Although one source claims that Lǫgmaðr's trek to the Holy Land was undertaken in remorse for the cruelty he had inflicted upon Haraldr, another possibility is that he was forced into exile instead.

[26] Guðrøðr's apparent Uí Ímair antecedents appear to have endowed him with ancestral claims to the Norse-Gaelic kingdoms to Dublin and the Isles.

[29] What is known for sure is that, before the end of the century, Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway led a marauding fleet from Scandinavia into the Isles, seized control of the kingdom, and held onto power in the Irish Sea region until his death in 1103.

[34] Despite the uncertainty surrounding the inception of his reign, the chronicle reveals that Lǫgmaðr faced continued opposition from within his own family in the form of an ongoing rebellion by his brother, Haraldr.

[39] In about 1096, the chronicle claims that the leading Islesmen sought assistance of Muirchertach Ua Briain, King of Munster, and petitioned him to provide a regent from his own kin to govern the kingdom until Lǫgmaðr's younger brother, Óláfr, was old enough to assume control.

[42] In fact, it was through his conquest of the latter that Ua Briain had banished Lǫgmaðr's father from Ireland once and for all, and thereby secured control of Dublin's awesome naval power.

[51] The chronicle credits Domnall with an oppressive three-year reign that ended when the leading Islesmen revolted against him, and drove him from the kingdom back to Ireland.

[54] Ingimundr's rationale for seating himself upon an island (Lewis and Harris) on the edge of the kingdom may have been due to the fact that he was unable to gain any authority on Mann itself.

[67] As the Norwegian fleet descended upon the Isles, the latter source specifies that Lǫgmaðr set himself to defend the Norðreyjum ("Northern Islands"), a term that likely refers to the Outer Hebrides.

For instance, Orkneyinga saga states as much;[66] whilst Morkinskinna further specifies that Lǫgmaðr fled southwards and out to sea, as Magnús' fleet advanced, only to be captured and kept in the Norwegian king's company for some time afterwards.

[85] Unfortunately for Ua Briain, and his long-term ambitions in Ireland and the Isles, Magnús was slain in Ulster in 1103, whereupon Sigurðr immediately repudiated his bride and returned to Norway.

[86] Although Ua Briain was able to regain control of Dublin, and still held considerable influence in the Isles, Magnús' death appears to have left a power vacuum in the region that he was unable to fill.

[90] Not long after this undertaking, Domnall appears to have been either forced from the Isles,[89] or drawn back to Ireland in an attempt to capitalise on Ua Briain's failing health, only to be slain himself in 1115.

[91] The encroachment of competing Irish factions into the Isles may well have been as unpalatable to the English and Scots as the power vacuum left in the wake of Magnús' demise.

[92] Since the chronicle records that the subsequent reign of Óláfr lasted forty years, the latter's accession to the kingship appears to date to about 1112 or 1113, not long after Domnall launched his bid for the throne.

[98] On the other hand, since the chronicle was compiled in the thirteenth century, during a period when the idea of a cross-bearing pilgrim was well established, it is possible that this depiction of Lǫgmaðr has been contaminated by anachronistic conceptions.

[102] Embarking upon a crusade could also be a means of escaping political tribulations and pressure at home, as in the case of the embattled Robert II, Duke of Normandy.

[110][note 7] Another possibility is that Lǫgmaðr regained some form of control in the Isles following Magnús' death, and afterwards joined Sigurðr's expedition to Holy Land in the first decade of the twelfth century.