We may add that there is nothing in any Scottish record to prove this
marriage or to disprove it.
The first important event in the lives of Paul and Erlend happened
just before the Norman conquest of England. They joined King Harald
Sigurdson (Hardrada) and his son Prince Olaf, who was their second
cousin on their mother's side,[7] in an attack on England; and, after
Harald's death, and his army's defeat by King Harold Godwinson of
England at Stamford Bridge, in September 1066, (three days before
William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey) the two Orkney jarls were
taken prisoner, but, along with Prince Olaf, they were released.
On their return to Orkney, Paul asked the Archbishop of York to
consecrate a cleric of Orkney as Bishop in Orkney, and the two
brothers ruled harmoniously there until their sons Hakon on the one
hand and Magnus and Erling on the other, who had been engaged in
Viking cruises together as boys, grew up and quarrelled, and, as is
usual, drew their fathers into the strife. This strife was provoked by
Hakon, and apparently lasted for many years,[8] Erlend supporting
his own sons, and driving Hakon abroad to Norway about the year 1090.
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