Thorfinn Sigurdsson (1009?–-c1064?), called
Thorfinn the Mighty, was
Earl of OrkneyThe Earl of Orkney was originally a Norse jarl ruling Orkney, Shetland and parts of Caithness and Sutherland. The Earls were periodically subject to the kings of Norway for the Northern Isles, and later also to the kings of Alba for those parts of their territory in mainland Scotland . The Earl's...
. One of four brothers (with
Brusi Brusi Sigurdsson was one of Sigurd Hlodvirsson's four sons . He was jointly Earl of Orkney from 1014. His life is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga....
,
Sumarlidi Sumarlidi Sigurdsson was jointly Earl of Orkney with his brothers Brusi and Einar Wry-Mouth following the death of their father, Sigurd Hlodvisson at the battle of Clontarf.Sumarlidi is reported to have died in his bed...
and Einar) , sons of Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson by his marriage to the daughter of
Malcolm II of ScotlandMáel Coluim mac Cináeda , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death...
. He married
Ingibiorg FinnsdottirIngibiorg Finnsdottir was a daughter of Earl Finn Arnesson and Bergljot Halvdansdottir , a niece of the Norwegian Kings Saint Olaf and Harald Hardraade. The dates of Ingibiorg's life are not certainly known.She married Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney...
, daughter of
Finn ArnessonFinn Arnesson was a nobleman and advisor to Olaf Haraldsson , King of Norway and to Olaf's half-brother Harald Sigurdsson . He later served Sweyn Estridsson, King of Denmark, who made him a jarl...
, Jarl of Halland.
The
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
of
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
ic historian
Snorri SturlusonSnorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...
, and the anonymous compiler of the
Orkneyinga SagaThe Orkneyinga saga is a unique historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200....
, write that Thorfinn was the most powerful of all the earls of Orkney. He is said to have been earl for seventy-five years and ruler of nine earldoms in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, of the
HebridesThe Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides...
, and of part of
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. A sizable part of the account in the
Orkneyinga Saga concerns his wars with a "King of Scots" named Karl Hundason whose identity is very uncertain.
Background
Thorfinn was the youngest of the five known sons of Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson, but the only son of Sigurd's marriage to a daughter of Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. His elder half-brothers Einar,
Brusi Brusi Sigurdsson was one of Sigurd Hlodvirsson's four sons . He was jointly Earl of Orkney from 1014. His life is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga....
and Sumarlidi survived to adulthood, while a brother called "Hundi or Whelp" died in Norway, a hostage at the court of King Olaf Trygvasson.
Earl Sigurd was killed at the
Battle of ClontarfThe Battle of Clontarf took place on Good Friday in 1014 between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: composed mainly of his own men, Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, as well as the one...
on 23 April 1014. Before setting out for Ireland, he had sent Thorfinn, then aged five, to be fostered by his maternal grandfather, the King of Scots. When the news of Sigurd's death came, Thorfinn's older half-brothers divided Orkney and Shetland between them. King Máel Coluim set Thorfinn up as ruler of
CaithnessCaithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
and
SutherlandSutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
with Scots advisors to rule for him. The lands in the Hebrides which Earl Sigurd had held appear to have escaped control of the earls of Orkney at this time.
The
Orkneyinga Saga gives this description of Thorfinn:
He was unusually tall and strong, an ugly-looking man with a black head of hair, sharp features, a big nose and bushy eyebrows, a forceful man, greedy for fame and fortune. He did well in battle, for he was both a good tactician and full of courage.
Joint rule
Sumarlidi died some time before 1020, and the disposition of his third share in Orkney and Shetland became a matter of dispute. Thorfinn had grown up fast, and he claimed Sumarlidi's third as his. While Brusi was willing to grant it to him, Einar was not and took it for himself. Einar was an unpopular ruler, and the farmers of the isles objected to his frequent calls for military service and taxes. A certain Thorkel Amundason led the opposition to Einar. Thorkel, in danger of his life, fled to Thorfinn's court in Caithness, and became his foster-father, from which the other name by which he is known, Thorkel the Fosterer. Einar and Thorfinn began raising armies to settle matters by force, but Earl Brusi made peace between them by persuading Einar to give Thorfinn what he asked for.
Thorfinn appointed Thorkel the Fosterer as his tax-gatherer in the islands, but Einar had not forgotten their earlier dispute and Thorkel left the islands in fear of his life, returning to Caithness. Thorkel then travelled to
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
with Thorfinn's support, to meet with King Olaf Haraldsson. He was well received there, for Olaf bore his own grudge against Einar for the killing of his comrade Eyvind Aurochs-Horn some years earlier. Olaf invited Thorfinn to Norway, and he too was welcomed to Olaf's court. Thorfinn and Thorkel returned to Orkney, to find Einar raising an army against them. Brusi again made peace between them, but this ended with Einar planning Thorkel's killing and Thorkel killing Einar first. The killing of Earl Einar is dated to 1020 by the Icelandic annals.
The death of Einar did not end the dispute over Sumarlidi's third of the islands. Brusi considered that it belonged to him, as he and Einar had agreed when Thorfinn received a third of the islands. Thorfinn thought that the islands should be divided equally. However, Thorfinn could count on the assistance of his grandfather, King Máel Coluim, while Brusi had only the forces he could raise from his share of the islands, making any conflict a very unequal one. Brusi went to Norway, to the court of King Olaf Haraldsson, to have Olaf judge the dispute, and Thorfinn joined him there. Brusi surrendered the earldom to Olaf, who granted a third to each brother, and kept a third for himself. Thorfinn attempted to use his relationship with the King of Scots as a means to avoid acknowledging Olaf as his overlord in Orkney and Shetland, but Olaf threatened to appoint another to rule Thorfinn's share. Following Thorkel the Fosterer's advice, Thorfinn agreed to Olaf's settlement. After Thorfinn left Norway, Olaf gave Brusi the disputed third to rule on his behalf, but kept Brusi's son
Rognvald Rognvald Brusason , son of Brusi Sigurdsson, was Earl of Orkney jointly with Thorfinn Sigurdsson from about 1037 onwards. His life is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga....
in Norway as a hostage. These events are dated to 1021.
The arrangement with Olaf Haraldsson lasted while Olaf was king. But in 1028 he was overthrown by the
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
king
Canute the GreatCnut the Great , also known as Canute or Knut or Cnut Sweynsson, was a Viking king of England and Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden...
. After this, the islands were raided by Norwegians and Danes. In order to have the islands better defended, Brusi agreed to give King Olaf's third to Thorfinn, in return for Thorfinn seeing to the defence of the islands. This agreement lasted until Brusi's death, some time between 1030 and 1035. After that, Thorfinn was sole ruler of the earldom. This resulted in Thorfinn holding the Earldom of Caithness from the King of Scots and the Jarldom of Orkney from the King of Norway.
Karl Hundason
The
Orkneyinga Saga says that a dispute between Thorfinn and
Karl HundasonKarl Hundason, also Karl Hundisson, is a personage in the Orkneyinga Saga. The saga recounts a war between Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, and Karl, whom it calls king of Scots...
began when Karl Hundason became "King of Scots" and claimed Caithness. In the war which followed, Thorfinn defeated Karl in a sea-battle off Deerness at the east end of the
Orkney MainlandThe Mainland is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections....
. Then Karl's nephew Mutatan or Muddan, appointed to rule Caithness for him, was killed at
ThursoThurso is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland...
by Thorkel the Fosterer. Finally, a great battle at Tarbat Ness on the south side of the
Dornoch FirthThe Dornoch Firth is a firth on the east coast of Highland, in northern Scotland. It forms part of the boundary between Ross and Cromarty, to the south, and Sutherland, to the north....
ended with Karl defeated and fugitive or dead. Thorfinn, the saga says, then marched south through Scotland as far as
FifeFife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.It is a...
, burning and plundering as he passed. A later note in the saga claims that Thorfinn won nine Scottish earldoms.
The identity of Karl Hundason, unknown to Scots and Irish sources, has long been a matter of dispute, and it is far from clear that the matter is settled. The most common assumption is that Karl Hundason was an insulting byname ("Churl, son of a Dog") given to Mac Bethad by his enemies.
SkeneWilliam Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....
's suggestion that he was Donnchad mac Crínáin has been revived in recent years. Lastly, the idea that the whole affair is a poetic invention has been raised.
Whoever Karl son of Hundi may have been, it appears that the saga is reporting a local conflict with a Scots ruler of Moray or Ross:
[T]he whole narrative is consistent with the idea that the struggle of Thorfinn and Karl is a continuation of that which had been waged since the ninth century by the Orkney earls, notably Sigurd Rognvald's son, Ljot, and Sigurd the Stout, against the princes or mormaers of Moray, Sutherland, Ross, and Argyll, and that, in fine, Malcolm and Karl were mormaers of one of these four provinces.
Rognvald Brusason
Thorfinn ruled alone in Orkney until the return of his nephew
Rognvald Brusason Rognvald Brusason , son of Brusi Sigurdsson, was Earl of Orkney jointly with Thorfinn Sigurdsson from about 1037 onwards. His life is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga....
in about 1037. Rognvald had received the favour of King Magnus the Good, who granted him Brusi's share of the islands and the third which Olaf Haraldsson had claimed after Einar's death. Thorfinn agreed to this division, but presented the transfer of the third claimed by the Norwegian king as a gift to Rognvald in return for aid in Thorfinn's wars in the Hebrides and the Irish Sea.
King
Sigtrygg SilkbeardSigtrygg II Silkbeard Olafsson was a Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin of the Uí Ímair dynasty...
had died in 1035 or 1036, and the kingship in
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
had come to
Echmarcach mac RagnaillEchmarcach mac Ragnaill was the Gall-Gaidhel King of the Isles, Dublin , and much of Galloway.Echmarcach's long career brought both glories and failures...
, who was challenged by Imar mac Arailt and driven out in 1038. This instability in Dublin can only have helped Thorfinn and Rognvald, who raided far and wide and established their rule over some part of the lands around the Irish Sea. They are said to have won a major victory beside Vattenfjord, perhaps Loch Vatten on the west coast of the Isle of Skye. The Earls are said to have raided in England, with mixed success.
In time, Thorfinn and Rognvald fell out. The vivid account of the war between Thorfinn and Rognvald in the
Orkneyinga Saga which survives may well be only a part of a much longer saga now lost. Their enmity arose with the arrival of Kalf Arnesson and his followers in Orkney. Kalf was the uncle of Thorfinn's wife
Ingibiorg FinnsdottirIngibiorg Finnsdottir was a daughter of Earl Finn Arnesson and Bergljot Halvdansdottir , a niece of the Norwegian Kings Saint Olaf and Harald Hardraade. The dates of Ingibiorg's life are not certainly known.She married Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney...
, and had left Norway to escape King Magnus Olafsson. Rognvald, with Kalf's brothers, had shared Magnus's exile in Kievan Rus under the protection of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, and the saga says that when Kalf came to
LadogaStaraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...
to invite Magnus back to Norway, Rognvald almost attacked him. Thorfinn, it is said, found hosting Kalf and his men a burden, and in time asked Rognvald to return the third of the earldom "which had once belonged to Einar Wry-Mouth". Rognvald refused, saying that it was for King Magnus to settle matters. Thorfinn began raising an army, and Rognvald's islanders were unwilling to fight Thorfinn, so Rognvald sailed to Norway where King Magnus supplied him with ships and men. He returned to the islands, facing Thorfinn and Kalf Arnesson in a sea battle which Arnor the skald commemorated in verse. The battle went Rognvald's way to begin with, but in the end he was defeated and forced again to seek refuge with King Magnus.
King Magnus offered to fit out another expedition for Rognvald, but he decided to take just one ship and a picked crew. He sailed to Shetland in winter, and learning that Thorfinn was staying on a farm on the Orkney Mainland with only a few men, he set out at once to attack him. Rognvald's men surprised Thorfinn, and set the farm ablaze. The saga says that Thorfinn had to break down a wall and escape, carrying his wife in his arms, flying south to Caithness for safety. Rognvald ruled in
KirkwallKirkwall is the largest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046. It was established as the settlement of Rögnvald II, Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his successor, Thorfinn...
over the winter, believing Thorfinn dead, but in the spring, while staying on
Papa StronsayPapa Stronsay is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Stronsay. It is in size, and at its highest point....
, Thorfinn and his men turned the tables, taking Rognvald by surprise, just as he had surprised Thorfinn. Rognvald escaped the house, but was tracked down, given away by the barking of his lap dog, and killed by Thorkell the Fosterer.
Pilgrimage
Even with Rognvald dead, Thorfinn was not entirely secure. The saga recounts an attempt to make peace with Magnus Olafsson, who had sworn vengeance for the death of his men in Thorfinn's attack on Rognvald. Magnus was at war with the Danish king Sweyn Estridsson, and died before he could take any action. Magnus's uncle and successor, Harald Sigurdsson, better known as Harald Hardrada, was more friendly towards Thorfinn, and made a peace, accepting Thorfinn's gifts.
Unlike his kinsmen, Thorfinn had been raised as a Christian. The
Orkneyinga Saga knows of only two sons of Thorfinn, both by his wife Ingibiorg, as opposed to the multiple marriages which appear to have been common before his time. Among the signs of this change in outlook is Thorfinn's
pilgrimageIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, which took place after his meeting with Harald Sigurdsson, probably beginning in 1048. The saga says that he travelled through
SaxonyThe mediæval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...
, meeting with Emperor Henry (
Henry IIIHenry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. He was the eldest son of Conrad II of Germany and Gisela of Swabia and his father made him duke of Bavaria in 1026, after the death of Duke Henry V...
) on the journey. Although the saga does not say so, it is thought that he also met with Archbishop
AdalbertThis article is about Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen. For other uses, see Adalbert .Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen was a German prelate, who was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043 until his death...
of Hamburg-Bremen.
As a result of Thorfinn's request, it appears that the first
Bishop of OrkneyThe Bishop of Orkney was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Orkney, one of thirteen medieval bishoprics within the territory of modern Scotland. It included both Orkney and Shetland. It was based for almost all of its history at St...
was appointed at about this time. Named Thorulf, he may have been the same person as "Roolwer",
Bishop of the IslesThe Bishop of the Isles or Bishop of Sodor was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Sodor, one of Scotland's thirteen medieval bishoprics. The bishopric, encompasing both the Hebrides and Mann, probably traces its origins as an ecclesiastical unity to the careers of Olaf, King of the Isles,...
. The original seat of the bishops of Orkney was Thorfinn's Christchurch at
BirsayBirsay is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle...
, or perhaps the
Brough of BirsayThe Brough of Birsay is a small uninhabited tidal island off the north west coast of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland, in the parish of Birsay.-Geography and geology:The island is accessible on foot at low tide via a largely natural causeway...
, where he had his residence in his later years.
Death and legends
The
Orkneyinga Saga dates Thorfinn's death no more precisely than placing it "towards the end" of Harald Sigurdsson's reign, which is far from exact. Thorfinn returned from Rome in around 1050 and Harald Sigurdsson died at the
battle of Stamford BridgeThe Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire in England on 25 September 1066. This was shortly after an invading Norwegian army under King Harald Hardråde defeated the army of the northern earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at...
in 1066, leaving a period of perhaps a decade in which Thorfinn's death might be placed. Historians offering a later date, sometimes as late as 1065, propose that King
Máel Coluim mac DonnchadaMáel Coluim mac Donnchada , called in most Anglicised regnal lists Malcolm III, and in later centuries nicknamed Canmore, "Big Head" or Long-neck , was King of Scots...
married a postulated daughter of Thorfinn named Ingibiorg rather than his widow. If a date in the early 1050s is presumed, then Máel Coluim could well have married Thorfinn's widow as the saga says.
Archie Duncan argued that Máel Coluim mac Donnchada came to marry Thorfinn's widow because he spent some or all of the period of Mac Bethad's reign in Orkney or Caithness at Thorfinn's court. Thorfinn and Máel Coluim were both descendants of
Máel Coluim mac CináedaMáel Coluim mac Cináeda , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death...
, daughter's son and daughter's grandson respectively, and both had good reason to be hostile to Mac Bethad and his kinsmen, the Kings of Moray.
A less orthodox suggestion was made by author
Dorothy DunnettDorothy Dunnett OBE was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò...
in her 1982 novel
King Hereafter. In the 19th century,
William Forbes SkeneWilliam Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....
noted that the historical sources which mention Thorfinn do not know of Mac Bethad, and vice versa. Pursuing this further, Dunnett wrote a novel taking Mac Bethad and Thorfinn to be the same person.
He was followed as earl by his sons Paul and Erlend.
Thorfinn was buried in the grounds of St. Magnus Church,
BirsayBirsay is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle...
, Mainland Orkney. He is known to history as Thorfinn the Mighty, and at his height of power, he controlled all of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides, Caithness and Sutherland, and his influence extended over much of the north of Scotland. The Orkneyinga Saga makes a grander claim - that he controlled seven earldoms in Scotland. As there were only seven earldoms in total, this seems to claim he was King of Scots; but is more probably referring to the strong alliance he held with his half-brother or cousin (historians still debate on this) Macbeth of Moray, King of Scotia. This claim may reflect a royal pretension of his, derived from maternal descent from a king Malcolm (who probably was Malcolm mac Melbrigte, ruler of Moray and titular high king of Alba). Maternal descent, according e.g Bede's historical accounts, was a strong right to Pictish throne, the lands of Moray and Alba ('seven earldoms').
Further reading
- Orkneyinga Saga, ed by Hermann Pálsson & Paul Edwards. Penguin Classics - ISBN 0-14-044383-5
- Kingship and Unity by G W S Barrow. Edinburgh University press - ISBN 0-7486-0104-X
- The novel King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy Dunnett OBE was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò...
presents an alternate claim that Thorfinn and King Macbeth of AlbaMac Bethad mac Findlaích was King of the Scots from 1040 until his death...
are actually one and the same. (A reading which supports the above claim that Thorfinn actually held seven earldoms within Alba.)