North Atlantic Island Herstories and Histories

Women have often taken leading roles in island communities, particularly when their men have been off-island seeking employment as fishermen, whalers, serving in the navy, or as merchant seamen. However, despite life in the North Atlantic islands not being possible without the equal contribution of women and men, this is not always reflected in the stories that are told.

The research in this book, which reflects the interests of the 2021 online St Magnus Conference, where Herstories outweighed Histories, foregrounds the central but often underrepresented roles of women across the islands of the North Atlantic. Spanning archaeology, labour history, creative practice, literature, and biography, the volume reveals the many ways in which women shaped island life from the Iron Age to the modern era, across islands including Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Northern Isles of Scotland. This multidisciplinary approach brings together historians, archaeologists, folklorists, scholars of cultural and gender studies, literary researchers, and a filmmaker to illuminate the breadth of women’s labour, leadership, and cultural expression in maritime island settings. The result is a richly layered portrayal of women’s presence, influence, and cultural legacy across the island worlds of the North Atlantic.

List of Illustrations

Introduction
Andrew Jennings and Alexis Jennings

I Archaeology

Time, Space, and Intersecting Identities at Scatness Broch Village
Simon Clarke
Three Medieval Kirks in Shetland and their Reputed Female Founders
Jenny Murray, Allen Fraser, and Paul Everett

II Women and Work

Skyr Tactics: Female Power Through Protein in Medieval Iceland
Beth Rogers
The Queen of Handa Island: Shieling Practice and the Lives of Women
Gemma Smith
Reconstructing Narratives: Women’s Lives in Nineteenth-Century Newfoundland
Pam Perkins
Drams and Dames: Exploring the History of Women in Creating and Developing the Highland and Island Scotch Whisky Industry
Gailann Riven Peake

III Women and the Creative Arts

‘The Work They Say is Mine – Women in Shetland’: Personal Memories of the Film by its Director
Rosie Gibson
‘Who’s Your Mother?’: Women Making Art on Prince Edward Island
Laurie Brinklow

IV Literature 

Olavus Pauper Hethlandinus ‘Poor Olaf, the Shetlander’: The First Known Shetlandic Poet
Andrew and Alexis Jennings
Women From Thule: Two Shetland Poets of the Napoleonic Wars, Margaret Chalmers (1758–after 1823) and Dorothea Primrose Campbell (1793–1863)
Jane Rendall
Men Only! Ida Pfeiffer, Pliny Miles, and Travels in Iceland in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Sumarliði R. Ísleifsson
Narrative Celebrations of Femininity in the Short Stories of George Mackay Brown
Halszka Leleń
It’s Not All About Jimmy Perez: Portrait of a Professional Woman. The Case of Rhona Laing, Procurator Fiscal, in Ann Cleves’ Shetland Novels
Jack Dyce

V Biography

Women from the Northern and Western Islands in The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
Sian Reynolds and Rose Pipes

Conclusion. Combing the Gold from the Tangle: A Harvest of Island Herstories
Andrew Jennings and Alexis Jennings

Index