Again King Magnus came to his help; but this time Earl Rognvald tried to take Thorfinn by surprise, so he sailed away to Orkney in the dead of winter with only one ship. Before there was any news of his coming, he surrounded the house where Earl Thorfinn was feasting, and set it on fire. Only the women and children were allowed to go free; but while the warriors were in confusion, seeking some way of escape, the great earl broke a hole through the side of the house where the smoke was thickest, and, carrying his wife, Ingibiorg, in his arms, he escaped in the darkness to the seashore, took a boat, and rowed across to Caithness. Now it seemed that Rognvald’s success was complete, for he thought that Earl Thorfinn was surely dead. When Christmas-time was at hand, he prepared to hold a great feast at Kirkwall, and with some of his men he took a ship to Papa Stronsay to bring over a cargo of malt for the brewing. They stayed there for the night, and sat long over the fire telling of all their adventures. Meanwhile, however, Earl Thorfinn had come back from Caithness to seek revenge. In the darkness he and his men surrounded the house where Earl Rognvald sat, and set it on fire. All except the earl’s men were allowed to come out, being drawn over the pile of wood which Thorfinn’s men had placed before the door. While this was being done, a man suddenly leaped over the pile, and over the armed men beside it, and disappeared in the darkness. “That must be Earl Rognvald,” cried Thorfinn, “for no one else could do such a feat.” Then they all ran to search for Earl Rognvald in the darkness. The barking of his dog betrayed the earl’s hiding-place to his enemies, and soon he was found and slain among the rocks upon the shore. Next morning Thorfinn and his men took Earl Rognvald’s ship and sailed to Kirkwall. And when Rognvald’s men who were in the town came, unarmed, expecting to meet the earl, they were set upon by Earl Thorfinn’s men, and thirty of them were slain. These men were of the bodyguard of King Magnus, and only one of them was allowed to go back to Norway to tell the tidings to the king. Then for eighteen years Thorfinn ruled the earldom, till the day of his death. He was by far the greatest of the Orkney earls. He built Christ’s Kirk in Birsay, and in his time the Bishopric of Orkney was founded. During his later years the islands enjoyed peace, and many wise laws were made; and when the great earl died there was much sorrow in the Orkneys. So the poet sings in his honour:— “Swarthy shall become the bright sun, In the dark sea shall the earth sink, Finished shall be Austri’s labour, And the wild sea hide the mountains, Ere there be in these fair islands Born a chief to rule the people— May our God both keep and help them— Greater than the lost Earl Thorfinn.”