Rackwick, Hoy

Rackwick on a moody day of sun and mists. If hubris is 'pride before a fall', then what is the word for caution after one? I have the choice between a swim and a photo-shoot, and opt for the permanence of pictures - cowardly? But cowards can win the day too, as do the protagonists in Robert Rendall's "experiment in scaldic metre" entitled Shore Tullye (tully being a big knife for slicing meat or fish):

    Crofters few but crafty,

    Krugglan doun b' moonlight,

    Hidan near the headland,

    Hint great congles waited.

    Swiftly rude sea-raiders

    Stranded, evil handed:

    Scythe blades soon were bleedan,

    Skulls crackt in the tullye.

    Stretched the battle beachward;

    Bravely back we drave them.

    Een fleep fleean hinmost

    Fand we maakan landward:

    Him apae the hillside

    Hewed we doun in feud fight -

    Never kam sea-rovers

    Seekan back to Rackwick.

I love the irony of such a lofty form being used to depict crofters who, cowering behind rocks, manage to isolate (or chance upon!) one of the enemy and kill him like a lost sheep only to boast about their prowess and gloat at the fact that they have forever freed Rackwick of intruders! 

The boulders on a sunnier day 

The 'Bothy', a typical croft