[233]. Dungad, called also Dungal, was a native chieftain, Maormor, or “Jarl,” in the north-east corner of Caithness, who seems to have considered the policy of conciliation preferable to that of resistance, judging from the intimate relations he formed with the foreigners, marrying the daughter of one, and giving his daughter in marriage to another, of the chiefs of the invaders. His bœ or hamlet of residence became on this account so well known to the Norsemen, that they named the district of Dungalsbae (now Duncansbay) by it, and spoke of the headland (now Duncansbay Head) on which it was situated, as Dungalsness, or Duncan’s cape. The supposed remains of his castle were seen by Pennant in 1796, and are described by him as the ruins of a circular building, in all probability one of the “burghs” or circular towers so common in the north of Scotland, which seem to have been the defensive habitations of the native Celtic or Pictish population of the period between the 6th and 9th or 10th centuries. It is now a green mound. From the Session Records of the parish it appears that the district retained its ancient name of “Dungasby” down to the beginning of the last century, when it first appears as Duncansbay, and to this day it is called “Dungsby” by the older inhabitants. The name of the adjacent district of Canisbay, now applied to the whole parish, is similarly derived from Conan’s bæ. It appears between 1223 and 1245 as Canenesbi (Sutherland Charters), and in Blaeu’s Atlas, the MS. maps of which were drawn (circa 1620), by Mr. Timothy Pont, the minister of the adjacent parish of Dunnet, it is marked Conansbay. These two, Duncan and Conan, are the only native chieftains of Caithness at the time of the Norse invasion whose names have come down to us, probably because they were the only ones who held friendly relations with the invaders.
[234]. In the Saga of Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, it is said that Earl Sigurd lay at Asmundarvag, now Osmundwall, in the south end of the island of Hoy. There is a place called Roray on the west side of the island, which might be the ancient Rörvag.
[235]. Munch (Chronicon Manniæ, p. 46) alludes to the mistake so common among the historians of Scotland to confound the two Malcolms, and to make one of them, as if one Malcolm only (Malcolm II.) reigned from 1004 to 1034. Though this theory has been ingeniously supported from a Norse point of view, it is at variance with the concurrent testimony of the early Scottish Chronicles. The Saga is the only authority for this marriage; but admitting its testimony on this point to be unassailable scarcely necessitates the repudiation of the authority of the Scottish Chronicles on the question of the succession. (Compare Skene’s Highlanders, chap. 5; Robertson’s Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. ii. p. 447; and Fordun (Skene’s edition), text and notes.)
[236]. Olaf, Tryggvi’s son, fell at the battle of Svöldr, A.D. 1000.
[237]. The battle of Clontarf, A.D. 1014 (see the [Introduction]). The Iceland Annals say that he held the earldom for sixty-two years, so that he must have become Earl in A.D. 952; but Munch makes his true period to be 980-1014.
[238]. The word Bóndi (pl. Bœndr), literally “a resident” or “dweller,” has no English equivalent, although the form remains in the words “husband” and “husbandman,” (hus-bondi, house-dweller or house-master). The Bœndr were freeholders by odal tenure, proprietors of the lands which they had inherited by succession from the original “land-takers.” “In the primitive form of Scandinavian society,” says Balfour, in his Odal Rights and Feudal Wrongs, “land was the only wealth, its ownership the sole foundation of power, privilege, or dignity. As no man could win or hold possession without the strong arm to defend it, every landowner was a warrior, every warrior a husbandman. King Sigurd Syr tended his own hay harvest, and Sweyn of Gairsay and Thorkel Fóstri swept the coasts of Britain or Ireland while the crops which they and their rovers had sown grew ready for their reaping.” The use of the ancient term survived in Orkney till 1529, as we learn from the description by Jo. Ben, that in the parish of Rendale the people saluted each other with “Goand da boundæ” (i.e. godan dag bondi!) instead of the “Guid day, gudeman,” of the Scottish vernacular. Among the documents found in the king’s treasury at Edinburgh in 1282, was one entitled “A quit-claiming of the lands of the bondi of Caithness for the slaughter of the Bishop,”—viz. Bishop Adam, who was burned at Halkirk in 1222 by the “bondi,” exasperated by his exactions. Although the word is Icelandic, it has been retained in the translation as a convenient term to designate the class, in preference to such periphrastic renderings as “farmer-lairds,” “peasant proprietors,” or “peasant nobles,” as are usually employed.
[239]. Hrossey (Horse Isle) was the name given by the Norsemen to the mainland of the Orkney group. The Sandvik here mentioned as the residence of Amundi and Thorkel can only be the Sandvik (now Sandwick) on Deerness. When Thorfinn drew his vessels in under Deerness before he was attacked by Kali Hundason (chap. v.), he sent to Thorkel asking him to collect men and come to his assistance. Thorkel’s residence could not therefore have been far from Deerness, although the mention of Laufandaness is somewhat suggestive of Lopness in Sanday.
[240]. The Things were local or general assemblies for determining by public agreement the course that should be pursued with reference to matters affecting the common weal or the public peace. All odal-born freemen (not under outlawry) had an equal voice, and king, earl, or common bondi, met on the thingstead on equal terms, as thingmen.
[241]. Ulfreksfiord seems to have been the Norse name of Lough Larne, which in a document of the reign of the Irish King John (A.D. 1210) is styled Wulvricheford (Worsaae’s Danes and Northmen, p. 311). It is suggestive of the identification of this Lough as the scene of Earl Einar’s defeat, that Norse burials have been discovered at Larne. One of these is described in the Crania Britannica, pl. 56. The form of the iron sword found buried with the skeleton, having a short guard and triangular pommel, establishes its Norwegian character.
[242]. Konufögr is plainly the Norse form of the Irish Conchobhar. Several Irish kings of this name are mentioned in the Annals.