Note (return) — Chapter III

When Eric Bloody-axe had been defeated and killed, his sons came to Orkney and seized the jarldom, and his widow, the notoriously wicked Gunnhild and her daughter Ragnhild settled there for a time. Thorfinn Hausa-kliufr had five sons, Arnfinn, Havard, Hlodver, Ljotr and Skuli. Three of these, Arnfinn. Havard and Ljotr, successively married Ragnhild, and Ragnhild rivalled her mother in wickedness. Arnfinn she killed at Murkle in Caithness with her own hand; Havard she induced Einar Oily-tongue, his nephew, to slay, on her promise to marry him, which she broke; and finally she married Jarl Ljotr instead. Skuli, the only other surviving son save Hlodver, went to the king of Scots, who is said to have lightly given away what did not belong to him, and to have created him Earl of Caithness, which then included Sudrland.22 Skuli then raised a force in his new earldom, no doubt to carry out Scottish policy, and, crossing to Orkney, fought a battle there with his brother Ljotr, was defeated, and fled to Caithness. Collecting another army in Scotland, Skuli fought a second battle at Dalar or Dalr, probably Dale in the upper valley of the Thurso River in Caithness, and was there defeated and killed by Ljotr, who took possession of his dominions. Then followed a battle between Ljotr and a Scottish earl called Magbiod or Macbeth, at Skida Myre or Skitten Moor in Watten in Caithness, which Ljotr won, but died of his wounds shortly after, and is said to have been buried at Stenhouse in Watten.23 Thus the first Scottish attempt at consolidation of the north failed.