“The Jarl then subjugated Scotland as far south as Fife (Fifi). He sent Thorkel away with some of his men. When the Scots found this out, they went to attack him, who, however, gathered the men he had, and defeated them; whereupon, to avenge their treachery, he ravaged the country, killing all men he could find.
“The Jarl then sailed northward to Caithness, and there passed the winter” (Orkneyinga Saga).
Hence we find the Northern chiefs ruling over Wales.
“It is said that Palnatoki one summer, as usual, was on Viking expeditions, and had twelve well-manned ships. At this time Jarl Stefnir ruled over Bretland (Wales); he had a daughter called Olöf, who was a wise and well-liked woman, and a very good match. It is said that Palnatoki landed his ships there, and wanted to make warfare in the land of Stefnir Jarl. When this was heard of, Olöf, with Bjorn Brezki (the Britisher), who was her foster-brother and often gave her advice, took the resolve to invite Palnatoki home to a feast, with great honours, and he should have there peaceland, and not ravage.
“Palnatoki and his men accepted this, and went to the feast; and at it Palnatoki asked in marriage the Jarl’s daughter; he got her easily, and the woman was promised to him, and then betrothed; the betrothal lasted no longer than that their wedding took place at this feast; and moreover, the name of Jarl was given to Palnatoki, and one half of the realm of Stefnir Jarl if he would settle there; and after his death he should have all, for Olöf was his only heir. Palnatoki stayed in Bretland the rest of the summer, and also during the winter. In the spring he announced that he wanted to go home to Denmark; but before he went, he said to Bjorn the British: ‘Now I want thee, Bjorn, to stay here with my father-in-law, Stefnir, and rule the land with him on my behalf; for he begins to grow very old, and it is not unlikely that I may not soon come back; and if I do not return, and the Jarl dies, I want thee to take care of the whole realm till I come back.’ After this Palnatoki went away with his wife Olöf; he had a good voyage, and came home to Fjon (Fyen) in Denmark, and stayed at home for a while, and was thought the next best man in Denmark, and the most powerful and wisest next to the king.
“It is now told that the next summer after the arvel-feast after King Harald, Olöf, the wife of Palnatoki, fell sick and died. After her death, Palnatoki did not like to live in Bretland, and placed Bjorn the British to take care of that realm. He then made thirty ships ready, and intended to go on Viking expeditions and warfare. He left the land as soon as he was ready to go, and that summer made warfare in Scotland and England, and won for himself much property and fame in his expeditions. He continued this for twelve summers, and got well off both in property and honour” (Jomsvikinga Saga).
APPENDIX. I.
The Testimony of the Frankish Annals.
From the Frankish annals of the time of Charlemagne and his sons, we know that before the period of Harold Fairhair (b. 850; d. 933), and consequently before the conquest by Gangu Hrolf of the country called Normandy, the Sueones (Swedes) and Danes, who were also called Northmen by the Chroniclers, attacked and overran the ancient Gaul in every direction. They captured Paris and many other important cities, and also devastated a great part of the present Germany, and extended their expeditions to the Alps. From a passage in Eginhard we find that the Norwegians are also mentioned; while the Frankish coins found in the present Norway show that its inhabitants had intercourse with the empire of Charlemagne, as they had previously had with Rome.
The Frankish, English, Irish, and Arabian records afford us even a fuller and clearer insight than do the Sagas into the maritime power and great activity of the seafaring tribes of the North, and of their migrations during the ninth and tenth centuries. This maritime power, as we have seen, was already very formidable during the Roman domination of Gaul and Britain. If we have a break in the continuity of these maritime expeditions between the fall of the Roman Empire and the time of Charlemagne, it is on account of the lack of records, owing to the chaos that followed the fall and disintegration of the Roman dominion.
The Sagas supply us to some extent with the needed information; they mention how chiefs like Ivar Vidfamme, Harald Hildetonn, Sigurd Hring, Ragnar Lodbrok, and others engaged extensively in Western and Eastern expeditions, and claimed part of England as belonging to them. From the foreign annals we realize more fully what was implied in the Sagas by the simple phrase that particular chiefs had been, or were, engaged in Eastern and Western expeditions: viz., armaments on the most formidable scale were organized for the subjection of different countries—armaments and expeditions which could only have been possible for a people in an advanced state of civilisation. Of these expeditions the Frankish annals give us the most graphic and detailed accounts.