Chapter CXVI: Of the Stewards

NOW it is to be told of the stewards (sýslumenn) that they went six together to Scotland, and saw the King during Advent. They were able to give particular intelligence of everything that had happened in Caithness during Earl Harald’s stay there. The King was highly enraged at hearing the news, but he said he would pay back double to those who had lost their own. The first day they stayed with the King twenty-five ells of cloth and an English mark in ready money was given to each of them. They spent the Yule-tide with the King, and were well treated.

After Yule-tide the King sent word to all the chiefs in his kingdom, and collected a large army throughout the country, and with all these troops he went down to Caithness against Earl Harald. With this great army he pursued his journey till he came to Eysteinsdal,[458] where Caithness and Sutherland meet. The camp of the King of Scots stretched far along the valleys.

Earl Harald was in Caithness when he heard the news, and he drew troops together immediately. It is said he obtained six thousand men, and yet he had no chance to withstand the King of Scots. Then he sent men to him to sue for peace. When this request was brought before the King, he said it was no use asking for peace unless he had every fourth penny that was to be found in all the land of Caithness.

When the Earl received this message, he called together the inhabitants and chiefs, and consulted with them. As, however, they had no means of resisting, it was agreed that the Caithnessmen should pay one-fourth of all their property to the King of Scots, except those men who had gone to see the King in winter. Earl Harald went out to the Orkneys, and was to have Caithness as he had it before it was given to Earl Harald Ungi by the King of Scots. Thorfinn, the son of Earl Harald, who was a hostage with the King of Scots, was blinded during these hostilities.

When peace had been made, the King returned to Scotland. Earl Harald was now the sole ruler of the Orkneys. In the later part of the days of Earl Harald, his brother-in-law, Olaf, and Jón, Hallkell’s son, raised a party in the Orkneys, and went east to Norway against King Sverrir. They made Sigurd, the son of King Magnus, Erling’s son, their King. Many men of noble birth in the Orkneys joined this party, and it was very strong. They were for a while called Eyjarskeggiar (Islanders) or Gullbeinir (goldenlegs). They fought with King Sverrir in Flóruvogar, and were beaten.[459] Both Jón and Olaf were killed, as also their King, and most of their men. After this King Sverrir became a great enemy of Earl Harald, laying it to his charge that he was the cause of the party being raised. At last Earl Harald went from the west, and Bishop Bjarni went along with him. The Earl left his case without reservation to the decision of King Sverrir. Then King Sverrir took all Hjaltland from Earl Harald, with its taxes (scat) and dues, as a fine; and the Earls of Orkney have never had it since.[460]

Earl Harald was five winters old when he was made Earl, and for twenty winters he and Earl Rögnvald were together Earls of Orkney. After Earl Rögnvald’s death, he was forty-eight winters Earl of Orkney, and he died in the second year of the reign of King Ingi, Bard’s son.[461] Earl Harald’s sons, Jón and David, succeeded him; and Heinrek, his son, had Ross in Scotland.

The following have been the most powerful of the Earls of Orkney, according to the relation of those who have made histories of them:—Sigurd, Eystein’s son; Earl Thorfinn, Sigurd’s son; and Earl Harald, Maddad’s son.

The brothers Jón and David ruled the land after their father, until David died from disease, the same year as Hákon Galinn died in Norway.[462] After that Jón took the title of Earl of all the Orkneys.