the formation of the kingdom of _Norway_ by _Harold Harfagra_. The petty chiefs displaced by him, who were called _Vikings_ or dwellers on the bays, sought a settlement elsewhere. Several of them founded settlements in Ireland, whence they went to plunder the western shores of Britain. Others took up their quarters in the _Orkneys_, and the _Sudereys_ or _Southern Isles_, as the Northmen called those isles that are now known as the _Hebrides_. Those in the Orkneys were subdued by Harold, who made the islands into an _Earldom_ and gave it to _Sigurd_, one of his allies. _Thorstein_, Sigurd's successor, proved a formidable foe to the King of Scots, made himself master of all the north country, pretty nearly answering to the modern counties of Caithness and Sutherland, to which last the Northmen gave its name because it lay south of their island possessions. On Thorstein's death his great earldom fell to pieces. About this time one _Cyric_ or Grig, who is supposed to have been one of the Northern chiefs, seized on the throne and reigned about eighteen years, leaving his name on record as the liberator of the Scottish Church. =12. The Commendation.=--_Constantine II._ (900-943), grandson of Kenneth, who came after Grig, _commended_ himself and his kingdom to _Eadward_, king of the English, in 924. Constantine chose him as "father and lord," that is, he placed himself under his protection, and acknowledged Eadward as mightier than himself. On this compact were based the subsequent claims of the English to the over-lordship of the Scots. This _commendation_ was renewed to _Æthelstan_, Eadward's successor. But Constantine soon repented of his submission, and a few years later he and the Welshmen of Strathclyde joined the Danes in their attempt to get back Northumberland, from which Æthelstan had expelled them. The allies were utterly routed in the great battle of _Brunanburh_, in which Constantine's son was slain, in 937. Six years later Constantine exchanged civil for spiritual rule, and retired as abbot to the _Monastery of St. Andrews_.