The Orkneyinga Saga by Joseph Anderson ed

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Title: The Orkneyinga Saga

Author: Anonymous

Editor: Joseph Anderson

Translator: Jon A Hjaltalin
Gilbert Goudie

Release Date: August 18, 2018 [EBook #57723]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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THE ORKNEYINGA SAGA

Printed by R. & R. Clark

FOR

EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH.
LONDON HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND CO.
GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE.

ST. MAGNUS CATHEDRAL
(South Transept and part of Choir)

THE

ORKNEYINGA SAGA

TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC

BY JON A. HJALTALIN AND GILBERT GOUDIE

EDITED, WITH NOTES AND INTRODUCTION

BY JOSEPH ANDERSON

KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND

EDINBURGH

EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS

1873

i

PREFACE.

The Orkneyinga Saga is the history of the Orkneymen, Earls and Odallers of Norwegian extraction, who established
an Earldom of Norway in the Northern Scottish Isles a thousand years ago, and whose descendants for several
centuries held sway over the Hebrides and Northern Mainland of Scotland. Commencing with the conquest of the Isles
by Harald Harfagri, the Saga relates the subsequent history of the Earldom of Orkney under the long line of its Norse
Jarls, and is, for a period of three centuries and a half, the principal authority for the history of Northern Scotland. The
narrative is mainly personal, and therefore picturesque, pourtraying the men in person and character, impartially
recording their deeds, and mentioning what was thought of them and their actions at the time. Occasionally the Saga-
writer is enabled to do this in the words of a contemporary Skald. The skaldic songs, so often quoted, were the
materials from which the Sagas were subsequently elaborated. In estimating their value as historical materials, it must be
borne in mind that all history has begun in song. When great events and mighty deeds were preserved for posterity by
oral recitation alone, it was necessary that the memory should be enabled to retain its hold of the elements of the story
by some extraneous artistic aid, and therefore they were welded by the word-smith’s rhymes into a compact and
homogeneous “lay.” Thus, worked into a poetical setting (as the jeweller mounts his gems to enhance their value and
ensure their preservation), they passed as heirlooms from generation to generation, floating on the oral tradition of the
people. Snorri Sturluson tells us that the songs of the skalds who were with Harald Harfagri in his wars were known
and recited in his day, after an interval of nearly four centuries. “These songs,” he says, “which were sung in the
presence of kings and chiefs, or of their sons, are the materials of our history; what they tell of their deeds and battles
we take for truth; for though the skalds did no doubt praise those in whose presence they stood, yet no one would dare
to relate to a chief what he and those who heard it knew to be wholly imaginary or false, as that would not be praise
but mockery.” Our earliest Scottish chroniclers did not disdain to make use of the lay-smith’s craft, as a help to history,
long after the Iceland skald had been succeeded by the Saga-writer, and the flowery recitative of an unclerkly age
superseded by the terser narrative of the parchment scribe. The art is as old as Odin and the gods, if indeed it be not
older, and these its creations. But its golden age had passed ere Paganism began to give way before Christianity, and
the specimens we have in this Saga are mostly of the period of its decadence and by inferior skalds. Yet it is significant
of the esteem in which the art continued to be held by the settlers in the Orkneys, that we find Earl Sigurd honouring
Gunnlaug Ormstunga with princely gifts, Arnor Jarlaskald enjoying the special favour and friendship of Earl Thorfinn,
and Earl Rögnvald, the founder of the cathedral, courting for himself the reputation of an accomplished skald.

But though we can thus trace to some extent the authorship of the unwritten materials from which the Saga was

framed, there is nothing to show where or by whom it was written. There is proof, however, that it was known in
Iceland in the first half of the thirteenth century. Its earlier chapters, down to the division of the Earldom between
Thorfinn and Brúsi, are incorporated into the Olaf Saga of Snorri Sturluson, and are there cited as from the “Jarla
Saga,” or Saga of the Earls. It must therefore have been in existence as a completed work before 1241, the date of
Snorri’s death. The compiler of the Fagrskinna, which is shown by internal evidence to have been written between
1222 and 1225, also quotes from it, by the title of “Jarla Sagan.” The closing chapters of the Orkneyinga Saga, in its
present form, recording the burning of Bishop Adam, could not have been written before 1222; but, as it is stated in the
last chapter that the terrible retribution exacted by the Scottish King for the murder of the Bishop was still in fresh
memory, it may very well have been completed before 1225. No manuscript of the Jarla Saga is known to exist, and
the original form of what is now called “The Orkneyinga Saga” is thus matter of conjecture. We know it only as the
substance of its earlier chapters was given by Snorri previous to 1241, and in the expanded version of the
Flateyjarbók, where it is pieced into the Sagas of Olaf Tryggvi’s son and Olaf the Holy. The Flateyjarbók, however, is
nearly a century and a half later than Snorri’s work, having been written between the years 1387 and 1394.

The object of the present issue being simply to provide a plain, readable, and unadorned translation of the

Orkneyinga Saga (which has been hitherto inaccessible to the English reader), it has been deemed advisable to adhere
to the form of the Saga adopted by its first editor Jonæus, though not to Jonæus’s text, which is by no means free from
corruptions. The Christiania edition of the Flateyjarbók, printed literally from the manuscript, has afforded the means of
rectifying the text where necessary; and the expanded version of the earlier chapters given in the Flateyjarbók has also
been translated and inserted as an appendix, for the sake of the fuller details which it supplies of the earlier history of
the Earldom. In one sense it might have been desirable to have compiled a text which would have given the fullest
history of the Orkney Earls, but this would not have been the “Orkneyinga Saga.” It would have necessitated the
collection and critical collation of all the passages in all the Sagas and early writings relating to the history of the
Northmen in Scotland—a work which has long been in progress in abler hands, and under more favourable auspices.

The Introduction, however, has been compiled with a view to supplement the Saga narrative, as well as to furnish a

continuation of the history of the Earldom down to the time when it ceased to form part of the Norwegian dominions.
Some account of the islands previous to the Norse invasion, and a few notices of their antiquities and ecclesiastical
remains, as well as of the existing traces of the Norsemen, seemed requisite to supplement the notes in illustration of the
text. Chronological and Genealogical Tables have been added to facilitate reference; and on the maps of Scotland and
of the island-groups which formed the Earldom proper are shown the names of the principal places mentioned in the
Sagas as known to the Northmen.

In conclusion, I have to express my obligations to those kind friends who have aided me with their advice and

iii

iv

v

vi

assistance. To Dr. John Stuart, Dr. John Hill Burton, Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., and Colonel Balfour of Balfour and
Trenaby, I am indebted for many valuable suggestions. To the first-named gentleman I am also under obligations for the
use of the woodcuts of the symbols of the Sculptured Stones. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have generously
contributed the woodcuts of the Bressay Stone, the Saverough Bell, and the Sword and Scabbard-tip; to the Society
of Antiquaries of London I am indebted for the illustrations of the Stones of Stennis; to Mr. James Ferguson and Mr.
John Murray for those of Maeshow; to Mr. Thomas S. Muir for the Dragon of Maeshow, the etchings of the churches
of Weir and Lybster, and the ground-plans of the ancient churches; to Messrs. Chambers for the woodcut of Mousa;
and to Dr. Daniel Wilson and Messrs. Constable for those of the Brooch and Comb, illustrating the burial-usages of the
Norsemen. The view of Egilsey church is from a photograph, for which I am indebted to Mr. George Petrie of
Kirkwall, whose pleasant companionship in a pilgrimage among the localities described in the Saga is gratefully
remembered.

J. A.

National Museum

of the Antiquaries of Scotland,

October 1873.

vii

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

I.
Earliest Historical Notices of the Orkneys
ix

II.
Early Christianity of the Islands
xi

III.
Arrival of the Northmen and Establishment of the

Earldom of Orkney and Caithness

xxi

IV.
The Earldom in the Norse Line, 872-1231
xxiii

V.
The Earldom in the Angus Line, 1231-1312
xlvi

VI.
The Earldom in the Stratherne Line, 1321-1379
lv

VII.
The Earldom in the Line of St. Clair, 1379-1469
lxi

VIII.
The Bishopric of Orkney, 1102-1469
lxxi

IX.
The Bishopric of Caithness, 1150-1469
lxxix

X.
Ancient Churches of Orkney
lxxxvii

XI.
Maeshow and the Stones of Stennis
ci

XII.
Mousa and the Pictish Towers
cix

XIII.
Remains of the Northmen
cxi

Chronological Table
cxxv

Genealogical Tables
cxxxii

ORKNEYINGA SAGA.
1-201

Appendix
201-212

Index
213

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

On Separate Pages.

View of South Transept and part of Choir of the Cathedral of St. Magnus
Frontispiece

Map of Scotland, with Norse names
viii

The Bressay Sculptured Stone
xvi

The Bressay Sculptured Stone, Reverse of
xvii

Symbols on the Sculptured Stones of Scotland
xix

Cathedral of St. Magnus, Kirkwall, exterior view.
lxxxviii

The Church of Egilsey
xcii

Chancel Arch of Church of Weir, and Chancel Doorway of Church at

Lybster, Reay

xcviii

Map of the Orkney Islands
cxlii

Map of the Shetland Islands
Ibid.

Dragon-ship of the Viking period
132

In the Text.

Page

Square-sided Iron Bell found at Saverough, Orkney
xiv

Ground-plan of Egilsey Church and Tower, Orkney
xci

Ground-plan of Round Church at Orphir, Orkney
xciv

Ground-plan of Church at Weir, Orkney
xcvi

Ground-plan of Church at Lybster, Reay, Caithness
xcvii

Ground-plan and Section of Maeshow, Orkney
cii

View of the Chamber in Maeshow, Orkney
ciii

Dragon carved on the wall in Maeshow
civ

Stone Circle at Brogar, Stennis, Orkney
cvi

Stone Circle at Stennis, and Cromlech, from the northward
cvii

Stone Circle at Stennis, from the westward
cvii

Pictish Tower of Mousa (Moseyarborg), Shetland
cix

Norse Sword found at Gorton, Morayshire
cxvi

Scabbard-Point found in a Norse Grave in Westray, Orkney
cxvii

Bronze Tortoise Brooch found in a Norse Grave in Caithness
cxxi

Comb found in a Norse Grave in Westray, Orkney
cxxii

SYLLABUS OF INTRODUCTION.

Pages

I.
Early Population of the Orkneys—Monuments and Structural Remains—Saxon

Invasion in the 5th century—The Orkneys under Pictish rule—Dalriad Invasion in
the 6th century—Wasting of the Orkneys by the Pictish King Bruide.

ix-xi.

II.
Visitation of the Islands by Irish Clerics—Dicuil’s Account of Iceland, the Faroes,

Shetland and Orkney—Irish Christian Settlers driven away by the Northern
Robbers—Indications of the early Christianity of the Islands—Bells and Christian
Monuments of an early Age found in the Islands—Art of their early Sculptured
Stones—Symbols of the Sculptured Monuments of the Scottish Mainland: their
probable Period—Indications of an early Christianity in the Norse Topography of
the Islands.

xi-xxi.

III.
Earliest Notices of Northmen on British Shores: their first Inroads on the Irish

Coasts; they plunder Iona—Establishment of a Norse Kingdom at Armagh—Olaf
the White, King of Dublin—Harald Harfagri’s Expedition to the Orkneys—
Subjugation of Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides, and Man.

xxi-xxiii.

IV.
Sigurd, first Earl of the Orkneys—Earl Sigurd and Thorstein the Red subdue

Caithness and Sutherland—Sigurd’s Death and Burial at Ekkialsbakki—Thorstein
the Red King of “half of Scotland”—Thorstein slain in Caithness—Duncan, Earl of
Duncansbay—Guttorm Earl—Hallad Earl—Torf Einar Earl—Thorfinn Hausakliuf
Earl—Ragnhild murders her Husbands—Battle at Skida Myre in Caithness—Earl
Hlödver—Earl Sigurd the Stout—Earl Finnleik—Battle at Skida Myre—Earl
Sigurd’s Raven Banner—Battle at Duncansbay—Earl Sigurd marries a Daughter
of Malcolm, King of Scots: is converted to Christianity by King Olaf, Tryggvi’s
Son; falls at the Battle of Clontarf—Earls Thorfinn, Brúsi, and Einar—Kali
Hundason takes the Kingdom in Scotland—Battles at Deerness and Baefiord—
Rögnvald Brusison—Battle off Raudabiorg—Earl Thorfinn, surprised by
Rögnvald, escapes from the burning House—Rögnvald slain on Papa Stronsay—
Earl Thorfinn’s Death—Ingibiorg, his Widow, marries King Malcolm Canmore—
Battle of Stamford Bridge—Expeditions of King Magnus Barelegs to Scotland—
He carries off the Orkney Earls Paul and Erlend, and places his own son Sigurd
over Orkney—Earl Hakon Palson—Murder of St. Magnus—Harald (Slettmali)
dies from a poisoned Shirt—Paul the Silent—Rögnvald Kolson wins the Orkneys
—Earl Paul carried off to Athole by Swein Asleifson—Harald, Son of Maddad
Earl of Athole, made joint Earl of Orkney—Earl Rögnvald’s Pilgrimage to
Jerusalem—Erlend Ungi besieged in Mousa by Earl Harald—Earl Rögnvald slain
—Earl Harald at War with King William the Lion—The Eyarskeggiar—Earl
Harald makes Peace with King Sverrir, and Shetland is taken from him: is
captured by King William the Lion, and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle; is
released on his son Thorfinn being given up as a Hostage; storms a Borg at
Scrabster, and mutilates Bishop John—Penance prescribed for the Mutilation of
the Bishop—Earl John—Burning of Bishop Adam at Halkirk—Earl John slain at
Thurso

xxiii-xlvi.

V.
Magnus, son of Gilbride, Earl of Angus, made Earl of Caithness and Orkney—

Gilbride Earl—Magnus, son of Gilbride—King Hakon Hakonson’s expedition
against Scotland—Battle of Largs—Death of King Hakon at Kirkwall: his Body
lies in State in the Cathedral; is temporarily interred in the Choir; is removed to
Bergen—Earl Magnus Magnusson—Earl John—Marriage of King Eirik of
Norway with Margaret of Scotland—Death of Queen Margaret—Her Daughter
Margaret, “the Maid of Norway,” made Heiress to the Scottish Throne, and
betrothed to Prince Edward of England—The Maid of Norway dies on her
voyage to Scotland—King Eirik marries Isabella Bruce—Earl John betrothed to
their Daughter Ingibiorg—Appearance at Bergen of “the False Margaret,” a
German woman who gave herself out as the Maiden of Norway—The False
Margaret burnt at Bergen, and her Husband beheaded—Magnus, last Earl of the
Angus line

xlvi-lv.