Orkney under the Norwegians

Torfæus (*Orcades*), under the transactions of the year 1430 (p. 182-3.), has an incidental mention of the Orkneys as among the forbidden islands, "vetitæ insulas," of which the commerce was forbidden to strangers, and confined to the mother country, as to this day it is with Denmark and her possessions of the Faroe Islands and Iceland, both mentioned in the paragraph of the historian among the islands whose commerce was restricted. It would be very desirable to know of the social state of Orkney under the government of Norway and its native Jarls of the Norwegian race, and or its connexion wi…