Chapter LXVI: Rognvald Rules the Orkneys

ON Sunday Earl Rögnvald had mass celebrated there in the village.[339] As they were standing outside the church, they saw sixteen men approaching unarmed, and with their hair close cut. The Earl’s men thought their dress singular, and spoke among themselves of who they might be. Then the Earl made a ditty:

Sixteen have I seen together,
With a small tuft on their foreheads;
Surely these are women coming,
All without their golden trinkets.
Now may we of this bear witness.
In the west here all the maidens
Wear their hair short—that isle Elon[340]
Lies out in the stormy ocean.

After Sunday, Earl Rögnvald’s men visited the neighbouring districts, and all the people gave in their submission to the Earl. One night in Westrey the Earl’s men became aware that the islanders were holding a secret meeting to devise some treachery against Earl Rögnvald. When the Earl heard of it, he rose and went to the place of meeting. When he came there, his men had beaten many of the islanders, and had taken Farmer Kugi and put him in fetters, saying that he was the author of all these proceedings. Kugi pled his cause eloquently, and many put in a word for him, and protested his innocence with him. Then the Earl sang:

I can see the crooked irons
Fastened round the legs of Kugi;
Stray thou canst not in thy fetters,
Old man! fond of making night trips;
Now you must not hold night meetings,
And must keep the peace established;
Kugi! all your tricks are hinder’d,
And your oaths you must keep sacred.

The Earl pardoned them all, and they renewed their compact.