Note 345 — Chapter LXVIII · SWEIN TAKES EARL PAUL CAPTIVE.

Ekkialsbakki is three times mentioned in the Flateyjarbók, and Ekkial once by Arnór Jarlaskáld (see p. 22). Earl Sigurd, Eystein’s son, who killed Malbrigd (Maormor of Mar according to Skene), was “hoy-laid” (buried in a how or barrow, haugr), on Ekkialsbakki. “There cannot be the least doubt,” says Worsaae, in his ‘Danes and Northmen,’ “that Ekkial is the river Oykill (Oykel), which still forms the southern boundary of Sutherland. But nobody is able to point out the barrow of Sigurd Jarl. The tradition relating to it has vanished with the Norwegian population.” But, fortunately, there are records more permanent and reliable than popular tradition, by which the truth of the Saga narrative may be verified, and the locality of Sigurd’s grave-mound indisputably fixed. There is a place near the Ferry on the north bank of the Dornoch Firth (into which the Oykel runs) which is now somewhat inappropriately called Cyder Hall. In Blaeu’s Atlas (1640) it appears as Siddera. In older charters it is conjoined with Skebo, and called Sythera. In a deed of the year 1275 the Bishop of Caithness claims right to “six davochs of Schythebolle and Sytheraw, with the ferry.” In the deed of constitution of the Cathedral Chapter of Caithness, executed between 1223 and 1245, there are assigned to the treasurer the rectorial tithes of Scytheboll and Siwardhoch, its conjunction with Scytheboll showing it to be the same place which is called at subsequent periods Sytheraw, Siddera, and Cyder Hall. This place, named Siward’s Hoch (Sigurd’s haug) at that early date, could be no other than the traditional site of Earl Sigurd’s grave-mound, and the Ekkialsbakki on which he was buried must thus have been the north bank of the Oykel’s estuary. But the Ekkialsbakki twice mentioned in connection with Swein Asleifson’s journey to Athole can scarcely be the same with that of the earlier narrative. It seems probable that in Swein Asleifson’s narrative the word may have been originally Atjoklsbakki—the coast on the side of the Breidafiord (Moray Firth) next to Atjöklar (Athole). The word bakki is sometimes used for a “coast.” The Saga writer may have been misled by the similarity of sound to substitute Ekkialsbakki for Atjoklsbakki. (See p. 115.)