[443]. A Norwegian ell is half a yard. The leap was thus four yards and a half.
[444]. Kalfadalsá, the Kalfadal’s stream, is the Burn of Calder, which, issuing from the Loch of Calder, falls into the Thurso water. The situation of Kalfadal, a valley running up from the valley of the Thurso water towards Forss, is exactly that of the valley of Calder.
[445]. The word ærgin is not Norse. It is, however, a Norse corruption of the Gaelic word for a shieling—airidh, plur. aridhean, which enters into the composition of many of the place-names in Caithness—e.g. Halsary, Dorrery, Shurrery, Blingery, etc. Asgrim’s ærgin is still recognisable in the modern Askary or Assary, near the north end of the Loch of Calder. It is curious to find thus incidentally in the Saga an indication of the blending of the folk-speech of the time, and to find also in the modern names of Norn Calder and Scotscalder a record (preserved on the spot) of the time when one portion of the dale was possessed by the Norsemen and another by the natives. Passing from Calder towards the coast the place-names are mostly Norse; and passing from Calder in the opposite direction towards the uplands, the place-names are almost entirely Gaelic.
[446]. The feast of the Assumption of St. Mary, or the 15th August. The Iceland Annals give 1158 as the year of Rögnvald’s death.
[447]. Earl Rögnvald was canonised A.D. 1192.
[448]. Skrud, a general term for fine cloth and costly stuffs.
[449]. After the divorce of his first wife Afreka. (See chap. [cix].)
[450]. The Celtic form of her name is Gormlath.
[451]. This “Malcolm, Earl of Moray,” has a curious history. He appears first as Wimund, a monk of Savigny, and priest in the Isle of Skye. Afterwards he became Bishop of Man, and subsequently appeared in the character of a pretender to the Scottish crown, giving himself out to be Malcolm MacHeth, son of that Angus MacHeth who was defeated by King David, and slain at Strickathro A.D. 1130. Assisted by Somerled of Argyle and by this alliance with the Earl of Orkney, he ravaged the western coasts of Scotland, until he was captured by King David, and confined in the Castle of Roxburgh in 1134. He was released by Malcolm the Maiden after the death of King David, and received from the young king the sovereignty of a portion of the ancient kingdom of Cumbria. His tyranny was such that his subjects revolted, took him prisoner, put out his eyes, and confined him in the monastery of Bellaland (Byland), in Yorkshire. (Munch, Chron. Man. p. 80.)
[452]. Thorfinn, the son of Earl Harald, appears on record about the year A.D. 1165. In the Chartulary of Scone there is a document by “Harald, Earl of Orkney, Hetland, and Cataness,” granting to the monks of Scone a mark of silver to be paid annually by himself, his son Turphin, and their heirs.—Lib. Eccles. de Scone, p. 37. Thorfinn died in prison in Roxburgh Castle, after being mutilated by King William the Lion, to whom he had been given as a hostage for his father.