, well, for the love of mercy. Norroway, at this season? Yea, yea, we’ll find you a berth. Where are you?’ Written in west-side Shetlan – each district is slightly different – it would have looked like this: ‘Cass, weel, fir da love o mercy. Norroway, at dis saeson? Yea, yea, we’ll fin dee a bert. Quaur is du?’
Th becomes a d sound in dis (this), da (the), dee and du (originally ‘thee’ and ‘thou’, now ‘you’), wh becomes qu (quaur, where), the vowel sounds are altered (well to weel, season to saeson, find to fin), the verbs are slightly different (quaur is du?) and the whole looks unintelligible to most folk from outwith Shetland, and twartree (a few) within it too.
So, rather than writing in the way my characters would speak, I’ve tried to catch the rhythm and some of the distinctive usages of Shetlan while keeping it intelligible to soothmoothers, or people who’ve come in by boat through the South Mouth of Bressay Sound into Lerwick, and by extension, anyone living south of Fair Isle.
There are also many Shetlan words that my characters would naturally use, and here, to help you, are some o dem. No Shetland person would ever use the Scots wee; to them, something small would be peerie, or, if it was very small, peerie mootie. They’d caa sheep in a park, that is, herd them up in a field – moorit sheep, coloured black, brown, fawn.They’d take a skiff (a small rowing boat) out along the banks (cliffs) or on the voe (sea inlet), with the tirricks (Arctic terns) crying above them, and the selkies (seals) watching.Hungry folk are black fanted (because they’ve forgotten their faerdie maet, the snack that would have kept them going) and upset folk greet (cry). An older housewife would have her makkin, (knitting) belt buckled around her waist, and her reestit (smoke-dried) mutton hanging above the Rayburn. And finally ... my favourite Shetland verb, which I didn’t manage to work into this novel, but which is too good not to share: to kettle – as in, Wir cat’s just kettled. Four ketlings, twa strippet and twa black and quite. I’ll leave you to work that one out on your own ... or, of course, you could consult Joanie Graham’s Shetland Dictionary, if your local bookshop hasn’t just selt their last copy dastreen.
The diminutive Magnie (Magnus) may also seem strange to non-Shetland ears. In a traditional country family (I can’t speak for toonie Lerwick habits) the oldest son would often be called after his father or grandfather, and be distinguished from that father and grandfather and perhaps a cousin or two as well, by his own version of their shared name. Or, of course, by a Peerie in front of it, which would stick for life, like the eart kyent (well-known) guitarist Peerie Willie Johnson, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. There was also a patronymic system, which meant that a Peter’s four sons, Peter, Andrew, John and Matthew, would all have the surname Peterson, and so would his son Peter’s children. Andrew’s children, however, would have the surname Anderson, John’s would be Johnson, and Matthew’s would be Matthewson. The Scots ministers stamped this out in the nineteenth century, but in one district you can have a lot of folk with the same surname, and so they’re distinguished by their house name: Magnie o’ Strom, Peter o’ da Knowe.
Glossary
For those who like to look up unfamiliar words as they go, here’s a glossary of Scots and Shetlan words.
aa: all
an aa: as well
aabody: everybody
aawye: everywhere
ahint: behind
ain: own
amang: among
anyroad: anyway
ashet: large serving dish
auld: old
aye: always
bairn: child
ball (verb): throw out
banks: sea cliffs, or peatbanks, the slice of moor where peats are cast
bannock: flat triangular scone
birl, birling: paired spinning round in a dance
blinkie: torch
blootered: very drunk
blyde: pleased
boanie: pretty, good looking
breeks: trousers
brigstanes: flagged stones at the door of a crofthouse
bruck: rubbish
caa: round up
canna: can’t
clarted: thickly covered
cludgie: toilet
cowp: capsize
cratur: creature
crofthouse: the long, low traditional house set in its own land
daander: to traveluncertainly or in a leisurely fashion
darrow: a hand fishing line
dastreen: yesterday evening
de-crofted: land that has been taken out of agricultural use, eg for a house site
dee: you – du is also you, depending on the grammar of the sentence – they’re equivalent to thee and thou. Like French, you would only use dee or du to one friend; for several people, or an adult if you’re a younger person, it would be ‘you’
denner: midday meal
didna: didn’t
dinna: don’t
dip dee doon: sit yourself down
dis: this
doesna: doesn’t
doon: down
drewie lines:a type of seaweed made of long strands
duke: duck
dukey-hole: pond for ducks
du kens: you know
dyck, dyke: a wall, generally drystane, i.e. built without cement
eart: direction, the eart o wind
ee now: right now
eela: fishing, generally these days a competition
everywye: everywhere
faersome: frightening
faither, usually faider: father
fanted: hungry, often black fanted, absolutely starving
folk: people
frae: from
gansey: a knitted jumper
gant: to yawn
geen: gone
girse: grass
gluff: fright
greff: the area in front of a peat bank
gret: cried
grind: gate
guid: good
guid kens: God knows
hae: have
had
na: hadn’t
hairst: autumn, harvest time
harled: exterior plaster using small stones
heid: head
hoosie: little house, usually for bairns
howk: to search among e.g. I howked ida box o auld claes.
isna: isn’t
just: just
ken, kent: know, knew
keek: peep at
kirk: church
kirkyard: graveyard
kishie: wicker basket carried on the back, supported by a kishie baand around the forehead
knowe: hillock
Lerook: Lerwick
lem: china
likit: liked
lintie: skylark
lipper: a cheeky or harum-scarum child, generally affectionate
mad: annoyed
mair: more
makkin belt: a knitting belt with a padded oval, perforated for holding the ‘wires’ or knitting needles.
mam: mum
mareel: sea phosphorescence, caused by plankton, which makes every wave break in a curl of gold sparks
meids: shore features to line up against each other to pinpoint a spot on the water
midder: mother
mind: remember
moorit: coloured brown or black, usually used of sheep
mooritoog: earwig
muckle: big – as in Muckle Roe, the big red island. Vikings were very literal in their names, and almost all Shetland names come from the Norse.
muckle biscuit: large water biscuit, for putting cheese on
myrd: a good number and variety – a myrd o peerie things
na: no, or more emphatically, nall
needna: needn’t
Norroway: the old Shetland pronunciation of Norway
o: of
oot: out
ower: over
park: fenced field
peat: brick-like lump of dried peat earth, used as fuel
peerie: small
peerie biscuit: small sweet biscuit
Peeriebreeks: affectionate name for a small thing, person or animal
piltick: a sea fish common in Shetland waters
pinnie: apron
postie: postman
quen: when
redding up: tidying
redd up kin: get in touch with family – for example, a five-generations New Zealander might come to meet Shetland cousins still staying in the house his or her forebears had left
reestit mutton: wind-dried shanks of mutton
riggit: dressed, sometimes with the sense dressed up
roadymen: men working on the roads
roog: a pile of peats
rummle: untidy scattering
Santy: Santa Claus
scaddy man’s heids:sea urchins
scattald: common grazing land
scuppered: put paid to, done for
selkie: seal, or seal person who came ashore at night, cast his/her skin and became human
Setturday: Saturday
shalder: oystercatcher
sheeksing: chatting
sho: she
shoulda: should have
shouldna: shouldn’t have
SIBC: Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company, the independent radio station
skafe: squint
skerry: a rock in the sea
skoit: a good hard look
smeddum: (Scots) determination of character, a spirit not easily daunted
smoorikins: kisses
snicked: move a switch that makes a clicking noise
snyirked: made a squeaking or rattling noise
solan: gannet
somewye: somewhere
sooking up: sucking up
soothified: behaving like someone from outwith Shetland
spew: be sick
spewings: piles of sick
splatched: walked in a splashy way with wet feet, or in water
steekit mist: thick mist
sundry: apart
sun-gaits: with the sun (i.e. clockwise) – it’s bad luck to go against the sun, particularlywalking around a church
swack: smart, fine
swee: to sting (of injury)
tak: take
tatties: potatoes
tay: tea, or meal eaten in the evening
thole: (Scots) to put up with
tink: think
tirricks: Arctic terns
trows: trolls
tushker: L-shaped spade for cutting peat
twa: two
twartree: a small number, several
tulley: pocket knife
unken: unknown
vexed: sorry or sympathetic “I was that vexed to hear that”
vee-lined: lined with wood planking
voe: sea inlet
voehead: the landwards end of a sea inlet
waander: wander
waar: seaweed
whatna: what
wasna: wasn’t
wha’s: who is
whaup: curlew
whit: what
whitteret: weasel
wi: with
wir: we’ve – in Shetlan grammar, ‘we are’ is sometimes ‘we have’
wir: our
wife: woman, not necessarily married
wouldna: would not
yaird: enclosed area around or near the crofthouse
yoal: a traditional clinker-built six-oared rowing boat
For more information about Marsali Taylor
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Published by Accent Press Ltd 2016
ISBN 9781786154545
Copyright © Marsali Taylor 2016
The right of Marsali Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The story contained within this book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers: Accent Press Ltd, Ty Cynon House, Navigation Park, Abercynon, CF45 4SN
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