Project Gutenberg's Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time, by James Gray

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Title: Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time
or, The Jarls and The Freskyns

Author: James Gray

Release Date: May 18, 2005 [EBook #15856]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS IN SAGA-TIME
OR,
THE JARLS AND THE FRESKYNS

BY JAMES GRAY, M.A. OXON.

EDINBURGH OLIVER & BOYD. 1922
STROMNESS:
PRINTED BY W.R. RENDALL.

PREFACE.

Originally delivered as a Presidential Address to The Viking Society
for Northern Research, the following pages, as amplified and revised,
are published mainly with the object of interesting Sutherland and
Caithness people in the early history of their native counties, and
particularly in the three Sagas which bear upon it as well as on that
of Orkney and Shetland at a time regarding which Scottish records
almost wholly fail us.

When, however, these records are extant, use has been made of them
together with later books upon them, of which a list follows, and to
which references are given in the notes.

A special effort has been made to deal with the vexed question of the
succession to the Caithness Earldom after Earl John's death in
1231, with the pedigree of the first known ancestors of the House of
Sutherland, and with the mystery of the descent of Lady Johanna of
Strathnaver.

Acknowledgments of assistance received are tendered to the writers of
the books above referred to, but thanks are specially due to Mr.
A.W. JOHNSTON, Founder and Past President of the Viking Society, for
numerous hints, and for making the Index; to Mr. JON STEFANNSON for
reading the manuscript; and to Mr. ALAN O. ANDERSON, whose knowledge
of the English and Scottish Records of the period is as accurate as it
is extensive, and who has made several valuable suggestions.

But for the opinions expressed no one save the writer is responsible,
and, where records are scanty, much has necessarily been left to
conjecture.

J.G.

53 MONTAGU SQ