The next step of the victorious Uchtred affords a singular example of the manners of the age. Severing from the bodies of the fallen Scots a sufficient number of the best-looking heads, he committed them to the charge of four women, each of whom was to receive a cow in payment for plaiting the hair and arraying to the best advantage these grim relics of the foe, which were then placed on stakes at equal intervals around the walls of Durham, to answer the double purpose of striking terror into any future band of marauding Scots, and of recalling to the grateful townsmen the services of their brave deliverer. Having cleared the country of the enemy and seen to the arrangement of his revolting trophies, Uchtred bore to Ethelred the welcome news of his victory, and was rewarded for his gallantry with the hand of the king’s daughter—he seems to have had neither scruple nor difficulty in releasing himself from his former wife—as well as with a grant of the eorldom of the Yorkshire Danes, in addition to his father’s ealdordom beyond the Tyne.[114]
About the same time as Malcolm’s disaster before Durham, Finlay MacRory, who had succeeded his brother Malbride in the chieftainship of Moray,—in the words of the Norwegian Saga—“marked out a battle-field for Jarl Sigurd on Skida Moor.” To decline the proffered contest would have been disgraceful, but the Jarl had serious doubts about the result, for he was afraid that the Scots would outnumber him; and as his followers were infected with a similar misgiving, they murmured at the risk until Sigurd promised to restore the Odal privileges which their ancestors had resigned in the days of Einar Rognwaldson. On this agreement they followed him with alacrity, and to increase their confidence Sigurd bore with him one of those mystic banners, so famous amongst the ancient Northmen, wrought in the form of a flying raven whose wings expanded in the wind. It was the work of the Jarl’s mother, the daughter of the Irish Kerval, and upon it she had expended all the magic lore for which she was renowned, promising victory to all who followed, but death to him who bore it. On this occasion the charm was successful, three warriors who carried the fated standard falling one after the other in the battle; but Jarl Sigurd won the day, and the Bonders of Orkney were rewarded for their valour by the restitution of their Odal privileges.[115]
The success of Sigurd against the Moray Mormaor, far from embroiling him with Malcolm, appears to have been rather gratifying to the Scottish king, who immediately gave him the hand of his younger daughter in marriage; and from this union sprung Thorfin Sigurdson, who upon the death of his father in the memorable battle of Clontarf, was immediately confirmed by Malcolm in the mainland earldom of Sutherland and Caithness, whilst the Orkneys and other island possessions fell to the share of the elder sons of Sigurd.[116]
Soon after Malcolm had thus established his grandson in the northern extremity of his kingdom, an opportunity again occurred for extending his dominions on the Northumbrian frontier, which ever since the days of Indulf had been the object of the aggressions of the Scottish kings. The sceptre of a great nation was fast escaping from the feeble grasp of Ethelred, and Uchtred, the opponent of Malcolm’s earlier years, after twice submitting to the Danish invaders, had been put to death with the connivance of Canute from mingled motives of policy and revenge.[117] The guardianship of the northern frontiers then fell into the hands of Eadulf Cudel, the imitator of the supineness of his father Waltheof, rather than of the energy of his brother Uchtred. He could expect but little assistance from the Yorkshire Danes, who upon the death of Uchtred had been placed under the authority of their countryman Eric, and as the distracted state of Northumbria was not lost upon Malcolm, twelve years after his former disaster, collecting his followers for a second invasion, he prepared to exact a fearful retribution for the trophies mouldering around the walls of Durham.
A. D. 1018.
During thirty days and nights, a comet, a baleful and ill-omened prodigy in the eyes of the Northumbrians of the eleventh century, blazed forth, a presage of impending woe; and when the men of St. Cuthbert’s joined their countrymen at Carham, on the banks of the Tweed, it was only to participate in the disasters of a defeat, and to perish in multitudes in a disorderly flight. The aged bishop sunk under the shock, dying within a few days of the battle, and such was the confusion throughout the diocese of St. Cuthbert’s that for three years no successor was elected. Despairing of resistance against the power of the conqueror, Eadulf Cudel purchased an inglorious peace at the price of relinquishing Lothian, the whole of ancient Bernicia beyond the Tweed was ceded to the Scottish king, and Malcolm returned in triumph to the north, having effectually obliterated the remembrance of his failure by a more brilliant and substantial success than any of his predecessors had hitherto achieved.[118]
A. D. 1031.
Towards the close of his life, and about thirteen years after his successful invasion of Northumbria, Malcolm was brought into contact with the most formidable antagonist that ever crossed his path, for upon his return from Rome, Canute, now king of England, Denmark, and Norway, marched with an army to the north, and both kings met upon the frontiers of their respective dominions. As no allusion is made to the cause which led to the expedition of Canute, it would be impossible to determine whether it had any reference to Malcolm’s acquisition of Lothian. A brief notice in the Saxon chronicle—all that is known of the transaction—barely records that Malcolm met Canute, “bowed to his power, and became his man, retaining his allegiance for a very short time.” Canute with his army returned to the south, and the results of the meeting faded away with the retreating footsteps of the mighty Dane.[119]
A. D. 1033
Amongst the latest notices of this reign contained in the Irish annals, an action is recorded of Malcolm, towards the close of his career, which clearly demonstrates his determined purpose to transmit the regal dignity to his own immediate descendants. According to the rule of alternate succession hitherto observed amongst the Scots—a rule which the later princes had invariably attempted to violate—the next king after Malcolm’s death ought to have been chosen from the family of his predecessor Kenneth. Boedhe, the late king’s son, was no longer living, but he had left a son whose name is no longer preserved, the last male representative of his race, and perhaps the Tanist, or heir apparent of the king. The death of this prince is attributed to Malcolm, whose aim it is evident in this deed of violence was to remove from the path of his grandson Duncan the sole rival claimant of the throne.[120] In this he was completely successful, no opposition awaiting his grandson when he was called soon afterwards to reign; nor had Duncan long to wait for the crown, for in the following year A. D. 1034. Malcolm was assassinated at Glammis, in the same province of Angus which forty years before had proved so fatal to his father.[121]