OF SWEIN, ASLEIF’S SON’S, RETURN TO THE ORKNEYS.
ONE day Margaret announced that Swein, Asleif’s son, should go to the
Orkneys to see Earl Rögnvald, and ask him whom he preferred to share in
the dominion of the Orkneys with him—Earl Paul, or Harald, the son of
(her husband) Maddad, who was then three winters old.
When Earl Paul heard this, he said: “So far as my mind is concerned, I
will say that I have left my dominions in such a way as has never been
heard of before, I think; and I shall never return to the Orkneys any
more. I see that this must be God’s vengeance for the theft which I and
my kinsmen committed. But if God thinks the dominion mine, then will I
give it to Harald, if he may enjoy it; but I wish some money given to
me, so that I may establish myself in some monastery, and you can take
care that I do not escape. And you, Swein, shall go out to the Orkneys,
and say that I have been blinded, or still more mutilated, because my
friends will fetch me if I am an unmaimed man. In that case I may not be
able to refuse to return to my dominions with them, for I suspect that
they will consider our parting a greater loss than it is.”
What more the Earl said has not been placed on record.
Then Swein, Asleif’s son, went to the Orkneys, and Earl Paul remained
behind in Scotland.
This is how Swein related these matters. But some men tell the story in
a way by no means so creditable (to those concerned)—namely, that
Margaret induced Swein, Asleif’s son, to blind her brother Earl Paul,
then threw him into a dungeon, and subsequently induced another man to
put him to death. We do not know which of these two statements is the
more correct; but it is well known that Earl Paul came never again to
the Orkneys, and that he had no dominions in Scotland.