page_title: Earldom of Orkney
hierarchical_section_title: Earldom of Orkney
caption_attribution_description: Map of Europe in 998
context_page_description: The Earldom of Orkney was a Norse feudal dignity in Scotland which had its origins from the Viking period. In the ninth and tenth centuries it covered more than the Northern Isles and included Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and Sutherland. The ruling position of Jarl or Earl of Orkney was heritable.
  Orkney and Shetland lie off the northernmost tip of Caithness on the modern day Scottish mainland. The Picts came to Orkney during the Bronze Age, and the archaeological data shows that there were people living there prior to the Vikings, who came to Orkney probably by the latter part of the 8th century, although this is disputed. Norse Vikings probably either came to the islands first as farmers seeking land or as warriors who were claiming territory and riches, or both, as was common with Viking conquests elsewhere. The question of whether the Picts were completely massacred by the settling Vikings, migrated away, or were gradually assimilated, in peaceful coexistence, is a matter of contention. However, aside from traces of their lives there, their culture did not endure in the early history or character of Orkney.
context_section_description: The Earldom of Orkney was a Norse feudal dignity in Scotland which had its origins from the Viking period. In the ninth and tenth centuries it covered more than the Northern Isles (Norðreyjar) and included Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and Sutherland. The ruling position of Jarl or Earl of Orkney was heritable.
  Orkney and Shetland lie off the northernmost tip of Caithness on the modern day Scottish mainland. The Picts came to Orkney during the Bronze Age, and the archaeological data shows that there were people living there prior to the Vikings, who came to Orkney probably by the latter part of the 8th century, although this is disputed. Norse Vikings probably either came to the islands first as farmers seeking land or as warriors who were claiming territory and riches, or both, as was common with Viking conquests elsewhere. The question of whether the Picts were completely massacred by the settling Vikings, migrated away, or were gradually assimilated, in peaceful coexistence, is a matter of contention. However, aside from traces of their lives there, their culture did not endure in the early history or character of Orkney. 
  By the 12th century, Orkney was under Norwegian control and by the 13th century, the Orkneyingasaga was written in Iceland, providing one of the earliest and most repeated versions of the history of Norse life on these isles. The Orkneyingasaga is largely fictional however and was not, being written in Iceland, any sort of primary source. Instead, it should be culled for historical details with great care and these data should be matched and compared against data from other sources.
caption: Europe in 998, with the Earldom of Orkney including large areas of the Scottish mainland
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