Chapter LXXXV: King Eystein Takes Earl Harald Prisoner

NOW we have to tell what happened in the Orkneys while Earl Rögnvald was away. The same summer that the Earl went on his journey, King Eystein, son of Harald Gilli, arrived from Norway with a numerous army, which he had landed at Rínarsey.[394] He heard that Earl Harald had gone over to Caithness in a ship of twenty benches, with eighty men, and lay then at Thórsá. When King Eystein heard of him, he manned three boats, and crossed the Pentland Firth, going westward, and on to Thórsá. When he arrived there the Earl and his men did not know anything of them until the King’s men boarded the ship, and took the Earl prisoner. He was brought before the King, and the result was that the Earl ransomed himself with three marks of gold, and surrendered his dominions to King Eystein, so that he should hold them from him in the future. Then he became King Eystein’s man, and confirmed their compact with oaths. From there King Eystein went to Scotland, and ravaged there during the summer. During this expedition he plundered in many parts of England, considering that he was taking revenge for King Harald, Sigurd’s son.[395]