Hinn 14. febrúar 2004 lét Gordon Johnston þetta frá sér fara:

> Hello.
>
> There are two placenames here in Shetland, a former Norse colony as you will
> know , from the 800s to the 15th century. I'm interested in the derivation
> of two, the first is my village here, long called Cunningsburgh (in old
> documents it is referred to as Konungsburg) I know the word means 'King's
> fort or broch', but I've always been puzzled as I understood the term
> 'King'
> was not a word the Vikings used. They had 'Jarls' did they not?

Kings as well. The relevant word is 'konungr'; genitive 'konungs'.
The word 'borg' means "fort, stronghold". In Icelandic the meaning
"fortified city" and then "city" became prevalent. Thus we can say:

"Reykjavík er borg. Hún er höfuð-borg Íslands."

Even though our "head-city" is certainly not fortified.

In Faroese the word seems to retain its older meaning.
I'm reminded of the lyrics to one of Eivør Pálsdóttir's songs:

"Brostnar borgir, ið bløða á køldum illveðursdegi,
hvør vónsvikin sál nú liggur í brennandi øskutrogi."

brostnar borgir = broken castles

In the Middle-English poem about Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight Troy seems to be called a 'borg':

"Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye
þe borg brittened and brent to brondez and askez;"

> The second word is 'Papil', which most people have assumed had something to
> do with the possible presence of Christian priests or 'papar, but what about
> the suffix 'il'.

I don't know. What sort of place is Papil?

> And would the pagan Vikings have killed these Papars?

A difficult subject. In Íslendingabók Ari fróði says:

"þeir fóru síðar á braut, af því at þeir
vildu eigi vera hér við heiðna menn"

Very innocent sounding words. "They went away because
they didn't want to stay here among heathen people."

They went away? Perhaps. But let's look at Ari's next words:

"ok létu eftir bækur írskar, bjöllur og bagla.
Af því mátti skilja, að þeir voru menn írskir."

@: "And they left behind Irish books,
bells and crosiers, from which could be
gathered that they were Irish people."

To me books sound like something too valuable
and easily portable to be "left behind" just
like that. Perhaps they had to leave in a hurry.
Perhaps Ari is mistaken about this. Perhaps they
were slaughtered to the last man.

Kveðja,
Haukur