The book Arran; - Cook Clan

EARLY ARRAN 23
the proposal to sell the isles for 4000 marks down and 100
yearly—the Norway Annual J—and all who did not care to
leave were to be the subjects of the King of Scots : Orkney
and Shetland remaining to Norway.
The long, tangled tale of four hundred years was closed.
The northern ravens would never return, though they left
much that is not yet vanished or forgotten. The Gael
was to recover the upper hand in the west in blood as in
speech ; but the Norse strain had gone deep and wide enough
to leave evidence of close incorporation in ' viks ' and ' dales,'
in ' marklands ' and ' pennylands ' and ' farthing-lands,' in
name and custom and tale and belief. It makes its earliest
mark in Arran in the cheap little coin dropped in the grave
at Kings Cross ; in the eleventh century one Olaf (^labr=
6lafr) has cut his name in the Cell of St. Molaise in the Holy
Isle. Norse dominion is nearing its close when Vigleikr, the
Marshall of King Hakon {Vigleikr Stallari), cut his runes in
the same place in the memorable autumn of 1263 ; ^ and it
' The 'Annual ' was never regularly nor fully paid, and the arrears were slumped in
the dowry of the Danish princess who married James iii. in 1469. At the same time
Orkney and Shetland were pledged for a balance, but the Scots would never suffer
them to be redeemed.
* Since the publication of vol. i. the runes in the cave or rock-shelter of St.
Molaise on Holy Isle have been personally examined and re-read by Dr. Magnus
Olsen and Dr. Haakon Schetelig (July 1911), with the following results in correction
of those previously given from an inspection of photographs and rubbings (vol. i.
pp. 261-7). The new readings are these :
'
I. + nikulos [ + ] a haene + raeist. Nikulos d Hcene reist, 'Nicholas of
Haen cut (the runes).
II. suaein, the Old Norse man's name Sveinn,
III. onontr raeist ru[nar]. Qnondr reist rtl[nar], ' Qnondr cut the runes.'
IV. amudar, a dialectic form (from the south-east of Norway) corresponding
to the Old Norse man's name Amundr.
V. alabr, i.e. the Old Norse man's name Olafr. The inscription is older than
any of the other runic inscriptions in the Cell of St. Molaise. It dates
from the eleventh century.
VI. loan, Old Norse man's name Joan = John.
VII. m only, most likely an abbreviation ot Maria = \h.e Virgin Mary.
VIII. uigl?;ikr stallSxe rseisst. Vigleikr stallari reist, 'Vigleikr the stallari
[king's marshall] cut [the runes].'