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EFFECTS ON THE RACE TO WHICH
THE PEOPLE BELONG— THEIR LANGUAGE, THEIR ART, THE LAWS WHICH GOVERNED THE
OWNERSHIP OF LAND, AND THE SUCCESSION TO DIGNITIES.
The Norse occupation of the
Hebrides and of some of the mainland of Scotland has left much more
important and lasting results than is generally realised. If we consider
the length of time during which this occupation lasted it would be strange
if it had not exerted a great influence in many directions.
The raids of Norse pirates
began at a very early period. There may be some doubt as to whether the
burning of the religious houses at Eigg in April 617 was the work of
Norsemen, but the repeated attacks on Iona between 794 and 825 were
certainly carried out by them, and, indeed, all the West Coast of Scotland
as far as Galloway in the south was being constantly laid waste by Norse
rovers during the first half of the ninth century.
Probably the brochs and
duns were built by the Celtic inhabitants during this period as places of
defence against the Norse raiders. These are found in large numbers
where-ever the Vikings are known to have come, and they are found in no
other part of Scotland. We may look on them, therefore, as records of the
appalling period during which the Western Isles were being ravaged by the
Vikings.
These raids, however,
destructive as they were, could have no permanent results on the character
of the people who suffered from them; but, towards the end of the ninth
century, the Norsemen began to settle in the Western Isles. Harold
Haarfagre had made himself Master of all Norway, instigated by the
ambitious lady he wished to marry. The numerous petty kings who had ruled
as independent sovereigns on the Fjords of Norway, unable to resist, and
unwilling to submit, sailed forth to carve out for themselves new
principalities in the west. Some went to England, some to France, some to
Italy, some took service in the famed Varangian guard at Constantinople,
many found new homes in the Isle of Man and in Ireland, and towards the
end of the ninth, and during the tenth century, the Vikings were settling
in the Hebrides, reducing the Celtic chiefs to obedience, and making the
Islands their own.
They did not exterminate
the Celtic inhabitants of the country. It was not to their interest to do
so; their own numbers were not very large, and they needed people to
cultivate the soil, to row their dragon ships, and to perform other menial
duties. Probably some of the Celtic tribes may still have retained
possession of their lands, but it is certain that by the end of the tenth
century the Norwegians had become predominant in the Western Isles ; as
indeed they were in the Orkneys and Shetlands, in the north-east of
Scotland, on the seaboard of Ireland, and in the Saxon kingdom of
Northumbria.
The early Norse settlers in
the Western Isles were independent chieftains; they had thrown off the
authority of the Norwegian kings, and owed obedience to no one. But their
situation made it necessary that they should combine together for purposes
of mutual defence, and some union of this sort, under kings of Norse
descent, became an accomplished fact at an early period. In the middle of
the tenth century, Magnus MacArailt was rex plurimarum insularum.
His brother Godred was King of Man and the Isles in 979. We find several
others mentioned as Kings of the Isles, and in 1066, Godred Crovan founded
the dynasty which was destined to rule for 200 years over Man and the
Isles.
Meanwhile the King of
Norway was taking steps to assert his authority. As early as 890 he sent
an army under Ketil Flatneb, who reduced the Norsemen on the mainland to
obedience, and 200 years later the expeditions of Magnus Barefoot, the
first of which took place in 1092, settled the question of Norwegian
supremacy over the kings of Man and the Isles. Whatever they had been
before, hence-forth these were tributary kings owning obedience to the
King of Norway, and paying him "Scat."
Not only were the islands
Norwegian from a political point of view, but they were also Norwegian
ecclesiastically. The see of the Syderies and Man (now corrupted to Sodor
and Man) was in the province of Throndjhem, and its Bishop was under the
control of the Norwegian Archbishop. This state of affairs lasted till
1266, when the Western Isles were ceded to Alexander III., King of
Scotland, by Haakon, King of Norway. Thus for more than four hundred years
the Western Isles were under Norse rule. So prolonged an occupation was
bound to have very important results, and I shall consider these under
five heads.
I. I take first the race to
which the people of the Islands belong. There can be no doubt that the
Norse and the Celtic people of the country freely intermarried. It is
probable that Somerled, the famous founder of the great MacDonald family,
was of mixed descent. His own name is Norse, as are the names of his sons,
Reginald and Olave, and though he may have been a Celt in the male line,
he certainly had Norse blood in him. Probably even the clans which appear
to be purely Celtic have Norsemen among their ancestors. In spite of
Skene's opinion, after carefully sifting all the available evidence, I am
convinced that the MacLeods are mainly of Norse descent, though they too
probably have Celtic blood in their veins.
As with the chiefs, so with
the masses of the people. I am convinced that they are not pure-blooded
Celts. The Islesmen of the present day show qualities very different from
those of the Celtic races, and those qualities are due to the mixture of
Norse blood in them.
Firstly, compared with the
Irish, the West Highlanders are a law-abiding people. For many years,
owing to the pressure of hard economic facts, they have lived in great
poverty. They have believed that they were suffering great injustice, and
for a time they had agitators among them who urged them to take the law
into their own hands, and right their wrongs by force. In a very few cases
they acted on those pernicious counsels. They drove the stock off land
which they desired to occupy as small-holders, and took possession of some
farms. But there were no murders of landowners or factors, there was no
maiming of cattle, there were no outrages, there was no secret drilling
with a view to an armed rising against the Government. Even when the
crofter agitation was its height, there was only very little of the
lawlessness which was such a deplorable feature of similar crises in
Ireland.
Some years ago a remarkable
instance of the West Highlander's reverence for law came under my
observation. I was told that a number of men proposed to raid a farm in
the neighbourhood. I asked them to meet me and talk the matter over, and
we had a long and most friendly discussion. In the course of this I used
every argument I could think of to dissuade them from their proposed
action. Among other things I pointed out that to drive off a man's stock,
and seize the land of which he was lawfully possessed, was to rob him of
his means of living, and practically amounted to a breach of the Eighth
Commandment. They accepted this, and refrained from raiding the land. I do
not think it can be denied that on the whole the West Highlanders are a
law-abiding people.
Secondly, when they go
abroad they make most excellent emigrants. They do not like going, they
have the Celtic love of home very strongly developed in them ; they are
not an enterprising people, and it cannot be said that they are very
strenuous and hard-working at home. Therefore, one would not credit them
with possessing qualities likely to make them successful pioneers in a new
country. But, when West Highlanders get into one of the Colonies, all
their lack of energy disappears as if by magic. They become vigorous
workers, they almost invariably do well, and, though from generation to
generation they retain their love of their old homes in Skye or the Long
Island—in many cases they still speak the language of their fathers—they
have become invaluable citizens of the colony in which they live.
In one respect it is
strange that the Norse blood in their veins does not appear to have
influenced them. The Norse were essentially lovers of the sea. "The hardy
Norseman's home of yore was on the foaming wave," and their descendants in
Norway itself and on the East Coasts of England and Scotland continue to
carry on the old tradition; but it cannot be said that the Scottish
Islanders, though they live on the sea, take kindly to a seafaring career.
II. The language of the
Highlanders at first sight seems to be purely Celtic, and, if this were
really the case, it might be argued—Gaelic being the language of the
people—that no Norse conquest of the country had ever taken place at all.
But the Norse influence on the Gaelic language has really been very
strong. In his Norse Influence in Celtic Scotland, Dr Henderson gives a
list of several hundred Gaelic words which are derived from the Norse.
Many of the surnames still borne by Highlanders are Norse. MacLeod,
MacCaskill, Maclvor, Macaulay, Gunn, Tolmie, McCrailt. are a few instances
out of many which might be named. A large number of the Christian names
which occur in West Highland history, some of which are still borne by
living Highlanders, are Norse names. Tormod, anglicized to Norman, is the
Norse Thor-modhr, Thor minded; Torquil is the Norse Thorkill, Thor's
kettle; Godfrey, the Norse Gudrod; Reginald is the Norse Rognvaldr, Ruler
from the Gods; Ronald is another form of the same name. Somerled is a
Norse name meaning "the summer sailor," that is, the Viking who went on
ravaging expeditions in summer.
Here again many other
instances could be given. But it is in the place-names all over the
Islands that the Norse influence has been strongest. In Lewis and Harris
three-fourths of the important place-names are Norse, in Skye a very large
proportion. All the place-names terminating in bost, nish, and a, ay, or
ey are Norse, "bost" meaning a township or stead, "nes" meaning a point or
promonotory, "ey"meaning an island. As most Highlanders know, these are
very common terminations. Indeed, ninety per cent. of the Islands have
names terminating in some form of the Norse "ey." Many other places are
known by Norwegian names. Uig is the Norse "Vik," a bay, from which comes
the word Viking; Sleat or Slate in Skye is the Norse "Sletta," a plain;
Staffa and Staffin are both derived from the Norse. Staffa means a staff,
or rod, to which their basaltic rocks bear a resemblance. Uist is the
Norse Ivist, a habitation. Eriscay is Eric's island, Barra is Barr's
island, Barr being a contraction of St Find-barr, a saint whose day was
kept on September 25th. Though Mull has retained its pre-Norse name, half
the place-names in the island are of Norse origin. Jura is pure Norse, and
means deer's isle. [For further details on this subject I refer the reader
to Dr Henderson's valuable book on " Norse Influence in Celtic Scotland."]
Some names which seem to be
Gaelic may possibly be really Norwegian. Such a one is Dunvegan. It
appears at first sight to be Gaelic, dun bheagan, "the little dun," but it
may really be "Bekan's Dun." There is a place in Iceland called Bekansstad,
and it is possible that this Bekan may have been one of the sturdy pagans
who left the Hebrides and went to Iceland, because they were disgusted at
finding themselves surrounded by people who had embraced Christianity.
Still, however much Gaelic
may have been influenced by Norse; it is the language of the Highlanders
now, and according to the last census it is the only speech of over four
thousand people in Inverness-shire.
It is an interesting fact
that when a race, comparatively few in number, conquers a country and does
not exterminate the people, the conquerors gradually adopt the language of
the conquered people. This happened in Normandy. The Northmen conquered
that province of France in 912. In a hundred and fifty years they had
forgotten Norse, and were speaking French. The Normans conquered England
in 1066, and in a generation or two they had forgotten French, and were
speaking English. Exactly the same thing has happened in the Western
Isles; the Norse conquerors forgot Norse, and Gaelic became the language
alike of conquerors and of conquered.
III. The numerous engraved
stones, and articles of metal work, such as brooches and sword hilts, of
undoubted Norwegian workmanship, which have been found in the Highlands
and Islands, bear eloquent witness to the fact that the Norsemen were
settled there in early times, and show the high level of workmanship to
which their artists had attained. Doctor Henderson describes, in more or
less detail, a number of these old relics of the past, which have been
found in the Hebrides, and gives illustrations of five of them. Besides
these, he illustrates three Norse stone slabs found in the Isle of Man.
The Norse origin of some of these is proved by the Runic inscriptions
which they bear. In others it is indicated by the subjects depicted.
Thor's hammer, and a pair of scales, typical of the justice of the gods,
appear on some, and the Sigurd legend is represented on the Manx stones,
and on one at Iona.
This old Norse story
relates how Sigurd killed a huge dragon, and toasted its heart over a
fire. In doing this he touched the hot dragon's heart, and, burning his
finger, put it in his mouth, with the result that he immediately became
possessed of "all the knowledge of the two worlds." According to another
version of the same legend, it was a great serpent which he killed; while
boiling its flesh in a cauldron, the same misfortune befel him, and he
adopted the same remedy, and this time he suddenly found that he
understood the language of birds. On the old stones we see Sigurd engaged
in combat with the dragon or the serpent, cooking the heart of the dragon,
or boiling the flesh of the serpent, and putting his finger in his mouth.
In some cases the nature of
the objects themselves is enough to stamp them as being of Norse origin.
An image resembling old Norse idols was found near Ballachulish in 1880,
and Norse swords and helmets have been found in many places. A very fine
sword was found in Islay, a spearhead was found at St Kilda, a sword-hilt
of extraordinary beauty on Eigg. Of this Dr Anderson says:—"I know of no
finer or more elaborate piece of art workmanship, either in this country
or in Norway." Many other similar finds have been made all over the
Hebrides.
In Norway several grave
mounds have been excavated, which contained the Viking ships in which
their owners had been buried. The best preserved of these ships was found
at Gokstad on the Oslo Fjord, and is now in the Museum at Oslo. As far as
I know, very few of these mounds have been discovered in the Western
Isles. One, however, at Killoran Bay, in Colonsay, was excavated by Mr
Galloway in 1882. The Vikings' ship had rotted away, but the nails, with
which it had been constructed, were there, and the following objects were
also found:—The Viking's skeleton, that of his horse, some cross-marked
stones, an iron sword, and some coins, two of Eandred, 808-840, and two of
Wigmund, Archbishop of York, 831-854. These last make it probable that the
Viking buried here lived in the latter half of the ninth century.
Among the most interesting
relics of the Norse occupation are some brooches. One was found in a Norse
grave mound on Eigg; it is a bronze brooch, silvered over. Another of
quite extraordinary beauty was brought to light at West Kilbride, in
Ayrshire. It is known as the Hunterston Brooch, and Professor Stephens
refers to it as "Scotland's finest fibula."
Besides these things, which
are certainly of Norse origin, are many others, generally believed to be
Celtic work of the 16th century because they have been found in Celtic
Scotland, but which may possibly be Norse work of a much earlier period.
One of the most interesting of these is the old horn preserved at Dunvegan.
On the silver rim of this are seven medallions. A very curious pattern
appears in three. Weird animals which are often seen in undoubted Norse
work, are depicted on three; and on the seventh, where the join comes,
half the pattern and a curiously-shaped animal are portrayed. Professor
Brogge, head of the Museum of Antiquities at Oslo in Norway says:—"Without
hesitation this is Norse work of the Island variety dating from the 10th
century."
It is not very easy to
describe the pattern. It appears to represent, in stone or metal, a number
of long narrow strips arranged in a series of curves, and passing under or
over each other where they meet. It was first met with in Russia in the
fifth century, and it appeared a little later in every country in Europe.
It is a marked feature in some antiquities, supposed to date from the
seventh century, which were found quite lately at Abingdon, in England. It
was certainly a favourite with the Norse artists who were working in the
Hebrides between the tenth and the twelfth centuries, for it was used in
one form or another on six out of the eight objects of which Doctor
Henderson gives illustrations, and this to some extent supports Professor
Brogge's opinion that the Dunvegan horn is Norse work of the tenth
century.
IV. The ownership of land.
At one time Skene was regarded as the most reliable authority on this
subject. I shall first deal with his theories. He maintained that among
the Celts there was no individual ownership at all; the land belonged to
the tribe, and the property was divided in certain proportions amongst the
male branches of the family, though the principal seat of the family,
together with a certain extent of property around it, was not included in
the division. The Chief besides this retained a sort of right of
superiority over the whole possessions of the clan, and received a
proportion of the produce of the soil as an acknowledgment of chief ship.
Even this Celtic law seems
to imply that the chief possessed some more or less limited rights of
ownership in the lands belonging to the tribe. But they were not personal
rights; they belonged to him as the elected chief of the community.
Under the old Norse law,
called the "Asaedesret," the individual was the personal owner of the
land. He "held it in absolute dominion without rendering any fealty or
service to any one." This is now called the "allodial tenure." Possibly
some Celtic chiefs may have retained their lands after the Norse conquest,
and continued to hold them under Celtic law, but the evidence is very
strong that most of the land in the Hebrides in early times was owned by
Norse conquerors, who held it under Norse law, and were the personal
owners of their estates.
An old charter, dated 1292,
tells us that Glenelg belonged to the Norse King of Man and the Isles. We
know that a Norse chief named Ljotulph was in possession of Lewis, or a
portion of it, in the twelfth century, and that a little later Olaf the
Black, afterwards King of Man, owned at all events part of the same
island. Some light is thrown on this subject by an interesting MS. history
of the MacLeods which came into my hands some time ago. It was probably
written by Dr Bannatyne MacLeod, in the early nineteenth century, but I
incline to the opinion that he got his information from a sixteenth
century document, which is now lost. The author of this describes the
possessions of Paul Baccac, otherwise known as Phaich, undoubtedly the
Paal Baalkeson of the Sagas, who was killed in 1231. These included
Waternish, which had originally belonged to a branch of the Nicol-sons of
Lewis; Trotternish, which had originally belonged to the Clan Vic Val or
Mal, a Norwegian tribe who had settled at Duntulm; Sleat, which had
previously belonged to the Clan Vic Gurimen, a Celtic tribe; and Snizort,
part of which had been church land, while part had belonged to the Clan
Vic Varten (now known as Martin). He also owned Harris, the north part of
which, the Frith or Chase, had been possessed by the Clan Vic Shittich,
the centre by the Clan Vic Varrachie, and the south by the MacCrimmons,
who afterwards became the famous pipers of the MacLeods. " All these
different tribes had been subdued by Paal's ancestors, and acknowledged
his authority. Remnants of each of these are still to be met with in the
country, and some of their descendants are now men of wealth and position
in other parts of the world." If such large tracts of land, on the
mainland, in Skye, and in the Long Island, were owned by Norsemen,
probably much other land in the islands belonged to them also, and indeed
the place-names point to this having been the case.
It is often maintained that
the Highland chiefs wrongfully got possession of their estates when the
feudal system came in, getting charters from the king to themselves of the
estates which really belonged to their clans. I am, however, myself
convinced that, by the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Norse
laws, which governed the ownership of land, had been incorporated in the
code of law under which the West Highlanders lived, and that, under this
law, all the chiefs were personal owners of their estates. If this be
true, the charge that they unfairly obtained possession of the property
falls to the ground, for the land had been the personal property of their
ancestors long before the establishment of the feudal system. This view of
the status of a Highland chief in regard to his property is entirely borne
out by the rules of succession which have prevailed amongst the West
Highland clans from the earliest times.
V. The Norse law of
succession may be briefly summed up. The eldest son always succeeded his
father, and, if there was no son, a daughter was allowed to succeed. I
have not been able to ascertain what rules governed the appointment of a
guardian to a minor under Norse law. According to Skene, very different
laws governed the succession in Celtic communities. There are four of
these:
1. "There can be little
doubt that among the Celts the chiefship was hereditary in the family, but
elective in the individual. That is, a member of the ruling family must
always be chosen, but which member of that family was to be chief was
settled at a meeting of the tribe, generally held before the death of the
reigning chief."
2. "In choosing a chief,
under the law of tanistry, ' a brother of the ruling chief was preferred
to a son, on the ground that he was one degree nearer the original founder
of the family.' "
3. "If the heir who ought
to succeed, and would have been elected, was under age the nearest male
relation succeeded, and retained the chiefship during his life, although
the proper heir had in the meantime attained his majority."
4. "Females are altogether
excluded from the succession either to the chiefship or the property."
I have taken these laws
which governed Celtic succession from Skene's Highlanders of Scotland, and
have indeed quoted his own words. If the West Highland clans had been
purely Celtic communities, and their lands had belonged to the tribe in
accordance with Celtic custom, we should expect to find these laws of
succession being observed among them. As a matter of fact we find none of
them.
1. Among the West
Highlanders the office of chief was certainly not elective. The eldest
son, or, failing a son of the deceased chief, either a daughter or the
nearest male heir always became chief. But he did not take up the rights
to which his birth entitled him until he had been formally accepted by the
clan. In the MS., from which I have already quoted, is an interesting
account of the instalment of a chief. It reads:—"After the funeral of the
late chief all the clan present sat down to a funeral feast. At this it
was the duty of the bards to rehearse the genealogy of the deceased, to
praise his achievements, and to lament his loss. It was then their duty to
give an exordium on the qualities of his successor, and express the
expectations of the clan as to his valour and other virtues. This done the
new chief rose in his place and demanded his father's sword. This was
always placed in his hand by the first man in the clan, and then the new
chief was hailed by the acclamation of all present as their leader in
peace and war." It is possible that this ceremony may have been mistaken
by some writers for an election.
2. I am not aware that
among West Highland clans a brother was ever preferred to a son. A search
in the pedigrees of West Highland families has revealed no single case of
a brother being so preferred to a son. The phrase becomes almost
monotonous: "He was succeeded by his eldest son."
3. In the MacLeod history,
the family with whose records I am better acquainted than with those of
any other, there are several instances, one as early as the fourteenth
century, of a son who was a minor succeeding, and the authority as chief
being exercised by a "tutor," generally an uncle of the young chief, and
this tutor invariably surrendered his office when the chief attained his
majority. I have no doubt that similar instances could be adduced from the
history of other families.
4. Several instances can be
given of an heiress succeeding to an estate when she had no brother, her
husband becoming the chief. About 1340, the daughter and sole heiress of
Nicolson of Assynt married Torquil MacLeod of Lewis, and carried the
estate into the Lewis family. About 1385 Janet and Isabel, daughters and
co-heiresses of John de Ergadia, married two brothers, Sir John and Sir
Robert Stewart, and brought the Lordship of Lorn into the Stewart family.
About 1469, Isabel, daughter of Sir John Stewart, carried the same
lordship into the Argyll family, having married the Earl of Argyll. Isabel
was the heiress because her brother was illegitimate, but her father at
the close of his life had actually legitimised him by marrying his mother.
The story of this marriage is a tragic one. As the bridal procession was
entering the church, Sir John was stabbed by some one who had an interest
in preventing the marriage. Though mortally wounded, Sir John was able to
go through the ceremony, and his son was legitimised. But there was a slur
on his birth, and that enabled Argyll to make good his claim to the
Lordship of Lorn. These cases are sufficient to show that, in West
Highland practice, females were not " altogether excluded from the
succession."
On the other hand, when
William, ninth Chief of MacLeod, died in 1553, the clan absolutely refused
to acknowledge the claims of his daughter Mary, who later on married
Campbell of Castle Swinny. The efforts of Argyll, her guardian, to obtain
the estates for her signally failed, and she finally resigned her claim,
her uncle becoming Chief, and obtaining possession of the estate. This
shows that, while the succession of females was sanctioned by West
Highland usage, it was not invariably allowed. I think that probably each
case was decided on its merits, the personal popularity of the heiress and
her husband, the character of the next male heir, and such matters as
these, being important factors in the decision which was arrived at.
If Skene's theories are
correct, the laws which governed the ownership of land and the succession
to dignities amongst the West Highlanders were very important results of
the Norse occupation.
But Skene is no longer
accepted by learned men as an infallible authority on these subjects. In
1921, Professor John MacNeill, a very distinguished historian, published a
book, entitled "Celtic Ireland." Unfortunately, I do not possess a copy of
this work, and it is not among the books in the only public library to
which I have access. Therefore, I have not been able to make myself
acquainted with the conclusions at which Professor MacNeill has arrived.
But a learned friend writes concerning this book as follows:— "The author
has a chapter on the ownership of land, in which he deals with the tribal
and communal ideas, and explodes them. He has another chapter on the Irish
law of succession. His work quite supersedes previous treatment. It is
work which could be done only by an Irishman who really knows the country
and its early literature."
Now that Skene's theories
have been discredited, it is possible that the Norse influence in forming
the land laws and rules of succession which prevailed in the West
Highlands may have been less strong than I previously supposed. But
considering how closely the Norse and West Highland codes of law resembled
each other, I think that probably the latter was to a great extent derived
from the former, and that in this, as in other matters, the Norse
influence was very strong.
But if the Norsemen
profoundly influenced the Celts in many directions, the Celts also
exercised a great influence over the Norsemen. As has been already pointed
out, the language of the Celts, as somewhat modified by Norse influence,
became the speech of the West Highlanders. I incline to the opinion that
the belief in fairies and water-kelpies, in magic and witchcraft, which
was so firmly held amongst our ancestors, is mainly due to the Celts, for
it is clear that they were a much more imaginative people than the
Norsemen. The "frith," which was a kind of divination used in the
Highlands to discover the whereabouts of an absent person, and which was
also an incantation by which a person could be made invisible, may have
been learnt from the Norsemen. The Sutherland traditions which describe
the way in which "Fearchar Leiche," the Gaelic name of the famous
physician Beaton, obtained his marvellous powers of diagnosing and healing
disease, is clearly derived from the Norse story of Sigurd, which I have
already related. Probably some other Highland superstitions may be traced
to a Norse origin, but on the whole I think that the imaginative side of
the West Highlander's character is mainly derived from his Celtic
ancestors.
Undoubtedly the most
important gift which the Celts bequeathed to their descendants was their
religion. They had been Christians for something like 300 years, when the
Norse settled amongst them, having learnt the truths of Christianity from
St Columba and his disciples. On the other hand the Norse invaders were
worshippers of Odin, Freya, and of all the gods of Valhalla. They were
inspired by an intense hatred of the White Christ, and how, or when, these
enemies of Christ became His servants, we cannot tell with any certainty.
The influence of the Christians amongst whom they lived no doubt had a
great effect, and in course of time the Norsemen in the Hebrides forsook
the service of their old gods, and accepted Christianity.
Thus, slowly and by
degrees, during the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, the Celts and
the Norsemen, living together, marrying with each other, influencing each
other in many ways, were drawing closer and closer together, and by the
beginning of the thirteenth century the two races had been welded into
one, and, to some extent, the Norse element had been absorbed in the
Celtic. But it must not be forgotten that the West Highlanders of to-day
are a hybrid race, and that, while they owe much to their Celtic
forebears, they also owe much to the hardy Norsemen who ruled over the
Isles for 400 years. |
