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.
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.
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 :-)
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.
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.
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 :-)