When the Earl held a meeting (Thing)[240] Thorkel spoke on behalf of the Bœndr. He begged the Earl to spare the people, and told him of their distress. The Earl answered blandly, and said he would give great weight to Thorkel’s words. “I had intended,” he said, “to take out six ships, but now I shall not take more than three; but thou, Thorkel, do not ask this of me a second time.” The Bœndr were very grateful to Thorkel for his assistance, and the Earl made an expedition during the summer, and again in the autumn. Next spring the Earl again called out his men, and held a meeting with the Bœndr. Thorkel spoke again on their behalf, and begged the Earl to spare them. The Earl became wroth, and said that for his speech the lot of the Bœndr should be far worse than before. Then he became so mad with rage, that he said that one or other of them should not leave the meeting unhurt, and immediately dissolved the meeting. When Amundi heard what Thorkel and the Earl had said to each other, he bade his son go abroad, and Thorkel went to Earl Thorfinn in Caithness. He stayed there a long time, and became foster-father to the Earl, who was still young. From that time he was called Thorkel Fóstri, and became a man of great repute. Other men of note and influence fled from the Orkneys on account of Earl Einar’s violence; some to Earl Thorfinn, some to Norway, and some to other countries. When Earl Thorfinn came to man’s estate, he sent to his brother Einar, and demanded from him what he considered his share of the Orkneys. Einar was not inclined to divide his possessions: so, when Earl Thorfinn heard this, he called out men from Caithness, and set out for the Orkneys. When Earl Einar had news of this, he collected an army, with the intent to defend his possessions. Earl Brúsi also collected an army, and went to meet them, and tried to reconcile them; and peace was made on condition that Thorfinn should have one-third of the Orkneys as his own proper share. Then Brúsi and Einar joined their portions, on the footing that the latter should rule them and defend them for both, and that he who survived the other should inherit his portion. But this compact was thought unfair, as Brúsi had a son, by name Rögnvald, and Einar had no son. Thorfinn appointed his own deputies to manage his possessions in the islands, but he himself lived for the most part in Caithness.