Nails were being bitten at the Centre for Nordic Studies when it looked like Professor Terry Gunnell of the University of Iceland might not make down to deliver his eagerly anticipated lecture tonight.

Thankfully he has evaded the travel chaos caused by Grimsvotn volcano, and arrived in Orkney today all fired up to deliver the latest in the series of free lectures put on by the Centre. The lecture - The Nordic Roots of the Orkney (and Shetland) Broonie and Other Mound Dwellers - will take place in the St Magnus Centre at 7.30pm, tonight.

Six international scholars from a variety of disciplines are visiting both Orkney and Shetland for a seminar series organised by The Centre for Nordic Studies.

All lectures in Orkney take place at 7.30 pm in The St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, and admission is free of charge.

The remaining lectures are as follows:

21 July 2011: Dr Donna Heddle, University of the Highlands and Islands - Viking Navigators
29 September 2011: Dr Robert McColl Millar, University of Aberdeen - The Roots of the Shetland dialect
27 October 2011: Caroline Wickham-Jones, Aberdeen University - First links with Scandinavia? Environment and People in the Northern Isles 8000-6000 years ago
24 November 2011: Dr Stephen Harrison, University College Dublin - Viking Graves in the Northern Isles

For more information, call 01856 569300 or go to www.nordic.uhi.ac.uk