Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS. 29
It is scarcely necessary to say that this is a very de-
fective portion of history as well as a very obscure one,
since it commences at a late period. It is nearly a blank
down to 1060 or thereabouts : but thence to about 1260,
is that portion of the Norwegian period which admits of
illustration. From 1266 to 1306, the days of Bruce, it
is again a blank ; and it is not less so from his time
down to 1423, the reign of James the first. Nor is
it much more, thenceforwards to that of Mary: the very
few transactions which Scottish history has recorded of
these islands, appearing at wide intervals, and, when
they do appear, explaining little. Neither is this history
free from contradictions on which antiquaries and histo-
rians are still at variance, and on which mere authority
or opinion is of no weight. Hailes, indeed, who has ex-
tricated so much of ancient Scottish history, an antiquary
of a class of which it were well if there were more, seems
to have given it up in despair. He says that the history
of the Western Islands and of Orkney is involved in
darkness, and that to investigate it would be a business
of much time and labour. That there is a large portion
of it which will now never be discovered, is certain; but
that is no reason why we should not attempt to fill up
that blank of about two centuries on which information
can be procured, and which is the most important, as
including the chief period of the settled Norwegian
dominion of the Isles. How utterly this has been mis-
apprehended, or forgotten, or misrepresented, by our
historians, is well known ; and how important it is, will
soon appear. It is to be regretted that this able anti-
quary did not undertake it ; and that he did not, is an
additional excuse I for attempting to sketch the only
blank which will probably ever be filled in this obscure
portion of our history. As it is the history of Norway