The linguistic origin and evidential value of field-names
in the parish of Harray

...A rainbow crumbled
Over Orc, "whale islands".
Then the skipper, 'The whales
Will yield this folk
Corn and fleeces and honey.'
And the poet,
'Harp of whale bone, shake
Golden words from my mouth.'

Orkney: the Whale Islands' George Mackay Brown

The land and the sea gave to the Norse settlers sustenance and shelter when they arrived, and as they made it home, the land gave them the power to control their new home, for to name is to control.

Hearing the place-names of Orkney today, their sound is strange to our ears, except where glimpses of dialect can be heard or remembered. Examining this subject of Orkney place-names as an Orcadian has made me aware of how much of our history is retained at a time when it would appear that the use of dialect and even accent is decreasing. Of course in most cases, the people using the place-manes do not know that when they go to visit their aunt who lives on Graemsay, that they are going to Grimnr's island, but this does not matter, because to use the name without knowing its original meaning does not make the name worth any less, for the place has its own onomastic meaning separate from its lexical meaning.
An overtly romantic view perhaps, but the "whale islands" created in its settlers poets and historians, preserving meaning and importance for generations.

Harray the land-locked parish

It is my purpose here to look at field-names, yet another facet of our Scandinavian heritage which is being erased. It is very lucky then that in 1976 an extensive collection of the field-names of the parish of Harray was made, and it is upon this I have based my study. I feel that it is important to give some idea of this parish, as there are certain factors which I regard as enlightening with reference to field-names.

It is the only parish in Orkney that has no coastal boundaries, excepting a loch shore-line. Being landlocked then the population relied mostly upon farming rather than farming and fishing¹. Harray is documented as being the last area of Orkney where the old Norn language was spoken:

"So late as 1756 or 1757 as a respectable native of this County was travelling from Kirkwall to Birsa he, having to spend the night in Harra, was surprised to hear two old men, for an hour or two, converse together in an unknown tongue which, on enquiry, he found was the Norse language."² What does this contribute to my study of the parish's field-names? In the case of it being landlocked, the effect is that names are centred upon the features of the land, hardly any reference being made to the sea or to areas across the sea. In the case of the Norn language remaining in use longer than elsewhere, this may explain why the field-names in my source are so overwhelmingly Norse in origin - their use continuing because the meaning was understood for longer. Unlike place-names, which are used by the many, field-names are used by the few, and so it is remarkable that so many had continued in the remembrance of the older generation at least for so long. A farm well known to me in the East Mainland, Wideford Mains, does use field-names, but in English, for example, the well field, the aerodrome field.

Toonships of the parish and themes of naming

To investigate the linguistic origins and evidential value of the field-names, I have decided to treat them thematically, and so I have classified them into water-connected names, hill-connected names, lore and legend-connected names and farming landscape-connected names. Rather than look at all the field-names - of which there are many - I have taken selections from four toonships of the parish, Grimeston, Mirbister, Bimbister and Knarston. This enables me to have a solid base of examples from each classification, which I can examine in some detail, rather than skimming over a larger amount. To actually write on the linguistic origin and evidential value I will firstly give my derivation and then back my theory up by various methods; describing the land evidence from maps, comparing the derivation with cognates elsewhere in the islands, giving historical evidence where necessary or showing how phonological changes over the centuries back up my derivation. (see OS map of area)

Water names

Water is fundamental to human life and so it is unsurprising that we will almost always find settlements around a source of water. The field of Mugglafurse is derived from the Old Norse (ON) mikla-fors, meaning 'big waterfall'. On the Ordinance Survey (OS) map, the field does not seem to include even a burn in its boundaries, although there is one very close by. Interestingly, the farm through which this burn flows is called Fursebreck, so it can be deduced that if there was not once a waterfall in this field then one could be seen from it.

Ootroo, in the same toonship of Grimeston is a less straightforward name. The first element is ON á, meaning river and it is situated beside the burn of Rickla. Gregor Lamb writes that á was used in Orkney to mean a stream, and was pronounced /u/. There are a few possible derivations for the second element. It could represent röst, meaning tidal stream. This is however; more usually applied to the sea, but need this necessarily preclude it from consideration?
From the OS map, the burn at this point is on quite a slope, thus fast flowing; the burn-edge of the field is curved so it is possible that the burn is deep at this point, having a strong current. This derivation does not take into account the fact that the shape of this part of the burn has changed since the name was coined, and so even in the light of other röst place-names, which take the modern form of Roost, this is an unlikely root. A more likely derivation is found in rjóðr, meaning clearing. Supporting this idea is the situation of the field next to a patch of scrubby moors. So Ootroo is a clearing by the stream? I can find no cognates other than Benzieroth, meaning prayer clearing, in Firth, which does not conclusively prove my derivation.

Related to this field-name is Oback in Bimbister. The derivation is more straightforward, being ár-bakki, the bank of the stream. Even though its origin is simple, looking at a map underlines the meaning, for it is indeed on the bank of a stream. Many water-connected field-names describe marshes and dirty water. Cartie, in Bimbister could well be an example of this. I believe its origin is in ON keyta, meaning foul water. Evidence from the map shows a very marshy field (I know, as I've walked through it!). Lamb cites this as the source for Cats Pow. My source gives a folk etymology for this name, that cat and kittens were drowned in the field. When the Orcadian pronunciation of 'cat' is taken into consideration here, what we find is a word phonologically identical to keyta, the -a being lost through the tendency for unstressed vowels to disappear over time. (The generic is from pollr, pool.) Tragically, this phonological adaptation where the lexical and onomastic meaning appear to be the same so that the field has an apparently English name probably meant that the folk etymology became in fact truth: cats weren't originally drowned there, but over time as the sound of the ON name changed to sound more like English 'cat', hence cats were drowned there, for it seemed like they always had from the name.

Dredijan in Knarston comes from ON drit-tjörn, and means filth pool or marsh.³ This is another interesting example of sound change, where /tj/ has become / / (like the 'ch' in cheese) in Orcadian pronunciation. Such an effect can be seen in the field Chinyan in Mirbister, which is from ON tjörn-in, the pool or marsh. The field again is situated in an exceedingly marshy area, given to flooding at certain times of the year. Supporting the sound changes (and thus the derivations) exemplified in Dreijan and Chinyan are the many Jubidee'-type farm names, all of which are found in marshy areas. The name has many forms (Chuivity, Jewaday)⁴ which when considered alongside the origin, djüp-dy show that a /dj/ or a /tj/ sound has changed into //⁵. So far the evidential value of this has shown that the names of the fields were - had to be - very precise, for at this time much of the land, unlike now, had not been drained and so were marshy; fields had to be identified by some feature. In any case, the number of field-names related to water show that Orkney was once a much damper place than it is today.

Hill-connected names

To have come from the rugged landscape of Norway to the flatness of Orkney must have been quite a start for the settlers. The field-name evidence shows that their vocabulary was limited, by necessity to describe the gentle slope and inclines of Orkney's hills. The majority of fields on slopes use the ON brekka to describe its location and nature. In Grimeston there is Nistabreck, ON neðsta-brekka, the lowermost slope. Looking at the map confirms this derivation, it being found at he base of a gentle slope. Instabreck in Knarston is very similar, innsta-brekka, the innermost slope. On the map it can be seen that it is the field closest to the farm of Breckan. Above this field is Queenabreckan, a field meaning enclosure slope, kvín-brekka, where animals were sheltered during the windy autumn. There is a field of the same name in Grimeston.⁶Evidently these enclosures on the slope afforded protection from the strong, cold wind under the lea of the hill. An interesting brekka field-name is found in Grimeston - Batyebreck. I believe that the first element is from ON bót meaning healing or cure. Lamb cites an example of a name containing this element, Bathgate (bót-gata), which is pronounced 'Batyith'⁷ ; the farm apparently lies on a road which leads to the first burial ground of Saint Magnus on the Brough of Birsay. To support this theory about Batyebreck being a 'healing slope' I will move on to look at field-names connected with lore and legend.

Lore and Legend

Close to Batyebreck is the field of Binyaclaith, ON baena-klettr, prayer mound. Klettr Lamb states is used to describe any kind of mound; however in its inland form it becomes 'Cleat' (pronounced, I believe /klet/) and is associated with chapels. The Chapel of Cleat on Sanday was a place of pilgrimage, close by was a farm of Cleat. On Westray the farm of Cleat is known to have had a chapel near by. As further evidence, the farm of Clestran on Stronsay has the site of an old chapel beside it⁸. Thus if one were to stand in the filed of Binyaclaith, one could see (remains of) a chapel dedicated to Saint Mary. So it is entirely possible that in this field there was a mound - which must have been long ploughed over as there is no record of it on the OS map - where prayers were said. In turn I believe that this supports the 'healing slope' origin of Batyebreck. It would appear that this hill area was considered sacred at one time, for below Batyebreck is an area called Crusgate, ON krus-gata, a path to a cross. Could it be that there was once a chapel in this area? Further down from Batyebreck is Praas Moss, originally meaning presta-mosi , priests' moor. Taking all these linguistic origins into account, it can be deduced that the people naming the fields were religious, but the pagan past was not forgotten. Along from Crusgate is Pickasquoy, the enclosure of the Picts. In Orcadian folklore, the Picts are mythical figures, they are fairies. It is interesting that they have a 'quoy', a sheltered enclosure, indicating a degree of reverence.

Farming-connected names

Because Harray is a landlocked parish, the majority of the field-names are descriptive of the actual land. Mostly their origin indicates the type of field; Longquoy, Vean (ON vollr, field), Haiyon (ON hagi-nn, the pasture) and are quite straightforward.

Cograne in Grimeston however is more complex. It is located on a point jutting into the Harray loch, the OS map suggests the land to be normal farm-type land. This rules out ON karr, marsh and leaves two other possibilities for the first element: kúla, knob, or kró, small enclosure. The point is both of these: looking like a knob, and being a small enclosure. The second element could be represented by graenn, green (as a noun) or by grandi, beach. Thus we have a knob-shaped green, or a knob-shaped beach; a small enclosure green or a small beach enclosure. Having looked at like-sounding place-names, any of these are possible.

The adjacent field of Tengagena is similarly puzzling, but ultimately decipherable. It is found on the shore of the loch and stretches between two jutting points. The first element could be: tangi, a point or þenja, to stretch. The second, gin, a mouth or eng, a meadow. Tangi-gin with some form of suffix at the end would make sense - the mouth of the points. Similarly, þenja-eng would, with the addition of a grammatical suffix, be a viable derivation, the stretched meadow. One could play mix and match with these, as they all seem to be quite likely origins. So in terms of shape, the field-names are very specific.

This is true of names with their origin in the quality of the land. Dilly Field in Knarston takes its name from the dialect word dillowan, dock plants, indicating that the field was full of such weeds. Other field-names indicate that the farming of the land was quite hard, the land being marshy or hard or covered in vegetation virtually impossible to get rid of: Whin Field takes its specific from the dialect, meaning to dry up hard, Heatheroo, a field of heather with the Orcadian diminutive '-oo' added (there is no burn nearby).

There does seem to have been some respite from all this hard toil. The field of Yeulgars in Knarston takes its name from dialect yule-girs, a plant called meadow sweet used to flavour ale. To end this classification I will look at the amusing field-name of Gingergrin in Bimbister. The generic's origin is in ON grind, a gate, but the specific is less obvious. Examining it first, I assumed that there had been a phonological adaptation of /dj/ changing to / / and so came up with dynja, to sound. Dynn, marsh, could not have been the origin, because the OS map shows the land to be non-marshy and in any case it is situated on a hill-top. There is another possible specific from dialect gimmer which is from ON gymbr, both meaning a young ewe. Both of these are equally possible I believe - a field with a creaking gate, or a field with a gate to keep the young ewes inside. This is intensified when the possibilities are spoken aloud, using for dynja the phonological change.In writing about the origins of these field-names, it has struck me that there are actually remarkably few words used in creating such a vast array of names. In the most part, the names are self-explanatory when we go back to these origins as they describe the exact location, the quality of the soil, specific features and the like. When these fields were named, the namers left behind enough information for us today to gain at least some insight into their life.

¹. Incidentally, on the Firth/Rendall coast, there is a portion of the shore called 'The Harra Man's Ebb' ; during the famines of the later middle ages several men died in a snowstorm as they brought back their meagre findings. Their graves can still be seen in the hillside of the Harray/Rendall boundary.
². Barry, History of Orkney, quotation in Harray, Orkney's Inland Parish, Firth, Bichan and Spence.
³. p.130 The Testimony of the Orkneyingar, G.Lamb
⁴. p.17 The Testimony of the Orkneyingar, G.Lamb
⁵. Jubidee'-type place-names are tautological, meaning the marshy marsh.
⁶. Lamb, in ibid p.125 cites the verb 'to quoy' meaning to pen animals is a dialect word not long out of use.
⁷. Lamb, p.114
⁸. Lamb, p.78Bibliography/Sources
Firth, Bichan, Spence *Harray: Orkney's Inland Parish (W.R. Rendall, Stromness, 1976)Gordon, E.V. **Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford University Press, Oxford)Lamb, G. ***Orkney Wordbook (Byrgisey, Birsay, 1988) ****The Testimony of the Orkneyingar (Byrgisey, Birsay,1993)Marwick, H, Orkney Farm-Names (W.R. Mackintosh, Kirkwall, 1952)Nicolaisen, W.F.H. 'Early Scandinavian Naming in the Western and Northern Isles' in Northern Scotland, vol. 3, (1977-78)Thompson, W.P.L. The History of Orkney, (Mercat Press, Edinburgh, 1987)*source for field-names
**source for possible origins (glossary)
***source for dialect words
****source for norse glossary, background information. This text dealt with some of the field names I have used, hopefully this has been made plain where it is the case.Maps used: Ordinance Survey Landranger 6 and Ordinance Survey 1:10,000 HY series