From Starafjall to Starling Hill - Scottish Place-Name Society

5. Place-name elements
NG. To me, this is another indication that the Atlantic colonies developed
their own naming traditions, cf. bister 5.5.3.
5.5.14. skaill
The traditional pronunciation is /skil, skjil/, modern /skeil/ 16 . The
origin of skaill is ON skáli, denoting ‘main building on the farm,
hall’ but also ‘primitive buildings for temporary use’. The latter
sense is common in the Danelaw (Ekwall 1936: 403f., Fellows-
Jensen 1985: 50) and similarly in Iceland and Norway (Jónsson
1911: 495, NGIndl.: 74). 17 In Orkney, however, skáli-names (ca 35
altogether) normally refers to central farms (OFN: 238).
There is normally only one skaill-farm in each parish, often located
close to a church. But in spite of their central location, no
more than one third of the skaill-farms are skatted and Skaill never
occurs as a tunship name. Marwick suggests that the skális were
halls erected “immediately after the first phase of ‘land-taking’ was
over” (OFN: 240). Thomson (1995: 55) regards the establishment of
skális to be contemporary with the organisation of the church, i.e.
the late 11 th and early 12 th century, and since skális were associated
with an ON aristocratic way of life, the place-name element did not
survive the saga period. 18 The coining of Langskaill can possibly be
dated to the 12 th century, corroborating the later dating. The Orkn-
Saga always referred to it as (the farm in) Gareksey, and Langskaill,
referring to Svein Asleivssons’ large drinking skáli (OrknSaga ch
105) appears to have been attached to the farm after Sveins’s death
ca. 1171. (Thomson 1995: pp 56).
Skaill-names display a large amount of stereotypy, the standard
forms being simplex Skaill or compound Langskaill. The latter supports
the reference of skaill to an actual building, as opposed to
16 The phonetic development of skáli is exceptional (á normally gives /o˘/),
possibly influenced by the stable written form Skail(l). Cf. the pronunciation
/kil, kjil/ for Sc. kail ‘cabbage’.
17 It is rare as a generic in Norway, the only example found in NG is
Reppeskaal (NG 6: 348) and the parish name Gildeskaal.
18 Windy Skaill in Deerness is a late analogical formation. Here, skaill is used
in a derogatory sense in the same way as hall in Drytha’, Crab Ha’.
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