Peripheral Visions: Engaging Nordic Literary Traditions on Orkney and Shetland

This article focuses on the reception of Nordic literature in the literatures of the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland. It introduces the work of Shetland author James John Haldane Burgess (1862-1927) and the Orcadian author George Mackay Brown (1921-1996), evaluating in what ways both writers usse their geographically peripheral position as a unique vantage point from which to reframe Nordic literature. By re-orientating the Scottish Islands from the periphery of Britain to the centre of important scenes in Nordic history, the two authors construct a new sense of both geographical and cultural place. This approach allows the modern boundaries of the Nordic world to be extended, and for a new and complex third space to emerge, where the islands form a connection between the Nordic and Anglo-Celtic realms.