Ólafr Hrólfsson was a gœðingr of earl Páll, and owned Gareksey (Gairsey) in Orkney, and another bú in Dungalsbœr á Katanesi. He was a most masterful man, mesta afarmenni, and his wife, Ásleif, was wise and of great family, vitr ok ættstór, and most imperious, ok hin mesta fyrir sér. In 1135, Ólafr had a great suite, sveit mikla, á Katanesi, which included his sons Sveinn and Gunni, and Ásbjörn and Murgaðr, sons of his friend Grímr of Svíney. His wife also lived in Caithness at this time. Their children were Valþjófr (an English name), Sveinn, Gunni, all well-bred men, vel-menntir, and a daughter, Ingigerðr. Ólafr had a brother Helgi, who lived Þingvöllr in Hrossey, now Tingwall in Mainland of Orkney, where the þing was held.
Sveinn Ólafsson, after his father’s burning, was called Ásleifarson, after his mother. He married Ingirið Þorkelsdóttir, a kinswoman of earl Haraldr Maddaðarson, and the widow of Andrés of Suðreyjar or Man. Their children were, Ólafr, and Andrés, who married bishop Biarni’s sister, Fríða, and was the father of Gunni, whose son, Andreas, was in Iceland in 1235 (SS). Sveinn was a wise man and prophetic, forspár, about many things, unfair and reckless, újafnaðarmaðr ok úfyrirleitinn. When drinking with his karlar he took to speaking, hann tók til orða, and rubbed his nose, ok gneri nefit, and remarked, “it is my thought” about so and so, and then mentioned his foreboding, hugboð.
As an illustration of Svein’s masterful unfairness may be mentioned his expedition against Holdboði. He asked the earl for lið, assistance, and got five ships, of which the captains were Þorbjörn klerkr (a grandson of Frakök and a brother-in-law of Sveinn), Hafliði son Þorkels flettis, Dufnjáll son Hávarðs Gunnasonar, Ríkgarðr (Richard) Þorleifsson and Sveinn himself. However, Holdboði judiciously fled, but they slew many men in Suðreyjar and plundered wide and burnt and got much booty, fé. On their return, when they were to share their herfang, war spoil, Sveinn said that they should all share equally except himself, who should have a chief’s share, höfðingja-hlutr, because, he said, he alone had led them, and the earl had given them to him for help, til liðs, and he alone had a quarrel with the Suðreyingar, and they none. Þorbjörn thought that he had worked as much and had been as much a leader, fyrirmaðr, as Sveinn. They also wished all the ship-captains, skipstjórnar-menn, to have equal shares, jafnir hlutir. But Sveinn would have his own way, vildi þó ráða, and he had more men in the Nes than they had. Þorbjörn complained to earl Rögnvaldr about Sveinn robbing them of their shares, göra hlut ræningja. The earl said it was not the only time that Sveinn was an unfair man, engi jafnaðarmaðr, and the day of retribution would come for his wrong-doing, ranglæti. Although the earl made good what Sveinn had cheated him of, Þorbjörn declared himself divorced from Svein’s sister. The declaration made by him, segir skilit við, corresponds with old Gulathinglaw, “ef maðr vill skiliast við kono sína þa scal hann sva skilit segia at hvartveggia þeirra mege heyra mal annars oc have við þat vatta.” The consequence of this was hostility, fjándskapr, between them, which had its advantage, as it was now a case of “Foruðin sjást bezt við”—the wrongdoer can best detect his fellow. In contrast with the above is Svein’s sportsmanlike treatment of earl Rögnvaldr. When earl Erlendr and Sveinn were at feud with earl Rögnvaldr, on the latter’s return from his crusade, they captured his ships and treasures. Sveinn claimed earl Rögnvald’s treasures as his share of the spoil, which he promptly sent back to the earl. Being a keen-sighted man, he probably anticipated that his drunken ally, earl Erlendr, would ultimately be defeated by earl Rögnvaldr, whose treasures from the Holy Land may have been curios and relics of no great market value in the eyes of a víkingr.
Sveinn is further described as of all men the sharpest-sighted, skygnastr, and saw things which others could not see. It was the opinion of Jón vængr, junior, that Sveinn was a truce breaker, grið-níðingr, and was true to no man. When earl Haraldr advised him to give up roving and twitted him with being an unfair man, újafnaðarmaðr, Svein’s answer was tu quoque, and there the discussion ended. The Saga sums him up as “mestr maðr fyrir sér í Vestrlöndum,” the most masterful man in the West, both of old and now, of those men who had no higher tignar-nafn, rank, than he.
Of Svein’s relatives may be mentioned Eyvind Melbrigðason (Gael., Maelbrighde, servant of St. Bride or Bridgit). He was one of the göfugir-menn, great men, with earl Páll, and superintended the earl’s famous Jóla-boð mikit, great Yule feast, at which Sveinn killed Sveinn.
Eyvind schemed to make his kinsman Sveinn Ásleifarson quarrel with his namesake, Sveinn brjóstreip, and having succeeded in this, he then plotted with Sveinn to kill Sveinn, and arranged an artful manœuvre, by which the second Sveinn, before he died, killed his own relative, Jón, the only other witness of the murder. Magnús Eyvindsson, by Eyvind’s arrangement, took Sveinn by horse and boat to Damsey, where Blánn sheltered him, and took him afterwards secretly to the bishop. Blánn (Gael., flann, red), took charge of the castle in Damsey. His father, Þorsteinn of Flyðrunes, his brother Ásbjörn krók-auga (squint-eye), and himself were all údœlir, overbearing, men.
Jón vængr, senior, a relative of Sveinn, abode in Háey á upplandi. He was a gœðingr. His brother Ríkarðr (Richard), abode in Brekka í Strjonsey; they were notable men, gildir-menn. They burned Þorkell flatr, a gœðingr, in the house which their kinsman, Valþjófr, had owned. The earl had given Þorkell the house for finding out where Sveinn (the brother of Valþjófr) had fled to, after the murder for which he had been outlawed.
Jón vængr, junior, was a systur-son of Jón vængr, senior, and became earl Harald’s ármaðr, or steward. He had two brothers, Blánn (Gaelic, Flann) and Bunu-, or Hvínu-Pétr; (buna, a purling stream, and hvína, to whistle or whine). These two were ignominiously disgraced by Sveinn in a mock execution, to shame their brother Jón, who had given Sveinn a bad character.