TAP Field Report No. 5 A survey of Shetland's gallow hills Joris ...

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 48 The Hanging Stone on GallowsHill near Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire. Photo:drew/amj http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/12294/gallows_hill_hanging_stone.html#images(accessed November 7, 2011).called Hanging or Hangman’s stone can befound all across Great-Britain and Ireland(Crawford 1922; Grinsell 1985). 33 The nameeither refers to their declination, or indeedto a place of execution or gibbet site. In manycases, there is a local tradition of a thief, whowas accidentally strangled at the stone as hisbooty (usually a sheep or a deer) fell on theother side of it, drawing the thief up againstthe stone by the rope, by which he held hisloot. As O.G.S. Crawford noted, the story probablyrefers to the gallows, which ended the lifeof many a (sheep) thief. Some of the HangingStones are deinitely too small to have beenused as a gibbet themselves, and even the biggerstanding stones may not have been verypractical for this purpose. Instead, the stonesseem to have been ancient boundary markers.As mentioned before, gallows were usually locatedat judicial boundaries all across Europe.Their spatial association with ancient anddistinct boundary markers such as standingstones or burial mounds not only conirmedthe boundary in a strong way, but also justi-ied the authority of those who controlled theplace by claiming its ancient origin.DiscussionIn conclusion, 15 sites have been suggestedas possible places of execution in Shetland.Nine are called Gallow Hill (although two ofthem are marked by different names on OSmaps), while four sites bear names whichmay be related to the Old Norse word for gallows,gálgi. Of the latter sites, two are recalledas hanging places in local traditions, while theWilgi Geos in Northroe present an unlikelysite for a public execution place and shouldprobably not be included in this list. The tworemaining sites have been referred to as GallowsKnowe and Hanger Heog by local residentsat some point.In itself, these different names are interesting.According to the Shetland Place NameProject, 95% of all place names in Shetlandare of Norse origin. Hence, it is surprisingthat most of the suggested places of executionbear an English name. There could be severalreasons for this:A. Since the English gallow-names areeasier to identify, the mapping may simplybe biased towards these, while not all of theolder names may have been identiied yet.The gallow-names are more striking than theNorse counterparts, not only because of theirmeaning, but also since they stand out amongthe vast majority of placenames of Old-Norseorigin. The latter are much harder to interpret.However, the number of alleged places ofexecution in Shetland already is surprisinglyhigh considering the size and population densityof the islands, and unless the sites weresuccessively used for short periods, it seemsunlikely that many remain to be discovered.Moreover, this argument does not explainwhy some of the sites kept their Norse name,while others got an English name.B. The gallows formed such an impressiveand important element in the landscapethat the name of the execution sites was‘translated’ as the old Norn language, a localNorse dialect, was replaced by a Scottishdialect. Norn is believed to have been extinctsince the late 18th century, but of course thiswas only the end of a gradual process. Thechange of language relects the shift of themain contacts with overseas areas, which in34