Chapter XXVII: Of the Schemes of Hakon, Paul’s Son

AFTER this Hákon went to see King Ingi, and stayed with him a short while. Then he obtained leave from the King to depart. He went first to Norway to see his kinsman, King Magnus, who received him very well. There he heard that the government of the Orkneys was almost exclusively in the hands of Earl Erlend and his sons, and that they were greatly loved, but that his father Paul took little part in the government. He also thought he could perceive from conversations with men from the Orkneys, who gave him a true account of the state of matters, that the Orkneymen had no desire for his return home. They were living in peace and quiet, and were afraid that Hákon’s return would give rise to disturbance and strife. When Hákon was turning this over in his mind, he thought it likely that his kinsmen would try to keep him out of his possessions, and that it would be dangerous for him if he did not go west with a numerous retinue. Then he devised a scheme to induce King Magnus to put him into his possessions in the Orkneys.