Letters / Fascinating new ideas about Shetland in the Middle Ages

People interested in the Shetland-Norway discussion will be interested to know that Steinar Imsen, the historian who has paid most attention to Norway’s ‘scatlands’ in the Middle Ages, has written an article about the part that Shetland played in the Norwegian kingdom up to 1469.

Steinar has some fascinating new ideas about exactly when Shetland became part of the earldom of Orkney. It is the best thing that has been written on the subject so far.

It is in Norwegian, in the latest number of the journal Collegium Medievale (2024), and it is freely available online (‘Shetland, det første norrøne landet i Solundhavet’). It is well worth tackling.

Brian Smith
Weisdale