Isles of the North

Isles of the North PDF

Author: Ian Mitchell

Publisher: Birlinn

Published: 2012-07-30

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 0857900994

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In the summer of 2002, Mitchell set sail aboard the 30-foot yacht Foggy Dew on a voyage that took him from his home through the Western Isles to Orkney and Shetland and on to the west coast of Norway. Against the backdrop of one of the world's most spectacular coastlines, he sailed up the Nordfjord, down to Bergen, then out to Utsira, and back home via Inverness. The object of his journey was more than just to enjoy a few contemplative drams during a summer at sea. In this sequel to his much acclaimed Isles of the West (1999), Mitchell continues his investigation into official Britain's failure to administer rural Scotland for the mutual benefit of people and nature. Ian Mitchell's narrative combines authoritative background information and personal interviews with local people, many enlivened by the measured dispensation of Scotland's most famous aid to creative thought. He shows how Norway, a country outside the EU and therefore in control of its own resources, has been able to give a wide measure of freedom to the sort of communities which in Scotland are subject to debilitating control by Edinburgh, London and Brussels. He points to many lessons which centralised, bureaucratic Britain could learn from its more democratic neighbour across the North Sea.

The Northern Isles

The Northern Isles PDF

Author: Alexander Fenton

Publisher: Dundurn

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 750

ISBN-13: 9781862320581

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The Northern Isles stand at a crossroads of North Atlantic Europe, subject to the competing influences of Scandinavia and Scotland. Sandy Fenton's detailed study of the material culture of Orkney and Shetland is combined with thorough linguistic analysis and is based on years of study and sifting of a mass of detail. Much of the material is new, based on extensive research by the author, on manuscript and other written sources and on knowledge freely imparted by many local inhabitants. It illuminates the complexity of numerous interlocking factors, draws a picture of a fascinating and varied existence and reveals the past not as a static tableau but a process of continuous change. This book recreates the physical environment in which the people lived, their crops and livestock, the harvest of the sea, their houses, the food they ate. These things dominated their lives and form the background which is the key to understanding the character of these fascinating islands. This major work has earned its place as a key contribution to European ethnology and won the Dag Stromback Award of the Royal Gustav Academy, Sweden.

Isles of Noise

Isles of Noise PDF

Author: Alejandra M. Bronfman

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2016-09-02

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1469628708

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In this media history of the Caribbean, Alejandra Bronfman traces how technology, culture, and politics developed in a region that was "wired" earlier and more widely than many other parts of the Americas. Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica acquired radio and broadcasting in the early stages of the global expansion of telecommunications technologies. Imperial histories helped forge these material connections through which the United States, Great Britain, and the islands created a virtual laboratory for experiments in audiopolitics and listening practices. As radio became an established medium worldwide, it burgeoned in the Caribbean because the region was a hub for intense foreign and domestic commercial and military activities. Attending to everyday life, infrastructure, and sounded histories during the waxing of an American empire and the waning of British influence in the Caribbean, Bronfman does not allow the notion of empire to stand solely for domination. By the time of the Cold War, broadcasting had become a ubiquitous phenomenon that rendered sound and voice central to political mobilization in the Caribbean nations throwing off what remained of their imperial tethers.

Englishes Around the World: General studies, British Isles, North America

Englishes Around the World: General studies, British Isles, North America PDF

Author: Edgar Werner Schneider

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9027248761

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The two volumes of Englishes around the World present high-quality original research papers written in honour of Manfred Görlach, founder and editor of the journal English World-Wide and the book series Varieties of English Around the World. The papers thematically focus on the field that Manfred Görlach has helped to build and shape. Volume 1 contains articles on general topics and studies of what might be termed “Old” Englishes, varieties of English that have been rooted in their respective regions for a long time and have been traditional focal points of scholarly study. The first section contains eight general and comparative papers (dealing with terminological matters or definitions of core concepts, historical issues, structural comparisons across a wide range of varieties); the second one has nine papers on dialects of English as used in the British Isles (covering England, Scotland, Ulster and Ireland); and finally, there are four contributions on North American varieties of English (including Southern English, African American Vernacular English, Newfoundland Vernacular English, and American English in a historical perspective). The thematic scope comprises the levels of lexis, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and orthography, as well as sociohistorical issues, the question of the evolution and transmission of dialects, various sources of evidence including literary dialect.

Northern Atlantic Islands and the Sea

Northern Atlantic Islands and the Sea PDF

Author: Andrew Jennings

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2017-05-11

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1443892688

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Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland and, to some extent, the Hebrides, share both a Nordic cultural and linguistic heritage, and the experience of being surrounded by the ever-present North Atlantic Ocean. This has been a constant in the islanders’ history, forging their unique way of life, influencing their customs and traditions, and has been instrumental in moulding their identities. This volume is an exploration of a rich, intimate and, at times, terrifying relationship. It is the result of an international conference held in April 2014, when scholars from across the North Atlantic rim congregated in Lerwick, Shetland, to discuss maritime traditions, islands in Old Norse literature, insular archaeology, folklore, and traditional belief. The chapters reflect the varied origins of the contributors. Icelanders are well represented, as are scholars based in Orkney and Shetland, indicating the strength of scholarship in these seemingly isolated archipelagos. Peripheral they may be to the UK, but they lie at the heart of the North Atlantic, at the intersection of British and Nordic cultures. This book will be of interest to scholars of a wide range of disciplines, such as those involved in island studies, cultural studies, Old Norse literature, Icelandic studies, maritime heritage, oceanography, linguistics, folklore, British studies, ethnology, and archaeology. Similarly, it will also appeal to researchers from a wide geographical area, particularly the UK, and Scandinavia, and indeed anywhere where there is an interest in the study of islands or the North Atlantic.

Last Places

Last Places PDF

Author: Lawrence Millman

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780618082483

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A classic of northern exploration and adventure, LAST PLACES is Lawrence Millman's marvelously told account of his journey along the ancient Viking sea routes that extend from Norway to Newfoundland. Traveling through landscapes of transcendent desolation, Millman wandered by way of the Shetland Islands, the Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador. His way was marked by surprising human encounters--with a convicted murderer in Reykjavik, an Inuit hermit in Greenland, an Icelandic guide who leads him to a place called Hell, and a Newfoundlander who warns him about the local variant of the Abominable Snowman. By turns earthy and lyrical, LAST PLACES is an ebullient celebration of the exotic North.

The Viking Isles

The Viking Isles PDF

Author: Paul Murton

Publisher: Birlinn

Published: 2019-10-10

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781780275802

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A beautifully illustrated personal account of Paul Murton's travels in the Viking north of Scotland.