[243]. Eyvind Urarhorn was a Lenderman (or Baron) of King Olaf Haraldson. He had gone to Ireland to King Conchobhar previous to Einar’s expedition, and had assisted the Irish against the Orkneymen. The Saga of Olaf Haraldson says that Earl Einar was much displeased with the Northmen who had been in the battle on the side of the Irish king, and seized this opportunity of wreaking his vengeance on Eyvind, their leader.
[244]. Asmundarvag, now Osmundwall, in the south end of the island of Hoy. The termination vágr usually becomes wall, as Kirkiuvagr, which in the modern form is Kirkwall.
[245]. Olaf Haraldson, surnamed “the Holy,” and afterwards known as St. Olaf, who became king in the year 1015.
[246]. Now Sandwick, in Deerness.
[247]. In the Saga of Harald Harfagri it is stated (chap. vi.) that “King Harald made this law over all the lands he conquered, that all the odal possessions should be his, and that the Bœndr, both great and small, should pay him land-dues for their possessions.” Thus he put an end to odal right, in its pure and simple form at least, wherever he extended his authority; and the Bœndr, thus taxed and deprived of their odal rights, complained, with justice, that they were changed from a class of proprietary nobles into a class of tributary tenantry. Having assumed the ownership of the earldom of Orkney as his own by conquest, his heirs became the odal-born lords of Orkney, while the Earls were theoretically the liegemen of the Kings of Norway, though having also an odal right to the earldom which the royal prerogative could not set aside.
[248]. If like meets like, or if you be met in the same spirit as you come.
[249]. The word is hirdman. The hirdmen were the King’s body-guard.
[250]. The manbote (or fine for manslaughter) for every Norwegian Lenderman or Baron was fixed at 6 marks of silver, by the Older Gula-thing.
[251]. Malcolm II., King of Scotland.
[252]. The identity of Karl or Kali Hundason is one of the historical puzzles which exercise the ingenuity of modern historians. Supposing the Saga name of this individual to be a Norse corruption of the name of a Scottish king, it resembles none more nearly than that of Culen Induffson, the Culen Mac Induff of the Chronica Pictorum. But if Kali Hundason be intended for Culen Induffson, the dates do not agree by more than sixty years. On the other hand, supposing the events here narrated to be of the period assigned to them by the Saga, Kali Hundason ought to be Duncan, son of Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, who was the grandson and successor of King Malcolm Mac Kenneth. But Fordun states that Duncan’s succession was a peaceful one. It is not to be overlooked, however, that Earl Thorfinn was also a grandson of Malcolm Mac Kenneth; and if we could account for the discrepancy as to the name given by the Saga, the war between the two grandsons of the deceased monarch might readily be accounted for. For full details of the speculations regarding the identity of Kali Hundason, see Skene’s Highlanders of Scotland, chap. v.; the Irish version of “Nennius” (Irish Archæological Society), Appendix, p. 78; Robertson’s Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. ii. p. 477; and Munch’s Norske Folks Historie, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 854.