[253]. The words “at Beruvik” in Jonæus’s edition are not in the Flateyjarbók. Two places of this name are mentioned in the Saga. One of these is plainly Berwick-on-Tweed (chap. xcii.) The locality of the other (which must be the “Beruvik” of this passage) is fixed by the statement in chap. xciv., where it is said that Earl Rögnvald was then in Sutherland celebrating the marriage of his daughter with Eirik Slagbrellir; and when word was brought to him that Harald had come to Thurso, he rode with a number of his followers “from Beruvik to Thurso.” It has been conjectured that the place here indicated was Caistal a Bharruick, an old square tower situated on an eminence near Kirkiboll, on the east side of the shore of the Kyle of Tongue (Orig. Parochiales, vol. ii. p. 717). Judging from the context, however, it seems more likely that it may have been the vik or inlet at the mouth of the water of Berriedale (Berudal), on the southern border of Caithness, where there are also the ruins of an old square tower—the Castle of Berriedale. This agrees with the statement that King Kali, sailing northward from Beruvik, saw the sails of Thorfinn’s ships going towards Deerness, as he sailed into the mouth of the Firth from the east. Had Kali come from the Kyle of Tongue, he would have sailed east, and Thorfinn would have seen and intercepted him from Duncansbay.
[254]. Now Sandwick, in Deerness, Orkney.
[255]. Broad Firth—the Moray Firth.
[256]. Torfness, the scene of the final conflict between Earl Thorfinn and Kali Hundason, is here described as on the south side of Bæfiord, and by Arnor, the Earls’ skald, as south of Ekkial, the river Oikel, which gave its name to Ekkiálsbakká, or the district along the banks of the Oikel and its estuary—the Kyle of Sutherland—which formed the march between the territory of the Norse earls and Scotland. Torfness may thus be conjectured to be Tarbatness, although we have nothing to fix the locality more definitely. Bæfiord, in this case, would be the wider portion of the Dornoch Firth. Munch suggests that the seemingly French name of Beaufort Castle may be a corruption of Bæfiord (which in that case would be the Beauly Frith); but in all probability the name Beaufort is what it seems to be, and much more modern.
[257]. In which King Olaf Haraldson (the Holy) was killed, A.D. 1030.
[258]. The Kjölen mountains, part of the range separating Norway from Sweden.
[259]. Hólmgard, now Novgorod, formerly Cholmogori, in Russia, which the Northmen called Gardariki.
[260]. The town of Ladoga, which Rurik, the first King of Russia, made his capital in the 9th century. It is now a mere hamlet.
[261]. Alfifa, queen of Canute the Great.
[262]. Ingigerd, daughter of King Olaf of Sweden, was married to King Jarizleif. She stipulated that Rögnvald should accompany her to Russia, and he received the town and earldom of Ladoga (Aldeigiuborg).