(1) Refsithing -- a Thing for punishment by penalty or death for crimes and misdemeanours.-- L.
97.MEETING OF RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE KINGS, AND THEIR GAMEAT DICE.
Thereafter ambassadors were sent to Norway to King Olaf, with the errand that he should come with his retinue to a meeting at Konungahella with the Swedish kings, and that the Swedish kings would there confirm their reconciliation.When King Olaf heard this message, he was willing, now as formerly, to enter into the agreement, and proceeded to the appointed place.There the Swedish kings also came; and the relations, when they met, bound themselves mutually to peace and agreement.Olaf the Swedish king was then remarkably mild in manner, and agreeable to talk with.Thorstein Frode relates of this meeting, that there was an inhabited district in Hising which had sometimes belonged to Norway, and sometimes to Gautland.The kings came to the agreement between themselves that they would cast lots by the dice to determine who should have this property, and that he who threw the highest should have the district.The Swedish king threw two sixes, and said King Olaf need scarcely throw.He replied, while shaking the dice in his hand, "Although there be two sixes on the dice, it would be easy, sire, for God Almighty to let them turn up in my favour." Then he threw, and had sixes also.Now the Swedish king threw again, and had again two sixes.
Olaf king of Norway then threw, and had six upon one dice, and the other split in two, so as to make seven eyes in all upon it;and the district was adjudged to the king of Norway.We have heard nothing else of any interest that took place at this meeting; and the kings separated the dearest of friends with each other.
98.OF OLAF OF NORWAY, AFTER THE MEETING.
After the events now related Olaf returned with his people to Viken.He went first to Tunsberg, and remained there a short time, and then proceeded to the north of the country.In harvest-time he sailed north to Throndhjem, and had winter provision laid in there, and remained there all winter (A.D.
1090).Olaf Haraldson was now sole and supreme king of Norway, and the whole of that sovereignty, as Harald Harfager had possessed it, and had the advantage over that monarch of being the only king in the land.By a peaceful agreement he had also recovered that part of the country which Olaf the Swedish king had before occupied; and that part of the country which the Danish king had got he retook by force, and ruled over it as elsewhere in the country.The Danish king Canute ruled at that time both over Denmark and England; but he himself was in England for the most part, and set chiefs over the country in Denmark, without at that time making any claim upon Norway.
99.HISTORY OF THE EARLS OF ORKNEY.
It is related that in the days of Harald Harfager, the king of Norway, the islands of Orkney, which before had been only a resort for vikings, were settled.The first earl in the Orkney Islands was called Sigurd, who was a son of Eystein Giumra, and brother of Ragnvald earl of More.After Sigurd his son Guthorm was earl for one year.After him Torf-Einar, a son of Ragnvald, took the earldom, and was long earl, and was a man of great power.Halfdan Haleg, a son of Harald Harfager, assaulted Torf-Einar, and drove him from the Orkney Islands; but Einar came back and killed Halfdan in the island Ronaldsha.Thereafter King Harald came with an army to the Orkney Islands.Einar fled to Scotland, and King Harald made the people of the Orkney Islands give up their udal properties, and hold them under oath from him.
Thereafter the king and earl were reconciled, so that the earl became the king's man, and took the country as a fief from him;but that it should pay no scat or feu-duty, as it was at that time much plundered by vikings.The earl paid the king sixty marks of gold; and then King Harald went to plunder in Scotland, as related in the "Glym Drapa".After Torf-Einar, his sons Arnkel, Erlend, and Thorfin Hausakljufer (1) ruled over these lands.In their days came Eirik Blood-axe from Norway, and subdued these earls.Arnkel and Erlend fell in a war expedition;but Thorfin ruled the country long, and became an old man.His sons were Arnfin, Havard, Hlodver, Liot, and Skule.Their mother was Grelad, a daughter of Earl Dungad of Caithness.Her mother was Groa, a daughter of Thorstein Raud.In the latter days of Earl Thorfin came Eirik Blood-axe's sons, who had fled from Earl Hakon out of Norway, and committed great excesses in Orkney.
Earl Thorfin died on a bed of sickness, and his sons after him ruled over the country, and there are many stories concerning them.Hlodver lived the longest of them, and ruled alone over this country.His son was Sigurd the Thick, who took the earldom after him, and became a powerful man and a great warrior.In his days came Olaf Trygvason from his viking expedition in the western ocean, with his troops, landed in Orkney and took Earl Sigurd prisoner in South Ronaldsha, where he lay with one ship.
King Olaf allowed the earl to ransom his life by letting himself be baptized, adopting the true faith, becoming his man, and introducing Christianity into all the Orkney Islands.As a hostage, King Olaf took his son, who was called Hunde or Whelp.
Then Olaf went to Norway, and became king; and Hunde was several years with King Olaf in Norway, and died there.After his death Earl Sigurd showed no obedience or fealty to King Olaf.He married a daughter of the Scottish king Malcolm, and their son was called Thorfin.Earl Sigurd had, besides, older sons;namely, Sumarlide, Bruse, and Einar Rangmund.Four or five years after Olaf Tryrgvason's fall Earl Sigurd went to Ireland, leaving his eldest sons to rule the country, and sending Thorfin to his mother's father, the Scottish king.On this expedition Earl Sigurd fell in Brian's battle (l).When the news was received in Orkney, the brothers Sumarlide, Bruse, and Einar were chosen earls, and the country was divided into three parts among them.