Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of NorwaySnorri Sturluson
History
Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Snorri Sturluson
Iceland -- History; Norway -- History; Sagas -- Translations into English; Scandinavia -- History
After the events now related Olaf returned with his people to Viken.
He went first to Tunsberg, and remained there a short time, and then
proceeded to the north of the country. In harvest-time he sailed north
to Throndhjem, and had winter provision laid in there, and remained
there all winter (A.D. 1090). Olaf Haraldson was now sole and supreme
king of Norway, and the whole of that sovereignty, as Harald Harfager
had possessed it, and had the advantage over that monarch of being the
only king in the land. By a peaceful agreement he had also recovered
that part of the country which Olaf the Swedish king had before
occupied; and that part of the country which the Danish king had got
he retook by force, and ruled over it as elsewhere in the country. The
Danish king Canute ruled at that time both over Denmark and England;
but he himself was in England for the most part, and set chiefs over the
country in Denmark, without at that time making any claim upon Norway.
99. HISTORY OF THE EARLS OF ORKNEY.
It is related that in the days of Harald Harfager, the king of Norway,
the islands of Orkney, which before had been only a resort for vikings,
were settled. The first earl in the Orkney Islands was called Sigurd,
who was a son of Eystein Giumra, and brother of Ragnvald earl of
More. After Sigurd his son Guthorm was earl for one year. After him
Torf-Einar, a son of Ragnvald, took the earldom, and was long earl,
and was a man of great power. Halfdan Haleg, a son of Harald Harfager,
assaulted Torf-Einar, and drove him from the Orkney Islands; but Einar
came back and killed Halfdan in the island Ronaldsha. Thereafter King
Harald came with an army to the Orkney Islands. Einar fled to Scotland,
and King Harald made the people of the Orkney Islands give up their udal
properties, and hold them under oath from him. Thereafter the king and
earl were reconciled, so that the earl became the king's man, and
took the country as a fief from him; but that it should pay no scat or
feu-duty, as it was at that time much plundered by vikings. The earl
paid the king sixty marks of gold; and then King Harald went to plunder
in Scotland, as related in the "Glym Drapa". After Torf-Einar, his sons
Arnkel, Erlend, and Thorfin Hausakljufer (1) ruled over these lands. In
their days came Eirik Blood-axe from Norway, and subdued these earls.
Arnkel and Erlend fell in a war expedition; but Thorfin ruled the
country long, and became an old man. His sons were Arnfin, Havard,
Hlodver, Liot, and Skule. Their mother was Grelad, a daughter of Earl
Dungad of Caithness. Her mother was Groa, a daughter of Thorstein Raud.
In the latter days of Earl Thorfin came Eirik Blood-axe's sons, who
had fled from Earl Hakon out of Norway, and committed great excesses in
Orkney. Earl Thorfin died on a bed of sickness, and his sons after him
ruled over the country, and there are many stories concerning them.
Hlodver lived the longest of them, and ruled alone over this country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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