The history of the event touched upon here is to be found in the Orkneyinga Saga. Earl Thorfinn, who was the fourth son of Sigurd, died in 1064. He was only five winters old when he was made an Earl by Malcolm, King of Scots, his mother's father; and he held the title for seventy years. This fierce and warlike man not only slew his nephew, Earl Rognvald, the son of Brusi, but he also put to death in cold blood those adherents of King Magnus who had sided with Rognvald. It is to that massacre the ballad alludes. After his death his deeds of bravery were celebrated in verse, which may be seen in the Saga above referred to. One of the closing stanzas is given as a specimen of the Scandinavian poetry of that wild period; -
The bright sun swarthy shall become, in the black sea the earth shall sink,
Ausiri’s labour shall be ended, and the wild sea hide the mountains,
Ere there he in those fair islands born a chief to rule the people -
May our God both help and keep them ! Greater than the lost Earl Thorfinn.
Such a glimpse into the beginning of the eleventh century reveals the condition of North Britain under the ruthless jarls. The traveller from the South may now pass through all those places without having his sensibilities shocked by any cold-blooded massacre. The eternal sea whispers not of such scenes all her waves ripple at your feet; and the rocky caverns only moan a requiem over all such melancholy incidents".
["Rambles in the Far North," by R.M. Ferguson]
The sea still ebbs and flows the same as then,
The same stars peep from out the midnight sky,
But in those isles and bays are other men
Than those who lived and died in days gone by.
Those days that are so far beyond our ken.
King Magnus sat at his mid-day meal,
Where his fleet at anchor rode,
When a stranger crossed the royal deck,
And straight to the table strode.
He greeted the king; he took the loaf
That lay upon the board,
And broke, and ate, as if of right,
Whilst neither spoke a word.
King Magnus gaz'd, as he wiped his beard,
"Wilt thou not drink ?" he said,
And passed the cup. The stranger drank,
And bowed in thanks his head.
"Thy name?" "My name is Thorfinn, Sir"
"Earl Tborfinn! Can it be ?"
He smiled. "Well, yes; men call me thus
Beyond the western sea"
"And is it so ?" the king replied.
"I had resolved me well
That if we two met - what pass'd when we met
Thou should'st not live to tell.
"Together now we've broken bread,
And thus my hand is stayed;
But think thou not the score is quit,
Though vengeance be delayed"
It chanced as friends they drank one day
On the deck a Norman stood;
"Lord Earl", he said, "from thee I claim
The price of a brother's blood.
"When Kirkwall street was drench’d in gore,
And the King's men slaughter'd lay,
By thy command that brother died -
Will thou his man-bote pay?"
Loud laughed the Earl.
"What ho ! thou fool,
Thou must oft have heard it said,
How Thorfinn scores of men hath slain,
But man-bote never paid"
"All this, lord Earl, is nought to me;
'Tis nought if our king sits by,'
Nor cares to avenge those men of his
Led out like sheep to die"
Then Thorfinn looked again, and swore
"By the rood! I know thee well;
Why, I gave thee thy life in Kirkwall town,
When all thy comrades fell
"My chance is hard - I have oft been blamed
Too many that I slew;
And now this coil hath come about
Because I've slain too few"
The king's brow flushed with wrath.
"Forsooth!
It seemeth to vex thee sore
That in thwarting my rights and slaying my men,
Thou hast not done still more"
But now a fair breeze fills each sail,
And pennous are floating free,
As the long warships, with their dragon heads,
Go Cleaving the dark blue sea
And aye to the west of the Norway fleet,
Earl Thorfinn steers his hark;
Men saw her holding her course with them
One night when the sky grew dark:
But when morning broke that bark was gone
Far, far o'er the western foam,
Where Orkney breasts the waves, and where
Earl Thorfinn sits in Kirkwall fair,
Sole lord of his island home.