Note (return) — Chapter IV

After this settlement of their claims, Malcolm II died in 1034 at the age of eighty; and his death wrecked his policy. For Duncan, his grandson, the Karl Hundason of the Saga, on his accession to the Scottish throne claimed tribute from his cousin Thorfinn for Caithness. Payment was at once refused, and six years of strife, interrupted by Duncan's unfortunate raids south of the Tweed, ended by his creating Mumtan or Moddan, his own sister's son, Earl of Caithness instead of Thorfinn. With a force collected in Sudrland, which thus appears to have been on the Scottish side, Moddan tried to make good his title, but Thorfinn raised an army in Caithness, and Thorkel collected another for him in Orkney, and the Scots retired before superior numbers. "Then Earl Thorfinn fared after them, and laid under him Sudrland and Ross and harried far and wide over Scotland; thence he turned back to Caithness," and "sate at Duncansby, and had there five long-ships ... and just enough force to man them well."9