CHAPTER V.
_Paul and Erlend, Hakon and Magnus._
After Earl Thorfinn's death his sons Paul and Erlend jointly held the
jarldom, but divided the lands. They were "big men both, and handsome,
but wise and modest"[1] like their Norse mother Ingibjorg, known as
Earls'-mother, first cousin of Thora, queen of Norway, mother of King
Olaf Kyrre.
On Thorfinn's death, however, the rest of his territories, nine
Scottish earldoms, it is said, "fell away, and went under those men
who were territorially born to rule over them;" that is to say, they
reverted to Scottish Maormors;[2] but Orkney and Shetland remained
wholly Norse, and under Norse rule.
The date of the succession of Paul and Erlend to the Norse jarldom[3]
was, as we have seen, after 1057. Possibly in 1059, or certainly not
later than 1064 or 1065, Ingibjorg, Thorfinn's widow, as by Norse law
widows alone had the right to do, "gave herself away" to the Scot-King
Malcolm III, known as Malcolm Canmore.[4]
As a matter of policy, the marriage was a wise step. For it would
tend to strengthen not only the hold of Scotland on Caithness and
Sutherland, but also its connection with Orkney and Shetland, because
Ingibjorg's sons, the young jarls Paul and Erlend, would become
stepsons of the Scottish king and earls of Caithness.
Pages:
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85