APPENDIX.
SAGA OF OLAF, TRYGGVI’S SON.
(From the Flateyjarbók.)
The Dominions of King Harald and Earl Rögnvald.
179. Earl Rögnvald assisted Harald Harfagri (fair-haired) to conquer the country (Norway), and he gave him the revenues of both Mœri and Raumsdal. Rögnvald had married Ragnhild, the daughter of Hrólf Nefia (nose). They had a son named Hrólf, who conquered Normandy. Hrólf was so big that no horse could carry him, and he was therefore called Gönguhrólf (Hrólf the walker). From him the Earls of Rúda (Rouen) and the Kings of England are descended. They had two other sons, Ivar and Earl Thórir Thegiandi (the silent). Rögnvald had also sons by his concubines. They were Hallad, Hrollaug, and Einar, who was the youngest. One summer Harald Harfagri went to the west across the sea to punish the Vikings, as he was weary of their devastations. They plundered in Norway during the summer, and spent the winters in Hjaltland or the Orkneys. Harald subdued Hjaltland, the Orkneys, and the Sudreyar (Hebrides). He went west as far as the Isle of Man, and destroyed all the dwellings in Man. He fought many battles there, and extended his dominion so far to the west that none of the Kings of Norway since his time has had wider dominions. In one of these battles, Ivar, the son of Earl Rögnvald, fell. So when King Harald sailed from the west he gave Hjaltland and the Orkneys to Earl Rögnvald as a compensation for [the loss of] his son; but Earl Rögnvald gave the Islands to his brother Sigurd, who was King Harald’s forecastleman; and the King gave him the title of Earl before he left the west. Sigurd remained out in the west.
Earl Melbrigd slain by Sigurd.
180. Earl Sigurd became a great chief. He formed an alliance with Thorstein the Red, son of Olaf the White, and Aud Djúpaudga (the very wealthy), and together they conquered all Caithness and much more of Scotland—Mærhæfui (Moray) and Ross. He built a borg on the southern border of Mærhæfui. Melbrigd Tönn (tooth), an Earl of the Scots, and Earl Sigurd, made an arrangement to meet in a certain place, with forty men each, in order to come to an agreement concerning their differences. When the appointed day arrived Earl Sigurd was suspicious of treachery on the part of the Scots. He therefore caused eighty men to be mounted on forty horses. When Earl Melbrigd saw this, he said to his men:—“Now we have been treacherously dealt with by Earl Sigurd, for I see two men’s legs on one side of each horse, and the men, I believe, are thus twice as many as the beasts. But let us be brave, and kill each his man before we die.” Then they made themselves ready. When Sigurd saw it, he also decided on his plan, and said to his men:—“Now, let one-half of our number dismount and attack them from behind, when the troops meet, while we shall ride at them with all our speed to break their battle array.” There was hard fighting immediately, and it was not long till Earl Melbrigd fell, and all his men with him. Earl Sigurd and his men fastened the heads [of the slain] to their saddle-straps, in bravado, and so they rode home triumphing in their victory. As they were proceeding, Earl Sigurd, intending to kick at his horse with his foot, struck the calf of his leg against a tooth protruding from Earl Melbrigd’s head, which scratched him slightly; but it soon became swollen and painful, and he died of it. Sigurd the powerful was buried in a mound at Ekkialsbakki.[[466]]
Sigurd’s son was named Guthorm. He reigned one winter, and died childless.