[403]. Kjarekstad.—Munch identifies this place with the modern Karston or Careston, which lies on the inlet leading to the Loch of Stennis, a little to the north-east of Stromness. But this would make Arni, Rafn’s son, run a good ten miles without once remembering that he had his shield on his shoulder until it stuck in the door at Kirkwall. If this Kjarekstad be not the same with Knarrarstad at Scapa, which was Earl Rögnvald’s homestead (see p. [113]), and might be the castle here spoken of, there is a Carness near Kirkwall (in old maps Carisness) which may be more readily supposed to be the Kjarekstad from which Arni ran than Careston near Stromness.
[404]. Munch says of this passage that the text reads, very improperly, “Gáreksey” for “Grimsey.” Hafnarvag he identifies with the Medalland’s hofn of Hakon Hakonson’s saga, which is the “Midland Harbour” lying between the Holm of Houston and the Mainland on the south side of Orphir. The name Hafnarvag, however, simply signifies a landing-place in a voe or inlet, and might more appropriately be applied to some place near the head of the inlet immediately opposite Grimsey, which goes up to the Loch of Stennis. If Harald and his men landed at “Midland Harbour,” they took the longest land route to walk to Firth; if they landed near the head of the inlet above mentioned, they chose the shortest land route.
[405]. The word Orkahaug is only known to occur twice—once here, and once in one of the Runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber of Maeshow. Here it is given merely as the name of the place where Earl Harald and his men had a Yule-tide carouse, which disabled two of them from proceeding on their journey, so that they failed in surprising Earl Erlend at his Yule feast. In the inscription in the chamber of Maeshow it appears as the name of the burial-mound which was broken into by the Jorsala-farers in search of treasure. There seems to be little doubt that this name “Orkahaug” was the name by which the Maeshow was then known. The Orkahaug of the text must either mean the actual “how” itself, or a homestead near it which was named from it. There is an Orkhill (Orquill) not very far from Maeshow, and there was another Orkhill near Knarstane, Scapa, which is called Orquile in “the coppie of my Lord Sinclairis Rentale that deit at Flowdin.” No other Orkahaug, however, is known. (See under Maeshow in the Introduction.)
[406]. The castle at Freswick, elsewhere called Lambaborg (see p. [122]).
[407]. The mouth of the burn of Freswick.
[408]. Moseyjar-borg, the burg or castle on the little island of Mousa, in Shetland. This curious structure is the best preserved example of the old Celtic strongholds, or “Pictish towers,” which were so thickly planted over the northern and western districts of Scotland, and specially in those districts exposed to the ravages of the Northmen. We learn from the Saga of Egill Skalagrimson that fully two centuries before the event here narrated Mousa had been occupied in a precisely similar manner by a couple who fled from Norway, and after celebrating their marriage in the deserted burg, lived in it for a whole winter. (See under [Mousa] in the Introduction.)
[409]. The Moray Firth.
[410]. Bly-holmar (lead islands) must refer to a group of islands not far to the south of Berwick, probably the Fern Islands.
[411]. Mosey, the Isle of May.
[412]. Off Sumburgh Head, now called Sumburgh Roost.