Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre, pour ce que rire est le propre de l’homme
“It’s better to write about laughter than tears, because laughter is what humans do”
Rabelais, Gargantua
(Well there might be a few serious bits)
My two favourite artefacts found in Orkney both Viking-age brooches, and both are thought to have originated in Ireland. One comes from a hoard, the other from a burial. Although they are slightly damaged, reconstruction shows that they were very beautiful when they were in use.
The Skaill brooch is a penannular silver thistle brooch. It comes from a hoard of silver objects discovered in 1858 near St Peters Kirk, at Skaill, Sandwick, on West Mainland, by a boy digging up a rabbit hole. Alas, there were no archaeologists at that time to call in, and the hoard was dug up by local people and later reassembled by local antiquarians. It consisted of 8kg of brooches, neck and arm rings, pins, ingots, hacksilver, ring money; and 21 Arab coins, which allowed its dating to the late 10th century CE. The size of the brooch is not reported in any of the sources to which I have had access, but thistle brooches, while varying a lot in size, are usually around 20cm in diameter by 52cm long.
The Westness brooch was found in the grave of a wealthy Viking woman at Westness on the island of Rousay. The grave was discovered by accident in 1963 by a farmer burying a dead cow, who fortunately notified the archaeologists. The stone-built grave was in a Viking cemetery and is that of a young woman who probably died in childbirth, as it also contained the bones of a newborn infant. It contained many rich grave goods. This brooch was probably intended for fastening a cloak or shawl, and was more elaborately decorated than the Skaill brooch. It was 175mm long, silver-gilt decorated with zoomorphic gold filigree, large amber studs and red glass inlay. The amber studs were already missing when it was placed in the grave. Although the grave is believed to be early 9th century, the brooch is thought to have been made in the mid-8th century, so that it was 100 years old when it was buried with the young woman.
Both of these brooches are in the National Museum of Scotland. They are on display and you can access the collections database to see images of them online.