CONTEMPORARY PRINCES:
NORWAY: 995 Hakon Jarl; 1000 Olaf Trygveson; 1030 St.Olaf
SCOTLAND: 970 Kenneth III; 994 Constantine IV; 995 Kenneth IV; 1003 Malcolm II
NORMANDY: 943 Richard the Fearless; 996 Richard II The Good; 1026 Richard III
[In his time the effete Ethelred of England styled himself "Basileus of England, etc., and the Orkneys" !!! (Freeman; Palgrave)]
This Earl was a valorous warrior, and in some of the most expressive traits of his character greatly resembled his predecessor, Sigurd I. He was very successful in extending his boundaries. Caithness and Sutherland he kept from the Scots by main force, and brought Ross, Moray, and Argyll within the sphere of his influence, He rendered the Hebrides tributary to his power, and collected his revenues annually in those parts, from which he took occasion to harass and plunder the Irish and the Scottish coasts.
Soon after his accession Sigurd was challenged by Finnleik, a Scottish thane, to meet him in battle at Skidamire, all a certain day. As yet, being inexperienced in warfare and generalship, he hesitated to commit the fate of his earldom to a trial by battle, and took council of his mother, the Princess Audna, a lady greatly celebrated for the qualities most admired in that age, and especially for her skill in divination and sorcery, then styled the "science of magic". She wrought for him an enchanted standard, on which was woven with the most elaborate art the image of a black raven, a bird sacred to Odin, the Scandinavian god of war. The raven was represented with wings expanded, soaring on the wind, and directing its flight to heaven. The Lady Audna presented the magical banner to Sigurd, and assured him that whomsoever it preceded would be victorious, but that the standard-bearer himself would fall. She further exhorted him to conduct himself valiantly, for it was more honourable to have a short life of glory and renown than a lengthened one of ignominy and contempt. Sigurd accepted the challenge forthwith, but before proceeding to battle gave those Orcadians who would join his forces, the lands which their ancestors had surrendered to Torf-Einar. This wise step greatly augmented his forces, and meeting Finnleik he gained a decisive victory, but his enchanted colours were fatal to no less than three standard-bearers.
This victory gained him much credit, and we find distinguished men from distant parts hastening to enter his service. Kari Solmund, an Icelander, was admitted into his life-guards and honoured with a commission, and presently was appointed treasurer to the Earl, who employed him to collect the revenues in the Hebrides and bring them to the Orkneys. Next to him were Grim and Helgi, the sons of Njal, who were also received into the guards. After them the Earls kinsman, Thorstein, the son of Hall, Lord of Sida; and last of all, Flosi, sister's son to Thorstein, and a man of great bravery. [From Torfaeus].
The sons of Njal had been storm-driven into a bay on the Scottish coast, and had scarcely dropped anchor when their vessel was attacked by Snaekolf and Grjotgard (the sons of Earl Maddan of Dungalsby), kinsmen of Malcolm, the Scots king, in two long vessels. Fortunately for the Icelanders, an Orcadian fleet of ten ships, commanded by their compatriot Kari, put in an appearance, and Kari, though unaware of the nationality of the contending parties, gallantly resolved to support the weaker side. Therefore, the engagement was short, for both Snaekolf and Grjotgard were soon slain, the one by Kari and the other by Helgi, and the two ships struck their colours. The victorious Kari then directed his course for the Orkneys, with the sons of Njal, whom he introduced to the Earl, recommending them for the valour they had displayed in the fight, and they stayed the winter with him. Towards the end of winter Helgi grew very dejected, and being asked the cause, inquired of the Earl if he had any Scottish lands which paid him tribute. The Earl replied that he had. Helgi then assured the Earl that the Scots had killed his agents, and secured the harbours to prevent information reaching him. The Earl rejoined that if what he said was true he would highly honour and esteem him, but if otherwise would make a public example of him, and order his head to be struck off. Kari assured the Earl that Helgi was a very prudent man, and son of a man famous for getting information from remote parts, so that he was deserving of credit.
The Earl thereon sent an express to Arnliot, his deputy in Stroma, to be informed of what was doing in the Scottish mainland. Arnliot instantly procured intelligence by spies, and acquainted Earl Sigurd that two Scottish earls, Hundi and Melsnati (the latter was nearly related to King Malcolm of Scotland), had killed Havard of Threswick, the Earl's depute in that country, as well as his cousin. The Earl at once transported an army to Caithness, and receiving reinforcements from other parts of Scotland which belonged to him, attacked the two earls near Dungsbey Head. The Scots earls placed several parties of their army in ambush at some distance from the main body, and, after fighting for some time, sallied out on the Orcadian army and did great execution. All this while Grim and Helgi, the sons of Njal, fought gallantly near the Earl of Orkney's standard. Kari happened to be opposite to Melsuat, and the latter having hurled a spear at him, Kari grasped it, and darting it back, thrust him through the breast. Hundi, the other Scots earl, was so confounded at the death of Melsuat, that he immediately took to flight, followed by his whole army. Earl Sigurd pursued the fugitives, but presently halted upon being informed that Earl Melkolf, with another army, was at hand, and resolved to attack him if be approached Duncansbay. Upon this a council of war was called, and the Earl decided that it would be unwise, after their losses, to meet a fresh army, and therefore, collecting all their spoil, divided it in the Isle of Stroma, and then sailed for the mainland of Orkney, where the Earl had a splendid entertainment, at the conclusion of which be made valuable presents to Grim and Helgi, and gave them commissions as officers in his guard. Kari he complimented with a sword and a gilded spear. These three warriors continued for full three years thereafter at the Earl of Orkney's court, spending the summer in war expeditions, and acquired by their behaviour great riches and renown. From Helgi is derived the name of the Scottish county of Elgin. [From Torfaeus]
The most memorable event in the life of Earl Sigurd was that which befell him as he lay in the harbour of Osmundwall, shortly after his accession to the earldom, about the year 995. Olaf Trygveson, King of Norway, returning from a western cruise, happened to run his vessel into the same harbour, as the Pentland Firth was not to be passed that day. Sigurd was just starting on an expedition with three well-equipped ships. The King sent for him, and requested him to forthwith be baptised, and make all his people profess the Christian faith. In preferring this command, the King reminded Sigurd of the Norwegian supremacy over the Isles, and made recital of those instances where the Earls had admitted the same - to Harald Fairhair, and Eirik Bloodaxe and his family, of whom Ragnhild still survived - and warned him that in case of refusal the islands would be destroyed by fire and sword. Sigurd boldly answered the King that he could not all at once quit the religion of his ancestors, or abrogate the worship of their gods through fear. The King, seeing he was resolutely determined to continue in his idolatry, adopted a more effective means of conviction. Seizing his son Hundi, he held a drawn sword over him, and warned the Earl if he persisted in his refusal that Hundi would be at once killed. The Earl then through necessity obeyed the King, and he and his son received baptism, and further, he performed homage for Orkney and yielded up Hundi as hostage for his fidelity. King Olaf then ordered the Islesmen to be baptised, and left several divines and other learned men to instruct this infant flock in the religion they had so lately embraced. Having thus settled affairs in Orkney, he took his leave of the Earl in the most friendly manner, and proceeded on his voyage to Norway, carrying with him Hundi, the Orcadian heir-apparent, who on baptism was re-named Ludovic, Ludovic did not long survive his forced exile from Orkney, and when Earl Sigurd was apprised of his death he immediately renounced his allegiance to the king of Norway, and entered into an alliance with King Malcolm of Scotland, whose daughter (Plantula, [Balfour] Anleta, [Bishop Tulloch] or Dovada [Burke's Peerage]) he espoused in second marriage, and by whom he had Thorfinn, hereafter Earl of Orkney.
About the year 1011, Thorstein the Icelander came to the Orkneys. He was of good stock, and kin to the Earl, for Thorey, mother of his father Hall of the Side, was a daughter of Ozur, son of Hroltang, the son of Rognvald of Maeren, from whom the Earl was also descended. Thorstein, who was then seventeen years of age, took post as an archer on Earl Sigurd's flagship, and went with him in the summer about Scotland, when the Earl harried far and wide, and no man challenged Thorstein's dash and daring. Both his kinship and sturdiness pleaded his cause. The Earl slew many kernes, but some fled to the woods, and he continued to carry fire and sword throughout the whole reach of the western lands, returning late in the autumn to Orkney, where he rested for three months and bestowed gifts upon his supporters. Addressing Thorstein he said: "Good manly following have you shown me, so now I ask you to take from me this battle-axe inlaid with gold, which it beseems me you should bear". Thorstein thanked the Earl, and counted it the greatest treasure. [From Orkneyinga Saga]
That autunm came Brennu-Flosi and his men to the Orkneys. Setting sail from Hornfirth in Iceland with all the men of his Thring, they encountered hard weather and lost their reckoning, and at last, on reaching a strange land, got wrecked, losing the ship and cargo, but all lives were saved. On looking at the country two of the crew said: "We are come to Hrossey in the Orkneys". "Then might we have made a better landfall," said Flosi, "for Grim and Helgi, whom I slew, were in Earl Sigurd's body-guard". As there was naught else for it they decided to submit themselves to the Earl's pleasure, and were directed to his quarters. Upon Flosi announcing himself, the Earl asked: "What have you to say about Helgi, my henchman ?" "This," said Flosi, "that I hewed off his head. " The Earl ordered them all to be taken into custody, which was done. At that moment entered Thorstein Hallsson, whose sister Steinvorn was married to Flosi. Thorstein was in the Earl's body-guard, and on his intercession the Earl took an atonement, and put Flosi in the place which Helgi had filled, and he soon won the attachment of the Earl". [From Orkneyinga Saga]
The last expedition Earl Sigurd made was to Ireland, and it proved fatal to him. This he was importuned to make by many fair promises from King Sigtrygg Silk-beard of Dublin. King Sitric came from Dublin to Orkney, to solicit Sigurd's aid against his step-father King Brian. The cause of the war was this: Brian had divorced his Queen Kormlod, whose first husband was Olaf Quaran, King of Dublin and the adjacent territories, a very excellent prince. (He was brother to the King of Norway). Kormlod thereon induced her son Sitric to take her part in a war against Brian. To that end Sitric visited Sigurd, promising in the event of a successful issue that Sigurd should receive Kormlod in marriage and the dominions of Brian. Sigurd accepted the invitation, and engaged to have his army landed in Ireland on Palm Sunday following. Sitric in the meantime was entertained at the Yule feast in Sigurd's hall in the Orcadian mainland, and was set on the high seat, having Earl Sigurd on the one side, and Earl Gil1i who had come with him on the other. Gunnar Lambi's son was relating the story of the burning of Njal and his comrades, but giving all unfair version of it, and every now and then laughing out loud. It so happened that, as in answer to an inquiry of King Sitric's how they bore the burning, he was saying that one of them had given way to tears, some of Njal's friends - Kari, Kolbein, and David by name - who had just arrived in Hrossay, chanced to come in the hall. Hearing what was said Kari drew his sword and smote Gunnar on the neck with such a sharp blow that his head spun off on to the board before the King and the Earls, so that the board was all one gore of blood and the Earls' clothing too. Earl Sigurd called out to seize Kari and kill him, but no one stirred, and some spoke up for him, saying he had only done what he had a right to do, and so Kari, who had been one of Earl Sigurd's guard, and was most beloved of his friends, walked a way and there was no hue and cry after him. [From Torfaeus]
The two comrades, Kari Solmundson and Kolbein the Black, had sailed from Eyrar a fortnight later than did the party of Flosi from Hornfirth. They reached the Fair Isle that lies between Orkney and Shetland, where David the White entertained them, and related all he had heard about the burning. David was one of Kari's greatest friends, and gave him guest-quarters for the winter. After slaying Gunnar, Kari and his party sailed for Thraswick, in Caithness, where a worthy man named Skeggi hospitised them for a very long while. Flosi now undertook to tell the story, and as he was fair to all, that which he said was believed.
The battle of Clontarf, 1014, in which Earl Sigurd fell, is the most celebrated conflict in which the Norsemen were engaged on this side of the North Sea. "It was at Clontarf," says Dasent, "that the old and new faiths met in the lists face to face for their last struggle," and we find Earl Sigurd arrayed on the side of the old faith, notwithstanding his enforced conversion by King Olaf. In the earlier part of the battle the Irish annals describe Sigurd as dealing out wounds and slaughter all round, "no edged weapon could harm him, and there was no strength that yielded not, and no thickness that became not thin before him". From the "Njal Saga" we are informed that his raven banner, which was borne before him, was fulfilling the destiny announced by Audna when bestowing it at Skida Myre, "that it would always bring victory to those before whom it was borne, but death to him who bore it. " Twice had the banner-bearer fallen, and Earl Sigurd called on Thorstein, son of Hall of the Side, next to bear the banner. Thorstein was about to lift it, when Asmund the White called out, "Don't bear the banner, for all they who bear it get their death". "Hrafn the Red," cried Earl Sigurd, "bear thou the banner". "Bear thine own devil thyself," said Hrafn. Then said the earl, "'Tis fittest that the beggar should bear the bag," and with that upraised the banner, and was immediately pierced through with a spear. Then flight broke out through all the hosts. [From Orkneyinga Saga]
Fifteen men of the Burners fell in Brian's battle, and there, too, fell Erling of Straumey, and Halldor, son of Gudmund the Powerful.
Portents and omens all through the Northern Seas announced to the Norsemen that the day had gone against them. Dorrud, a man in Caithness, saw twelve witches weaving the woof of war, of which human entrails were the warp and weft, men's heads the weights, a sword the shuttle, and arrows the reels. As they wrought, they sang in the Norse language a dreadful song, "How hapless had been the fate of the Earl of Orkney". After completing their ghastly work, they each tore away a portion and rode off, six south and six north. The weird song of the witches has been paraphrased by Gray in his "Fatal Sisters". The original Norse version under the title of "The Enchantress" was preserved in North Ronaldsay till past the middle of the eighteenth century, and was at times recited by the natives, some of whom, on Gray's Ode being read to them by a minister, reminded him they had often sung it to him in the Norse.
NOTE - Dorrud: Torfaeus interprets this as the name of the person who saw the vision, but in reality it signifies a range of spears, from Daur Hasta et Radir Ordo. See note in Gray's poems.
An event like to Dorrud's befell Brand Gueisti's son in the Faroes. At Swinefell, in Iceland, blood came on the priest's stole on Good Friday, so that he had to put it off. At Thvattwater the priest thought he saw on Good Friday a depth of the sea hard by the altar, and there he saw many awful sights, and it was long ere he could sing the hours. [From Orkneyinga Saga]
The following prodigy happened in Orkney: - Harek, an Orcadian noble, had been anxious to accompany the earl, but Sigurd desired him to remain, and said he should be the first to whom he would communicate the result. Much about the time of the battle, Harek, with several others, saw plainly, as he imagined, the earl, at no great distance, riding towards him at the head of a troop of horse, upon which Harek mounted his own horse on purpose to meet him. They were seen to approach each other, to meet, to embrace, and afterwards, riding up to a rising ground, they disappeared, and no vestige of either of them was ever again seen. [From Barry and Torfaeus]
Earl Gilli, in the Hebrides, dreamt a man came to him saying his name was Hostfinn, and that he was from Ireland. The earl asked tidings thence, and Hostfinn made recital in song, of the great battle in Ireland, of Sigurd's fall, and Brian's victorious death. Flosi and the earl talked much of this dream. A week later Hrafn the Red put in an appearance, and told them of all those slain, and that Thorstein Hall's son took peace from Kerthialfad, remaining with him. Flosi then made preparation for his pilgrimage, and the earl gave him much silver and a ship well equipped, with which he made first for Wales, where he stayed a while. Of this Kari got word, and instructed Skeggi to get him a long ship, fully trimmed and manned, and with Kolbein, David, and others sailed south to Wales, via the Scottish firths, where he lay concealed in an inlet. One morning Kol Thorstein's son went up town to buy silver, and he of all the burners had used the bitterest words. Kol had talked much that morning with a mighty dame, and it was practically arranged he was to marry her and settle down there. That same morning Kari went also into the town, and came up when Kol was telling the silver. Kari knew him, and ran at him with drawn sword, and struck him on the neck. But he still went on telling the silver, and his head counted "ten" just as it spun off the body. Kari said, "Go and tell Flosi that I have done this deed". Then he and his ship's company headed north for Beruwick, where they laid up the ship, and went to Whitherne in Scotland, and were with Earl Melkolf that year. Flosi took the incident quietly, and after giving Kol's remains suitable burial, continued his pilgrimage to Rome, and obtained the Papal absolution, for which he gave a great sum. He returned by the east route, staying long in towns, and meeting mighty men, by whom he was highly honoured. The next winter he was in Norway, and had a ship from Earl Eric, with which he made passage to the Hornfirth, and thence made his way to Swinefell. Kari went down to his ship in the summer following, and began his pilgrimage in Normandy, whence he went south and got absolution, returning again by the western way to his ship in Normandy; and then sailed to Dover, round Wales, north through Scotland's firths to Thraswick, in Caithness, to Master Skeggi's house, where he transferred the vessel to Kolbein and David, in which the former steered for N Norway, landing David at the Fair Isle. Kari wintered in Caithness, and hearing that his wife in Iceland had died, got a ship from Skeggi the next summer, and with a company of eighteen made for his home. Starting rather late, they had a long passage, and at last made Ingolf's head, only to have their ship smashed there, but the men's lives were all saved. Then, too, a snow-storm gathered on them, and they were forced to seek shelter from Flosi, who generously gave them winter quarters, and there came about an adjustment of the feud by Kari marrying Hildigunna, daughter of Flosi's brother, and whom Hauskuld, the priest of Whiteness, had had to wife. By Helga, Njal's daughter, Kari had Thorgerda, Ragneida, Valgerda, and Thord, who was burnt in Njal's bouse; and by Hildigunna, with whom he dwelt first at Broadwater, he had Starkad, Thord, and Flosi. Men say that Flosi, when he had grown old, went abroad for timber to build a hall, and was in Norway one winter, and the following summer was late in embarking. Though warned that his ship was unseaworthy, Flosi, saying she was fully good enough for an old and "fey" man, bore his goods all shipboard and put out to sea, and has never been heard of since. [From Orkneyinga Saga]
Before embarking for Ireland, Sigurd had the prudence to put his affairs in order by committing the charge of his earldom to Somerled, Brusi, and Einar, the sons of his first marriage; the young Thorfinn, his only son by the Scottish princess, being put under the guardianship of his royal grandfather. The earl's fate was no sooner known than his three eldest sons divided equally among them the countries of Orkney and Shetland, leaving to their youngest brother Thorfinn - who, on account of his youth, had been put under guardians - the provinces of Caithness and Sutherland, which were confirmed to him by his grandfather, the king of Scotland, who at the same time conferred on him the title and dignity of an earl. [From Orkneyinga Saga]