Ghosts of the Vikings

by Marsali Taylor

  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

  and other Accent Press titles

  please visit

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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