Battle between Earl Einar and Prince Halfdan.
183. When the sons of Harald Harfagri grew up they became men of great violence and turbulence, as has been told before. The sons of Snæfríd, Hálfdán Hálegg (high legs) and Gudröd Liomi (splendour) killed Rögnvald, Earl of Mœri. King Harald became very angry at this, and Hálfdán had to flee over seas to the west, but Gudröd became reconciled to his father. When Hálfdán Hálegg came to the Orkneys, Earl Einar fled from the Islands to Scotland, and Hálfdán became King over the Islands. Earl Einar came back during the same year, and when they met there was a great battle, in which Einar had the victory, and Hálfdán fled away. Einar sang this song:
Why are not the spear-shafts flying,
From the hands of Hrólf and Hrollaug,
Thickly ’gainst the press of warriors?
Now, my father! I avenge thee.
While we here are closed in battle,
Sits Earl Thórir all the evening,
Silent o’er his cheerless drink.
Next morning they found Hálfdán Hálegg on Rinar’s Hill. The Earl made a blood eagle be cut on his back with the sword, and had his ribs severed from the back-bone, and his lungs pulled out. Thus he gave him to Odinn as an offering for victory, and sang this song:
Oft it is that bearded men
Are guilty deemed for taking sheep;
But my offence is that I slew
The young son of the Islands’ king.
Men may say that danger waits me
From the great king’s speedy vengeance;
But his wrath shall never daunt me,
In whose shield I’ve made a dint.
Then he had a cairn raised over him, and sang this song:
Vengeance for my father’s death
I have ta’en for my fourth share.
In him the people’s champion fell;
But it was the Norns’ decree.
Heap we now a cairn o’er High-leg,
Thus the hard skatt we shall pay him
Which as victors we are due him.
Let the wise to me now listen.
When this was heard in Norway his brothers became greatly enraged, and threatened an expedition to the Islands to avenge him, but Harald delayed their journey. When Earl Einar heard of their threats, he sang:
Men of no ignoble birth
Are they who, from my native land,
Seek my life for vengeance’ sake;
But the truth is, that they know not,
Till their swords have surely slain me,
Whom the eagles’ claws shall rend.
Some time afterwards King Harald set out for the western seas, and came to the Islands. Einar fled from the Islands to Caithness. Then men went between them, and they made peace. King Harald imposed a fine upon the Islands, adjudging them to pay sixty marks of gold. Earl Einar offered [to the Bœndr] to pay the money himself, on condition that he should become proprietor of all their freeholds. The Bœndr accepted this, because the wealthy men thought they might redeem their freeholds, and the poorer men had no money. Einar paid the whole sum, and for a long time afterwards the Earls held all the odal lands, until Earl Sigurd gave back their odal possessions to the Orkneymen. King Harald went back to Norway, but Earl Einar ruled over the Orkneys a long time, and died on a sick-bed. He had three sons: one was named Arnkell, the second Erlend, and the third Thorfinn Hausakliuf (skull-splitter).
When Harald Harfagri died, Eirík Blódöx (bloody-axe) was King for two winters. Then Hakon, Athelstan’s foster son, came to the land, and Eirík fled. Arnkell and Erlend, the sons of Torf Einar, fell with Eirík Blódöx in England. Gunnhild and her sons then went to the Orkneys, and took possession of them, and stayed there for a time. From thence they went to Denmark, but before they went away they married Ragnhild, the daughter of Gunnhild and Eirík, to Arnfinn, the son of Earl Thorfinn [Hausakliuf], and Earl Thorfinn took up his residence in the Islands: he was a great and warlike chief. He died on a sick-bed, and was buried in a mound on Hauga Heath,[[468]] in Rögnvaldsey, and was considered to have been a great man.