Letters / Norway never gave away Shetland

We often hear that Norway gave Shetland away. But it is not true. The truth is there in black and white, buried in legal documents.

In 1468 and 1469, the islands of Orkney and Shetland were pawned by King Christian I of Denmark-Norway to King James III of Scotland, as a temporary guarantee for a dowry payment. This was a pledge, not a sale or gift. The original charters (dated 28 May 1469, from Havn/Copenhagen) explicitly state that the islands were pledged “under assured security” and were to remain under Scottish control until the dowry was repaid — nothing more.

“We have granted, pledged and mortgaged, and under assured security and pledge do grant, mortgage and pledge all and sundry our lands of the islands of Shetland…” (Christian I’s Pawning Documents, Shetland Museum)

But what is often missed is this: Christian I was not pawning the Shetlanders’ land at all, nor even his own, because under Norwegian law no monarch could give away the lands of the realm. What he pawned were the royal rights tied to the islands — the revenues, taxes, and authority. Yet Scotland went on to treat that as if Shetland itself had been sold, even though such a thing was forbidden by Norwegian law and beyond the Crown’s power.

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But the whole story collapses for an even deeper reason.

How could Norway have given us away when Norway wasn’t even consulted? At the time, Denmark and Norway were united under Christian I, but Shetland belonged to the Kingdom of Norway, not Denmark. The 1450 Treaty of Bergen confirmed that Norway remained a separate kingdom within the union, with its own laws and its own Council of the Realm.

Under Norwegian constitutional law, set out in the 1449–50 electoral charter, the king was constitutionally bound to seek the consent of the Council of the Realm before taking any action affecting Norway’s territories. That consent was never given. The pawning went ahead without Norway’s approval — a clear breach of its constitution, and entirely illegitimate under the laws in force at the time.

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Christian I never relinquished Norway’s sovereign right to reclaim the islands. His successors attempted to redeem the dowry pledge multiple times, in 1549, 1550, 1558, 1585, 1589, 1640 and 1660, but each time the Scots effectively refused redemption. Scotland’s takeover was not lawful. It was opportunistic and exploitative.

And it wasn’t just Denmark–Norway that understood this. Scotland knew it too. In 1514, the Duke of Albany, acting as Regent of Scotland, offered to return both Shetland and Orkney to Denmark in exchange for military support. A decade later, in 1524, Scotland’s government — during James V’s minority — proposed returning Orkney for financial aid. These were not symbolic gestures. They were serious political negotiations, and they prove something devastating to the Scottish claim: even Scotland itself acknowledged that its possession of the isles was not absolute and could be undone.

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And who suffered the consequences? We did. The Shetlanders.

Under Norway, we had udal law, an ancient legal system tied to land, inheritance, and everyday life in Shetland. We had Norse customs, Norse names, and our own Norse language — Norn. It should never have been dismantled. But under Scottish rule, that’s exactly what happened.

Our legal system was pushed aside and later abolished. Norn was lost. Our Norse names were discouraged and altered. Parents could not give their children Norse or so-called heathen names. Our old patronymic naming system was gradually replaced as fixed surnames took over.

And that is before even getting into the severe oppression Shetlanders suffered, which would need a letter of its own.

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“The islands continued to follow Norse Law and were connected to the Law Book of Magnus the Lawmender until 1611 when an act of parliament abolished its use and ordered the islands to follow Scottish law.” (“The Norse influence on Shetland culture” on Shetland.org)

And the consequences didn’t stop in the past. The illegitimate way Shetland was absorbed into Scotland laid the foundation for what we still face today. The past defines the present. The erosion of our sovereignty began in 1469, and its impact still reaches into every corner of our lives today.

Perhaps our future lies in our past?

Shetlanders deserve to know the truth — for ourselves, for those who lost everything, and for those who will come after us. They deserve to grow up knowing our real history, not a version that suits Scotland’s claim to our isles.

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The original documents still exist. The facts are still visible. We were not given away. We were taken.

Magnus Hutchison
Whalsay

Note: Parts of this letter were amended on 15 April 2026.

Sources:

• Charter of Christian I, 1469, in Saga-Book of the Viking Society, Vol. 17 (1907–08), pp. 175–176
• Smith, Brian. The Shetland Documents 1195–1579, Shetland Archives
• Donaldson, Gordon. The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 42 (1963)
• Thomson, William P. L. The New History of Orkney (2001)
• Marwick, Hugh. The Orkney Norn (1929)
• Goudie, Gilbert. The Celtic and Scandinavian Antiquities of Shetland (1904)
• Shetland Museum & Archives Blog: “550 Years Ago: How Shetland Became Part of Scotland”
• National Archives of Norway: Letters of King Christian II
• Krag, Claus. Norsk Historie 800–1300 (Aschehoug, 2000)
• Helle, Knut. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Vol. 1 (2003)
• Seenan, Gerard. “The pawn status of the islands is still valid”, The Guardian, 20 February 2002 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/20/gerardseenan
• “The Norse influence on Shetland culture” on Shetland.org