Note 482 — Chapter VII · THE KINGDOM OF ALBAN.

See Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, pp. 65, 66; also Anderson’s edition of the Orkneyinga Saga, p. 204. Thorstein died in 875, and Sigurd could not have become earl till after the battle of Hafursfiord, which made Harald Harfagr master of Norway. The chronology of Harald Harfagr’s reign can be tolerably well made out from his Saga. He was born in 853, and became king at the age of ten in 863. When old enough to marry, he vows, at the instigation of his bride, not to cut his hair till he became master of all Norway, and this is accomplished by the battle of Hafursfiord. His hair had then been uncut ten years. After he had ruled over all Norway for ten years he is said to have been forty years of age. He was therefore twenty years old when he made the vow, and thirty when he fought the battle of Hafursfiord, which places it in the year 883, and some years after Sigurd became earl of Orkney. The following passage in the Pictish Chronicle under the reign of Donald appears to refer to this invasion: ‘Normanni tunc vastaverunt Pictaviam.’