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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Orkneyinga Saga, by Anonymous This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. 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 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORKNEYINGA SAGA *** Produced by Ted Garvin, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. 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.

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