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Pytheas "had heard that it is the most northerly of the British Isles, six days to the north of Britain and close almost one day only from the "Sea Ice", if it was not conceived as "Congealed Sea" (...) in which land and sea and everything floats, which is in a kind of jumble that holds all these things together, something that cannot be exceeded by men and ships (...) there is habitable land up to the "extreme parts around Thule".
Pytheas is the Greek geographer, navigator and astronomer of Marseilles (then Massilia) who, at the end of the fourth century B.C., made his famous and adventurous journey to the European boreal lands. Up to what was defined as the island of Thule or Ultima Thule: "extreme inhabited and habitable region, beyond which it was the domain of the sea, the fog, the storms and the ice". According to some, Thule would be identifiable in the Shetland Islands. According to others, it could be Norway, or even Iceland. The great Ptolemy in his Geography of 150 A.D. is in favour of the Shetland Islands3, north of Scotland "and on the mainland of Eurasia, near the same latitude, the Hyperborean Mountains, from which the Volga (Rha) springs flow".
I do not know if this northern archipelago is the Thule, more or less "Ultima", of the adventurous Greek. Undoubtedly for me, the island of Mainland represented the northernmost point touched in my life. Especially since the particular geo-astronomical aspect was immediately confirmed, if it was still needed, by the harsh winter climate. Connected by a frost so intense as to penetrate the bones. Often accompanied by impressive gusts of wind, suddenly able to push you. A worrying thing, indeed, especially when I went to admire the beautiful and impressive cliffs of the island overhanging the sea. So much to compel me, precautionary, to observe them from the edge, staying carefully "belly on the ground"...
And to say that, the year after, not even nine months away, I would even have reached the closest point to the Magnetic Pole. In Resolute Bay (Lat 74 ° 41 'N), in the Canadian High Arctic, during my anthropological survey among the Eskimos (Inuit). Then, twenty years later, on two occasions, in the Norwegian Arctic Islands of Svalbard, I would have crossed that latitude. First in Longyearbyen (Lat 78 ° 13' N), the capital, afterwards in Ny-Ålesund (Lat 78 ° 55' N), the historic "King’s Bay", on the occasion of the inauguration of the Italian Station Airship Italia.
Yet in 1982 I could feel more than satisfied with what, at the time, was my personal record. For the first time in my life I, who had carried out fieldworks only in tropical countries, could even think of finding myself more far north, than I really was. Like the numerous protagonists of the adventurous exploring and ethno-anthropological expeditions, that fascinated me so much as a boy.
The idea of writing this book, making it available to a wider audience of readers, compared to those who had been able to read my articles on the subject, published in magazines and newspapers, came watching some episodes of: Shetland, a television series, produced by ITV for BBC Scotland. The protagonist was a police detective from Lerwick who, of course, successfully investigated the murders perpetrated in Mainland, the main island of the archipelago. Among other things, originally he was from Fair Island, the southernmost island, halfway between Shetland and Orkney.
Unexpectedly I felt a strong sense of nostalgia, looking again on the screen that environment, so completely different from the Mediterranean. Almost always characterized by a chiaroscuro of unusual, albeit singular, beauty. Which, soon left aside, after a strong shower of rain. Leaving space to vivid colours, which paradoxically make their appearance, one by one. The majestic panoramas, the gigantic cliffs overlooking the sea, the low clouds, the decidedly subarctic atmosphere, reminded me that those islands could really represent, about 2,500 years ago, the last habitable land of the oecumene. Because, even at a not so excessive latitude, I could even have the good luck to admire, high in the night sky, the shattering and phantasmagorical Northern Lights of the Ultima Thule...
That Nordic journey, carried out above all in a prohibitive season (December), would have been for me the very first approach to an ecological-cultural reality, radically different from all those that, until then, I knew (Sudan, Kenya, Mexico). That, the following year, with my survey among six Inuit communities of the Canadian Arctic, it would be strengthened. Since, in the mythical North West Passage, I would have gone even further north, not too far from the Magnetic Pole. As I have already mentioned...
Among other things, in those Scottish islands the former Africanist, as I was, would "meet" the Vikings for the first time. An initial approach, which later should have been consolidated. Since the Shetlands unknowingly represented the first of many "steps" of my future wandering, on the trail of the so-called Viking “Overseas Movement”, which would lead me: still to the South-West (Orkney, Scotland and North-Eastern England, Outer Hebrides, Fær Øer, Dublin), to the North (Svalbard), to the West (Newfoundland, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador), to the South (Normandy), to the East (Russia).
From the foundational point of view of the Maritime Communities, that later I would approach, the "Vikings" constituted only one of the different aspects, present in the whole picture, even if among the most important and adventurous. Thanks to that study trip or, if you like, reconnaissance, before to the Shetlands, then to the southern Orkneys, even if unintentionally would have been thrown the first seed of what later would be transformed into my North Atlantic Maritime Community Program.
Communities that, even if spatially very distant from each other, have many common features. In fact, in addition to the presence of the Scandinavian raiders, who later became peaceful settlers, when we talk about North Atlantic Islands, we cannot fail to mention their geo-cultural isolation, sometimes even linguistic (for example: Fær Øer and Iceland). Again, from the glottological point of view, the islands can be "dichotomized", because it is possible to distinguish those of substantially Celtic-Gaelic derivation, from those of originally Scandinavian-Viking language and culture. Furthermore, their distance from the mother country must be underlined. So, the difficulty, or the total absence, of the maritime connections, especially in a more or less distant past. This often was added to the shortage or lack of essential supplies, especially food (in winter, but also in case of repeated and negative weather conditions). Capable of provoking recurrent collective existential crises. Enough to make even impossible to survive. So that, as extrema ratio, repeatedly they would resort to the evacuation of their inhabitants. As in the case of the Outer Hebrides (island of Mingulay), or of the far more remote island of the "bird-men" of St Kilda. Otherwise, it was thought seriously to clear all the islanders (Iceland).
Based on the universe around, both terrestrial and marine, over time communities have sought to diversify their economies. So, even in consideration of the difficult conditions of the ocean waters, the islanders have often preferred to devote themselves to the hard cultivation of small plots of land (crofts), to obtain the necessary to survive. Rather than engaging in fishing. Which, when it happened, generally was only coastal, and faced with modest boats. Fact also due to the almost total lack of trees, which went hand in hand with the gradual loss, over time, of the indispensable nautical know-how. In fact, this was an insurmountable deterrent, which in most cases would have prevented them from going on to build vessels able to sail the ocean.
Thus, from the historical-cultural point of view, the Shetland islanders have been defined as "peasants with a boats". Compared to their Orkney "neighbours", considered "fishermen who cultivate". Cultivations in both cases associated with sheep breeding, both for wool and for meat. To which in several archipelagos fowling is added, for the presence of innumerable sea birds, which nest in the islands, for meat and eggs. As well as for the feathers, essential for cushions and mattresses padding, etc. In the years, the Shetland communities have gone through genuine "Cultural Revolutions": four, from the middle of the nineteenth century to today! The penultimate of which, induced by the discovery and exploitation of oil in the North Sea, with the drilling platforms, saw me in 1982 as a witness.
I have dedicated the main chapters to the archipelago as a whole, to Mainland, the largest of the islands, and to the capital Lerwick. I added another chapter on Fair Isle, which I only observed flying over it with the plane, which took me to Orkneys. Since it is an important island. Not just because the model of the famous Shetland pullover comes from there. But for the reason that it was the scene of an innumerable series of shipwrecks, both of foreign ships, such as El Gran Grifón, belonging to the Spanish Great Armada, and of many island boats, in the so-called Year of the Disaster!
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| Engraving by Jules Noël, 1873, representing the shipwrecks of the Invincible Armada in 1588 |
Naturally I have integrated and updated the statistical, economic and demographic data included in the volume. In order to offer the reader a picture, as complete as possible, of the "situation" of the archipelago, as it appears at the end of 2018.
I also dedicated a chapter to Durham, where I made a "stopover", before continuing the journey to the islands. A city in the north of England, that shares many aspects of its history, both with the Viking World, and with the same Shetland.
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