Duncan
caught Thorfinn and his five ships off the Mull of Deerness in the
Mainland of Orkney, where, after a stiff hand-to-hand fight, the Scots
fleet was defeated and chased southwards by Thorfinn to Moray, which
he ravaged.[10]
Finding that Moddan and his army were in Thurso, Thorfinn sent Thorkel
Fostri thither secretly with part of his forces, and he set fire to
the house in which Moddan was, and killed him there as he tried to
escape. Thorkel next raised levies in Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross,
joined forces with Thorfinn in Moray, and harried the land, whereupon
Duncan collected an army from the south of Scotland and Cantire and
Ireland, and attacked his enemies in the north.
A great battle ensued near the Norse stronghold of Turfness,[11]
probably Burghead, where peat is found in abundance, though now
submerged; and the battle was fought at Standing Stane in the parish
of Duffus, three miles and a half E.S.E. of Burghead, on the 14th of
August 1040.
The Saga gives the following description of the jarl and of the
fighting:--
"Earl Thorfinn was at the head of his battle array; he had a gilded
helmet on his head, and was girt with a sword, a great spear in his
hand, and he fought with it, striking right and left.
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