_SONS OF THE ISLES._
_There is a spell woven by restless seas,_
_A secret charm that haunts our Island air,_
_Holding our hearts and following everywhere_
_The wandering children of the Orcades;_
_And still, when sleep the prisoned spirit frees,_
_What dim void wastes, what strange dark seas we dare,_
_Till where the dear green Isles shine low and fair_
_We moor in dreams beside familiar quays._
_Sons of the Isles! though ye may roam afar,_
_Still on your lips the salt sea spray is stinging,_
_Still in your hearts the winds of youth are singing;_
_Though in heavens grown familiar to your eyes_
_The Southern Cross is gleaming, for old skies_
_Your hearts are fain and for the Northern Star._
DUNCAN J. ROBERTSON
(_“Chambers’s Journal.” By permission._)
[Illustration: _“The wonder and the glory of all the North” (p. 69)._]
[Illustration]
The
Orkney Book
Readings for Young Orcadians
Compiled and Edited by
John Gunn, M.A., D.Sc.
Author of “Sons of the Vikings,” “The Boys of
Hamnavoe,” etc.
Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd.
London, Edinburgh, and
New York
PREFACE.
This is a book about Orkney, for use in Orkney, designed and for the most
part written by natives of Orkney. It owes its origin to the Edinburgh
University Orcadian Association, the members of which realized the
desirability of preparing for use in the schools of Orkney a book adapted
to the special conditions of the Islands.
Educationists now recognize that Knowledge ought, like Charity, to “begin
at home:” this is true of every branch of knowledge—history, geography,
literature, and the rest. They might even adopt with an educational
reference the saying of the wise man, “Wisdom is before him that hath
understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.” An
attempt has accordingly been made in this book to present to the young
folks of Orkney a general view of their homeland, some description of
its past and its present, and some knowledge of its naturalistic and its
humanistic aspects, with the object of awakening their interest in their
own Islands, in order that from this centre their knowledge may advance
the more surely to the sweep of a wider horizon. For, like Charity again,
while Knowledge must begin at home, it must not remain at home.
While the scope of the book is wide, the treatment of each class of
subjects is necessarily suggestive rather than exhaustive. All that
is possible within the limits of a single small volume is to present
illustrative specimens rather than a complete collection of studies.
Hence there is abundant opportunity for the teacher to supplement
the book by specializing in one direction or in another according to
individual preference. The aim has been rather to supply the irreducible
minimum, suitable to all, in the hope that the book may find its way into
every school in the county, and be read by every Orkney boy and girl
before their schooldays are over.
The Committee of the Edinburgh University Orcadian Association who have
superintended the issue of the book acknowledge gratefully the courtesy
with which copyright material has been placed at their disposal. They
wish to record their obligations to the Controller of His Majesty’s
Stationery Office, to Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co., Messrs. Longmans,
Green, and Co., Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Messrs. W. and R. Chambers,
and the Walter Scott Publishing Company, for the use of the extracts to
which their names are respectively appended, and to Messrs. Thomas Nelson
and Sons for much copyright material, including numerous illustrations.
They also desire to express their thanks to the Honourable Mrs. John
Dundas of Papdale, and to Messrs. Duncan J. Robertson, J. Storer
Clouston, and Edmund Selous for literary contributions which are in
themselves sufficient to give a high value to the collection, as well as
to place on record their indebtedness to the late Mr. James Tomison for
the article on “The Birds of Sule Skerry.”
The matter contained in the unsigned articles has been contributed by
many Orcadians, specialists in their several departments, whose names are
sufficient guarantee for accuracy—Messrs. James W. Cursiter, F.S.A.Scot.,
for Archæology, including illustrations; James Drever, M.A., for Norse
history and language; John Tait, M.D., D.Sc., for Zoology; John S. Flett,
M.A., D.Sc., for Geology; Magnus Spence, F.E.I.S., for Meteorology and
Botany; John Garrioch, M.A., for Seaweeds; John W. Bews, M.A., B.Sc., and
George W. Scarth, M.A., for botanical and descriptive material; Robert C.
Wallace, M.A., B.Sc., for descriptive material; and John Gunn (Kirkwall)
for the list of Orkney birds in the Appendix.
As regards the artistic features of the book, special acknowledgment is
due to Messrs. Thomas Kent, for his generosity in placing at the disposal
of the Editor the whole of his unique collection of Orkney views, all
the photographs reproduced being from his studio, with three or four
exceptions; T. Marjoribanks Hay, R.S.W., for his drawing of St. Magnus
Church, Egilsay; Stanley Cursiter, for the decorative initial letters,
the title-page, and the cover design; and Miss Rose Leith, for the border
designs of the grouped photographs; and to J. G. Bartholomew, LL.D., for
the two-page map of the county.
Finally, the thanks of the Committee are due to the generous and
patriotic friends, among whom special mention ought to be made of the
Glasgow Orkney and Shetland Literary and Scientific Association, whose
donations of money have enabled them to produce this book, for a volume
whose circulation must necessarily be limited to a small area could
be issued at so low a price only on condition of the initial cost of
manufacture being met by those interested in its production.
The Editor, who must accept responsibility for the general scope and plan
of the book, as well as for the actual form and part of the contents of
the unsigned articles, desires personally to acknowledge the valuable
assistance he has received from the members of the Committee, especially
Dr. John Tait and Mr. James Drever, and from the other friends who have
helped by their sympathetic criticism and advice, to all of whom, as well
as to himself, the work has been in every sense a labour of love; and
he ventures to express the hope that the results of that work, as here
visible, may find favour in the sight of all young Orcadians, and of many
who are no longer young.
J. GUNN.
EDINBURGH, 1909.
CONTENTS.
Page
Part I.—The Story of the Past.
Prehistoric Orkney, 9
The Beginnings of our History, 18
The Norsemen and their Sagas, 23
The Beginning of the Earldom, 32
The Dark Century, 40
Earl Thorfinn and Earl Rognvald, 54
The Slaying of Earl Magnus, 59
The Founding of St. Magnus Cathedral, 67
The Jorsalafarers, 74
Sweyn Asleifson, the Last of the Vikings, 90
The Decay of the Earldom and the End of the Western Kingdom, 97
The Annexation to Scotland, 105
Udal and Feudal, 110
The Stewart Earls, 115
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, 120
Part II.—The Isles and the Folk.
A Survey of the Islands:
On Wideford Hill, 129
Among the North Isles, 134
Among the South Isles, 146
Round the Mainland:
First Day, 154
Second Day, 158
Third Day, 166
Fourth Day, 172
Sketches by Hugh Miller:
The Dwarfie Stone, 179
The Standing Stones, 184
The Cathedral of St. Magnus, 190
A Road in Orcady, 206
A Loch in Orcady, 219
Among the Kelpers, 227
A Whale-hunt in Orkney, 242
Articles made of Straw, 248
The Weather of Orkney, 255
The Place-Names of Orkney, 263
Part III.—Nature Lore.
The Story of the Rocks:
“Sermons in Stones,” 271
“Books in the Running Brooks,” 276
Cliffs and Beaches, 284
The Age of Ice, 289
Orkney Fossils, 292
A Peat-Moss, 296
Some Common Weeds, 305
Home Life on the Rocks:
Guillemots, 312
Seals, 317
Shags, 320
The Birds of Sule Skerry, 328
The Residenters, 330
The Regular Visitors, 334
Occasional Visitors, 346
Common Seaweeds, 352
Crabs, 361
Hoppers and Sholties, 372
Sea-Anemones, 378
Part IV.—Legend and Lay.
The Old Gods, 383
A Vanishing Island, 391
Helen Waters: a Legend of Sule Skerry, 396
A Legend of Boray Island, 403
Songs of the Gods:
The Challenge of Thor, 408
Tegner’s Drapa, 409
The Song of Harold Harfager, 412
King Hacon’s Last Battle, 414
The Death of Haco, 416
The Old Man of Hoy, 420
Orkney, 422
Scenes from “The Buccaneer”:
Night; Morning, 430
To Orkney, 432
The Temple of Nature, 433
Appendices.
Appendix I.—Chronology of Orcadian History to the End of the
Earldom, with Related Contemporary Events, 435
Appendix II.—Norse Words in Orkney Place-Names, 439
Appendix III.—List of Birds found in Orkney, 441
Appendix IV.—Books for Further Study, 443
THE ORKNEY BOOK.
Part I.—The Story of the Past.
PREHISTORIC ORKNEY.
At what period of the world’s history were our islands first inhabited,
and who were their first inhabitants? These are questions which we cannot
now answer. History is always made before it is written, and long ages
must have passed in the history of these islands before any written
records began to be kept.
Yet there are some records of that dim, forgotten past, which patient
research has gathered together, and which can be made to tell us a few
fragments of our Island story. If we look into one of the museums where
relics of the past are preserved, we may find such things as flint
arrow-heads and knives, stone axes and hammers, bronze spear-heads, and
other tools and weapons of the early inhabitants of our islands. These
silent witnesses tell us a little about what manner of men they were, and
how they lived their long-forgotten lives.
The use of stone implements marks a very primitive stage of life, yet
one which may not be entirely savage. There are tribes now living which
are still in their Stone Age. A recent traveller tells of having seen
an inhabitant of the South American Andes skin a hare very neatly with
a small flint knife. This knife is now in Kirkwall, and is precisely
similar to many which have been dug up in Orkney.
[Illustration: _Flint Arrow-heads and Knives._]
Flint is not a common stone in the Orkney Islands. It is found in
occasional lumps and pebbles among the clay which has been carried from
other places by the glaciers and icebergs of the Ice Age. Flint is common
in the southern parts of Great Britain, however, and the arrows and
knives found in our islands may have been brought from the south, or the
art of making them may have been learned from tribes among whom flint was
a more common material. This kind of stone, the fine steel of the Stone
Age, was used for small implements over a wide area of the world.
[Illustration: _Stone Hammers and Axes._]
Orkney must have had a large population in those early days. The
number of ancient graves which have been found seems to indicate this,
especially if we suppose that most of those graves with their heaped-up
mounds are the resting-places of chiefs and great men rather than of the
common people. The graves which remain are of varied types, from the
simple cist of upright stones roofed with horizontal slabs and covered
with earth, to the large mound with its carefully built chambers.
The variety of the objects found in those graves, from the rudest flint
and bone implements to those which are carefully finished, and finally
to objects made of metal, shows that the burials belong to different
periods. They tell us of long ages of increasing though now forgotten
civilization. Some of the mounds, indeed, show by their contents that
they cover the remains, not of the original and unknown inhabitants,
but of the Norse conquerors, and thus really belong to the period whose
history has come down to us in writing. But in the very mound where the
Norse warrior was laid to rest, there are sometimes also found the relics
of burials of a much ruder age. Such mingling of the materials of our
unwritten history makes the story which they tell a very difficult one to
read.
There are few remains in our islands more striking than the chambered
mounds, or Picts’ houses, as they are called. The most complete and
probably the most recent of them is that known as Maeshowe. They consist
of a mound of earth heaped over a rude building, sometimes of one
apartment, but frequently of several, the entrance being a long, low,
narrow passage, through which it is necessary to stoop or crawl in order
to gain an entrance.
Possibly those Picts’ houses were built at first as houses to dwell in,
though later used as tombs. It is not uncommon to-day to find buildings
used for burial which were designed for other purposes. If ever our
race and all its records were to vanish as completely as the primitive
inhabitants of the Orkney Islands have done, we can imagine some future
explorer of the ruins of St. Magnus Cathedral writing a learned treatise
to prove that the largest building in our islands was erected as a
burial-place for our dead.
Those mound dwellings, or Picts’ houses, may seem to us a very strange
form of house to live in. Where can we find to-day houses of such a
type, and with so very inconvenient a form of entrance? The Eskimos, as
travellers tell us, are in the habit of building just such houses with
blocks of snow, and they find this the best type in the extreme cold of
their Arctic climate. Possibly the Picts’ house type of dwelling was used
in Orkney and in other places for similar reasons.
[Illustration: _Polished Stone Celts._]
The brochs, or Pictish towers, as they are also called, are buildings
of a different kind, which are also fairly common in Orkney. They are
probably of later date than the Picts’ houses. Considerable skill,
as well as co-operation in labour, must have been required for their
erection.
The most complete broch in existence is that of Mousa in Shetland. Of
those which are found in Orkney, only the lower portions now remain. Over
seventy such ruins have been examined, the best specimens being in Evie
(Burgar), Birsay (Oxtro), Harray, Firth (Ingashowe and Stirlinghowe),
St. Ola (Birstane and Lingro), St. Andrews (Dingishowe and Langskaill),
Burray (East and West Brough), South Ronaldsay (Hoxa), Shapinsay
(Borrowston), and Stronsay (Lamb Head).
[Illustration: _Plan of Chambered Mound, Wideford Hill._
_b_, Entrance. _c_, Blind Passage.]
[Illustration: _Chambered Mound, Wideford Hill._
Section on line _a, a_ of plan.]
The typical broch is a large round tower, fifty or sixty feet in
diameter, and probably as much in height. The wall is about fifteen feet
thick, and solid at the base, except for some vaulted chambers which are
made in it. Higher, the wall is hollow, or rather consists of an outer
and an inner wall, with a space of four or five feet between them. This
space is divided into a number of stories or galleries by horizontal
courses of long slabs of stone, which form the roof of one story and the
floor of that above it, and at the same time bind the two walls firmly
together. A stairway gives access to the various stories, and light is
admitted by small windows opening into the interior space of the tower,
no windows being made in the outer wall. A single door in the lower wall
forms the only entrance to the inner court of the broch.
These towers were probably constructed for the purpose of defence, and
against a primitive enemy they would serve as well as did the castles of
a later age before the invention of gunpowder. Indeed, we read of the
broch of Mousa being actually used as a fort in the time of the Norsemen.
Who the builders of these towers were we cannot discover. They are
undoubtedly very ancient; yet their builders and occupiers were by no
means savages. From the remains which have been found in them we learn
that they were used by a people who kept domestic animals, who cultivated
the ground, and who could spin and weave the wool of their flocks into
cloth. No weapons of the Stone Age are found in the brochs.
[Illustration: _Broch of Mousa, Shetland._
1. Exterior. 2. Section. 3. Section with inner wall removed.]
It is certain that they were built, and that most of them may have fallen
into ruins, long before the Norsemen came. Many of the places where
they stand were named by those settlers from the broch which was found
standing there. The words _borg_, as in Burgar, and _howe_ (haug), as in
Hoxa (Haug’s aith, or isthmus), are found in many place-names. It is
certain, too, that the brochs were not then occupied, or we should have
found some account of their siege and capture in the Sagas which tell of
Norse prowess by land and sea.
Another type of ancient remains which is common in our islands is the
standing stones. These are found in many places, either singly or in
groups or circles. Regarding these relics of a distant past much has been
written, but little is known.
[Illustration: _The Stone Circle of Stenness as now Restored._]
An upright stone is the simplest and most effective form of monument, and
is that which we most commonly use to this day to mark the resting-places
of our dead. To the ancient Orcadian it was a matter of more difficulty
to quarry and to transport and erect such monuments, and doubtless they
would be set up only in memory of some great event, such as a notable
victory, or the fall of a great chieftain.
The great stone circles, such as those of Stenness and of Brogar, are
supposed to have served a different purpose. They are believed by many
to have been the temples of some primitive people, who met there to
worship their gods. It has also been supposed that the people who erected
those circles were sun-worshippers, as the situation of certain prominent
stones seems to have been determined by the position of the rising sun at
midsummer.
[Illustration: _Fallen Cromlech or Table Stone, Sandwick._]
But in these matters we cannot be certain of our conclusions. Most of
our great churches and cathedrals are placed east and west, with the
high altar towards the east, and even the graves in our churchyards
are usually similarly oriented; but this does not prove that we are
sun-worshippers, whatever our forefathers may have been before they
accepted Christianity. We may indulge in much speculation about them, and
form our own opinions as to what they originally meant, but those hoary
monoliths remain a mystery, and the purpose of their erection we can only
guess.
THE BEGINNINGS OF OUR HISTORY.
In the history of the ancient world some vague and fragmentary references
are made to our islands, but from these little real knowledge of them can
be gathered. As early as the time of Alexander the Great we come upon
some notices of certain northern islands, which must be either Orkney,
or the Hebrides, or Shetland, or the Faroes, but we cannot determine
which. The Phœnicians, who were the great sea-traders and explorers of
the early world, seem to have had a little knowledge of these northern
archipelagoes.
In the time of the Roman occupation of Britain we have definite mention
of the Orcades, but nothing which shows any real knowledge of them. They
were visited by the fleet of Agricola after his invasion of Scotland,
as recorded by Tacitus. About three centuries later, the poet Claudian
sings of a victory by the Emperor Theodosius, who, we are told, sprinkled
Orcadian soil with Saxon blood. We are not told, however, who the people
called Saxons really were, or whether they were the inhabitants of the
islands or not. They may have been early Viking raiders who had fled
hither and been brought to bay among the group.
Early Church history has also some references to Orkney. After
St. Columba had left the shores of Ireland to carry the message
of Christianity to the Picts and Scots in Scotland, another Irish
missionary, Cormac, went on a similar voyage among the Orkney Isles. Him,
therefore, we may regard as the apostle to the northern heathen. St.
Adamnan, the biographer of St. Columba, tells the story, and the name of
Adamnan himself is still commemorated in the name of the Isle of Damsay.
After the visit of Cormac, the Culdee missionaries established themselves
in various parts of Orkney, as the place-names given by the Norsemen
show. In several of these names we find the word _pápa_, a form of
_pope_, which was the name applied to the monks or clergy of the Culdee
Church. Like Columba himself, who made the little island of Iona his
headquarters, his followers seem to have preferred the seclusion of the
smaller islands. To this habit are due such names as _Papa Westray_ and
_Papa Stronsay_. Other Church settlements have left their traces in names
such as _Paplay_ and _Papdale_.
Another place-name which records an old-world mission station is that
of _Deerness_. At first sight this name seems rather to indicate that
abundance of deer were found there; and some writers tell us, by way of
proving this, that deer’s horns have been found in that parish. But as
deer’s horns have also been found in many other places in the county,
the proof is not convincing. We must remember that the Norse invaders
were likely to name the place on account of its appearance from the
sea. They may, of course, have noticed a chance herd of deer near the
cliffs; but one thing is certain to have caught their eye—the unusual
sight of a building of stone on the Brough of Deerness. Some remains of
this building, and of a later one on the same site, still exist; and it
was long regarded as in some way a sacred place, to which pilgrimages
were made. This building was in fact one of those outposts of early
Christianity—a Culdee monastery. When the Norse invaders came, they
doubtless found it occupied by some of the Culdee clergy—_diar_, as
they would be called by the strangers—and so the headland was named the
Priests’ Cape, or Deerness.
It is quite possible that deer existed in Orkney down to the Norse
period, but they were much more likely to be found in the hilly regions
of the west Mainland, which was the earls’ hunting-ground. We read of an
Earl of Orkney going over to Caithness for the chase of the deer, which
seems to suggest that they were then scarce, if not extinct, in Orkney.
Among the remains of the Culdee settlements which are still found are
monumental stones with Christian emblems inscribed on them, or with Irish
Ogham writing, and ancient bells, probably used in the churches. The
curious round tower which forms part of the old church of St. Magnus in
Egilsay is of a type common only in Ireland. The name of that island is
probably derived from an earlier church which the Norsemen found there,
and heard called by its Celtic name, _ecclais_. It has been supposed by
some that the name _Egilsay_ means Egil’s Island, so called after some
man named Egil; but the probability is that it meant the Church Island.
All that we can learn, then, from the ancient relics of its first
inhabitants, and from the brief references to the islands by old
historians, amounts to very little. We know that Orkney was thickly
inhabited by some ancient people, living at first the primitive life
which is indicated by the use of stone implements. We may suppose that
they had at one time a religion in some way connected with sun-worship.
We know that they built earth-houses somewhat like the snow-houses of
the Eskimos, many of which still remain, and that, in some cases at
least, these have been used as places of burial by later inhabitants.
We know that at one period strong circular towers were built, probably
as fortresses, by a people of some degree of civilization. We know that
in the time of St. Columba Christian missionaries or monks visited the
islands, whose inhabitants were then probably of the race known as Picts,
and whose chiefs are said to have been subject to the Pictish king of
Northern Scotland. Some at least of those Culdees we may suppose to have
been hermits rather than missionaries, although they may have combined
the two characters. How many centuries of time are covered by these facts
and suppositions we do not know, but they sum up all that can be said
with certainty regarding Orkney before the coming of the Norsemen.
There is one very curious fact about the beginnings of the Norse
records: they make no mention whatever of any inhabitants being found in
the islands. The place-names afford evidence, as we have seen, of the
presence of Culdee monks, but of other population there is no trace. The
new-comers seem to have settled as in an uninhabited land, each Viking
selecting and occupying his land without let or hindrance.
If there had been a native population, and if these had been either
expelled or exterminated by the invaders, we should surely have been
told of it by the Saga writers, who would have delighted in telling such
a tale. It has accordingly been supposed that at the time of the Norse
settlement the islands were uninhabited save by the hermits of the Culdee
Church. When or how the former Pictish inhabitants disappeared it is
impossible to say. Possibly some early Viking raids, of which no history
remains, had resulted in the slaughter of many and the flight of the
rest to the less exposed lands south of the Pictland or Pentland Firth.
Whatever the reason may be, the chapter of our Island history which opens
with the Norse settlement is in no way a continuation of anything which
goes before, but begins a new story.
[Illustration: _Carved Stone Balls._]
THE NORSEMEN AND THEIR SAGAS.
It is late in the eighth century before the Northman or Norseman appears
on the stage of history. From the day when Cæsar’s victorious legions
brought the Gauls, the Germans, and the Britons under the sway of the
imperial city, these nations of Western Europe are never again entirely
lost to history. But Scandinavia and the countries round the Baltic
remained unknown to Rome and to the world for long centuries afterwards.
“There nature ends,” one of the Roman writers has said, when speaking of
these northern lands. This brief yet expressive sentence well indicates
how completely outside the Roman world lay the countries which were the
cradle of our race.
There is another side to all this, which we find it difficult to picture
clearly in our minds. To the inhabitants of Scandinavia and the lands
round the Baltic, the southern parts of Europe were equally unknown. We
find in a Scandinavian writer of the ninth century a description of an
expedition which was made by one of the Viking chiefs to this unknown
world. In the course of his travels he came upon a city which to the
Norseman seemed mysterious and dread—a city of Niflheim, the under-world.
This city, as we learn from contemporary Western writers, must have been
Paris. Paris, now the gay capital of Europe, and even then a city of
importance and of fame, was so unknown to the Norsemen of the early ninth
century that it was deemed a part of Niflheim, the under-world!
During the period when the northern nations were hidden from the eye of
history, many changes must have been going on among them. The building
and management of ships could not have been learned in a day, and even
when we first catch sight of the Norsemen they were the finest and
most daring seamen in the world, and their ships probably the most
perfect hitherto seen. Many voyages among their own islands and in the
Baltic must have preceded the longer voyages to Britain, to Iceland, to
Greenland, and to America. Numerous wars there must have been, quite
unknown to history, before the northern warrior became the terrible
fighter of the Viking Age.
We can imagine the delighted wonder with which the northern warriors
first gazed upon the rich and fertile shores of South-Western Europe.
We can imagine how they contrasted the fair fields and great cities of
the south with the bleak and sterile shores of the north from which they
came. What motives first led to their leaving their native shores it is
difficult to say. Thirst for adventure, the pinch of poverty at home, the
desire of possessing gold and treasure, all conspired to make them seek
their fortunes in the wide and unknown lands which lay beyond the sea.
When the first adventurers brought home accounts of the lands which they
had seen—the fruitful fields, the great cities, the rich merchandise,
and the yellow gold—great numbers of their fellow-countrymen would be
seized with a longing to visit those wonderful shores where wealth was
to be had for the taking. The roving spirit once roused spread rapidly
over the northern lands. The storm of Viking fury burst on the lands of
Western Europe almost without warning.
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the date A.D. 787, we read: “In this
year King Beorhtric took Eadburh, King Offa’s daughter, to wife. And in
his days first came three ships of Northmen from Haerethaland, and the
reeve rode down to them and would drive them to the king’s _vill_, for
he knew not what men they were, and they there slew him. These were the
first ships of Danish men that sought the land of the English.” Thus we
read of the first mutterings of the storm which was so soon to burst on
the coasts of Western Europe. During the succeeding two centuries and a
half the English learned to know well what men these were who came out of
the wild north-east. The monks’ litany, “From the fury of the Northmen
deliver us, O Lord!” tells us what _they_ thought of them.
[Illustration: EXPEDITIONS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE NORSEMEN]
We can trace two distinct roads which the Viking raids followed. One,
traversed chiefly by the Danes, led along the shores of Northern Europe
to England, the English Channel, France, Spain, and the Mediterranean;
the other, traversed chiefly by the Norsemen, led straight across the
North Sea to the Orkneys, thence along the west coast of Scotland, to
Ireland and the west of England. The islands lying off the coasts of
Scotland, England, Ireland, and France were seized by the invaders, and
from these as bases their raids extended far and wide. Monasteries
felt the utmost fury of their attacks, for there they knew they would
find abundance of spoil. At first the invaders confined themselves to
plundering expeditions. The Norsemen early turned their attention to
settlement and commerce; the Danes, on the other hand, remained for a
longer period intent on plunder alone.
Civil wars in Western Europe had rendered the nations there incapable
of effective resistance to the ruthless invaders. The Vikings descended
now at one point, now at another. When they met with a more stubborn
resistance than usual, they merely retired to their ships with whatever
plunder they had seized, and sailed away to make an attack somewhere
else. They wintered on the islands which they had seized, and as soon as
spring was come they descended once more on the devoted lands. Ireland
suffered severely at their hands. The Orkneys and the Hebrides became
nests of Vikings; in fact, colonies of them must have been established
there at a very early date. In these islands they were safe from all
interference—a law to themselves; for as yet there was no arm in Europe
long enough and strong enough to reach them. Nowhere could a more
convenient base have been found for Viking raids on the British and Irish
shores.
The first half-century of the Viking Age saw the Danes settled merely in
outlying parts of the east coast of England. The Norsemen, on the other
hand, had already seized on Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides, and large
tracts of Eastern Ireland. The first fifty years of the Viking Age may be
called the first period of Norse colonization in the west.
It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose that the Norsemen were
merely turbulent sea-robbers, or that the only result of their migrations
was to hinder the progress of civilization in Western Europe. As settlers
in other countries, they brought new strength and vitality to the land
of their adoption; but instead of remaining separate colonies, they were
soon absorbed into the native population, and had no further history of
their own.
Yet there were two great settlements abroad which left a deep mark on
European history. The one was the colonization of the north of France,
afterwards called Normandy. There the Norsemen soon adopted the language
and the religion of the country, but retained so much of their native
characteristics that the subsequent Norman Conquest of England may be
regarded as really a Norse inroad of a specially successful type. The
other settlement was that in the south of Italy and Sicily, later known
as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which occupied an important place in
history during the Middle Ages.
Even the British settlements for the most part had only a brief period
of separate history, and soon became merged into the general stream of
national life. In Orkney and Shetland, however, where there was probably
no native population at the time of the Norse invasion, the colony
developed along its own special lines, and has left behind it a history
which for centuries remained distinct from that of the rest of Great
Britain.
The history of the Orkney Islands during the period of the Norse
occupation is preserved for us in the Icelandic _Sagas_. Iceland was one
of the earliest and most important Norse colonies, and there the old
Northern language was preserved better than anywhere else. The Sagas are
stories which, in the times of long ago, were told around the fires in
Iceland and other Norse colonies to while away the long winter evenings.
At festivals and merry-makings, during long voyages, or by the winter
fireside, the Norseman listened eagerly to the recital of deeds done by
his kinsmen in other times and in other lands. Storytelling was a popular
pastime, and the man who knew many Sagas was ever a welcome guest.
Many of the Sagas have now been translated into English, and all of
these are well worth reading. The greatest of all the Sagas is generally
thought to be the Saga of Burnt Njal. It is one of the noblest stories
to be found in any language, and it is besides nobly told. In this Saga
we find the best account of the great battle of Clontarf. Among the
other great Sagas are the Saga of the Settlers on the Ayre, the Saga of
Laxdale, the Saga of Egil the son of Skallagrim, the Saga of Grettir the
Strong, and the Saga of the Volsungs. The two last are mythical Sagas;
they do not tell of real historical personages, but are paraphrases of
old songs and legends which have come down from a more distant past. The
Anglo-Saxon Saga of Beowulf tells some of the same stories, and is not a
real Saga in the sense of a true story told by the fireside.
The stories of the earls and chiefs of Orkney form part of the great
store of Saga literature, and these have come down to us in the form
of the “Orkneyinga Saga.” It must be remembered, however, that this is
merely the summary of a great number of stories which had been told long
before by men who had no doubt taken part in the events related. It was
a Saga-man’s pride to tell the truth—at least as it was told to him—and
so we may in the main rely on the Orkney Saga as a true account of events
which happened, although sometimes it may be exceedingly difficult to
assign the correct dates. The Orkney Saga is not usually reckoned among
the great Sagas. It partakes more of the nature of a general history than
of a single and complete story. This Saga is the chief source of our
knowledge of the history of our islands during Norse times.
The Orkney Saga consists of several parts, each of which might be
called a separate Saga—the Earls’ Saga, Magnus’s Saga, and Rognvald’s
Saga. The first relates the history of Orkney from its conquest by King
Harald Fairhair of Norway down to the death of Earl Thorfinn, about the
time of the Norman Conquest of England. The second relates the lives
of Thorfinn’s sons, Paul and Erlend, but more especially of the holy
Earl Magnus, of his murder, and of the wonderful things that happened
afterwards through his holiness. The third part tells of the earls after
St. Magnus, chiefly Earl Rognvald the Second, and the great Viking, Sweyn
Asleifson of Gairsay, generally known as “the last of the Vikings.” The
whole history given in the Orkney Saga includes the events of the three
centuries from 900 to 1200.
In addition to what we learn from the Orkney Saga, we glean a few facts
about the history of our islands from other Sagas, such as the Sagas of
the Kings of Norway, usually called the “Heimskringla.” There are also
many Norse poems which scholars say must have been written in Orkney, or
in some other of the western Norse colonies, and from these we can learn
much about the life of the people, their thoughts, and their beliefs,
though very little about the actual history of the islands. We do not
know who were the authors of these poems, but some of them were really
great poets, greater, perhaps, than any then living in any other part of
Europe.
Finally, there are occasional glimpses of our Norse ancestors to be
caught in the pages of the chronicles and histories of the nations.
Unfortunately, these references are so often distorted by fear or
hatred, or so confused through scanty and imperfect knowledge, that they
add very little to what we already know from Norse records. One good
purpose, indeed, they serve: they show that the Saga-men were in the main
truth-tellers, so that we can place reliance on their stories, even where
these are not found in the records of other nations. The Saga-men also
fill up many gaps in the history of those countries which the Norsemen
visited, and thus they render our knowledge of the Viking Age more
complete, more detailed, and more accurate, even as regards countries
which were to them foreign lands.
[Illustration: _Ancient Bronze Spear-head; Horn Mounting still
preserved._]
THE BEGINNING OF THE EARLDOM.
Before our story begins, Norway was divided into a number of small
kingdoms. About the year 890 A.D. a king called Harald, who ruled
over one of these small kingdoms, resolved to make himself master of
all Norway. He made a vow that he would not cut his hair until he was
acknowledged king throughout the whole country. This ambitious aim took
some time to accomplish, and as the years passed his thick locks grew
long and shaggy. Thus he got the name of Harald Shockhead.
One after another, however, he subdued the smaller kingdoms, compelling
the earls and chiefs to acknowledge him as their king, or to leave
the country. Then began what may be called the second period of Norse
colonization in the west. Many of the proudest and boldest of the
Norsemen, deeming it a disgrace to serve a king who was at best only
their equal, preferred to trust themselves and all their belongings to
the ocean, and take whatever fortune might await them.
Those nobles who fled from Norway, regarding Harald as their enemy, soon
began to spread terror along the shores of Norway itself, returning to
plunder, and slay, and burn, as their fellow-countrymen had so often done
in the west. Their chief haunts were among the Orkneys and the Hebrides.
Thither they betook themselves with their booty when winter came on.
There they lived and feasted all through the winter, and when spring
came they descended once more on the coasts of Norway. Ireland and the
west coast of England also suffered from these raiders, and in France a
determined effort to conquer the country was at this time made by the
Norsemen. Hrolf or Rollo, the Norseman, became master of the north of
France, and gave to it a new name—Normandy, the land of the Normans or
Norsemen.
The last great effort made by these Norse nobles to break the power of
King Harald was foiled by their defeat at Hafursfrith. A great league had
been formed against Harald. Vikings from over the sea crowded back to
Norway to avenge their own injuries and to help their kinsmen. The two
fleets met at Hafursfrith in the south of Norway, and a long and stubborn
battle ended in victory for Harald. This battle had far-reaching results.
It was the end of the struggle for independence in Norway. Harald was
then left free to turn his attention to the chastisement of the Vikings
in the west. The result was the foundation of the Norse Empire in the
west, and the colonization of Iceland and Greenland by those Norsemen who
still scorned to own the sway of the Norwegian king.
With a large and splendidly equipped fleet, Harald swooped down on the
Vikings in Orkney and the Hebrides. Their resistance was feeble enough.
Some yielded themselves to the king; others fled before him. Nowhere
was there anything like a pitched battle. As far south as the Isle of
Man, Harald pursued his career of conquest. Turning north once more, he
established Norse jarldoms or earldoms in Orkney and the Hebrides, to be
subject henceforth to the Norwegian crown. Then, considering that his vow
was fulfilled, Harald at last had his long hair cut, and was afterwards
known as Harald Fairhair.
One of Harald’s chief friends and supporters was Rognvald, Earl of Moeri
and Romsdal, who was called by the men of his time, “The mighty and wise
in council.” This Rognvald was the father of Rollo of Normandy. He had
other sons named Ivar, Thorir, Rollaug, Hallad, and Einar, and he had
a brother called Sigurd. The family makes a very large figure in the
history of those times. In one of Harald’s battles in the west fell Ivar,
Rognvald’s son. Harald assigned to Rognvald the newly created Jarldom of
Orkney in order to compensate him in some measure for the loss of his
son. But Rognvald had already large estates in Norway. He thought that
these were quite enough for one man to govern. Accordingly he handed over
the Orkneys to his brother Sigurd, who thus became the first Jarl or Earl.
Sigurd, the first Earl of Orkney, sometimes called Sigurd the Mighty,
was a strong and energetic ruler. When King Harald departed for Norway,
the earl at once began to strengthen himself in his new dominions. He
first allied himself with Thorstein the Red, son of the Norse king of
Dublin, and with the Norsemen in the Hebrides, and then invaded Scotland
in an attempt to add to his earldom Caithness and Sutherland. The Scots
naturally offered a determined resistance. Their leader was Maelbride
or Melbrigda—called Melbrigda Tusk because he had a large projecting
tooth—Earl or Maormor of Ross.
After the war had lasted for some time, the two earls agreed to meet and
settle their quarrel, each taking forty men with him. On the day fixed
for the meeting, Sigurd, suspecting, as he said, the good faith of the
Scots, mounted two men on each of his forty horses, and came thus to the
place appointed. As soon as the Norsemen appeared in sight, Melbrigda saw
that he had been trapped, and turning to his men, said, “We have been
betrayed by Sigurd, for I see two feet on each horse’s side. The men must
therefore be twice as numerous as the horses that bear them. Nevertheless
let us harden our hearts and sell our lives as dearly as we can.”
Seeing the Scots prepared to die hard in the place where they were,
Sigurd divided his force and attacked them at once in front and in flank.
The battle was fierce and bloody, but it ended in the total extermination
of the small band of Scots. Sigurd, exulting over his fallen foe, cut
off Melbrigda’s head and fixed it to his saddle. On his way home, in
spurring his horse his leg struck against the great projecting tooth
which had given Melbrigda his nickname, and the tooth pierced his leg.
Blood-poisoning followed, and a few days later Earl Sigurd died in great
pain on the banks of the Dornoch Firth. He was buried at a place now
called Cyder Hall (Sigurd’s Howe), near Skibo Castle.
Sigurd was succeeded in the earldom by his son Guttorm. Guttorm ruled the
islands for one short and uneventful winter, and then died childless.
For some time the earldom was without a ruler. Vikings once more began
to make the Orkneys their headquarters, and to harass the more peaceful
inhabitants of the islands. When King Harald heard that the Orkneys
were without a ruler, he asked Earl Rognvald to make haste to send them
another earl. Rognvald then had the title of Earl of Orkney conferred on
his son Hallad, who sailed for the west as the third earl. But Hallad was
weak and indolent. The western earldom was too turbulent and difficult
to govern. He soon wearied of his dignity, and at last, deserting his
earldom, went back to Norway. After his ignominious withdrawal from the
earldom, the islands came under the rule of two Danish Vikings.
Although Hallad preferred a simple farmer’s life to an earl’s dignity,
there were others of Rognvald’s sons who were more ambitious. Einar
especially was eager to redeem the family honour by the expulsion of the
Vikings from the islands. Accordingly Einar was chosen as Earl of Orkney,
and after King Harald had conferred on him the title, he set out for his
earldom. The old Earl of Moeri had never regarded his youngest son with
much favour, and, to tell the truth, neither desired to see the other’s
face again.
Einar was the best and greatest of the early Norse earls. In appearance
he was tall and manly; his face was somewhat disfigured by the loss of an
eye, but in spite of this he was reputed to be very sharp-sighted. His
father had prophesied that Einar would never become a great chief; yet he
became the most famous of all Earl Rognvald’s sons, with the exception
of Rollo of Normandy.
The earldom was in a state of great disorder when Einar arrived. The
Vikings had to be expelled, the government had to be settled and
established, and the people had to learn to trust and obey their new
earl. All these things were accomplished in a marvellously short space
of time. The new earl also taught his people many useful arts. Wood was
scarce: Einar knew that the people of Scotland used peat for fuel, and he
taught the Norsemen in the islands to do the same. From this he got the
name of Torf-Einar.
Soon a serious trouble arose. King Harald’s sons had now grown up to be
very turbulent and overbearing men. They quarrelled with their father’s
chiefs and earls. Two of them, Halfdan Highleg and Gudrod Bright,
attacked and slew Rognvald, Earl of Moeri. Harald was enraged that his
sons should thus murder his best and most faithful counsellor and friend.
He marched against them with an army, and ordered them to be seized and
brought before him. Gudrod gave himself up to his father, but Halfdan
seized a ship and sailed west to the Orkneys.
Halfdan’s sudden arrival in the earldom caused panic for a time. Einar
was quite unprepared for an invasion. He accordingly thought it wiser
to escape to Caithness until he had time to collect his forces. In the
meantime Halfdan seized the government of the isles, taking the title
of King of Orkney and Shetland. The same summer saw Einar back in the
Orkneys with a fleet and an army to regain his earldom. The two fleets
met somewhere off the island of Sanday. A fierce battle took place, and
Halfdan’s force was practically annihilated. In the dusk of the evening
he himself leaped overboard and escaped.
Next morning the shores were searched for fugitives. All who were found
were slain, but Halfdan himself had disappeared. While the search was
still proceeding, Einar was observed to stop suddenly and gaze across the
sea towards the island of North Ronaldsay, or Rinansey, as it was then
called.
“What see’st thou, jarl?” asked one of his companions. “I know not what
it is,” was the reply. “Sometimes it appears to rise up, and sometimes
to lie down. It is either a bird in the air or a man on the rocks, and I
will find out.”
This object which the earl saw was Halfdan, who had probably just dragged
his weary limbs from the water, and was now struggling up over the rocks
to the land. The earl’s men pursued and captured him. He was at once
brought before the earl, who ordered him to be slain, to avenge his
father’s murder, and as a sacrifice to Odin for the victory.
Angry as King Harald had been because of the murder of Earl Rognvald, the
death of his son at the hands of Rognvald’s son was not likely to be very
agreeable to him. Harald therefore determined to make a second expedition
to the west.
When Einar heard of Harald’s intended visit to the Orkneys, he thought
that he would be safer out of the king’s way, and accordingly he crossed
the Pentland Firth. Messengers went backwards and forwards between the
king and the earl for a while, arranging terms of settlement. At length
the king demanded that the earldom should pay a fine of sixty marks. To
that Einar agreed, and King Harald Fairhair bade farewell to his western
dominions for ever.
It was no easy matter for the Orkneymen to raise the sixty marks, and the
earl called a Thing or council to discuss the matter. At length the earl
offered to pay the whole fine himself, on condition that all the freehold
or udal lands of the Orkneymen were handed over to him in pledge for the
amount that each had to pay, and to this the islanders agreed.
In this way the earl came into possession of all the udal lands in the
Orkneys; and it was not till the time of Earl Sigurd the Stout, a century
later, that the udal rights were restored to the Orkneymen. Earl Einar
spent the rest of his days in peace. The earldom was well ruled. Vikings
were afraid to plunder the dominions of so powerful a chief; and after
a long and honourable reign the good earl died on a sickbed—what the
Vikings called a “straw death”—about the year 933.
[Illustration: _Remains of a Viking Ship found in Sweden._]
THE DARK CENTURY.
The tenth century may fittingly be called the dark century of Orcadian
history. We know very little of it except occasional glimpses afforded
by obscure references in the Sagas; and the little that we do know tells
of treachery and bloodshed and murder to an extent unusual even in the
troubled annals of Orkney.
After the death of Torf-Einar the earldom came into the hands of his
three sons, Thorfinn—usually called Thorfinn Skull-splitter—Arnkell, and
Erlend. The disturbed state of Norway, consequent on the death of Harald
Fairhair about the year 945, caused turmoil and confusion throughout all
those lands which had been conquered and settled by the Norsemen. Harald
left behind him a brood of wild, reckless sons, each of whom thought he
had a right to a share of his father’s dominions. They filled the whole
land with turbulence and bloodshed.
Eric Bloody-axe had been Harald’s favourite son, and he at first took
over the chief rule in Norway. He was a brave and skilful warrior,
but passionate, avaricious, and treacherous in his disposition. The
same qualities were possessed in an even greater degree by his queen,
Gunnhilda. Their deeds of violence soon estranged the hearts of their
subjects.
Hakon, Harald’s youngest son, who had been brought up in England under
the care of King Athelstan, came to Norway to claim his share of his
father’s dominions. Hakon was at this time only in his fifteenth year,
but he was daring and ambitious, and was the darling of the Norsemen both
at home and abroad. Eric Bloody-axe and Gunnhilda were, on the other
hand, regarded everywhere with hatred and detestation. When, therefore,
Hakon invaded Norway and attempted to wrest the sovereignty from the
hands of his elder brother, the latter was deserted by his people and was
forced to flee from the country.
Eric crossed first to Orkney, where he gathered a band of followers as
reckless as himself, and then held on to England and began to ravage
the land in the usual Viking fashion. Close friendship had long existed
between Athelstan and Harald Fairhair. Athelstan professed similar
friendship for Harald’s sons, and now offered Eric the lordship of
Northumbria. Eric was not so foolish as to reject this offer. Gunnhilda
and he with their family abode in peace in Northumbria for about a year.
With the death of Athelstan fortune began once more to frown upon the
exiled king. King Edmund thought it by no means desirable that the
Norsemen should hold so large a portion of his kingdom. Knowing the
insecurity of his tenure, Eric’s reckless spirit flashed at once into
open rebellion. He left Northumbria, sailed to Orkney, seized the Earls
Arnkell and Erlend, forced many other Orcadian chiefs to join him, and
made a Viking raid on the west coast of England. The raiders met with
resistance and a battle was fought; in this battle fell Eric himself,
both the Orkney earls, and most of the other leaders.
When news of this disastrous expedition reached Gunnhilda, who had
remained with her family in Northumbria, she in turn embarked for Orkney.
She and her sons claimed the earldom, seized the taxes, and spread wrong
and oppression over all the western colonies. For a short time the
islands suffered the same misgovernment as Norway had already suffered at
her hands. But war now broke out between Norway and Denmark. This seemed
to afford her a chance of regaining the Norwegian crown, and Gunnhilda
and her family sailed eastwards once more. Ragnhilda, her daughter,
was left behind in Orkney to continue for a time her mother’s acts of
treachery and bloodshed.
There are few worse characters in history than Ragnhilda as depicted
by the Saga. She seemed to have a mania for plots and murders. Married
first to Arnfinn, one of the sons of Earl Thorfinn, she caused him to be
murdered at Murkle in Caithness, for no reason that we can find out, and
then married his brother Havard. On the death of his father Thorfinn,
shortly afterwards, Havard became earl. He is known in history as Havard
the Harvest-happy, because during his time the islands were blessed
with good harvests. Havard also met his death at the instigation of
his wife. Ragnhilda persuaded Einar Oily-tongue, his nephew, to murder
the earl, promising to marry him and secure for him the earldom when
the deed was done. Einar set on Havard in Stenness, and slew him after
a hard struggle. But it was apparently no part of Ragnhilda’s plan to
marry Einar Oily-tongue. She now professed the greatest indignation and
grief at the murder of Earl Havard, and called for vengeance on his
murderer. Einar Oily-tongue had a cousin, also called Einar. He in turn
fell a victim to the wiles of Ragnhilda. By promising or at least hinting
that she would marry the man who avenged the murder of Earl Havard, she
succeeded in getting the second Einar to murder the first, and ended by
marrying Ljot, the third son of Earl Thorfinn, who was the real heir to
the earldom.
This was by no means the end of Ragnhilda’s wickedness. Ljot had a
brother, Skuli, who was not at all satisfied that the former should have
the whole earldom. It was an easy matter to make trouble between the two
brothers. In the end Skuli left the islands for Scotland, and became Earl
of Caithness and a vassal of the Scottish king. Bad feeling continued
between the brothers, and was carefully fostered by Ragnhilda. Ultimately
they met in arms in Caithness, Skuli with a Scottish army, and Ljot with
the forces of the earldom. The Scots were defeated and Skuli slain.
Ljot now added Caithness to his earldom, but the Scots again and again
strove to reconquer it. Finally a great battle was fought at Skidmire in
Caithness. The Norsemen gained the day, but the earl was fatally wounded.
There remained one son of Thorfinn Skull-splitter, named Hlodver, who now
became earl over an earldom exhausted and impoverished by twenty years
of misgovernment and bloodshed, and embroiled in an arduous struggle with
Scotland for the possession of Caithness.
The Orkney earldom, however, was now on the eve of a great expansion.
Under the son and grandson of Hlodver, Sigurd the Stout and Thorfinn
the Mighty, the Norse dominion in the west attained its widest bounds,
and the earldom of Orkney its greatest importance. For more than half a
century, with little or no interference from Norway, the Orkney earls
helped to mould the history of Ireland and of Scotland; and until the
union of England and Denmark took place under Canute, the Norse Earls of
Orkney were probably the most powerful chieftains in the British Isles.
It was in the time of Earl Sigurd that Christianity was first introduced
among the Norse inhabitants of Orkney. Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, King of
Norway, had embraced the new faith, and his methods of promoting the
religion which he professed were characteristic of his time and race. The
story of the conversion of Earl Sigurd and his followers is thus given in
the Saga:—
“Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, sailed from the west to the Orkneys; but because
the Pentland Firth was not passable, he laid his ship up under the lee in
Osmund’s Voe, off Rognvald’s Isle. But there in the voe lay already Earl
Sigurd, Hlodver’s son, with three ships, and then meant to go a-roving.
But as soon as King Olaf knew that the earl was there, he made them
call him to come and speak with him. But when the earl came on board
the king’s ship, King Olaf began his speech.” (We pass over his long
historical review of the establishment of the Orkney earldom and its
dependence upon the kings of Norway, and give only his closing sentences.)
“‘Now, as so it is, Earl Sigurd, that thou hast come into my power, now
thou hast two choices before thee, very uneven. One is that thou shalt
take the right faith and become my man, and allow thyself to be baptized
and all thy undermen; then shalt thou have a sure hope of honour from me,
and to have and to hold as my underman this realm, with earl’s title and
full freedom as thou hast erewhile had it; and this over and above, which
is much more worth, to rule in everlasting bliss with all-ruling God—that
is sure to thee if thou keepest all His commandments. This is the other
choice, which is very doleful and unlike the first—that now on the spot
thou shalt die, and after thy death I shall let fire and sword ruthlessly
rage over all the Orkneys, burn and brand homesteads and men, unless this
folk will have salvation and believe on the true God....’
“But when Earl Sigurd had heard so long and clever a speech of King Olaf,
he hardened his heart against him, and spoke thus: ‘It must be told thee,
King Olaf, that I have firmly made up my mind that I will not and may
not and shall not forego that faith which my kinsmen and forefathers had
before me: for I know no better counsel than they, and I know not that
that faith is better which thou preachest than this which we have now had
and held all our lives.’
“And with that the king saw the earl so stiffnecked in his error, he
seized his young son, whom the earl had with him, and who had grown up
there in the isles. This son of the earl the king bore forward on the
prow and drew his sword, and made ready to cut off the lad’s head, with
these words, ‘Now mayst thou see, Earl Sigurd, that I will spare no man
who will not serve Almighty God, or listen to my exhortations and hearken
to this blessed message; and for that I will now on this very spot slay
this thy son before thine eyes, with this same sword which I grasp,
unless thou and thy men serve my God; for hence out of the isles will I
not go before I have forwarded and fulfilled this His glorious errand,
and thou and thy son, whom I now hold, have taken on you baptism.’
“And in the strait to which the earl was now come, he chose the choice
which the king would have, and which was better for him, to take the
right faith. Then the earl was baptized, and all the folk in the Orkneys.
After that Earl Sigurd was made after this world’s honour King Olaf’s
earl, and held under him lands and fiefs, and gave him for an hostage
that same son of his of whom it was spoken before; he was called Whelp
or Hound. Olaf made them christen the lad by the name of Hlodver, and
carried him away with him to Norway. Earl Sigurd bound with oaths all
their agreement, and next after that Olaf sailed away from the Orkneys,
but set up there behind him priests to mend the folk’s ways and teach
them holy wisdom; so they, King Olaf and Sigurd, parted with friendship.
Hlodver lived but a scanty time; but after that he was dead Earl Sigurd
showed King Olaf no service. He took to wife then the daughter of Malcolm
the Scot King, and Thorfinn was their son.”
So does the Saga tell this dramatic tale; and we may notice that the
earl’s allegiance to the new faith was as fickle as his fidelity to the
king, for a few years later we find him fighting in the ranks of the
heathen against the Christian king, Brian of Ireland, under the shadow of
his raven banner, a flag endowed by his mother’s spells with the twofold
magical power of ensuring victory to those who followed it, but death to
him who bore it.
The story of “King Brian’s battle,” or the battle of Clontarf, is one of
the most stirring in the old records, and we give it here as told by the
Saga-man:—
“Then King Sigtrygg [of Ireland] stirred in his business with Earl
Sigurd, and egged him on to go to the war with King Brian. The earl
was long steadfast, but the end of it was that he said it might come
about. He said he must have his mother’s hand for his help, and be king
in Ireland if they slew Brian. But all his men besought Earl Sigurd
not to go into the war, but it was all no good. So they parted on the
understanding that Earl Sigurd gave his word to go; but King Sigtrygg
promised him his mother and the kingdom. It was so settled that Earl
Sigurd was to come with all his host to Dublin by Palm Sunday.
“Then King Sigtrygg fared south to Ireland, and told his mother,
Kormlada, that the earl had undertaken to come, and also what he had
pledged himself to grant him. She showed herself well pleased at that,
but said they must gather greater force still. Sigtrygg asked whence this
was to be looked for. She said that there were two Vikings lying off
the west of Man; and they had thirty ships, and ‘they are men of such
hardihood that nothing can withstand them. The one’s name is Ospak, and
the other’s Brodir. Thou shalt fare to find them, and spare nothing to
get them into thy quarrel, whatever price they ask.’
“Now King Sigtrygg fares and seeks the Vikings, and found them lying
outside off Man. King Sigtrygg brings forward his errand at once; but
Brodir shrank from helping him until he, King Sigtrygg, promised him the
kingdom and his mother, and they were to keep this such a secret that
Earl Sigurd should know nothing about it. Brodir, too, was to come to
Dublin on Palm Sunday. King Sigtrygg fared home to his mother and told
her how things stood. After that those brothers, Ospak and Brodir, talked
together; and then Brodir told Ospak all that he and Sigtrygg had spoken
of, and bade him fare to battle with him against King Brian, and said
he set much store on his going. Ospak said he would not fight against
so good a king. Then they were both wrath, and sundered their band at
once. Ospak had ten ships and Brodir twenty. Ospak was a heathen, and
the wisest of all men. He laid his ships inside in a sound, but Brodir
lay outside him. Brodir had been a Christian man and a mass-deacon by
consecration; but he had thrown off his faith and become God’s dastard,
and now worshipped heathen fiends, and he was of all men most skilled in
sorcery. He had that coat of mail on which no steel would bite. He was
both tall and strong, and had such long locks that he tucked them under
his belt. His hair was black.
“It so happened one night that a great din passed over Brodir and his
men, so that they all woke, and sprang up and put on their clothes. Along
with that came a shower of boiling blood. Then they covered themselves
with their shields, but for all that many were scalded. This wonder
lasted all till day, and a man had died on board every ship. Then they
slept during the day. The second night there was again a din, and again
they all sprang up. Then swords leapt out of their sheaths, and axes and
spears flew about in the air and fought. The weapons pressed them so
hard that they had to shield themselves; but still many were wounded,
and again a man died out of every ship. This wonder lasted all till day.
Then they slept again the day after. The third night there was a din of
the same kind. Then ravens flew at them, and it seemed to them as though
their beaks and claws were of iron. The ravens pressed them so hard that
they had to keep them off with their swords, and covered themselves with
their shields. This went on again till day, and then another man had died
in every ship.
“Then they went to sleep first of all; but when Brodir woke up, he drew
his breath painfully, and bade them put off the boat, ‘For,’ said he, ‘I
will go to see Ospak.’ Then he got into the boat and some men with him.
But when he found Ospak he told him of the wonders which had befallen
them, and bade him say what he thought they boded. Ospak would not tell
him before he pledged him peace, and Brodir promised him peace; but Ospak
still shrank from telling him till night fell, for Brodir never slew a
man by night.
“Then Ospak spoke, and said, ‘When blood rained on you, therefore shall
ye shed many men’s blood, both of your own and others. But when ye heard
a great din, then ye must have been shown the crack of doom, and ye
shall all die speedily. But when weapons fought against you, that must
forebode a battle. But when ravens pressed you, that marks the devils
which ye put faith in, and who will drag you all down to the pains of
hell.’
“Then Brodir was so wrath that he could answer never a word. But he went
at once to his men, and made them lay his ships in a line across the
sound, and moor them by bearing cables on shore, and meant to slay them
all next morning. Ospak saw all their plan. Then he vowed to take the
true faith, and to go to King Brian and follow him till his death-day.
Then he took that counsel to lay his ships in a line, and punt them along
the shore with poles, and cut the cables of Brodir’s ships. Then the
ships of Brodir’s men began to fall aboard of one another. But they were
all fast asleep; and then Ospak and his men got out of the firth, and so
west to Ireland, and came to Kincora. Then Ospak told King Brian all that
he had learnt, and took baptism, and gave himself over into the king’s
hand. After that King Brian made them gather force over all his realm,
and the whole host was to come to Dublin in the week before Palm Sunday.
“Earl Sigurd, Hlodver’s son, busked him from the Orkneys, and Flosi
offered to go with him. The earl would not have that, since he had his
pilgrimage to fulfil. Flosi offered fifteen men of his band to go on the
voyage, and the earl accepted them; but Flosi fared with Earl Gilli to
the Southern Isles. Thorstein, the son of Hall of the Side, went along
with Earl Sigurd, and Hrafn the Red, and Erling of Straumey. He would not
that Hareck should go, but said he would be sure to tell him first the
tidings of his voyage. The earl came with all his host on Palm Sunday to
Dublin, and there, too, was come Brodir with all his host. Brodir tried
by sorcery how the fight would go. But the answer ran thus, that if the
fight were on Good Friday, King Brian would fall but win the day; but if
they fought before, they would all fall who were against him. Then Brodir
said that they must not fight before the Friday....
“King Brian came with all his host to the burg; and on the Friday the
host fared out of the burg, and both armies were drawn up in array.
Brodir was on one wing of the battle, but King Sigtrygg on the other.
Earl Sigurd was in the mid-battle. Now, it must be told of King Brian
that he would not fight on the fast-day, and so a shieldburg was thrown
round him, and his host was drawn up in array in front of it. Wolf the
Quarrelsome was on that wing of the battle against which Brodir stood.
But on the other wing, where Sigtrygg stood against them, were Ospak
and his sons. But in mid-battle was Kerthialfad, and before him the
banners were borne. Now the wings fall on one another, and there was a
very hard fight. Brodir went through the host of the foe, and felled all
the foremost that stood there, but no steel would bite on him. Wolf the
Quarrelsome turned then to meet him, and thrust at him twice so hard that
Brodir fell before him at each thrust, and was well-nigh not getting on
his feet again. But as soon as ever he found his feet, he fled away into
the wood at once.
“Earl Sigurd had a hard battle against Kerthialfad, and Kerthialfad
came on so fast that he laid low all who were in the front rank, and
he broke the array of Earl Sigurd right up to his banner, and slew the
banner-bearer. Then he got another man to bear the banner, and there
was again a hard fight. Kerthialfad smote this man too his death-blow
at once, and so on one after the other all who stood near him. Then
Earl Sigurd called on Thorstein, the son of Hall of the Side, to bear
the banner, and Thorstein was just about to lift the banner. But then
Amundi the White said, ‘Don’t bear the banner! for all they who bear it
get their death.’ ‘Hrafn the Red!’ called out Earl Sigurd, ‘bear thou
the banner.’ ‘Bear thine own devil thyself,’ answered Hrafn. Then the
earl said, ‘’Tis fittest that the beggar should bear the bag;’ and with
that he took the banner from the staff and put it under his cloak. A
little after, Amundi the White was slain, and then the earl was pierced
through with a spear. Ospak had gone through all the battle on his wing.
He had been sore wounded, and lost both his sons ere King Sigtrygg fled
before him. Then flight broke out throughout all the host. Thorstein,
Hall of the Side’s son, stood still while all the others fled, and tied
his shoestring. Then Kerthialfad asked why he ran not as the others.
‘Because,’ said Thorstein, ‘I can’t get home to-night, since I am at home
out in Iceland.’ Kerthialfad gave him peace....
“Now Brodir saw that King Brian’s men were chasing the fleers, and that
there were few men by the shieldburg. Then he rushed out of the wood, and
broke through the shieldburg, and hewed at the king. The lad Takt threw
his arm in the way, and the stroke took it off and the king’s head too;
but the king’s blood came on the lad’s stump, and the stump was healed
by it on the spot. Then Brodir called out with a loud voice, ‘Now man can
tell that Brodir felled Brian.’ Then men ran after those who were chasing
the fleers, and they were told that King Brian had fallen; and then they
turned back straightway, both Wolf the Quarrelsome and Kerthialfad. Then
they threw a ring round Brodir and his men, and threw branches of trees
upon them, and so Brodir was taken alive.... After that they took King
Brian’s body and laid it out. The king’s head had grown to the trunk....
“This event happened in the Orkneys, that Hareck thought he saw Earl
Sigurd, and some men with him. Then Hareck took his horse and rode to
meet the earl. Men say that they met and rode under a brae; but they were
never seen again, and not a scrap was ever found of Hareck.”
_From the “Njala Saga,” translated by Sir G. W. Dasent, D.C.L.
(By permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office.)_
[Illustration: _Ancient Bronze Weapons and Ornaments._]
EARL THORFINN AND EARL ROGNVALD.
Earl Sigurd, as has been mentioned, took as his second wife the daughter
of Malcolm the Second, King of Scots. They had but one son, Thorfinn,
called the Mighty, the greatest of his race, who became the most powerful
of all the Orkney earls. When he was but five winters old Thorfinn was
sent to his grandfather Malcolm to be brought up at the Scottish Court,
and on his father’s death he was made Earl of Caithness and Sutherland.
Einar and Brusi, sons of Sigurd by his first wife, then ruled over the
islands. Einar was ambitious and warlike, Brusi mild and peaceful. When
they shared the earldom between them, Brusi was content with a third
part, while Einar took over the remainder; and so matters stood for a
time.
When Thorfinn grew up to manhood, he was not content with his large
domains in Scotland. He put forward a claim to one-third of the Orkneys
as his rightful share. Einar would have disputed the claim; but Brusi
resigned his share to Thorfinn, and an agreement was made that when Einar
died his share should be handed over to Brusi. So peace was kept for the
time. But when Einar died, Thorfinn seized half of the whole earldom.
Brusi was unable to resist the great power of Thorfinn, so he resolved to
go east to Norway, and ask Olaf the king to do justice between him and
his brother. Thorfinn also went to Norway to plead his own cause. King
Olaf, unwilling to increase the power of a subject already too powerful,
decided in favour of Brusi. But when the two earls returned to the
islands, Brusi found the task of ruling his dominions and defending them
against the Vikings too heavy for him, and Thorfinn no doubt took care
that there should always be plenty of trouble for him to face.
At last Brusi was glad to hand over two-thirds of the earldom to
Thorfinn, on condition of his undertaking to defend the islands; and this
arrangement lasted till Brusi’s death.
In the meantime, Rognvald, Brusi’s son, had been growing up at the Court
of Olaf, King of Norway, and he was a close friend of Magnus, Olaf’s
son, who afterwards became king. When Rognvald heard that Brusi, his
father, was dead, and that Earl Thorfinn had seized the whole earldom,
he prepared to fare westward and claim his share of the land. Thorfinn
was now the most powerful ruler in all the western lands. He had defeated
the Scots in a great sea-fight off Deerness; he had subdued the Western
Isles; he had conquered great realms in Scotland; and he had made himself
master of the half of Ireland.
At the time when Rognvald came to the Orkneys, however, Thorfinn had wars
on his hands in the Western Isles and in Ireland, and he was glad to
offer Rognvald two-thirds of the islands in return for his friendship
and his help. So for a time the two earls lived in friendship with each
other.
Then evil men made mischief between them, and Thorfinn demanded back the
third of the land which had belonged to Earl Einar. Rognvald refused,
and sailed away to Norway to ask help from King Magnus. With a fleet
of Norwegian ships he came back to Orkney, and was met in the Pentland
Firth by the ships of Earl Thorfinn. Earl Rognvald’s ships were fewer
in number, but their larger size at first gave him the advantage. Earl
Thorfinn was hard pressed; but at last he persuaded his brother-in-law,
Kalf Arnesson, whose ships were lying by watching the fight, to come to
his aid and row against Rognvald. Then the tide of battle turned against
Earl Rognvald, and only by the darkness of the night was he enabled to
escape, and once more to find his way to Norway.
Again King Magnus came to his help; but this time Earl Rognvald tried
to take Thorfinn by surprise, so he sailed away to Orkney in the dead
of winter with only one ship. Before there was any news of his coming,
he surrounded the house where Earl Thorfinn was feasting, and set it on
fire. Only the women and children were allowed to go free; but while the
warriors were in confusion, seeking some way of escape, the great earl
broke a hole through the side of the house where the smoke was thickest,
and, carrying his wife, Ingibiorg, in his arms, he escaped in the
darkness to the seashore, took a boat, and rowed across to Caithness.
Now it seemed that Rognvald’s success was complete, for he thought
that Earl Thorfinn was surely dead. When Christmas-time was at hand, he
prepared to hold a great feast at Kirkwall, and with some of his men
he took a ship to Papa Stronsay to bring over a cargo of malt for the
brewing. They stayed there for the night, and sat long over the fire
telling of all their adventures. Meanwhile, however, Earl Thorfinn had
come back from Caithness to seek revenge. In the darkness he and his men
surrounded the house where Earl Rognvald sat, and set it on fire. All
except the earl’s men were allowed to come out, being drawn over the pile
of wood which Thorfinn’s men had placed before the door.
While this was being done, a man suddenly leaped over the pile, and over
the armed men beside it, and disappeared in the darkness.
“That must be Earl Rognvald,” cried Thorfinn, “for no one else could
do such a feat.” Then they all ran to search for Earl Rognvald in the
darkness. The barking of his dog betrayed the earl’s hiding-place to his
enemies, and soon he was found and slain among the rocks upon the shore.
Next morning Thorfinn and his men took Earl Rognvald’s ship and sailed
to Kirkwall. And when Rognvald’s men who were in the town came, unarmed,
expecting to meet the earl, they were set upon by Earl Thorfinn’s men,
and thirty of them were slain. These men were of the bodyguard of King
Magnus, and only one of them was allowed to go back to Norway to tell the
tidings to the king.
Then for eighteen years Thorfinn ruled the earldom, till the day of his
death. He was by far the greatest of the Orkney earls. He built Christ’s
Kirk in Birsay, and in his time the Bishopric of Orkney was founded.
During his later years the islands enjoyed peace, and many wise laws were
made; and when the great earl died there was much sorrow in the Orkneys.
So the poet sings in his honour:—
“Swarthy shall become the bright sun,
In the dark sea shall the earth sink,
Finished shall be Austri’s labour,
And the wild sea hide the mountains,
Ere there be in these fair islands
Born a chief to rule the people—
May our God both keep and help them—
Greater than the lost Earl Thorfinn.”
Paul and Erlend, the two sons of Thorfinn, succeeded to the earldom,
and for some time they ruled in harmony together. They fought for King
Harald Hardradi against Harold, Godwin’s son, at the battle of Stamford
Bridge in Yorkshire in 1066, but were allowed to return in peace to
their earldom. Trouble arose between the brothers when their sons grew
to manhood, and Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, made a descent upon the
islands. He carried the two brothers into exile, appointing his own son
Sigurd as “King” of Orkney, which post he held until his father’s death
made him King of Norway. Hakon, Paul’s son, and Magnus, Erlend’s son,
afterwards called St. Magnus, then became joint earls.
Their joint rule had the usual result, quarrels and misunderstandings,
and was brought to an end by the murder of Earl Magnus in Egilsay in
1115. The story is told in the Saga of Earl Magnus, from which the next
chapter is taken.
THE SLAYING OF EARL MAGNUS.
“St. Magnus, the isle earl, was the most peerless of men, tall of
growth, manly, and lively of look, virtuous in his ways, fortunate in
fight, a sage in wit, ready-tongued and lordly-minded, lavish of money
and high-spirited, quick of counsel, and more beloved of his friends
than any man. Blithe and of kind speech to wise and good men, but hard
and unsparing against robbers and sea-rovers, he let many men be slain
who harried the freemen and landfolk. He made murderers and thieves be
taken, and visited as well on the powerful as on the weak robberies and
thieveries and all ill deeds. He was no favourer of his friends in his
judgments, for he valued more godly justice than the distinctions of
rank. He was open-handed to chiefs and powerful men, but still he ever
showed most care for poor men....
“Those kinsmen, Magnus and Hakon, held the wardship of the land for some
while, so that they were well agreed.... But when those kinsmen had
ruled the land some time, then again happened, what often and always can
happen, that many ill-willing men set about spoiling their kinship. Then
unlucky men gathered more about Hakon, for that he was very envious of
the friendships and lordliness of his kinsman Magnus.
“Two men are they who are named, who were with Earl Hakon, and who were
the worst of all the tale-bearers between those kinsmen, Sigurd and
Sighvat Sock. This slander came so far with the gossip of wicked men,
that those kinsmen again gathered forces together, and each earl faced
against the other with a great company. Then both of them held on to
Hrossey [the Mainland], where the place of meeting of those Orkneyingers
was. But when they came there, then each drew up his men in array,
and they made them ready to battle. There were then the earls and all
the great men, and there, too, were many friends of both who did all
they could to set them at one again. Many then came between them with
manliness and good-will. This meeting was in Lent, a little before Palm
Sunday. But because many men of their well-wishers took a share in
clearing up these difficulties between them, but would stand by neither
to do harm to the other, then they bound their agreement with oaths and
handsels. And when some time had gone by after that, then Earl Hakon,
with falsehood and fair words, settled with the blessed Earl Magnus to
meet him on a certain day, so that their kinship and steadfast new-made
peace should not be turned aside or set at naught. This meeting for a
steadfast peace and a thorough atonement between them was to be in Easter
week that spring on Egil’s Isle [Egilsay]. This pleased Earl Magnus well,
being, as he was, a thoroughly whole-hearted man, far from all doubt,
guile, or greed; and each of them was to have two ships, and each just as
many men: this both swore, to hold and keep those terms of peace which
the wisest men made up their minds to declare between them.
“But when Eastertide was gone by, each made him ready for this
meeting. Earl Magnus summoned to him all those men whom he knew to be
kindest-hearted and likeliest to do a good turn to both those kinsmen.
He had two long-ships and just as many men as was said. And when he was
ready he held on his course to Egil’s Isle. And as they were rowing in
calm over the smooth sea, there rose a billow against the ship which the
earl steered, and fell on the ship just where the earl sat. The earl’s
men wondered much at this token, that the billow fell on them in a calm
where no man had ever known it to fall before, and where the water under
was deep. Then the earl said, ‘It is not strange that ye wonder at this;
but my thought is, that this is a foreboding of my life’s end, may be
that may happen which was before spoken about Earl Hakon. We should so
make up our minds about our undertaking, that I guess my kinsman Hakon
must not mean to deal fairly by us at this meeting.’ The earl’s men were
afraid at these words, when he said he had so short hope as to his life’s
end, and bade him take heed for his life, and not fare further trusting
in Earl Hakon. Earl Magnus answers, ‘We shall fare on still, and may all
God’s will be done as to our voyage.’
“Now it must be told about Earl Hakon, that he summoned to him a great
company, and had many war-ships, and all manned and trimmed as though
they were to run out to battle. And when the force came together, the
earl makes it clear to the men that he meant at that meeting so to settle
matters between himself and Earl Magnus that they should not both of them
be over the Orkneys. Many of his men showed themselves well pleased at
this purpose, and added many fearful words; and they, Sigurd and Sighvat
Sock, were among the worst in their utterance. Then men began to row
hard, and they fared furiously. Havard, Gunni’s son, was on board the
earl’s ship, a friend and counsellor of the earl’s, and a fast friend
to both alike. Hakon had hidden from him this bad counsel, which Havard
would surely not join in. And when he knew the earl was so steadfast
in this bad counsel, then he jumped from the earl’s ship and took to
swimming, and swam to an isle where no man dwelt.
“Earl Magnus came first to Egil’s Isle with his company, and when they
saw Hakon coming they saw that he had eight war-ships; he thought he knew
then that treachery must be meant. Earl Magnus then betook himself up on
the isle with his men, and went to the church to pray, and was there that
night; but his men offered to defend him. The earl answers, ‘I will not
lay your life in risk for me, and if peace is not to be made between us
two kinsmen, then be it as God wills.’ Then his men thought that what he
had said when the billow fell on them was coming true. Now for that he
felt sure as to the hours of his life beforehand, whether it was rather
from his shrewdness or of godly foreshowing, then he would not fly nor
fare far from the meeting of his foes. He prayed earnestly, and let a
mass be sung to him.
“Hakon and his men jumped up in the morning, and ran first to the church
and ransacked it, and did not find the earl. He had gone another way on
the isle with two men into a certain hiding-place. And when the saint
Earl Magnus saw that they sought for him, then he calls out to them and
says where he was; he bade them look nowhere else for him. And when Hakon
saw him, they ran thither with shouts and crash of arms. Earl Magnus was
then at his prayers when they came to him, and when he had ended his
prayers then he signed himself [with the cross], and said to Earl Hakon,
with steadfast heart, ‘Thou didst not well, kinsman, when thou wentest
back on thy oaths, and it is much to be hoped that thou doest this more
from others’ badness than thine own. Now will I offer thee three choices,
that thou do one of these rather than break thine oaths and let me be
slain guiltless.’
“Hakon’s men asked what offer he made. ‘That is the first, that I will
go south to Rome, or out as far as Jerusalem, and visit holy places, and
have two ships with me out of the land with what we need to have, and so
make atonement for both of our souls. This I will swear, never to come
back to the Orkneys.’ To this they said ‘Nay’ at once. Then Earl Magnus
spoke: ‘Now seeing that my life is in your power, and that I have in many
things made myself an outlaw before Almighty God, then send thou me up
into Scotland to some of both our friends, and let me be there kept in
ward, and two men with me as a pastime. Take thou care then that I may
never be able to get out of that wardship.’ To this they said ‘Nay’ at
once. Magnus spoke: ‘One choice is still behind which I will offer thee,
and God knows that I look more to your soul than to my life; but still
it better beseems thee than to take my life away. Let me be maimed in
my limbs as thou pleasest, or pluck out my eyes, and set me in a dark
dungeon.’ Then Earl Hakon spoke: ‘This settlement I am ready to take,
nor do I ask anything further.’ Then the chiefs sprang up and said to
Earl Hakon, ‘We will slay now either of you twain, and ye two shall not
both from this day forth rule the lands.’ Then answers Earl Hakon: ‘Slay
ye him rather, for I will rather rule the realm and lands than die so
suddenly.’ So says Holdbodi, a truthful freeman from the Southern Isles,
of the parley they had. He was then with Magnus, and another man with
him, when they took him captive.
“So glad was the worthy Earl Magnus as though he were bidden to a feast;
he neither spoke with hate nor words of wrath. And after this talk he
fell to prayer, and hid his face in the palms of his hands, and shed
out many tears before God’s eyesight. When Earl Magnus, the saint, was
done to death, Hakon bade Ofeig his banner-bearer to slay the earl, but
he said ‘Nay’ with the greatest wrath. Then he forced Lifolf his cook
to kill Earl Magnus, but he began to weep aloud. ‘Thou shalt not weep
for this,’ said the earl, ‘for that there is fame in doing such deeds.
Be steadfast in thine heart, for thou shalt have my clothes, as is the
wont and law of men of old, and thou shalt not be afraid, for thou doest
this against thy will, and he who forces thee misdoes more than thou.’
But when the earl had said this he threw off his kirtle and gave it to
Lifolf. After that he begged leave to say his prayers, and that was
granted him.
[Illustration: _Church of St. Magnus, Egilsay._
_(From a painting by T. Marjoribanks Hay, R.S.W.)_]
“He fell to earth, and gave himself over to God, and brought himself as
an offering to Him. He not only prayed for himself or his friends, but
rather there and then for his foes and banemen, and forgave them with
all his heart what they had misdone towards him, and confessed his own
misdeeds to God, and prayed that they might be washed off him by the
outshedding of his blood, and commended his soul into God’s hand, and
prayed that God’s angels would come to meet his soul and bear it into
the rest of Paradise. When the friend of God was led out to slaughter he
spoke to Lifolf: ‘Stand thou before me, and hew me on my head a great
wound, for it beseems not to chop off chiefs’ heads like thieves’.
Strengthen thyself, wretched man, for I have prayed to God that he may
have mercy upon thee.’ After that he signed himself [with the cross], and
bowed himself to the stroke. And his spirit passed to heaven.
“That spot was before mossy and stony. But a little after, the worthiness
of Earl Magnus before God was so bright that there sprung up a green
sward where he was slain, and God showed that, that he was slain for
righteousness’ sake, and inherited the fairness and greenness of
Paradise, which is called the earth of living men.... There had then
passed since the birth of Christ one thousand and ninety and one winters.”
_From the “Orkneyinga Saga,” translated by Sir G. W. Dasent, D.C.L.
(By permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office.)_
THE FOUNDING OF ST. MAGNUS CATHEDRAL.
After the death of Hakon, the slayer of Earl Magnus, the earldom was
divided between his two sons, Harald the Smooth-talker, and Paul the
Speechless. There were many bitter quarrels between the brothers, until
the death of the former left Paul as sole ruler. That happened in this
wise.
When they had been reconciled after one of their quarrels, Harald invited
Paul to a feast in his house at Orphir. On the morning before the feast,
Earl Harald found his mother and his aunt working at a very beautiful
shirt, which, they said, was a present for his brother Paul.
“Why should such a splendid garment be given to Paul and not to me?”
asked the earl, taking it up in his hand to look at it. Then before the
women could prevent him, he threw off the light cloak he was wearing and
put on the gorgeous shirt. No sooner had it touched his skin than he was
seized with violent pains, and with a sickness of which he died a few
days later. The shirt had been poisoned in order to cause Earl Paul’s
death, but it was Earl Harald who fell a victim to his mother’s cunning
and treacherous design.
Earl Paul did not long reign in peace. A new claimant soon appeared for
part of the lands. This was Kali, the son of Kol and of Gunhild, the
sister of the murdered St. Magnus, who had been brought up at the court
of King Harald of Norway. He was a man of noble appearance, bold and
skilful in war, and a born leader of men. He was in addition a noted
skald or poet, and many of the songs which he made have come down to us
in the Sagas.
He now changed his name to Rognvald, which had been a popular name in the
isles since the days of Rognvald, Brusi’s son, and he is known in history
as Rognvald Kali, or Rognvald the Second.
Having the promise of help from Harald, the Norwegian king, Rognvald
sent a message to Earl Paul, demanding that share of the islands which
Earl Magnus had held. Earl Paul, who was a good ruler, and had many
friends among the Orkneymen, replied that he would guard his inheritance
while God gave him life. Rognvald then gathered ships and set sail for
Shetland, but his fleet was destroyed in Yell Sound by the ships of Earl
Paul, and he had to escape to Norway in a merchant vessel.
Earl Paul thereupon placed beacons on some of the highest hills in the
islands, in order that he might have warning of any attempt by Rognvald
to make a descent by way of Shetland, and the most important of these
beacons was on the Fair Isle.
When Rognvald, angry and disappointed, arrived in Norway, he took counsel
with his father Kol and with an old man named Uni, who was reckoned a
very wise man; and as he had many friends among the men of Shetland,
it was decided to make a new attempt in the spring. By the aid of King
Harald and of his friends a new fleet was then got ready.
When the ships were assembled, Rognvald stood up on the deck of his
war-dragon to address his men. “Earl Paul and the Orkneyingers,” he said,
“have taken my inheritance, and refuse to give it up. My grandfather, the
holy Earl Magnus, was treacherously slain by Paul’s father Hakon, and
instead of giving compensation for the wicked deed, Earl Paul would wrong
me still more in the matter of my inheritance. However, if it be the will
of God, I intend to fare to the Orkneys, and there win what is mine by
right, or die with honour.”