Day 115 of the End to End in 2019 was the day I walked to Greenland, hence the title of this post. Originally referring to ‘a distant far away region or place’ many parts of the North have had the name: Orkney, Iceland and Greenland are just a few. It seems it has also been used to name a large rock in the Kuiper Belt. The sense that any of this places are distant or far away does, as always, depend on where you start.
Today I start east of Thurso which is quite far North for mainland Britain. Along this part of the coast you can get ferries to Orkney, and in fact we did go there with Hannah a few years ago. But Greenland is somewhere else entirely. It’s a small chicken farm in Caithness.
Around here lots of places get unexpected names. Look out for Holland tomorrow. You can almost do a world tour on foot. For the Vikings, Greenland was one stop on the way west via the north. Interestingly, a large part of the British population still exhibits Viking DNA (not least in the Warwicker family). As I’ve said before, we are all descended from migrants.
Apart from Greenland, names of places in Caithness often show Viking influence, like Wick that we visited for a curry in 2003. Human habitation in Caithness dates from prehistoric times, but it was certainly known to the Vikings, who named it for the Pictish people who lived here when they arrived in the 10th century.
Most of Britain is like this: a patchwork of names and places influenced by one or more groups of migrant people over two millenia or more. Like the chickens pecking in the farm yard that show the influence of diverse forefowl, we too are mongrels. In one field there were Rhea, a large flightless bird originally from South America. Some have gone feral in Germany. Perhaps Caithness will be next?
It all allows me to choose one of my favourite passages from the remembered gospel: Jesus said ‘How often I have wanted to gather you together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’.
How I wish I’d had a chicken suit when I was a school chaplain.
Chicken-hearted One, wing spreader, all humanity concerns you:
May we be as generous with shelter, support and love to any who need our aid on these shores.
For this one race, the human race, may the term ‘Being a chicken’ be a affirmation not an insult.
JAL: 10.08.2020 in Longdendale.