FAKE news and deceit were employed centuries before the presidency of Donald Trump in the extraordinary Orkneyinga Saga, according to the author of a new translation.

The concepts were familiar to the saga storytellers who often painted the ruling earls of Orkney , Shetland and Caithness as more honourable than they were in reality, believes Professor Judith Jesch.

“If you read between the lines, it’s very much that these people were out for themselves and not really caring about the population,” she told the Sunday National.

A specialist in Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature, her translation is the first for nearly 50 years and reflects saga style and language more closely than previous translations.

The stories record the adventures, feuds and battles of powerful Norseme

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