Orkney, Earldom of
Substate | Defunct
875 CE to 1479 CE
The Earldom of Orkney is a Norwegian dignity in Scotland which has its origins in the Viking period.
The title of Earl of Orkney is passed down the same family line through to the Middle Ages.
By the 12th century, Orkney is under Norwegian control and by the 13th century, the Orkneyingasaga was written in Iceland, providing one of the earliest and most repeated versions of the history of Norse life on these isles.
The Orkneyingasaga is largely fictional however and was not, being written in Iceland, any sort of primary source.
Instead, it should be culled for historical details with great care and these data should be matched and compared against data from other sources.
Worlds
The Atlantic Lands
View →Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 62 total
Brief Viking expeditions to North America around 1000 will not result in any settlements, and they will soon be driven off by natives.
Other Viking raids into Germany and the Mediterranean are short-lived and have no lasting effect.
Northwest Europe (820 – 963 CE): Viking Age, Danelaw, and Insular Kingdoms
Geographic and Environmental Context
Northwest Europe includes Iceland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands, the Channel Islands, and the western coastal zones of Norway and Denmark (west of 10°E).
-
Anchors: the North Sea ports (York, London, Dublin, Bristol, Bergen, Trondheim), the Irish Sea corridors (Dublin–Waterford–Chester), the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney) as a maritime hinge between Normandy and England, the English Channel approaches (Dover, Portsmouth, Southampton), the North Atlantic islands (Faroe, Orkney, Shetland, Iceland), and the Norwegian fjord ports (Bergen, Trondheim)
Climate and Environmental Shifts
-
Benefiting from the Medieval Warm Period, cereal farming extended further north; pastures flourished in Norway and Iceland after settlement (~870s).
-
North Atlantic seas teemed with cod, herring, and whales, supporting expanding fisheries.
Societies and Political Developments
-
Viking expansion dominated:
-
England: Great Heathen Army (865), Danelaw entrenched in York and East Anglia.
-
Ireland: Norse–Gaelic towns (Dublin, Waterford, Limerick) arose as trading hubs.
-
Scotland: Orkney, Shetland, Hebrides under Norse jarls.
-
Iceland settled (c. 870–930), forming the Althing assembly (930).
-
-
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms consolidated: Alfred the Great (871–899) defended Wessex, laying foundation for England’s unification.
-
Ireland remained fragmented among provincial kings, though Norse towns tied it into Atlantic commerce.
-
Norway: Harald Fairhair (872) began consolidation; Denmark projected power into North Sea.
Economy and Trade
-
Silver dirhams from the Islamic world reached Scandinavia via Volga–Baltic routes.
-
Viking Dublin exported slaves and hides; York and Hedeby tied into Baltic–North Sea trade.
-
Cod/dried fish and wool from North Atlantic settlements became staples.
Belief and Symbolism
-
Norse paganism thrived; runestones, ship burials, and cults of Odin/Thor.
-
Christianity survived in Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, and parts of Scotland; missionary work reached Scandinavia.
Long-Term Significance
By 963, Northwest Europe was a Viking–Anglo-Saxon–Celtic frontier, with Icelandic settlement, Norse–Gaelic towns, and early English statehood foreshadowing medieval consolidation.
Both Shetland and …
…Orkney have seen a significant influx of Norwegian settlers during the late eighth and early ninth centuries.
Vikings have made the islands the headquarters of their pirate expeditions carried out against Norway and the coasts of mainland Scotland.
In response, Norwegian king Harald Hårfagre ("Harald Fair Hair") in 875 annexes the Northern Isles (comprising Orkney and Shetland).
Rognvald Eysteinsson receives Orkney and Shetland from Harald as an earldom as reparation for the death of his son in battle in Scotland, and then passed the earldom on to his brother Sigurd the Mighty.
Olaf Guthfrithson succeeds his father Guthfrith in 934 as the Norse king of Dublin.
The alliance between the Norse and the Scots is cemented by the marriage of Olaf to Constantine's daughter.
Æthelstan has by late June or early July reached Chester-le-Street, where he makes generous gifts to the tomb of St. Cuthbert, including a stole and maniple (ecclesiastical garments) originally commissioned by his stepmother Ælfflæd as a gift to bishop Frithestan of Winchester.
The invasion is launched by land and sea.
According to the twelfth century chronicler Simeon of Durham, …
…his land forces ravage as far as Dunnottar in northeast Scotland, while …
…the fleet raids Caithness, at this time probably part of the Norse kingdom of Orkney.
No battles are recorded during the campaign, and chronicles do not record its outcome.
However, …
…Æthelstan's charters report that by September he was back in the south of England at Buckingham, where Constantine witnessed a charter as subregulus, that is a king acknowledging Æthelstan's overlordship.
King Harald Finehair had determined to remove his youngest son out of harm's way and accordingly had sent him to the court friend, King Athelstan of England, who had fostered by Haakon as part of a peace agreement made by his father, for which reason Haakon was nicknamed Adalsteinfostre.
The English king had brought him up in the Christian religion.
Haakon, on news of his father's death in 930, had been previsioned by King Athelstan with ships and men for an expedition against his half-brother Eirik Bloodaxe, who had been proclaimed king.
Eric', whose rule is reputedly harsh and despotic,had fallen rapidly out of favor with the Norwegian nobility.
At Haakon arrives back in Norway, he gains the support of the landowners by promising to give up the rights of taxation claimed by his father over inherited real property.
Eirik Bloodaxe soon finds himself deserted on all sides, and saves his own and his family's lives by fleeing from the country, initially to the Orkney Islands.