Orkneyinga saga

There are several recurring themes in the Orkneyinga saga, including strife between brothers, relationships between the jarls and the Norwegian crown, and raiding in the Suðreyjar – the Hebrides and elsewhere.

[9] As was generally the case with Icelandic language writing of this period, the aims of the saga were to provide a sense of social continuity through the telling of history combined with an entertaining narrative drive.

[9] The saga is thought to have been compiled from a number of sources, combining family pedigrees, praise poetry and oral legends with historical facts.

[7] He also notes that a problem with medieval Icelandic historiography in general is the difficulty of fixing of a clear chronology based on stories created in a largely illiterate society in which "AD dating was probably unknown".

Earl Rognvald accompanied the king on an expedition where they conquer the islands of Shetland, called Hjaltland, and Orkney, before they continued on to Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Once, historians could write that no-one denied the reality of Harald Fairhair's expeditions to the west (recounted in detail in the Heimskringla), but this is no longer the case.

Thomson (2008) writes that Harald's "great voyage is so thoroughly ingrained in popular and scholarly history, both ancient and modern, that it comes as a bit of a shock to realise that it might not be true.

[18] It may be that the saga writers drew on a genuine tradition of a voyage by Harald to the west, or that they simply invented it wholesale for political purposes, but it is possible that there are elements included in the narrative that are drawn from the much later expeditions undertaken by Magnus Barefoot.

The dialogue between the father and his sons has been interpreted as being about Rognvald's desire to cement his own position as Earl of Møre and an allusion to the early history of Iceland, where the saga was written.

The "foreigners and Leinstermen" were led by Brodir of the Isle of Man and Sigurd, and the battle lasted all day, but the Irishmen ultimately drove back their enemies into the sea.

[40] According to the Orkneyinga saga, the Northern Isles had been Christianised by King Olaf Tryggvasson in 995 when he stopped at South Walls on his way from Ireland to Norway.

[44] Virtually nothing about Thorfinn Sigurdsson's life is corroborated from contemporary sources and the saga writer seems to have obtained most of his material from the poem Þórfinnsdrápa, which was written by his court poet Arnór immediately following his death.

[40] The Orkneyinga Saga says that a dispute between Thorfinn and Karl Hundason began when the latter became "King of Scots" and claimed Caithness, his forces successfully moving north and basing themselves in Thurso.

Finally, a great battle at "Torfness" (probably Tarbat Ness on the south side of the Dornoch Firth[46]) ended with Karl either being killed or forced to flee.

Having been taken hostage by King Magnus Barefoot, he refused to fight in a Viking raid in Anglesey because of his religious convictions, and instead stayed on board the ship during the Battle of Menai Straits, singing psalms.

[54] As this part of the saga was written only a few decades after Asleifsson's death it is reasonable to suppose these chapters more accurately reflect the events they describe than the histories of earlier times.

Asleifsson is depicted as the quintessential Viking, a freebooter whose activities include drunkenness, murder and plundering and whose support is crucial to the politics of the Orkney earldom.

[8][55] His tale is closely bound up with that of Earl Rögnvald, a more rounded character who is also a troubadour and, like his uncle Magnus, ultimately a saint, and it may be that the saga writers were seeking to portray them as exemplars of the Viking lifestyle.

[55] Another interpretation of the narrative is that rather than seeing these two men as protagonist and antagonist that together they live in a golden age where the earl is a cultured ruler and primus inter pares but who owes his position in part to his band of "worthy warriors" and is by no means a despot who rules by divine right.

[66] Another example of the saga writer's fictional devices is found in the tale of Haakon Paulsson's travels through Scandinavia where he meets a fortune teller.

[76] Muir (2005) points out that a literal translation of "Karl Hundisson" is "peasant son-of-a-dog", an insult that would have been obvious to Norse-speakers hearing the saga and that "we can assume this wasn't his real name".

[78] Thomson also notes that the war with Hundasson seem to have taken place between 1029 and 1035 and that the Annals of Ulster record the violent death of Gillacomgain, son of Mael Brigte and Mormaer of Moray in 1032.

He too is thus a candidate for Thorfinn's Scots foe—and the manner of his death by fire bears comparison with Arnór's poetic description of the aftermath of the battle at Torfness.

Although in the Historia Norvegia Rognvald of Møre's family are described as "pirates" the Orkneyinga saga provides them with a legally established earldom instated by the king.

[44] The inclusion of the tale of the raven banner in the saga material may convey the idea of a revival of heathenism in Orcadian society and a reaction to Norwegian attempts to control the islands.

However, in the Orkneyinga Saga there is a vivid contrast between Sigurd's death clutching the raven banner and the later career of his son Thorfinn, who is credited with several achievements in bringing Orkney into mainstream Christendom.

At the time the Orkneyinga saga was first written down Haakon Paulsson's grandson, Harald Maddadsson, was Earl of Orkney and the writer clearly had some difficulty in portraying the kin-slaying of Magnus Erlendsson.

[104] Commenting on the complex relationship between history and invention in the saga Joseph Anderson wrote:When great events and mighty deeds were preserved for posterity by oral recitation alone, it was necessary that the memory should be enabled to retain its hold of the elements of the story by some extraneous artistic aid, and therefore they were welded by the wordsmith’s rhymes into a compact and homogenous "lay".

[6] The saga is not only of importance to scholars attempting to understand the Viking Age in the islands and their neighbouring lands, it is also plays a significant part in the modern culture of the Northern Isles.

The vivid stories of life in Scandinavian Scotland invite the "people of Orkney and Shetland to recognise themselves as the inheritors and custodians of a dual culture, both Norse and Scottish".