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