Lastly, in
937 Athelstan and Constantine met at Brunanburg, probably Birrenswark
near Ecclefechan, and Constantine and his Norse allies were completely
defeated.[12]
Meantime, since 875, a succession of jarls had endeavoured to hold,
for the kings of Norway, Orkney and Shetland, as well as Cat, which
then included Ness, Strathnavern, and Sudrland.[13] The history of
these early jarls is not told in detail in any surviving contemporary
record, for the Sagas of the jarls as individuals have perished; but
there is a brief account of them in the beginning of the _Orkneyinga
Saga_, another in chapters 99 and 100 of the _St. Olaf's Saga_, and a
fuller one in chapters 179 to 187 of the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvi's Son_,
contained in the _Flatey Book_.[14] From these the following story may
be gathered.
After Jarl Sigurd's death, his son Guthorm ruled for one winter, and
died without issue, so that Sigurd's line came to an end. When Jarl
Ragnvald of Maeri heard of his nephew's death, he sent his son Hallad
over from Norway to Hrossey, as the mainland of Orkney was then
called, and King Harald gave him the title of jarl. Failing in his
efforts to put down the piracy of the Vikings, who continued their
slayings and plunderings, Hallad, the last of the purely Norse jarls,
resigned his jarldom, and returned ignominiously to Norway.
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