Kinship connections and the Earldom of Orkney c. 900–1263Tools Fairfax, Tom (2025) Kinship connections and the Earldom of Orkney c. 900–1263. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
AbstractThis thesis investigates the kinship connections of the Orkney earldom from literary and historical perspectives. Using Social Network Analysis tools, this thesis considers the connections between the 500+ individuals featured in Orkneyinga saga. It discusses what the kinship connections in Orkneyinga saga tell us about how the text was constructed and how the kinship connections of the Orkney earldom changed over time. Chapter 1 examines how and why kinship connections were made, drawing on perspectives from other sagas, contemporary societies, and network theory. Chapter 2 explores how these relationships were memorialised, considering the relationships between genealogical information, laws, literature, and the landscape. Chapters 3 and 4 are a close analysis of the kinship connections in Orkneyinga saga. Chapter 3 focuses on connections within the earldom, while Chapter 4 examines connections to foreign powers. Chapter 5 builds on this analysis to highlight people linked to the family networks of the text who are well positioned to have been informants for Orkneyinga saga. This thesis illustrates that earls of Orkney used different kinds of kinship connections for different political purposes. It finds that kinship connections were remembered for various reasons: to structure sagas, or to create a sense of prestige or identity. It argues that Orkneyinga saga is a partial account of Orcadian history, told from the perspective of a select few families. Finally, it suggests that Orkneyinga saga is a repository of family traditions which were transferred to saga compilers in Iceland and Norway through informants related to the people in the text.
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