Note 318 — Chapter I · THE STEAM-SHIP “QUEEN”—THE ORKNEYS AND MAES HOWE—THE SHETLANDS AND THE FÆROE ISLANDS.

The old Norsk Megin-land, land of might, or mainland, is evidently, like the Scotch Mickle, connected with the Persian Mih or Mihin, great, powerful, but not, as Mr Blackwall conceives, with “miracle.” The classical name of the Orkney group, then numbering only seven, is Acmodæ in Pliny, iv. 16, and Hæmodæ in Mela, iii. 6. The Icelandic term is Hjaltland (pronounced Zhatland), hence Zetland, Hetland, and Shetland. Thus it still preserves the fame of old Hjalti, the Viking of the ninth century, who also survives in the modern “Sholto.” Munch suggests that Hjaltland, hilt-land, may have been given from a weapon dropped in it; so trivial were the names of olden Scandinavia: he also mentions the legend of Swordland, a great country now submerged, between Norway and Hjaltland, its hilt.