The Pirate Queen (46 page)

McNeill, F. Marian.
The Silver Bough
(Edinburgh: Canongate, 1989). For details on the Cailleach.

Miller, James.
A Wild and Open Sea: The Story of the Pentland Firth
(Kirkwall: Orkney Press, 1994).

Sturluson, Snorri.
Edda,
translated and edited by Anthony Faulkes (London: Everyman, 1987). This text includes the poem about Finnie and Minnie (Fenja and Menja). An important discussion of whirlpools in Norse literature is also found in Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend's
Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time
(Boston: Godine, 1977). This dense, exciting, and often impenetrable text links stories of whirling quernstones at the edge of the sea to the astronomical fluctuations of the pole star. De Santillana and von Dechend quote the story of the bondswomen from Saxo Grammaticus's
History of the Danes
as well as from Snorri Sturluson. It is their contention that the poem in the voice of the giantess Menja is “the oldest extant document of skaldic literature, antedating Snorri's tale by far.” In this chapter and later, I have used the translation of this poem by I. Gollancz,
Hamlet in Iceland
(London: D. Nutt, 1898), preferring it to the Everyman edition. Icelandic scholar Gísli Sigurdssson helpfully pointed me in the direction of
Hamlet's Mill.

Chapter Four: Raising the Wind

Black, G. F. (collector), and Northcote W. Thomas (editor).
County Folklore Vol. III, Orkney and Shetland Islands
(London: D. Nutt, 1903; facsimile reprint, London: Llanerch Publishers/Folklore Society, 1994). For transcripts of the witch trials and superstitions about witches.

Green, Miranda J.
Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1992). For details on Nehalennia.

Larner, Christina.
Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in Scotland
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981). For information on witchcraft trials in Scotland. The quote from
Daemonologie
by King James comes from this source.

Mackintosh, W. R.
Around the Orkney Peat-Fires
(Kirkwall: Orcadian, 1914). For the story of the Westray Storm Witch. For details about clews and sacred threads used by sea witches.

Marwick, Ernest.
The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland
(London: B. T. Batsford, 1975).

McPherson, J. M.
Primitive Beliefs in the North-East of Scotland
(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929). The source of the verse, “I knock this rag . . .”

Nicolson, James R.
Shetland Folklore
(London: Robert Hale, 1981). For stories of the eggshell boats and knotted threads of the sea witches.

Scott, Sir Walter.
The Pirate
(Edinburgh: Constable, 1896). See also his journal of traveling through Stromness in
Voyage of the Pharos
(Hamilton: Scottish Library Association, 1998).

Walker, Barbara G.
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
(San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983). For details about the Norns, the Moirai, and St. Brigit.

Chapter Five: Herring Lassies

Anson, Peter F.
Fishing Boats and Fisher Folk on the East Coast of Scotland
(London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1930).

Telford, Susan. ‘
In a World a Wir Ane': A Shetland Herring Girl's Story
(Lerwick, Shetland: Shetland Times, 1998).

Chapter Six: A Man's World

Alexander, Michael.
Mrs. Fraser on the Fatal Shore
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971). For the story of Eliza Fraser.

Credland, Arthur G.
The Hull Whaling Trade: An Arctic Enterprise
(Beverley, East Yorkshire: Hutton, 1995). For information on Hull's whale-ship owners.

Linklater, Elizabeth.
A Child Under Sail
(Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson, 1977).

Stark, Suzanne J.
Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail
(London: Pimlico, 1998).

Troup, J. A.
The Ice-Bound Whalers
(Stromness: Stromness Museum, 1987). For information on the whaling industry in Orkney in the 1830s, specifically the disasters of the 1835-36 season. Christian Robertson's letter regarding the low wages for which men in Stromness would work is also quoted in this book.

Wheelwright, Julie.
Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
(London: Pandora, 1989). For a version of the story of Isobel (Isabelle) Gunn.

Wilson, Bryce.
Sea Haven: Stromness in the Orkney Islands
(Kirkwall, Orkney: Orkney Press, 1992). For many details about the history of the town and its inhabitants, Login's Inn, the Nor' Wast, and the traditional whaling song that I altered.

Chapter Seven: Enchantment

Dennison, Walter Traill.
Orkney Folkore and Sea Legends,
compiled by Tom Muir (Kirkwall, Orkney: Orkney Press, 1995). For stories of the Finfolk, of Annie Norn and Hilda-land and of the selkie wife who reclaims her skin and returns to the sea.

Kalevala: A Prose Translation from the Finnish Epic,
translated by Aili Kolehmainen Johnson (Hancock, MI.: Book Concern, 1950). For the story of Ilmatar.

MacAulay, John M.
Seal-Folk and Ocean Paddlers: Sliochd nan Ròn
(Cambridge, UK: White Horse, 1998).

Mackenzie, Donald A.
Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend
(New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997). For a story of the Maid-of-the-Wave.

O'Clery, Helen, editor.
The Mermaid Reader
(New York: Franklin Watts, 1964). For the origin of mermaids as fish-tailed goddesses.

Walker, Barbara G.
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
(San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983). For the names and attributes of sea goddesses.

Williamson, Duncan.
Tales of the Seal People: Scottish Folk Tales
(Brooklyn, NY: Interlink, 1992). Williamson is a storyteller in the north of Scotland. His introduction discusses why the bereaved might wish to believe that seals are relatives.

Chapter Eight: The Lonely Voyage of Betty Mouat

Manson, T. M. Y.
Drifting Alone to Norway: The Amazing Adventure of Betty Mouat, and Tales of Others Who Drifted to Norway
(Brae, Shetland: Nelson Smith Printing, 1996).

Chapter Nine: Seagoing Charm School

Cordingly, David.
Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History
(New York: Random House, 2001). For the story of Mary Patten.

Druett, Joan.
Hen Frigates: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998). For stories of nineteenth-century women who traveled with their husband-captains, learned to navigate, and occasionally saved the day.

Druett, Joan.
She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). For the stories of Tomyris and Artemesia.

Lindgren, Astrid.
The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
(New York: Viking, 1977).

Mitchell, Alan.
Splendid Sisters: The Story of the Shaw Savill Liners Southern Cross and Northern Star
(London: George G. Harrap, 1966).

Storm, Gale.
I Ain't Down Yet: The Autobiography of My Little Margie,
with Bill Libby (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1981).

Chapter Ten: Halibut Woman

Robinson, Jane.
Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers
(Oxford: Oxford University, 1990).

Taylor, Elizabeth.
The Far Islands and Other Cold Places: Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady,
edited by James Taylor Dunn (St. Paul, MN: Pogo Press, 1997). I drew heavily on Dunn's introduction, and appreciate his work gathering and presenting the story of his remarkable great aunt in this collection of letters and essays.

Wollstonecraft, Mary, and William Godwin.
A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Memoirs of the Author of ‘The Rights of Woman'
(London: Penguin, 1987).

Chapter Eleven: Aud the Deep-Minded

Jacobsen, Jørgen-Frantz.
Barbara,
translated by George Johnston (Norwich, UK: Norvik, 1993).

Jesch, Judith.
Women in the Viking Age
(Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1991). For the story of Aud the Deep-Minded.

Laxdæla Saga,
translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson (Middlesex, UK: Penguin, 1969).

Marcus, G. J.
The Conquest of the North Atlantic
(Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1980). For a thorough discussion of Norse navigation,
hafvilla,
and Viking ships.

Schei, Liv Kjørsvik, and Gunnie Moberg.
The Faroe Islands
(London: John Murray, 1991). For a version of the folktale of Barbara of Sumba, as well as information about Gudrún, the Lady of Húsavík. Other information about Gudrún came from Hanus undir Leitinum.

Chapter Twelve: Caught in the Net

Crossley-Holland, Kevin.
The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings
(London: Penguin, 1992). For the “Lay of Hymir.”

Davidson, H. R. Ellis.
Gods and Myths of the Viking Age
(New York: Bell Publishing, 1981). For the story of Ruad and the nine maidens.

Hull, Eleanor.
Folklore of the British Isles
(London: Methuen, 1928). For the quote from the eighth-century Irish abbot, “I invoke the seven Daughters of the Sea. . .”

Lacy, Terry G.
The Ring of Seasons: Iceland
—
Its Culture and History
(Reykjavík: University of Reykjavík, 1998). For a version of the story of Gudríd Símonardóttir. Much of my information came from Steinunn Jóhannesdóttir, whose novel,
Gudríd's Journey,
exploring the first half of Gudríd's life, was published in 2001 in Iceland (Reykjavík: Mal og menning).

Monaghan, Patricia.
The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines
(St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1997) For details about Ran.

Mowat, Farley.
Westviking: The Ancient Norse in Greenland and North America
(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965). For the quote from
The King's Mirror
on
hafgerdingar.

Spencer, William.
Algiers in the Age of the Corsairs
(Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1976). For information about Algiers under Turkish rule and the corsairs.

Sturluson, Snorri.
Edda,
translated and edited by Anthony Faulkes (London: Everyman, 1987).

Sykes, Egerton, ed.
Everyman's Dictionary of Non-classical Mythology
(London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1962). For the suggestion that Ran's nine daughters suggest the presence of a college of priestesses.

Chapter Thirteen: Iceberg Travel

Bard's Saga,
from
The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders
(Reykjavík: Leifur Eiriksson Publishing, 2000).

Bergmann, Gudrún G.
The Mystique of Snæfellsjökull
(Olafsvík: Leidarljós, 1999).

Ellis, Peter Berresford.
Celtic Women: Women in Celtic Society and Literature
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995). For the story of Muirenn.

Chapter Fourteen: Leif's Unlucky Sister

Byock, Jesse.
Viking Age Iceland
(London: Penguin, 2001). For the travels of Gudríd Thorbjarnardóttir and other Icelandic women to Rome.

Clark, Joan.
Eiriksdóttir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck
(Toronto: Macmillan, 1994). This beautifully written novel is a convincing look at the harsh reality of life in Greenland and Vínland, and a powerfully imagined portrayal of Freydís Eiríksdóttir.

Fitzhugh, William W., and Elisabeth I. Ward, eds.
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2000). This book provides the most up-to-date account of the discovery of the site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and the most current research on Viking sites in North America.

Jesch, Judith.
Women in the Viking Age
(Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1991).

Jochens, Jenny.
Old Norse Images of Women
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1996).

The Vínland Sagas
consist of two sagas,
The Greenlanders' Saga
and
The Saga of Eirík the Red,
translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson (London: Penguin, 1965).

(Recently, the Icelandic historian Helgi Thórlaksson has published research that may prove Glaumbær was not owned by Karlsefni's family in the eleventh century but that their main estate was Reynisnes.)

Chapter Fifteen: A Woman Without a Boat Is a Prisoner

Lacy, Terry G.
The Ring of Seasons: Iceland
—
Its Culture and History
(Reykjavík: University of Reykjavík, 1998). For some details about Thuridúr Formadur.

Magnúsdóttir, Thórunn.
Sjósókn sunnlenskra kvenna frá verstödvum í Árnessýslu 1697-1980 [Seafaring Women of South Iceland from 1697-1980]
(Reykjavík: MA dissertation, 1984). The portion of the book that deals with how Magnúsdóttir researched her subject was also published in a Danish précis, and delivered as a speech at a meeting of women historians in Oslo in 1983. I summarize her methodology and findings below. Other sections about various women fishers were translated for me from the Icelandic by Daniel Teague, and include some quotes from a book about Thurídur Einarsdóttir by Brynjólf Jónsson,
The History of Skipper Thurídur and the Kambur Farm Burglars,
published in 1941, and in a revised edition in 1975 (in Icelandic).