Olvir and his men gave way towards the homestead; for they
could not get to the wood. Then there was a great slaughter of men,
but Olvir fled away up to Helmsdale Water and swam across the river
and so up on to the fell: and thence he fared to Skotland's Firth,[20]
and so out to the Southern Isles. And he is out of the story. But when
Olvir drew off, Sweyn and his men fared straight up to the house, and
plundered it of everything; but, after that, they burnt the homestead
and all those men and women who were inside it. And there Frakark lost
her life. Sweyn and his men did there the greatest harm in Sutherland,
ere they fared to their ships."
Such is this Sutherland tale of Sweyn. According to the current
notions of blood feud, he merely discharged the solemn duty of
avenging his father's burning and death by a like burning and slaying
of the household of his father's murderers. But his acts were wholly
unjustifiable by the law of the time, as he had already accepted an
atonement by were-geld from Earl Ottar.
After a round of harrying and piracy, especially in Sutherland, no
doubt among the Moddan clan, Sweyn was heartily welcomed home by Jarl
Ragnvald, from whom he immediately obtained another fleet for another
set of raids on Wales, the coasts of the Bristol Channel and the
Scilly Isles.
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