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diff --git a/15856.txt b/15856.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bce91d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/15856.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9731 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time, by James Gray + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + +Title: Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time + or, The Jarls and The Freskyns + +Author: James Gray + +Release Date: May 18, 2005 [EBook #15856] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Alison Hadwin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS IN SAGA-TIME +OR, +THE JARLS AND THE FRESKYNS + + +BY JAMES GRAY, M.A. OXON. + + +EDINBURGH OLIVER & BOYD. 1922 +STROMNESS: +PRINTED BY W.R. RENDALL. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Originally delivered as a Presidential Address to The Viking Society +for Northern Research, the following pages, as amplified and revised, +are published mainly with the object of interesting Sutherland and +Caithness people in the early history of their native counties, and +particularly in the three Sagas which bear upon it as well as on that +of Orkney and Shetland at a time regarding which Scottish records +almost wholly fail us. + +When, however, these records are extant, use has been made of them +together with later books upon them, of which a list follows, and to +which references are given in the notes. + +A special effort has been made to deal with the vexed question of the +succession to the Caithness Earldom after Earl John's death in +1231, with the pedigree of the first known ancestors of the House of +Sutherland, and with the mystery of the descent of Lady Johanna of +Strathnaver. + +Acknowledgments of assistance received are tendered to the writers of +the books above referred to, but thanks are specially due to Mr. +A.W. JOHNSTON, Founder and Past President of the Viking Society, for +numerous hints, and for making the Index; to Mr. JON STEFANNSON for +reading the manuscript; and to Mr. ALAN O. ANDERSON, whose knowledge +of the English and Scottish Records of the period is as accurate as it +is extensive, and who has made several valuable suggestions. + +But for the opinions expressed no one save the writer is responsible, +and, where records are scanty, much has necessarily been left to +conjecture. + +J.G. + + 53 MONTAGU SQUARE, + LONDON, W., 1922. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + +LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND BOOKS REFERRED TO + + +CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTORY + +A.D. 82-790--Scope of this Book--Authorities--Roman times and their +result--Post-Roman days. + + +CHAPTER II.--THE PICT AND THE NORTHMAN + +Geography and description of Cat--Brochs--Picts--Christianity +--Vikings--Gall-gaels--Gaelic--Land Settlement--The rise of the +Scots. + + +CHAPTER III.--THE EARLY NORSE JARLS + +790-1014--Constantine I and the Northmen--Kenneth and the Union of +the Picts and Scots--Thorstein the Red and Aud--Groa and Duncan of +Duncansby--The Vikings and Harald Harfagr--Ragnvald of Maeri and +Jarl Sigurd--Cyderhall--Torf-Einar, Thorfinn Hausakliufr, Skuli +and others--War for the Moray seaboard--Jarl Sigurd Hlodverson-- +Christianity introduced in Orkney--Swart Kell--Earl Anlaf--Story +of Barth--Sigurd Hlodverson, Clontarf--"Darratha-liod"--Resume. + + +CHAPTER IV.--THORFINN, EARL AND JARL + +1008-1064--King Malcolm's matrimonial alliances--Victory of +Carham--Thorfinn Sigurdson, Earl of Caithness and Sutherland--His +attempts on Orkney--Somarled, Brusi and Einar--Thorkel Fostri slays +Einar--Moddan created Earl of Caithness and slain by Thorkel--Battle +of Torfness--Death of Duncan--Thorfinn and Macbeth--Thorfinn and +Ragnvald Brusison--Marriage with Ingibjorg--Battle of Rautharbiorg-- +Thorfinn sole Jarl of Orkney and Shetland--His travels, retirement, +and death--His chronology. + + +CHAPTER V.--PAUL AND ERLEND, HAKON AND MAGNUS + +1058-1123--Paul and Erlend, jarls--Ingibjorg's marriage with +Malcolm III--Its objects--Norman conquest of England--King Magnus +Barelegs--Hakon and Magnus, jarls--Harold Slettmali and Paul the +Silent, jarls--Ingibiorg and Margret--Moddan in Dale--Feudalism in +Scotland--The Catholic Church--Alexander I and David I--The three +leading families in Caithness and Sutherland, of the Norse Jarls, +Moddan, and Freskyn de Moravia--The Mackays--The Gunns. + + +CHAPTER VI.--THE MODDAN FAMILY, JARLS HARALD AND PAUL AND RAGNVALD + +1123-1158--Harald Slettmali and Paul the Silent--Frakark and +Helga--Harald poisoned--Frakark in Kildonan--Plot against Jarl +Paul--The Moddan family--Audhild--Eric Stagbrellir--Ragnvald's +history and jarldom--Battle of Tankerness--Olvir Rosta and +Sweyn--Paul kidnapped--Harold Maddadson--Frakark's Burning--Thorbiorn +Klerk--Ragnvald's cruise to the East--Erlend Haraldson's grant of half +Caithness--Scramble for the earldom--Ragnvald's daughter Ingirid's +marriage to Eric Stagbrellir--Fight at Thurso--Erlend and +Sweyn--Erlend's death--Ragnvald's murder--His descendants. + + +CHAPTER VII.--HAROLD MADDADSON AND THE FRESKYNS + +1158-1206--Harold sole Jarl and Earl; his first family--Sweyn's +cruises and death in 1171--Harold's second wife, and family--Eric +Stagbrellir's family--Scottish affairs--Moray and the MacHeths-- +Freskyn and Duffus--William MacFrisgyn--Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland, and +his brother, William of Petty--Hugo's grant to Gilbert, Archdeacon of +Moray--Hugo's family--William _dominus Sutherlandiae_--Events in the +North in 1153 and after--William the Lion's accession, 1165--Persons of +note at that date--Those in authority--Harold's forfeitures--Events +leading up to them--Eddirdovir and Dunskaith--Donald Ban +MacWilliam--Defeat of Thorfinn, Harold's son, and of Harold, +1196--Harald Ungi--Ragnvald Gudrodson--Victory of Dalharrold--The +Stewards--Death of Thorfinn, Harold's son--William the Lion in +Caithness--Death of Harold Maddadson, 1206. + + +CHAPTER VIII.--JARLS DAVID AND JOHN, FRESKIN II + +1206-1263--David's eight years, 1206-1214--King William takes John's +daughter as a hostage--Murder of Bishop Adam, 1222--King Alexander's +expedition--John's forfeiture--Death of John's son, Harald, +1226--Snaekoll Gunni's son, grandson of Eric Stagbrellir--Murder of +Earl John--Trial at Bergen--Lady Johanna of Strathnaver. + + +CHAPTER IX.--THE SUCCESSION TO THE CAITHNESS EARLDOM + +1231-9--Difficulty of the subject--The Angus pedigree--The Diploma of +the Orkney Earls--Magnus II's charter--The wardship question--Three +claimants (1) Magnus, (2) Johanna of Strathnaver and (3) Earl John's +nameless hostage daughter--Skene's opinion--The Cheynes and Federeths, +descendants of Johanna--Her charitable gift--Her Moddan and Erlend +descent--Magnus II, his descent and marriage--Freskin de Moravia, his +descent, marriage, life, and death--The settlement of Caithness and +Sutherland--Creation of the Sutherland Earldom between 10th October +1237 and Magnus' death in 1239--Conclusion. + + +CHAPTER X.--KING HAKON'S EXPEDITION AND THE NORTH + +1263-1266--Recapitulation--Norse jarls and the Norse Crown--Affairs +in Sutherland--Battle at Embo--Dornoch Cathedral and its +constitution--The Angus line and the Freskyns--Hakon's fleet at +Ragnvaldsvoe sails south--Battle of Largs--Hakon's retreat +and death--The mainland of Scotland and the Hebrides won for +Scotland--Treaty of Perth, 1266. + + +CHAPTER XI.--RESULTS AND CONCLUSION + +The creed of the Viking--The causes of his migration--Odinism--Settlement +in the West--Celtic mothers--Effect on race, language and place-names-- +Viking remains--Skaill, Dunrobin--Castles--The Viking type of man--The +blended race--Norman influence. + + +NOTES. + + +APPENDIX.--EARLY PEDIGREE OF THE FRESKYN FAMILY + + +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND BOOKS REFERRED TO.[1] + + +Anderson, Dr. Joseph. Rhind Lectures, "Scotland in Pagan Times." +Edinburgh, 1883 and 1886. + +Antiquaries. Proceedings of The Society of Scottish. + +Bain. Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland in Record Office. + +Bannatyne Club--Publications of. + +Barry, History of Orkney. Edinburgh, Constable, 1805. + +Broxburn. (Strabrock.) History and Antiquities of Uphall, by Rev. +James Primrose. Edinburgh, Andrew Elliott, 1898. + +Burnt Njal. Dasent's Translation. (B.N.)[2] Edinburgh, Edmonston & +Douglas, 1861. + +Caithness Family History, by John Henderson. Edinburgh, David Douglas, +1884. + +Caithness, The County of--by John Home. Wick, W. Rae, 1907. + +Calder's History of Caithness. Glasgow, Thomas Murray & Son, 1861. + +Cat, History of the Province of--by Rev. Angus Mackay. Wick, Peter +Reid & Co., Ltd., 1914. + +Chalmers. Caledonia. + +Chroniques Anglo-Normandes. Francisque Michel. Rouen, Ed. Frere, 1836. + +Corpus Poeticum Boreale. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1883. + +Curie. Monuments of Caithness. Royal Commission's Report, 1911. + +Curie. Monuments of Sutherland. Royal Commission's Report, 1912. + +Dalrymple's Collections, (1705). + +Diploma of the Earls of Orkney. + +Du Chaillu. The Viking Age. John Murray, 1889. + +Dunfermelyn, Register of. (Bannatyne Club.) + +Early Scottish Kings, by E. William Robertson, 1862. + +Eric the Red--Saga of. + +Flatey Book (Flateyjarbok). Christiania, Mailings, 1860. (F.B.) + +Fordun. Scottish Annals. Edited by W.F. Skene. Edinburgh, Edmonston & +Douglas, 1871. + +Genealogie of the Earles of Southerland, by Sir Robert Gordon, Bart. +Edinburgh, A. Constable, 1813. + +Hailes (Lord) Additional Case of Elizabeth, Claimant of the Earldom of +Sutherland and Annals of Scotland, (Dalrymple's Works, vol. 4). + +Hakon Saga. Dasent's Translation, Rolls Edition, 1894. (H.S.) + +Henderson, George--Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland. Glasgow, +Maclehose, 1910. + +Henderson, George--Survivals in Belief among the Celts. Glasgow, +Maclehose, 1911. + +Hume Brown. History of Scotland. (H.B.) + +Innes, Familie of. (Spalding Club). + +Laing and Huxley. Prehistoric Remains of Caithness. Williams, & +Norgate, 1866. + +Lawrie, Early Scottish Charters. Glasgow, Maclehose, 1905. + +Lawrie, Annals of the Reigns of Malcolm and William, 1153-1214. +Glasgow, Maclehose, 1910. + +Liber Pluscardensis. Edited by Felix J.H. Skene. Edinburgh, William +Paterson, 1877. + +Mackay, Rev. Angus. Book of Mackay. Edinburgh, Norman Macleod, 1906. + +Magnus Saga (in Rolls Edition of Dasent's Translation of Orkneyinga +Saga). + +Maxwell, Sir Herbert, Early Chronicles relating to Scotland. Glasgow, +Maclehose, 1912. + +Moray--Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis (Bannatyne Club) (Reg. +Morav.) + +Moray--Shaw's History of. + +Munch's Symbolae or Notes to the Diploma of the Orkney Earls. + +Munro, Dr. Robert. Prehistoric Scotland. + +Nisbet's Heraldry. + +Orcades, by Thormodus Torfaeus. Copenhagen, 1715. + +Orcades, (Torfaeus) Translation by the Rev. A. Pope. Wick, Peter Reid, +1866. + +Origines Islandicae. Vigfusson & York Powell. Oxford, Clarendon Press, +1905. + +Origines Parochiales Scotiae. Vol. ii, part ii. Edinburgh, W.H. +Lizars, 1855. (O.P.) + +Orkney and Shetland, by John R. Tudor. London, Edward Stanford, 1883. +(O. &. S.) + +Orkney and Shetland Folk, by A.W. Johnston. Viking Society, 1914. + +Orkneyinga Saga. Dasent's Translation, Rolls Edition. (O.S.) + +Orkneyinga Saga. Anderson, and Hjaltalin and Goudie's Translation. +Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas, 1873. + +Oxford Essays, 1858. (Dasent's Essay). London, John W. Parker & Son, +1858. + +Pinkerton's History of Scotland preceding Malcolm III. Edinburgh, Bell +& Bradfute, 1814. + +Rhys' Celtic Britain. London, S.P.C.K., 1908. + +Robertson's Index. Edinburgh, Murray and Cochrane, 1798. + +Rymer. Foedera. + +Saint-Clair. Roland William. The Saint-Clairs of the Isles. Auckland, +H. Brett, 1898. + +Scandinavian Britain, by W.G. Collingwood. London, S.P.C.K., 1908. + +Scon. Liber Ecclesiae de. + +Scott, Rev. Archibald--The Pictish Nation, its people and Church. +Edinburgh and London, Foulis Press, 1918. + +Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers, Alan O. Anderson. London, +David Nutt, 1908. + +Scottish Kings. Sir Archibald Dunbar, Bart. Edinburgh, David Douglas, +1906. + +Scottish Peerages. Paul and Cokayne (Gibbs). + +Skene, W.F. Celtic Scotland. Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas, 1878. + +Skene, W.F. Chronicles of the Picts and Scots. Edinburgh, H.M. General +Register House, 1867. + +Sutherland Book, by Sir William Fraser. Edinburgh, 1892. + +Sutherland and the Reay Country, by the Rev. Adam Gunn. Glasgow, John +Mackay, Celtic Monthly Office, 1897. + +Sverri's Saga. Translation by J. Sephton. London, David Nutt, 1899. + +Tacitus--Agricola. + +Thorgisl's Saga in Origines Islandicae (as above). + +Viking Club. Caithness and Sutherland Records.} London +Viking Club. Old Lore Miscellany. } 29 Ashburnham +Viking Society. Saga Books, &c. } Mansions, Chelsea + +William the Wanderer, by W.G. Collingwood. G.C. Brown Langham & Co., +47 Great Russell Street, London, W.C., 1904. + +Worsaae. Danes and Norwegians. London, John Murray, 1852. + +Worsaae. The Prehistory of the North. London, Truebner, 1886. + +Wyntoun's Chronicle. Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas, 1872. + +[Footnote 1: An excellent Bibliography of Caithness, by Mr. John +Mowat, was published by W. Rae, Wick, in 1909, and of Caithness and +Sutherland by The Viking Club, 1910, by the same author.] + +[Footnote 2: The Capitals and abbreviations placed in brackets after +certain authorities, give their initial letters and short titles, +(e.g. (O.S.) Orkneyinga Saga), as used in the notes at the end of this +volume.] + +Early Sources of Scottish History, A.D. 500 to 1286, by Alan O. +Anderson. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh. + +NOTE.--Since this little book was printed, the above great work +has appeared. To the student of the Norse invasions its value is +inestimable. + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The following errata have been applied to the +text.] + +_ERRATA._ + + Page 1, line 13, for "they" read "Man." + " 28, line 9, for "or" read "of." + " 40, line 23, for "Kundason" read "Hundason." + " 42, line 24, after "note" reference[14] omitted. + " 50, line 17, for "mainland of" read "Unst in." + " 65, line 35, for "burnings" read "revenges." + " 65, line 37, for "burnt" read "killed." + " 87, line 18, for "Earl Ragnvald" read "Jarl Ragnvald." + " 104, lines 4 and 5, for "Magnus' great-grandson's granddaughter's + husband" read "Magnus' granddaughter's great-grandson." + " 117, line 16, omit "a child of." + + + + +SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS IN SAGA-TIME +OR, +THE JARLS AND THE FRESKYNS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +_Introductory._ + + +In the following pages an attempt is made to fit together facts +derived, on the one hand, from those portions of the Orkneyinga, St. +Magnus and Hakonar Sagas which relate to the extreme north end of the +mainland of Scotland, and, on the other hand, from such scanty English +and Scottish records, bearing on its history, as have survived, so as +to form a connected account, from the Scottish point of view, of the +Norse occupation of most of the more fertile parts of Sutherland and +Caithness from its beginning about 870 until its close, when these +counties were freed from Norse influence, and Man and the Hebrides +were incorporated in the kingdom of Scotland by treaty with Norway in +1266. + +References to the authorities mentioned above and to later works +bearing on the subject have been inserted in the hope that others, +more leisured and more competent, may supplement them by further +research, and convert those portions of the narrative which are at +present largely conjectural from story into history. + +What manner of men the prehistoric races which in early ages +successively inhabited the northern end of the Scottish mainland may +have been, we can now hardly imagine. Dr. Joseph Anderson's classical +volumes[1] on _Scotland in Pagan Times_ tell us something, indeed +all that can now be known, of some of them, and in the Royal +Commission's[2] _Reports and Inventories of the Early Monuments_ of +Sutherland and of Caithness respectively, Mr. Curle has classified +their visible remains, and may, let us hope, with the aid of +legislation, save those relics from the roadmaker or dykebuilder. +Lastly, such superstitions, or survivals of beliefs, as remain in the +north of Scotland from early days have been collected, arranged, and +explained by the late Mr. George Henderson in an able book on that +subject.[3] Enquiries such as these, however, belong to the provinces +of archaeology and folk-psychology, and not to that of history, still +less to that of contemporary history, which began in the north, +as elsewhere, with oral tradition, handed down at first by men of +recording memories, and then committed to writing, and afterwards +to print; and both in Norway and Iceland on the one hand, and in +the Highlands on the other such men were by no means rare, and were +deservedly held in the highest honour. + +Writing arrived in Sutherland and Caithness very late, and was not +even then a common indigenous product. Clerks, or scholars who could +read and write, were at first very few, and in the north of Scotland +hardly any such were known before the twelfth century of our era, +save perhaps in the Pictish and Columban settlements of hermits and +missionaries. Of their writings, if they ever existed, little or +nothing of historical value is extant at the present time. But the +_Orkneyinga, St. Magnus_, and _Hakon's Sagas_, when they take up their +story, present us with a graphic and human and consecutive account +of much which would otherwise have remained unknown, and their story, +though tinged here and there with romance through the writers' desire +for dramatic effect, is, so far as the main facts go, singularly +faithful and accurate, when it can be tested by contemporary +chronicles. + +Until the twelfth or the thirteenth century, save for these Sagas, we +learn hardly anything of Sutherland, or, indeed, of the extreme north +of Scotland from any record written either by anyone living there or +by anyone with local knowledge, and for facts before those given in +the _Orkneyinga Saga_ we have to cast about among historians of +the Roman Empire and amongst early Greek geographers, or later +ecclesiastical writers, to find nothing save a few names of places and +some scattered references to vanished races, tongues and Churches. For +information about the Picts we have at first to rely on the researches +of some of our trustworthy archaeologists, and at a later date on +the annals, largely Irish, collected by the late Mr. Skene in his +_Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, and in the works of Mr. Ritson, +into which it is no part of our purpose to enter in detail. All the +authorities for early Scottish history have been ably dealt with by +Sir Herbert Maxwell in his book on the _Early Chronicles Relating to +Scotland_, reproducing the Rhind lectures delivered by him in 1912. At +the end of our period reliable references to charters from the twelfth +century onwards will be found in _Origines Parochiales Scotiae_, and +especially in the second part of the second volume of that valuable +work of monumental research, produced, under the late Mr. Cosmo Innes, +by Mr. James Brichan, and presented to the Bannatyne Club by the +second Duke of Sutherland and the late Sir David Dundas. There are +also the reprints, often with elaborate notes, of Scottish Charters +by Sir Archibald C. Lawrie, The Bannatyne Club, The Spalding Club, The +Viking Society, Mr. Alan O. Anderson, and others. The first volume +of the Orkney and Shetland Records published by the Viking Society is +prefaced by an able introduction of great interest. + +By way of introduction to Norse times, we may attempt to state very +shortly some of the leading events in Caledonia in Roman, Pictish, and +Scottish times from near the end of the first century to the beginning +of the tenth, so far as they bear on the agencies at work there in +Norse times. + +The first four of the nine centuries above referred to had seen +the Romans under Agricola[4] in 80 to 84 A.D. attempt, and fail, to +conquer the Caledonians or men of the woods,[5] whose home, as +their name implies, was the great woodland region of the Mounth or +Grampians. Those centuries had also seen the building of the wall of +Hadrian between the Tyne and Solway in the year 120, the campaigns +of Lollius Urbicus in 140 A.D. and the erection between the Firths +of Forth and Clyde of the earthen rampart of Antonine on stone +foundations, which was held by Rome for about fifty years. Seventy +years later, in the year 210, fifty thousand Roman legionaries had +perished in the Caledonian campaigns of the Roman Emperor Severus, and +over a century and a half later, in 368, there had followed the +second conquest of the Roman province of Valentia which comprised the +Lothians and Galloway in the south, by Theodosius. Lastly, the final +retirement of the Romans from Scotland, and indeed from Britain, took +place, on the destruction of the Roman Empire in spite of Stilicho's +noble defence, by Alaric and the Visigoths, in 410. + +From the Roman wars and occupation two main results followed. The +various Caledonian tribes inhabiting the land had then probably for +the first time joined forces to fight a common foe, and in fighting +him had become for that purpose temporarily united. Again, possibly +as part of the high Roman policy of Stilicho, St. Ninian had in the +beginning of the fifth century introduced into Galloway and also +into the regions north of the Wall of Antonine the first teachers of +Christianity, a religion which, however, was for some time longer to +remain unknown to the Picts generally in the north. But, as Professor +Hume Brown also tells us in the first of the three entrancing volumes +of his History, "In Scotland, if we may judge from the meagre accounts +that have come down to us, the Roman dominion hardly passed the stage +of a military occupation, held by an intermittent and precarious +tenure." What concerns dwellers in the extreme north is that although +the Romans went into Perthshire and may have temporarily penetrated +even into Moray, they certainly never occupied any part of Sutherland +or Caithness, though their tablets of brass, probably as part of the +currency used in trade, have been found in a Sutherland Pictish tower +or broch,[7] a fact which goes far to prove that the brochs, with +which we shall deal later on, existed in Roman times.[8] + +As the Romans never occupied Sutherland or Caithness or even came near +their borders, their inhabitants were never disarmed or prevented +from the practice of war, and thus enfeebled like the more southerly +Britons. + +After the departure, in 410, of the Romans, St. Ninian sent his +missionaries over Pictland, but darkness broods over its history +thenceforward for a hundred and fifty years. Picts, Scots of Ireland, +Angles and Saxons swarmed southwards, eastwards, and westwards +respectively into England, and ruined Romano-British civilisation, +which the Britons, unskilled in arms, were powerless to defend, as the +lamentations of Gildas abundantly attest. + +In 563 Columba, the Irish soldier prince and missionary, whose Life +by Adamnan still survives,[9] landed in Argyll from Ulster, introduced +another form of Christian worship, also, like the Pictish, "without +reference to the Church of Rome," and from his base in Iona not only +preached and sent preachers to the north-western and northern Picts, +but in some measure brought among them the higher civilisation then +prevailing in Ireland. About the same time Kentigern, or St. Mungo, +a Briton of Wales, carried on missionary work in Strathclyde and in +Pictland, and even, it is said, sent preachers to Orkney. + +In the beginning of the seventh century King Aethelfrith of +Northumbria had cut the people of the Britons, who held the whole of +west Britain from Devon to the Clyde, into two, the northern portion +becoming the Britons of Strathclyde; and the same king defeated Aidan, +king of the Scots of Argyll, at Degsastan near Jedburgh, though Aidan +survived, and, with the help of Columba, re-established the power of +the Scots in Argyll. + +About the year 664, the wars in the south with Northumbria resulted in +the introduction by its king Oswy into south Pictland of the Catholic +instead of the Columban Church, a change which Nechtan, king of the +Southern Picts, afterwards confirmed, and which long afterwards led +to the abandonment throughout Scotland of the Pictish and Columban +systems, and to the adoption in their place of the wider and broader +culture, and the politically superior organisation and stricter +discipline of the Catholic Church, as new bishoprics were gradually +founded throughout Scotland by its successive kings.[10] + +Meantime, during the centuries which elapsed before the Catholic +Church reached the extreme north of Scotland, the Pictish and Columban +churches held the field, as rivals, there, and probably never wholly +perished in Norse times even in Caithness and Sutherland. + +During these centuries there were constant wars among the Picts +themselves, and later between them and the Scots, resulting, +generally, in the Picts being driven eastward and northward from +the south centre of Alban, which the Scots seized, into the Grampian +hills. + +After this very brief statement of previous history we may now attempt +to give some description of the land and the people of Caithness and +Sutherland as the Northmen found them in the ninth century. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +_The Pict and the Northman._ + + +The present counties of Caithness and Sutherland A together made up +the old Province of Cait or Cat, so called after the name of one +of the seven legendary sons of _Cruithne_, the eponymous hero who +represented the Picts of Alban, as the whole mainland north of the +Forth was then called, and whose seven sons' names were said to stand +for its seven main divisions,[1] _Cait_ for Caithness and Sutherland, +_Ce_ for Keith or Mar, _Cirig_ for Magh-Circinn or Mearns, _Fib_ for +Fife, _Fidach_ (Woody) for Moray, _Fotla_ for Ath-Fodla or Athol, and +_Fortrenn_ for Menteith. + +Immediately to the south of Cat lay the great province of Moray +including Ross, and, in the extreme west, a part of north Argyll; and +the boundary between Cat and Ross was approximately the tidal River +Oykel, called by the Norse Ekkjal, the northern and perhaps also the +southern bank of which probably formed the ranges of hills known in +the time of the earliest Norse jarls as Ekkjals-bakki. Everywhere +else Cat was bounded by the open sea, of which the Norse soon became +masters, namely on the west by the Minch, on the north by the North +Atlantic and Pentland Firth, and on the east and south by the North +Sea; and the great valley of the Oykel and the Dornoch Firth made Cat +almost into an island. + +Like Caesar's Gaul, Cat was "divided into three parts"; first, _Ness_, +which was co-extensive with the modern county of Caithness, a treeless +land, excellent in crops and highly cultivated in the north-east, but +elsewhere mainly made up of peat mosses, flagstones and flatness, save +in its western and south-western borderland of hills; secondly, to +the west of Ness, _Strathnavern_, a land of dales and hills, and, +especially in its western parts, of peaks; and, thirdly, to the south +of Strathnavern, _Sudrland_, or the Southland, a riviera of pastoral +links and fertile ploughland, sheltered on the north by its own +forests and hills, and sloping, throughout its whole length from +the Oykel to the Ord of Caithness, towards the _Breithisjorthr_, +Broadfjord, or Moray Firth, its southern sea.[2] + +Save in north-east Ness, and in favoured spots elsewhere, also below +the 500 feet level, the land of Cat was a land of heath and woods[3] +and rocks, studded, especially in the west, with lochs abounding in +trout, a vast area of rolling moors, intersected by spacious straths, +each with its salmon river, a land of solitary silences, where red +deer and elk abounded, and in which the wild boar and wolf ranged +freely, the last wolf being killed in Glen Loth within twelve miles +of Dunrobin at a date between 1690 and 1700.[4] No race of hunters or +fishermen ever surpassed the Picts in their craft as such. + +The land, especially Sutherland, is still a happy hunting-ground not +only for the sportsman but also for the antiquary. For the modern +County of Sutherland is outwardly much the same now as it was in +Pictish times, save for road and rail, two castles, and a sprinkling +of shooting lodges, inns, and good cottages, which, however, in so +vast a territory are, as the Irishman put it, "mere fleabites on the +ocean." Much of the west of the land of Cat was scarcely inhabited at +all in Pictish or Viking days, because as is clearly the case in the +Kerrow-Garrow or Rough Quarter of Eddrachilles, it would not carry +one sheep or feed one human being per hundred acres in many parts. The +rest of it also remains practically unchanged in appearance from the +earliest days till the present time, as it has been little disturbed +by the plough save in the north-east of Ness and at Lairg and +Kinbrace, and in its lower levels along the coast. But Loch Fleet no +longer reaches to Pittentrail, and the crooked bay at Crakaig has been +drained and the Water of Loth sent straight to the sea. + +The only buildings or structures existing in Cat in Pictish and early +Norse times were a few vitrified forts, some underground erde-houses, +hut-circles innumerable, and perhaps a hundred and fifty brochs, or +Pictish towers as they are popularly called, which had been erected at +various dates from the first century onwards, long before the advent +of the Norse Vikings is on record, as defences against wolves and +raiders both by land and sea, and especially by sea. Notwithstanding +agricultural operations, foundations of 145 brochs can still be traced +in Ness and 67 in Strathnavern and Sudrland, but they were not all in +use at the same time, and they are mostly on sites taken over later +on by the Norse,[5] because they were already cultivated and +agriculturally the best. + +A well-known authority on such subjects, the late Dr. Munro, in his +_Prehistoric Scotland_ p. 389 writes of the brochs as follows:--"Some +four hundred might have been seen conspicuously dotting the more +fertile lands along the shores and straths of the counties of +Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Argyll, the islands of +Orkney, Shetland, Bute, and some of the Hebrides. Two are found +in Forfarshire, and one each in the counties of Perth, Stirling, +Midlothian, Selkirk and Berwick." + +If one may venture to hazard a conjecture as to their date, they +probably came into general use in these parts of Caledonia as nearly +as possible contemporaneously with the date of the Roman occupation +of South Britain, which they outlasted for many centuries. But their +erection was not due to the fear of attack by the armies of Rome. For +their remains are found where the Romans never came, and where the +Romans came almost none are found. Their construction is more probably +to be ascribed to very early unrecorded maritime raids of pirates of +unknown race both on regions far north of the eastern coast protected +later by the Count of the Saxon shore, and on the northern and western +islands and coasts, where also many ruins of them survive. + +In Cat dwelt the Pecht or Pict, the Brugaidh or farmer in his dun or +broch, erected always on or near well selected fertile land on the +seaboard, on the sides of straths, or on the shores of lochs, or +less frequently on islands near their shores and then approached by +causeways;[6] and the rest of the people lived in huts whose circular +foundations still remain, and are found in large numbers at much +higher elevations than the sites of any brochs. The brochs near the +sea-coast were often so placed as to communicate with each other for +long distances up the valleys, by signal by day, and beacon fire at +night, and so far as they are traceable, the positions of most of them +in Sutherland and Caithness are indicated on the map by circles. + +Built invariably solely of stone and without mortar, in form the +brochs were circular, and have been described as truncated cones +with the apex cut off,[7] and their general plan and elevation were +everywhere almost uniform. The ground floor was solid masonry, but +contained small chambers in its thickness of about 15 feet. Above the +ground floor the broch consisted of two concentric walls about three +feet apart, the whole rising to a height in the larger towers of 45 +feet or more, with slabs of stone laid horizontally across the gap +between and within the two walls, at intervals of, say, five or six +feet up to the top, and thus forming a series of galleries inside +the concentric walls, in which large numbers of human beings could be +temporarily sheltered and supplies in great quantities could be stored +for a siege. These galleries were approached from within the broch by +a staircase which rose from the court and passed round between the two +concentric walls above the ground floor, till it reached their highest +point, and probably ended immediately above the only entrance, the +outside of which was thus peculiarly exposed to missiles from the end +of the staircase at the top of the broch. The only aperture in the +outer wall was the entrance from the outside, about 5 feet high by 3 +feet wide, fitted with a stone door, and protected by guard-chambers +immediately within it, and it afforded the sole means of ingress to +and egress from the interior court, for man and beast and goods and +chattels alike. The circular court, which was formed inside, varied +from 20 to 36 feet in diameter, and was not roofed over; and the +galleries and stairs were lighted only by slits, all looking into the +court, in which, being without a roof, fires could be lit. In some few +there were wells, but water-supply, save when the broch was in a loch, +must have been a difficulty in most cases during a prolonged siege. + +In these brochs the farmer lived, and his women-kind span and wove and +plied their querns or hand-mills, and, in raids, they shut themselves +up, and possibly some of their poorer neighbours took refuge in the +brochs, deserting their huts and crowding into the broch; but of this +practice there is no evidence, and the nearest hut-circles are often +far from the remains of any broch. + +For defence the broch was as nearly as possible perfect against any +engines or weapons then available for attacking it; and we may note +that it existed in Scotland and mainly in the north and west of it, +and nowhere else in the world.[8] It was a roofless block-house, aptly +described by Dr. Joseph Anderson as a "safe." It could not be battered +down or set on fire, and if an enemy got inside it, he would find +himself in a sort of trap surrounded by the defenders of the broch, +and a mark for their missiles. The broch, too, was quite distinct from +the lofty, narrow ecclesiastical round tower, of which examples still +are found in Ireland, and in Scotland at Brechin and Abernethy. + +To resist invasion the Picts would be armed with spears, short swords +and dirks, but, save perhaps a targe, were without defensive body +armour, which they scorned to use in battle, preferring to fight +stripped. They belonged to septs and clans, and each sept would have +its Maor, and each clan or province its Maormor[9] or big chief, +succession being derived through females, a custom which no doubt +originated in remote pre-Christian ages when the paternity of children +was uncertain. + +Being Celts, the Picts would shun the open sea. They feared it, for +they had no chance on it, as their vessels were often merely hides +stretched on wattles, resembling enlarged coracles. Yet with such +rude ships as they had, they reached Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes and +Iceland as hermits or missionaries.[10] In Norse times they never +had the mastery of the sea, and the Pictish navy is a myth of earlier +days.[11] + +Lastly, as we have seen, the Picts of Cat had never been conquered, +nor had their land ever been occupied by the legions of Rome, which +had stopped at the furthest in Moray; and the sole traces of Rome in +Cat are, as stated, two plates of hammered brass found in a Sutherland +broch, and some Samian ware. Further, Christian though he had been +long before Viking times, the Pict of Cat derived his Christianity +at first and chiefly from the Pictish missions, and later from +the Columban Church, both without reference to Papal Rome; and his +missionaries not only settled on islands off his coasts, but later on +worshipped in his small churches on the mainland; and many a Pictish +saint of holy life was held in reverence there. + +About the eighth century and probably earlier, immigrants from the +southern shores of the Baltic pressed the Norse westwards in Norway, +and later on over-population in the sterile lands which lie along +Norway's western shores, drove its inhabitants forth from its western +fjords north of Stavanger and from The Vik or great bay of the +Christiania Fjord, whence they may have derived their name of Vikings, +across the North Sea to the opposite coasts of Shetland, Orkney and +Cat, where they found oxen and sheep to slaughter on the nesses or +headlands, and stores of grain, and some silver and even gold in the +shrines and on the persons of those whom they attacked, and in +still later days they sought new lands over the sea and permanent +settlements, where they would have no scat to pay to any overlord or +feudal superior. + +When the Vikings landed, superior discipline, instilled into them by +their training on board ship, superior arms, the long two-handed sword +and the spear and battle-axe and their deadly bows and arrows, and +superior defensive armour, the long shield, the helmet and chain-mail, +would make them more than a match for their adversaries.[12] Above +all, the greater ferocity of these Northmen, ruthlessly directed to +its object by brains of the highest order, would render the Pictish +farmer, who had wife and children, and home and cattle and crops to +save, an easy prey to the Viking warrior bands, and the security of +his broch would of itself tend to a passive and inactive, rather than +an offensive, and therefore successful defence. + +After long continued raids, the Vikings no doubt saw that much of the +land along the shore was fair and fertile compared with their own, and +finally they came not merely to plunder and depart, but to settle and +stay. When they did so, they came in large numbers and with organised +forces[13] and carefully prepared plans of campaign, and with great +reserves of weapons on board their ships; and having the ocean as +their highway, they could select their points of attack. They then, as +we know from the localities which bear their place-names, cleared out +the Pict from most of his brochs and from the best land in Cat, shown +on the map by dark green colour, that is, from all cultivated land +below the 500 feet level save the upper parts of the valleys; or they +slew or enslaved the Pict who remained. Lastly, on settling, they +would seize his women-kind and wed them; for the women of their own +race were not allowed on Viking ships, and were probably less amenable +and less charming to boot. But the Pictish women thus seized had their +revenge. The darker race prevailed, and, the supply of fathers of +pure Norse blood being renewed only at intervals, the children of +such unions soon came to be mainly of Celtic strain, and their mothers +doubtless taught them to speak the Gaelic, which had then for at least +a century superseded the Pictish tongue. The result was a mixed race +of Gall-gaels or Gaelic strangers, far more Celtic than Norse, who +soon spoke chiefly Gaelic, save in north-east Ness. Their Gaelic, too, +like the English of Shetland at the present time, would not only be +full of old Norse words, especially for things relating to the sea, +but be spoken with a slight foreign accent. How numerous those foreign +words still are in Sutherland Gaelic, the late Mr. George Henderson +has ably and elaborately proved in his scholarly book on "Norse +Influence on Celtic Scotland." We find traces of Norse words and the +Norse accent and inflexions also on the Moray seaboard, on which +the Norse gained a hold. The same would be true of the people on the +western lands and islands of the Hebrides. + +As time went on, the Gaelic strain predominated more and more, +especially on the mainland of Scotland, over the Gall, or foreign, +strain, which was not maintained. Mr. A.W. Johnston, in his "_Orkney +and Shetland Folk--850 to 1350_,"[14] has worked out the quarterings +of the Norse jarls, of whom only the first three were pure Norsemen, +and he has thus shown conclusively how very Celtic they had become +long before their male line failed. The same process was at work, +probably to a greater extent, among those of lower rank, who could +not find or import Norse wives, if they would, as the jarls frequently +did. + +One or two other introductory points remain to be noted and borne in +mind throughout. + +We must beware of thinking that all the land in an earldom such as Cat +was the absolute property of the chief, as in the nineteenth century, +or the latter half of it, was practically true in the modern county +of Sutherland. The fact was very much otherwise. The Maormor and +afterwards the earl doubtless had demesne lands, but he was in early +times, _ex officio_, mainly a superior and receiver of dues for his +king;[15] and this possibly shows why very early Scottish earldoms, as +for instance that of Sutherland, in the absence of male heirs, often +descended to females, unless the grant or custom excluded them. It +was quite different with later feudal baronies or tenancies, where +military service, which only males could render, was due, and which +with rare exceptions it was, after about 1130, the policy of the +Scottish kings to create; and in the case of baronies or lordships the +land itself was often described and given to the grantee and his heirs +by metes and bounds, in return for specified military service, and his +heirs male were exhausted before any female could inherit. + +In Ness and in the rest of Cat there were many Norse and native +holders of land within the earldom, and much tribal ownership. Duncan +of Duncansby or Dungall of Dungallsby, as he is variously called, +allowed part at least of his dominions to pass by marriage to the +Norse jarls; but both Moddan and Earl Ottar, whose heir was Earl +Erlend Haraldson, who left no heir, owned land extensively in Ness and +elsewhere, while Moddan "in Dale" had daughters also owning land, one +of whom, Frakark, widow of Liot Nidingr, had many homesteads in upper +Kildonan in Sudrland and elsewhere, and possibly it is her sister +Helga's name that lingers in a place-name lower down that strath near +Helmsdale, at Helgarie. + +What is worthy of notice is that it is clear from the place-names that +after the Norse conquest the Norse held and named most of the lower or +seaward parts of the valleys and nearly all the coast lands of Cat and +Ross as far south as the Beauly Firth, and the Picts occupied and were +never dispossessed of the upper parts of the valleys or the hills all +through the Norse occupation. In other words, as conquerors coming +from the sea, the Norsemen seized and held the better Pictish lands +near the coast, which had been cultivated for centuries, and on which +crops would ripen with regularity and certainty year after year. But +as time went on the Pictish Maormor pressed the Norse Jarl more and +more outwards and eastwards in Cat. + +We must also remember the enormous power of the Scottish Crown through +its right of granting wardships, especially in the case of a female +heir. Under such grants the grantee, usually some very powerful noble, +took over during minority the title of his ward and all his revenues +absolutely, in return for a payment, correspondingly large, to the +Crown. If the ward was a female, the grantee disposed of her hand in +marriage as well. + +After these preliminary notes, we may now again glance at the Scots, +who were destined, from small beginnings, by a series of strange turns +of fortune and superior state-craft, in time to conquer and dominate +all modern Scotland north of the Forth, then known as Alban. + +The Scots, as already stated, had come over from Ulster and settled in +Cantyre about the end of the fifth century, and for long they had only +the small Dalriadic territory of Argyll, and even this they all but +lost more than once. At the same time, after 563, they had a most +valuable asset in Columba, their soldier missionary prince, and his +_milites Christi_, or soldiers of Christ, who gradually carried their +Christianity and Irish culture even up to Orkney itself, with many a +school of the Erse or Gaelic tongue, and thus paved the way for +the consolidation of the whole of Alban into one political unit by +providing its people with a common language. + +But in order to live the Scots had been forced to defeat many foes, +such as the Britons of Strathclyde, whose capital was at Alcluyd +or Dunbarton,[16] the Northumbrians on the south, and the Picts of +Atholl, Forfar, Fife and Kincardine, which comprised most of the +fertile land south of the Grampians. The great Pictish province of +Moray on the north of the Grampians, however, remained unsubdued, and +it took the Scots several centuries more to reduce it. + +It was when the Scottish conquests above referred to were thus far +completed that the new factor, with which we are mainly concerned, +was introduced into the problem. This factor was, as stated, _the +Northmen_. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +_The Early Norse Jarls._ + + +It was in the reign of Constantine I, son of the great Pictish king, +Angus MacFergus, that the new and disturbing influence mentioned above +appeared in force in Alban. Favoured in their voyages to and fro by +the prevailing winds, which then, as now, blew from the east in +the spring and from the west later in the year, the Northmen, +both Norsemen and Danes, neither being Christians, had, like their +predecessors the Saxons and Angles and Frisians, for some time made +trading voyages and desultory piratical attacks in summer-time on +the coasts of Britain and Ireland, and probably many a short-lived +settlement as well. But as these attacks and settlements are +unrecorded in Cat, no account of them can be given. + +In 793 it is on record that the Vikings first sacked Iona, originally +the centre of Columban Christianity but then Romanised, and they +repeated these raids on its shrine again and again within the next +fifteen years. Constantine thereupon removed its clergy to Dunkeld, +"and there set up in his own kingdom an ecclesiastical capital for +Scots and Picts alike,"[1] as a step towards the political union +of his realm, which Norse sea-power had completely severed from the +original home of the Scots in Ulster. + +The Northmen now began the systematic maritime invasions of our +eastern and northern and western coasts and islands, which history has +recorded. North Scotland was attacked almost exclusively by Norsemen, +and Norsemen and Danes invaded Ireland. The Danes seized the south of +Scotland, and the north of England, of which latter country, early in +the eleventh century in the time of King Knut, they were destined to +dominate two-thirds, while Old Norse became the _lingua franca_ of +his English kingdom, and enriched its language with hundreds of Norse +words, and gave us many new place and personal names. + +In 844, Kenneth, king of the Scots, the small North Irish sept which, +as stated above, had crossed over from Erin and held the Dalriadic +kingdom of Argyll with its capital at Dunadd near the modern Crinan +Canal, succeeded in making good his title, on his mother's side, to +the Pictish crown by a successful attack from the west on the southern +Picts[2] at the same time as their territory was being invaded from +the east coast by the Danes. Thereafter, these Picts and the Scots +gradually became and ever afterwards remained one nation, a course +which suited both peoples as a safeguard not only against their +foreign foes the Northmen, but also against the Berenicians of Lothian +on the south. With the object of ensuring the union of the two peoples +Kenneth is said to have transferred some of the relics of Columba, who +had become the patron saint of both, from Iona to Dunkeld, which thus +definitely remained not only the ecclesiastical capital of the united +Picts and Scots, but the common centre of their religious sentiment +and veneration. Incidentally, too, the Pictish language gradually +became disused, as that people were absorbed in the Scots; and +unfortunately, through the fact that no written literature survived to +preserve it, that language has almost entirely disappeared. The better +opinion is that it was more closely akin to Welsh and Breton than to +Erse or Gaelic, the Welsh and the Picts being termed "P" Celts, and +the other races "Q" Celts, because in words of the same meaning the +Welsh used "P" where the Gaelic speaking Celt used the hard "C". For +instance, "Pen" and "Map" in Welsh became "Ken" (or Ceann) and "Mac" +in Gaelic.[3] + +In the reign of Constantine II, Kenneth's son and next successor but +one, further incursions by the Northmen took place under King Olaf +the White of Dublin in 867 and 871; while in 875 his son Thorstein the +Red, by Aud "the deeply-wealthy" or "deeply-wise," landed on the north +coast, and, we are told, seized "Caithness and Sutherland and Moray +and more than half Scotland,"[4] being killed, however, by treachery +within the year. His mother Aud thereupon built a ship in Caithness, +and sailed for the Faroes and Iceland with her retinue and +possessions, marrying off two grand-daughters on the way, one, called +Groa, to Duncan, Maormor of Duncansby in Caithness, the most ancient +Pictish chief of whom we hear in that district, and probably ancestor +of the Moldan, or Moddan, line in Cat. Two years later, in 877, King +Constantine was defeated by a force of Danes at Dollar, and slain by +them at Forgan in Fife.[5] + +After the great decisive battle of Hafrsfjord in Norway in 872, +because Orkney and Shetland and the Hebrides had become refuges for +the Norse Vikings, who had been expelled from their country or had +left it on the introduction of feudalism with its payment of dues +to the king, but were raiding its shores, Harald Harfagr,[6] king of +Norway, along with Jarl Ragnvald of Maeri attacked and extirpated the +pirate Vikings in their island lairs; and, as compensation to the +jarl for the loss of his son Ivar in battle, Harald transferred his +conquests with the title of Jarl of Orkney and Shetland to Ragnvald, +who, in his turn, with the king's consent, soon made over his new +territories and title to his brother Sigurd. + +This new jarl, the second founder of the line of Orkney jarls, +conquered Caithness and Sutherland as far south as Ekkjals-bakki,[7] +which is believed by some to be in Moray, and by others, with more +truth, to be the ranges of hills in Sutherland and Ross lying to the +north and to the south of the River Oykel and its estuary, the Dornoch +Firth; and the second part of the name still happens to survive in the +place-name of Backies in Dunrobin Glen and elsewhere in Cat where the +Norse settled. About the year 890,[8] after challenging Malbrigde +of the Buck-tooth to a fight with forty a side, to which he himself +perfidiously brought eighty men, Sigurd outflanked and defeated his +adversary, and cut off his head and suspended it from his saddle; but +the buck-tooth, by chafing his leg as he rode away from the field, +caused inflammation and death, and Jarl Sigurd's body was laid in howe +on Oykel's Bank at Sigurthar-haugr, or Sigurds-haugr, the Siwards-hoch +of early charters now on modern maps corruptly written Sidera or +Cyderhall, near Dornoch, which, when translated, is Sigurd's Howe.[9] +"Thenceforward," as Professor Hume Brown tells us, "the mainland +was never secure from the attacks of successive jarls, who for long +periods held firm possession of what is now Caithness and Sutherland. +As things now went, this was in truth in the interest of the kings of +Scots themselves. To the north of the Grampians they exercised little +or no authority; and the people of that district were as often their +enemies as their friends. Through the action of the Orkney jarls, +therefore, the Scottish kings were at comparative liberty to extend +their territory towards the south; and the day came when they found +themselves able to crush every hostile element even in the north.[10] + +It is this process of consolidation in the north which it is proposed +to describe so far as Sutherland and Caithness are concerned, using +both Norse and Scottish records, and piecing them together as best +we can, and, be it confessed, in many cases filling up great gaps by +necessary guess-work when records fail. + +In the reign of the great king Constantine III, between the years 900 +and 942, the Danes again gave trouble. In 903 the Irish Danes ravaged +Alban,[11] as Scotland north of the Forth was then called, for a +whole year; in 918 Constantine and his ally, Eldred of Lothian, were +defeated by another expedition of these invaders; and in 934 Athelstan +and his Saxons burst into Strathclyde and Forfar, the heart of +Constantine's kingdom, and the Saxon fleet was sent up even to the +shores of Caithness, as a naval demonstration intended to brave the +Norse, who had joined Constantine, on their own element. Lastly, in +937 Athelstan and Constantine met at Brunanburg, probably Birrenswark +near Ecclefechan, and Constantine and his Norse allies were completely +defeated.[12] + +Meantime, since 875, a succession of jarls had endeavoured to hold, +for the kings of Norway, Orkney and Shetland, as well as Cat, which +then included Ness, Strathnavern, and Sudrland.[13] The history of +these early jarls is not told in detail in any surviving contemporary +record, for the Sagas of the jarls as individuals have perished; but +there is a brief account of them in the beginning of the _Orkneyinga +Saga_, another in chapters 99 and 100 of the _St. Olaf's Saga_, and a +fuller one in chapters 179 to 187 of the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvi's Son_, +contained in the _Flatey Book_.[14] From these the following story may +be gathered. + +After Jarl Sigurd's death, his son Guthorm ruled for one winter, and +died without issue, so that Sigurd's line came to an end. When Jarl +Ragnvald of Maeri heard of his nephew's death, he sent his son Hallad +over from Norway to Hrossey, as the mainland of Orkney was then +called, and King Harald gave him the title of jarl. Failing in his +efforts to put down the piracy of the Vikings, who continued their +slayings and plunderings, Hallad, the last of the purely Norse jarls, +resigned his jarldom, and returned ignominiously to Norway. In the +absence at war of Hrolf the Ganger, who became Duke of Normandy and +was an ancestor of the kings of England, two others of Ragnvald's +sons, Thorir and Hrollaug, were summoned to meet their father. At +this meeting it was decided that neither of these should go to Orkney, +Thorir's prospects in Norway being good, and Hrollaug's future lying +in Iceland, where, it was said, he was to found a great family. Then +Einar, the Jarl's youngest son by a thrall or slave woman, and thus +not of pure Norse lineage, asked whether he might go, offering as an +inducement to his father that, if he went, he would thus never be seen +by him again. He was told that the sooner he went, and the longer he +stayed away, the better his father would be pleased. A galley, well +equipped, was given to him, and about the year 891 King Harald Harfagr +conferred on him the title of Jarl of Orkney and Shetland, for which +he sailed. On his arrival there, he attacked Kalf Skurfa and Thorir +Treskegg,[15] the pirate Viking leaders, and defeated and slew them +both. He then took possession of the lands of the jarldom; and, from +having taught the people of Turfness in Moray the use of turf or peat +for fuel, was known thenceforward as Torf-Einar. He is said to have +been "a tall man, ugly, with one eye, but very keen-sighted,"[16] a +faculty which he was soon to use. + +When Jarl Ragnvald of Maeri, the first of the Orkney jarls, was killed +in Norway by two of Harald Harfagr's sons, one of them, Halfdan Halegg +or Long-shanks fled from their father's vengeance to Orkney. When +Halfdan landed, Torf-Einar took refuge in Scotland, but returned in +force, and after defeating Halfdan--who had usurped the jarldom--in +North Ronaldsay Firth, spied him as a fugitive, in hiding, far off on +Rinarsey or Rinansey (Ninian's Island) now North Ronaldsay, and seized +him, cut a blood-eagle on his back, severed his ribs and pulled out +his lungs, and, after offering him as a victim to Odin, buried his +body there.[17] + +Incensed at the shameful slaughter of his son, Harald Harfagr came +over from Norway about the year 900 to avenge him, but, as was then +not unusual, accepted as a wergeld or atonement for his son's death a +fine of sixty marks of gold, which it fell to the islanders to pay. On +their failure to find the money, Torf-Einar paid it himself, taking in +return from the people their odal lands,[18] which were lost to their +families until Jarl Sigurd Hlodverson temporarily restored them as a +recompense for their assistance in the battle fought by him between +969 and 995 against Finleac MacRuari, Maormor of North Moray, at +Skidamyre in Caithness. Whether it was the Orkney jarls or their +superiors, the kings of Norway, who owned them in the meantime, the +odal lands were finally sold back to those entitled to them by descent +by Jarl Ragnvald Kol's son about 1137, in order to raise money for the +completion of Kirkwall Cathedral. Odal tenure in Orkney was thus in +abeyance for over two centuries, save for a short time, and in any +case its inherent principle of subdivision would have killed it, and +after its renewal, in spite of its many safeguards against alienation +to strangers, it gradually died out under feudalism and Scottish law +and lawyers.[19] In Cat it never seems to have taken root. + +After holding the jarldom for a long term, Torf-Einar died in his bed, +as the Saga contemptuously tells us, probably in or after the year +920, leaving three sons, Arnkell, Erlend, and Thorfinn Hausa-kliufr or +Skull-splitter, of whom the two first, Arnkell and Erlend, fell with +Eric Bloody-axe, king of Norway, in England. The third son, Thorfinn +Hausa-kliufr or Skull-splitter, himself about three-quarters Norse +by blood, married Grelaud, daughter of Dungadr, or Duncan, the Gaelic +Maormor of Caithness by Groa, daughter of Thorfinn the Red, thus +further Gaelicising the strain of the Norse Jarls of Orkney,[20] but +adding greatly to their mainland territories. + +Jarl Thorfinn Hausa-kliufr, who flourished between 920 and 963, is +described as a great chief and fighter; but he, like his father, +died a peaceful death, and was buried at Hoxa, Haugs-eithi or +Mound's-isthmus, which covers the site of a Pictish broch, near the +north-west end of South Ronaldshay.[21] + +When Eric Bloody-axe had been defeated and killed, his sons came to +Orkney and seized the jarldom, and his widow, the notoriously wicked +Gunnhild and her daughter Ragnhild settled there for a time. Thorfinn +Hausa-kliufr had five sons, Arnfinn, Havard, Hlodver, Ljotr and +Skuli. Three of these, Arnfinn. Havard and Ljotr, successively married +Ragnhild, and Ragnhild rivalled her mother in wickedness. Arnfinn she +killed at Murkle in Caithness with her own hand; Havard she induced +Einar Oily-tongue, his nephew, to slay, on her promise to marry him, +which she broke; and finally she married Jarl Ljotr instead. Skuli, +the only other surviving son save Hlodver, went to the king of Scots, +who is said to have lightly given away what did not belong to him, +and to have created him Earl of Caithness, which then included +Sudrland.[22] Skuli then raised a force in his new earldom, no doubt +to carry out Scottish policy, and, crossing to Orkney, fought a battle +there with his brother Ljotr, was defeated, and fled to Caithness. +Collecting another army in Scotland, Skuli fought a second battle at +Dalar or Dalr, probably Dale in the upper valley of the Thurso River +in Caithness, and was there defeated and killed by Ljotr, who took +possession of his dominions. Then followed a battle between Ljotr and +a Scottish earl called Magbiod or Macbeth, at Skida Myre or Skitten +Moor in Watten in Caithness, which Ljotr won, but died of his wounds +shortly after, and is said to have been buried at Stenhouse in +Watten.[23] Thus the first Scottish attempt at consolidation of the +north failed. + +During the last half of the tenth century there was constant war by +the kings of Alban against the Northmen who had seized the coast of +Moray, and Malcolm I was killed at Ulern near Kinloss, about the year +954, and his successor Indulf fell in the hour of his victory over the +invaders at Cullen in Banff.[24] But on the whole probably the Scots +had succeeded for a time in driving out the Norse from the laigh of +Moray, which the latter needed for its supplies of grain. + +Hlodver or Lewis, (963-980), the only surviving son of Thorfinn +Hausa-kliufr, succeeded Ljotr in the jarldom; and by Audna or Edna, +daughter of Kiarval, king of the Hy Ivar of Dublin and Limerick, +Hlodver had a son, the famous Sigurd the Stout, or Sigurd Hlodverson. +Hlodver was, (as Mr. A.W. Johnston points out),[25] by blood slightly +more Norse than Gaelic. We know little of him save that he was a +mighty chief; and, according to the usual reproach of the Saga, +died in his bed and not in battle about 980, and was buried at Hofn, +probably Huna, in Caithness, near John o' Groats, under a howe.[26] + +The line of the so-called Norse earls, at the period at which we have +arrived, 980 A.D., was represented by Sigurd Hlodverson, the hero of +the Raven banner, which, as his Irish mother had predicted, was to +bring victory to every host which followed it, but death to every man +who bore it in battle.[27] Sigurd claimed Caithness by the rules +of Pictish succession, as grandson of Grelaud daughter of Duncan of +Duncansby, Maormor of that district. This claim was disputed by +two Celtic chiefs, Hundi (possibly Crinan, Abthane of Dunkeld) and +Melsnati, or Maelsnechtan; and in a battle at Dungal's Noep, near +Duncansby, at which Kari Solmundarson is said in the _Saga of Burnt +Njal_[28] to have been present, Sigurd defeated them, but with +such loss to his own side that he had to retire to Orkney, leaving +Hundi,[29] the survivor of his two enemies, in possession of his lands +in Caithness. Sigurd himself, on his voyage from Orkney, fell into the +hands of the Norse king, Olaf Tryggvi's-son, who was returning from +Dublin to Norway, in the bay of Osmundwall or Kirk Hope in Walls; +and the king insisted on the jarl being baptized on the spot, under +penalty, if he and all the inhabitants of his jarldom did not become +and remain Christians, of losing his eldest son Hundi or Hvelpr, +whom the Norse king seized and retained as a hostage. He also sent +missionaries to evangelize the jarldom. Such was the conversion of +Orkney and its jarl from the worship of Odin, at or about the end of +the first millennium of the Christian era. + +On his son's death in captivity, Sigurd seems to have deserted the +Norse for the Scottish side, and to have devoted himself to seeking +the favour, by his assistance in completing the conquest of Moray from +the Norse, of the Scottish king Malcolm II, whose third daughter he +married as his second wife.[30] He was, by race, more than two-thirds +Gaelic, and he clearly at first held Caithness in spite of all +Scottish attacks, and probably later on agreed to hold it from the +Scottish king. + +A few other persons are referred to in the Sagas as connected with +Caithness at this time. In the Landnamabok (1.6.5) we find Swart Kell, +or Cathal Dhu, mentioned as having gone from Caithness and taken +land in settlement in Mydalr in Iceland, and his son was Thorkel, the +father of Glum, who took Christendom when he was already old. + +About this time also, as appears from the _Saga of Thorgisl_,[31] +there was an Earl Anlaf or Olaf in Caithness, who had a sister, named +Gudrun, whom Swart Ironhead, a pirate, sought in marriage. But Swart +was killed in holmgang, or duel, by Thorgisl, who cut off his head +and married Gudrun, by whom he had a son called Thorlaf. Thorgisl then +tired of Gudrun, and gave her to Thorstan the White on the plea that +he himself wished to go and look after his estate in Iceland, which he +did. Can this Anlaf be the original of the legendary Alane, thane +of Sutherland, whom Macbeth, according to Sir Robert Gordon in his +_Genealogie of the Earles of Southerland_,[32] put to death, and whose +son, Walter, Malcolm Canmore is said to have created first Earl? Or +was Alane, like others, a creation of Sir Robert's inventive brain? +He was certainly no earl of the present Sutherland line; neither was +Walter.[33] + +To this period also belongs the romantic story of Barth or Bard, +son of Helgi and Helga Ulfs-datter told in the _Flatey Book_, and +translated at page 369 of the Appendix to Sir George Dasent's Rolls +Edition of the _Orkneyinga Saga_, which is shortly as follows. + +In the time of Sigurd Hlodverson, Ulf the Bad, of Sanday in Orkney, +murdered Harald of North Ronaldsay, and seized his lands in the +absence of Harald's son Helgi, a gentle Viking, on a cruise. On his +return, Helgi, to revenge his father's death, slew Bard, Ulf's next of +kin, in fight. Jarl Sigurd blames him for this and for not letting him +settle the feud himself, and Helgi sells all he has, and goes to Ulf's +house and takes his daughter, Helga, away. Ulf follows them up by +sea with a superior force, defeats Helgi off Caithness, and he +jumps overboard with Helga and swims to shore, where a poor farmer, +Thorfinn, as Helgi had always been kind in his "vikings" to such as he +was, has the wedding at his house, and shelters the pair there till +on Ulf's death two years after they can return to Orkney with Bard or +Barth, their infant son. At twelve years of age, Barth desires to fare +away "to those peoples who believe in the God of Heaven Himself," and +fares far away accordingly. Barth works for a farmer, and works so +well that his flocks increase, and gets a cow for himself as a reward, +but meets a beggar who begs the cow of him "for Peter's thanks." Each +year a cow is the reward of Barth's work, and each year he is asked +for the cow, and gives her up, until he has given three cows. Then +St. Peter (for the beggar was no other than he) passes his hands over +Barth, and gives him good luck, and sets a book upon his shoulders; +and he saw far and wide over many lands, and over all Ireland, and he +was baptized, and became a holy hermit and a bishop in Ireland. Such +is the Norse story of Barth, to whom the first Cathedral in Dornoch +was said to have been dedicated. It is far more prettily told in the +Saga. + +But St. Barr of Dornoch, in all probability, belongs to the sixth +century,[34] not to the tenth, and was a Pict or Irishman, not a +Norseman. He was never Bishop of Caithness, so far as records tell. +His Fair, like those of other Pictish Saints elsewhere in Cat, is +still celebrated, and is held at Dornoch. + +The battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday, the 23rd of April 1014, +outside Dublin, between the young heathen king of Dublin, Sigtrigg +Silkbeard, and the aged Christian king, Brian Borumha, was, +notwithstanding Norse representations to the contrary, a decisive +victory for the Irish over the Norse, and for Christianity against +Odinism. Sigurd, Jarl of Orkney, though nominally a Christian, fought +on the heathen side, and fell bearing his Raven banner, and the old +king, Brian, was killed in the hour of his people's victory. + +Sigurd's death is the subject of a strange legend, and the occasion +of a weird poem, _The Darratha-Liod_[35] said to have been sung in +Caithness for the first time on the day of Sigurd's death. + +The legend is given in the _Niala_[36] as follows:--"On Friday it +happened in Caithness that a man called Dorruthr went out of his house +and saw that twelve men together rode to a certain bower, where they +all disappeared. He went to the bower, and looked in through a window, +and saw that within there were women, who had set up a web. They sang +the poem, calling on the listener, Dorruthr, to learn the song, and +to tell it to others. When the song was over, they tore down the web, +each one retaining what she held in her hand of it. And now Dorruthr +went away from the window and returned home, while they mounted their +horses, riding six to the north and six to the south. A similar vision +appeared to Brand, the son of Gneisti, in the Faroes. At Swinefell in +Iceland blood fell on the cope of a priest on Good Friday, so that he +had to take it off. At Thvatta a priest saw on Good Friday deep sea +before the altar and many terrible wonders therein, and for long he +was unable to sing the Hours."[37] + +This strange legend of early telepathy may be explained by the fact +that Thorstein, son of the Icelander Hall o' Side, fought for Sigurd +at Clontarf, and afterwards returned to Iceland and told the story +of the battle, which the Saga preserved; and the English poet, Thomas +Gray, used it as the theme of his well-known poem intituled _The Fatal +Sisters_. The old Norse ballad referred to Sigurd's death at Clontarf +in 1014. It is known as _Darratha-Liod_ or _The Javelin-Song_, and is +translated by the late Eirikr Magnusson and printed in the _Miscellany +of the Viking Society_ with the Old Norse original[38] and the +translator's scholarly notes and explanations. It is said that it was +often sung in Old Norse in North Ronaldsay until the middle of the +eighteenth century. + +As translated it is as follows:-- + + DARRATHA-LIOD. + + I. + Widely's warped + To warn of slaughter + The back-beam's rug-- + Lo, blood is raining! + Now grey with spears + Is framed the web + Of human kind, + With red woof filled + By maiden friends + Of Randver's slayer. + + + II. + That web is warped + With human entrails, + And is hard weighted + With heads of people; + Bloodstained darts + Do for treadles, + The forebeam's ironbound + The reed's of arrows; + Swords be sleys[39] + For this web of war. + + + III. + Hild goes to weave + And Hiorthrimol + Sangrid and Svipol + With swords unsheathed. + Shafts will crack + And shields will burst, + The dog of helms + Will drop on byrnies. + + + IV. + Wind we, wind we + Web of javelins + Such as the young king + Has waged before. + Forward we go + And rush to the fray, + Where our friends + Engage in fighting. + + + V. + Wind we, wind we + Web of javelins + Where forward rush + The fighters' standards. + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + + + VI. + Wind we, wind we + Web of javelins, + And faithfully + The king we follow. + Nor shall we leave + His life to perish; + Among the doomed + Our choice is ample. + + + VII. + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + There Gunn and Gondul + Who guarded the king + Saw borne by men + Bloody targets. + + + VIII. + That race will now + Rule the country + Which erstwhile held + But outer nesses. + The mighty king, + Meweens, is doomed. + Now pierced by points + The Earl hath fallen. + + + IX. + Such bale will now + Betide the Irish + As ne'er grows old + To minding men. + The web's now woven + The wold made red, + Afar will travel + The tale of woe. + + + X: + An awful sight + The eye beholdeth + As blood-red clouds + Are borne through heaven; + The skies take hue + Of human blood, + Whene'er fight-maidens + Fall to singing. + + + XI. Willing we chant + Of the youthful king + A lay of victory-- + Luck to our singing! + But he who listens + Must learn by heart + This spear-maid's song + And spread it further. + + + XII. + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + * * * * * * * * * + On bare-backed steeds + We start out swiftly + With swords unsheathed + From hence away. + + +The nine centuries, above referred to, of Roman invasion, intestine +war, and ecclesiastical rivalry between the Pictish, Columban and +Catholic Churches had now, under Malcolm II, produced a kingdom of +Scotland, throughout which the Catholic was in a fair way to become +the predominant Church, and in which the authority of the Scottish +Crown was for the time being, nominally, but in the north merely +nominally, supreme on the mainland from the Tweed to the Pentland +Firth. The Isles of Orkney and Shetland and the whole of the Sudreyar +or Hebrides, however, owed allegiance, whether their jarls admitted +it or not, to the Crown of Norway, and the Scottish kings had no +authority over them.[40] Moreover, the Northmen--Danes and Norsemen +and Gallgaels--held the western seas from the Butt of Lewis to the +Isle of Man, and they had severed the connection between the Scots +of Ulster and the Scots of Argyll. The latter had thus been forced to +move eastwards, in order to avoid constant raids by the Irish Danes +and Norsemen and the Gallgaels, who thus possessed themselves of all +the coast of Scotland then known as Airergaithel or Argyll, which +extended up to Ross and Assynt, west of the Drumalban watershed. + +Of the next nine centuries from 1000 to the present time it is +proposed to deal with the first two hundred and seventy years only, +which, with the preceding century and a half, form a chapter of +Scottish history complete in itself. The narrative, as already stated, +will be based largely upon the great Stories or Tales known as the +_Orkneyinga, St. Magnus'_, and _Hakonar Sagas_, and also upon Scottish +and English chronicles and records so far as they throw their fitful +light upon the northern counties of Scotland, and especially upon +Caithness and Sutherland, during the dark periods between these Sagas. + +Attention will have to be paid to the Pictish family of Moldan of +Duncansby, of Moddan, created Earl of Caithness by his uncle Duncan I, +and of Moddan "in Dale," each of whom in turn succeeded to much of +the estates of the ancient Maormors of Duncansby, but whose people had +been driven back from most of the best low-lying lands into the upper +valleys and the hills by the foreign invaders of Cat. For, when the +Norse Vikings first attacked Cat and succeeded in conquering the Picts +there, they conquered by no means the whole of that province. They +subdued and held only that part of Ness or modern Caithness which lies +next its north and east coasts, and the rest of the sea-board of Ness, +Strathnavern and Sudrland, forcing their way up the lower parts of +the valleys of these districts, as their place-names still live on to +prove; but they never conquered, so as to occupy and hold them, the +upper parts of these river basins or the hills above them, which +remained in possession of Picts and Gaels throughout the whole period +of the Norse occupation. Further, the Picts and Gaels extended the +area which they retained, until Norse rule was expelled from the +mainland altogether. + +In Strathnavern and in the upper valleys of its rivers, and also in +Caithness in the uplands of the river Thurso, and in a large part of +Sudrland the Pictish family and clan of Moddan in its various branches +subsisted all through the Norse occupation, and it is hoped to show +good reason for believing that the family of Moddan, with the Pictish +or Scottish family of Freskyn de Moravia in later times, was the +mainstay of Scottish rule in the extreme north until the shadowy +claims of Norse suzerains over every part of the mainland were +completely repelled, and avowedly abandoned. + +Meantime to Norway Orkney and Cat were essential. For their fertile +lands yielded the supplies of grain which Norway required; and when +the Norse were driven from the arable lands of the Moray seaboard, +Orkney and Cat became still more necessary to them and their folk at +home. Cat the Scots could not then reach, for the Norse held the sea, +while on land Pictish Moray, a jealous power, hostile to its southern +neighbours, lay in its mountain fastnesses between the territory of +the Scots in the south and the land of Cat in the extreme north, and +formed a barrier which stretched across Alban from the North Sea to +the shores of Assynt on the Skotlands-fiorthr or Minch. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_Thorfinn--Earl and Jarl._ + + +Malcolm II, with whom Scottish contemporary records may be said to +begin, ascended the Scottish throne in 1005, and defeated the Norse at +Mortlach in Moray in 1010, and drove them from its fertile seaboard, +probably with the help of Sigurd Hlodverson, Jarl of Orkney. The men +of Moray, however, and their Pictish Maormors remained ungrateful, and +irreconcilably opposed to Scottish rule; and Moray, then stretching +across almost from ocean to ocean,[1] barred the way of the Scots to +the north. + +What he could not achieve by arms, Malcolm, both before and after his +accession, decided to secure by a series of matrimonial alliances. +He had no son; but he had three available daughters,[2] of whom the +eldest was Bethoc, and the two others are said to have been called +Donada or Doada and Plantula. + +1. _Bethoc_ he married to the most powerful Pictish leader of the +time, Crinan, Abthane of Dunkeld, the capital of the southern Picts, +and they had issue + +(a) _Duncan_, afterwards Duncan I of Scotland, born about 1001; + +(b) _Maldred_ of Cumbria, whose eldest son was Gospatrick, and whose +second son was Dolfin; but with Maldred we are not concerned; + +(c) _A daughter_, who became the mother of Moddan, whom Duncan +I, after his accession in 1034, created Earl of Caithness or Cat, +probably about 1040, his father being possibly of the family of Moldan +of Duncansby, whose sons Gritgard and Snaekolf, if we may believe the +_Njal Saga_, were slain by Helgi Njal's son and Kari Solmundarson, +Moldan being said to be a kinsman of Malcolm the Scots king. + +2. Malcolm's second daughter, _Donada_, he married to Finnleac or +Finlay Mac Ruari, Maormor of North Moray, and a chief of the northern +Picts, and they had a son, Macbeth, born about 1005, who succeeded +Duncan I on his death in 1040 as King of Scotland, but left no +issue.[3] + +3. Malcolm's third daughter, said to have been called _Plantula_, he +gave, about 1007, as his second wife to Sigurd Hlodverson, who, as we +have seen, was killed in 1014 at the decisive battle of Clontarf, his +wife having died probably before that event; and their only child was +a son, born about 1008 and created Earl of Caithness and Sutherland, +who became the great Earl and Jarl _Thorfinn_. + +The three marriages were intended to secure to Malcolm the south, +the middle, and the north of Pictland through the fathers of Duncan, +Macbeth, and Thorfinn respectively; and we may note that from Thorfinn +are descended all subsequent Jarls and Earls of Orkney and Shetland +and Caithness of the so-called Norse line. + +Duncan I, Macbeth, and Thorfinn Sigurd's son were thus first cousins, +and, in spite of the fiction of Holinshed, Boece, and William +Shakespeare, they were all about the same age, being born within seven +years of each other; and none of them lived to old age. + +By the victory of Carham in 1018 Malcolm II secured for ever the line +of the Tweed as Scotland's southern frontier; and this success in the +south, one of the most important events in Scottish history, left +him free to extend his kingdom and sovereignty towards the north, his +object being to unite into one realm the whole mainland at least +of Scotland. To accomplish this, he would have to bring under the +supremacy of the Scottish crown in addition to the Picts of Atholl, +whom the Scots had absorbed, the Gallgaels of Argyll, the Picts of +Moray and of Ross within and beyond the Grampians, and those of +the province of Cat, with the Norsemen there as well. He could thus +ultimately hope to oust Somarled, Brusi and Einar, Jarl Sigurd's sons +by his first wife, and their overlords, the Norse kings, from Orkney +and Shetland, and to add those islands to his dominions. Meantime, +Somarled, Brusi and Einar took no share in Cat. Thorfinn had Cat, all +for himself, as a fief of the Scottish king. + +Although the history of the time of Thorfinn Sigurdson, the first +Scottish Earl of Caithness and Sutherland,[4] would have been of +great interest to inhabitants of those counties, the _Orkneyinga Saga_ +contains but little information about his doings in them, because he +bent all his efforts towards extending his dominion over the islands +which formed his father Sigurd's jarldom, his policy, in his youth at +least, being directed to this object by his grandfather, Malcolm +II. Indeed during the life of that king, Thorfinn appears to have +established himself at Duncansby in Caithness, on the shore of the +Pentland Firth, and to have occupied himself in endeavouring to induce +his three surviving half-brothers, Somarled, Brusi, and Einar, to part +with as large a share as possible of Orkney and Shetland, and cede +it to himself. In this he had much assistance from King Malcolm. +Thorfinn, whose mother probably died in his infancy if we are to +credit his father's matrimonial stipulations as regards an Irish wife +in 1014, succeeded to the earldom and lands in that year, as a boy of +about six years of age, and was early in coming to his full growth, +the "tallest and strongest of men; his hair was black, his features +sharp, his brows scowling, and, as soon as he grew up, it was easy to +see that he was forward and grasping." From the description given in +the Saga at Chapter 22, he was no more a Norseman in appearance than +he was by blood. He was, in fact, by race and descent, almost a pure +Gael, and at Malcolm's court must have spoken only Gaelic. + +Of his three half-brothers, Somarled and Brusi were not unwilling to +give Thorfinn a share of the Orkney jarldom. For they were meek men, +especially Brusi; and, when Somarled died, though Einar wanted two +shares for himself, and fought to retain them, he only wearied out +his followers and alienated them by his cruelty. They, therefore, went +over to Thorfinn in Caithness. More important still, Thorkel +Amundson, "the properest young man in Orkney," did likewise, and was +thenceforward known as Thorkel Fostri, foster-father to Thorfinn, whom +he aided at every crisis of his career. + +When Thorfinn grew up, he claimed a third share of Orkney, and, +not getting it, "called out a force from Caithness" where he mostly +lived.[5] Brusi and Einar then pooled their share of the islands, +Einar having the control of both; and Thorfinn got his trithing,[6] +managing it by his men, who collected his scatt and tolls under +Thorkel Fostri, whom Einar plotted to kill. Einar next seized Eyvind +Urarhorn, a Norse subject of distinction, who had caused his complete +defeat in Ulfreksfirth in Ireland, but was sheltering from a storm in +Orkney, and killed him, to the great anger of the Norse king. + +Grasping at once the opportunity thus created, Thorfinn determined to +turn it to his own advantage. He sent Thorkel to King Olaf in Norway +to seek protection for himself against Einar, and Thorkel came back +bearing an invitation to Thorfinn to visit the Norwegian court, from +which the jarl returned as much in favour with the king as Einar was +in disgrace. Brusi then tried to reconcile Thorfinn and Einar, and +Thorkel was to be included in the settlement. Thorkel, however, +after inviting Einar to a feast in his hall at Sandvik in Deerness, +a promontory south-east of Kirkwall, discovered a plot by Einar to +attack him by three several ambushes as they left the house. In a +striking scene, the Saga tells how Thorkel, wounded, and Halvard, an +Icelander, dispatched Einar at the hearth of the hall; how Einar's +followers did not interfere; and how Thorkel fled to King Olaf in +Norway, who was much gratified by the death of Einar, the slayer of +his own friend Eyvind Urarhorn.[7] + +On Einar's death, Brusi tried to get two-thirds of the isles, but +Thorfinn now claimed a half share, and King Olaf, in spite of a visit +by Thorfinn to him in Norway, ultimately awarded Brusi two-thirds, +Thorfinn having the rest. Brusi, however, being unable to defend the +isles from pirates, about the year 1028 gave up one of his trithings +to Thorfinn on his undertaking the defence of the isles,[8] for which +a powerful fleet would be essential, and Brusi died in 1031. + +After this settlement of their claims, Malcolm II died in 1034 at +the age of eighty; and his death wrecked his policy. For Duncan, +his grandson, the Karl Hundason of the Saga, on his accession to +the Scottish throne claimed tribute from his cousin Thorfinn for +Caithness. Payment was at once refused, and six years of strife, +interrupted by Duncan's unfortunate raids south of the Tweed, ended by +his creating Mumtan or Moddan, his own sister's son, Earl of Caithness +instead of Thorfinn. With a force collected in Sudrland, which thus +appears to have been on the Scottish side, Moddan tried to make good +his title, but Thorfinn raised an army in Caithness, and Thorkel +collected another for him in Orkney, and the Scots retired before +superior numbers. "Then Earl Thorfinn fared after them, and laid under +him Sudrland and Ross and harried far and wide over Scotland; thence +he turned back to Caithness," and "sate at Duncansby, and had there +five long-ships ... and just enough force to man them well."[9] + +After his retirement in Caithness, Moddan went to Duncan at North +Berwick, and Duncan sent him back with another force by land to +Caithness, proceeding thither himself by sea with eleven ships. Duncan +caught Thorfinn and his five ships off the Mull of Deerness in the +Mainland of Orkney, where, after a stiff hand-to-hand fight, the Scots +fleet was defeated and chased southwards by Thorfinn to Moray, which +he ravaged.[10] + +Finding that Moddan and his army were in Thurso, Thorfinn sent Thorkel +Fostri thither secretly with part of his forces, and he set fire to +the house in which Moddan was, and killed him there as he tried to +escape. Thorkel next raised levies in Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross, +joined forces with Thorfinn in Moray, and harried the land, whereupon +Duncan collected an army from the south of Scotland and Cantire and +Ireland, and attacked his enemies in the north. + +A great battle ensued near the Norse stronghold of Turfness,[11] +probably Burghead, where peat is found in abundance, though now +submerged; and the battle was fought at Standing Stane in the parish +of Duffus, three miles and a half E.S.E. of Burghead, on the 14th of +August 1040. + +The Saga gives the following description of the jarl and of the +fighting:-- + +"Earl Thorfinn was at the head of his battle array; he had a gilded +helmet on his head, and was girt with a sword, a great spear in his +hand, and he fought with it, striking right and left.... He went +thither first where the battle of those Irish was; so hot was he with +his train, that they gave way at once before him, and never afterwards +got into good order again. Then Karl let them bring forward his banner +to meet Thorfinn; there was a hard fight, and the end of it was that +Karl laid himself out to fly, but some men say that he has fallen." + +"Earl Thorfinn drove the flight before him a long way up into +Scotland, and after that he fared about far and wide over the land and +laid it under him."[12] + +Then followed Thorfinn's conquests in Fife, and after relating the +failure of a Scottish force, which had surrendered, to kill him by +surprise, the Saga gives a lurid picture of his burnings of farms and +slayings of all the fighting men, "while the women and old men dragged +themselves off to the woods and wastes with weeping and wailing," and +it also tells of his journey north along Scotland to his ships.[13] +"He fared then north to Caithness, and sate there that winter, but +every summer thenceforth he had his levies out, and harried about the +west lands, but sate most often still in the winters," feasting his +men at his own expense, especially at Yuletide, in true Viking style. + +Allowing for exaggeration, it is not too much to say that Thorfinn +and his cousin Macbeth must, after the death of their cousin Duncan +in 1040, between them have held all that is now Scotland save the +Lothians, until about 1057, when Macbeth was slain. To us it is +interesting to note[14] that Duncan died, not in old age, (as +Shakespeare, following Boece and the English chronicler Holinshed +would have us believe) but a young man of thirty-nine years, either +in, or after, Thorfinn's battle, and that he fell a victim not of +Groa, Macbeth's wife's cup of poison, but possibly of her husband's +dagger at Bothgowanan or Pitgavenny, a smithy about two miles from +Elgin. We should also note that Thorfinn's cruelty made it difficult +for him ever to hope to obtain and keep the throne of Scotland, which +thus fell to Macbeth. + +Meantime Jarl Brusi had died about 1031, and though he left a son +Ragnvald, this son was long abroad in Norway, where he was taught all +the accomplishments suitable to his rank, and remained there at the +time of his father's death.[15] Ragnvald Brusi-son was "one of the +handsomest of men, his hair long and yellow as silk, and he was stout +and tall and an able splendid man of great mind and polite manners." +He had saved King Olaf's brother Harald Sigurdson at the great battle +of Stiklastad, after King Olaf, Ragnvald's own foster-father, was +killed, and had fought with great distinction in Russia. Shortly after +his father's death, Ragnvald returned, and, fortified by a grant from +King Magnus of Norway, whom he had helped to gain the throne, claimed +his father's two trithings of the Orkney jarldom. To this Thorfinn, +who after 1034 had his hands full with his war with King Duncan, and +had always wars with the Hebrides and the Irish, agreed, and the +two joined forces, and sailed on Viking raids to the Hebrides and +England.[16] + +About 1044 Thorfinn married Ingibjorg,[17] Finn Arnason's daughter, +and it is interesting to find that in the _Saga Book of the Viking +Club_, Vol. IV, page 171, Mr. Collingwood suggests that the King of +Catanesse, who fought for years to gain possession of Gratiana, the +lost wife of William the Wanderer, was Thorfinn. If this story be +founded on fact, as it probably is, this may account for his somewhat +late marriage with Ingibjorg. + +Thorfinn next claimed two trithings of Orkney from his nephew +Ragnvald, who demurred to giving up what the Norse king had conferred +on him, but, finding he could not cope with Thorfinn's Orkney, +Caithness and Scottish forces, Ragnvald fled to King Magnus, who gave +him a force of picked men, and bade Kalf Arnason also to help him, +although Kalf was Thorfinn's friend, and near connection by marriage. + +The two jarls met in battle in the Pentland Firth, off Rautharbiorg or +Rattar Brough in Caithness, east of Dunnet Head, Kalf Arnason with +his six ships standing out of the fight. Thorfinn had sixty ships, +smaller, and, save Thorfinn's own, lower in the waist than those of +his enemy, who thus easily boarded them, and then attacked Thorfinn. +Surrounded and boarded on both sides, Thorfinn cut his ship free and +rowed to land. Arrived there, he removed his seventy dead, and all +his wounded. Next he persuaded Kalf Arnason to join him with his six +ships, and renewed and won the fight, though Ragnvald himself escaped +to Norway.[18] + +Sailing thence in 1046 with one ship and a picked crew, Ragnvald +surrounded Thorfinn,[19] who was wintering in Mainland of Orkney, and +set fire to the Hall at Orphir in which he was, but the earl tore +out a panel at the back, and, escaping through it with his young wife +Ingibjorg in his arms, rowed in the dark over to Caithness, where +he remained in hiding among his friends, all in Orkney believing him +dead. Ragnvald then seized all the islands, and lived at Kirkwall. + +But, while Ragnvald was in Little Papey--now Papa Stronsay--to fetch +malt for Yuletide, Thorfinn returned, and surrounded the house in +which Ragnvald was, by night; and, on his escaping by leaping through +the besiegers in priestly disguise, Thorfinn's men followed him, and, +led by his lapdog's barking, discovered him among the rocks by the +sea, where Thorkel Fostri slew him, Thorfinn meanwhile annihilating +his following, save one man. This man, who like the rest, was one of +King Magnus' bodyguard, he bade go to his king and tell the tale, and +he seized Kirkwall by stratagem. Jarl Ragnvald is said to have been +a man of large stature and great strength, and to have been buried in +Papa Westray, but a grave nearly eight feet long, that would fit him, +has been found where he fell in Papa Stronsay. + +All this left Thorfinn with his great aim achieved. He was now +sole jarl of Orkney and Shetland, and sole earl of Caithness and +Sutherland, and he also held Ross and the western islands and coast +down to Galloway, and part of Ireland, as his _rikis_ or conquered +tributary lands. + +The fourth and last period of his career now begins with his dramatic +visit to King Magnus in Norway; and, on the death of that king, he +became the friend of his successor, Harald Hardrada, in 1047, and +after visiting King Sweyn in Denmark, and Henry III, Emperor of +Germany, rode south to Rome probably in 1050 along with, it is said, +his cousin Macbeth, king, and a good king, of Scotland, returning +thence to Orkney to his Hall at Birsay at the north-west corner of +Mainland. Thorfinn went to the Pope not only for absolution, but to +get Thorolf appointed bishop in Orkney, according to Adam of Bremen, +c. 243. + +We now come to the last years of the fourth period of his life, when +"the earl sate down quietly and kept peace over all his realm. Then +he left off warfare, and he turned his mind to ruling his people and +land, and to law-giving. He sate almost always in Birsay, and let them +build there Christchurch,[20] a splendid Minster. There first was set +up a bishop's seat in the Orkneys." + +The Annals of Tighernac record a great Norse expedition with the aid +of the Galls of Orkney and Innse Gall and Dublin to subdue the Saxons +in 1057, which failed. It is strange that we hear nothing of Thorfinn +in this, and the question arises whether he had died before it took +place. Had he been alive, such an expedition would hardly have been +possible without him.[21] It is interesting to note that so accurate +a chronicler as Sir Archibald Dunbar dates his widow Ingibjorg's +marriage to Malcolm III in 1059. (See _Scottish Kings_, p. 27.) + +Thorfinn's life forms the subject of no less than twenty-six chapters +of the _Orkneyinga Saga_.[22] In his childhood, and later at all the +main turning points of his life, he was blessed with the constant care +and touching devotion, and with the able counsel and active assistance +of his foster-father, Thorkel Fostri, the slayer of his three +chief competitors--Jarl Einar and Earl Moddan and Jarl Ragnvald +Brusi-son--the captain of his armies, the collector of his revenues +and the guardian, in his absence on his Viking cruises and in his +travels abroad, of his widespread dominions. There is a tradition[23] +that Thorkel founded the rock-castle of Borve, near Farr on the north +coast of Sutherland, which was demolished by the Earl of Sutherland +in 1556; but Thorkel is a common name among Vikings, and the story is +otherwise unauthenticated. + +According to the Saga, Thorfinn died of sickness "in the latter days +of Harald Hardrada," (who was killed in September 1066), near the +church which he founded, in his Hall at Birsay, north of Marwick Head +in the north-west corner of Mainland of Orkney, within a few miles +of the scene of Earl Kitchener's recent death at sea, so that the +greatest of our jarls and of our earls rest near each other, the great +Viking on the shore, and the great soldier in the ocean. + +The chronology of Thorfinn and Ingibjorg his wife is extremely +difficult, but on the whole we incline to think that he was born in +1008, and, as grandson of the king regnant, was created an earl at his +birth, married Ingibjorg, then quite young, in 1044, and died in 1057 +or 1058, after being an earl for his whole life of "fifty years," +while his widow married Malcolm III in 1059. The phrase "in the latter +days of Harald Hardrada" is after all an expression wide enough to +cover the last seven years of a reign of twenty-one years, and it is +unlikely that a marriage of policy would be postponed for more than +the year or two after Malcolm's accession in 1057, during which he was +engaged in defeating the claims of Lulach to his throne and settling +his kingdom. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +_Paul and Erlend, Hakon and Magnus._ + + +After Earl Thorfinn's death his sons Paul and Erlend jointly held the +jarldom, but divided the lands. They were "big men both, and handsome, +but wise and modest"[1] like their Norse mother Ingibjorg, known as +Earls'-mother, first cousin of Thora, queen of Norway, mother of King +Olaf Kyrre. + +On Thorfinn's death, however, the rest of his territories, nine +Scottish earldoms, it is said, "fell away, and went under those men +who were territorially born to rule over them;" that is to say, they +reverted to Scottish Maormors;[2] but Orkney and Shetland remained +wholly Norse, and under Norse rule. + +The date of the succession of Paul and Erlend to the Norse jarldom[3] +was, as we have seen, after 1057. Possibly in 1059, or certainly not +later than 1064 or 1065, Ingibjorg, Thorfinn's widow, as by Norse law +widows alone had the right to do, "gave herself away" to the Scot-King +Malcolm III, known as Malcolm Canmore.[4] + +As a matter of policy, the marriage was a wise step. For it would +tend to strengthen not only the hold of Scotland on Caithness and +Sutherland, but also its connection with Orkney and Shetland, because +Ingibjorg's sons, the young jarls Paul and Erlend, would become +stepsons of the Scottish king and earls of Caithness. Nor was the +marriage unsuitable in point either of the age or of the rank of the +contracting parties. Married to Thorfinn about 1044,[5] Ingibjorg, his +widow, need not in 1064 have been more than forty. She may have been +younger, and Malcolm was, in 1064, about thirty-three. If the +marriage was in 1059, Ingibjorg would be only thirty-five and Malcolm +twenty-eight. That Ingibjorg was not old is proved by the fact that +she had by Malcolm one son and possibly three sons,[6] namely, Duncan +II, and, it may be, also Malcolm and Donald. As regards rank, also, +she was equal to Malcolm, being a cousin of the Queen of Norway, and +widow of Thorfinn grandson of Malcolm II, the great jarl of Orkney who +had then recently subdued all the north of Scotland and the Western +Isles and Galloway to himself, while Malcolm III was in exile in +England, whence he had been brought back with the greatest difficulty, +not by a Scottish force but by the help of an English, or at least a +Northumbrian army. + +After his marriage with Ingibjorg it is clear that there was peace for +thirty years in the north of Scotland, so far as the Norse jarls +were concerned, a fact which of itself justified the marriage, +which, however, may have afterwards been held to have been within the +prohibited degrees, and therefore void, while its issue would be held +to be illegitimate, and not entitled to succeed to the Scottish crown. + +We may add that there is nothing in any Scottish record to prove this +marriage or to disprove it. + +The first important event in the lives of Paul and Erlend happened +just before the Norman conquest of England. They joined King Harald +Sigurdson (Hardrada) and his son Prince Olaf, who was their second +cousin on their mother's side,[7] in an attack on England; and, after +Harald's death, and his army's defeat by King Harold Godwinson of +England at Stamford Bridge, in September 1066, (three days before +William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey) the two Orkney jarls were +taken prisoner, but, along with Prince Olaf, they were released. +On their return to Orkney, Paul asked the Archbishop of York to +consecrate a cleric of Orkney as Bishop in Orkney, and the two +brothers ruled harmoniously there until their sons Hakon on the one +hand and Magnus and Erling on the other, who had been engaged in +Viking cruises together as boys, grew up and quarrelled, and, as is +usual, drew their fathers into the strife. This strife was provoked by +Hakon, and apparently lasted for many years,[8] Erlend supporting +his own sons, and driving Hakon abroad to Norway about the year 1090. +Neither Paul nor Erlend seems to have been much in Sutherland or +Caithness, in which the representatives of the Gaelic Maormors or +Chiefs probably regained power, especially the family of Moddan, and +extended their territories. + +Meantime King Magnus Barelegs[9] of Norway, instigated by Hakon, +and taking advantage of the contentions between 1093 and 1098 of +the various claimants of the Scottish crown, Donald Bane (whom he +supported), Duncan II, and Edgar, had made his several expeditions, in +the closing years of the eleventh century, against the western islands +and coasts of Scotland and Wales. In the battle of the Menai Straits +in 1098 we find that he had with him young Hakon Paulson, and also +Erling and Magnus, Jarl Erlend's sons, though Magnus, who had repented +of his early Viking ways, after declining to take part in the fight +against an enemy with whom he had no quarrel, escaped to the Scottish +court.[10] In 1098 King Magnus had deposed and carried off Jarls Paul +and Erlend to Norway, where they died soon after; and in the meantime +he had appointed his own son, Sigurd, to be ruler of Orkney and +Shetland in their place.[11] But on King Magnus' death, during his +later expedition to Ireland, where Erling Erlendson probably also +fell, Prince Sigurd had to quit Orkney in order to ascend the +Norwegian throne, leaving the jarldom vacant for the two cousins, +Hakon Paulson and Magnus Erlendson. The latter appears to have stayed +for some years at the Scottish Court and afterwards with a bishop in +Wales, and again in Scotland, but on hearing of his father's death, +went to Caithness, where he was well received and was chosen and +honoured with the title of "earl" about 1103. A winter or two after +King Magnus' death, or about 1105, Hakon came back from Norway with +the title of Jarl, seized Orkney, and slew the king of Norway's +steward, who was protecting Magnus' share, which after a time Magnus +claimed, only to find that Hakon had prepared a force to dispute his +rights. Hakon agreed, however, to give up his claims to Magnus' +half share if Magnus should obtain a grant of it from the Norwegian +king.[12] King Eystein about 1106 gave him this moiety and the title +of Jarl; and the two cousins lived in amity for "many winters," +joining their forces and fighting and killing Dufnjal,[13] who was one +degree further off than their first cousin, and killing Thorbjorn at +Burrafirth in Unst in Shetland "for good cause." Magnus then married, +probably about 1107, "a high-born lady, and the purest maid of the +noblest stock of Scotland's chiefs, living with her ten winters" as +a maiden. After "some winters" evil-minded men set about spoiling +the friendship of the jarls, and Hakon again seized Magnus' share; +whereupon the latter went to the court of Henry I of England, where he +appears to have charmed everyone, and to have spent a year, probably +1111, in which Hakon seized all Orkney, and also Caithness, which then +included Sutherland, and laid them under his rule with robbery and +wantonness. Leaving Caithness, Hakon at once went to attack Magnus +in Orkney where he had landed; but the "good men" intervened, and an +equal division of Orkney and Shetland and Caithness was made between +the jarls. After some winters, however, they met in battle array in +Mainland, and the fight was again stopped by the principal men +on either side in their own interest, the final settlement being +postponed until a meeting, which was to take place in Egilsay in the +next spring, Magnus arrived first at the meeting-place with the small +following of two ships agreed upon, but Hakon came later in seven or +eight ships with a great force, and, after those present had refused +to let both come away alive, Magnus was treacherously murdered under +Hakon's orders by Hakon's cook on the 16th of April 1116. The dead +jarl's mother, Thora, had prepared a feast in Paplay to celebrate the +reconciliation of the two cousins, which, notwithstanding the murder, +Hakon attended. After the banquet the bereaved mother begged her son's +corpse for burial in holy ground, and obtained it from the drunken +earl after some difficulty and buried it in Christ's Kirk at Birsay. +Twenty-one years after, on the 13th December 1137, Jarl Magnus' relics +were brought[14] to St. Magnus' Cathedral at Kirkwall. + +After making due allowance for the legends which generally cluster +round a saint or jarl, and grow with time, and for the desire for +dramatic contrast and effect, we must give credit to the writer of +the _Orkneyinga Saga_, probably the Orkney Bishop Bjarni,[15] for the +vividness and simplicity of his account of St. Magnus' life and of the +two most striking episodes in it--his moral courage as a non-combatant +in the battle of Menai Straits, and his saintly forgiveness of his +murderers in his death-scene on Egilsay; and we must hold him worthy +alike of his aureole and of the noble Norman cathedral afterwards +erected in his memory by his nephew, St. Ragnvald Jarl, at Kirkwall, +which took the place of Thorfinn's church at Birsay as the seat of the +Orkney bishopric. Magnus, it seems, was all through assisted by the +Scottish king, and favoured by the Caithness folk,[16] yet the Saga +jealously claims him as "the Isle-earl,"[17] and adds the following +description of him:-- + +"He was the most peerless of men, tall of growth, manly, and lively +of look, virtuous in his ways, fortunate in fight, a sage in wit, +ready-tongued and lordly-minded, lavish of money and high spirited, +quick of counsel, and more beloved of his friends than any man; +blithe and of kind speech to wise and good men, but hard and unsparing +against robbers and sea-rovers; he let many men be slain who harried +the freemen and land folk; he made murderers and thieves be taken, +and visited as well on the powerful as on the weak robberies and +thieveries and all ill-deeds. He was no favourer of his friends in his +judgments, for he valued more godly justice than the distinctions of +rank. He was open-handed to chiefs and powerful men, but still he ever +showed most care for poor men. In all things he kept straitly God's +commandments." + +As for Hakon, his cousin Magnus' death without issue left him sole +Jarl, "and he made all men take an oath to him who had before served +Earl Magnus. But some winters after, Hakon ... fared south to Rome, +and to Jerusalem, whence he sought the halidoms, and bathed in the +river Jordan, as is palmer's wont.[18] And on his return he became a +good ruler, and kept his realm well at peace." He probably then built +the round church at Orphir in Mainland of Orkney, the only Templar +Church in Scotland. + +By Helga, Moddan's daughter, whom he never married, Hakon had a +son Harald Slettmali (smooth-talker, or glib of speech), and two +daughters, Ingibiorg and Margret. Ingibiorg afterwards married Olaf +Bitling, king of the Sudreys; and Ragnvald Gudrodson, the great +Viking, was of her line, and, as we shall see, in 1200 or thereabouts, +had the Caithness earldom conferred upon him for a short time. To +Margret we shall return later. By a lawful wife Hakon had another son, +Paul the Silent, and it seems certain that Paul was not by the same +mother as Margret or Harald Slettmali, and that Paul's mother was not +of Moddan's family. + +Moddan, Earl of Caithness, was killed in 1040. His mother, daughter +of Bethoc, must have been born after 1002. If she was married at +seventeen, her son Earl Moddan could not have been more than twenty +when killed in 1040, and any son of his must have been born by 1041 at +latest. This son may have been Moddan in Dale. Dale was the valley of +the upper Thurso River, the only great valley of Caithness, and the +Saga states as follows:-- + +Moddan[19] "then dwelt in Dale in Caithness, a man of rank and very +wealthy," and "his son Ottar was jarl in Thurso." Frakark, a daughter +of Moddan in Dale, was the wife of Liot Nidingr, or the Dastard, a +Sudrland chief, and during the half century after Thorfinn's death +Moddan's family seems to have owned much of Caithness and Sutherland, +where the Norse steadily lost their hold. We may be sure also that the +Celt always kept his land, if he could, or, if he lost it, regained it +as soon as he could. Amongst its members this family probably held all +the hills and upper parts of the valleys of Strathnavern, Sutherland +and Ness at this time, and, from a centre on the low-lying land at +the head waters of the Naver, Helmsdale and Thurso rivers, kept on +pressing their more Norse neighbours steadily outwards and eastwards. + +Shortly after Hakon's death in 1123, King Alexander I and his brother, +David I, began to organise the Catholic Church in Scotland, and also +to introduce feudalism. Even in the north of Scotland, between the +years 1107 and 1153 they founded monasteries and bishoprics, and +introduced Norman knights and barons holding land by feudal service +from the Crown. Long thwarted in their policy by Moray and its Pictish +maormors, who claimed even the throne itself, these two kings pushed +their authority, by organisation and conquest, more and more towards +the north. Alexander I founded the Bishoprics of St. Andrew's, +Dunkeld, and Moray in 1107, and the Monastery of Scone, afterwards +intimately connected with Kildonan in Sutherland, in 1113 or 1114. +David I, that "sair sanct to the croun," who succeeded in 1124, +founded the Bishoprics of Ross and of Caithness in 1128 or 1130, and +of Aberdeen in 1137, and endowed them with lands. The same king[20] +between 1140 and 1145 issued a mandate "to Reinwald Earl of Orkney and +to the Earl and all the men of substance of Caithness and Orkney to +love and maintain free from injury the monks of Durnach and their men +and property," and also in some year between 1145 and 1153, he granted +Hoctor Common[21] near Durnach, to Andrew, Bishop of Caithness, whose +see was then well established there, and he spent the summer of 1150, +while he was superintending the building of the Cistercian abbey +of Kinloss, in the neighbouring Castle of Duffus, whose ruins still +stand, with Freskyn de Moravia, the first known ancestor of the Earls +of Sutherland.[22] + +Freskyn, probably about 1130[23] or earlier, had built this castle on +the northern estate, comprising the parish of Spynie near Elgin +and other extensive lands in Moray, which had been given to him in +addition to his southern territories of Strabrock, now Uphall and +Broxburn[24] in Linlithgowshire, which he already held from the +Scottish king. Freskyn was thus no Fleming, but a lowland Pict or +Scot, as the tradition of his house maintains,[25] and he was a +common ancestor of the great Scottish families of Atholl, Bothwell, +Sutherland, and probably Douglas. No member of the Freskyn family is +ever styled "Flandrensis" in any writ. + +We find in the extreme north of Scotland, in the first half of the +twelfth century, apart from the Mackays, three leading families with +great followings, which were destined to play an important part in the +future government of Sutherland and Caithness, and with which we shall +have to deal in detail later on. + +First, there was the family of the so-called Norse jarls, descended in +twin strains from Paul and Erlend, Thorfinn's sons, owing allegiance +to the Norwegian crown in respect of Orkney and Shetland and also +holding the earldom of Caithness in moieties or in entirety, nominally +from the Scottish king. Secondly, we have the family of Moddan, Celtic +earls or maormors, with extensive territories held under the kings +of Alban and Scotland for many centuries before this time, but +dispossessed in part by the Norse. Thirdly, we have the family of +Freskyn de Moravia then established at Strabrock in Linlithgowshire, +who about 1120 or 1130 received, for his loyalty and services, +extensive lands at Duffus and elsewhere in Morayshire, and probably +about 1196 the lands in south Caithness known as Sudrland or +Sutherland, from the Scottish crown. + +Of this third line of De Moravias or Morays, two distinct branches +settled north of the Oykel. First, we have Hugo Freskyn, son, it is +said, but, as we shall see, really grandson, of the original Freskyn +and son of Freskyn's elder or eldest son William.[26] This William no +doubt fought for, and may, or may not, have held land in Sutherland, +but his son Hugo certainly had all Sutherland properly so called, that +is, Sudrland, or the Southland of Caithness comprising the parishes of +Creich, Dornoch, Rogart, Kilmalie (afterwards Golspie), Clyne, Loth, +and most of Lairg and Kildonan,[27] formally granted to him, and he +held also the Duffus Estates in Moray, by sea only thirty miles south +of Dunrobin. + +The second branch was that of the younger Freskin de Moravia, +great-great-grandson of the original Freskyn,[28] and ancestor of +the Lords of Duffus, who obtained lands, which were mainly in modern +Caithness, and also in the upper portion of the valley of the Naver +and the valley of Coire-na-fearn in Strathnavern, by marriage with the +Lady Johanna of Strathnaver about 1250.[29] This latter portion +was immediately north of the land granted to Hugo Freskyn; and the +Caithness portion of Johanna's lands marched with Hugo's land on its +eastern boundary. Nor must we forget that a large area of the modern +county of Sutherland, consisting of part of the present parishes +of Eddrachilles and Durness and some part of Tongue and Farr in +Strathnavern, was constantly used as a refuge by Pictish refugees of +the race of MacHeth or MacAoidh, displaced and frequently driven forth +from Moray after the bloody defeat of Stracathro in 1130 and in later +rebellions as part of the policy of the Scottish kings, and first +known as the race of Morgan and then to us as the Clan Mackay. + +They chose, indeed, for their refuge and ultimately for their +settlements a rugged and sterile land, to which their original title +was no charter, but their swords. Difficulties, it is said, make +character, and nowhere is this proverbial saying better illustrated +and proved than in the Reay country by its men and women. They +have given their own and other countries many fine regiments and +distinguished generals and statesmen, and none more so than the late +Lord Reay. Their history is to be found in the _Book of Mackay_, a +piece of good pioneer work from original documents by the late Mr. +Angus Mackay, and also in his unfortunately unfinished _Province of +Cat_. + +Yet another family, of Norse and Viking lineage, which was settled in +Orkney from the earliest Norse times and afterwards in Caithness and +Sutherland, was that of the Gunns, who were descended in the male line +from Sweyn Asleifarson the great Viking, and on the female side from +the line of Paul, and later were by marriage connected with the Moddan +clan and with the line of Erlend. They have for nine centuries lived +and still live in Sutherland and Caithness, and have been noted +alike for the beauty of their women, and for the high attainments and +character and the distinction of their men, particularly in the art of +war, both by land and sea. + +Their descent from Jarl Paul and Sweyn is clear in the Sagas as far as +Snaekoll Gunnison and no further. It was as follows:--Paul Thorfinnson +had four daughters, of whom the third was Herbjorg, who had a daughter +Sigrid, who in turn had a daughter Herbjorg, who married Kolbein +Hruga. One of their sons was Bishop Bjarni and their youngest child +was a daughter Frida, who married Andres, Sweyn Asleifarson's son, +and their son was Gunni, the father, by Ragnhild, Earl and Jarl Harald +Ungi's sister, of Snaekoll Gunnison. We suggest later that Snaekoll +Gunnison was the father, before his flight to Norway, of a daughter, +Johanna of Strathnaver, who inherited the Moddan and Erlend estates, +or that she was otherwise Ragnhild's heiress. + +The male line of the Gunns, according to a pedigree which the writer +has seen, was continued after his flight by Snaekoll who, it is +stated, had a son, Ottar, living in 1280. But after Snaekoll's flight +his right to succeed to Ragnhild's estates was doubtless forfeited, +and they were granted on his father's and mother's death to Johanna +on her marriage with Freskin de Moravia of Duffus about 1245 or later, +before Ottar's birth. + +With the descent of the Gunns in the male line downwards we are not +here concerned. But Snaekoll's forfeiture probably cost their male +line the Moddan and Erlend lands, which were granted to Johanna of +Strathnaver in Snaekoll's absence abroad. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_The Moddan Family--Jarls Harald and Paul and Ragnvald._ + + +From the short forecast of the future given above, let us turn back to +the point whence we digressed, namely the year 1123, when Jarl Hakon +Paulson died at the close of the reign of Alexander I of Scotland. + +Jarl Hakon was succeeded by his sons, Harald the Glib (Slettmali) and +Paul the Silent (Umalgi). Jarl Paul lived mainly in Orkney, while Jarl +Harald "was seated in Sutherland, and held Caithness from the Scot +king" David I, who was crowned in 1124.[1] All Harald's sympathies +seem to have been Scottish, and he was born, bred, and brought up +among Scotsmen, or Picts, probably in North Kildonan. He was always +there with Frakark, daughter of Moddan in Dale, then a widow, her +husband Liot Nidingr or the Dastard being dead; and Frakark and her +sister Helga, Jarl Hakon's mistress, "had a great share in ruling the +land"; while Audhild, daughter of Thorleif, Frakark's sister, also +lived with Frakark,[2] and was the mistress at this time of one of +the strangest characters in the Saga, Sigurd Slembi-diakn, or +the Sham-deacon. Hakon's son Paul being, as appears certain, by a +different mother not of the Moddan line, Frakark and Helga aimed at +obtaining the whole jarldom of Orkney for Harald, Helga's son by Earl +Hakon. With the object of getting rid of Paul, they went over with +Sigurd Slembi-diakn to Orphir in Orkney; and we have the story of +the poisoned shirt,[3] made there by Frakark and Helga, and by them +intended for Paul, but put on, in spite of their expostulations and +entreaties, by Harald, who died of its poison, leaving, however, one +son, Erlend, then an infant. + +After this, Jarl Paul banished these ladies from Orkney about 1127, +and they "fared away with all their kith and kin, first to Caithness, +and then up into Sutherland to those homesteads which Frakark owned +there,"[4] and tradition[5] locates her residence at Shenachu or Carn +Shuin, on the east side of the River Helmsdale near Kinbrace above the +road. Possibly, however, they lived at Borrobol, the "Castle Farm";[6] +and there "there were brought up by Frakark Margret, Earl Hakon's +daughter, and Helga, Moddan's daughter," and also Eric Stagbrellir, +Frakark's grandnephew, and son of her niece Audhild by Eric Streita, +a Norseman, as well as Olvir Rosta and Thorbiorn Klerk, both Frakark's +grandsons, all of whom come prominently into our story. Audhild's son, +Eric Stagbrellir, in the end was the survivor of these, as well as of +all males of the Moddan line, and ultimately we hear of no descendants +in Cat of any of them save of Eric, and Eric's marriage with Ingigerd, +St. Ragnvald Jarl's only child, is the link between the line of Erlend +and that of Moddan, which united the Erlend and Moddan estates. + +Of the line of Thorfinn we already know the royal origin and descent +from Malcolm II's third daughter. + +Of the Moddan line the Saga says[7]--"These men were all of great +family and great for their own sakes, and they all thought they had +a great claim in the Orkneys to those realms which their kinsman Earl +Harald (Slettmali) had owned. The brothers of Frakark were Angus of +the open hand, and Earl Ottir in Thurso: he was a man of birth and +rank." These children of Moddan were probably of royal lineage or +kinship, as Moddan, who had been created Earl of Caithness by King +Duncan I, was that king's sister's son, and was probably, as we have +seen, their ancestor or kinsman. They were also probably descended +more remotely from Moldan, Maormor of Duncansby, a kinsman of Malcolm +II, but had all been driven back from the coast, save Earl Ottir, who +lived at Thurso, and probably owned its valley up to its source in the +Halkirk and Latheron hills. + +The death of Harald the Glib by poison left Paul _de facto_ sole jarl +of Orkney. We are told[8] that "Paul was a man of very many friends, +and no speaker at Things or meetings. He let many other men rule the +land with him, was courteous and kind to all the land-folk, liberal of +money, and he spared nothing to his friends. He was not fond of war, +and sate much in quiet." We may be sure that he was little, if +ever, in Sutherland, the country of his enemy Frakark. His rule was, +however, destined to be disturbed, on the one hand by the Moddan +family's plots, and, on the other hand, by a Norse competitor for the +jarldom, Kali, son of Kol and Gunnhild, Jarl St. Magnus' sister, who +had been re-named Ragnvald from his resemblance to the handsome Jarl +Ragnvald Brusi's son, and was afterwards designated Jarl of Orkney by +King Sigurd of Norway, as the representative of the line of Erlend, +Thorfinn's son. + +With Jarl Ragnvald, Jarl St. Magnus' sequel in estate, and himself +afterwards St. Ragnvald, who was much in Caithness and Sutherland, +and seems to have held and acquired considerable estates there, begins +what is practically a new Saga, which may be styled "The Story of +Ragnvald, and of Sweyn" the great Viking. Of these two we have perhaps +the finest and most vividly painted pictures of the _Orkneyinga Saga_, +full of dramatic touches, full, too, of interesting historical detail. + +First, we have a portrait of the young Ragnvald as Kali Kolson in his +youth at Agdir in Norway, with his mother Gunnhild, sister of Jarl St. +Magnus Erlend's son, and his shrewd old father Kol. We are told that +Kali was "the most hopeful man" or man of promise, "of middle stature, +fine of limb, with light brown hair"; how he "had many friends, and +was a more proper man both in body and mind than most of the other men +of his time, a good player at draughts, a facile writer of runes, +and a reader of books, good at smith's work, ski-ing, shooting, and +rowing, and as skilful at song as at the harp."[9] + +At the age of fifteen, he traded to Grimsby, where many Norwegians +and Orkneymen came, and many from the Hebrides; and here he met Harald +Gillikrist, who became his firm friend, and confided in him alone that +he, Harald, was the son of King Magnus Barelegs, asking how he would +be received by King Sigurd of Norway, and obtaining the diplomatic +reply that he would be well received by the king, if others did not +spoil his welcome. Then Kali returns to Bergen in 1116, about the +time of Jarl Magnus' murder by his cousin Jarl Hakon, and after a +friendship and a feud with Jon Peterson, which is amicably settled +by the marriage of Jon with Kali's sister Ingirid, and of which the +description well illustrates the manners and law of the times, is made +Jarl Ragnvald of Orkney by King Sigurd; and on that king's death in +1126 he is confirmed in the title by his friend King Harald, for whom +he fought in the battle for the throne at Floruvoe near Bergen, when +King Magnus was captured, maimed, and deposed by Harald in 1135. + +Jarl Paul, however, refused to part with half the isles; and, acting +on Kol's advice, Jarl Ragnvald's messengers apply for aid in obtaining +it to Frakark and her grandson Olvir Rosta in Kildonan, and offer +them Paul's half share if they will help Ragnvald to secure his +half. Frakark, having previously arranged that her niece Margret, the +daughter of Earl Hakon and Helga, should marry Earl Maddad of Athole, +second cousin to David I, as his second wife, thought that Orkney +might be had, with half the jarldom and all Caithness, for Margret's +son Harold Maddadson, then an infant in arms. + +Ragnvald and Frakark then made common cause.[10] But in 1136 Paul +defeated Frakark's ships in a sea fight off Tankerness in Deer Sound +in Orkney, and immediately afterwards seized Jarl Ragnvald's fleet in +Yell Sound in Shetland, though Ragnvald and his men escaped to Norway +in merchant vessels, to return later on.[11] + +Meantime Olvir Rosta, Frakark's grandson, who had been stunned and +nearly drowned in the sea fight at Tankerness, in which Sweyn's and +Gunni's father, Olaf Hrolf's son, had aided Jarl Paul, burned Olaf +alive in his home at Duncansby, Asleif, Olaf's wife, escaping only +because she was absent at the time. Further, Valthiof, Sweyn's elder +brother, was drowned in the roost of the West-firth, while rowing +south to Jarl Paul's Yule Feast. Sweyn Asleifarson, as he was ever +afterwards called, then went to Paul's Hall at Orphir to complain of +Olvir Rosta. The news of his brother's death, which arrived during +the feast, was considerately withheld from him, and he was greatly +honoured there; but he roused the jarl's anger by slaying Sweyn +Breast-rope, the jarl's forecastle-man, at Orphir, not indeed so much +for the murder, as because Sweyn had fled and did not come to submit +himself after it to the jarl, and so offended him.[12] + +Then follow the stories, well worth reading in the Saga itself, of +the raising and lowering of the sails on Ragnvald's ships and of the +mutiny of Paul's followers, and of the dowsing of the beacons on the +Fair Isle by Uni, Ragnvald's ally, of Ragnvald's landing in Westray, +of his suppression of all opposition to him, of the spies at Paul's +Thing, of Sweyn's junction of forces with Ragnvald, of Sweyn's visit +to Margret at Athole, and his dramatic kidnapping of Jarl Paul while +hunting otters near Westness[13] in the Isle of Rousay, in Orkney, +and of the jarl's deportation by Sweyn first to Dufeyra and thence via +Ekkjals-bakki[14] to Athole to his sister Margret, who receives him +with the utmost show of cordiality, and finally of Paul's abdication +in favour of Margret's second son, Harold Maddadson, then a boy +of five years of age, with the instructions to Sweyn to tell the +Orkneymen that Paul himself was blinded, or, worse still, maimed, +so that his friends should not seek him out, and restore him to his +jarldom.[15] Such is one version of the story; the other is a more +sinister tale, that his half-sister Margret cast Jarl Paul into a +dungeon and had him murdered, and, so far as the Saga relates, he left +no issue. + +Sweyn then returns to Orkney and tells his version of the affair to +the bishop, the bishop to Ragnvald, and Ragnvald to the "good men" or +_lendirmen_ of Orkney, who express themselves satisfied, and Ragnvald +builds the Cathedral he had vowed to St. Magnus in Kirkwall--a strange +medley of craftiness, murder, and piety. + +Next we have the vivid scene[16] of the arrival from Athole at +Knarstead near Scapa, in his blue cope and quaintly cut beard, on a +fine winter's day, of John, Bishop, probably of Glasgow, and formerly +tutor to King David of Scotland, on whom Jarl Ragnvald waits like a +page, and who passes on to Egilsay to Bishop William the Old; and the +two clerics propose to Jarl Ragnvald that Harald Maddadson, who +had already been created sole Earl of Caithness, shall have Paul +Thorfinnson's half of the Orkney jarldom, an arrangement which +Ragnvald accepts, and which is ratified by the people of Orkney and +of Caithness. In due course the boy arrives in 1139, and the tutor +selected for him is, of all others, Frakark's grandson, Thorbiorn +Klerk, who had married Sweyn Asleifarson's sister, Ingirid, and who +was "one of the boldest of men, and the most unfair, overbearing man +in most things,"[17] differing indeed but little in character from +Sweyn himself "who was a wise man and foresighted about many things; +and an unfair overbearing man and reckless towards others," while they +were both said to be men "of power and weight," and at this time they +were fast friends. + +Then follows the story of Frakark's Burning, one of the most purely +Sutherland tales in the whole Saga.[18] + +Sweyn, to avenge on that lady and her grandson, Olvir Rosta, the +burning of his own father Olaf and of his house in Duncansby, openly +asked Jarl Ragnvald for "two ships well fitted and manned," sailed +to the Moray Firth, the Breithifiorthr or Broadfirth, as it was then +called, "and took the north-west wind to Dufeyra, a market town in +Scotland. Thence he sailed into the land along the shore of Moray +and to Ekkjals-bakki. Thence he fared next of all to Athole to Earl +Maddad, and lay at the place called Elgin and obtained guides, who +knew the paths over fells and wastes whither he wished to go.[19] +Thence he fared the upper way over fells and woods, above all places +where men dwelt, and came out in Strath Helmsdale near the middle of +Sutherland. But Olvir and his men had scouts out everywhere where they +thought that strife was to be looked for from the Orkneys; but in this +way they did not look for warriors. So they were not ware of the +host, before Sweyn and his men had come to the slope at the back of +Frakark's homestead. There came against them Olvir the Unruly with +sixty men; then they fell to battle at once, and there was a short +struggle. Olvir and his men gave way towards the homestead; for they +could not get to the wood. Then there was a great slaughter of men, +but Olvir fled away up to Helmsdale Water and swam across the river +and so up on to the fell: and thence he fared to Skotland's Firth,[20] +and so out to the Southern Isles. And he is out of the story. But when +Olvir drew off, Sweyn and his men fared straight up to the house, and +plundered it of everything; but, after that, they burnt the homestead +and all those men and women who were inside it. And there Frakark lost +her life. Sweyn and his men did there the greatest harm in Sutherland, +ere they fared to their ships." + +Such is this Sutherland tale of Sweyn. According to the current +notions of blood feud, he merely discharged the solemn duty of +avenging his father's burning and death by a like burning and slaying +of the household of his father's murderers. But his acts were wholly +unjustifiable by the law of the time, as he had already accepted an +atonement by were-geld from Earl Ottar. + +After a round of harrying and piracy, especially in Sutherland, no +doubt among the Moddan clan, Sweyn was heartily welcomed home by Jarl +Ragnvald, from whom he immediately obtained another fleet for another +set of raids on Wales, the coasts of the Bristol Channel and the +Scilly Isles. His murder of Sweyn Breast-rope was committed just after +an adjournment of the feast at Orphir for Nones in the Templar Church +there, and Jarl Ragnvald's gift of the ships for Frakark's punishment +was made while the jarl was piously engaged in completing and adorning +St. Magnus' Cathedral at Kirkwall. + +The strategy leading up to the Burning is characteristic of Sweyn and +his stratagems. He _openly_ asks for ships and sails in them, and +thus is expected to land on the coast. But after a purposely +devious course, which has puzzled inquirers into the locality of +Ekkjals-bakki, he came overland by Oykel and Lairg and Strathnaver or +Strathskinsdale, whence he was not looked for. + +Thorbiorn Klerk next has his revenges. First he burnt Earl Waltheof +(who had slain his father) in Moray, and next he killed two of Sweyn's +men who had assisted in the burning of Thorbiorn's relative, Frakok, +or Frakark, in Kildonan. Jarl Ragnvald with difficulty reconciles +Thorbiorn and Sweyn, and they start for a joint raid. Soon, however, +they squabble over the spoils, and Thorbiorn puts his wife Ingirid, +Sweyn's sister, away, a deed that reopened their feud.[21] + +For a series of robberies in Caithness, Sweyn is besieged by Jarl +Ragnvald in Lambaborg, now known as Freswick Castle, but escapes by +swimming in his armour under the cliffs and landing in Caithness, +whence he passed southwards through Sutherland to Scotland and +Edinburgh, where King David I received him with honour, and reconciled +him with Jarl Ragnvald.[22] + +In 1148, Ragnvald decided to visit King Ingi in Norway, taking +Harold Maddadson, then a boy of fifteen, with him.[23] There he meets +Eindridi, who had been long in Micklegarth, as Constantinople was then +called by the Norse, probably in the Emperor's service as one of the +Varangian Guard; and ships are built for a voyage to the East. But +both he and Harold are wrecked in "The Help" and "The Arrow," at +Gulberwick, south of Lerwick, on the Shetland coast, all on board, +however, being saved, and Ragnvald, as usual, making verses and fun of +it all, and of many other things. + +At last in 1150 Ragnvald's and Eindridi's ships are "boun"[24] for +their eastern cruise, Eindridi, however, being wrecked off Shetland. +But he gets another ship, and, in 1151, they set sail for the East, +William, the bishop of Orkney, commanding one vessel. Passing down the +east coast of England and through the Channel to France, they reach +Bilbao[25] in Spain, where Ragnvald lands, and refuses to marry Queen +Ermengarde. Afterwards he rounds Galicia, where Eindridi's treachery +robs them of spoil in taking Godfrey's castle, beats through Niorfa +Sound (the Straits of Gibraltar); is deserted by Eindridi, sails along +Sarkland (Barbary), captures the Saracen ship Dromund, and burns her, +sells the prisoners in Barbary, but releases their prince, coasts +along Crete, lands at Acre, and bathes in Jordan on St. Lawrence's +Day, the 10th of August 1152. After a visit to Jerusalem they come +at last to Constantinople, where the Varangian Guard heartily welcome +them, although Eindridi, who has arrived there before him, tries to +set everyone against them; and Ragnvald finally returns to Bulgaria +and Apulia and Rome, and thence overland to Denmark and Norway.[26] + +When Ragnvald reached Norway in 1153, he heard what had been going on +at home during his absence in the east. King Eystein of Norway, King +Harald Gilli's son, had seized Jarl Harold Maddadson, then a young +man of twenty, at Thurso, and made him swear allegiance to himself, +letting him go on his paying three marks of gold as his ransom. Then +Maddad, his father, Earl of Athole, died; and the widowed Margret, +Harold's mother, came north to Orkney, still dangerous, still +beautiful and attractive, especially to Gunni, Sweyn's brother, by +whom she had a child, for which Gunni was outlawed, a punishment which +alienated his brother Sweyn from Harold Maddadson.[27] + +Erlend, only son of Harald Slettmali, and really entitled to the whole +earldom, obtained from his relative[28] King Malcolm, then a boy of +under twelve, through his powerful kin, a grant of half of the earldom +of Caithness jointly with Harold Maddadson, who objected to give +him half the Orkney jarldom unless King Eystein confirmed the grant. +Erlend then went to Norway to get it confirmed. Meantime Sweyn seized +a ship of Harold's; but, to help Erlend, tried to reconcile Harold to +him, as King Eystein (said Erlend) had given him half of Orkney. And +the half given to him was, he added, Harold's half.[29] + +Sweyn and Erlend then force Harold, who had then just come of age, to +agree to give up this half, under duress, in order to secure his own +liberty, and the Orkney folk agree that Erlend shall have this half, +Ragnvald having the other. This, Sweyn knew, Harold would not stand, +and, as he drank at a feast with his house-carles in his castle in +Gairsay,[30] the wily Viking said, slily rubbing his nose, "I think +Harold is now on his voyage to the isles," a shrewd surmise which +proved correct in spite of the midwinter storm then prevailing. +Harold's expedition, however, failed, and he went back to Caithness to +raise a force to kill a man called Erlend the Young who had seized his +mother Margret and taken her by force to Shetland, where he fortified +Mousa Broch[31] and held her prisoner there. After a siege, Harold, +who had followed them, at last allowed their marriage, Erlend the +Young becoming his ally, and going that summer with his wife and +Harold to Norway. When that was heard in the Orkneys, Sweyn and Earl +Erlend went raiding off the east coast of Scotland and afterwards +a-viking to North Berwick, and got much plunder, and Harold returned +in the autumn to Orkney. In the winter Jarl Ragnvald came back from +the east to Turfness (Burghead), whence he went about Yule 1153 to +Orkney, to find that the Orkney-men want himself and Erlend, not +himself and Harold, as joint jarls over them. + +Harold had then to fight for his own hand; and, finding that Earl +Erlend and Sweyn were in Shetland, he sought them out but missed them, +and afterwards, though he hated Jarl Ragnvald, tried to get him on his +side. + +We come to another Sutherland event, historically of the first +importance to us, in 1154.[32] "Jarl Ragnvald was then up the country +in Sutherland, and sat there at a wedding at which he gave his only +daughter and child Ingirid or Ingigerd, to Eric Stagbrellir," who, as +we have seen, as Audhild's son, had been brought up in Kildonan. +"News came to him at once that Earl Harold was come into Thurso. +Jarl Ragnvald, rode down with a great company to Thurso from the +bridal.[33] Eric was Harold's kinsman and tried to reconcile the +earls." + +There was a fight in Thurso between their followers, Thorbiorn Klerk +instigating it, no doubt because after Eric's marriage with Ingigerd, +Ragnvald's daughter, he knew he could not hope to force Eric to give +up the Moddan lands in Strathnavern and in the upper valleys and +hills of Sudrland and Caithness, to which he had a claim. Thirteen +of Ragnvald's men fell in the fray, and he himself was wounded in the +face. Ultimately, the earls were reconciled on the 25th of September +1154, and about 1156 joined forces and went to Orkney against Sweyn +and Erlend, who pretended they were sailing for the Hebrides, but +put their ships about at Store[34] Point in Assynt, and after all but +seizing Jarl Ragnvald at Orphir in Orkney, captured his ships, though +he and Harold escaped, each in a small boat, across the Pentland Firth +to Caithness.[35] Returning thence, in Sweyn's absence for the night +they attacked Erlend, who had disregarded all Sweyn's warnings and +advice to keep a good look-out, off Damsey, near Finstown. In this +fight Jarl Erlend, the last descendant in the male line of Thorfinn +then alive, was slain, while drunk, his body being found next day +transfixed by a spear, and he left no issue to inherit his title +of earl or the other Moddan lands, left to him by Earl Ottar, which +probably devolved on Eric Stagbrellir in 1156, as he could hold them +against Thorbiorn Klerk. + +All Erlend's success, if we are to believe the Saga, this portion of +which is written largely to glorify Sweyn, probably by his relative +Bishop Bjarni, had been arranged by Sweyn's really marvellous cunning; +and Ragnvald, no doubt feeling how dangerous an enemy Sweyn was, and +that he was backed by the Scottish king, immediately sent for him in +order to reconcile him to Harold. But Harold, soon afterwards, robbed +Sweyn's house in Gairsay; and Sweyn, in his turn, attacked the house +where Harold was, and nearly succeeded in burning him alive. Later on +Harold all but caught Sweyn off Kirkwall, but Sweyn gave him the slip, +by running his ship into a tidal cave in Ellarholm, off Elwick in +Shapinsay, in 1155, and disappearing till the coast was clear, when he +got away in a small boat. + +Afterwards Sweyn and Earl Harold were reconciled, and Sweyn and +Thorbiorn Klerk and Eric Stagbrellir went on a viking cruise to the +Hebrides, and, after a great victory at the Scilly Isles, returned +with much booty to Orkney.[36] + +In the year 1157 or 1158, Sweyn defeated Gilli Odran, steward of Earl +Ragnvald's lands in Caithness, who had fled to the west and was caught +in Murkfjord (possibly Loch Glendhu at Kylestrome in Eddrachilles) and +was slain there with fifty of his men by Sweyn.[37] + +In 1158, Ragnvald and Harold went, as they did every year, to hunt +red deer and reindeer[38] in Caithness, their hunting ground being +probably near the Ben-y-griams, which lay on the way to Kildonan, or +Strathnaver, where Eric probably lived; and some think there are still +remains of walls used as a pen for driven deer on Ben-y-griam +Beg, though these are more probably the ancient ramparts of a +hill-fort.[39] When they landed at Thurso, they heard that Thorbiorn +Klerk was hiding and lying in wait in Thorsdale[40] in order to make +an onslaught on Ragnvald, if he got a chance. After riding with a band +of a hundred men, twenty of them mounted, they spent the night at a +place where there was what the Celts call an "erg" (_airigh_) but +the Norse call "setr," the modern sheiling. Next day, as they rode +up along Calfdale, Ragnvald was in advance of the party, and, at +a homestead called Force,[41] Halvard hailed him loudly by name. +Thorbiorn was inside the house, and burst out through an old doorway, +and dealt Ragnvald a great wound, and the jarl fell, his foot sticking +in his stirrup, when Stephen, an accomplice, gave him a spear thrust; +whereupon Thorbiorn, after dealing him another wound, and receiving +a spear thrust in the thigh himself, fled to the moor. Earl Harold at +first would not interfere; and though Magnus son of Havard Gunni's son +insisted, Earl Harold again declined to pursue Thorbiorn to the death, +but left Magnus to besiege him at Asgrim's Ergin or Shielings,[42] now +Assary, near Loch Calder, where, by setting fire to the hut in which +he was, his pursuers succeeded in smoking him out and killing him. +They then brought the jarl's body from Force to Thurso, and thence +took it over to Orkney, to be buried in the choir of St. Magnus' +Cathedral, which he had founded and built in his uncle's honour. + +"Jarl Ragnvald's death was a very great grief, for he was very much +beloved there in the Isles, and far and wide elsewhere." It took place +on the 20th August 1158. + +"He had been a very great helper," the Saga adds, "to many men, +bountiful of money, gentle, and a steadfast friend; a great man for +feats of strength, and a good skald" or poet. In 1192 he was canonised +as St. Ragnvald[43] with, it is said, full Papal sanction. Save during +Harold Maddadson's minority he was never Earl of Caithness, and then +had the title only as guardian of his ward Harold. + +Ragnvald left a daughter, his only surviving child, Ingirid or +Ingigerd, whom as we have seen, Audhild's son, Eric Stagbrellir had +married four years before her father's death; and their children, who +come into the story afterwards, were three sons, Harald Ungi or Harald +the Young, Magnus nick-named Mangi, and Ragnvald, and three daughters, +Ingibiorg, Elin[44] and Ragnhild, all of whom, so far as the Saga +relates, died childless save Ragnhild, whose son by her second husband +Gunni, was Snaekoll Gunni's son, who about 1230 claimed the Ragnvald +lands in Orkney from Earl John, son of Earl Harold Maddadson,[45] +and complained that Earl John was keeping him out of his rights in +Caithness to Ragnvald's share of the earldom lands there. + +After Thorbiorn Klerk's death, Olvir Rosta being "out of the story," +Eric's children, who were mainly Norse in blood, were the only heirs +left in Caithness not only for Jarl Ragnvald's lands, but also for the +upper parts of the river valleys of Strathnavern and Ness, which the +Moddan family had held through the whole Norse occupation of Caithness +and Sutherland, along with the hill country in Halkirk and Latheron +and Strathnavern and probably also in Sutherland, lands on which few +Norse place-names are found, and which came to Eric through Audhild +his mother on the deaths of Earls Ottar and Erlend Haraldson without +issue. These lands would of right descend to Eric's eldest son, Harald +Ungi, and on his death without issue, to his brothers if alive, and, +failing them, to his sisters and their heirs, as happened in the case +of Ragnhild and her son Snaekoll Gunni's son, neither Ingibiorg +nor Elin receiving any share of this property, for reasons now +undiscoverable, but which we shall endeavour to explain later, by +presuming that one of them had died unmarried, or had married abroad, +while the other and her descendants were amply provided for otherwise +by marriage with Gilchrist, Earl of Angus. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +_Harold Maddadson and the Freskyns._ + + +After the death of Jarl Ragnvald in 1158, Harold Maddadson at the age +of twenty-five "took all the isles under his rule, and became sole +chief over them."[1] Ever since 1139 he had been sole Earl of Cat save +for Erlend Haraldson's grant,[2] though Jarl Ragnvald seems to have +had a share of its lands and managed the Earldom of Caithness for +Harold during his minority, bearing the title of his ward till the +latter attained his majority in 1154. Harold had married Afreka, +daughter of Duncan, Earl of Fife, one of the most loyal supporters +of the Scottish kings, and their children were two sons, Henry, who +afterwards claimed Ross, and of whom we hear no more, and Hakon, Sweyn +Asleifarson's foster-child, and two daughters, Helena and Margret, of +whom we hear nothing save their names. Hakon, from boyhood, went with +Sweyn on all his spring and autumn "vikings" or piratical cruises, +undertaken every year to the Hebrides, Man, and Ireland, in one of +which Sweyn took two English ships near Dublin, and returned to Orkney +laden with broadcloth, wine, and English mead.[3] Sweyn's life is +thus described in c. 114 of the _Orkneyinga Saga_. "He sat through the +winter at home in Gairsay, and there he kept always about him eighty +men at his beck. He had so great a drinking-hall that there was not +another as great in all the Orkneys. Sweyn had in the spring hard +work, and made them lay down very much seed, and looked much after it +himself. But when that toil was ended, he fared away every spring on a +Viking-voyage, and harried about among the southern isles and Ireland, +and came home after midsummer. That he called spring-viking. Then he +was at home until the cornfields were reaped down, and the grain seen +to and stored. Then he fared away on a viking-voyage, and then he did +not come home till the winter was one month spent, and that he called +his autumn-viking." At last, in a cruise to Dublin, which he captured, +Sweyn was killed by stratagem on landing to receive payment of its +ransom from the town, and the boy Hakon probably fell there with him +in 1171. "And," the Saga adds, "it is the common saying of Sweyn that +he was the most masterful man in the western lands, both of yore and +now-a-days, among those men who had no higher rank than himself." +Sweyn was, in fact the greatest man of his time. For he robbed whom +he pleased, made and undid jarls and earls as he chose, and was the +friend or tool of more than one Scottish king. + +Earl Harold had put his wife Afreka away, and probably after Sweyn's +death formed a union, at a date which it seems impossible to fix, with +Hvarflod or Gormflaith, daughter of Malcolm MacHeth of Moray, who +was in rebellion in 1134, and was imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle +until 1157, when he was released and created Earl of Ross, so that +Gormflaith, who could hardly have been born during her father's +imprisonment, must have been born either before 1135 or after 1157. +Harold and Gormflaith's children were Thorfinn, who predeceased +him, and also David and John, both afterwards in succession earls +of Caithness and jarls of Orkney, and three daughters, Gunnhilda, +Herborga, and Langlif; and of the daughters the Saga-writers tell us +nothing, except that the Icelander Saemund, Magnus Barelegs' grandson, +wished to marry Langlif but did not do so;[4] and her son Jon +Langlifson, according to the Saga of Hakon was in 1263 a spy on the +Norse side. + +Here the _Orkneyinga Saga_ ends. But additions to its generally +received text are found in the _Flatey Book_,[5] and the additions +are by no means so trustworthy as the Saga proper. From these we learn +that of Eric Stagbrellir and Ingigerd's children, who were settled in +Sutherland, the sons, Harald Ungi, Magnus, and Ragnvald Eric's son, +fared east to Norway to King Magnus Erling's son, where young Magnus +Eric's son fell with that king in the battle of Norafjord in Sogn +in 1184.[6] Probably some of them were, on Eric Stagbrellir's death, +subjected to exactions in respect of their lands by Harold Maddadson. + +Having arrived, under the guidance of the _Orkneyinga_, at the +closing years of the 12th century, so far as the affairs of Orkney and +Shetland and Sutherland and Caithness are concerned, it remains for us +to turn and observe the tide of civilisation and order which under our +Scottish kings was now setting strongly northwards and ever further +north in each successive reign, the Catholic Church and the feudal +baron being the chosen instruments of national organisation and +discipline, and the charter being the method of establishing them in +the land. + +To this tide the Pictish and Columban Churches, and the Province of +Moray and its Maormors had formed the main barriers and obstacles; and +the Saxon nobility, introduced by the elder sons of Malcolm Canmore's +second queen, St. Margaret, had proved quite unable to break them +down. The Pict of Moray was obstinately hostile to the Scots, and +his leaders and rulers aspired to, and claimed the crown of Scotland +itself. Rebellion after rebellion took place, and it was not until +King David I had introduced the feudal baron with his mail-clad +tenants, and settled them on the land by charter, that any success in +establishing peace and civil order was achieved in the vast Pictish +province of Ross and Moray, which stretched across Scotland from the +North Sea to the Minch, and whose people resisted to the utmost. + +It is not part of our purpose to treat generally of the feudal and +largely Norman families, which gradually asserted their power over +the Picts in the north, and were accepted as Chiefs, such as were the +Umphraville Earls of Angus, the Roses of Kilravock, the Chisholms +of Strath Farrer, the Bissets and Fresels or Frasers of Beauly, the +Grants of Moray and Inverness, and the Comyns of Badenoch; for none +of these held land north of the Oykel. But later on in the thirteenth +century we shall have more particularly to note the Chens or Cheynes +in Caithness, and the Scottish or Pictish family of Freskyn of +Strabrock and Moray, in its two branches, that of Hugo of Sutherland +and that of his grandson Freskin the younger in Sutherland and +Caithness. + +Of Freskyn or Fretheskin I, the founder of the line, we have no +mention in any charter direct to him,[7] either of his Linlithgowshire +lands at Strabrock, or of his estate near Spynie in Moray with its +Castle at Duffus. + +To us he is as Melchizedek; for neither his father nor his mother is +known. We believe him to have been born before 1100, and so to have +been a contemporary of Frakark, Thorbiorn Klerk, and Olvir Rosta, of +Jarl Ragnvald, of Margret of Athole, Erlend Haraldson and Sweyn, and +also of Harold Maddadson; and to have won his Duffus estate, as an +addition to his lands at Strabrock, about 1120 or at latest 1130, +before or after the crushing defeat, at Stracathro, of the Picts of +Angus and Moray; and between these dates to have built the Castle of +Duffus on the bank of Loch Spynie, in order to check Norse raids on +the Moray coast while the Norse held Turfness or Burghead; and we +know that he entertained King David I there during the whole summer of +1150, while that king was superintending the building of the Abbey of +Kinloss. From notices in a charter of King William the Lion granting +and confirming to Freskyn's son, William, his father's lands of +Strabrock in West Lothian and of Duffus, Roseisle, Inchkeile, Macher +and Kintrai,[8] forming almost the whole parish of Spynie, we believe +him to have been dead by 1166, or, at the latest, 1171, the year of +Sweyn Asleifarson's death, and we know that he held all these lands +from David I, with probably many more in Moray. Contrary to the +general impression, it seems probable that Freskyn had not one son, +but two sons, William above mentioned and also Hugo, who witnessed a +charter, not necessarily spurious, granting Lohworuora, now Borthwick, +Church to Herbert, bishop of Glasgow, about 1150. But of this Hugo's +existence we have no definite record, and of him we know nothing more +than that he witnessed the document above referred to, and one other +about 1195, namely, a Charter of Strathyla, in which the words occur +"Willelmo filio Freskyn, Hugone filio Freskyn" quoted by Shaw, page +406, App. No. xxvii, in the edition of 1775. This Hugo thus seems to +have been uncle of, and not identical with Hugo de Moravia, grantee of +Sutherland, known as Hugo Freskyn. + +William, son of Freskyn, held those lands in West Lothian and Moray +probably until near the end of the twelfth century; and this William, +son of Freskyn, had at least three sons,[9] (1) Hugo Freskyn, the +ancestor of the de Moravias, or Murrays, of Sutherland, (2) William of +Petty, and (3) Andrew, parson[10] of Duffus, who appears in a writ as +a son of Freskyn, and as a brother of Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland.[11] +Andrew was alive in 1190, and lived probably till 1221, and has been +taken to have been the same person as Andrew Bishop of Moray who built +Elgin Cathedral. More probably he was that Bishop's uncle, and refused +the bishopric of Ross. He witnessed the great Charter of Bishop +Bricius founding the Cathedral at Spynie between 1208 and 1215. (Reg. +Morav. c. 39). + +William, son of Freskyn, probably had several other sons from one of +whom were descended the Earls of Atholl.[12] + +William, son of William, and so grandson of Freskyn, with whom, as he +was not interested in Caithness or Sutherland, we have nothing to do, +frequently appears as witness to charters in and after 1195 along +with his elder brother Hugo, whom in one charter, William being the +younger, is reported to call "his lord and brother."[13] This William, +son of William son of Freskyn, was lord of Petty, near Fort George, +and of Bracholy, Boharm, and Artildol, and died before 1226, leaving +an eldest son Walter of Petty, a cousin of Sir Walter of Duffus, and +from Walter of Petty are descended the great family, notorious in +Orkney, of Bothwell, his great-great-grandson having been Sir Andrew +of Bothwell, Wardane of Scotland, who died in 1338. William of Petty, +to whom and whose descendants we now bid adieu, was probably sheriff +of Invernarrin or Invernairn in 1204,[14] and uncle of another William +who became first earl of Sutherland. + +In Hugo, the elder son of William son of Freskyn, we are deeply +interested. For, if his father "William son of Freskyn" had no grant +of Sutherland, Hugo Freskyn certainly had not only such a grant but +possession as well. Two Charters, the _Carta de Suthirland_ and _Alia +Carta Suthirlandiae_ appear in the list of documents in the Treasury +of Edinburgh in 1282, and one or both of these may have been the +original grant or grants of his Sutherland estate.[15] They may, on +the other hand, have been the later grants of the earldom, or still +later charters relating to it. They have, however, disappeared. + +Notwithstanding their disappearance, ample evidence of the tenure of +the estate of Sutherland by Hugo Freskyn has been preserved until the +present day in the Charter-room at Dunrobin; and the documents are +happily as legible as they were over 700 years ago. + +By a charter,[16] dated about 1211, Hugo granted to Master Gilbert, +Archdeacon of Moray and to those heirs of his family whom he should +choose and their heirs, all his land of Skelbo in Sutherland and of +Fernebuchlyn and Inner-Schyn, and also his whole land of Sutherland +towards the west which lay between the aforenamed land and the marches +of Ross, to be held to himself and to his own heirs for ever from the +granter and his heirs, performing for such lands the service of one +bowman and the forinsec service due to the king in respect of such +lands; and this grant was confirmed by King William the Lion (who +died in December 1214) on the 29th of April, probably in 1212, at +Seleschirche, now Selkirk, and was also confirmed by Hugo's son +William, Lord of Sutherland, about 1214.[17] This renders it certain +that Hugo himself had died before December 1214, the latest possible +limit of the date of this charter. He was buried in the Church of +Duffus, as the Register of Moray states,[18] and he can hardly have +been the Hugo who witnessed the Charter of the Church of Lohworuora +sixty-two years at least before, to which Prince Henry, who died in +1152, was a witness.[19] For Hugo of Sutherland would then have been +too young to have been selected as a witness, and he was not Hugo, son +of Freskyn (Hug. filio Fresechin), but Freskyn's grandson. + +Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland had three sons, (1) William, great-grandson +of the original Freskyn, _dominus_ or Lord of Sutherland, and +afterwards first earl, (2) Walter, who succeeded to Strabrock in +Linlithgowshire and to Duffus and the family estates in Moray, which +were thus severed in ownership from Sutherland, and (3) Andrew. Walter +of Duffus married Euphamia, daughter of the most able and renowned +general of his time, Ferchar Mac-in-Tagart, Earl of Ross;[20] and +Walter was known as Sir Walter de Moravia, and lived till 1243, but +was dead by 1248, his widow surviving him, and later on we shall come +to another Freskin, their eldest son, (who was _dominus de Duffus_ +on 20th March 1248), in Strathnaver and Caithness. Hugo's third son, +Andrew, was the parson of Duffus[21] who became Bishop of Moray, +and moved the see from Spynie to Elgin, where he erected a specially +beautiful Cathedral, the predecessor of that whose splendid ruins +still stand. According to the Chronicle of Melrose he died in 1242. + +Hugo Freskyn's eldest son, William, Lord of Sutherland, was simply +"William de Sutherlandia" on the 31st August 1232, and "W. de +Suthyrland" appears as a witness to a grant of a mill on 10th October +1237. But William, Hugo's son, was by Alexander II created Earl of +Sutherland, as we hope to show, soon after 1237, probably as a reward +for long and loyal service to William the Lion and to Alexander II, +between the year 1200 and the date of his creation, in the various +difficulties and rebellions in Moray and Caithness, between which +two centres of disaffection his territory of Sutherland lay.[22] For +William's family had then its "three descents" and more, and its chief +had a sufficient body of retainers settled on the land to entitle +him to the dignity of an earldom. That he was earl there is no doubt, +because a deed of 1275 settling litigation between the Earl William +of that date and the Bishop of Caithness refers to William of glorious +memory and William his son, _earls of Sutherland, nobiles +viros, Willelmum clare memorie et Willelmum ejus filium, comites +Sutthirlandie_, (c.f. The Sutherland Book, p. 7). + +The first four generations of the Freskyn family seem to be also +clearly proved in one line of a grant by William the Lion to Gaufrid +Blundus, burgess of Inverness, of 2nd May (year omitted) which is +attested "Willelmo filio Freskin Hugone filio suo et Willelmo filio +ejus," which is strange Latin, but embraces all four generations. It +is quoted in the New Spalding Club's Records of Elgin, p. 4, as from +Act Parl. Scot, vol. 1, p. 79. The Charter is dated at Elgin probably +near the end of the twelfth century, when William Mac-Frisgyn, Hugo, +and William of Sutherland were all alive. Not a single member of the +family was, as every Fleming was, styled "Flandrensis" in any charter +or writ, and Fretheskin is probably a Gaelic name, of which the latter +part may mean "knife" or "dagger." The name does not mean Flemish or +Frisian. + +Having now introduced the various prominent persons in the north of +Scotland over seven hundred years ago, both on the Norse and on the +Scottish sides, let us now look more closely and in detail at the main +events which had been taking place there and elsewhere since the end +of the reign of David I, when his grandson Malcolm IV, known as The +Maiden, succeeded in 1153. + +The first event in the brilliant reign of this boy king was the +invasion and plundering of Aberdeen by Eystein king of Norway about +1153,[23] in repelling which the feudal Barons of Moray and Angus, +including the first Freskyn of Duffus and his son William MacFrisgyn, +must have been of service. In the same year Somarled of Argyll and the +sons of MacHeth engaged in a joint rebellion, which lasted three years +until the eldest of them, Donald, was taken and placed as a prisoner +with his father in Roxburgh Castle, leaving Somarled to continue +the war alone. This war was put an end to by the release of Malcolm +MacHeth, who was created Earl, probably of Ross,[24] after another +civil war in Somarled's own country had called Somarled back to the +Isles; and the young king Malcolm joined Henry II of England in his +wars in France. During King Malcolm's absence abroad Fereteth, Earl +of Stratherne, and five other earls, of whom Harold Maddadson was +probably one, rebelled in 1160; and, on failing in an attempt to +kidnap the young king, who had returned to quell the disturbance, +the six earls were reconciled to him; and in the same year he subdued +another rising in Galloway, and yet another in Moray. The subjugation +of Moray is said to have been carried out with the greatest severity. +According to Fordun[25] the king "removed the rebel nation of Moray +men and scattered them throughout the other districts of Scotland, +both beyond the hills and this side thereof," though Robertson in his +_Early Kings_ expresses the opinion that this clearance took place +in the reign of David his predecessor.[26] He is probably right, but +whenever it took place, it doubtless gave Sutherland the first of its +Mackays, originally MacHeths, who were at first refugees from Moray, +and ultimately in the thirteenth century are found settled in Durness +in the north-western parts of the modern county of Sutherland. It was +at this time, too, that the Innes family, afterwards so well known in +Caithness and Sutherland, were, in the person of Berowald the Fleming, +given their lands in Moray,[27] William MacFrisgyn, Freskyn's eldest +son, and father of Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland, witnessing the charter, +a neighbourly turn which has ever since caused some to believe wrongly +that the Freskyns were Flemings. + +Malcolm next defeated another rising by Somarled, who was killed in +1164, by treachery or surprise, in a skirmish at Renfrew,[28] and was +not Somarled the freeman, who is said in the _Orkneyinga Saga_ to have +been slain by Sweyn in the Isles, in his pursuit and defeat of Gilli +Odran in the Myrkfjord about seven years earlier.[29] + +Then King Malcolm, after a short but brilliant reign, died in his +24th year. He was succeeded by his brother William the Lion, who was +forthwith crowned at Scone on Christmas Eve 1165 in his twenty-second +year. + +We may now try to state how things stood in the north at the date +of his accession. Soon after this time his grandfather's friend, the +first Freskyn, died between 1166 and 1171, and was succeeded by his +son William MacFrisgyn, whose son Hugo would then be quite young. +Harold Maddadson had in 1165 been for twenty-six years Earl of +Caithness, and Jarl of Orkney and Shetland for nineteen years jointly +with Ragnvald, and for seven years sole jarl of those islands.[30] He +had probably put away his first wife Afreka of Fife about 1165, but he +afterwards lived with Gormflaith, the daughter of Malcolm MacHeth from +a date which cannot be fixed with certainty. Led by her, it is said, +Harold was openly hostile to the Scottish king, of whom, however, he +held the earldom of Caithness, which at that time included not only +the parishes of Creich, Dornoch, Rogart, Kilmalie or Golspie, Clyne, +Loth, and most of Kildonan and of Lairg, then called by the Norse +Sudrland, but also the districts of Strathnavern, Eddrachilles, and +Durness (where Mackay refugees had not yet permanently settled) as +well as Ness, which is now known as the County of Caithness. + +The diocese of Caithness, which then was co-terminous with the earldom +and comprised all the above districts which now form the modern +counties of Caithness and Sutherland, had in 1165 been in existence +for about thirty-five years; its chief church being at first at +Halkirk in Caithness and thereafter being the old Church of St. Bar +at Dornoch, but it was scantily endowed, and therefore its clergy were +but few.[31] Its Bishop was Andrew, a Culdean monk of Dunfermline, +and probably Abbot of Dunkeld, who had been promoted to the see of +Caithness before 1146, and died at Dunfermline on the 30th December +1184. Ingigerd, Earl Ragnvald's daughter, would at this time be +a young wife and mother living with some of the elder of her six +children, probably near Loch Naver, on part of the Moddan family lands +there with her husband, Audhild's son Eric Stagbrellir, until their +sons, Harald Ungi, Magnus, and Ragnvald, should grow up. But these +sons, possibly on their father's death, and certainly before 1184, +when young Magnus Mangi was killed[32] at the battle of Norafjord, +emigrated to Norway to obtain the Orkney jarldom about ten or fifteen +years after King William's accession; while of Ingigerd's daughters, +Ingibiorg, Elin, and Ragnhild, nothing is recorded at this time, +though Ragnhild appears later on, and one of her sisters is believed +to have married Gilchrist, Earl of Angus during the last twenty years +of the twelfth century. The other may have married in Norway, or died +young and unmarried. + +All these children and their descendants successively according to +sex and seniority would have claims as being of the line of Erlend +Thorfinnson, to half the Caithness earldom and Jarl Ragnvald's lands +there, claims which, however, it would be impracticable, while Harold +Maddadson lived, to enforce. + +Harold Maddadson's children by his first wife, namely Henry of Ross, +Hakon, Helena and Margaret would, in 1165, all be born, but would be +well under twenty-one, while of his second family, if Gormflaith was +born by 1135, which is unlikely, his eldest son, Thorfinn could have +been born, and some of the others. Thorfinn is mentioned by name in +a grant[33] of a silver mark per annum to the Church of Scone issuing +out of Harold's lands, of which the date is after 1166, but no one can +say how much before the 30th December 1184, the date of the death of +one of its witnesses, Andrew, Bishop of Caithness. + +If the union with Gormflaith took place after 1174, no child of that +union would exist until 1175. That this is in fact true is rendered +more probable because their union is not mentioned in the _Flatey +Book_ until after the death of Sweyn in 1171. But the passage is of +doubtful authenticity, (see Rolls Edition p. 224), and inconclusive +even if genuine. From the various allusions to Harold's union with +Gormflaith, it would seem that Harold lived with her before he married +her for many years, but married her legally after his first wife +Afreka's death after 1198 when William the Lion stipulated that he +should take Afreka back, and the subsequent legal marriage might +in those days, under the Canon and Roman law, suffice to make +Gormflaith's children, though born in adultery, legitimate and capable +of succeeding to the earldom (see Dalrymple's Collections, p. 221). + +In 1165 Sweyn Asleifarson, the great Viking, would be cruising on the +northern and western coasts with Harold's son, Hakon, on board, until +their deaths in Dublin in 1171. + +As for those in authority, Harold Maddadson would have as +contemporaries, Freskyn of Duffus till his death between 1166 and +1171, and his son William till his death near the end of the 12th +century, when Hugo, son of William, would succeed to the Morayshire +estates, though probably he had previously obtained a grant of the +land then known as Sudrland or Sutherland, which is defined above. +Hugo probably received this grant after William the Lion's first +conquest of Sutherland and Caithness in 1196, shortly before the time +when, as we shall see, Harald Ungi obtained in right of his mother a +grant of half Orkney from the Norse king, and another from the king of +Scotland of half Caithness, and probably a confirmation of his title +to the Moddan lands in Strathnaver and in Halkirk and Latheron, to +which he was heir in right of his father and grandmother Audhild of +the Moddan line. But this half of Caithness would be conferred on +Harald Ungi subject to the prior grant of Sudrland to Hugo Freskyn. +For Harold Maddadson must, in the opinion of so eminent an authority +as Lord Hailes, have been forfeited in 1196, if not earlier, for +both he and his son Thorfinn were then in open rebellion against the +Scottish Crown.[34] + +Further deprivations of lands, it is conjectured, must have attended +Harold Maddadson's later rebellions, and the events which must have +led to those deprivations may now be recounted, though it is very +difficult to reconcile Scottish and Norse records during the period. + +In 1179 King William the Lion had marched an army into Ross, and +subdued it to his sway; and, ere he left it, caused two castles of +Eddirdovir on the site of Redcastle in the Black Isle on the Beauly +Firth, and of Dunskaith[35] on the northern Suter of Cromarty, which +is full of Norse remains, to be built, to enable him to hold his +conquests. + +Two years later he made war on Donald Ban MacWilliam, who claimed the +Scottish Crown itself, as the third son of William FitzDuncan only +son of Duncan II, who was himself the eldest son of Malcolm Canmore by +Malcolm's first marriage, so productive of civil war in Scotland, with +Ingibjorg, widow of Earl Thorfinn. Civil war ensued, and lasted for +six or seven years, when, by good luck, Roland of Galloway fell in +with a force of the rebels at an unknown spot called Mamgarvie near +Inverness, and routed them, killing Donald Ban MacWilliam there on the +31st July 1187.[36] + +In 1196, Harold Maddadson, who through the ambition of Gormflaith +had, as we have seen, designs on Ross and Moray, sent an expedition +southwards to occupy those districts, of which probably Gormflaith's +father, Malcolm MacHeth, had been Earl at his death after 1160. But +William collected an army,[37] and, after defeating Harold's son +Thorfinn near Inverness, crossed the Oykel, entered Sutherland, +subdued it and Caithness, and pursued Harold up to his castle at +Thurso, and destroyed it in his sight. Harold then submitted, and +promised to surrender his son and heir, Thorfinn, as a hostage, with +others of his friends to be delivered to the king at Nairn. Harold +left all his hostages close by at Lochloy, and went alone to the king +at Nairn, and endeavoured to excuse himself by offering two grandsons +to the king and stating that Thorfinn was his heir[38] and could not +therefore be given up; but was taken prisoner himself and lodged in +Edinburgh Castle, till his son Thorfinn came to take his place. On +this occasion Harold Maddadson was deprived of Sudrland or Sutherland, +which had been given to Hugo Freskyn; and in the next year, or soon +after, half of the earldom of Caithness, which the _Flatey Book_ +states Jarl Ragnvald had held,[39] was conferred by King William the +Lion on Harald Ungi or The Young, as grandson of Jarl Ragnvald, and +son of Eric, who, however, had to make good the grant by conquest. +Harald Ungi had, as stated above, already obtained a grant from King +Sverri of half Orkney by a visit to the Norwegian Court. + +In order to enforce his rights under both these grants, Harald +Ungi collected a force, and, together with Sigurd Murt, and Lifolf +Baldpate, the first husband of his youngest sister Ragnhild, invaded +Orkney, while Harold the Old fled to the Isle of Man; but, on his +namesake following him thither, he doubled back to Orkney, and, +after killing all the adherents of his enemies there, crossed over to +Caithness with a strong force. In a pitched battle "near Wick," said +to have been fought at Clairdon near Thurso, he slew Harald Ungi, +and utterly defeated his army, in 1198.[40] Harold the Old then +endeavoured to make terms with the king, and offered him a large +sum for the redemption of Caithness. The king, however, attached as +conditions to any regrant, that the earl should put away Gormflaith, +the daughter of MacHeth, and take back his wife, Afreka of Fife, and +deliver up Laurentius, his priest, and Honaver, son of Ingemund, +as hostages.[41] The earl, on his part, refused the terms; and, +the earldom thus remaining forfeited, King William at once invited +Ragnvald Gudrodson, the great Viking king of the Sudreys and Man, and +then his friend and ally, to assemble a force and drive Harold out +of Caithness, promising to confer that earldom upon his general, if +successful in the campaign. + +Ragnvald Gudrodson, it may here be noted, had, if we pass over his own +illegitimacy, in the absence of direct male heirs of Earl Hakon since +Erlend Haraldson's death in 1156, probably the best title to receive +a grant of the jarldom of Orkney and Shetland and the earldom of +Caithness of all the surviving descendants of Earl Thorfinn Sigurd's +son. For Ragnvald Gudrodson was the grandson of Ingibjorg, Earl +Hakon's elder daughter, while Harold Maddadson was the son of +Ingibjorg's younger sister, Margret of Athole. Ragnvald Gudrodson's +title was, but for his own illegitimacy (in spite of which he held his +own kingdom) equal, if not superior to that of all survivors of the +Erlend Thorfinnson line, which was now represented in the male line +only by another Ragnvald the son of Eric Stagbrellir, who would claim, +in default of male heirs of Jarl St. Magnus, through the female line +of Erlend Thorfinnson, as being descended successively from Gunnhild, +Erlend's daughter, her son Ragnvald Jarl and Saint, and Ingigerd his +only child. And there is no proof that Ragnvald Ericson was alive at +this date, or that he ever returned from Norway to prefer his claim. + +Ragnvald Gudrodson forthwith collected a great army in Ireland and the +Sudreys and invaded Caithness,[42] and, meeting Harold Maddadson in +battle at Dalharrold,[43] where the River Naver issues from the loch, +drove him northwards down the strath to the coast, whence he escaped +to Orkney. The Saga says simply that Harold stayed in Orkney, and this +location of the battle near Achness rests solely on tradition, which, +however, in the Highlands, is often a solid enough foundation. + +King William next conferred the earldom on Ragnvald Gudrodson, for, +it is said, a considerable sum of money, reserving his own annual +tribute. + +On receiving the earldom, Ragnvald Gudrodson left in charge of +Caithness six[44] stewards, of whom Lagmann Rafn was the chief, +and went back to the Isle of Man. Harold had one of these stewards +murdered by an assassin, and returned with a large force to Thurso to +punish the Caithness folk; and, when Bishop John interceded for the +people of his diocese, Harold, whom he had irritated by refusing to +collect the Peter's Pence which the Earl had given to Rome, would not +listen to him, but mutilated him, probably in 1201, nearly blinding +him, and all but cutting out his tongue, though afterwards the bishop +regained his sight and speech in some measure, and may have lived to +administer his diocese till 1213. It is noteworthy that Pope Innocent +III, in his letter of 1202, does not directly blame Harold for the +illtreatment of the bishop, but Lumberd, a layman, whose penance the +letter prescribes. + +Harold then drove out the stewards, and they fled to the Scottish +king, who made the best amends he could to them,[45] and Rafn, the +Lawman, seems to have returned and to have lived and enforced the law +in Caithness until at least 1222.[46] + +To punish Earl Harold, King William at once had Harold's son Thorfinn +blinded and so mutilated in Roxburgh Castle that he died there. +William also collected a large army and marched in person to +Eysteinsdal or Ousedale near the Ord of Caithness, and Harold, though +he is said to have brought together seven thousand two hundred men, +avoided battle and evaded the king's pursuit.[47] Harold also began +negotiations with King John of England and received a safe conduct for +a journey to England to see him.[48] + +Later in the year Harold is said to have recovered his earldom through +the intercession of Bishop Roger of St. Andrews, for a payment of +two thousand pounds of silver, which Munch conjectures may have been +handed over to Ragnvald Gudrodson to replace the sum which he had paid +to the king for the earldom; and it is true that we hear no more of +Ragnvald in connection with Caithness, though he lived until 1229. At +the same time, we can hardly believe that Harold, as the _Flatey +Book_ says, received back "all Caithness as he had it before that +Earl Harald the Young took it from the Skot-king."[49] What happened +probably was, that Harold Maddadson, who had been stripped by King +Sverri of Shetland in 1195,[60] was allowed by King William in 1202 to +keep part of his Caithness earldom upon payment by its inhabitants of +a fine of every fourth penny they possessed. Otherwise his son David +could not have succeeded to any part of Caithness, as he undoubtedly +did, when, four years later, in 1206, his father's long and chequered +career of sixty-eight years in the earldom was closed by his death at +the age of seventy-three. + +Ugly of countenance, but of great bodily strength and stature, crafty, +self-seeking, treacherous and wholly unscrupulous, he is still known +in the North as "the wicked Earl Harold," yet the Saga classes him +with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdson as one of the three +greatest of the Jarls and Earls of Orkney and Caithness. + +On the mainland, no new earldom north of the Oykel was conferred on +anyone for a further period of thirty years. It was, in fact, neither +the policy nor, save in very exceptional cases, the practice of the +Scottish kings to grant earldoms to men with powerful followings +and vast territories;[51] for these made them, especially in remote +situations, almost independent rulers, and dangerous enemies, and it +was undesirable to increase their importance by additional dignities. +It was, on the contrary, usual by charter to create barons and other +military tenants, who should hold their lands, described in their +charters, by military service, in male succession direct from the +Scottish Crown, and liable to forfeiture for disloyal conduct. Nowhere +were military tenants so essential as they then were in the extreme +north of Scotland on lands immediately adjoining the territories of +Norse jarls owing double allegiance, and therefore of doubtful loyalty +to the Scottish Crown. For this reason also no part of the lands of +the Erlend line would be granted to the line of Paul, as an addition +to their own. + +From what has been above stated, it will appear that we have treated +the well known history, intituled _The Genealogie and Pedigree of the +Earles of Southerland_ and written down to 1630 by Sir Robert Gordon, +Baronet of Gordonstoun, and continued by Gilbert Gordon of Sallach[52] +until 1651, as mere fiction as regards all persons before William, +first Earl. "Alane Southerland, Thane of Southerland," Walter "first +Earle," Robert, second earl, who is alleged to have founded "Dounrobin +Castell" were purely fictitious persons. "Hugh Southerland, Earle of +Southerland nicknamed Freskin" existed, but never was an earl, as Sir +Robert well knew, because he quotes charters right up to his death, +in which he was styled simply Hugo Freskyn. The _Sutherland Book_ also +wholly omits William MacFrisgyn, second Lord of Duffus and Strabroc, +the son and heir of Freskyn I and the father of Hugo. A revised +pedigree of the early generations of Freskyn's family will be found +in an Appendix to this book, and it is believed to be correct. At the +same time it is in conflict as to the first three generations with +so high an authority as the late Cosmo Innes, and Sir William Fraser +followed him. However this may be, it is abundantly clear, from +contemporary and undoubtedly authentic records still happily extant, +that in the twelfth century Freskyn de Moravia and his immediate +successors were the guardians appointed by one Scottish king after +another to protect the fertile coast lands of Moray and Nairn alike +against the race of MacHeth from the hills and the Norse invader from +the sea; and that on the extensive territories which they possessed, +they built stately castles and endowed cathedrals and churches +with lands and tithes, providing from their family not only high +ecclesiastical dignitaries to serve them, but distinguished soldiers +and administrators to give them peace; services which their successors +in the thirteenth century were, in their turn, destined to repeat and +continue in Sutherland, Strathnavern and Caithness, when the old Norse +earldom there had been broken up and effectively incorporated in the +kingdom of Scotland. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +_Earls David and John._ + + +On the death of Earl Harold Maddadson in 1206, he was followed in +the earldom of Orkney, without Shetland, by his elder surviving +son, David, who also, it would seem, was allowed to succeed to the +Caithness earldom and some of its territory. But out of the Caithness +earldom there had been taken the lands forming the Lordship of +Sudrland or Sutherland held by Hugo Freskyn from about 1196, and this +comprised, as already stated, the parishes of Creich, (then including +Assynt), Dornoch, Rogart, Kilmalie (now Golspie), Clyne, Loth, and +by far the greater part of the parishes of Kildonan and Lairg. Out of +these lands Hugo granted, as already stated, to his relative Gilbert +de Moravia, Archdeacon of Moray from 1204 till 1222, and to his heirs +and assigns whomsoever, all Creich and much of Dornoch parish up to +the boundaries of Ross, and the date of this grant was probably +about 1211. The Mackays were beginning to occupy the western parts of +Strathnavern, their title being probably their swords, and they held +their lands "manu forti," their country being a refuge for their +Morayshire kinsmen, the MacHeths, who were in constant rebellion. The +eastern portion of Strathnavern, and particularly the neighbourhood +of Loch Coire and Loch Naver, and all the Strathnaver valley were +probably insecurely held by members of the Erlend and Moddan family +after Harald Ungi's death at the battle of Clairdon in 1198; and +Gunni, probably a grandson of Sweyn Asleifarson, who had married +Ragnhild, Harald Ungi's youngest sister, after the death in the same +battle of Lifolf Baldpate, her first husband, became chief of the +Moddan Clan there and in Caithness. After 1200 Ragnhild had by Gunni +a son called Snaekoll Gunni's son, who thus became, on his father's +death, the chief representative in Scotland, both of the Moddan family +and of the line of Jarls Erlend Thorfinnson, St. Magnus, and St. +Ragnvald, and of Eric Stagbrellir and of Earl and Jarl Harald Ungi; +and Snaekoll afterwards laid claim to their possessions in Orkney, +as the sole male representative of this line. Gunni and Ragnhild +must have held the Strathnaver lands, and the Moddan family lands +in Caithness, formerly Earl Ottar's estates, till their deaths, and +Snaekoll was their sole known male heir. The Harald Ungi share of the +Caithness earldom lands, which _The Flatey Book_ and _Torfaeus_ state +that Jarl Ragnvald had held, does not appear to have been granted to +David, or to any successor to the Caithness earldom of his line, or to +any other person at this time. Indeed, the line of Paul were the last +persons to whom such a grant would be made. + +It was, therefore, to a very much reduced territory and earldom that +David succeeded in 1206, as Earl of Caithness. We hear almost nothing +of him, save that for the latter part of the eight years of his +rule,[1] more or less inefficient probably through ill health, he +shared the earldom and what had been left to him of its lands with +his younger brother John. David died without issue in 1214[2] probably +soon after Hugo Freskyn, and David was succeeded by his brother John +in the jarldom of Orkney and in the reduced earldom of Caithness as +sole jarl and earl. + +Immediately after David's death, King William the Lion, who had, in +1211, suppressed a rebellion in Moray of the Thanes of Ross under +Guthred son of Donald Ban MacWilliam whom a few years later he +captured and beheaded,[3] came to Moray again; and, about the 1st +of August 1214, King William demanded, and received[4] Earl John's +daughter, whose name is not known, as a hostage for her father's +loyalty, and a guarantee of the peace then made, under which John was +probably recognised as earl and as entitled to his reduced territory. +His daughter may, at this time, have been her father's sole heiress, +although she did not remain so, because we find that he had a son who +lived till 1226, called Harald. Meantime Bishop Adam, after the death +in 1213 of Bishop John, his half-blinded and mutilated predecessor, +succeeded to the Episcopal See of Caithness,[5] and seems to have +reversed Bishop John's policy of leniency to his flock by exacting +from them heavier and heavier tithes, as years went by. + +In 1217, King Hakon's rival, Jarl Skuli, thought Earl John so +promising a traitor as to send him letters forged with the Norse +king's seal.[6] In 1218 John was present at Bergen to witness the +ordeal successfully undergone by King Hakon's mother in order to prove +that king, then a boy, to be her son by the late King Hakon Sverri's +son, and so rightly entitled to the Norwegian crown.[7] + +After Earl John's return from Norway, the bishop's exactions of tithes +of butter reached such a pitch that the Caithness folk met near his +house at Halkirk, and demanded that the earl should protect them +against the bishop's rapacity, and, either at the earl's suggestion +or without any opposition on his part, they attacked the bishop in his +house, which was close to _Breithivellir_ (now Brawl) Castle, +where John lived. The Saga gives the following description of this +affair:--[8] + +"They then held a Thing on the fell above the homestead where the earl +was. Rafn the Lawman was then with the bishop, and prayed the bishop +to spare the men; also he said he was afraid how things might go. Then +a message was sent to Earl John with a prayer that he would reconcile +the bishop and the freemen; but the earl would come never near the +spot. Then the freemen ran down from the fell and fared hotly and +eagerly. And when Rafn the Lawman saw that, he bade the bishop devise +some plan to save himself. He and the bishop were drinking in a loft, +and when the freemen came to the loft, the monk went out at the door; +and was straightway smitten across the face, and fell down dead inside +the loft. And when the bishop was told that, he answered, 'That had +not happened sooner than was likely, for he was always making our +matters worse.' Then the bishop bade Rafn tell the freemen that he +wished to be reconciled with them. But when this was told to the +freemen, all those among them who were wiser were glad to hear it. +Then the bishop went out and meant to be reconciled. But when the +worse kind of men saw that, those who were most mad, they seized +Bishop Adam, and brought him into a little house and set fire to +it. But the house burned so quickly that they who wished to save +the bishop could do nothing. Thus Bishop Adam died, and his body was +little burnt when it was found. Then a fitting grave was bestowed +on it,[9] and a worthy burial. But those who had been the greatest +friends of the bishop, then sent men to find the King of Scots. +Alexander was then King of Scots, the son of King William the Saint. +But when the king was ware of these tidings" (he took it) "so ill that +men have those miseries in mind which he wrought after the burning of +the bishop, in maiming of men and manslaying, and loss of goods and +banishment out of the land." + +From the above account of the matter, it appears that Earl John, who +was responsible for law and order in Caithness at the time, although +invited by Rafn the Lawman to intervene, and although he was on the +spot, did nothing, saying "he could give no advice" and "that he +thought it concerned him very little," and adding that "two bad things +were before them, that it was unbearable" and that "he could suggest +no other choice,"[10] that is, but to pay the bishop's tithes, however +exorbitant, or not pay them, or possibly to make an end of him. It is +clear also that the monk who was with the bishop was to blame for his +exactions. But there is some excuse in the fact that Bishop John had +been censured by Rome for his neglect in collecting the dues of Rome +or Peter's Pence as greatly as Bishop Adam was blamed by the people of +Caithness for his greediness. There is no need to brand Bishop Adam as +a voluptuary for excessive drinking and immorality.[11] + +These events took place in 1222, and King Alexander, urged by the +remainder of the bishops in Scotland, at once marched into Caithness +with an army, and took vengeance on the bishop's murderers by +mutilating a large number of those concerned and seizing their +lands,[12] while in 1223 the Pope excommunicated them and also +interdicted them from their lands. + +The Annals of Dunstable, however, paint Earl John in much blacker +colours, and state that he himself caused the bishop, who was escaping +from the fire, to be cast into it again, and the bodies of two others +previously slain, his nephew and the monk, to be thrown upon him, and +that King Alexander forfeited half John's earldom.[13] + +The Saga says that the king forfeited Earl John's lands for the murder +of the bishop. Wyntoun, however, states that afterwards, at Christmas +festivities at Forfar, + + "Thare borwyd that erle than his land + That lay unto the Kyngis hand + Fra that the byschape of Cateness, + As yhe before herd, peryst wes."[14] + +By this "borrowing," however, Earl John recovered only the reduced +earldom above described, that is without the Lordship of Sutherland, +to which William de Moravia, Hugo's son, had succeeded between 1211 +and 1214, and without that south-western portion of it, which, as +stated, had been given to Gilbert de Moravia by Hugo in 1211, and +without the Moddan family's lands near Loch Coire and in Strathnaver +and Caithness, and without Harald Ungi's moiety or half share of the +Caithness earldom; and, as already stated, the lands appertaining +to this share were probably occupied by his family as represented by +Gunni and Ragnhild, Eric Stagbrellir's youngest daughter, and by the +members of the Moddan clan, and the retainers of the Erlend line. + +In 1223, Earl John was again at Bergen, with Bishop Bjarni of Orkney +and others, to consider the rival claims of King Hakon and Jarl Skuli +to the Norse crown,[15] and in 1224 he went thither again to leave +his only son, Harald, as a hostage for his own loyalty.[16] In 1226, +Harald was drowned at sea, probably on his return voyage, thus leaving +John without any male heir, and save for his nameless hostage daughter +or her children, if any, without any direct lineal heirs for the +jarldom and earldom of Orkney and of Caithness respectively. + +In 1228 John sent presents to the Norse king, and received in return a +good long-ship and many other gifts; and in 1230 John is found aiding +Olaf, King of Man, a friend of the Norse king, by giving him a like +vessel, "The Ox," to enable him to complete his voyage back from +Norway to his own kingdom, and in the same year John rendered +assistance to the Norse expedition, which had attacked the South +Hebrides, by harbouring its ships in Orkney on their voyage back to +Norway.[17] + +From the above facts it is clear that Earl John, though he owed +allegiance to both kings, was more inclined to favour Norway than +Scotland, and that he was more constantly in attendance at the Norse, +than at the Scottish Court. At the same time it became more and more +likely that he would have to choose between his two masters, as war +for the Sudreyar or Hebrides was already certain to break out between +the two countries, and, save for civil war in Norway, would have +broken out at once. + +Snaekoll[18] Gunni's son, as the sole male representative of the +Erlend Thorfinnson, St. Magnus, St. Ragnvald, Eric Stagbrellir and +Harald Ungi line remaining in Scotland, who had probably about this +time succeeded, or at least was recognised as next heir to the Moddan +family estates in Strathnaver and Caithness, approached Earl John in +1231, and demanded from him Jarl Ragnvald's lands in Orkney. But the +earl, who held Orkney in its entirety as the representative of the +line of Paul and of Harold Maddadson, who had seized it when Jarl +St. Ragnvald died in 1158, refused to give Snaekoll any part of those +lands; and Snaekoll, failing to obtain any redress, sought the aid of +Hanef, formerly a page, but now Commissioner in Orkney, of the Norse +King, and demanded his help in recovering his lands there. Snaekoll +and Hanef with a large following accordingly crossed the Pentland +Firth to Thurso to enforce the claim, but the earl again angrily +refused to restore the lands in Orkney, and it would seem that he was +also unwilling to let Snaekoll have his rights in Caithness.[19] + +Each party occupied separate lodgings in Thurso with their separate +followings, and Hanef and his friends, warned by a messenger of the +earl's reported design of killing them, forestalled it by attacking +the earl first, and they slew him with nine wounds in the cellar of +his lodgings. After the affray they crossed over to Orkney, where they +fortified the small but massive castle[20] or tower of Kolbein Hruga +or Cobbie Row, in the Island of Vigr or Wyre, now called Veira, near +Rousay in Orkney, and provisioned it for a siege, which lasted the +whole winter, and was raised only after both sides had come to an +agreement that all questions arising out of the earl's death at +Thurso, should be referred, not to the Scottish courts, but to the +Norse king, Hakon, in Bergen. + +Both parties, with their witnesses, accordingly crossed the North +Sea in 1232, and Hakon heard the case, and punished the partisans +of Snaekoll, some with death and others with imprisonment. Snaekoll +himself, who, as the heir of Jarl Ragnvald, was too valuable a pawn to +be sacrificed, was retained, and lived long in Norway with Earl Skuli, +and afterwards with King Hakon.[21] It is noteworthy that a _gaedinga_ +ship (no Jewish Ship,[22] as Torfaeus states, but a ship of the +_gaedingar_ or _lendirmen_ of the Earl of Orkney) was, on the return +voyage, lost at sea; and, bearing in mind the large number of Orkney +notables who had been slain at the battle of Floruvagr in Norway in +1194, men of means and standing must have been scarce in Orkney for +long after this time. + +There is a tradition mentioned by Alexander Pope of Reay,[23] the +translator of the _Orcades_ of Torfaeus, that Snaekoll, being deprived +of his rights in Orkney by King Hakon, returned late in life to +Caithness, where the Norse King could not deprive him of anything, and +lived in that county at Ulbster. If so, why did he return? + +The answer brings us to a mysterious lady, who is known to us through +a charter[24] of May 1269 preserved in the _Registrum Episcopatus +Moraviensis_ or Chartulary of the Bishopric of Moray, and who is +called therein _nobilis mulier domina Johanna_, the then deceased wife +of Freskin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, who had died before her. From +her name of Johanna this lady is stated to have been a daughter of +Earl John, amongst others by so eminent an authority as the late Mr. +William F. Skene in a paper "on the Earldom of Caithness," first read +to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on the 11th March 1878, +which is reprinted as Appendix V to the Third Volume of his _Celtic +Scotland_ at pages 448 to 453, and the lady is generally known as Lady +Johanna de Strathnavir; and on her descent much subsequent history +depends. + +Skene's conclusion is that the half of Caithness which afterwards +belonged to the Angus earls was that half usually possessed by the +line of Erlend Thorfinnson, and that Joanna (or Johanna) was Earl +John's daughter, and, as such, inherited the Paul share of the earldom +and brought it to Freskin de Moravia, when he married her, without the +title. + +We doubt the accuracy of this conclusion, for reasons which, however, +rest not on direct evidence, but, like those given in Mr. Skene's +paper, on mere probabilities; and we hold that the converse is true, +and that Johanna was no daughter of John, and that it was the Erlend +half of the Caithness earldom lands that went to her and her husband +Freskin de Moravia of Duffus, while the moiety of Paul, in our +opinion, remained with a nameless daughter of John, and went along +with the title of Earl of Caithness, to her husband Magnus, and so to +the Angus earls of Caithness, though the lands which went with it were +then much curtailed in extent. + +But it must be remembered that, in the absence of records, any +solution of this difficult problem at present rests on mere +speculation and guesswork, and the opinions expressed here must +be accepted as mere conjectures unsupported by direct contemporary +evidence, and based only upon reasonable probability. + +We propose to attempt to deal with this difficult subject in the next +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_The Succession to the Caithness Earldom._ + + +After the death of Earl John in 1231, we come to a most perplexing +time, and it is almost impossible to discover a way out of the maze +of genealogical difficulties in which we find ourselves involved. Not +only is there no chronicle of the period, but there are hardly any +records at all to help us. The pedigree of the descendants of Earl +Harold Maddadson, and particularly of his daughters, who are named in +the _Orkneyinga Saga_, ceases;[1] and that of Earl John's family and +of Harald Ungi and his sisters downwards stops also, save in the case +of Ragnhild, the youngest of them, whose son Snaekoll Gunni's son +is mentioned as claimant in 1231 from Earl John of certain lands in +Orkney and in Caithness as well. + +Attempts to clear up the mystery have been made,[2] but none of them +have resulted in any certain or trustworthy conclusions. Nor can +anyone now expect to fare much better; for not only are authentic +pedigrees of the Caithness earls and the materials for framing them +undiscovered or non-existent, but yet another pedigree, namely that of +the Angus line, which provided, from its male members, successors to +the title and to a moiety of the Caithness earldom, is very obscure. + +This chapter, therefore, is largely conjectural, and must be accepted +as such. It deserves, and will doubtless receive, severe criticism. + +So far as the Angus pedigree can be ascertained, it appears that Earl +Gillebride died about 1187, leaving two sons, Adam and Gilchrist, who +succeeded in turn to that earldom, and Gillebride also left a third +son, Gilbert,[3] a fourth, William, and a fifth, Angus, who had a son +Gillebert or Gillebryd. Gilchrist died about 1204, leaving an eldest +son, Duncan, Earl of Angus, and another son called Magnus, by his two +wives respectively, his second wife, from the name of Magnus given to +her eldest son and to many subsequent earls of that son's line, being +assumed with considerable probability to have been, not a sister of +Earl John, but a sister of Harald Ungi, either Ingibiorg or Elin. +Duncan died about 1214, and left a son, Malcolm, Earl of Angus, whose +sole heiress was a daughter, Matilda, who, about 1240, married, first, +John Comyn, who was killed in France shortly after the marriage, +without leaving issue to inherit. As her second husband, Matilda, +Countess of Angus married Gilbert d'Umphraville, Lord of Prudhoe and +Redesdale in Northumberland in 1243; and their son, also named Gilbert +d'Umphraville, was born about 1244, and succeeded his father as Earl +of Angus in 1267, and though both these Gilberts became successively +Earls of Angus,[4] neither of them ever became Earl of Orkney. +Robertson's contention in his _Early Kings of Scotland_, (vol. II, p. +23 note) that they were grafted on the wrong pedigree seems justified +by the discrepancy in dates; for the Icelandic Annals give only one +Gibbon who died in 1256, and we know that Magnus III was earl in 1263 +and till 1273. Indeed little confidence can be reposed in the Diploma +of the Orkney Earls, the only authority for the existence of two +Orkney Earls called Gilbert, and in the period covered by the +_Orkneyinga Saga_, we can prove many errors in the Diploma. + +Of Magnus son of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, we know something. He was +alive in 1227, when he attested the record of the perambulation of the +boundaries of the lands of the Abbey of Aberbrothock,[5] and in the +List of the Oliphant family charters dated 1594 in the Register House +in Edinburgh there is an entry of "Ane charter under the Great Seill +made be Alexr to Magnus sone to Gylcryst sometime Earle of Angus of +the Erledome of South Caithness" which included Berridale and lands +which Magnus' granddaughter's great-grandson Malise II conveyed to +Reginald Chen III, known as "Morar na Shein," after 1340. + +It has been suggested that after Earl John's death in 1231, the +successor to the earldom of Caithness was a minor, which Earl +Gilchrist's son, Magnus, could not have been in 1231, and that this +minor and ward was a son of Magnus, and bore the same name as his +father. + +The wardship seems at first sight to be proved in Robertson's _Early +Kings_,[6] and the proof is to the following effect:--Malcolm of Angus +attested a charter in Earl John's lifetime on 22nd April 1231, using +his own title of "Angus" only. After John's death, Malcolm attested +another charter on 7th October 1232 as "M. Comite de Anegus et +Katania,"[7] using, in addition to his own title of Angus, as was +customary, the title of a ward, who was heir to another earldom, in +this case that of Caithness. But on 3rd July 1236, Malcolm Earl of +Angus, who lived till 1237 if not longer, attested a third charter +using his own title of "Angus" only, without the addition "and of +Caithness." These facts can be explained by his ward's having attained +his majority and entered upon his earldom of Caithness between 7th +October 1232 and 3rd July 1236. They cannot be explained by saying +that "M" was not Malcolm, but Magnus, and that "M" stands for +Gilchrist's son Magnus, who had become Earl of Caithness. For there +was no "M. Comes de Angus" at the time save Malcolm, and Malcolm was +therefore for about four years Earl of Caithness as well as of Angus. + +Robertson's explanation is that Malcolm was Earl of Caithness only as +guardian of a ward entitled to that earldom. The question then +arises, as Robertson puts it, "who was the heir?" and he answers it, +"certainly not his[8] uncle Magnus, son of Gillebride,[9] but very +probably the son of Magnus by Earl John's daughter; the supposed grant +of the Earldom to this Magnus being probably grounded upon his real +marriage with the heiress," and he adds "If, on the death of Earl John +in 1231, his grandson was an orphan and a minor, his wardship would +naturally have been granted to the next of kin, his cousin the Earl of +Angus." + +One further charter has to be dealt with. In _Reg. Hon. de Morton_, +vol. I, p. xxxv, cited in _Origines Parochiales_ vol. II, p. 805, a +grant by King Alexander II, to Patrick Earl of Dunbar dated 7th July +1235 is attested by a witness, whose name or initial is illegible, but +who is styled ... _Earl_ ... _Katanay_, ... _Comite_ ... _Katanay_, +and a confident opinion is expressed in a note to the citation that +the witness was Magnus, Earl of Caithness. Now, Earl John's daughter +was taken as a hostage on August 1, 1214, and, if she was then +marriageable and was married at once, her eldest child could have been +born about May 1215, and would attain twenty-one about May 1236, but +to suppose her son of the name of Magnus to have been the ward for +whom the Earldom of Caithness was being kept till 7th July 1235 from +1232 and that he had become Earl of Caithness on the 7th July 1235 +seems impossible. If the blank should be filled up with "de Anegus +et," then Malcolm Earl of Angus must still have been the guardian, and +the ward's father and mother must both have been dead by 7th October +1232. This involves three unproved assumptions, of two unrecorded +deaths and one unrecorded birth. + +On the whole, therefore, we believe that there is another and simpler +explanation, and it seems probable that there was in this case no +wardship, or if there was, that there was a great deal more, and that +Malcolm held the earldom of Caithness as _Custos_ or administrator or +trustee for the Crown for four years after Earl John's death till the +succession was settled, and till all Caithness except Sutherland was +parcelled out among three claimants, namely the two heirs, each of one +of two sisters of Harald Ungi, and the hostage daughter of Earl John. + +When all this was settled, Magnus, as the son of one of the two +elder sisters of Harald Ungi, and also as the husband of Earl John's +daughter, would be entitled on Earl John's death, _jure maritae_, +in Orkney, to a grant from the Norse king of the Orkney jarldom, +and also, in Caithness, _first, jure maritae_, to a grant from the +Scottish king in or after 3rd July 1236, of the North Caithness +earldom and lands held by Earl John, which Dalrymple in his +Collections (p. lxxiii) states positively, without quoting his +authority, that Magnus had for a payment of L10 per annum, and, +_secondly, jure matris_ (Ingibiorg or Elin) to a grant, also from the +Scottish king, of the earldom of South Caithness, which by the Charter +of Alexander "under the greit Seill," above alluded to, Magnus also +got. + +The other moiety of the Caithness earldom lands would be fairly given +to Johanna as heiress of Ragnhild, Harald Ungi's youngest sister, and +we know that Johanna got that other moiety, because we find that her +descendants inherited it, and conveyed it or parts of it by writs +still extant, by the description of "half Caithness." + +There are, however, other views. Skene's opinion on the subject of the +succession, in his very able paper (given in Appendix V, vol. iii, pp. +449-50 of his _Celtic Scotland_), is as follows:-- + +"Earl Harald died in 1206, and was succeeded by his son David, +who died in 1214, when his brother John became Earl of Orkney and +Caithness. Fordun tells us that King William made a treaty of peace +with him in that year, and took his daughter as a hostage, but the +burning of Bishop Adam in 1222 brought King Alexander II down upon +Earl John, who was obliged to give up part of his lands into the hands +of the king, which, however, he redeemed the following year by paying +a large sum of money, and by his death in 1231 the line of Paul again +came to an end. + +"In 1232, we find Magnus, son of Gillebride, Earl of Angus, called +Earl of Caithness, and the earldom remained in this family till +between 1320 and 1329, when Magnus Earl of Orkney and Caithness, died; +but during this time it is clear that these earls only possessed one +half of Caithness and the other half appears in the possession of the +De Moravia family, for Freskin, Lord of Duffus, who married Johanna, +who possessed Strathnaver in her own right, and died before 1269, had +two daughters, Mary, married to Sir Reginald Cheyne, and Christian, +married to William de Fedrett; and each of these daughters had one +fourth part of Caithness, for William de Fedrett resigns[11] his +fourth to Sir Reginald Cheyne,[12] who then appears in possession +of one-half of Caithness (Chart. of Moray; Robertson's Index). These +daughters probably inherited the half of Caithness through their +mother Johanna. Gillebride[13] having called one of his sons by the +Norwegian name of Magnus, indicates that he had a Norwegian mother. +This is clear from his also becoming Earl of Orkney, which the king of +Scots could not have given him. Gillebride died in[14] 1200, so that +Magnus must have been born before that date, and about the time of +Earl Harald Ungi, who had half of Caithness, and died in 1198. Magnus +is a name peculiar to this line, as the great Earl Magnus belonged to +it, and Harald Ungi had a brother Magnus. The probability is that the +half of Caithness which belonged to the Angus family was that half +usually possessed by the earls of the line of Erlend,[15] and was +given by King Alexander with the title of Earl to Magnus, as the son +of one of Earl Harald Ungi's sisters, while Johanna, through whom the +Moray family inherited the other half, was, as indicated by her name, +the daughter of John, Earl of Caithness of the line of Paul, who had +been kept by the king as a hostage, and given in marriage to Freskin +de Moravia." + +Sir William Fraser[16] in a note to the _Sutherland Book_--a mere +_obiter dictum_, however--doubts Skene's suggestions "that Johanna, +Lady of Strathnaver, who married Freskin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, +about 1240, was the daughter of John Haraldson," that is Earl John, +and that "Magnus of Angus was the son of a sister of a former Earl +of Caithness," and states that "Skene's arguments are plausible, but +there is no very good evidence in support of them." Skene's argument +rests mainly on the names "Johanna" and "Magnus," by itself an +insecure foundation, and one which it is hoped to explain or remove, +adopting the argument from "Magnus," a name which constantly recurs, +and rejecting the argument from "Johanna," a name which never again +appears, in this family. + +A century or more after the death in 1231 of Earl John, we find +Reginald Chen III, known as Morar na Shein or "Lord" Schen, in +possession of a moiety of the Caithness earldom, without the title, +and living in Latheron and Halkirk parishes, while the other moiety +was held by the Caithness Earls of the line of Angus, and in 1340 we +find Reginald More, Chamberlain of Scotland, ancestor of the Crichton +or Sinclair Earls of Caithness, acquiring from Malise II, one of the +Stratherne Earls of Caithness and a descendant of the line of Paul +and also of the line of Erlend, part of south Caithness (including +Berridale), which therefore Reginald Chen III did not then own or +acquire, though he owned half Caithness. But Reginald Chen III did +acquire Berridale and other lands later in David II's reign according +to _Origines Parochiales_, II, p. 764. + +Now it is known from other sources that Reginald Chen III was a +grandson of Johanna of Strathnaver, the mysterious lady of unrecorded +parentage already referred to, who owned land in "Strathnauir," and +who was dead in 1269, and who had married, at a date which we hope to +fix, Freskin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, then also dead, and had +had by him two daughters, Mary and Christian, who were married +respectively to Reginald Chen II and William de Federeth I (whose sons +respectively were Reginald Chen III and William de Federeth II) +and these ladies succeeded each to one fourth of Caithness; and a +grant,[17] which was made in David II's time by William de Federeth II +in favour of Reginald Chen III, placed him in possession of William de +Federeth II's quarter of Caithness. Reginald Chen III thus had all the +half share of Caithness which was held by his grandmother, Johanna of +Strathnaver. We also know that by another grant in 1286[18] William +de Federeth I had already conveyed to Reginald Chen II four davachs of +land in Strathnaver and all his other lands there; and, besides these +grants, we have authentic record in May 1269, which recites that Lady +Johanna had before that date granted a considerable part of her lands +in Strathnaver to the Bishop of Moray for the maintenance of two +chaplains to minister in the Cathedral of Elgin. + +By the above record, which is a regrant of the Strathnaver lands by +Archebald Bishop of Moray in May 1269 to Reginald Chen II, not only is +his marriage before that date to Mary daughter of Johanna by Freskin +de Moravia proved, but the lands in Strathnaver are identifiable. They +were "Langeval and Rossewal, tofftys de Dovyr, Achenedess, Clibr', +Ardovyr and Cornefern," which now are known in part as Langdale, +Rossal, Achness, Clibreck and Coire-na-fearn, while "tofftys" are +"tofts," and "Dovyr" and "Ardovyr" are respectively old Gaelic for +"water" and for "upper water." "Dovyr" would denote the River Naver +and loch of that name, and "Ardovyr" would mean Loch Coire and the +Mallard River, that is the "Abhain 'a Mhail Aird" of the Ordnance Map +(whatever that may mean),[19] which rises in Loch Coire, and, after a +course of six miles from its upper valley, falls about 330 feet below +its source into the River Naver at Dalharrold. These lands of the Lady +Johanna lay partly to the south of Loch Naver, extended southwards +nearly to Ben Armine, and stretched westwards to Loch Vellich or +Bealach and the Crask and Mudale, eastwards to Loch Truderscaig, and +northwards down the valley of the Naver at least as far as Syre. +Part of them, close to Achness,[30] is to this day known locally as +Kerrow-na-Shein, or Chen's Quarter, either after Johanna's son-in-law, +Sir Reginald Chen II, or after her grandson of the same name, the +great "Morar na Shein," about whom so many legends still survive in +Cat. These lands in Strathnaver are roughly hatched on the map of Cat +in this volume, and, as she gave them away in charitable trust, +they probably formed only a small part of her whole estate after her +marriage with Freskin de Moravia, which probably comprised the old +Parish of Farr, now divided into Tongue, Farr, and Reay. + +It is suggested that the ownership of these lands in Strathnaver and +of the other upland territories in Halkirk and Latheron parishes, held +by her descendants and sequels in all her estate, the Chens, connects +the Lady Johanna with the family of Moddan "in dale" in Caithness +and with Earl Ottar, and with Frakark and Audhild her niece, and that +Johanna was entitled to these lands in their entirety in her own right +as the sole descendant remaining in Scotland after 1232 of Harald +Ungi's younger surviving sister Ragnhild, possibly through her son +Snaekoll by Gunni, and that Snaekoll was next heir to these lands +before he went abroad, and either that he was Johanna's father, or +that she became Ragnhild's heir in his place. In this way Johanna +would have a good right, especially if Magnus, son of Gilchrist, had +been compensated for his mother's share by receiving a grant of South +Caithness and its earldom, to receive a grant of the rest of the +Harald Ungi half share of the Caithness earldom, lands previously held +by Jarls and Earls St. Magnus and Erlend Thorfinn's son or some lands +of equal value, and the reason why she had such very large estates as +those which she brought to her husband and the Chen family as their +successors would be made clear. For she would have completed her title +to a large share of the Erlend lands, and also to the Moddan lands +which Gunni and Ragnhild had entered upon and held after the elder +sister of Ragnhild had left Caithness on her marriage with Gilchrist +Earl of Angus. + +In support of Johanna's title it is to be observed that neither +Magnus II, nor his wife, is recorded to have claimed any part of +the Strathnaver lands, a fact which indicates that Johanna and her +predecessors had acquired an independent title to them, and that, too, +a title not derived through Earl John. Again, (though in a time when +records fail us, the argument proves little) Johanna, although from +her probable date she might have been so, is not recorded to have +been a daughter of John. Further, to be of suitable age[21] to marry +Freskin she must have been born long after any known child of Earl +John, even his son Harald who had died in 1226. Lastly, neither +Johanna nor her husband Freskin nor any descendant of hers ever +claimed either the whole of or any share in the Orkney jarldom,[22] +which Earls Harald Maddadson, David and John had held in its entirety, +and to which Johanna, had she been Earl John's only daughter, or her +husband Freskin would have been entitled to claim to succeed as sole +heir; while if John had had two daughters, and Johanna had been one of +them, she or her husband Freskin would have been entitled to claim a +grant of some share at least of the lands appertaining to the Orkney +jarldom. + +It was, however, Earl Magnus who made such claims, and with success, +and he may well have obtained the Orkney jarldom and lands, and part +of the Caithness earldom as well, with the title, not only as being +the son of the elder of Harald Ungi's sisters, but as the husband of +Earl John's nameless daughter, while his name of Magnus, afterwards +so often repeated in the Angus line, came into that line obviously +through his mother at his baptism, and not through his wife at his +marriage. + +The name of Johanna, on which Skene mainly founds his assertion that +Johanna of Strathnaver was Earl John's daughter, is just as easily +explicable, and with equal verisimilitude, if she was not. Snaekoll +went to Norway in 1232, leaving behind him, on our hypothesis, one +child, an infant daughter of tender years, or possibly as yet unborn. +The child of a younger child of Ragnhild would probably be still +younger. Heiress to very large landed estates and justly entitled to +claim a moiety of the Erlend Thorfinnson half of Caithness and all the +Moddan territories, this child would be made by the king of Scotland +a ward, to be married, if female, in due course to a suitable husband. +The Queen of Scotland, who in 1232 had been childless for eleven years +and never had any children afterwards, was an English princess who was +married to Alexander II on 19th June 1221, and lived till 4th March +1237-8, a period which would cover all Johanna's early years. The +queen's name was Joanna, and Johanna of Strathnaver may have been +called after her, as Earl John had possibly been called after her +father King John of England, the friend of Earl John's father, Harold +Maddadson. + +We now have to fix the date of Freskin de Moravia, nephew of William, +_dominus Sutherlandiae_ since about 1214. Freskin, as stated, was +undoubtedly the husband of Johanna of Strathnaver, and became on +his marriage owner of her lands there as well as of a moiety of the +Caithness earldom lands. + +Freskin was, as also stated, the eldest son of Walter de Moravia of +Duffus, second son of Hugo Freskyn of Strabrock, Duffus and Sutherland +by Walter's marriage with Euphamia, probably, from her name, a +daughter of Ferchar Mac-in-tagart, who became Earl of Ross.[23] As +Ferchar granted[24] certain lands at Clon in Ross about the year 1224 +to Freskin's father Walter de Moravia of Duffus without pecuniary +or other valuable consideration, it has been concluded, probably +correctly, that this grant was made on the occasion of the marriage +of Walter to Ferchar's daughter Euphamia; and Freskin, their heir, was +born in or after 1225, and had become _dominus_ de Duffus by 1248 on +his father's death. Johanna, on our hypothesis, would have to be born +by 1232 at latest, that is, before or soon after her supposed father +Snaekoll went to Norway, and from her supposed father's date she could +hardly have been born before 1225. Snaekoll's date can be ascertained +with comparative accuracy. For his mother lost her first husband, +Lifolf Baldpate, only in 1198, at the battle of Clairdon, and she can +hardly have married Snaekoll's father, Gunni, much before 1200. From +these dates Snaekoll could have been born by 1201, and married in +Scotland between 1224 and 1231, and Freskin and Johanna would thus +be of very suitable ages to marry each other, and their marriage +therefore would take place after 1245, or possibly as late as 1250. If +Johanna was the daughter of a younger child of Ragnhild, she might be +born later than 1225. + +This would involve a long minority for Johanna, and by reason of her +marriage with Freskin de Moravia in 1245 or later, we suspect that +Freskin's uncle, William _dominus Sutherlandiae_, whose territories +were bounded on the north and east by her lands, was her guardian, +an office whose duties the head of the powerful and loyal House +of Sutherland alone could efficiently perform in the troublous and +turbulent times of her minority. + +From Bain's _Calendar of Documents_ relating to Scotland[25] we know +that Freskin was one of the signatories of the National Bond of mutual +alliance and friendship with Sir Llewelin son of Griffin, Prince of +Wales, and other leading Welshmen on the 18th of March 1259. Freskin +would not have been asked to sign a document of such international +importance unless, like another of its signatories, Sir Reginald Chen +I (whose son of the same name, Reginald Chen II, married Freskin's +daughter, Mary of Duffus, later on) he had been one of the leading men +of his time in Scotland. We also find that his rights were saved in a +charter of 11th April 1260 and that on 13th October 1260 he was one of +the three vice-gerents of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, Justiciar +of Scotland, present in Court at Perth on that date.[26] + +On the 16th March 1262-3 from a grant of two chaplains[27] for the +weal of the soul of the deceased Freskin of Moray, Lord of Duffus, we +know that he had died before that date, that is, probably before his +fortieth year. Freskin, then, died after 13th October 1260 and before +16th March 1262-3, and was buried in the chapel of St. Lawrence in the +Church of Duffus, which he had founded and endowed with lands at +Dawey in Strath Spey, and Duffus. His wife Johanna ("quondam sponsa" +"quondam Friskyni de Moravia") was certainly dead in May 1269 (Reg. +Morav., ch. 126, p. 139). + +They left no male heir, but they left two daughters, Mary and +Christian, both minors at their father's death and probably too young +to have been married in August 1263, when, as we shall find, their +lands and their half share of the Caithness earldom sadly needed +defenders from Norse invaders. + +Owing to subsequent additions of territory, it is impossible at the +present time to say exactly what all the lands owned by an independent +title by Lady Johanna of Strathnaver were, but some guidance towards +the further identification of her lands in Caithness is found in the +fact that later charters give the names of the lands which her sequel +in all her estate, Reginald Chen III, known as "Lord Schein" or "Morar +na Shein" held,[28] and that he lived in and hunted from a castle at +the exit of the river Thurso from Loch More above Dirlot or Dilred +in Strathmore in Halkirk parish, but never owned Brawl, a capital +residence of the Caithness earls, but did own to the end of his life +"half Caithness," and acquired South Caithness after 1340 by purchase. +Adding to this the facts, indications, and probabilities alluded to in +this and preceding chapters as to the position of lands in Caithness +variously owned, we are able to venture to come to a general +conclusion as to the devolution of the Caithness earldom and lands. + +This conclusion is, that what may be termed the shares of the +respective lines of Paul and Erlend, the sons of Earl Thorfinn and +others, in the Caithness earldom lands probably went respectively +between 1231 and 1239 and afterwards in the following manner. + +The right to succeed to the share of Paul passed, on his descendant +Earl John's death in 1231, to Earl John's only child then alive, the +nameless hostage daughter, who, according to our theory, had after +1st August 1214 married Magnus, son of Earl Gilchrist of Angus by his +second marriage with either Ingibiorg or Elin, both sisters of Harald +Ungi, and both older than Ragnhild. But the title of Earl of Caithness +and the enjoyment of the whole earldom was on Earl John's death +temporarily conferred, in addition to his title of Earl of Angus, on +Malcolm, Earl of Angus, and nephew of Magnus the husband of John's +hostage daughter, as being the head of the Angus family and one of the +most powerful earls in Scotland, pending a general settlement of the +affairs of Sutherland and Caithness; and Malcolm held his own Earldom +of Angus, and, in addition, for the Crown, as _Custos_, trustee, or +administrator _pendente lite_, held Caithness after 22nd April 1231 +and certainly at 7th October 1232, possibly till 3rd July 1236, when +the following settlement was made. + +Caithness, without Sutherland, was with the title of Earl of +Caithness, North and South, confirmed to Earl Magnus II by two grants, +the one of North Caithness in right of his wife and the other of South +Caithness in right of his mother. The estate of Sutherland was after +10th October 1237 erected into an earldom in the person of William, +who was the eldest son of Hugo Freskyn, and was then owner of the +estate, this earldom being, as stated in the Diploma of the Orkney +Earls, "taken away from Magnus II" in his lifetime, possibly out of +South Caithness, by Alexander II. + +On Magnus' death in 1239, Gillebryd or Gillebride, called in the +Icelandic Annals Gibbon, who was either a son or younger brother of +Magnus, succeeded Magnus II in the Orkney and Caithness titles and in +the Paul share of the Caithness earldom, and it appears from a +grant of the advowson of Cortachy on 12th December 1257 that Matilda +daughter of Gillebert, "then late Earl of Orkney," married Malise +Earl of Stratherne. On Gillebride's death in 1256, his son Magnus III +succeeded to Orkney and to the share of Paul in the Caithness earldom, +as held by Earl Magnus II and Earl Gillebride his successor, that +is without the Sutherland earldom, and without Freskin and Johanna's +share of Caithness. + +The right to succeed to the other share of Caithness, that of Erlend +Thorfinnson, which, according to _The Flatey Book_ had belonged to +Jarl Ragnvald, and had been conferred on Harald Ungi by William the +Lion in 1197, passed through Ragnhild, another and the youngest sister +of Harald Ungi, and then through a child of hers, possibly Snaekoll +Gunni's son, the only known male representative of this line at the +time, or through Snaekoll's younger brother or sister, along with +the Moddan estates in Strathnaver and in various highland and Celtic +parishes in Caithness, to Johanna of Strathnaver as Ragnhild's heir; +but this share did not carry with it the title of Countess. It +was held for her in wardship, but it was not formally granted and +confirmed by the Crown to her or her husband Freskin de Moravia, who +had become Lord of Duffus by 1248, until their marriage, in or after +1245, or even later, and when the settlement was made, possibly South +Caithness was taken partly out of it. + +If Earl John had left no daughter at all, the result in Caithness +might well have been much the same; for in that case the Caithness +title and lands might well have been conferred as to the title and +a share of the earldom lands on the elder surviving sister of Harald +Ungi, Ingibiorg or Elin, and her heir, while the other share without +the title would go to the heir of the younger sister Ragnhild. But +Magnus, if he had not married John's daughter, would not have got +North Caithness, and it seems essential that Magnus should have +married into the line of Earl John, in order to found a claim on his +part to the Jarldom of Orkney, which Harold Maddadson, David, and John +(with whom Magnus had no relationship at all, so far as is known) +had held in its entirety, in spite of the grant of a moiety of it +to Harald Ungi, ever since Harald Ungi's death in 1198, and to the +exclusion of the Erlend line from all share in Orkney, (save for +Harald Ungi's grant) ever since Jarl Ragnvald's death in 1158. + +But who will find _evidence to prove_ our conjectures to be even +approximately true? + +Till this is done, these matters rest upon mere conjecture, based +mainly upon known Scottish policy, the name of "Magnus," and the +probable situation of the lands owned by the parent lines and the +families known afterwards to have held them, namely, the families of +Cheyne, Federeth, Sutherland, Keith, Oliphant, and Sinclair, among +whose writs or inventories of them search might be made. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +_King Hakon and the North of Scotland._ + + +We can now turn with some sense of relief from the intricate maze +of the genealogy of the Caithness earls to the more open ground of +Scottish history, which we left at the date of the death of William +the Lion in December 1214, when he was succeeded on the throne of +Scotland by his son, Alexander II, a youth who had then just entered +his seventeenth year. We can then work the results of our genealogical +conjectures into the general history of the northern counties. + +Alexander II, like his predecessors, was in the year after his +accession immediately confronted with a revolt headed by Donald Ban +MacWilliam the younger, another of the descendants of Ingibjorg of +Orkney, widow of Earl Thorfinn and first wife of Malcolm Canmore. The +scene of the rising was, as usual, Moray; and Donald was aided not +only by the inhabitants of that province, but also by a large force +of Irish mercenaries. This rebellion, however, was speedily crushed by +Ferchar Mac-in-tagart of the family of the Lay Abbots of Applecross +in the west of Ross, a county to which Henry, the eldest son of Harold +Maddadson had in vain laid claim. + +Differences which threatened to break out between Scotland and England +were speedily settled, and the young king, as we have seen, married +Joanna, sister of King Henry III of England, in 1221. Alexander next +conquered the district of Argyll in 1222, and in the same year reduced +Caithness to subjection on the occasion of Bishop Adam's murder, and +he shortly afterwards put down two rebellions, the one in Moray, as +above stated, and the other in Galloway, a district which, however, he +did not finally conquer till 1235, although Mac-in-tagart was knighted +for a victory there in 1215, and soon after, by 1226, became Earl of +Ross.[1] In 1236, as a punishment for burning to death the Earl of +Atholl, in revenge for the defeat of a member of their family at a +tournament, the Bissets were deprived of their estates near Beauly, +and fled to England, where they endeavoured to embroil that country +again with Scotland. In this they failed, and a treaty was signed +between the two nations that neither should make war on the other +unless it were first attacked itself.[2] + +Argyll, Galloway, and Moray being subdued and settled, and the old +Earldom of Caithness broken up, and divided among trustworthy feudal +tenants holding their lands by military service from the Scottish +king, the whole of the mainland of Scotland may now be said to have +been effectively incorporated into one kingdom under the Scottish +Crown. Ecclesiastically, also, the whole realm was divided into +dioceses, whose bishops were appointed by consent of the king. + +The dream of Malcolm II at last was realised. + +The western islands of the Hebrides, however, still owed allegiance to +the king of Norway, who was till 1240 engaged in civil war with Duke +Skuli in his own kingdom. Alexander II therefore equipped a naval +expedition to reduce the islands, but, soon after he had embarked, +he sickened and died on the island of Kerrera, near Oban, in 1249, +leaving as his successor, his son Alexander III, then only in his +eighth year, who was married in 1251, before his eleventh year, to +Margaret, daughter of Henry III of England, then a child of about +the same age as himself. The marriage was followed by a nine years' +struggle between the rival factions of Alan Durward, Justiciar of +Scotland, and of Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, in which England +constantly interfered, till the Comyn, or Scottish, faction finally +gained the upper hand. In 1261, Alexander III's only child Margaret, +who afterwards became Queen of Norway, was born. + +Between 1242 and 1245 two Scottish bishops had been sent to Norway by +Alexander II to induce King Hakon to give up the Hebrides to Scotland, +and now his son Alexander III sent another embassy of an Archdeacon +and a Scot, called in the Saga Misel, but more probably Frisel or +Fraser, who, being found to be spies, tried to escape, but were caught +and made to witness the young King Magnus' coronation in his father's +lifetime.[3] These embassies, though backed by offers of money +compensation, were wholly unsuccessful. + +Meantime affairs in Sutherland and Caithness had been pursuing an +orderly course for nearly forty years. William, eldest son of Hugo +Freskyn, had succeeded his father in Sutherland before 1214, the year +of Earl David's death, and had in or after 1237 become its first Earl, +and three years afterwards, according to tradition, though probably +this event happened later, with the aid of Richard of Moray, Bishop +Gilbert's brother, a Norse landing at Unes or Little Ferry is said to +have been repulsed in a battle at Embo, near Dornoch in Sutherland. +In this battle Richard fell, and the Norse Prince was also killed, +the Ri-Crois at Embo, which has disappeared long ago, being erected in +memory of the latter.[4] Earl William had died in 1248, and had been +buried in the Cathedral at Dornoch, which Bishop Gilbert had founded +close to and west of the site of the older Church of St. Bar, and +which he had dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in or after 1222. + +The Bishop had given to his diocese of Caithness[5] the Constitution +which is still extant at Dunrobin. This Constitution, like that of +Elgin, was in the main based on that of Lincoln. But the Bishop was to +be _Primus_ and above all other dignitaries of the Cathedral. For +it was ordained that instead of the one priest who had previously +officiated, there should be ten Canons with the Bishop as their head, +five of them holding the dignities of Dean, Precentor, Chancellor, +Treasurer, and Archdeacon, each of them during residence to minister +there daily, as well as the Abbot of Scone, who was a Canon, but had a +Vicar to perform his duties in his absence. The teinds (or tithes) +of certain parishes were allocated to each member of the Chapter; and +lands, residences, and prebends were assigned to them, provision also +being made from the teinds of other parishes for the lighting and +services of the Church. Bishop Gilbert built and completed the +Cathedral, making, it is said, the glass for its windows at Sidera, +from sand taken from near the howe of the first Jarl Sigurd, a +worshipper of Odin.[6] + +Bishop Gilbert had also translated the Psalms into Gaelic; and, +having set his diocese of Caithness, comprising the modern counties of +Sutherland and Caithness, in good working order, and having re-buried +his predecessor Adam, with a stately funeral, at Dornoch in 1239, had +made his will in 1242, and died in the episcopal palace at Scrabster, +near Thurso, in 1245. It was probably during his episcopate that +King Alexander II gave his open letter,[7] directed to the sheriffs, +bailies, and other good men of Moray and Caithness, and enjoining them +to protect the ship of the Abbot and Convent of Scone and their men +and goods from injury, molestation or damage in their journeys to +the north. Bishop Gilbert was buried at Dornoch, and was succeeded by +Bishop William,[8] and he in his turn, in 1261, by Bishop Walter de +Baltroddi, who doubtless suffered from King Hakon's fines levied in +Caithness in 1263, and whose daughter the Chief of the Mackays is said +to have married after that date. + +In 1261 the Hebrides had been harried by William, MacFerchar, Earl of +Ross and uncle of Freskin de Moravia the younger, with great cruelty +and barbarity, and King Hakon in 1263 began to collect and equip a +fleet with a view to revenging the injury done to his subjects in the +west.[9] In the preparation for this in the spring of 1263, we find +Jon Langlifson, whose mother Langlif was Harold Maddadson's youngest +daughter, and who was thus himself a nephew of Earl John, sent over +with Henry Skot to Shetland to obtain pilots for King Hakon,[10] while +Dougal of the Isles met them in Orkney, and was let into the secret of +Hakon's intended expedition. + +Meantime Earl Magnus II, being, according to our conjectures, a member +of the Angus line, whose mother was an elder sister of Harald Ungi, +and being also the husband of Earl John's daughter, had become +entitled to the earldom of Orkney soon after Earl John's death in +1231, and probably since 1236 had held part of Caithness as Earl, by +heirship, and by charter from the Scottish King. Magnus II, soon after +the earldom of Sutherland had been taken away from him, had died +in 1239. Gillebride had then succeeded to both the reduced Scottish +earldom of Caithness and the whole of the Orkney jarldom as successor +in the Angus line of Magnus II; and Gillebride had died in 1256 +leaving a son Magnus III. Like his predecessors, Magnus III seems to +have found himself in the awkward position of being bound to serve two +masters who were rapidly approaching a state of war with each other. +Freskin de Moravia, _dominus_ de Duffus by 1248, who about that date +had married the Lady Johanna, had with her obtained not only her lands +in Strathnaver and Caithness, but also the bulk of the Erlend share +of the earldom lands of Caithness, while Magnus held the rest of +Caithness, and William, second Earl of Sutherland, then a mere boy, +had succeeded to that earldom on his father's death in 1248.[11] + +As already stated, Alexander II's attempt on the Sudreys had proved +abortive through his death in 1249, and the further attacks on them +in Alexander III's reign by William, son of Ferchar Mac-in-tagart, and +Earl of Ross, had been made in 1261; and by 1262 or 1263, Freskin +had died, leaving two daughters Mary and Christian, both minors and +unmarried, to inherit his share of Caithness, as co-parceners, each +entitled to one quarter of that county. + +Early in 1263 Magnus III of Orkney and Caithness, was in Bergen with +King Hakon. For the Saga says,[12] "with him from Bergen came Magnus, +Jarl of Orkney, and the king gave him a good long-ship." + +Sailing from Norway in the end of July 1263, King Hakon found a +fair wind, and crossed in two days to Shetland, where he lay for a +fortnight assembling his fleet in Bressay Sound off Lerwick. While he +was here Jon Langlifson, son of Langlif, the youngest daughter of Earl +Harold Maddadson, brought the disappointing news that King John of the +Sudreys had gone over to the side of the Scottish king, but the news +was disbelieved, and Hakon, at the time, had every reason to think +that, while he was sure of the support of the Orkneymen and their +earl, the western islanders would support him to a man. Quitting +Shetland, therefore, he sailed to Orkney, and his fleet lay first at +Ellidarvik or Ellwick in The String off the south of Shapinsay, a few +miles from Kirkwall. While it was here, King Hakon conceived the idea +of sending a squadron of his ships to raid the shores of the Moray +Firth, and there is little doubt that this project was aimed at the +lands of the families of De Moravia in Sutherland and Moray. The +question, however, was submitted to a council of the freemen of the +fleet, who proved to be unwilling that any of them should leave their +king and decided that the fleet should not be divided, but that the +original object of the expedition, the reconquest of the Western Isles +and West of Scotland, should be adhered to instead. What Earl Magnus' +feelings on the subject were is not recorded, but it can hardly have +been pleasing to him to find that his people in Caithness were to be +subjected to a fine by his suzerain in Orkney, though, probably by his +advice, the Caithness folk paid the fine exacted from them,[13] and +had hostages taken from them, in consequence, by the Scottish king. + +Hakon's fleet then sailed round the Mull of Deerness into the +roadstead of Ragnvaldsvoe, in the north of South Ronaldsay, which is +now known either as St. Margaret's Hope or possibly as Widewall Bay in +Scapa Flow, and it was while it was there that the annular eclipse +of the sun, ascertained by astronomical calculation[14] to have taken +place on the 5th August 1263, was reported by the writer of the Saga +to have been seen by him. While the fleet was here, it appeared that +the Orkney contingent of ships which Hakon had commanded to join him, +were not "boun" or ready for sea, and Jarl Magnus accordingly "stayed +behind" with his people in Orkney under orders to follow the main +fleet. + +On St. Lawrence's day, the 10th of August 1263, Hakon weighed anchor +without the jarl, or his men, and the fleet, the largest then ever +seen in these waters, sailed from Ragnvaldsvoe into the Pentland +Firth, and, rounding Cape Wrath on the same day, anchored in +Asleifarvik, now corruptly called Aulsher-beg or Old-shore, on the +west coast of the parish of Durness[15] in Sutherland. Thence the +fleet ran across to the Lewis, whence it proceeded on a southerly +course by Rona, into the Sound of Skye, and brought up at the Carline, +now the Cailleach, Stone, in Kyleakin or the Kyle of Hakon. The Norse +King was soon joined by King Magnus of Man, and Erling Ivar's son, and +Andres Nicholas' son, and Halvard and Nicholas Tart, the last having +made no land since he left Norway till he sighted the Lewis. Dougal, +king of the Sudreys also joined King Hakon, and the fleet shortly +afterwards reached Kerrera, near Oban in the Sound of Mull. The events +which followed are recounted, in considerable detail and with much +exaggeration on both sides, by Scottish and Norse chroniclers, but it +is impossible to reconcile their different versions of the story of +the battle of Largs. Nor does such detail, save in the result, affect +Sutherland or Caithness. Suffice it to say, then, that after much +fruitless negotiation between the two kings, purposely prolonged by +the Scottish monarch, a severe and protracted October storm drove many +of the Norse ships ashore near Largs, where the Scots attacked their +crews; and five days later King Hakon withdrew, and sailed with the +remnants of his starving and shattered fleet northwards by the Sound +of Mull and Rum and Loch Snizort in Skye, and thence round Cape +Wrath, to the Goa-fiord or Hoanfiord, which we know as Loch Erriboll, +reaching it on Sunday, October 28th, 1263, in a profound calm. + +On their way south, Erling Ivar's son, Andrew Nicolas' son, and +Harvard the Red had[16] "sailed into Scotland under Dyrnes, from which +they went up country, and destroyed a castle and more than twenty +hamlets." But on the return voyage the children of Heth were waiting +for the invaders, and on the day[17] "of St. Simon and St. Jude, when +Mass had been sung, some Scottish men, whom the Northmen had taken, +came. King Hakon gave them peace and sent them up into the country; +and they promised to come down with cattle to[18] him; but one of them +stayed behind as a hostage. It happened that day that eleven men of +the ship of Andrew Kuzi landed in a boat to fetch water. A little +after, it was heard that they called out. Then men rowed to them from +the ships, and there two of them were taken up, swimming much wounded, +but nine were found on land all slain. The Scots had come down on +them, but they all ran to the boat, and it was high and dry, and they +were all weaponless, and there was no defence. But as soon as the +Scots saw the boats were rowing up, they ran to the woods, but the +Northmen took the bodies with them. + +"On Monday King Hakon sailed out of the Goa-fiord and let the Scottish +man be put on shore, and gave him peace."[19] + +Such is the story, so far as Sutherland and Caithness are concerned, +of Hakon's expedition as told in his Saga, which adds that after +losing one ship in the Pentland Firth, while another was all but sunk +in the Swelchie near Stroma, he sheltered for the night in the Sound +north of Osmundwall, and finally landed again near Ragnvaldsvoe and +went to Kirkwall. Retaining twenty of his ships, he let such of the +rest of them as had not already gone home sail for Norway. + +Deserted by his Jarl, the aged king found a home in the Palace of the +faithful bishop, Henry of Orkney, who, alone of all Orkney men, had +followed the fortunes of the fleet. Then King Hakon's health gradually +failed, and after laying up his ships in Scapa Flow, and seeing to the +welfare of his men, he lay down to die of a broken heart, listening as +he sank to Masses indeed, but afterwards with greater joy to the Sagas +of the Norse kings. "Near midnight" on the 15th of December "Sverri's +Saga was read through. But just as midnight was past Almighty God +called King Hakon from this world's life." + +His body lay in state, first in the Palace and then in the Cathedral +of St. Magnus, where after a Solemn Mass it was temporarily buried +in the Choir, and it was removed in his flag-ship to Christ Church in +Bergen three months afterwards.[20] + +The consequence of King Hakon's failure was the immediate conquest of +the Isle of Man and of the Hebrides by Alexander III. + +Sutherland and Caithness were saved for Scotland, it would seem, only +by the vote of King Hakon's freemen before sailing for Largs, while +the defeat of his fleet there led directly to the cession by King +Magnus, his successor, under the treaty of Perth in 1266, of all the +Western Highlands and Islands, for a payment of 4000 marks down and +of 100 marks a year, and the treaty also secured their permanent +political union with Scotland. + +Orkney and Shetland, however, remained part of Norway for two hundred +years more, and have since 1468 been held by Scotland and afterwards +by the United Kingdom only under a wadset or mortgage securing 58,000 +crowns, the unpaid balance of the dower of Margaret, wife of James +III of Scotland and daughter of King Christian of Norway. The right +to redeem them was frequently though fruitlessly claimed by Norway and +Denmark in succession until the reign of Charles II and even later; +and possibly this right remains, to the legal mind, open until the +present day. + +On the 20th February 1471 the Earldom of Orkney and Lordship of +Shetland were, by an Act of the Scottish Parliament, finally annexed +to the Scottish Crown. But Norse law and usages and the Norse language +long lived on in Orkney and longer still in Shetland. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +_Results and Conclusion._ + + +Restless energy, and a religion that taught its followers that death +in combat alone conferred on the happy warrior a title to immortal +glory and a perpetual right to the unbroken joy of battle daily +renewed in Valhalla drove the Viking to war. + +Headed off on the south by the vast army and feudal system of +Charlemagne, this energy in war could be exercised, and its religious +aims achieved, solely on the sea, which skill in shipbuilding and in +navigation as well had converted from a barrier into a highway to the +west. + +As already stated, over-population in the sterile lands of Norway, +and famine probably increased by immigration from the east and south, +drove its people "at times in piracy and at times in commerce"[1] +forth from the western fjords and The Vik across the North Sea to +the opposite coasts of Scotland, and so to its western lochs and to +Ireland, where they found cattle to slaughter on the nesses, stores of +grain, and other booty. + +War, in fact, paid; and, after generations of harrying, many of the +raiders concluded that the western lands in Britain were fairer and +more fertile than their native shores, and desired to settle in the +west. + +Finally the feudalism of Charlemagne was imitated by Harald Harfagr in +Norway; and, against that, Norse independence revolted and rebelled. +The true Viking would be no other man's man, and to secure Harald's +feudal power he was driven forth from Norway by an organised navy +manned by those of his countrymen who had agreed to accept King Harald +as feudal overlord and to pay him tribute. Defeated, as we have seen, +at the naval battle of Hafrsfjord in 872, the rebel remnant of the +Vikings found their return to Norway barred; and those of them who +became pirates in Orkney and Shetland and raided Norway as such, +were, in their turn, assailed in these islands by King Harald, and +destroyed. Others of them colonised Ireland, the Hebrides, and the +Faroes; and from all these islands as well as from Scotland and Norway +issued the swarms that settled in Iceland, and afterwards gave us a +code of law, our system of trial by jury, much of our legal procedure, +and, when crossed with Gaelic blood, produced the glorious literature +of the Sagas. But in their exodus, whencesoever they started, what +all alike sought was liberty; which, for them, meant the right to do +exactly as they pleased to others, and freedom from paying "scat" or +dues to a superior lord. + +When the Vikings came, they came as worshippers of Thor and Odin and +the old Teutonic gods. To them the Christianity of the Pict was "a +weak effeminate creed." They, therefore, slew its followers, plundered +its shrines, and drove its clergy south from Orkney, from north-east +Caithness and the coasts of Sutherland, and from the seaboard of Ross +and Moray, and for a century and a half Christianity was uprooted +and almost wholly expelled. No jarl before Sigurd Hlodverson was a +Christian, and he was baptized by force, and died fighting for Odin +at Clontarf. With all "the fury of an expiring faith, its last lambent +flickering flame, against a creed that seemed to contradict every +article of the old belief,"[2] wherever they came, they destroyed the +cult and culture of Columba, which it had taken several centuries to +establish in the north and west of Alban. + +When the conquerors settled in the land, they enslaved such of its +inhabitants as remained among them for a time, and gave to the best +coastal lands and lower valley farms the Norse names which they still +bear, but they left the heads of the river valleys and the hills +mainly to the Moddan family and their Pictish followers and clansmen, +who held them tenaciously and extended their holdings, as the Norse +became less hostile through inter-marriage, or less strong. Once +settled, the Norse exerted such steady pressure on their southern +Pictish neighbours in Ross and Moray, and kept them so fully occupied +in war or by the constant menace of it from the north, that successive +Scottish kings were in their turn left comparatively free, on their +own northern frontier, from Pictish attacks, and were therefore +enabled to consolidate their own kingdom in the south of Scotland and +to beat the English back to the line of the Tweed. Afterwards they +were able to turn their attention to the consolidation of the mainland +north of the Grampians,[3] by first overcoming the Picts in Moray, +and then the Norse in Cat, and establishing the feudal system and the +Catholic Church. + +Worshipping, as the Vikings did, amongst others, the "fair white god +Baldr of golden beauty," and accounting as base-born "hellskins" those +of darker hue, it seems strange that they should so soon have taken +to themselves Celtic wives. But we have seen that they came by sea and +that no Norse women were allowed in Viking ships,[4] and thus it was +Celtic mothers alone that perpetuated the race. They also taught the +children the Gaelic tongue, and, on the mainland in all Sutherland and +Caithness save the north-eastern portions of the latter, Gaelic soon +became again the only spoken language. + +But the language was Gaelic with a difference. As already stated, it +contained, especially in connection with the sea, and ships, gear, and +tackle, many old Norse words,[5] and, in the Gaelic of Sutherland, as +in the English of Orkney and Shetland and of Caithness and Moray +the Old Norse roots remain. Nor need we believe that every Magnus or +Sweyn, or Ragnvald was a pure Norseman. For their Celtic mothers often +preferred to give their children Old Norse names. + +The Norse place-names,[6] too, have been faithfully preserved by +Gaelic inhabitants, and are still with us; and despite their varying +spellings in documents of title and maps of different dates, these +names generally yield up the secret of their original meanings when +they can be traced back to the earliest charters, especially if they +can be compared with the corresponding Gaelic versions of them in use +at the present time. For Gaelic was ever a trustworthy vehicle of the +original Norse. The Norse place-names too are found in the same spots +on which the remains of brochs exist, that is, on the best land at the +lowest levels which the Picts had already cultivated, and which the +Norse invaders seized. Such names are also found on the eastern coast +as far south as Dingwall, both in Ross and Cromarty. They were never +imposed on the Moray seaboard, which was not permanently held by the +Norse. Freskyn and his descendants saw to that. His fortress at Duffus +checked all raids from their fort at Burghead. + +Of outward and visible monuments, save here and there a howe or +grave-mound, the Vikings, unlike their Pictish predecessors, have +left us little or nothing on the mainland. In Iceland the skali[7] or +farm-house of the Norseman was built with some stone and turf below, +and a superstructure of wood which has long ago perished,[8] and but +slight traces of foundations are visible on the surface there. From +the frequent burnings in the Saga we know that such houses were of +highly inflammable materials which would soon perish. The place-name, +"Skaill," remains both in Sutherland and Caithness. But no skilled +antiquary, has as yet laid bare by excavation the secrets of likely +sites of Norse dwellings in these counties, as Mr. A.W. Johnston has +done at The Jarls' Bu at Orphir, in Orkney.[9] And yet, if Drumrabyn +or Dunrabyn, Rafn's Ridge or Broch, be the true derivation of Dunrobin +(and the name is found at a time when as yet no Robin had inhabited +the place) possibly the Norse Lawman Rafn had a house of consequence +there like his Pictish predecessors, if, indeed, he did not inhabit +the Pictish broch whose foundations were found on or under the present +castle's site. There was also a castle of note on the northern shore +of the modern port of Helmsdale, which is probably the castle of +Sorlinc of Mr. Collingwood's _William the Wanderer_, also called +Surclin, both words being a corrupt form, it is suggested, of +Scir-Illigh, the old name of the parish of Kildonan. + +In Caithness especially, we have many a Norse castle site, such as +Earl Harold's borg at Thurso, and Lambaborg, the modern Freswick, +which we know to have been inhabited by noted Norsemen, while, in +Sutherland, Borve near Farr, and Seanachaistel on the Farrid Head near +Durness seem to be ideal Viking sites. _Breithivellir_[10] or Brawl +Castle was a known residence of Earl John and later earls, and search +for foundations might well be made on the coasts of Caithness, and +round Tongue and at the mouths of the Naver and of the Borgie and +other rivers, and at or near Unes or Little Ferry, possibly at Skelbo, +(Skail-bo) and in Kildonan at Helmsdale. That the Norsemen used many +of the Pictish brochs as dwelling-places is more than probable, and +is proved by the Sagas in certain instances.[11] At the same time few +articles used distinctively by Norsemen have been found in them. + +No stately church like the Cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall, itself +the finest specimen of Norman architecture in Scotland, survives on +the mainland from Viking days; nor, so far as is known, was any such +edifice built there by any Norseman; but the original High Church of +Halkirk, and also the old church of St. Bar at Dornoch, which preceded +and is believed to have occupied a site immediately to the east of St. +Gilbert's later Cathedral, may have been used by the later jarls, and +a few miles south of Halkirk are the foundations of the Spittal of St. +Magnus,[12] part of which, and of St. Peter's Church at Thurso may be +Norse. + +Though the towns of Wick and Thurso[13] are frequently mentioned +in the _Orkneyinga Saga_, and earls and jarls stayed at both, no +Sutherland village (if any save Dornoch existed) is named in it; but +the site of modern Golspie (Gol's-by) appears in ancient charters as +Platagall, "the Flat of the Stranger."[14] + +If in his outward and visible man the Norseman has all but faded away +in Sutherland, he remains more in evidence in Caithness, in spite of +Celtic mothers and successive waves of Scottish immigration. The high +Norse skull, the tall frame with broad shoulders and narrow hips,[15] +the fair hair and skin, the sea-blue eyes and sound teeth are still +to be seen; and from time to time, amid greatly preponderating Celtic +types, we are startled by coming across some perfect living specimen +of the pure Viking type almost always on or near the coast. + +But, if the outward type is rarely seen, its inward qualities remain. +What were those qualities? + +The late Professor York Powell summed up the character of the Viking +emigrant folk in his introduction to Mr. Collingwood's _Scandinavian +Britain_, as follows:-- + +"A sturdy, thrifty, hardworking, law-loving people, fond of good cheer +and strong drink, of shrewd, blunt speech, and a stubborn reticence, +when speech would be useless or foolish; a people clean-living, +faithful to friend and kinsman, truthful, hospitable, liking to make a +fair show, but not vain or boastful; a people with perhaps little +play of fancy or great range of thought, but cool-thinking, resolute, +determined, able to realise the plainer facts of life clearly, and +even deeply."[16] + +Blend these qualities with those of the Gael, and what infinite +possibilities appear; for the characteristics of the two races +supplement each other. Fuse them together in proper proportions for +a few generations, the improvident and dreamy with the thrifty and +energetic, the voluble with the reticent, the romantic and humorous +with the truthful and blunt of speech, the fiery and impulsive with +the sober of thought, and how greatly is the type improved in the new +race evolved from the union of both. + +Turning from eugenics to more practical matters, it was the brain and +the manual skill of the Viking that invented and perfected our modern +sailing ship. Stripped of its barbaric excrescences at stem and stern, +and of its rows of shields and ornaments, the lines of the Viking ship +of Gokstad[17] found there buried but entire, are the lines of our +herring boats of fifty years ago. Sharp and partly decked at stem and +stern only, like those boats, the Viking ship could live, head to the +waves, even in the roughest sea. It was, too, a living thing, a new +type of vessel handy to row or sail, and far in advance not only of +the early British ship and Pictish coracle[18] but also of the Roman +galley with lines like those of a canal barge, and also far in advance +of the Saxon ship of war or merchandise. The only points of difference +between the older type of herring boat and the Viking ship were the +stepping of the mast further forward and the use of the fixed rudder +in the modern vessel. + +Not only did the Viking brain invent our modern ship, but it was +the Viking spirit that impelled us as a nation to use the ocean as +a highway. The Norseman had discovered America and West Africa many +centuries before Columbus or Vasco di Gama. The Norse colonised[19] +Greenland, Labrador, and possibly even Massachusetts, and it was on a +voyage to Iceland that Jean Cabot heard of America, on whose continent +he was the first modern sailor to land, and it is said that it was +through him that Columbus, after he had discovered the West Indian +Islands, first heard that North America had been proved to be a +continent by Cabot's coasting voyage along its shore from Maine to +Florida. The Vikings, too, taught us the discipline without which no +ship can live through an ocean storm. Their spirit, too, when piracy +had died out, led us into trade; for, as we have seen, the Viking was +no mere pirate, but ever a trader as well.[20] Their sea-fights live +in story, though their traders found no skald or bard, and it is thus +that we hear less of their trading or of their civic or domestic life. + +This spirit of theirs, like their blood, is ever with us still. It has +gone into our race, and it keeps coming out in unexpected quarters. +Hidden under Celtic colouring and Highland dress, the Viking warrior +is there in spirit, glorying in battle, though often apparently no +more of a real "Barelegs" by race than was kilted King Magnus. The +Berserk fury and stubborn tenacity of our Highland regiments derive +their origin from the Viking as well as from the Celtic strain.[21] +Our sailors too, had they been Celts, would not readily have left +smooth water. It was Viking not Celtic blood that drove them to the +open sea. It was Viking skill that built the ships, managed them in +storms through Viking discipline, navigated them across the ocean, and +gave us the naval and commercial supremacy which founded and preserves +our empire overseas. + +They came to us not only from Norway direct, westwards across the sea. +They came to us also from Normandy northwards through England. The +first swarms of Norsemen had brought with them rapine and disorder. +Later on the Norman came to the north to curb such evils, and to +organise, administer, and rule the land. The Normans succeeded in +this as signally as the Saxon barons, introduced under Saint Margaret, +Malcolm Canmore's Saxon queen, had failed. David I was by education a +Norman knight. At heart he was an ecclesiastic. As Scotland's king, +he was, in theory, owner of Scotland's soil from the Tweed to the +Pentland Firth, and he disposed of it to his feudal barons, mainly +Norman, and to religious foundations on Norman lines, as the Norman +kings of England had done there before him, in order to organise and +consolidate his kingdom; and his successors did the same. + +Thus, as Professor Hume Brown puts it--[22] + +"Directly and indirectly the Norman conquest influenced Scotland only +less profoundly than England itself. In the case of Scotland it was +less immediate and obtrusive, but in its totality it is a fact of the +first importance in the national history." + +It affected Scotland in the latter part of the times which we have +considered right up to John o' Groats. Moray was divided among +Normans and "trustworthy natives," and the scattering of its Pictish +population gave the Mackays to Sutherland, and, largely blended with +the Norse, they still occupy the greater part of it. The Freskyns, as +"trustworthy natives," were introduced into Sutherland, after many +a fight for it, by charter doubtless in Norman form; and Normans won +Caithness in the persons of the earlier Cheynes and Oliphants and St. +Clairs, who, by inter-marriage with the descendants in the female +line of a branch of the Freskyns, possessed themselves not only of the +lands of the family of Moddan but of most of the mainland territories +of the Erlend line, through Johanna of Strathnaver's daughters and +great-grand-daughters. + +At a time and in an age when liberty meant licence, the order which +the Norman introduced into the north made more truly for real liberty +and the supremacy of law, than the individual independence which +the Norseman had left his native land to preserve; and though both +feudalism and the blind obedience to authority then enjoined by the +Catholic Church are no longer approved or required, and have long +been rightly discarded, yet they served their purpose in their day, +by evolving from the wild blend of Gaels and Norsemen, which held the +land, a civilised people free from many of the worse, and endowed with +many of the better qualities of either race. + + + + +NOTES + + +_The following abbreviations are used: + +H.B. for Hume Brown's History of Scotland. + +O.S. for Orkneyinga Saga. + +O.P. for Origines Parochiales. + +F.B. for Flatey Book. + +O. and S. for Tudor's Orkney and Shetland. + +B.N. Burnt Njal. + + And see List of Authorities (ante) for full titles of Books referred + to. Save where otherwise stated the references to the Sagas + are to the chapters not pages_. + + + + +NOTES + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +[Footnote 1: _Rhind Lectures_ 1883 and 1886, and see _The County of +Caithness_, pp. 273-307.] + +[Footnote 2: _Royal Commission 2nd Report, 1911_, and _3rd Report, +1911_; see also Laing and Huxley's _Prehistoric Remains of Caithness_, +1866.] + +[Footnote 3: _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_, 1911.] + +[Footnote 4: _Tacitus, Agricola_ 22-28.] + +[Footnote 5: Coille-duine, or Kelyddon-ii.] + +[Footnote 6: _H.B._, vol. i, p. 5.] + +[Footnote 7: Anderson, _Scotland in Pagan Times_, p. 222. Two plates +of brass found in Craig Carrill Broch. Copper 84%, tin 16%.] + +[Footnote 8: See Laing and Huxley's _Prehistoric Remains in +Caithness_, Laing ascribes a much greater antiquity to the _Burgs_, +pp. 60-61. See Skene, _Chron. Picts and Scots_, pp. 157-160 as to a +legend of their Scythian origin, and p. xcvi and p. 58.] + +[Footnote 9: See Reeves' Life, and see _H.B._, vol. i, pp. 12-15; also +Dr. Joseph Anderson's _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 1879, p. +139.] + +[Footnote 10: _H.B._, vol. i, pp. 10-17.] + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +[Footnote 1: See MacBain's note at p. 157 of Skene's _Highlanders of +Scotland_.] + +[Footnote 2: For the boundaries of Sutherland, see Sir R. Gordon's +_Genealogie of the Earles_, pp. i and 2, and map hereto.] + +[Footnote 3: In Ness the subjacent stone is too near the surface to +have ever admitted of the growth of large trees.] + +[Footnote 4: Scrope, _Days of Deerstalking_, 3rd edit., pp. 374-377.] + +[Footnote 5: Curie's _Inventories of Monuments, &c._, 1911 (Caithness) +1911 (Sutherland), and see his maps. Why are there no brochs in Moray, +Aberdeenshire and the Mearns? Did the Picts come there from the west +and south-west coast after the age of broch-building, driven before +the Scots, first eastward, then north into the Grampians?] + +[Footnote 6: For example in Loch Naver.] + +[Footnote 7: Anderson's _Scotland in Pagan Times_, pp. 174-259.] + +[Footnote 8: See Munro's _Prehistoric Scotland_, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 9: Often spelt Mormaor. See Ritson, _Annals of the +Caledonians_, pp. 62-3.] + +[Footnote 10: See _Scotland in Early Christian Times_ (Anderson), pp. +141-2.] + +[Footnote 11: Despite _The Pictish Nation_, pp. 69 and 401. But see +Skene, _Chron. Picts and Scots (Annals of Tighernac_) p. 75, where 150 +Pictish ships are said to have been wrecked in 729 A.D.] + +[Footnote 12: See Du Chaillu, _The Viking Age_, vol. ii. pp. 65-101.] + +[Footnote 13: Worsaae, _The Prehistory of the North_, pp. 184-7. +_Scandinavian Britain_, pp. 34-42.] + +[Footnote 14: Viking Society's _Orkney and Shetland Folk_, 1914.] + +[Footnote 15: Robertson, _Early Kings_, vol. i, p. 105, and ii, p. +469.] + +[Footnote 16: Dun-bretan, or the fort of the Britons; Alcluyd, the +rock of the Clyde.] + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +[Footnote 1: _H.B._, vol. i, p. 22.] + +[Footnote 2: _Chron. Hunt._ Skene, _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 209.] + +[Footnote 3: See also Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 4: _Flatey Book_, vol. i, ch. 218.] + +[Footnote 5: _H.B._, vol. i, p. 27.] + +[Footnote 6: Haroldswick in Unst is said to have been called after +King Harald. Tudor, _O. and S._, p. 570.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ekkjals-bakki_ is clearly Oykel's Bank, the high bank or +[Greek: ochthe hypsele] of Ptolemy. "Ochill" is the same word. As for +Bakke, see Coldbackie and Hysbackie near Tongue.] + +[Footnote 8: _O.S._, ch. 4, 5.] + +[Footnote 9: The late Dr. Joass had identified the site of the burial +mound. It is said to be Croc Skardie on the S.E. bank of the River +Evelix, near Sidera. Skardi is a Norse word, and probably means a gap, +or a twin-topped hillock, which it is.] + +[Footnote 10: _H.B._, i, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 11: See Skene's _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, pp. 8, +9 and lxxv, and _Celtic Scotland_, vol. i, 339, note.] + +[Footnote 2: An able paper on this subject by the late Mr. R.L. +Bremner was read to the Viking Society, and it is hoped may be +printed. But Brunanburgh is usually located south of the Humber, or in +the Wirral in Cheshire. See _Scandinavian Britain_, pp. 131-4 where it +is located on the west coast, and on this coast it probably was.] + +[Footnote 13: See _Genealogie of the Earles_, pp. 1 and 2, as to the +"boundaries of Southerland."] + +[Footnote 14: _F.B._, vol. i, pp. 221-9. See Trans. of _O.S._, +Hjaltalin and Goudie, App. pp. 203-212. See also _St. Olaf's Saga_, c. +cix. See also generally Vigfusson's _Prolegomena to Sturlunga Saga_, +Introduction, p. xcii, vol. i.] + +[Footnote 15: The "scurvy Kalf" and "tree-bearded Thorir."] + +[Footnote 16: _O.S._, ch. 6, 7.] + +[Footnote 17: _O.S._, ch. 8, on Rinar's Hill. Tudor, _O. and S._, p. +364.] + +[Footnote 18: _O.S._, ch. 80. But see _Heimskringla_, Saga Library, i, +96 and _St. Olaf's Saga_, ch. cv and cvii.] + +[Footnote 19: See _Blackwood's Magazine_, April 1920; an able and +interesting article intituled _A Branch of the Family_, by J. Storer +Clouston.] + +[Footnote 20: _F.B._, ch. 183, 184.] + +[Footnote 21: Tudor, _Orkney and Shetland_, p. 336.] + +[Footnote 22: _Torf. Orc._, p. 25, "facile de alieno largientis."] + +[Footnote 23: _F.B._, 115. _O.P._, 783. _F.B._, 186. _O.S._, 10, 11. +_O.S._, 8. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_, i, 374-9.] + +[Footnote 24: Dalrymple, _Collections_, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 25: Viking Society, _Orkney and Shetland Folk_, 1914, p. 5.] + +[Footnote 26: _O.P._, (Canisbay), vol. ii, 794, 816.] + +[Footnote 27: _O.S._, 11.] + +[Footnote 28: _B.N._, c. 85.] + +[Footnote 29: _O.S._, 12. _F.B._, 187. The _F.B._ makes the scene of +this battle Skitten Moor.] + +[Footnote 30: _F.B._, 187.] + +[Footnote 31: _Thorgisl_, I, 4. (_Orig. Islandicae_, ii, p. 635.) In +_The Old Statistical Account_ (Tongue) there is a tradition of such a +fight on Eilean nan Gall at the entrance to the Bay of Tongue, then in +Caithness.] + +[Footnote 32: p. 23.] + +[Footnote 33: See Sir Wm. Fraser's _Book of Sutherland_, and Pedigree +in Appendix. There is a Craig Amlaiph (Olaf) above Torboll and +Cambusmore (both in Cat) near the Mound in Sudrland. There were no +Thanes of the De Moravia line in Sutherland.] + +[Footnote 34: See _The Pictish Nation and Church_, pp. 129-32, and +341.] + +[Footnote 35: See _Darratha-liod_, published by the Viking Club, +1910.] + +[Footnote 36: _Burnt Njal_, c. 151.] + +[Footnote 37: Iceland accepted Christianity by a vote of its Thing in +1000 A.D. "Blood" often fell in Iceland; after a volcanic eruption, +rain was tinged with red.] + +[Footnote 38: Tudor, _O. and S._, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 39: Rods used for dividing and pressing downwards.] + +[Footnote 40: See _Scandinavian Britain_ (Collingwood), p. 256-7, +where Mr. Gilbert Goudie's _Antiquities of Shetland_ is referred to.] + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +[Footnote 1: _Reg. Morav._, p. xxiv, and _Charter_ No. 264, p. 342.] + +[Footnote 2: Dunbar, _Scottish Kings_, pp. 4-7.] + +[Footnote 3: Some authorities hold that Macbeth was the son of a +sister of Malcolm. His property was probably in Ross and Cromarty. See +also Rhys' _Celtic Britain_, p. 196.] + +[Footnote 4: Skuli was first Earl of Caithness, which then included +Sutherland, see _ante_, but he was Norse.] + +[Footnote 5: _O.S._, 16.] + +[Footnote 6: Trithing--the same word as Riding in Yorkshire, +one-third. See _Scot. Hist. Review_, Oct. 1918. J. Storer Clouston. +Ulfreksfirth is Larne Bay.] + +[Footnote 7: _O.S._, 17, 18.] + +[Footnote 8: _O.S._, 20, 21, and _St. Olaf's Saga_, cix.] + +[Footnote 9: _O.S._, 22.] + +[Footnote 10: _O.S._, 22. See _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. ii, pp. +180-3, 195 and notes.] + +[Footnote 11: _O.S._, 22. Dunbar, _Scottish Kings_, p. 15 and note +22. The Standing Stane was removed to Altyre about 1820. See Romilly +Allen, _Early Christian Monuments of Scotland_, p. 136, "removed from +the College field at the village of Roseisle."] + +[Footnote 12: _O.S._, 22.] + +[Footnote 13: _O.S._, 22, 23.] + +[Footnote 14: Robertson, _Early Kings_, vol. i, p. 116 and note, 116 +and 117.] + +[Footnote 15: _O.S._, 23, 24, 25, 26. _St. Olaf's Saga_, c. cviii, +ccxlv.] + +[Footnote 16: _O.S._, 27. These raids are unknown to English +historians.] + +[Footnote 17: _O.S._, 30.] + +[Footnote 18: _O.S._, 31.] + +[Footnote 19: _O.S._, 33, 34. See Tudor's _Orkney and Shetland_, p. +356. "Roland's Geo" is at the N. end of Papa Stronsay.] + +[Footnote 20: "Christ Church" in the Sagas denotes a Cathedral +Church.] + +[Footnote 21: _O.S._, 37. See _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_ +(Skene), p. 78.] + +[Footnote 22: _O.S._, 13-39.] + +[Footnote 23: Pope, _Torf._ (Trans.), p. 62 note. See _Genealogie of +the Earles_, p. 135.] + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +[Footnote 1: _Short Magnus Saga_, I. _O.S._, 37.] + +[Footnote 2: _O.S._, 38.] + +[Footnote 3: See _Orkney and Shetland Folk_ (Viking Society, 1914), +A.W. Johnston's note, p. 35. See Dunbar's _Scottish Kings_, p. 7.] + +[Footnote 4: See _Dalrymple's Collections_ (1705), p. 153 for the date +of Malcolm's marriage with St. Margaret, p. 157, where he puts the +marriage in 1070, after three years' courtship. See also pp. 163 and +164. Sir Archibald Dunbar puts Ingibjorg's marriage in 1059, as stated +above, and if Thorfinn was an Earl from his birth in 1008, he would +have been 50 years earl in 1058. As a king's grandson he might well +have been an earl from his birth.] + +[Footnote 5: Rolls Edition _O.S._, p. 45, c. 30. She must have died +before 1068 when Malcolm Canmore married Margaret, daughter of Edward +Atheling, sister of Edgar Atheling. Dunbar, _Scottish Kings_, p. +27. Was Ingibjorg's marriage within the prohibited degrees, and so +dissolved? See also Henderson, _Norse Influence, &c._, p. 25-26, +which is not correct. Earl Orm married Sigrid, d. of Finn Arneson not +Ingibjorg. See Table ix, _Saga Library_, vol. 6, Earls of Ladir, and +Table xi.] + +[Footnote 6: The _O.S._ mentions only Duncan. The other sons seem +doubtful. But see Dunbar, _Scottish Kings_, p. 31 and notes, and p. +38.] + +[Footnote 7: _O.S._, 40.] + +[Footnote 8: As to the Bishop, see _Orkney and Shetland Records_, +pp. 3-8; and as to their quarrels, see _O.S._, 40.; _Magnus Saga +the Longer_, 6 and 8. For St. Magnus, see Pinkerton's _Lives of +the Scottish Saints_, revised by W.M. Metcalfe (Paisley, Alexander +Gardner, 1889), p. xlii, and pp. 213-266.] + +[Footnote 9: So called because he wore the kilt, in its original form, +not the philabeg.] + +[Footnote 10: _Magnus Saga_, 10, 11 and 20. The story of this time +is confused and difficult. _Torfaeus_, trans., p. 85 and _Torfaeus +Orcades_, c. xviii. From c. 20 of _Magnus Saga the Longer_ it is clear +that Hakon in 1112 took Paul's share of Caithness also and Magnus took +Erlend's share, and that they divided that earldom and lands.] + +[Footnote 11: _O.S._, 45.] + +[Footnote 12: _Magnus Saga the Longer_, c. 10 to 28. _O.S._, c. 46 to +55. There is little doubt but that Magnus was the Scottish candidate +for Caithness, and Hakon the Norse favourite, and Hakon had to conquer +Cat.] + +[Footnote 13: Who was Dufnjal? What does "_firnari en broethrungr_" +mean? Who was Duncan the Earl? Possibly the Norse expression +means half first cousin, and if Dufnjal was Earl Duncan's son, the +relationship was through Malcolm III, and Dufnjal was a son of King +Duncan II, called "Duncan the Earl," of whom, however, the _O.S._ +and _Longer Magnus Saga_ say nothing in this connection. But see +Henderson, _Norse Influence, &c._, p. 26 contra.] + +[Footnote 14: Paplay, Thora's home, was probably in Firth Parish in +mainland, near Finstown. _Short Magnus Saga_, c. 18, not "twenty," but +twenty-one years after his death. See _O.S._, c. 60. But vide Tudor +_O. and S._, pp. 251-2 and 348. See also Anderson's Introduction, p. +xc, to Hjaltalin and Goudie's _O.S. contra._] + +[Footnote 15: _Viking Club Miscellany_, vol. i, pp. 43-65 (J. +Stefansson), but the authorship is disputed.] + +[Footnote 16: _O.S._, 47] + +[Footnote 17: _O.S._, 48. Both Hakon and Magnus were about five-sixths +Norse.] + +[Footnote 18: _O.S._, c. 55; _Magnus Saga_, 30.] + +[Footnote 19: _O.S._, 56.] + +[Footnote 20: See _Reg. Dunfermelyn_, No. 1 and 23 (p. 14); Lawrie, +_Scot. Charters_, pp. 100, 179; Viking Club, _Caithness and Sutherland +Records_, p. 18, the note to which seems correct. "The Earl" was +Ragnvald, who ruled as Harold's guardian at this time, in Caithness +also. Durnach is now Dornoch.] + +[Footnote 21: _Reg. Dunfermelyn_, No. 24 (p. 14). Supposed to be the +Huchterhinche of St. Gilbert's Charter to the Cathedral of Durnach. +_Sutherland Book_, iii, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 22: Dunbar, _Scot. Kings_, pp. 51, 60, 61, 63. The name is +spelt "Fretheskin" also.] + +[Footnote 23: Possibly 1120.] + +[Footnote 24: See _History and Antiq. of the Parish of Uphall_ by the +Rev. J. Primrose (1898).] + +[Footnote 25: _Family of Kilravoch_, p. 61. Robertson, _Early Kings_, +ii, 497, note.] + +[Footnote 26: See _Familie of Innes_ (Spalding Club), pp. 2. 51, 52.] + +[Footnote 27: _Sutherland Book_, vol. I, p. 7, and see map of Cat.] + +[Footnote 28: See Pedigree in Appendix. _Reg. Morav._, c. 99, p. 114. +Freskyn I was his _attavus_, or great-great-grandfather.] + +[Footnote 29: _Reg. Morav._ p. 139, ch. 126.] + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +[Footnote 1: _O.S._, 57, 58.] + +[Footnote 2: _O.S._, 56, 57.] + +[Footnote 3: _O.S._, 58.] + +[Footnote 4: _O.S._, 58.] + +[Footnote 5: Pope, _Torfaeus_ (trans.), note p. 133.] + +[Footnote 6: Can she have inhabited the Broch at Feranach, which had +six chambers in the thickness of the wall, (Curle's _Inventory_, +No. 314), or is the site of her homestead (probably of wood) now +undiscoverable? She was burnt in her homestead, not in her residence. +The Saga account points to a site on the west bank of the river.] + +[Footnote 7: _O.S._, 58.] + +[Footnote 8: _O.S._, 59.] + +[Footnote 9: _O.S._, 61, 62, 63, 65, c.f. the modern phrase "a young +hopeful."] + +[Footnote 10: _O.S._, 66.] + +[Footnote 11: _O.S._, 68.] + +[Footnote 12: _O.S._, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73-80.] + +[Footnote 13: See Tudor, _Orkney and Shetland_, pp. 35 and 375.] + +[Footnote 14: See note to Hjaltalin and Goudie _O.S._, p. 107, where +Atjokl's-bakki is suggested as an emendation, and also p. 115.] + +[Footnote 15: Maiming made a Northman impossible.] + +[Footnote 16: _O.S._, 81.] + +[Footnote 17: _O.S._, 81.] + +[Footnote 18: _O.S._, 82.] + +[Footnote 19: Guides would be easily got from Elgin. For the MacHeths, +constantly fled to the wilds of Cat for refuge, before, in 1210 or +later, they settled there, getting land in Durness after 1263.] + +[Footnote 20: i.e. The Minch. It is said that he was the ancestor of +the Macaulays of the Lewis, but Macaulay means son of Olaf, not of +Olvir.] + +[Footnote 21: _O.S._, 88. Earl Waltheof must have been a neighbour of +Freskyn in Moray.] + +[Footnote 22: _O.S._, 86.] + +[Footnote 23: _O.S._, 89. Ragnvald's verses are collected in _Corpus +Poet Boreale_, vol. ii, pp. 276-7. See Tudor, _O. and S._ p., 471.] + +[Footnote 24: Whence the English expression "bound" for a destination +by sea, i.e. "equipped," which is also a Norse word which has nothing +to do with the Latin "equus" a horse.] + +[Footnote 25: _O.S._, 91. Bilbao=the sea-borg on the River Nervion, +not Narbonne, see Rolls Ed., p. 163, note, and _Introduction_, p. +lix.] + +[Footnote 26: _O.S._, 89-99.] + +[Footnote 27: _O.S._, 99 and 100.] + +[Footnote 28: He was grandson of Hacon Paulson, a grandson of +Thorfinn, and he was also a grandson of Helga, Moddan's daughter.] + +[Footnote 29: _O.S._, 100.] + +[Footnote 30: See Tudor, _O. and S._, p. 344.] + +[Footnote 31: _O.S._, 101. Who this Erlend the Young was is unknown, +but he can hardly have been Jarl Erlend Haraldson, Margret's nephew. +Dasent, Rolls Edit., trans., p. xi. Tudor, _O. and S._, p. 445.] + +[Footnote 32: _O.S._, 102. Ingigerd would thus be born not later than +1136. She is possibly the "Ingigerthr, of women the most beautiful" in +the Runes of Maeshowe.] + +[Footnote 33: _O.S._, 102, not "from Beruvik," but "from the bridal" +(brudkaupi) probably.] + +[Footnote 34: This may be another headland. Brimsness is suggested. +_O.P._, ii, 801, contra.] + +[Footnote 35: _O.S._, 103, 104.] + +[Footnote 36: _O.S._, 105. See as to Ellar-holm (Helliar-holm) Tudor, +_O. and S._, 283.] + +[Footnote 37: _O.S._, 110, 111.] + +[Footnote 38: _O.S._, 111.] + +[Footnote 39: Curle, _Early Mon. Suthd._, p. 108 No. 316; and note +that the horns of the elk or reindeer have been found in Sutherland. +See _Proceedings of Scot. Antiq._, viii, p. 186; and ix, p. 324.] + +[Footnote 40: Thorsdale is the valley of the Thurso River. Calfdale is +the Calder Valley.] + +[Footnote 41: Force; possibly Forsie, or some waterfall said to be +near Achavarn on Loch Calder at the S.E. end of it. Halvard is in the +_Flatey Book_ called Hoskuld. _O.P._, ii, 761, at a ruin of a castle, +Tulloch-hoogie.] + +[Footnote 42: _O.S._, 112, 113. "Ergin" is the plural of airidh, +airidhean or "sheilings."] + +[Footnote 43: _Torfaeus._ Lib. 1, c. 36, _sub. fin._, with Papal +authority (_sed quaere_).] + +[Footnote 44: Ingibiorg or Elin possibly married Gilchrist, Earl of +Angus, as his second wife. But as to this the Sagas are silent.] + +[Footnote 45: _O.S._, 113. See _O.S._, Dasent trans., p. 225. _Hakon +Saga_, 169, Rolls edition.] + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +[Footnote 1: _O.S._, 114. There is a Mac William Earl of Caithness on +record in 1129. _Seats Peerage_ (Paul).] + +[Footnote 2: _O.S._, 81. _O.S._, Dasent trans., p. 225.] + +[Footnote 3: _O.S._, 115-118.] + +[Footnote 4: _Torf. Orc._, p. 153. He declined to come and fetch her.] + +[Footnote 5: _O.S. Addenda_, p. 225. Rolls edition, trans.] + +[Footnote 6: _Sverri Saga_, 90-93.] + +[Footnote 7: _Scottish Peerage_, vol. viii, p. 318 sqq.] + +[Footnote 8: Quoted by Nisbet, _Heraldry_, App. p. 183, and +_Dalrymple's Collections_, 1705, pp. 66-7 "quas terras pater suus +Friskin tenuit tempore regis David." Felix, Bishop of Moray, who is a +witness to it, was appointed in 1162 and died not later than 1171. As +to David's visit to Duffus, see _Chron. Mailros_, 74.] + +[Footnote 9: Shaw's _Moray_, Edit. 1775, p. 75, "several sons." _Reg. +Morav._ p. 10, and Nos. 12, 13, 19. See _Records of the Monastery of +Kinloss_, p. 112 and _Reg. Morav._, p. 456 "W. filius Frisekin. Hugo +filius ejus." Lohworuora--see Lawrie, _Early Scottish Charters_, pp. +185-6 and 429-30.] + +[Footnote 10: See _Lawrie Annals_, p. 389 and _Chron. Mailros_, +p, 113. See _Records of Kinloss_, p. 113, "Andreas filius Willelmi +Fresekin."] + +[Footnote 11: _Reg. Morav._, No. 1 charter of Skelbo to Gilbert. Hugo +grants it "Testibus Willielmo fratre meo, Andrea fratre meo." See also +_Reg. Morav._, p. 43, No. 40, rector of St. Peter's, Duffus, and No. +119, p. 131.] + +[Footnote 12: Shaw's _Moray_, edit. 1775, p. 75, and note ante, and p. +407, No. xxviii, "Willelmi filii Willelmi filii Freskini."] + +[Footnote 13: Paul, _Scot. Peerage_ (Sutherland), quotes Reg. Mag. +Sigil. Augt. 1452.] + +[Footnote 14: See _Robertson's Index_, p. xix. _O.P._, ii, p. 543.] + +[Footnote 15: _O.P._ II, ii, 655. _Acta Parl. Scot._, 1, p. 606, +_Robertson's Index_, p. xxiv.] + +[Footnote 16: _Sutherland Book_, vol. iii, p. 1. It may have been +hoped that Gilbert would succeed the maimed Bishop John, _Reg. Morav._ +p. xxxiii, note.] + +[Footnote 17: _Sutherland Book_, vol. iii, p. 2. The tenure was thus +by Scottish service of these lands, and so also of Sutherland itself. +It was no grant for religious or charitable purposes.] + +[Footnote 18: _Reg. Morav._ xxxv, a late marginal note.] + +[Footnote 19: Lawrie, _Early Scot. Charters_, pp. 185 and 430, note, +which puts the date at 1147-1150. Children, however, did witness +charters, and Hugo attests last.] + +[Footnote 20: _O.P._, ii, 486. _Reg. Morav._, xxxv, note q. Nos. 259, +215, 216; and _O.P._ ii, 482; and as to Freskin's succession, see No. +99 _Reg. Morav._, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 21: _Reg. Morav._ xiii, and No. 211.] + +[Footnote 22: See _Early Pedigree of the Freskyns_ at the end of this +book. See _Reg. Morav._, p. 89 (No. 80) and p. 133 (No. 121).] + +[Footnote 23: This may have happened a year earlier.] + +[Footnote 24: Skene, _Celtic Scotland_, vol. i, p. 470, quotes _Will. +Newburgh Chron._, b. 1, c. xxiv. Malcolm was personated by Wemund the +monk of Furness. See Note pp. 48-9 of _Viking Society's Year Book_, +vol. iv, 1911-2.] + +[Footnote 25: Fordun, _Annals 4._ Mackay, _Book of Mackay_, p. 24.] + +[Footnote 26: Robertson, _Early Kings_, vol. i, pp. 360-1. As to the +name Macheth and Macbeth, see _Scottish Hist. Rev._ 1920-1. We believe +the names to be distinct, not identical, Mackay being the son of Aedh, +in Gaelic MacAoidh.] + +[Footnote 27: Shaw's _Moray_, edit. 1775, p. 391, No. xiv. Innes says +Berowald was no Fleming.] + +[Footnote 28: See _Viking Club's Year Book_, iv, 1911-12, notes pp. +18-20.] + +[Footnote 29: _O.S._ III. This may be a translation of Loch Glendhu.] + +[Footnote 30: _F.B._, Addenda to _O.S._, trans. Dasent, Rolls edit.] + +[Footnote 31: Charter of St. Gilbert's Cathedral. _Sutherland Book_, +vol. iii, p. 3, No. 4. _Robertson's Index_, p. 16. _Reg. Dunfermelyn_, +7. See _O.P._ ii, p. 598. _Dalrymple's Collections_, p. 248.] + +[Footnote 32: _Sverri's Saga_ (Sephton, pp. 114 to 117), c. 90-93.] + +[Footnote 33: _O.P._, 11, ii, pp. 598 and 735. _Lib. Eccles. de Scon_, +p. 37, No. 58. Viking Club, _Caithness and Sutherland Records_, p. 2. +(_Chron. Mailros_), _Lawrie's Annals_, p. 257. A penny per house for +Peter's Pence was paid in his lifetime, _Viking Club Records_, p. 3, +4; _O.P._ says (p. 598) before 1181.] + +[Footnote 34: _The Sutherland Book_ quotes this opinion, vol. 1, p. +9, and Lord Hailes had special knowledge, see _Annals of Scotland_ +(Hailes), vol. 1, p. 148, anno 1222.] + +[Footnote 35: _O.P. Preface_, p. xxi, and pp. 458 and 529; and 413-4.] + +[Footnote 36: _Scottish Kings_, Dunbar, p, 80.] + +[Footnote 37: _Lib. Pluscard_, xxxvi, 1197-8. _Chron. Mailros_, 1197.] + +[Footnote 38: If it were true, as his son Hakon had died in 1171, it +would prove the death of Henry of Ross, Harold's eldest son by his +first marriage, before 1196. The grandsons would be sons of Harold's +daughter.] + +[Footnote 39: _O.S._ (Dasent trans.), p. 225. _Torfaeus Orcades_, i, +c. 38.] + +[Footnote 40: _O.S._ (Rolls Ed.), pp. 226-231. It was nearer, and +close to Thurso.] + +[Footnote 41: See _Hoveden Chron._, vol. iv, pp. 10-12, and _Scottish +Annals from English Chroniclers_, pp. 316-8. (Alan O. Anderson.)] + +[Footnote 42: _O.P._ ii, 803.] + +[Footnote 43: Dalharrold afterwards belonged to Johanna of +Strathnaver. _Reg. Morav._, p. 139, No. 126. Pope, _Torfaeus_, trans., +Note p. 169. This battle is also said to have been fought by William +the Lion himself, not by Reginald Gudrodson.] + +[Footnote 44: Only three are named, but six are afterwards referred +to. For Pope Innocent's letter see _O. and S. Records_, vol. 1, p. +25.] + +[Footnote 45: _O.S._, Dasent, Rolls edit., pp. 228-30. It is not +clear that the bishop lived till 1213. See _Two Ancient Records of the +Bishopric_, Bannatyne Club, pp. 6 and 7.] + +[Footnote 46: He was there when Bishop Adam was murdered in that +year.] + +[Footnote 47: This is a very large number and hardly credible. It was +not 6000. Can Eystein be the Island Stone, the Man of the Ord?] + +[Footnote 48: Bain, _Calendar of Documents_, Nos. 321 and 324.] + +[Footnote 49: _O.S._, Rolls edit., p. 230.] + +[Footnote 50: _Sverri Saga_, 118, 119, 125.] + +[Footnote 51: _Lord Hailes' Addional Case of Elizabeth, claimant of +the Earldom of Sutherland_, p. 8, and see Robertson, _Early Kings_, +vol. ii, p. 446; App. N. esp. p. 494.] + +[Footnote 52: One of the Gordons of Garty in Sutherland.] + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +[Footnote 1: See Peter Clauson Undal's Translation of the lost Inga +Saga, _O.S._, Dasent's trans., Rolls ed., pp. 234-6, from which David +and John appear as joint earls in Orkney and Shetland also, on payment +of a large sum, only after King Sverri's death.] + +[Footnote 2: _O.S._, Rolls edit., p. 231.] + +[Footnote 3: _Scotichronicon_, VIII, clxxvi.] + +[Footnote 4: _Fordun Gesta Annal._, xxviii, _Lawrie Annals_, p. 397, +"circa festum S. Petri ad vincula", i.e., Augt. 1. 1214. There is no +evidence whatever that her name was Matilda.] + +[Footnote 5: _Chron. Mailros_, p. 114; _Lawrie_, p. 395.] + +[Footnote 6: _Hakon Saga_, c. 20.] + +[Footnote 7: Do. c. 45.] + +[Footnote 8: _Flatey Book_; Rolls edit., _O.S._ p. 232. +_Breithivellir_ means Broadfield.] + +[Footnote 9: At Skinnet first; then, in 1239, at Dornoch even more +worthily and in state.] + +[Footnote 10: _Flatey Book_; Rolls edit. _O.S._, p. 232.] + +[Footnote 11: _Province of Cat_, p. 73; see _Wyntoun Chron._, vii, c. +9.] + +[Footnote 12: See _Robertson's Index_, p. xxv.] + +[Footnote 13: See _Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers_, Alan O. +Anderson, pp. 336-7, where the _Chronicle of Melrose_, 139, (1222) is +quoted, Lib. Pluscard, vii, 9.] + +[Footnote 14: _Wyntoun Chron._ vii, c. 9.] + +[Footnote 15: _Hakon Saga_, c. 86.] + +[Footnote 16: Do. c. 101. The Iceland Annals prove Harald's drowning.] + +[Footnote 17: _Hakon Saga_, c. 162, 165 and 167.] + +[Footnote 18: Snaekollr means Snowball. Being largely of Norse blood, +he was probably a fair Viking.] + +[Footnote 19: _Hakon Saga_, 169.] + +[Footnote 20: See Tudor's _Orkney and Shetland_, p. 344 and p. 53, and +_Hakon Saga_, 169-171.] + +[Footnote 21: _Hakon Saga_, 173.] + +[Footnote 22: Not _gydinga. Flatey Book_, iii, p. 528; _Torf. Orc._, +ii, p. 163.] + +[Footnote 23: Pope, _Torfaeus_ (trans.), p. 184, note.] + +[Footnote 24: No. 126.] + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +[Footnote 1: One daughter married Olaf, who was killed at Floruvagr in +battle in 1194, see _O.S._, Rolls edit., pp. 230-1 (trans.) Dasent.] + +[Footnote 2: Notably in Paul's _Scottish Peerage_ sub _Angus_ and +_Caithness_.] + +[Footnote 3: Ancestor of the Ogilvies, Earls of Airlie.] + +[Footnote 4: _Scots Peerage_ (Cokayne & Gibbs), sub _Angus_ and +_Caithness_. Dalrymple, _Collections_, p. 220.] + +[Footnote 5: _Reg. Aberbrothoc_, pp. 163 and 262, 1227, Jan. 16, +"Magno filio comitis de Anegus."] + +[Footnote 6: Robertson, _Early Kings_, vol. ii, p. 23 (note), who +quotes _Reg. Dunfermelyn_, No. 80, _Reg. Morav._ 110; _Lib. Holyrood_, +58, in support.] + +[Footnote 7: Shaw, _Moray_, 1775, p. 387, No. iv.] + +[Footnote 8: i.e., Malcolm's.] + +[Footnote 9: Surely an error for "Gilchrist."] + +[Footnote 10: See _Dalrymple's Collections_, 1705, pp. lxxiii-iv, +where "North Caithness" is distinguished from Sutherland +conjecturally. Probably, however, it was distinguished rather from the +southern part of modern Caithness, viz. Latheron and Wick parishes.] + +[Footnote 11: This was William de Federeth II, son of Christian, not +her husband of the same name.] + +[Footnote 12: This was Sir Reginald Cheyne III.] + +[Footnote 13: "Gilchrist" not "Gillebride" all through this +quotation.] + +[Footnote 14: Gilchrist, however, died in 1204.] + +[Footnote 15: Not, we think, of Erlend, but of Paul. But South +Caithness probably belonged to the Erlend share, i.e., Latheron and +Wick parishes.] + +[Footnote 16: _Sutherland Book_, vol. 1, p. 12, note.] + +[Footnote 17: _Robertson's Index_, p. 62.] + +[Footnote 18: _Reg. Morav._, p. 341. _O.P._, vol. ii, 709.] + +[Footnote 19: Can the Mallard or Mallart be _Abhainn na mala airde_, +"the river of the high brow"? Another interpretation, _Abhain na +malairte_, "river of the excambion" has been suggested.] + +[Footnote 20: Achness--_Ach-an-eas_ or the field of the waterfall, old +Gaelic _Achanedes_.] + +[Footnote 21: Marriages, however, of persons of unsuitable ages were +freely made in these old times.] + +[Footnote 22: Norse jarldoms were not given to females, but the +jarldom of Orkney was, failing sons, given to the sons of daughters of +preceding jarls, such as Ragnvald, son of Gunnhild, and Harald Ungi, +son of Jarl Ragnvald's daughter.] + +[Footnote 23: _Reg. Morav._, 215, 216; _O.P._, vol. ii, p. 486.] + +[Footnote 24: _O.P._, ii, p. 482. Euphamia or Eufemia is a Ross family +name for centuries. _Reg. Morav._, p. 333.] + +[Footnote 25: _Bain_, vol. 1, year 1258-9.] + +[Footnote 26: _St. Andrew's_, pp. 346 and 347; and for the charter see +_Reg. Morav._, p. 138.] + +[Footnote 27: _Reg. Morav._, p. xxxvi. We do not lay stress upon this +argument from the endowment of _two_ chaplains; but it may import that +Freskin died a violent death, unshriven.] + +[Footnote 28: We can, however, trace many parts of "Lord" Chen's +lands. For they are called the lands of "Lord" Chen in the +descriptions in later charters quoted in _Origines Parochiales_, vol. +ii, pp. 745 Reay, 749 Thurso, 760 Halkirk, 764 Latheron, 774 Wick, +787-8 Olrig, 790 Dunnet, and 814 Canisbay. His lands in all these +parishes were of considerable extent. They included probably the whole +modern estate of Langwell and most of the parish of Latheron, and +Wick up to Keiss Bay and beyond Ackergill and Riess. In Watten they +comprised Lynegar, Dunn, Bilbster, and others: in Halkirk Parish, +Sibster, Leurary, Gerston, Baillecaik, Scots Calder, North Calder, and +Banniskirk; in Reay Parish, Lybster, Borrowstoun, Forss, and part of +Skaill and Brawlbin: in Thurso, Clairdon, Murkle, Sordale, Amster, +Ormelie and the Thurso fishings; in Dunnet Parish, Rattar, Haland, +Hollandmaik, Corsbach, Ham, and Swiney; while in Canisbay Parish, +Brabstermyre, Duncansby, and Sleiklie belonged to Lord Chen. But +neither "Lord" Chen nor Johanna ever owned Brawl, the principal seat +of the Earls of Caithness; and the Earls of the Angus line had +the rest, mainly in Canisbay, Bower, and the northern part of Wick +parishes. Johanna did not own any of the Chen lands in the Earldom of +South Caithness, which Reginald Chen III acquired after 1340, i.e. the +parishes of Latheron and Wick. She probably owned the old parish of +Far and Halkirk but not Latheron, though this is erroneously implied +in the text.] + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +[Footnote 1: _Reg. Morav._, pp. 88, 89, 99, 101, 333. Knighted 1215, +was earl in 1226, founded the Abbey of Fearn before 1230, died about +1251.] + +[Footnote 2: _Robertson's Index_, p. xxi.] + +[Footnote 3: _Hakon Saga_, 245 and 307.] + +[Footnote 4: _Genealogie of the Earles_, p. 30, and _Sutherland Book_, +vol. ii, p. 3 No. 4; _O.P._, ii, 647 note. This is not the Cross now +standing. See Macfarlane, _Geog. Collections_, vol. ii, pp. 450 and +467, where it is called Ri-crois. The story that Dornoch took its +name from the slaying of this Chief with the leg of a horse is quite +unfounded, for the name Durnach appears in a charter about a hundred +years earlier, and has nothing to do with a "horse's hoof." Its +derivation and meaning are alike obscure. Chalmers, _Caledonia_, v, p. +192, gives to Dornock in Dumfriesshire the derivation "Dur-nochd" or +the "bare" or "naked water." Its situation is like that of Dornoch, +with a wide expanse of tidal sands.] + +[Footnote 5: _Sutherland Book_, vol. iii, p. 3, No. 4. See also _Two +Ancient Records of Caithness_, Bannatyne Club. The bishop himself was +a Canon.] + +[Footnote 6: _Genealogie of the Earles_, pp. 6 and 31; _O.P._, ii, +601.] + +[Footnote 7: _Liber Eccles. de Scon_, p. 45, No. 73. Viking Club, +_Sutherland and Caithness Records_, No. 8, pp. 12 and 13.] + +[Footnote 8: _O.P._, ii, p. 603. As regards the marriage of Iye Mor +Mackay to the daughter of Walter de Baltroddi (Bishop), see _Book of +Mackay_, p. 37.] + +[Footnote 9: _Hakon Saga_, 312, 314.] + +[Footnote 10: Do. 317.] + +[Footnote 11: _Sutherland Book_, vol. 1, p. 15. _Genealogie of the +Earls_, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 12: _Hakon Saga_, 319.] + +[Footnote 13: _Hakon Saga_, 318. As to the hostages and their expenses +see _Compot. Camer._ 1-31. From additions to _Hakon's Saga_, Rolls +edition, it appears that Caithness was also fined and an army sent +there by the king of Scotland with a view to the conquest of Orkney.] + +[Footnote 14: _Hakon Saga_, 319. The calculation was made by Sir David +Brewster.] + +[Footnote 15: Also called Port Droman. Possibly Hals-eyar-vik = +neck-island-bay.] + +[Footnote 16: _Hakon Saga_, 318.] + +[Footnote 17: _Hakon Saga_, 327.] + +[Footnote 18: There is a tradition that Hakon slaughtered cattle on +Lechvuaies, a rock in Loch Erriboll.] + +[Footnote 19: _Hakon Saga_, 328-331. Goafiord--Eilean Hoan at the +entrance to Loch Erriboll still retains the name.] + +[Footnote 20: See Tudor, _Orkney and Shetland_, p. 307. What happened +to Earl Magnus III, who in July 1263 had been obliged to join his +overlord, King Hakon, and sail with him from Bergen? The Orkneymen +were far from Norway, but dangerously close to Scotland. Their jarl +had large possessions in Caithness, which he feared to lose if he made +war on the Scottish king. Magnus therefore "stayed behind" in Orkney, +and never went to Largs, but probably went to the Scottish king. +Caithness first suffered from levies of cattle and provisions at the +hands of Hakon, and afterwards from fines levied and hostages taken +by the Scottish King, who sent an army, no doubt under the Chens and +Federeths and others, to threaten Orkney and hold Caithness and levy +the fine. Dugald, king of the Sudreys, intercepted the fine, and +disappeared. Orkney had a Norse garrison, and the Scottish army never +went to Orkney, Magnus was reconciled to Alexander III, and after +the Treaty of Perth, in 1267, was reconciled also to King Magnus of +Norway, on terms that he should hold Orkney of him and his successors, +but that Shetland should remain a direct appanage of the Norse Crown, +as it had been ever since Harold Maddadson's punishment in 1195. (See +Munch's _History of Norway_; and _Torfaeus Orcades_, p. 172; and _King +Magnus Saga_, Rolls edition of _Hakon's Saga_, pp. 374-7).] + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +[Footnote 1: _Scandinavian Britain_, p. 62. To Orkney and Shetland +they came mainly from the fjords north of Bergen.] + +[Footnote 2: _Oxford Essays_, 1858, p. 165, Dasent, an admirable +account of the Norsemen in Iceland.] + +[Footnote 3: _Hume Brown, History_, ante.] + +[Footnote 4: _Scandinavian Britain_, p. 35.] + +[Footnote 5: See _Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland_ (Henderson), +_passim_; and _Sutherland and the Reay Country_, (Rev. Adam Gunn), +chapter on "Language," p. 172.] + +[Footnote 6: Viking Club, _Old Lore Miscell._, vol. ii, 213; vol. iii, +14, 182, 234.] + +[Footnote 7: See _Burnt Njal_, (Dasent) for a plan and elevation of a +Skali. Skelpick may be Skaill-beg, or Little Hall.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ruins of Saga-time_ (in Iceland) by Thorsteinn +Erlingson, David Nutt (1899).] + +[Footnote 9: See his _Essay_ with plans in the _Saga Book of the +Viking Club_, vol. iii, pp. 174-216.] + +[Footnote 10: i.e. Broadfield; see _O.S._, Rolls edition, p. 232, +formerly Brathwell.] + +[Footnote 11: Mousa in Shetland was twice so used, by two honeymoon +pairs. See Tudor, _O. and S._, p. 481.] + +[Footnote 12: _O.P._, vol. ii, 758.] + +[Footnote 13: _O.S._, 84, 100 and 22; 58, 78, 100, 101, 102, 113, and +pp. 226, 227, 228, in Rolls edition. Hjalmundal is the strath, not the +village of Helmsdale.] + +[Footnote 14: We find in Latheron in Caithness "Golsary" the shieling +of Gol. Platagall, see _O.P._, ii, p. 680.] + +[Footnote 15: The bodily form often follows that of fathers of a fair +race, it is said.] + +[Footnote 16: See p. 21.] + +[Footnote 17: Frontispiece to vol. 1 of Du Chaillu's _Viking Age_.] + +[Footnote 18: See _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, Dr. Joseph +Anderson's _Rhind Lectures_ in 1879, pp. 141-2; _Scandinavian +Britain_, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 19: _Saga of Erik the Red_ and _St. Olaf's Saga_. See _Orig. +Islandicae_, vol. ii, Bk. v, pp. 588-756 "Explorers."] + +[Footnote 20: Yet see the Romance of _Guillaume le Roi_, Chroniques +Anglo-Normandes, vol. iii, Francisque Michel.] + +[Footnote 21: As witness the Seaforths (Sae-fjorthr) of the 51st +Division in France.] + +[Footnote 22: Vol. 1, p. 45. See also Burton's _History of Scotland_, +vol. i, chapter xi, and vol. ii, pp. 14 and 15.] + + + + +APPENDIX. + +EARLY PEDIGREE OF THE FRESKYNS. + + FRESKYN I + + of Strabrock and Duffus, b. about 1100, was granted Duffus about 1130; + entertained David I in 1150 there; died between 1166 and 1171. + | + .--------------------+--------------------. + | | +(1)William MacFrisgyn, Grantee of (2)Hugo Fresechin witnessed the +Strabrock, Duffus, &c., "_quas Charter of Lohworuora Church +terras pater suus Friskin tenuit (Borthwick) to Herbert, Bishop +tempore regis David_," 1165-1171. of Glasgow before 1152, (_Hug. +Witnessed Charter of Innes to filio Fresechin_). +Berowald the Fleming about 1160. + | + .--+-------------------------------+----------------------. + | | | +(1)Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland, (2)William filius Willelmi filii (3)Andrew, +father was William, son Freskin, who calls Hugo his parson +of Freskin, died before 1214. lord and brother, was Lord of + | of Petty, Bracholie, Boharm Duffus. + | and Artildol: d. before 1226. + | | + | +---------------------. + +------------------------------------+------------. | + | | | | +(1)William _dominus (2)Walter de Moravia (3)Andrew, Bishop Walter de +Sutherlandiae, b. ? d. before 20th of Moray. Moravia de +filius et heres March 1248, of Duffus Petty, +quondam Hugonis_, buried there guardian +cr. first Earl with his father of King +after 1237, died Hugo 'beatus,' m. Alexander +1248. | Euphamia, d. of Ferchar III and + | Macintagart, his + | Earl of Ross, circa Queen, + | 1224. | 1255 + | | | +William, 2nd Earl Freskinus II, who had a "proavus et Walter dominus +of Sutherland, attavus" in Moray and was _nepos_ de Bothwell, +1248-1307. (grandson) Hugonis, m. Lady Johanna m.d. of John + | of Strathnaver. He was born (?) Cumyn, d. circa + | about 1225, Lord of Duffus by 1248, 1294. | + | d. 1262-3 (Ch. 99 _Reg. Morav._) | + | | .------+--. + .--+----------. .---+----------. | | + | | | | | | +William, Kenneth, (1)Mary of (2)Christian, William, Andrew. +Third Fourth Duffus, William d.s.p. | +Earl of Earl of m. Federeth I. | +Sutherland, Sutherland, Reginald | | +1307-1327. 1327-1333, fell Chen II. | | + +--at Halidon Hill. | .----------+ .-----------.---+ + | .----------+ | | | + | | | | | + | Reginald Chen III William de Sir Andrew John of + | "Morar na Shein" Federeth II Bothwell, Abercairney. + | had half Caithness, granted one Wardane of + | one quarter by quarter of Scotland, + | grant. | Caithness d. 1338. + | | to Reginald + | | Chen III. + | | + .------+-------. +----.------------------. + | | | | +William Nicolas m. Mary Marjory +Fifth Earl of of | of m. 1 Sir John +Sutherland, Torboll | Duffus Douglas +1333. | m. 2 Sir John + | | Keith of + | Whence the Inverugie + | Duffus Family | + | and Peerage. | +(For rest of (For rest of pedigree | +pedigree see see Sutherland book.) | +Sutherland Book.) Andrew Keith + of Inverugie. + + +NOTE.--William MacFrisgyn is said by Shaw in his History of +Moray, 1775 edit., p. 75, to have had several sons, viz.:--Hugo of +Sutherland, (2) Sir John (whence the Atholl family), (3) William of +Petty, (4) Sir John of Moray (whence Abercairney), (5) Andrew, Bishop +of Moray, (6) Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness, and (7) Richard of Culbin: +_sed quaere_. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Aberbrothock. + + Aberdeen; + bishopric; + invaded. + + Aberdeenshire; + why no brochs? + + Achavarn. + + Achness. + + Acre. + + Adam, earl of Angus. + + Adam, bishop of Caithness; + buried. + + Adamnan. + + Aethelfrith. + + Afreka, dau. of earl of Fife, m. Earl Harold Maddadson, their children; + divorced by Harold. + + Agricola, Tacitus. + + Alane, thane of Sutherland. + + Alban; + its provinces; + common language; + ravaged by Irish Danes; + wars of kings of A. against Northmen; + Moray stretched across A.; + Caithness. + + Alcluyd (Dunbarton). + + Alexander I. + + Alexander II cr. Wm. Freskyn earl of Sutherland; + punished burners of Bishop Adam; + confiscated half Caithness; + grant of earldom of south Caithness to Magnus, earl of Angus; + Magnus II, or Malcolm witness to charter; + succession to throne; + revolt of Donald Ban MacWilliam; + Argyll conquered; + Caithness subdued (1222); + rebellions in Moray and Galloway; + embassy to Norway; + open letter for Scone; + died. + + Alexander III; + m. Margaret, dau. of Henry III; + his only child, Margaret; + embassy to Norway; + conquered Isle of Man and Hebrides. + + Altyre, Standing Stane of Duffus removed to. + + America, Norsemen discovered; + heard of by Jean Cabot in Iceland. + + Amlaiph (Olaf) Craig. + + Anderson, Alan O.; + _Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers_. + + Anderson, Joseph, 11; + O.S. trans.; + _Scotland in Pagan Times_, q.v.; + _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, q.v. + + Andres Nicholas' son. + + Andres, son of Sweyn. + + Andrew, Bishop of Caithness, had grant of Hoctor Common; + Culdean monk; + abbot of Dunkeld; + died at Dunfermline; + a witness. + + Andrews, St., bishopric founded; + Roger, bishop of. + + Anglo-Normandes, Chroniques, (F. Michel). + + Angus, earls of (see also under names), + Gillebride; + Adam, son of Gillebride; + Gilchrist, son of Gillebride, and father of Magnus II, earl of Orkney + and Caith., + Duncan, son of Gilchrist; + Malcolm, earl of Caithness and Angus; + Matilda, countess of, dau. of Malcolm; + Gilbert d'Umphraville, earl of A., husband of Matilda, + Gilbert d'Umphraville, son of Matilda. + Pedigree. + + Angus, son of Gillebride, earl of Angus. + + Anlaf, or Olaf, earl in C. + + Applecross, in Ross, lay abbots. + + Archibald, bishop of Moray. + + Ardovyr (Gael., upper water), identified as Loch Coire and Mallard River, + i.e., "Abhain 'a Mhail Aird" of Ord. Map, part of Johanna's estate in + Strathnaver. + + Argyll; + St. Columba landed from Ulster; + Scots king; + Dalriadic territory; + known as Airergaithel; + Galgaels; + Somerled of; + conquered by king Alexr. + + Arnfinn Thorfinnson, earl, m. Ragnhild, Eric's dau. + + Arnkell Torf-Einarson, earl, slain in England. + + Artildol. + + Asgrim's Ergin, now Assary. + + Asleif, mother of Sweyn. + + Asleifarvik (now Old-shore, also called Port Droman). + + Assynt; + included in Creich (q.v.); + Store Point. + + Athelstan. + + Atholl (Atjokl); + Ath-Fodla, a Pictish province; + Picts absorbed by Scots; + earls of; + Sweyn Asleifarson visits; + earl Paul died; + bishop John. + + Atholl, earls of; + Maddad, m. Margret dau. of Hakon; + earl of A., in 1236, burned to death; + earls descended from Freskyn. + + Aud the deeply wise, in Caith., settled in Iceland. + + Audhild, dau. of Thorleif, mistress of Sigurd Slembi-diakn; + m. Eric Streita; + her son, Eric Stagbrellir; + Johanna of Strathnaver, a connection. + + Audna, or Edna, dau. of Kiarval, m. Hlodver, jarl. + + + Backies, Norse derivation. + + Bakke, in place-names. + + Baltroddi, Walter de, bishop of C. + + Bard, next of kin of Ulf the Bad, Orkney. + + Barelegs, nickname of king Magnus, because he wore the kilt. + + Barr, St., of Dornoch; + his Fair in Dornoch; + old church of St. Barr; + site. + + Barth, or Bard, Helgi's son, and St. Barr. + + Beauly, estate of Bissets. + + Beauly Firth; + site of Redcastle on. + + Ben-y-griams. + + Bergen, St. Ragnvald returned to, from Grimsby; + John, earl of Caithness, present at; + earl John left his son as hostage; + king Hakon buried in Christchurch; + k. Hakon and earl Magnus III sailed from. + + Berowald the Fleming (Innes q.v.), had grant in Moray. + + Berridale conveyed by Malise II, earl, to Reginald More, afterwards acquired + by Chens. + + Beruvik, misreading of. + + Berwick, North, raided by Sweyn. + + Bethoc, eld. dau. of Malcolm II, m. Crinan; + grandmother of earl Moddan. + + Bilbao, Spain; + Nervion. + + Birrenswark, near Ecclefechan, was Brunanburg. + + Birsay, Orkney, earl Thorfinn's Hall; + cathedral built by Thorfinn; + but replaced by St. Magnus' Cathedral. + + Bisset, a Norman family; + at Beauly. + + Bjarni, bishop of Orkney, probable author of _Orkneyinga Saga_; + his parents; + relative of Sweyn; + at Bergen. + + Blood-eagle. + + Blood-rain in Iceland. + + Blundus, Gaufrid, burgess of Inverness. + + Boar, wild, in Cat. + + Boece. + + Boreale, Corpus Poeticum. + + Borrobol. + + Borve, rock-castle. + + Bothgowanan, or Pitgavenny. + + Bothwell, family of, descended from Freskyn. + + Bothwell, Sir Andrew of. + + Boun, whence Eng. bound, i.e., equipped. + + Bracholy. + + Brawl, formerly Brathwell (Breithivellir), Castle; + deriv. + + Breithifjorthr, i.e., Broad-firth, Moray Firth. + + Bressay Sound. + + Brewster, Sir David. + + Brian Borumha, king of Ireland. + + Brichan, Jas.; + _Orig. Paroch. Scot._. + + Bricius, bishop. + + Brochs, or Pictish towers; + Roman relics found in; + date, number, distribution, rise, construction, &c.; + Norse place-names near brochs; + at Dunrobin; + used by Norse as dwellings; + Craig Carrill, Roman tablets found; + Skene on origin of; + at Feranach. + + Broethrungr, firnari en, first cousin once removed. + + Broxburn, (Strabrock). + + Brunanburgh, site. + + Brusi Sigurdson, earl. + + Buchan, earl of. + + Burghead, Turfness of Saga; + Norse raids from B. checked by Duffus. + + Burnt Njal, Saga of; + transl. by Sir G.W. Dasent. + + + Cabot, Jean, in Iceland. + + Cailleach (Carline) Stone in Kyleakin. + + Cait, or Cat, Pictish province of, (now Caithness and Sutherland, q.v.), + in three parts, (1) Ness, (2) Strathnavern, and (3) Sudrland; + description of land; + unsuitable for trees in Ness; + west uninhabited in Viking times; + deer, etc., abounded; + Athelstan's naval demonstration; + held by earls of Orkney; + Duncan the maormor; + Picts and Norse; + map; + Pictish clergy driven from north-east by Norse; + land and people on arrival of Norse. + + Cat, maormors of; + Duncan, or Dungall; + Moldan or Moddan. + + Caithness (Ness), part of the ancient province of Cat, q.v.; + Norse occupied fertile parts; + ancient monuments; + writing; + _Orkneyinga Saga_ only record before 12th cent.; + earlier notices and later records; + earldom claimed by Sigurd Hlodverson; + Skuli Thorfinnson cr. earl; + C. people in Iceland; + sea battle between Ulf and Helgi; + Moddan, earl of C.; + his expedition to; + Norse earls; + Thorfinn returns to, after Scottish conquests; + "king of Catanesse," in "William the Wanderer"; + St. Magnus; + seized by earl Hakon; + earl Magnus favoured in; + earldom conferred on Ragnvald Gudrodson; + much of owned by Moddan's family; + Norse steadily lost hold on C.; + Norse driven outward and eastward; + bishopric founded; + bishop Andrew; + Norse earls; + family of Freskyn de Moravia; + earldom of David I; + robberies by Sweyn; + Malcolm IV granted half earldom to Erlend Haraldson; + red deer and reindeer hunting; + rebellions; + bishop's litigation with earls of Sutherland; + Innes family; + earldom held of Scottish crown; + diocese and cathedral; + bishop Andrew; + first conquest by King William; + subdued by King William; + earl Ragnvald's half conferred on Harald Ungi; + earl Harold slew earl Harald Ungi; + Caithness given to Ragnvald Gudrodson; + who defeated earl Harold at Dalharrold; + Ragnvald's stewards left in charge, their fate; + the lawman; + Ragnvald bought earldom; + extent of earl Harold's earldom; + Scottish policy in the north; + old Norse earldom broken up; + services of Freskyn family; + extent of earldom of earl David; + the burning of bishop Adam; + thingstead and lawman; + the earldom; + succession to earldom; + subjected by king Alexr. II, 1222; + king Hakon's fine; + escaped attack by Hakon; + Scottish subjection of Norse; + Norse adopted Gaelic; + Norse place-names; + Norse type still in evidence; + Normans, Cheynes, Oliphants and St. Clairs; + inheritance of Erlend lands by Normans; + inhabitants a blend of Gael and Norse. + + Caithness, church in; + bishopric founded; + cathedral at Halkirk, + at Dornoch; + bishop's palace at Thurso; + constitution of diocese; + records; + bishops: Andrew; + John; + Adam; + Gilbert; + William; + Walter de Baltroddi. + + Caithness, earldom of; + in the 14th cent. a moiety in the Angus earls and the Chen family; + South Caithness granted to earl Magnus II; + Brawl, a capital residence of the earls in C.; + devolution of earldom and tribal owners; + North and South divisions; + hostages taken by Scotland after Largs; + paid a fine to king Hakon. + + Caithness, earls of; + Thorfinn Sigurdson, first Scottish earl; + Skuli cr. earl by Scots king; + Moddan cr. earl by Scots king; + Crichton and Sinclair earls; + earl's office descended to females; + Norse and tribal land-owners; + Scottish policy in regard to succession in C. + + Caithness and Sutherland Records, Viking Society. + + Caithness, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of. + + Caithness, Prehistoric Remains of, (S. Laing and T.H. Huxley). + + Calder, Loch. + + Calder Valley, Calfdale of Saga. + + Caledonia, (G. Chalmers). + + Caledonians, Annals of the, (Ritson). + + Caledonians inhabited the Grampians; + Romans failed to conquer; + Roman wars effected union of; + St. Ninian, Christian mission, through Roman influence. + + Cantyre. + + Carham; victory of Malcolm II. + + Cat, Province of, (Angus Mackay). + + Ce, the province Keith, or Mar. + + Celtic Britain, (Rhys). + + Celtic Scotland, (W.F. Skene); + on succession to Caithness; + Sir W. Fraser's criticism. + + Celts, non-seafaring; + Norse influence; + Gall-gaels; + influence of Norse on Gaelic, and of Gael on Norse; + "P" and "Q" Celts; + kilted warriors of Norse extraction. + + Celts, Survival of Beliefs among the, (George Henderson). + + Chen, or Cheyne, family in Caithness; + descendants of Johanna of Strathnaver; + family lands. + + Chen II, Reginald; + signatory of National Bond with Wales; + father of Reginald Chen III; + m. Mary, dau. of Freskin and Johanna of Strathnaver, got one-fourth of + Caithness; + had regrant of Strathnaver lands; + Kerrow-na-Shein. + + Chen III, Reginald, known as "Morar na Shein," acquired Berridale in south + Caithness from Malise II; + owned a moiety of earldom of Caith., lived in parish of Halkirk; + grandson of Johanna; + Kerrow-na-Shein; + his estate; + acquired south Caithness lands after 1340; + acquired Christian (Freskyn's) fourth; + lands. + + Christ Church, Norse name for a cathedral. + + Christ Church, Bergen; + king Hakon buried. + + Christ's Kirk, Birsay; + burial of St. Magnus. + + Christian I, king of Norway; + mortgaged Orkney and Shetland to Scotland. + + Christiania Fjord, or the Vik. + + Church; + Pictish, Columban and Catholic; + Norse influence. + + Clairdon, near Thurso; + earl Harald Ungi defeated; + where Lifolf Baldpate fell. + + Clibreck (Clibr'), part of Johanna's estate. + + Clon, in Ross, granted by earl of Ross to Walter de Moravia. + + Clontarf, the battle of. + + Clouston, J. Storer; + _A Branch of the Family_; + Orkney trithing. + + Clyne. + + Cobbie Row, ruins of the castle of Kolbein Hruga, in Wyre. + + Coire, Loch; + lands probably held by Moddan family. + + Coire-na-fearn, (Cornefern) Strathnavern; + part of Johanna's estate. + + Collingwood, W.G., on Thorfinn as "king of Catanesse."; + see _Scandinavian Britain_, transl. _William the Wanderer_. + + Columba, St.; + Adamnan's Life of; + mission to Picts, settlement in Iona; + clergy removed to Dunkeld; + relics removed; + patron saint of Scot and Pict; + his cult and culture destroyed by Norse. + + Columban settlements of hermits and missionaries; + Columban church; + replaced by Catholic. + + Columbus; + discovered America long after Norsemen. + + Comyn, Alexr.; + see Buchan, earl of. + + Comyn, John, m. Matilda heiress of Malcolm, earl of Angus. + + Comyn, Walter; + earl of Menteith. + + Constantine I; + viking raids. + + Constantine II; + Norse seize C. and S. + + Constantine III; + Danish attacks. + + Constantinople (Micklegarth). + + Coracles, Pictish boats. + + Cortachy, advowson of. + + Craig Carrill Broch; + Roman tablets found. + + Crakaig, crooked bay, now drained. + + Creich, owned by Hugo Freskyn; + including Assynt; + granted by Hugo Freskyn to Gilbert while archdeacon of Moray. + + Crinan, Abthane of Dunkeld, m. Bethoc, dau. of Malcolm II. + + Croc Skardie; + (?) Sigurd's Howe. + + Cromarty; + northern Suter of; + Norse place-names; + Macbeth's property. + + Cruithne and his seven sons. + + Curle, A.O.; + early monuments of Caith. and Sutherland. + + Cyderhall, see Sigurd's Howe. + + + + Dale, Dalar or Dalr, C.; + earl Skuli slain; + home of Moddan. + + Dalharrold, on River Naver; + belonged to Johanna. + + Dalriadic kingdom. + + Dalrymple's Collections, on divorce; + on earl Magnus II. + + Damsey; + earl Erlend killed. + + Danes; + Irish Danes. + + Darratha-Liod. + + Dasent, Sir G.W.; + transl. _Orkneyinga Saga_, q.v.; + _Oxford Essays_, q.v.; + _Saga of Burnt Njal_, q.v. + + David I, king of Scotland; + church organisation; + earldom of Caithness held of him; + his tutor John, bishop of Glasgow; + visited by Sweyn Asleifarson; + introduced feudal barons and charters; + at Duffus Castle; + by education a Norman knight. + + David II. + + David Haraldson, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + did not have earl Ragnvald's share of Caith. earldom; + succeeded to a reduced territory; + sole earl of Orkney; + joint earl with earl John; + death. + + Dawey (Dalvey). + + Death in bed, a reproach among Norse. + + Deer; + earls Ragnvald and Harald hunted red deer and reindeer in + Caithness; + red deer abounded in Cat. + + Deerness, Mull of; + sea-fight between Thorfinn and Duncan I; + king Hakon's fleet passed. + + Deerstalking, days of, Scrope. + + De Moravia, see under Freskyn. + + Dingwall; + southern limit of Norse. + + Dirlot, or Dilred, in Strathmore, C. + + Dolfin, son of Maldred. + + Dollar; + Scots defeated by Danes. + + Donada, dau. of Malcolm II, m. Finnleac. + + Donald, supposed son of Malcolm III. + + Donald Bane, claimant to Scottish crown. + + Donald Ban MacWilliam; + claimant of Scottish crown; + his son Guthred slain; + descended from Ingibjorg, widow of Thorfinn and Malcolm Canmore. + + Dornoch (Durnach); + supposed dedication of Cathedral; + monks to be protected; + owned by Hugo Freskyn; + in earldom of Caithness; + cathedral of St. Barr; + excluded from earldom of earl David; + part granted by Hugo Freskyn to Gilbert; + Embo near D., Norse defeated; + existed in Norse times; + Durnach; + cathedral lands; + bishop Adam buried in; + traditional origin of name. + + Dornock, Dumfriesshire, deriv. + + Dorruthar. + + Dougal of the Isles, in Orkney; + joined Hakon's expedition. + + Douglas, family of. + + Dovyr, tofftys de; + part of Johanna's estate; + from Gael. for water, identified as River and Loch Naver. + + Draughts; + played by St. Ragnvald. + + Dublin; + Sweyn killed at. + + Dufeyra. + + Duffus; + near Burghead or Turfness; + castle built by Freskyn de Moravia; + estates owned by Hugo Freskyn; + Freskyn, lord of; + estate succeeded to by Walter Freskyn; + church; + William MacFrisgyn second lord of; + chapel of St. Lawrence; + Freskyn's fortress checked Norse raids; + king David's visit; + rector of St. Peter's. + + Dufnjal. + + Dugald, king of Sudreys; + intercepted the Scotch fine on C. + + D'Umphraville, Gilbert--earl of Angus; + m. Matilda, countess of Angus. + + D'Umphraville, Gilbert--earl of Angus; + son of Matilda. + + Dunadd. + + Dunbar, Sir Archibald; _Scottish Kings_, q.v. + + Dunbarton, Dun-bretan, fort of the Britons. + + Duncan I; + parentage; + Karl Hundason; + at North Berwick; + defeated by earl Thorfinn off Deerness; + and at Turfness; + his death and age; + created Moddan, his sister's son, earl of Caithness. + + Duncan II, king of Scotland; + son of Malcolm and Ingibjorg. + + Duncan, earl; + father of Dufnjal. + + Duncan, earl of Angus. + + Duncan, maormor of Duncansby; + m. Groa; + his dau. Grelaud. + + Duncan, earl of Fife; + dau. Afreka m. Harald Maddadson. + + Duncansby or Dungallsby. + + Dundas, Sir David. + + Dunfermelyn, Reg. + + Dunfermline; + Bishop Andrew a Culdean monk of. + + Dungal's Noep, C.; + battle. + + Dunkeld; + clergy of Iona removed to, eccl. capital for Scots and Picts; + capital of southern Picts; + bishopric founded; + Andrew, bishop of Caith., abbot of. + + Dunnet Head. + + Dunrobin; + glen; + charter room; + Robert, legendary 2nd earl of Sutherland, founder (?); + MS. of Constitution of diocese; + Norse derivation. + + Dunskaith, Castle of. + + Dunstable, Annals of. + + Durness (Dyrness); + clan Mackay; + in old earldom of Caithness; + Asleifarvik, anchorage of Hakon's fleet; + raided by Norse in retreat from Largs; + Seanachaistel, chaistel; + MacHeth settlement. + + + Egilsay; + martyrdom of St. Magnus; + bishop John from Athole visited. + + Einar Oily-tongue; + slew Havard jarl. + + Eindridi; + wrecked off Shetland; + sailed with earl Ragnvald to the East; + his treachery; + and desertion. + + Ekkjal, Norse name of Oykel. + + Ekkjals-bakki; + southern limit of conquest of earl Sigurd I; + indentification disputed; + earl Paul's journey to Athole; + in Sweyn's track to burn Frakark; + Atjokl's bakki. + + Eclipse of sun in Orkney, Augt. 5th, 1263. + + Eddirdovir, castle of, at Redcastle. + + Eddrachilles. + + Edgar, claimant to Scottish crown. + + Einar Sigurdson, earl; + his slaughter. + + Elgin; + cathedral, built by Andrew, bishop of Moray; + records; + Johanna granted lands in Strathnaver for the cathedral; + constitution of diocese based on Lincoln; + guides for Sweyn. + + Elin, dau. of Eric Stagbrellir; + at home near Loch Naver; + she, or sister, m. Gilchrist, earl of Angus, and was mother of + Magnus II, earl of Caithness. + + Elk; + abounded in Cat; + horns found. + + Ellarholm. + + Ellwick (Ellidarvik). + + Embo, near Dornoch; + Norse defeated and their "prince" slain, to whom the Ri-Crois erected. + + Erde-houses, of Pictish times. + + Erg (Gaelic, airigh), a sheiling, Norse, setr; + pl. ergin, sheilings, in Asgrim's Ergin. + + Eric bloody-axe. + + Erik the Red, Saga of. + + Eric Stagbrellir, son of Audhild, brought up in Kildonan by Frakark; + sole male survivor of Moddan line; + m. Ingigerd, dau. of earl St. Ragnvald, united the Erlend and Moddan + estates; + tried to reconcile earls Ragnvald and Harold; + probably got earl Ottar's lands on the death of earl Erlend; + viking raid to Hebrides and Scilly Isles; + his son Harald Ungi made earl of Orkney and Caithness (excluding + Sutherland); + his son, Ragnvald; + line represented by Snaekoll Gunni's son. + + Eric Streita; + husband of Audhild, dau. of Thorleif. + + Erlend Haraldson, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + heir of earl Ottar; + granted half earldom of Caith.; + granted half earldom of Orkney; + supported by Sweyn; + in Shetland; + slain; + last of male line of Thorfinn Sigurdson; + nearest heir, Ragnvald Gudrodson, king of Man; + grandson of Hakon Paulson; + not Erlend Ungi. + + Erlend Torf-Einarson, earl; + slain in England. + + Erlend Thorfinnson; + joint earl of Orkney and Caith. with his brother Paul; + at battle of Stamford Bridge; + banished to Norway where he died; + his descendants; + his line of heirs; + Scottish policy as to succession; + Snaekoll Gunni's son, chief of line; + Skene's theory; + the converse theory that Magnus of Angus m. the nameless dau. of earl + John, through whom he got the title, and Paul's lands; + his share of earldom of Caithness; + inherited by Johanna of Strathnaver; + his line (excepting Harald Ungi) excluded from Orkney during rule + of earl Harold, David and John; + succession to Erlend lands in C. + + Erlend Ungi; + eloped with Margret, mother of earl Harold Maddadson, to Mousa Broch; + reconciled to earl Harold, with whom he went to Norway; + not earl Erlend. + + Erling Erlendson; + in Norwegian expedition to Wales; + probably killed in Ireland. + + Erling Ivar's son; + in Hakon's expedition; + in raid on Dyrnes. + + Erlingson, Thorsteinn; + _Ruins of Saga-time in Iceland_, (Viking Society, extra series). + + Ermengarde, queen. + + Erriboll, Loch; + the Goafiord, or Hoanfiord, Hakon's fleet in; + Lochvuaies. + + Euphemia, wife of Walter Freskin de Moravia of Duffus, dau. of + Ferchar Mac-in-Tagart, earl of Ross. + + Evelix, River; + + Eystein, king of Norway; + seized earl Harold Maddadson; + invaded Aberdeen. + + Eysteinsdal, or Ousedale, near the Ord of Caithness; + to which king William marched against earl Harold + + Eyvind Urarhorn. + + + Fair Isle; + + Faroes; + Picts. + + Farr; + old parish was Johanna's estate in Strathnaver; + Borve Castle. + + Federeth I (Fedrett), William de; + m. Christian, dau. of Freskin and Johanna, and got one fourth of + Caithness; + Caithness lands. + + Federeth II, William de; + son of W.F. and Christian Freskin, sold his fourth of C. to Sir + Reginald Chen III. + + Felix, bishop of Moray; + witness. + + Feranach, Broch at; + Frakark's residence (?). + + Fernebuchlyn. + + Feudalism; + introduced into Scotland by Alexander I and David I. + + Fib (Fife). + + Fidach (Moray). + + Fife; + conquests by earl Thorfinn. + + Finleac or Finlay MacRuari, maormor of Moray; + fought earl Sigurd at Skidamyre; + m. dau. of Malcolm II. + + Finn Arnason, father of Ingibjorg; + and of Sigrid. + + Firth par., Orkney; + Paplay, Thora's residence. + + Flandrensis, not applied to Freskin de Moravia. + + Flatey Book; + Thorstein the Red; + earls of Orkney; + story of Barth; + continuation of _Orkneyinga Saga_; + earl Ragnvald's half of Caith. earldom; + extent of Harold's later earldom; + battle of Skitten. + + Fleet, Loch; + no longer reaches to Pittentrail. + + Floruvoe, Floruvagr; + battle in 1135; + battle in 1194. + + Fordun; + rebellion in Moray; + earl John's hostage dau.; + Annals. + + Forfar. + + Forsie, Force of Saga. + + Fortrenn; + Menteith. + + Fotla, Ath-Fodla; + Athol. + + Frakark, or Frakok, dau. of Moddan; + m. Liot Nidingr; + earl Harald Slettmali with her in N. Kildonan; + banished from Orkney, went to her homesteads in Sutherland; + earl Ragnvald seeks her aid; + burnt alive; + Freskyn I her contemporary; + Johanna of Strathnaver a connection; + her residence. + + Fraser, or Fresel, of Beauly. + + Fraser, Sir William; + genealogy of Freskyn family; + on Johanna of Strathnaver; + _The Sutherland Book_, q.v. + + Freskyn de Moravia, and family; + the family the mainstay of Scottish rule in the north; + superintended building of Kinloss Abbey; + ancestor of earls of Sutherland; + built Duffus Castle; + not a Fleming; + a Pict or Scot, and ancestor of families of Athole, Bothwell, + Sutherland and probably Douglas; + his family in Caith.; + great-great-grandfather of Freskin the younger, husband of Johanna; + two branches of family settled north of the Oykel; + Freskyn, of Strabrock and Moray, its two branches in Sutherland + and Caith.; + founder of the family; + entertained king David I at Duffus Castle; + year of death; + his two sons; + father of William MacFriskyn, and Hugo the witness; + derivation of name; + revised pedigree; + he and successors appointed guardians of Moray and Nairn; + defended Moray against the Norse; + the family introduced into Sutherland; + no thanes of this line in Sutherland; + name also spelt Fretheskin; + his neighbour in Moray, earl Waltheof. + (See Appendix, Pedigree.) + + Freskin de Moravia, younger, lord of Duffus; + eld. son of Sir Walter de Moravia; + in Strathnaver and Caith.; + m. Johanna of Strathnaver; + his date fixed; + by marriage became owner of lands in Strathnaver and of a + moiety of earldom of Caith.; + lineage; + born in or after 1225, lord of Duffus by 1248; + m. 1245-1250; + nephew of William, earl of Sutherland; + signatory to National Bond; + d. 1260-1263; + buried in church of Duffus; + his maternal uncle, William MacFerchar, earl of Ross; + possible violent death. + (See Appendix, Pedigree.) + + Freskyn, Andrew, son of Hugo F. of Sutherland; + parson of Duffus, bishop of Moray. + + Freskyn, Andrew, son of William son of Freskyn; + parson of Duffus. + + Freskin, Christian; + dau. of Freskin younger and Johanna of Strathnaver, m. William + de Fedrett, had one fourth of Caithness, which their son + resigned to her sister's husband, Sir Reginald Chen III. + + Freskyn, Hugo, son of Freskyn; + the witness, uncle of Hugo de Moravia of Sutherland. + + Freskyn, Hugo, eld. son of William MacFreskyn; + his family settled north of the Oykel and owned Sutherland; + northern boundary of his estate; + ancestor of the de Moravias, or Murrays, of Sutherland; + called "my lord" by his younger brother, William; + his family; + burial place; + succession to Morayshire estates; + grant of Sutherland; + not earl; + his lordship of Sutherland, excluded from earldom of Caithness + as inherited by earl David; + grant to Gilbert, archdeacon of Moray; + of Strabrock, Duffus and Sutherland, father of Walter de Moravia + of Duffus, whose son m. Johanna of Strathnaver; + his eld. son, William; + a witness. + + Freskin, Mary; + dau. of Freskin, younger, and Johanna of Strathnaver, m. Sir + Reginald Chen II, had one fourth of Caithness. + + Freskyn, Walter, de Moravia of Duffus; + son of Hugo F. of Sutherland, succeeded to Strabrock and Duffus; + his wife; + known as Sir Walter de Moravia; + of Duffus; + his son, Freskin, m. Johanna of Strathnaver; + grant of land in Clon from earl of Ross. + + Freskyn, Walter, of Petty. + + Freskyn (MacFreskyn), William, eld. son of Freskyn de Moravia; + charter of Strabrock and other lands in Lothian and Moray; + his sons; + omitted in _Sutherland Book_; + second lord of Duffus and Strabroc; + his eldest son, Hugo of Sutherland. + + Freskyn, William, _dominus Sutherlandiae_, first earl of Sutherland; + eld. son of Hugo F.; + de Sutherland; + cr. earl of Sutherland: + _dominus Sutherlandiae_ from about 1214; + uncle of Freskyn the younger; + his lands bounded by those of Johanna on the north and east; + was probably Johanna's guardian; + cr. earl after 10th October 1237; + repulsed a Norse invasion (?) at Embo; + death. + + _N.B.--All these Freskyns' name was de Moravia, not Freskyn.--J.G._ + + Freskyn, William, of Petty, son of William son of Freskyn. + + Freswick (now Bucholie) Castle, (Lambaborg). + + Fretheskin, see Freskin. + + Frida, dau. of Kolbein Hruga, m. Andres, son of Sweyn Asleifarson. + + Furness; + Wemund, monk of. + + + Gaedingar, too, 152 (n. 22). + + Gaelic; + superseded Pictish; + in Sutherland full of Norse words; + Psalms translated into by Gilbert, bishop; + Gaelic blood crossed with Norse produced the Saga; + Gaelic in Sutherland and Caithness included many Norse words; + a trustworthy vehicle of Norse. + + Gairsay; + Sweyn's castle; + robbed by earl Harald; + Sweyn's life and large drinking hall. + + Gall, Eilean nan; + traditional combat. + + Gall-gaels, or Gaelic strangers; + mixed Gaelic-Norse; + held sea from Lewis to Isle of Man; + of Argyll. + + Galloway; + part of Valentia; + subdued by earl Thorfinn; + rebellion subdued; + Roland of, defeated Donald Ban MacWilliam; + rebellion put down by king Alexr. II. + + Geographical Collections, (W. Macfarlane). + + Gibbon, Gillebride or Gilbert, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + son or brother of earl Magnus II; + his dau. Matilda m. Malise, earl of Stratherne; + d. 1256, succ. by son Magnus III. + + Gilbert, alleged earl of Orkney. + + Gilbert d'Umphraville, earl of Angus, m. Matilda, countess of Angus. + + Gilbert d'Umphraville, earl of Angus; + son of Matilda. + + Gilbert de Moravia, archdeacon of Moray; + grant of Skelbo, etc.; + afterwards became bishop of C.; + founded cathedral at Dornoch, in which he was buried. + + Gilbert, son of Gillebride, earl of Angus, and uncle of Magnus, earl of + Caithness. + + Gilchrist, earl of Angus; + m. as 2nd wife, Ingibiorg or Elin, dau. of Eric Stagbrellir; + Skene's theory; + converse theory; + pedigree of Angus family; + charter of south Caith. to his son Magnus; + his death. + + Gildas. + + Gillebert, or Gillebryd, son of Angus. + + Gillebride, earl of Angus; + his sons; + grandson (not son) Magnus II, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + his death. + + Gilli Odran. + + Glasgow; + John bishop of, mission to Orkney; + Herbert, bishop of, grant of Borthwick Church. + + Glendhu, Loch; + identified as Murkfjord. + + Goa-fiord, or Hoanfiord, (now Loch Erriboll); + Hakon's fleet at; + Eilean Hoan retains the name. + + Gokstad; + viking ship. + + Golsary, the shelling of Gol, in Latheron, Caithness, cf. Golspie. + + Golspie (formerly Kilmalie); + owned by Hugo Freskyn; + (Gol's-by) formerly Platagall. + + Good men. + + Gormflaith. + + Gospatric, eld. son of Maldred. + + Goudie, Gilbert; + transl. _Orkneyinga Saga_; + _Antiquities of Shetland_. + + Grants, Normans. + + Gratiana, wife of William the Wanderer. + + Gray, Thomas; + _The Fatal Sisters_. + + Greenland. + + Grelaud, dau. of Duncan, maormor of C. + + Grimsby; + St. Ragnvald traded at, met Harald Gillikrist. + + Gritgard, son of Moldan. + + Groa, dau. of Thorstein the Red, m. Duncan of Duncansby. + + Groa, wife of Macbeth. + + Gudrun, sister of Anlaf, earl of C. + + Guillaume le Roi. + + Gulberwick. + + Gunn, in Darratha-Liod. + + Gunn family; + descent. + + Gunn, Adam; + _Sutherland and the Reay Country_. + + Gunnhild, wife of Eric Bloody-axe, in Orkney. + + Gunnhild, Erlend's daughter, sister of earl St. Magnus, m. Kol; + her descendants. + + Gunnhilda, dau. of earl Harold Maddadson and Hvarflod. + + Gunni, brother of Sweyn Asleifarson; + outlawed. + + Gunni; + m. (as 2nd husband) Ragnhild sister of earl Harald Ungi; + probably grandson of Sweyn Asleifarson; + became chief of Moddan family. + + Guthorm Sigurdson, earl. + + Guthred, son of Donald Ban MacWilliam; + led rebellion in Moray and slain. + + + Hadrian's Wall. + + Hafrsfjord; + battle, (872). + + Hailes, lord; + on forfeiture of earl Harold Maddadson; + _Annals of Scotland_, q.v.; + case of Elizabeth claimant of earldom of Sutherland. + + Hakon Hakonson, king of Norway; + his mother's ordeal; + expedition to Scotland; + account of his expedition (1263); + died in the bishop's palace, Kirkwall; + result of expedition. + + Hakon Sverri's son, king of Norway; + his son Hakon. + + Hakon Haroldson, son of Earl Harold Maddadson and Afreka; + foster-child of Sweyn Asleifarson; + probably fell with Sweyn at Dublin; + with Sweyn; + his death. + + Hakon Paulson, earl; + went to Norway; + in Norwegian expedition to Wales; + returned to Orkney; + slew the king's steward; + dispute with earl Magnus; + slew his cousin Dufnjal, and Thorbjorn in Burrafirth; + seized Magnus' share of earldom; + slew St. Magnus; + sole earl; + pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, builder of the round church of + Orphir; + Helga and their children; + his son Paul by a lawful wife; + his descendant Ragnvald Godrodson; + Norse favourite for earldom of C., as against Magnus, had to + conquer C.; + mixed blood; + his grandson Erlend. + + Hakonar Saga; + record until 13th cent. + + Halfdan Halegg, or long-shanks; + slain by Torf-Einar. + + Halkirk; + source of Thurso River in; + Moddan lands; + first cathedral of bishopric; + bishop's house; + residence of Chen family inherited from Johanna of Strathnaver; + Johanna's estate; + castle of Reginald Chen III; + Spittal of St. Magnus. + + Hall o' Side, Iceland. + + Hallad Ragnvaldson, earl. + + Halvard, an Icelander. + + Halvard of Force; + called Hoskuld also. + + Halvard the Red. + + Hanef, Norse commissioner; + aids Snaekoll. + + Harald, of N. Ronaldsay; + slain by Ulf the Bad. + + Harald Gillikrist; + St. Ragnvald fought for him at Floruvoe. + + Harold Godwinson, king of England, defeated Harald Hardrada. + + Harald Hakonson Slettmali (smooth-talker), earl of Orkney and Caith.; + son of earl Hakon and Helga; + held Caithness; + his death; + his Moddan kinsmen. + + Harald Sigurdson Hardrada, king of Norway; + killed at Stamford Bridge. + + Harald Harfagr; + battle of Hafrsfjord, (872); + subdued Orkney and Shetland which he erected into an earldom; + cr. Torf-Einar earl of Orkney; + second expedition to Orkney; + imitated Charlemagne's feudalism. + + Harald Jonson; + son of John, earl of Caithness; + left as hostage at Bergen; + drowned, (1226). + + Harold Maddadson, earl; + son of Margret, Hakon's daughter and Maddad, earl of Atholl; + earl St. Ragnvald ruled Caith. as his guardian; + to Norway with earl Ragnvald; + seized at Thurso by king Eystein; + outlawed Gunni; + conflict with earl Erlend Haraldson; + reconciled to earl Ragnvald at Thurso; + quarrels with Sweyn and robbed his house; + annual deer hunt in Caith.; + present at earl Ragnvald's slaughter; + seized Ragnvald's share of earldom; + became sole earl; + contemporaries; + forfeited in 1196; + later rebellions and loss of lands; + expedition to Ross and Moray; + subdued by king William; + imprisoned for failure to deliver hostages; + deprived of Sutherland; + earl Ragnvald's half of Caith. conferred on Harald Ungi; + his grandsons; + his heir, Thorfinn; + fled to Isle of Man; + defeated earl Harald Ungi; + king William conferred Caith. on Ragnvald Gudrodson; + defeated in Caithness by Ragnvald; + had one of Ragnvald's stewards slain, mutilated the bishop, drove + the stewards out; + son Thorfinn mutilated and died in prison; + king William marched with an army to Caith., and Harold ultimately + came to terms; + negotiated with king John of England; + extent of his later earldom; + deprived of Shetland; + death; + character and personal appearance; + his two wives and descendants. + + Harald Ungi; + earl of Orkney and Caithness; + his parents; + heir of Moddan lands; + fared to Norway; + at home near Loch Naver; + grant of half earldom of Orkney; + grant of half of Caithness (exclusive of Sutherland); + Invaded Orkney, defeated and slain in Caithness; + line represented by Snaekoll Gunni's son; + his share of earldom of Caithness never granted to the Paul line; + probably held by Moddan line; + pedigree ceases; + sister m. earl of Angus; + date of death; + his half of Caithness earldom; + his heirs, earl Magnus II and Johanna; + succeeded to earldom through a female. + + Haroldswick, Unst; + said to have been called after king Harald. + + Havard Thorfinnson, earl; + m. Ragnhild, k. Eric's dau. + + Hebrides (see also Sudreys); + Vikings, subdued by king Harald Harfagr; + Norse influence on Gaelic; + under Norway; + raided by Sweyn; + Norse expedition against south H. assisted by earl John; + king Alexander's naval expedition; + king Alexr. II sent embassy to Norway to get cession of; + harried by earl of Ross; + king Hakon's expedition; + Scottish expedition; + ceded to Scotland; + conquered by Alexander III; + ceded by Norway to Scotland. + + Heimskringla. + + Helena, dau. of earl Harald Maddadson and Afreka. + + Helga, dau. of Moddan; + associated with Helgarie; + concubine of earl Hakon; + banished from Orkney; + her grandson, earl Erlend. + + Helga Ulfs-datter, Sanday, Orkney. + + Helgarie, near Helmsdale. + + Helgi, Harald's son, N. Ronaldsay, elopes with Helga Ulfsdatter. + + Helgi Njal's son. + + Helliar-holm, Ellar-holm. + + Helmsdale; + strath in Sutherland, Frakark; + H. Water; + Sorlinc; + Hjalmundal, the strath, not village. + + Henry I of England; + visited by earl St. Magnus. + + Henry II of England; + wars in France,. + + Henry III of England; + his sister Joanna, m. Alexr. II of Scotland; + his dau. Margaret m. Alexr. III of Scotland. + + Henry III, emperor of Germany; + earl Thorfinn's visit. + + Henry, prince; + son of king David I; + witness. + + Henry, son of Harold Maddadson by Afreka; + claimed Ross; + date of death. + + Henry, bishop of Orkney; + in whose palace, in Kirkwall, king Hakon died. + + Herbjorg, 3rd dau. of earl Paul Thorfinnson. + + Herbjorg, dau. of Sigrid; + m. Kolbein Hruga. + + Herborga, dau. of earl Harald Maddadson. + + High Church (ha-kirkja), Halkirk. + + Highlanders of Scotland (Skene). + + Hill fort; + Ben-y-griam Beg, Caithness. + + Hjaltalin, Jon; + transl. _Orkneyinga Saga_. + + Hlodver Thorfinnson, earl; + m. Audna. + + Hoanfiord, or Goa-fiord, (Loch Erriboll); + Hakon's fleet at; + Eilean Hoan. + + Hoctor Common; + granted to bishop of C. + + Hofn, Caithness; + Hlodver's howe. + + Holinshed. + + Honaver. + + Houses; + Norse skali described. + + House-burnings; + earl Moddan's burning, in Thurso; + Olaf Hrolfson, in Duncansby; + Frakark, in Sutherland; + earl Waltheof, in Moray. + + Hoxa, South Ronaldsay; + Thorfinn Hausa-kliufr buried. + + Hrolf the Ganger. + + Hrollaug Rognvaldsson. + + Hrossey, now Mainland, Orkney. + + Hundi (possibly Crinan). + + Hundi Sigurdson. + + Hut-circles of Pictish times. + + Hvarflod, or Gormflaith, dau. of Malcolm MacHeth, m. earl Harold + Maddadson. + date of birth. + + + Iceland; + Pictish mission; + Aud's settlement; + Hrollang Rognvaldsson settled; + viking settlement; + the skali described; + Jean Cabot first heard of America in; + Christianity accepted; + blood-rain, ib., Norsemen in; + ruins of Saga-time. + + Icelandic Annals; + earls of Orkney. + + Inga Saga, transl. + + Ingibjorg, Finn Arnason's daughter, m. earl Thorfinn Sigurdson; + after Thorfinn's death m. Malcolm III; + cousin of queen Thora of Norway; + her descendant, Donald Ban MacWilliam. + + Ingibiorg, daughter of earl Hakon and Helga; + m. Olaf Billing; + her grandson, Ragnvald Gudrodson, of Man. + + Ingibiorg, dau. of Eric Stagbrellir; + at home near Loch Naver; + she or her sister m. Gilchrist, earl of Angus. + + Ingirid or Ingigerthr, only dau. and child of earl Ragnvald, m. Eric + Stagbrellir; + her children; + date of birth; + probably the same Ingigerthr commemorated in Maeshowe runes. + + Ingirid, sister of Kali (St. Ragnvald), m. Jon Peterson. + + Ingirid, sister of Sweyn Asleifarson; + m. Thorbiorn Klerk. + + Inner-Schyn. + + Innes, Familie of. + + Innes family; + Berowald the Fleming. + + Innes, Cosmo; + _Orig. Par. Scot._, q.v.; + genealogy of Freskyn family. + + Invernairn; + sheriff. + + Iona; + St. Columba's settlement. + + Ireland; + Duncan I; + Sweyn Asleifarson's raids. + + Islandicae, Origines. + + Ivar Rognvaldsson. + + + Jerusalem; + pilgrimages to. + + Joanna, queen of Alexander II, possibly name-mother of Johanna of + Strathnaver; + dau. of king John, and sister of king Henry II of England. + + Johanna of Strathnaver, lady; + m. Freskin de Moravia of Duffus; + her estate; + her father; + relationship to Snaekoll Guuni's son; + supposed dau. of earl John; + Skene's theory that she inherited earl John's, i.e. earl Paul's, + half of the earldom without the title; + the opposite theory, that she inherited Erlend lands; + Skene's opinion; + her daughters; + Skene's suggestion that she was the hostage dau. of earl John, and + given in marriage to Freskin; + Fraser's criticism of Skene; + her grandson, Reginald Chen III, in possession of half of Caithness + and resided in Halkirk and Latheron; + granted land in Strathnaver to the bishop of Moray; + her estate in Strathnaver; + her connection with Moddan family and descent from Harald Ungi's + sister Ragnhild; + her inheritance of Moddan and Erlend lands; + her right to half share of Harald Ungi's half share of Caithness + earldom; + her title to Strathnaver lands not derived through earl John; + circumstantial evidence against her being a dau. of earl John, + never claimed any share of earldom of Orkney; + Skene's opinion that she was a dau. of earl John based on name + Johanna; + theory as to her being a dau. of Snaekoll, and, as such, heiress of + large estates, made a ward by the king, whose queen was Johanna; + her husband's lineage; + suggested born by 1232 at latest, when her supposed father, + Snaekoll, went to Norway, but not before 1225; + possibility of her being a dau. of a younger child of Ragnhild and + born later than 1225; + her guardian; + her lands bounded those of the lord of Sutherland; + d. ca. 1269; + her children and estates; + succ. to Erlend and Moddan lands in C.; + owned Dalharrold; + she did not own any lands in south C., which were acquired by + R. Chen III, i.e., Latheron and Wick; + she probably owned Far and Halkirk, but not Latheron. + + John, king of England. + + John, king of the Sudreys. + + John o' Groat's; + Huna. + + John, bishop of Caithness; + mutilated by earl Harald; + succeeded by Adam; + neglect to collect Peter's Pence; + date of death. + + John, bishop (of Glasgow). + + John Haroldson, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + from whom Snaekoll Gunni's son claimed Ragnvald lands in Orkney; + shared earldom with his brother, earl David; + succeeded David as sole earl of Orkney and of Caithness; + his dau. given as hostage; + letters from earl Skuli; + at Bergen; + at the burning of bishop Adam; + his castle at Brawl; + confiscated; + the lordship of Sutherland not in his earldom; + visited Bergen; + his hostage dau. his only heir; + assisted Norse against Hebrides; + favoured Norway; + representative of line of Paul and Harold Maddadson; + attacked and slain by Snaekoll; + his supposed dau. Johanna; + his nameless dau. m. Magnus of Angus; + succession to earldom; + theories as to his daughter's marriage; + treaty with king William; + lands confiscated and restored; + the last male of the Paul line; + Johanna's title not derived through him; + his nameless dau. probably wife of earl Magnus II; + reasons why Johanna was not his dau.; + probably named after king John of England; + his legal successor, his nameless dau.; + sole earl of O.; + his sister's son, Jon Langlifson, in 1263; + succeeded in earldom of Orkney by Magnus II; + his castle at Brawl; + joint earl with David; + Matilda not his daughter's name. + + Jon Langlifson. + + Jon Peterson, m. Ingirid, sister of St. Ragnvald. + + Jury trial. + + + Kalf Arnason. + + Kalf Skurfa. + + Kali Ragnvald Kolson. + + Kari Solmundarson. + + Karl Hundason, name of Duncan I, in Saga. + + Keith, or Mar; + Ce, Pictish province. + + Keiths. + + Kenneth, k. of Scots. + + Kentigern, or Mungo, St. + + Kerrera, near Oban. + + Kerrow-Garrow, (Eddrachilles). + + Kerrow-na-Shein, i.e. Chen's quarter. + + Kildonan; + Frakark's homesteads; + connection with Scone; + owned by Hugo Freskyn; + earl Ragnvald sends messengers to Frakark; + part of lordship of Sutherland; + old name Scir-Illigh. + + Kildonan, North; + earl Harald Slettmali brought up; + Frakark burnt. + + Kilmalie (now Golspie). + + Kilravock (Rose). + + Kinloss; + Cistercian abbey. + + Kinloss, Records. + + Kirkwall; + cathedral built; + earl Ragnvald Brusi-son resided at; + seized by earl Thorfinn; + relics of St. Magnus removed to cathedral; + king Hakon died in bishop's palace; + St. Magnus' cathedral. + + Kol. + + Kolbein Hruga; + m. Herbjorg; + his castle in Wyre. + + Kyleakin, or the Kyle of Hakon. + + + Lairg; + owned Hugo Freskyn; + in Sweyn's track to burn Frakark; + in old earldom of Caithness. + + Lambaborg (Freswick Castle). + + Langdale (Langeval). + + Langlif, dau. of earl Harold Maddadson; + marriage with Saemund, abandoned; + her son Jon. + + Largs, battle of; + earl Magnus III never went to L. + + Larne Bay, Ulfreksfirth of Saga. + + Latheron; + Latheron hills, source of Thurso River; + Moddan lands; + residence of Chens in 14th cent.; + in South C.; + not owned by Johanna; + Golsary. + + Lawman; + Rafn, of Caithness. + + Lawrence, chapel of St.; + at Duffus. + + Lechvuaies. + + Lewis, the; + passed by Hakon's fleet; + Macaulays of. + + Lifolf Baldpate. + + Ljot Thorfinnson, earl of Orkney and Caith., m. Ragnhild, Eric's dau.; + slew Skuli in C.; + fought earl Macbeth in C.; + buried at Stenhouse in Watten, C.. + + Liot Nidingr, m. Frakark. + + Little Ferry, or Unes; + Norse invasion; + site of Norse Castle. + + Lohworuora, now Borthwick; church granted to bishop of Glasgow. + + Loth; + water of; + owned by Hugo Freskyn. + + Lothians, formed part of Valentia; + Berenicians of. + + + MacBain, A.; + on seven Pictish provinces. + + Macbeth, king of Scotland; + son of Finlay MacRuari; + parentage; + property in Ross and Cromarty; + king of Scotland; + slain; + visited Rome; + MacHeth. + + MacFrisgyn, William; + (see Freskyn, William). + + MacHeth, or MacAoidh, see Mackay, deriv. of name. + + MacHeth, Donald. + + MacHeth, Malcolm; + earl of Ross; + dau. Gormflaith m. Harold Maddadson; + personated by Wemund. + + Mac-in-Tagart, Ferchar; + see Ross, earl of. + + Mackay (MacHeth) clan; + came from Moray to Sutherland; + Freskyns guardians of Moray against MacHeths; + occupation of Durness; + rebellion of MacHeths of Moray; + the chief m. dan. of bishop; + children of Heth attacked Hakon's expedition; + largely blended with Norse. + + Mackay, Iye Mor. + + Mackay, Book of, (Angus Mackay). + + MacWilliam, earl of Caithness (?) (Scots Peerage). + + Maddad, earl of Athole; + m. Margret, dau. of earl Hakon Paulson; + visited by Sweyn; + his death. + + Maeshowe, runes of. + + Magbiod, or Macbeth, earl; + fought at Skidamyre, C. + + Magnus the Good, king of Norway; + grants Orkney to Ragnvald Brusison; + Thorfinn's visit. + + Magnus Barelegs, king of Norway; + expeditions to Scotland; + father of Harald Gillikrist; + why called "barelegs". + + Magnus the Blind, king of Norway; + defeated by king Harald at Floruvoe. + + Magnus Erlingson, king of Norway; + fell at Norafjord. + + Magnus Hakonson, crowned king of Norway in his father's lifetime; + ceded Hebrides to Scotland. + + Magnus, king of Man; + joined Hakon's expedition. + + Magnus, or Mangi, son of Eric Stagbrellir; + fared to Norway, fell at Norafjord; + his home. + + Magnus Erlendson, St., earl and saint; + in expedition to Wales; + in England and Wales; + went to Caithness after king Magnus' death and received as earl there; + his steward in Orkney killed by earl Hakon; + dispute with earl Hakon; + slew his cousin, Dufnjal, and Thorbjorn in Burrafirth; + his marriage; + his share seized by Hakon, upon which he went to England; + martyrdom; + burial in Birsay, and removal of relics to St. Magnus' Cathedral, + Kirkwall; + legends, character and appearance; + his sister, Gunnhild, m. Kol; + his successor in estate; + cathedral built by his nephew, earl Ragnvald; + his heirs; + Snaekoll Gunni's son, representative of his line; + heirs of his share of Caithness earldom; + his sagas see below; + his life; + took Erlend share of earldom; + Scottish candidate for earldom of C.; + mixed blood. + + Magnus II, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + obscure pedigree; + parentage; + erroneously called son of Gillebride of Angus; + his name suggests a Norse mother of the line of earl Erlend; + perambulated lands of Arbroath Abbey; + not a minor on earl John's death; + regarding his supposed son, Magnus; + grant of earldom of south Caith.; + probably possessed by line of Erlend; + supposed marriage to the nameless dau. of earl John; + got earl John's earldom lands and title; + remainder of the earldom granted to him as son of a sister of earl + Harald Ungi; + neither he nor wife claimed any part of Strathnaver lands; + Sutherland excluded from earldom; + Erlend line excluded from Orkney since Ragnvald's death (excepting + Harald Ungi); + earl of Orkney; + Caith. lands of the Angus line of earls; + death, successor. + + Magnus III, Gibbonson, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + extent of his estate in Caithness; + in Bergen with king Hakon (1263); + his position as earl of C.; + stayed behind under orders to follow Hakon; + deserted him; + reconciled to Alexander III and to king of Norway. + + Magnus, son of Havard Gunni's son. + + Magnus' Cathedral, St., Kirkwall; + relics of saint were removed to; + erected by St. Ragnvald; + king Hakon temporarily buried in; + built by Norse. + + Magnus Saga, St. + + Magnus Saga the Longer. + + Magnus Saga the Short. + + Magnus Hakonson Saga. + + Magnus, Spittal of St., near Halkirk. + + Magnusson, Eirikr; + transl. of Darratha-liod. + + Maiming, made a Northman impossible. + + Mainland, Orkney; + Thorfinn's Hall; + meeting between earls Hakon and Magnus. + + Malbrigde of the buck-tooth. + + Malcolm I, (954). + + Malcolm II, king of Scotland; + dau. m. Sigurd Hlodverson; + kingdom of Scotland produced; + contemporary records begin; + defeated Norse at Mortlach; + his daughters; + Macbeth also supposed son of his sister; + policy in Caith. and Orkney; + death; + kinsman, Moldan, maormor of Caith.; + his dream of a consolidated kingdom realised. + + Malcolm III, Canmore, king of Scotland; + m. Ingibjorg, Thorfinn's widow; + m. 2nd, St. Margaret, introduced Saxon nobility; + his son Duncan II, whose descendant was Donald Ban MacWilliam. + + Malcolm IV, + granted half earldom of Caithness to Erlend Haraldson; + defeated Somarled; + his death. + + Malcolm, supposed son of Malcolm III. + + Malcolm, earl of Caithness and Angus; + earl of Caith. (1232-36); + earl of C. as guardian of a minor, as trustee or custos; + his dau. heiress, and successors. + + Maldred, of Cumbria. + + Malise, earl of Stratherne; + m. Matilda, dau. of Gibbon, earl. + + Malise II, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + heir of Matilda, dau. of earl Gibbon; + conveyed Berridale, to Reginald More, and Reginald Chen III; + descendant of the lines of Paul and Erlend. + + Mallard River; + see Ardovyr, + deriv. + + Mamgarvie, near Inverness. + + Man; + Sweyn's annual raids; + earl Harold Maddadson in; + Ragnvald Gudrodson, king of; + returned to Man; + king Magnus of M. joined Hakon's expedition; + conquered by Alexander III after Largs; + incorporated in Scotland. + + Maor and maormor, Pictish rulers. + + Margaret, St.; + 2nd wife of king Malcolm Canmore. + + Margaret's Hope, St.; + Orkney. + + Margret, earl Hakon's dau.; + brought up by Frakark in Kildonan; + m. Maddad, earl of Athole; + visited by Sweyn; + received her brother earl Paul, his fate; + returned to Orkney, had a child by Gunni, Sweyn's brother; + eloped with Erlend the Young; + contemporary of Freskyn I; + younger sister of Ingibiorg. + + Margret, dau. of earl Harold Maddadson and Afreka. + + Matilda, countess of Angus; heiress of Malcolm, earl of A., + m. (1) John Comyn; + m. (2) Gilbert d'Umphraville, earl of A. + + Matilda, dau. of Gibbon, earl of Orkney and Caithness, m. Malise, + earl of Stratherne. + + Matilda. + + Mearns; + why no brochs?; + Cirig, for Magh-Circinn, or, Mearns, a Pictish province. + + Melrose, Chronicle of; + + Melsnati. + + Menteith; + Fortrenn, a Pictish province. + + Michel, Francisque; + _Chroniques Anglo-Normandes_. + + Minch, the, + or Skotlands-fiorthr. + + Missel (probably Frisel or Fraser), in embassy to Norway. + + Moddan, earl of C.; + parentage; + sister's son of Duncan I; + at North Berwick; + slain by Thorkel Fostri; + his family in Caithness. + + Moddan, in Dale, and family; + possible son of earl Moddan; + the clan and family; + held the hills and upper parts of valleys; + family and Pictish clansmen; + family plots; + clan harried by Sweyn; + his daughters and estates; + dau. Helga; + Eric Stagbrellir's children sole heirs; + family lands; + Harald Ungi's title to Moddan lands; + Gunni, Ragnhild's husband, became chief of M. clan; + estates left to earl Erlend Haraldson, then went to Eric Stagbrellir; + Snaekoll Gunni's son next heir to estates; + Johanna inherited Moddan lands; + estates passed to Norman families. + + Moldan, (see Moddan), of Duncansby; + kinsman of Scots king; + connection with Moddan family. + + Monuments of C. and S., early. + + Moravia, family, de; + see Freskin. + + Moraviensis, Registrum Episcopatus. + + Moray, province of; + Pictish province of Fidach including Ross; + northern limit of Roman penetration; + no brochs; + Norse influence; + last Pictish province subdued by Scots; + wars between kings of Alban and the Norsemen in; + Pictish clergy driven from seaboard by Norse; + Norse driven from laigh of M.; + taken from Norse; + Norse defeated at Mortlach; + ravaged by earl Thorfinn Sigurdson; + bishopric founded; + estate of Freskyn de Moravia; + earl Waltheof burnt in his house; + a barrier to Scottish civilisation; + Pictish province stretched across to the Minch; + defeat of Picts of M. at Stracathro; + Register of Moray; + Freskyn estate; + rebellions; + feudal barons repel Eystein's invasion; + rebellion subdued; + estates of Freskyn; + earl Harold Maddadson's expedition; + Freskyn family appointed guardians; + rebellion of MacHeths; + king William's expedition against thanes of Ross: + chartulary; + revolt of Donald Ban MacWilliam; + king Hakon's proposed raid (1263); + no Norse place-names on seaboard; + Pictish inhabitants scattered, the Mackays to Durness. + + Moray, bishops of; + Andrew Freskyn; + grant from Johanna of Strathnaver; + Archibald, regrant to Reginald Chen II; + Felix. + + Moray, Gilbert, archdeacon of and bishop of Caithness. + + Moray, Richard of; + brother of Gilbert; + fell repulsing Norse. + + Moray, Shaw's. + + More, Loch. + + More, Reginald; + chamberlain of Scotland. + + Morgan; + first name of clan Mackay, MacHeth, or MacAoidh. + + Mortlach, in Moray; + Norse defeated by Malcolm II. + + Morton, Reg. Hon. de, earl of Katanay. + + Mound, the; + Craig Amlaiph near. + + Mounth, or Grampians, home of Caledonians. + + Mousa Broch; + used by run-away honeymoon couples. + + Munch, P.A.; + _History of Norway_. + + Mungo, or Kentigern, St., in Strathclyde and Pictland. + + Murkfjord or Myrkfjord (possibly Loch Glendhu). + + Murkle, C. + + Mydalr, Iceland. + + + Nairn. + + Naver, Loch; + broch; + River Naver; + lands of Moddan family; + Dovyr. + + Naver, River; + Dalharrold; + see Dovyr. + + Nechtan. + + Nerbon, sae-borg on the; + Bilbao on the Nervion. + + Ness, now Caithness. + See Cait and Caithness. + + New Spalding Club; + _Records of Elgin_. + + Niorfa Sound (Straits of Gibraltar). + + Nisbet's Heraldry. + + Norafjord in Sogn. + + Normans; + Conquest; + families accepted as chiefs; + influence of, in Caithness and Sutherland. + + Norman architecture; + St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. + + Norse mythology; + of early settlers in Britain. + + Norsemen; + occupation of Caith. and Sutherland; + no women brought; + early Norse rulers; + defeated at Mortlach; + raids on Moray coast; + Freskyns appointed guardians of Moray against; + expedition against south Hebrides; + invasion of Sutherland repulsed at Embo; + law and language in Orkney and Shetland; + intermarriage with Celts; + influence of, on British law; + religion of early settlers in British Isles; + destroyed culture of St. Columba; + enslaved aborigines in their colonies; + their place-names in Scotland; + settled on coasts and lower valleys; + subdued by Scots in north; + Gaelic language adopted by; + few monuments in Scotland; + domestic and ecclesiastical buildings of wood or stone; + York Powell on; + discovery of America, and Africa. + + Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland, (George Henderson). + + Northman and Pict. + + Norway; + viking raids on British Isles; + trade with Grimsby; + earl Ragnvald visited king Ingi; + earl Ragnvald returned from Jerusalem through Norway; + Margaret, queen of N.; + Scottish embassy to; + Hebrides ceded to Scotland. + + Norway, kings of; + Harald Harfagr, (860-933); + Eric Bloody-axe, (930-935); + Olaf Tryggvi's son, (995-1000); + Magnus the Good, (1035-1047); + Harald Sigurdson Hardrada, (1045-1066); + Olaf Haraldson, (1067-1093); + Magnus Barelegs, (1093-1103); + Sigurd Magnusson, (1103-1130); + Magnus the Blind, (1130-1135); + Harald Gilli, (1130-1136); + Eystein Haraldson, (1142-1157); + Ingi, (1136-1161); + Magnus Erlingson, (1162-1184); + Sverrir, (1184-1202); + Hakon, Sverri's son, (1202-1204); + Hakon Hakonson, (1217-1263); + Magnus Hakonson, (1263-1280); + Christian I, (1459-1481), q.v. + + Norway, History of, P.A. Munch. + + + Ochill, (Oykel). + + Odal lands; + in Orkney; + none in Cat. + + Odin; + blood-eagle rite; + worshipped by Norse in Britain; + Sigurd Hlodverson died fighting for; + and defeated at Clontarf. + + Olaf, king of Norway; + received Thorfinn Sigurdson, earl of Orkney and Caithness; + and Thorkel Fostri; + his award; + killed at Stiklastad. + + Olaf's Saga, St.; + account of earls of Orkney. + + Olaf Haraldson Kyrre, king of Norway. + + Olaf Tryggvi's-son; + conversion of Sigurd Hlodverson. + + Olaf Tryggvason Saga; + account of earls of Orkney. + + Olaf Bitling, king of the Sudreys; + m. Ingibiorg, daughter of earl Hakon. + + Olaf the White, king of Dublin; + invasion of Scotland. + + Olaf, king of Man. + + Olaf Hrolfson, father of Sweyn and Gunni. + + Olaf, son-in-law of earl Harold Maddadson. + + Old-Lore Miscellany (Viking Society); + Darratha-liod; + authorship O.S.; + _Orkney and Shetland Folk_. + + Old-shore (Asleifarvik). + + Oliphant family; + charters, earldom of Caithness. + + Olvir Rosta; + grandson of Frakark; + aid sought by earl Ragnvald; + defeated in sea fight; + burned Sweyn's father, Olaf; + fled before Sweyn and not heard of afterwards; + no direct heirs; + his contemporary, Freskyn I; + supposed ancestor of Macaulays. + + Orcades, of Torfaeus; + for transl. see Pope, Alex. + + Ord of Caithness; + king William marched his army to, against earl Harald; + Man of. + + Origines Parochiales Scotiae. + + Orkney; + St. Kentigern's mission; + Picts; + influence of Gael on Norse; + foundation of Norse earldom; + earls' attacks on north of Scotland; + succession of earls; + converted by Olaf Tryggvi's son; + under Norway; + first cathedral and bishop's seat at Birsay; + double bishops; + a contingent in expedition against Saxons; + trade with Grimsby; + the bishops; + Sweyn's viking life; + agriculture; + invasion of earl Harald Ungi; + earl Harold Maddadson, after defeat by Ragnvald Gudrodson, fled to; + Cobbie Row Castle, in; + the gaedingar of the earl of Orkney; + king Hakon at; + and died in Kirkwall, in the palace of bishop; + mortgaged to Scotland; + adopted English with many Norse words; + old Norse ballad sung in 18th cent.; + proposed Scot. conquest after Norse reverse at Largs; + annular eclipse of sun in 1263; + Orkney and Shetland colonised mainly from the fjords north of Bergen; + see also Orkney and Caithness, earls of. + + Orkney and Caithness, earls of; + (see also under their individual names); + Ragnvald; + Sigurd Eysteinson; + Guthorm Sigurdson; + Hallad Ragnvaldson; + Torf-Einar Ragnvaldson; + Arnkell, Erlend and Thorfinn Hausa-kliufr, sons of Torf-Einar; + Arnfinn, Havard, Hlodver, Ljot and Skuli, sons of Thorfinn; + Sigurd Hlodverson; + Somarled, Brusi, Einar and Thorfinn, sons of Sigurd; + Ragnvald Brusi's son; + Paul Thorfinnson; + Erlend Thorfinnson; + Sigurd Magnusson, son of k. Magnus Barelegs; + Hakon Paulson; + St. Magnus Erlendson; + Paul Hakonson the Silent; + Harald Hakonson Slettmali; + Erlend Haraldson; + St. Ragnvald Kolson; + Harald Ungi; + Harold Maddadson; + David Haroldson; + John Haroldson; + no pedigree of earls after John; + diploma of earls unreliable; + various theories as to genealogy of the earls after John; + no claim to earldom of Orkney by Johanna of Strathnaver; + diploma on earldom of Sutherland; + Malcolm, earl of C. and Angus; + Magnus II, son of Gilchrist, earl of Angus; + Gibbon; + Magnus III Gibbonson; + Malise II, heir of Matilda, dau. of earl Gibbon; + the earldom acquired through females; + unknown earls; + MacWilliam; + Gilbert; + Olaf. + + Orkney and Shetland Folk, (Viking Society, Old-lore Miscellany and + reprint), A.W. Johnston. + + Orkney and Shetland, (Tudor); + Ellar-holm. + + Orkney and Shetland Records, (Viking Society). + + + Orkneyinga Saga (Rolls text and transl.); + historical record until 12th cent.; + battle of Turfness; + Thorfinn's life; + St. Magnus; + authorship; + Ragnvald and Sweyn Saga; + its end; + Somarled the Freeman slain; + earl Harold Maddadson's family; + earls; + Wick and Thurso; + transl. by Hjaltalin and Goudie; + Thorfinn's residence in C; + residence of Frakark; + Atjokl's Bakki. + + Orm, earl; + m. Sigrid, not Ingibjorg, dau. of Finn Arnason. + + Orphir; + the earl's hall burned; + round church; + incident of the poisoned shirt; + earl Paul's Yule feast, Sweyn slew Sweyn; + Jarls' Bu; + earl Ragnvald at. + + Orphir; + The Round Church and Earl's Bu of, (Viking Society Saga-Book), + A.W. Johnston. + + Osmundwall, or Kirk Hope, Orkney; + conversion of Sigurd Hlodverson; + king Hakon's fleet in. + + Oswy, king. + + Ottar, earl in Thurso; + his heir; + son of Moddan in Dale; + probably owned Thurso valley; + paid wergeld to Sweyn; + his lands left to earl Erlend Haraldson, and afterwards went to + Eric Stagbrellir; + his estates, forming the Moddan lands in Caith., held by Ragnhild + and Gunni; + Johanna of Strathnaver a connection. + + Ottar, son of Snaekoll Gunnison. + + Ousedale, or Eysteinsdal. + + Oxford Essays, (Sir G.W. Dasent); + Norsemen in Iceland. + + Oykel; + boundary between Cat and Ross; + identified as the Norse Ekkjal; + family of Freskyn de Moravia settled north of the; + in Sweyn's track to burn Frakark; + crossed by king William. + + + Papa Stronsay. + + Papa Westray. + + Paplay; + location. + + Paul Hakonson, the Silent, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + his mother, 52; + lived in Orkney, 58; + banished Frakark and Helga from Orkney, 59; + sole earl, 60; + not a speaker at things, 60; + refused to share earldom with St. Ragnvald, 61; + defeated earl Ragnvald, 62; + seized his fleet in Shetland, 62; + yule feast at Orphir, 62; + kidnapped by Sweyn, 62; + deported to Athole, his fate, 63. + + Paul Thorfinnson, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + joint earl of O. with his brother Erlend; + at battle of Stamford Bridge; + banished to Norway, where he died; + his descendants; + his daughters; + Scottish policy regarding later succession in Caithness; + Skene's theory as to Johanna of Strathnaver; + the converse theory; + John the last male of Paul's line; + his share of earldom of C., descended to daughter and Angus line + of C. earls. + + Pentland Firth. + + Perth; + court held (1260); + treaty of. + + Peter, St. + + Peter's church, St., Duffus. + + Peter's church, St., Thurso. + + Peter's pence. + + Petty, William Freskyn of. + + Picts; + settlements of hermits and missionaries; + chronicles; + Pictish church replaced by Catholic church; + driven eastward and northward by Scots; + seven provinces; + P. and Northmen; + hunters and fishers; + brochs for defence, arms, etc.; + clans; + non-seafaring Celts; + never conquered by Romans; + did not have mastery of sea in Norse times; + Christian missions and Columban church; + viking invasion; + Pictish language superseded by Gaelic; + never dispossessed of upper parts of valleys throughout Norse + occupation; + conquered by Scots; + language, "P" Celtic; + Picts of Athole, Moray, Ross and Cat; + Pictish church and Pictish province of Ross and Moray resisted + Scottish civilisation; + Normans accepted as chiefs; + their Christianity; + Norse drove clergy from Orkney, N.E. Caithness, coasts of + Sutherland and sea-board of Ross and Moray; + Norse attacks on Picts, effect of; + their lands seized by Norse. + + Pictish Nation and Church, The; + (Rev. A.B. Scott), Pictish navy. + + Pictland; + St. Ninian's mission; + St. Kentigern's mission. + + Picts and Scots, Chronicle of the; + origin of brochs; + (Tighernac); + the Pictish navy. + + Place-names; + Norse p.n. preserved; + near brochs. + + Plantula, dau. of Malcolm II, m. Sigurd, earl of Orkney. + + Platagall, "flat of the stranger," old name of Golspie. + + Pluscardensis, Liber. + + Pope, Alexander, of Reay; + a tradition of Snaekoll's return; + transl. Torf. + + Popes; + Innocent III, letter. + + Powell, York. + + Prehistoric races. + + Primrose J.; + _Hist, and Antiq. of the Parish of Uphall_. + + + Rafn the Lawman; + chief of stewards of Caithness; + remained as lawman; + at bishop Adam's burning; + in derivation of Dunrobin--Drum-Rafn. + + Ragnhild, dau. of Eric Bloody-axe. + + Ragnhild, dau. of Eric Stagbrellir; + sister of earl Harald Ungi; + m. (2) Gunni; + by whom she had a son, Snaekoll; + her children the only heirs of Ragnvald and of Moddan; + at home near Loch Naver; + m. (1) Lifolf Baldpate; + Johanna of Strathnaver, her sole descendant after 1232; + held Moddan lands. + + Ragnvald, jarl of Maeri; + made first Norse earl of Orkney; + slain in Norway. + + Ragnvald Brusi's son, earl of Orkney; + personal appearance; + at Stiklastad; + in Russia; + Thorfinn's claims and their sea fight; + escaped to Norway; + returned and burned Thorfinn's hall; + his slaughter; + his grave; + Kali Kolson named after him. + + Ragnvald, son of Eric Stagbrellir; + fared to Norway; + lived near Loch Naver; + sole male representative of Erlend Thorfinnson; + not known what became of him. + + Ragnvald Gudrodson, the viking; + his descent; + his title to earldom; + invaded Caithness. + + Ragnvald Kolson, St., earl of Orkney and Caith.; + sold odal lands back to bonder, to raise money for St. Magnus' + cathedral; + letter from David I; + re-named after Ragnvald Brusi's son; + estates in Caith. and Sutherland; + personal description; + accomplishments; + earldom grant confirmed by king Harald; + sought aid of Frakark to win earldom; + defeated by earl Paul in a sea fight; + earl Paul seized his fleet in Shetland; + escaped to Norway; + returned to Westray; + assisted Sweyn against Frakark; + welcomed Sweyn on his return from Frakark's burning; + reconciled Sweyn and Thorbiorn; + besieged Sweyn in Lambaborg; + reconciled to Sweyn; + visited king Ingi in Norway; + his eastern pilgrimage; + description of route, etc.; + visited queen Ermengerde at Bilbao; + visited Jordan, Jerusalem, Constantinople, etc.; + returned to Turfness; + in Shetland; + in Sutherland at his daughter's wedding; + reconciled to earl Harold at Thurso; + reconciled earl Harold and Sweyn; + annual deer-hunt in Caith.; + slain by Thorbiorn; + buried in St. Magnus' cathedral; + his only child; + had lands in Caith., + and managed earldom; + never earl of Caith.; + succeeded through a female; + his mother and dau.; + his half of Caith. earldom conferred on his grandson, + Harald Ungi; + his lands in Orkney claimed by Snaekoll; + who was representative of his line; + his share of Caith. earldom inherited by Johanna; + his poetry. + + Ragnvaldsvoe, South Ronaldsay. + + Rautharbiorg or Rattar Brough; + sea fight. + + Raven-banner of Sigurd, jarl. + + Redcastle is Eddirdovyr. + + Red deer and reindeer in C. and S. + + Redesdale, lord of. + + Reeves' _Life of St. Columba_. + + Register House, Edinburgh; + list of Oliphant charters. + + Reindeer, or elk; + horns found in Sutherland. + + Ri-Crois, at Embo. + + Rinansey, Rinarsey (Ninian's Island), now North Ronaldsay. + + Rinar's Hill. + + Robert, legendary second earl of Sutherland. + + Rogart. + + Roger, bishop of St. Andrews. + + Roland of Galloway. + + Roland's Geo, Papa Stronsay. + + Romans in Britain; + Caledonians not conquered. + + Ronaldsay, North; + Darratha-Liod recited. + + Roseisle. + + Ross; + northern part of Airergaithel; + Picts; + Pictish clergy; + subdued by Thorfinn; + bishopric founded; + claimed by Henry, son of earl Harold and Afreka; + Malcolm MacHeth cr. earl; + Pictish province; + bishopric refused by Andrew Freskyn; + marches; + earldom; + king William's expedition; + earl Harold Maddadson's expedition; + boundary; + king William's expedition against thanes of Ross; + Norse place-names; + Macbeth's property. + + Ross, earl of; + Ferchar Mac-in-Tagart; + granted land to Walter de Moravia on his daughter's marriage; + career; + lay abbot of Applecross; + knighted for a victory in Galloway; + cr. earl of Ross in 1226; + second earl, William MacFerchar, harried Hebrides. + + Ross, Euphemia of; + m. Walter de Moravia. + + Rossal (Rossewal). + + + Saemund, of Iceland\. + + Saga-Book of the Viking Society. + + Saga-time, Ruins of. + + Saga; + writer's historical accuracy; + Norse crossed with Gaelic blood produced the Saga. + + Sandvik, Deerness. + + Saxon nobility and Scotland; + St. Margaret. + + Scandinavian Britain, by (W.G. Collingwood). + + Scapa Flow. + + Scatt; + of Orkney. + + Scilly Isles. + + Scir-Illigh, old name of Kildonan parish. + + Scon, Lib. Eccles. de. + + Scone. + + Scotichronicon. + + Scotland. + + Scotland, Annals of, (Lord Hailes). + + Scotland, Annals of the Reigns of Malcolm and William, Kings of, + (Lawrie). + + Scotland, Bain's Calendar of Documents relating to; + Freskin signatory of National Bond. + + Scotland, Early Christian Monuments of, (J. Romilly Allen). + + Scotland, Early Chronicles relating to, (Sir Herbert Maxwell). + + Scotland, Early Kings of, (Robertson's); + on earls of Angus. + + Scotland, History of, (Hume Brown). + + Scotland in Early Christian Times, (Joseph Anderson). + + Scotland in Pagan Times, (Joseph Anderson). + + Scotland, Prehistoric, (Munro). + + Scotland, Register of the Great Seal of. + + Scotland, S.A., Proceedings. + + Scots. + + Scots Peerage, The, (Sir J.B. Paul); + MacWilliam, earl of C. + + Scott, A.B.; + The Pictish Nation and Church. + + Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers, (A.O. Anderson). + + Scottish Charters, Early, (Lawrie). + + Scottish Historical Review. + + Scottish Kings, (Sir A.H. Dunbar). + + Scrabster. + + Scrope; + Days of Deerstalking. + + Shakespeare. + + Shenachu, or Carn Shuin. + + Shaw's Moray. + + Shetland. + + Shetland, Antiquities of, (Gilbert Goudie). + + Ships; + Viking, British, Pictish, Roman; + Pictish coracles. + + Sidera; + Sigurd's Howe. + + Sigrid. + + Sigtrigg Silkbeard, king of Dublin. + + Sigurd Eysteinson, earl, conquered C. and S.; + Odin; + buried. + + Sigurd Hlodverson, jarl; + his conversion; + marriage; + in Darrath-Liod; + his wife, dau. of Malcolm II. + + Sigurd Magnuson; + prince of Orkney. + + Sigurd Marti. + + Sigurd Slembi-diakn. + + Sigurd's Howe, Cyderhall. + + Skaill, Norse skali. + + Skali, Norse farm-house. + + Skardi, a "gap" in place-names. + + Skelbo, (Skail-bo). + + Skelpick, deriv. + + Skene, W.F.; + _Chronicle of the Picts and Scots_, q.v. _Highlanders of_ + _Scotland_, q.v. _Celtic Scotland_, q.v. + + Skidamyre (Skitten in Watten) C. + + Skotlands-fiorthr, or Minch. + + Skuli, duke. + + Skuli Thorfinnson, cr. earl. + + Snaekolf, son of Moldan. + + Snaekoll Gunni's son; + parentage; + sole male representative of Erlend and Moddan lines, claimed earl + Ragnvald's lands from earl John; + heir of Erlend lands in Caith.; + killed earl John; + return to Caith.; + father of Johanna of Strathnaver; + deriv. of name. + + Somarled Sigurdson, earl of Orkney and Caith. + + Somarled the Freeman; + slain in the Isles by Sweyn Asleifarson. + + Somarled of Argyll, in rebellion. + + Sorlinc, or Surclin, castle of; + in William the Wanderer, at Helmsdale, Scir-Illigh. + + Southern Isles. + + Spalding Club. + + Spittal of St. Magnus. + + Spynie, near Elgin; + cathedral. + + Standing Stane, Duffus. + + Stenhouse, Watten. + + Stefansson, Jon. + + Store Point. + + Strabrock, now Uphall and Broxburn. + + Stracathro. + + Strathclyde. + + Stratherne, earls of; + Fereteth, in rebellion; + Malise, m. Matilda dau. of Gibbon; + see also Malise II. + + Strathmore, in Halkirk. + + Strathnaver; + lady Johanna of; + grant of lands for Elgin cathedral; + Johanna's estate. + + Strathnaver valley. + + Strathnavern; + lady; + Moddan lands; + Freskin of Duffus, in. + + Strathyla; + charter. + + String, The; + Orkney. + + Sturlunga Saga, Prolegomena by Vigfusson. + + Sudreys (see also Hebrides and Southern Isles). + + Sutherland (Sudrland); + part of ancient Pictish province of Cait, q.v.; + its boundaries; + outwardly much the same now as in Pictish times; + deer abounded; + Pictish clergy driven from coasts by Norse; + subdued by Thorfinn; + Norse earls; + seized by earl Hakon; + Liot Nidingr; + much owned by Moddan family; + Norse steadily lost hold of; + Celts kept their land; + Norse driven outwards and eastward; + family of Freskyn de Moravia; + Norse occupied fertile parts; + freed from Norse influence in 1266; + inventory of ancient monuments; + writing began in 12th cent.; + Orkneyinga Saga only record before 12th cent.; + earlier notices; + land and people at arrival of Norsemen, all owned by Hugo Freskyn; + earl Harald Slettmali seated in; + seldom visited by earl Paul; + Frakark burnt alive; + Strath Helmsdale; + Sweyn's raid; + earl Ragnvald at his daughter's wedding; + children of Eric Stagbrellir; + William de Sutherlandia; + Mackay settlement; + Innes family; + part of old earldom of Caithness; + granted to Hugo Freskyn; + excluded from grant of half of earldom of Caithness to Harald Ungi; + subdued by king William; + services of Freskyn family; + lordship of Sutherland; + erected into an earldom after 10th Oct. 1237; + escaped attack by king Hakon; + Norse adopted Gaelic language; + Norse place-names; + part settled by Mackays; + Freskyns introduced into; + inhabitants of Gael-Norse blend; + no thanes of Moravia line in; + horns of reindeer or elk found; + see also Orkney and Caithness. + + Sutherland, earls of; + fictitious earls, Alane, Walter and Robert; + Freskyn de Moravia ancestor of; + William Freskyn, first earl; + William (1275), litigation with bishop; + case of Elizabeth, claimant of earldom. + See also Freskyn. + + Sutherland, Genealogie of the Earles of, (Sir R. Gordon); + on Alane, thane of S.; + treated as fiction; + boundaries of Sutherland. + + Sutherland Book; + William MacFrisgyn omitted; + on Johanna of Strathnaver; + references. + + Sutherland and the Reay Country, (A. Gunn). + + Sutherland, Inventory of the Monuments in. + + Sutherland; + duke of. + + Sverrir, king of Norway. + + Sverri's Saga. + + Swart Ironhead. + + Swart Kell, or Cathal Dhu. + + Swelchie (whirl-pool) near Stroma. + + Sweyn; + ancestor of Gunn family; + his son, Andres; + his father, Olaf, burned at Ducansby, his mother, Asleif; + his character; + burned Frakark; + his brother, Gunni; + quarrels with earl Harold; + annual viking cruises and life described; + death at Dublin. + + Sweyn Breast-rope. + + Syre. + + + Tankerness. + + Templar church of Orphir. + + Thanes; + none of Moravia line in Sutherland. + + Thing (parliament), in Caithness. + + Thora, queen of Norway. + + Thora, mother of earl St. Magnus. + + Thorbiorn Klerk, grandson of Frakark; + tutor to earl Harold Maddadson; + m. Ingirid, sister of Sweyn; + his character; + burned Waltheof; + divorces Sweyn's sister; + instigated quarrel between earls in Thurso; + viking raid; + ambushed earl Ragnvald; + burnt alive; + no direct heirs. + + Thorbjorn in Burrafirth, Shetland. + + Thorfinn, son of Harold Maddadson; + in rebellion against Scotland; + promised as hostage to king William. + + Thorfinn, a farmer, C. + + Thorfinn Sigurdson, earl of Orkney and Caith.; + birth; + cr. earl of Caith. and Sutherland; + ancestor of all subsequent Norse earls; + established at Duncansby; + character; + claimed Orkney; + war with Duncan I; + at Deerness; + Turfness; + conquests in Fife; + Ragnvald Brusi-son co-earl; + raids on England; + his wife, Ingibjorg; + "king of Catanesse,"; + claimed two-thirds of Orkney; + sole earl; + visited Rome; + death; + chronology; + his widow m. king Malcolm Canmore; + earl Erlend his grandson's grandson. + + Thorfinn Torf-Einarson Hausa-kliufr (skull-cleaver), earl, m. Grelaud. + + Thorgisl. + + Thorgisl, Saga of. + + Thorir Rognvaldson. + + Thorir Treskegg. + + Thorkel Amundson, or Fostri; + at Sandvik, Deerness, slew Einar; + and Moddan; + and Ragnvald Brusi-son. + + Thorkel, son of Cathal Dhu of C. + + Thorleif, Frakark's sister. + + Thorolf, bishop of Orkney. + + Thorsdale; + valley of Thurso river. + + Thorstan the White. + + Thorstein the Red, seized C. and S.; + father of Groa, who m. Duncan, maormor of Cat. + + Thorstein, son of Hall O' Side. + + Thurso; + the river; + earl Moddan killed at; + Ottar, jarl in; + earl Harold Maddadson seized; + earls Ragnvald and Harold reconciled; + St. Peter's church; + earls' residence. + + Tighernac, The Annals of. + + Torfaeus, _Orcades_, q.v., for transl. see Pope, Alex. + + Torf-Einar Ragnvaldson, earl; + slew Halfdan Halegg. + + Turfness (probably Burghead), Moray; + battle; + Ragnvald Kali went to; + held by Norse. + + Tweed. + + + Ulbster. + + Ulern. + + Ulf the Bad. + + Ulfreksfirth (Larne Bay). + + Ulster. + + Undal, Peter Clauson. + + Unes, or Little Ferry. + + Uphall, History and Antiquities of, (J. Primrose). + + + Valentia. + + Valthiof, brother of Sweyn. + + Varangian Guard. + + Vallich, Loch, or Bealach. + + Vikings; + origin; + settlers as well as raiders; + settlements place-names, including the; + intermarriage, influence; + held and named most of coasts and valleys of Cat and Ross; + survival of place and personal names; + Valhalla influence; + ships; + traders. + + Viking Age, The, (Du Chaillu). + + Viking expeditions. + + Viking Society for Northern Research. Publications: + _Saga-Rook_ (Proceedings), The Round Church and Earl's Bu of Orphir; + _Year-Book_, 150 (ns. 24, 28); + _Old-Lore Miscell. of O.S.C. and S._, q.v.; + _Orkney and Shetland Records_, q.v.; + _Caithness and Sutherland Records_, q.v.; + _Ruins of Saga-Time_, q.v. + + + Wales. + + Walter de Baltroddi, bishop. + + Waltheof, earl. + + Wardships, granted by Crown. + + Wemund (monk). + + Wergeld, for Halfdan; + Olaf Hrolfson. + + Wick; + earl Harald Ungi defeated; + earls' residence. + + Widow. + + Will. Newburgh Chron. + + William the Lion; + charter of Strabrock; + confirmed charter in Sutherland; + service of Wm. Freskyn; + grant to Gaufrid Blundus; + crowned; + first conquest of Caithness, Sutherland granted to Hugo Freskyn; + with army in Ross; + war against Donald Ban MacWilliam; + defeated Thorfinn, Harold's son; + subdued Sutherland and Caithness; + conferred half of earldom of C. on Harald Ungi; + conferred it on Ragnvald Gudrodson; + came to terms with Harald; + war with thanes of Ross; + the dau. of John as hostage; + treaty with John, Caithness; + death. + + William, son of Gillebride, uncle of Magnus II. + + William FitzDuncan, son of Duncan II. + + William the Old, bishop of Orkney; + at Egilsay; + went to the east. + + William the Wanderer, transl. W.G. Collingwood; Thorfinn, "king of + Catanesse,". + + Wolves, in Cat. + + Worsae; + _The Prehistory of the North_. + + Wrath, Cape. + + Wyntoun's Chronicle. + + Wyre, Vigr, now called Veira; + Cobbie Row's Castle. + + + Yell Sound. + + Yorkshire ridings, trithings. + + Yuletide; + feasts. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time +by James Gray + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 15856.txt or 15856.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/8/5/15856/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Alison Hadwin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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