Ragna's Islands
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ragnasislands.bsky.social
Ragna's Islands
@ragnasislands.bsky.social
1K followers 300 following 52 posts
A project researching the place-names of Orkney & Fair Isle built around a new translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney by @judithjesch.bsky.social
Find us at https://nott.ac/placenames
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'University academic translates Norse saga to uncover Viking history of northern Scotland'! Find out more: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/norse-s...
Colour photo of Judith on a boat setting off to explore places featuring in The Saga of the Earls of Orkney. Colour photo of the cover of the new translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney.
November 12, 2025 at 11:48 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
The Ragna's Islands Project has come to an end... but it lives on!... in these beautiful booklets (one for Fair Isle, one for North Ronaldsay, & one for Papay)... which judithjesch.bsky.social unboxed today! #Orkney #PlaceNames #OrkneyingaSaga
September 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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The Ragna’s Islands project has now come to an end. BUT it is not the end! Read our final blogpost for exciting news about forthcoming publications including the new translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney by @judithjesch.bsky.social and other resources! blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/ragnasisland...
Montage of photos of activities carried out during the project including oral history interviews, 'lost places' walks, Saga readings, and community and school activities.
July 25, 2025 at 9:50 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
Left Hrólfsey for Þingavöll early this morning, before making our way to Kirkuvágr & thence to Hafnarvágr for the stretch across the Péttlandsfjörðr to Þórsá in Katanes.

The last of the Ragna place-names team have left the Orkneyjar... for now... #PlaceNames #OrkneyingaSaga #Orkney
Colour photo of the sunrise in Wasbister, Rousay.
April 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
One of the #Ragna team is off this week after the fab project workshop in #Kirkwall, looking at the #PlaceNames of #Rousay! AKA Hrolfsey in #OrkneyingaSaga - ON Hrólfs-ey ‘Hrólfr’s island’. Here's Saviskaill, ON sœvar-skáli, 'sea-skaill' i.e 'hall or house by the sea' (Marwick).
Colour photo of a lane leading down to a croft, with a bay beyond, and a heather covered hill in the background.
April 6, 2025 at 6:58 PM
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The Ragna team have been exploring the #OrkneyingaSaga places of Egilsay and Wyre today!
March 31, 2025 at 7:56 PM
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Spent the morning in the fab @orkneylibrary.bsky.social #archives today... yes... thinking about #PlaceNames... here are a couple of rather nice spellings of two places that occur in #OrkneyingaSaga: Rapness and Orphir
Archival document showing the place-name Ropnes Archival document showing the place-name Horpher.
March 28, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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Guess where we are!
Photographs of two street name signs and one house name sign: St Rognvald's Way, Viking Place, and Hrossey.
March 25, 2025 at 4:08 PM
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Date for your diary! If you're in Kirkwall on Tuesday 1st April, come along to our FREE #PoetryReading at the St. Magnus Centre at 7:30pm! With poets Charlotte Eichler and Lydia Harris and #saga poetry from @judithjesch.bsky.social! Book your place (details on the poster)!
Poster for a poetry reading featuring a black and white photo of an old stone pier stretching into a bay (courtesy and Copyright of Jonathan Ford). The details of the event reads: 'Twisted Ribbons of Song. Poetry composed in and inspired by Orkney and Shetland. An evening of poetry with Judith Jesch reading some poems from her forthcoming translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney alongside Charlotte Eichler and Lydia Harris reading their recent poems inspired by islands. St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, Tuesday 1st April: 19:30. OPEN TO ALL AGES & FREE. Introduced by Donna Heddle, Professor of Northern Heritage and Director of the Institute of Northern Studies, UHI. Email: matthew.blake@nottingham.ac.uk
March 3, 2025 at 8:04 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
Not long until our 'Islands and Islandness' #Poetry workshop with Charlotte Eichler! Find out more and book your spot for Thursday 20th February (7.30-9pm): blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/ragnasisland...
Colour photo of a decaying blue and white wooden boat hauled up into a noust (a place for storing boats above the tide line) in long grass above a rocky bay on the island of Fair Isle.
February 2, 2025 at 8:50 AM
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Swona lies in the Pentland Firth on the ferry route over to St Margaret's Hope. Was the land where wild cattle now roam named for a fairly wild species of pig, or a Viking called Sveinn? Find out in our blog: 'Swona: A pig of a name?' blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/ragnasisland...
Black and white aerial photograph of the island of Swona (courtesy of William Annal, Swona Heritage).
February 2, 2025 at 8:44 AM
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Islands and Islandness: a Poetry Workshop with Charlotte Eichler.

On Thursday 20th February (7.30-9pm) Charlotte, the Ragna's Islands poet in residence, will be running an online
#poetry
workshop with an 'islands' theme!

Find out more and book your spot! blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/ragnasisland...
Photo of a poetry book cover called 'Swimming Between Islands' by Charlotte Eichler. The Title is in red capital letters on a blue-grey background of a body of water stretching to a line of trees with mountains behind. Photo of Charlotte sitting on grass next to a low stone wall. She is dressed warmly with a woolly hat and making notes in a notebook.
January 26, 2025 at 8:46 AM
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What does guest-blogger @em-ehx.bsky.social make of the 'carrot-shaped' #Orkney island place-name #Egilsay?! Find out in our latest blog! shorturl.at/UnbgU
St Magnus Church, Egilsay, with Rousay visible in the background © Tom Fairfax. Colour photo of a stone church on a lightly cloudy day. It has a distinctive round tower. The church sits in the middle ground with an unmettled lane leading to it. The background is sea with hills beyond.
November 26, 2024 at 9:45 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
We also have earlier spellings for the #Papay Hookin: Howquyne 1601, Vquoy 1618, Howquoy 1634, Howkin 1636, Uquinland 1654, Uqunland 1658, Ouking 1740. It seems to have been a place of some importance since it appears on Blaeu’s 1654 map as 'Ouquin' #Orkney #PlaceNames
Detail from Blaeu's 1654 map of Orkney showing the island of Papa Westray (Papay). The map is printed in black ink and then hand-coloured. The paper has on which it is printed is sepia with age and the island is shaded yellow and pink. There are several place-names on the map. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/view/00000495
November 22, 2024 at 4:53 PM
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Some #Orkney bird #placenames from the 1st ed. OS of #NorthRonaldsay: Scarfie Geo, Scarf Skerrie & Doo Geo, with Marwick's thoughts about Saedar 'A great resort (and nesting place) of cormorants', from ON setur 'a seat, residence' here interpreted as the sitting-place of cormorants on Seal Skerry!
Image showing two close-ups of place-names from the first edition Ordnance Survey in North Ronaldsay, Orkney featuring the the bird place-names Scarfie Geo, Scarf Skerrie, and Doo Geo. There is also an entry from Hugh Marwick's 'North Ronaldsay Place-Names' (1924, about the place-name Saedar. It reads, "Saedar,.The highest part of Seal Skerry–rarely covered even at high water. A great resort (and nesting place) of cormorants. There are two possible original forms of this word. 1. ON setur, pl. of seta, a seat, residence; here interpreted as the sitting-place of the cormorants. 2. ON sœtur, pl. of sœta a midden, dunghill; equally appropriate from the habits of these birds."
November 19, 2024 at 9:13 AM
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Here's a blog we wrote while visiting the Hookin/gs of #Papay & #NorthRonaldsay in the summer! Thanks to our wonderful project #volunteers we have some early(ish) spellings! Here they are! But what does Hookin/g mean? Find out in our blog: shorturl.at/EAizI
Four manuscript forms of the North Ronaldsay place-name Hookin. The spellings include Hou-king, Hooking, Hakin, and Howkin.
November 14, 2024 at 9:17 AM
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Can the name 'Weelie's Taing' give us a clue about what this intriguing landscape feature might be?! Is it natural... or a fish trap... or #Orkney's most northerly #Norse #harbour?!
Find out in our blog: shorturl.at/iyTey #Papay #PlaceNames Image courtesy and © of www.jonathanford.org
Aerial view of Weelie's Taing, Papa Westray, showing a tidal pool shore feature. Image courtesy and Copyright of Jonathan Ford (www.jonathanford.org). Read our blog: https://shorturl.at/iyTey
November 13, 2024 at 7:39 AM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
Whilst concentrating on the saga place-names we are additionally focussing on the three islands of Fair Isle, Papay and North Ronaldsay, each linked in various ways in the saga, which tells us of a formidable woman called Ragna who owned both North Ronaldsay and Papay.
Detail from Blaeu's 1654 map of Orkney showing the island of North Ronaldsay. The map is printed in black ink and then hand-coloured. The paper has on which it is printed is sepia with age and the island is shaded green and pink. There are several place-names on the map.
November 6, 2024 at 4:59 PM
ragnasislands.bsky.social
Ragna’s Islands is a research project built around a new annotated translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney (Orkneyinga Saga) by @judithjesch.bsky.social due for publication in 2025. In the build up to publication we are researching the place-names of Orkney. We've written a few blogs...
Black and white logo reading 'Ragna's islands' and with the outlines of the three islands of Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay and Fair Ilse in a circle.
November 6, 2024 at 4:57 PM