Chapter I: Of the Earls

It is said that the Orkney Islands were colonised in the days of Harald the Fairhaired,[223] but previously they were a station for Vikings.[224]

The first Earl of the Orkneys was called Sigurd. He was the son of Eystein Glumra (the loud-talking), and brother of Rögnvald, Earl of Moeri.[225]

After Sigurd his son Guttorm ruled one year.

Torf-Einar,[226] son of Earl Rögnvald, succeeded him. He was a man of great power, and was Earl a long time. Hálfdán Hálegg[227] (high-legs) made an expedition against Torf-Einar, and drove him from the Orkneys. Einar returned, and slew Hálfdán in Rinansey.[228] Thereupon King Harald brought an army over to the Orkneys. Then Einar fled to Scotland. King Harald made the Orkneymen swear oaths of fealty to him for themselves and all their possessions. The Earl and King Harald were afterwards reconciled. He became the King’s man, and held the land as a fief from him. He had, however, no tribute to pay, as there was much predatory warfare then in the islands; but he paid the king sixty marks of gold[229] (once for all). After this, King Harald made a raid on Scotland, as is told in the Glumdrapa.[230]

After Torf-Einar, Arnkell, Erlend, and Thorfinn Hausakliuf (skull-splitter), his sons, succeeded him. In their days Eirik Blódöx[231] (bloody axe) came over from Norway, and the Earls were his vassals. Arnkell and Erlend fell in battle,[232] but Thorfinn governed the land and became an old man. His sons were Arnfid, Hávard, Lödver, Ljót, and Skúli; their mother was Grélaug, daughter of Earl Dungad (Duncan) in Caithness.[233] Her mother was Gróa, daughter of Thorstein the Red.

In the days of Earl Thorfinn the sons of Eirik Blódöx arrived from Norway, when they had fled from Earl Hákon, and they did many deeds of violence in the islands. Earl Thorfinn died on a sickbed, and his sons, of whom there are extensive histories, succeeded him. Lödver survived his brothers, and ruled the land alone. His son was Earl Sigurd the Stout; he was a powerful man, and a great warrior.

In his days Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, returning from a viking expedition to the west, came to the Orkneys with his men, and seized Earl Sigurd in Rörvág,[234] as he lay there with a single ship. King Olaf offered the Earl to ransom his life on condition that he should embrace the true faith and be baptized; that he should become his man, and proclaim Christianity over all the Orkneys. He took his son Hundi or Hvelp (whelp) as a hostage, and left the Orkneys for Norway, where he became King; and Hundi stayed with him some years, and died there.

After that Earl Sigurd paid no allegiance to King Olaf. He married the daughter of Malcolm, King of Scots,[235] and their son was Earl Thorfinn; his elder sons [by a former marriage] were Sumarlidi, Brúsi, and Einar.

Five years after the death of King Olaf, Tryggvi’s son,[236] Earl Sigurd went to Ireland. He set his elder sons over his domains, and sent Thorfinn to the King of Scots, his mother’s father. While on this expedition Sigurd was killed in Brian’s battle;[237] and as soon as the news came to the Orkneys his sons Sumarlidi, Brúsi, and Einar, were accepted as Earls, and they divided the islands among them, each taking one third.

Thorfinn was five winters old when their father fell. When the King of Scots heard of the Earl’s death he bestowed Caithness and Sutherland upon his grandson, with the title of Earl, and gave him men to rule the domain along with him. Earl Thorfinn was very precocious in the maturity of all his powers. He was of large stature and strong, but ungainly. As he grew up it soon became apparent that he was avaricious, harsh, and cruel, yet a very clever man.

The brothers Einar and Brúsi were different in their dispositions. Brúsi was clever and fond of company, eloquent and beloved. Einar was stubborn and taciturn, disagreeable and avaricious, yet a great warrior. Sumarlidi was like Brúsi in his disposition. He was the eldest, and the most short-lived of the brothers. He died on a sickbed.

After his death Thorfinn demanded his share of [Sumarlidi’s portion of] the Orkneys, although he already had Caithness and Sutherland which had belonged to his father Sigurd. This Einar considered to be much more than a third of the Orkneys, and he would not give up any part of them to Thorfinn. Brúsi, however, consented to give up his share [of the portion belonging to Sumarlidi], saying that he did not covet more of the land than his own proper third. Then Einar took possession of two shares of the islands. He became then a powerful man, and had a large number of retainers. In the summer he made war expeditions, calling out great levies of his men from their homes; but these expeditions were not always successful, and the Bœndr[238] began to grow tired of them, but the Earl exacted all his services with violence, and did not suffer any one to speak against them. He was indeed a man of the greatest violence. Then there arose great scarcity in the islands on account of the labour and large expense to which the Bœndr were thus subjected. However, in the parts belonging to Brúsi there were good seasons and easy life, and he was greatly liked by the Bœndr.