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Aug 18, 2023Liked by Fiona Campbell-Howes

I am just as nerdy as you, which is probably why I found this your most exciting blog post so far! Obviously Sigurd's death is my favourite bit (and it seems so specific that I find it hard to believe that there is NO truth in it) but I love all the placename misunderstandings... although when you say "This journey is easy to follow on a map", I agree that it is, but I always find when I read your blog posts that I need to open a map immediately (and today was an extreme example of this)... and then I spend the whole time going "argh, why can't I remember which bit is the Pentland Firth, that name is so familiar... ARGH, I'm an idiot, of course it's THAT bit". ARGH.

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Ahh, thanks Jocelyn, glad you liked it (and lovely to hear from you!) Sigurd's death is going to be the subject of the next post, as I have a (currently half-baked) idea about it. Yes, I should have put better maps into this one - the distances were so big I couldn't fit Orkney on to the map and still keep the detail of the other places.

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It's OK, it's easy enough to tab between the post and Google Maps! Looking forward to hearing the Sigurd theory ... and now I have the Huldigungsmarsch from Sigurd Jorsalfar stuck in my head - haven't thought of it in decades! I played it in wind band when I was about 10, and it's an annoyingly catchy tune! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3GD_ASOZaQ if you don't know it ...

... the version in my head is a LOT shorter than that, so I suspect the version I played was a much-simplified arrangement! I still remember the tune though :-)

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