Magnus passed the ensuing winter in Ireland, assisting his new allies the Munstermen against their rivals, the northern Hy Nial, and remaining until the following August, when he prepared to return to Norway, and lay off the coast of Ulster awaiting a supply of cattle for victualling his ships, promised by Murketagh O’Brien. The disastrous defeat of the latter prince by the northern Hy Nial, early in the same month, may have prevented or delayed the dispatch of the cattle; and Magnus disembarked with a body of his men, both to ascertain the fate of the scouts whom he had already sent out, and to victual his fleet with the necessary supplies at the expense of the men of Uladh. Whilst thus employed he gradually became entangled amongst the neighbouring morasses; and his retreat to the ships being intercepted by the Ulstermen, who flocked in numbers towards the spot, he fell, with many of his followers,--through the cowardice or treachery of one of his principal officers,--in a fruitless attempt to open a path through the increasing numbers of the foe. On hearing the tidings of his death, the fleet, weighing anchor, sailed immediately for Norway, touching at the Orkneys, and taking on board Sigurd, who relinquished his Irish princess and his island kingdom to claim a share of his father’s dominions, when all the conquests of Magnus reverted to their original possessors; though the Jarls of the Orkneys, and the lords of the Western Islands long continued, whenever it suited their purpose, to rank themselves amongst the feudatories of the Norwegian crown.[203]