The differentiation between the Norwegians and the mixed Gaelic-Norse race in Orkney, is unmistakably brought into prominence in the middle of the twelfth century, when the Norwegian contingent of the famous crusade, which wintered in Orkney, got on so ill with the islanders that it resulted in murder and bloodshed about love and mercantile affairs. The earls who were of Gaelic descent in the female line, while exhibiting Gaelic features, were also good rulers and great warriors, whose exploits provided good copy for the _Orkneyinga-Saga_, which was probably written down by Icelanders. The Gaelic admixture of blood in Orkney does not appear to have produced any literary or poetic talent such as it did in Iceland. As mentioned in a previous paper,[11] the _Orkneyinga saga_ consists of only two complete sagas, viz. (1) _Jarlasögur_, earls’ sagas, the history of earl Þorfinnr hinn ríki and his joint earls--his brothers, and his nephew, Rögnvaldr Brúsason, 1014-1064, and (2) _Rögnvalds saga hins helga_, the story of earl St. Rögnvaldr, 1136-1158, brought down to the death of Sveinn Ásleifarson, 1171. The first of these sagas is prefaced with a summary of the sagas of the preceding earls, 872-1014, of which none have been preserved, while the second is prefaced with a summary of the sagas of the earls, 1064-1136, the period between the first and the second sagas, of which we have preserved St. Magnús’s saga, 1108-1116. The saga of earl Haraldr Maddaðarson, 1139-1206, is partly preserved in the second saga, and in _Flateyjarbók_. [11] _Saga-Book_, 1914. As regards Orkney poets, earl Torf-Einarr, the skáld, was a Norwegian by birth and family, with a thrall mother, probably Finnish, from which admixture of Norse and dark races he probably derived his ugly appearance and poetic genius. Earl St. Rögnvaldr, the skáld, was also a Norwegian by birth, and the son of a Norwegian father, while his mother was an Orkney woman of Gaelic extraction. Bishop Biarni, the skáld, was the only Orkney born poet, but his father was also a Norwegian, and his mother an Orkney woman of Gaelic extraction. It is just possible that these two last-named skálds derived their poetic inspiration from just the right dash of Gaelic descent. All the other poets, whose compositions are recorded in the saga, were Icelanders: Arnórr Jarlaskáld, Hallr, etc. It goes without saying that Orcadians and Shetlanders must have been, like their fellow Norsemen of the period, improvisers, whose verses, although referred to, have not been preserved. There were only two Orkney saints, viz., earls Magnús and Rögnvaldr, the one was martyred and the other assassinated, and both of them had very little Gaelic blood.