In the Landnamabok (1.6.5) we find Swart Kell,
or Cathal Dhu, mentioned as having gone from Caithness and taken
land in settlement in Mydalr in Iceland, and his son was Thorkel, the
father of Glum, who took Christendom when he was already old.
About this time also, as appears from the _Saga of Thorgisl_,[31]
there was an Earl Anlaf or Olaf in Caithness, who had a sister, named
Gudrun, whom Swart Ironhead, a pirate, sought in marriage. But Swart
was killed in holmgang, or duel, by Thorgisl, who cut off his head
and married Gudrun, by whom he had a son called Thorlaf. Thorgisl then
tired of Gudrun, and gave her to Thorstan the White on the plea that
he himself wished to go and look after his estate in Iceland, which he
did. Can this Anlaf be the original of the legendary Alane, thane
of Sutherland, whom Macbeth, according to Sir Robert Gordon in his
_Genealogie of the Earles of Southerland_,[32] put to death, and whose
son, Walter, Malcolm Canmore is said to have created first Earl? Or
was Alane, like others, a creation of Sir Robert's inventive brain?
He was certainly no earl of the present Sutherland line; neither was
Walter.[33]
To this period also belongs the romantic story of Barth or Bard,
son of Helgi and Helga Ulfs-datter told in the _Flatey Book_, and
translated at page 369 of the Appendix to Sir George Dasent's Rolls
Edition of the _Orkneyinga Saga_, which is shortly as follows.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
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46
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49
50
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