In the year in which his aged predecessor at length sunk to rest, Malcolm, uniting with the Saxons and Britons, opposed an inroad of the Northmen, and on this occasion he may have faithfully fulfilled the compact which he appears formerly to have evaded. The Northmen were victorious over the united forces of the allies, and the result of the battle probably re-established Eric in Danish Northumbria.[85] His arrival was fatal to the supremacy of Olave, who, quitting England for the last time, settled finally in Dublin, where he soon acquired an ascendency surpassing that of all his predecessors, establishing his family as the rulers of the Irish Norsemen, and exacting hostages and levying tribute over the whole extent of Ireland, from the Shannon to the sea. [Sidenote: A. D. 980.] For nearly thirty years his power was unbroken, until the decisive victory of Tara first re-established the superiority of the native Irish, which the more celebrated but less important battle of Clontarf [Sidenote: A. D. 1014.] was destined subsequently to confirm. Olave, who was not present at the battle, did not long survive its issue. The spirit of the aged Northman was broken by the death of many of his sons, and relinquishing his authority to Sitric, one of the survivors, he quitted the scene of his former triumphs, and the last days of the most formidable opponent of the great Athelstan were passed in the seclusion of Iona.[86] Long before the death of Olave, the career of his rival Eric had been brought to a close. Driven from Northumbria after a reign of only two years, he appears to have fallen in a skirmish on Stanemoor, slain by Magnus Haraldson, through the treachery of Osulf, who was rewarded with the Eorldordom of Northumbria, whilst Man and the Hebrides fell to the share of Magnus.[87] [Sidenote: A. D. 954.] Two years after the death of Constantine, Malcolm followed him to the grave. He was slain at Ulurn, not far from Forres, in the vicinity of the same spot where his father had perished upwards of half a century previously. The northern districts appear to have been peculiarly fatal to this branch of the reigning family, and Malcolm’s death may probably be attributed to the vengeance of the men of Mærne, for the death of Cellach, a northern Mormaor, whose defeat in the earlier years of the king’s reign is amongst the occasional vague notices in the Scottish chronicles, which alone remain to shed a dim light upon the incessant contest waged for many generations between the northern and southern provinces of Scotland.[88] _Indulf_ 954–962. _Duff_ 962–967. _Culen or Colin_ 967–971.