author

Alfred Wintle Johnston

A careful early scholar of the Northern Isles, he wrote with a strong sense of place and a lasting fascination with Orkney and Shetland history. His best-known work explores how Norse and local cultures met and changed one another over centuries.

1 Audiobook

Orkney and Shetland Folk 872-1350

Orkney and Shetland Folk 872-1350

by Alfred Wintle Johnston

About the author

Alfred Wintle Johnston was a British writer and researcher best known for Orkney and Shetland Folk 872-1350. Sources identify him as the founder of the Viking Society, and archival records describe him as an architect as well as a scholar with deep interests in the history of the Northern Isles.

His writing focused on the people and cultural history of Orkney and Shetland, especially the long period shaped by Norse settlement and influence. In Orkney and Shetland Folk 872-1350, he brought together historical, place-name, and social material to examine how communities in the islands developed over time.

Available records indicate he lived from 1859 to 1947. While a great deal of biographical detail is not easy to confirm from the sources reviewed here, his work still stands out for its serious attention to regional history and folklore.