Olvir Rosta

With the death of Earl Haraldr, son of Helga, Frakökk's family falls out of favour, and are forced to leave Orkney.

The 17th-century Icelandic historian Þormóður Torfason, who wrote Latin histories which covered events the Northern Isles and north-east of Scotland, rendered Ölvir's name as Aulver Rosta.

[11] According to the saga, Frakökk's brothers included: Engus 'the Generous'; and Earl Óttarr, from Thurso, who is described as "a man worthy of honour".

The saga declares that the descendants of Moddan "were high-born and thought a lot of themselves",[8] and Williams suggested that they could be related to a powerful dynasty in the Irish Sea zone that included an Óttarr who seized control of the Kingdom of Dublin in 1142.

Williams observed that another base of power for Frakökk and Ölvir may have been the Suðreyjar ("Southern Islands")—which can include both the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man.

Williams noted that the Suðreyjar appear many times in the sagas as a target for raids, and conquests, for Orcadian earls; as well as being the source for attacks on the earldom itself.

He stated that "if there was an Orcadian tradition of the Suðreyjar as a haunt of ne’er-do-wells, this would provide an alternative explanation for the references within Orkneyinga saga, including those to do with Moddan's family".

Even so, Williams considered that the saga seems to imply that the family had dynastic connections with important individuals of the Suðreyjar, including 'Óláfr 'Titbit', King of Mann and the Isles.

According to research fellow Ian Beuermann, the saga is useful not for the specific events it describes, but rather for the ability to learn of "the ideas shaping the texts during the periods of composition or revision".

The saga relates how one day Frakökk, and her sister Helga (mother of Earl Haraldr), were sewing a snow-white garment embroidered with gold.

[11] The saga relates of how, during an earlier time, Kali Kolsson assisted Haraldr Gille in being recognised as an illegitimate son of the deceased Norwegian king, Magnús 'Barefoot'.

When Haraldr Gille learned of Sigurðr's death he gathered his supporters and successfully underwent an ordeal to prove his paternity, and was accepted as king of one half of the kingdom.

Frakökk agreed to the plan, saying that she would attack in mid-summer; she promised that during upcoming winter she would gather forces from her kinsmen, friends, and connections in Scotland and the Suðreyjar for the task.

At the middle of summer, Frakökk and Ölvir sailed for Orkney to fulfil their pledge of wresting the earldom from Earl Páll.

In the morning, as the fleet is about to set out for Shetland to meet Earl Rögnvaldr, about ten or twelve ships were spotted coming from the Pentland Firth.

In return, Sveinn promised to aid Earl Óttarr's relative, Erlendr Haraldsson, in a possible bid for the earldom of Orkney.

[32] However, Hermann Pálsson and Paul Geoffrey Edwards, in their 1981 translation of the saga, identified the town of Banff with Dúfeyrar, and the River Oykel with Ekkialsbakki.

[30] Williams stated that since the saga records that Sveinn approached the area by land, the site of Ölvir and Frakökk's estate was probably located somewhere in the dale of Helmsdale—not where the modern village is situated on the coast.

[8] The saga states that Ölvir and Frakökk had spies on the lookout; however, because of the route taken by Sveinn, they were unaware of his presence until Svienn occupied a certain slope behind their homestead.

The saga states that Ölvir and sixty of his men confronted Sveinn,[30] although Þormóður Torfason's account of the incident gives forty.

[37] While the saga records that Frakökk was killed to avenge the burning of Óláfr, recently scholars Angelo Forte, Richard Oram, and Frederick Pedersen, stated that her fate was actually sealed by her support of Erlendr Haraldsson's bid for the earldom, over the claim of Haraldr Maddaðarson.

According to the Forte, Oram, and Pedersen, the prospect of having the son of one of his northern supporters as the earl of Caithness was too good for the king to pass up—especially since Haraldr was still a minor, and would thus be under the direction of an appointed tutor.

The CANMORE website states that a supposed castle in which Frakökk was burned may be located at grid reference NC8728, near Kinbrace, within the parish of Kildonan.

[39] In 1769, Thomas Pennant noted the episode of the burning, and stated that certain ruins at Kinbrace were called "Cairn Shuin"; and that these were the remnants of the homestead that Sveinn burnt.

Until quite recently, it was commonly believed by historians that the eponymous ancestor of the MacLeods, Leod, was the son of Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles.

In the late 20th century, William Matheson proposed that the MacLeods descended in the male line from Ölvir Rósta, rather than Olaf the Black.

MacLeod noted that the Gaelic snatha—which has a secondary meaning of "grief", and "trouble"[48]—may be a nominative form of the genitive snaithe, and thus may equate to Ölvir's byname.

[12] In 1962, on the Inner Hebridean island of Iona, close to Reilig Odhrain grid reference NM286245, a fragment of a carved stone bearing the runic inscription of a man named Ölvir was found.

In the 1980s, Norwegian runologist Aslak Liestøl proposed that the stone is evidence that the two brothers were Scandinavian speakers, who were members of a leading family in the district, who had the social status to be buried near Reilig Odhrain.

The earl was named after his grandfather, Kali Sæbjörnarson, who according to the saga, accompanied Magnús 'Barefoot' to the Hebrides, and died there of wounds he received on Anglesey.