Chapters 36-40

36. At that time came into Norway Harold Sigurd's son, the kinsman of king Magnus, and king Magnus gave him half Norway. They were both kings in Norway one winter. Then they called out a levy over all Norway and meant to go south to Denmark. But when they lay in the Selisles two long-ships ran into the haven, and up to king Magnus' ship. A man went from the long ship in a white cowl, and aft along the ship and up into the poop. The king sate over meat. This man hailed the king, and bowed before him, took up a loaf of bread and broke a bit off and ate. The king took his greeting, and reached out to him the bowl when he saw that he ate the bread. This man took the bowl, and said: "We want peace, messmate." The king looked at him, and said, "Who art thou?" "I am Thorfinn, Sigurd's son." "Art thou earl Thorfinn," says the king. "So I am called west yonder," says he, "but I am come hither with two ships of twenty benches each, and rather well manned, so far as we are able. Now I will row on this levy with you, if ye will take help of me. But all my matter and I myself shall be at God's command and yours, lord, for the sake of those great misdeeds which I have broken against your will." Then men went up and heard their talk. The king was slow in answering, and spoke thus: "True it is, earl Thorfinn, that I had not meant, if the meeting of us two ever took place as it has now done, that thou shouldst be able to tell of our parting. But now things have happened so, that it beseems not my honour that I should take and kill thee, now thou shalt fare with me, but the terms of our atonement I will utter at my leisure."" Earl Thorfinn bade the king good-bye, and went to his ships. The king lay a very long time in the Selisles. Then a host gathered thither to him out of the Bay. He meant to sail thence south under Jutland as soon as he got a fair wind. Earl Thorfinn was then often long a-talking with the king. The king treated him well, and took him much into his counsels. It fell out one day that the earl went on board the king's ship, and aft into the poop. The king bade him sit by him. The earl sat him down, and they both drank together and were merry. A tall brisk man in a red kirtle came into the poop, that man hailed the king. The king took his greeting blithely; that was one of the king's bodyguard. This man began to speak, and said, "Thee am I come to find, earl Thorfinn." "What wilt thou of me," says the earl. "I want to know with what thou wilt atone to me for my brother, whom thou letst to be slain west in Kirkwall, along with other thanes of king Magnus." "Hast thou not heard that," says the earl, "that I am not wont to atone for those men with money whom I cause to be slain. And this is how it is, that methinks I have always had good cause when I have let men be slain." "It is no business of mine how thou hast done by other men, if thou atonest for this one, on whose behalf I make this claim. Besides, I left behind me there some goods of my own, and for myself I was shamefully treated. I have the best right, therefore, to make this claim in my brother's name and my own, and I will have amends for it. But the king may as well forgive everything that is done against him, if he thinks it nothing worth when his thanes are led out and hewn down like sheep." The earl answers: "I see plainly that it is all the better for me here that thou hast not had power over me. Art thou not that man to whom I gave peace yonder." "Sure enough I am," says he; "it was in thy choice to slay me there and then like other men." Then the earl answers: "Sooth it is, as the saying goes, that 'many things happen that one least looks for.' I thought then that I could never be so placed that I should have to pay for being too peaceable to my foes; but now I am to smart for having given thee mercy. Thou wouldest not be able to cry out against me today before princes if I had let thee be slain like the rest of thy companions." The king looked at the earl and said: "There it comes out though, earl Thorfinn, that thou thinkest thou hast slain too few of my thanes without atonement." The king was then as red as blood. The earl sprang up then, and went down out of the poop and on board his ship. Then all was quiet that evening. But next morning, when men were woke, a fair breeze was come. Then men rowed straightway out of the haven. The king sailed then south into Jutland's sea with all the fleet. The earl's ship sailed a good deal westward to the open sea at the beginning of the day; but when the day began to wear away, the earl steered west into the main. There is nothing to be said about him before he came to the Orkneys and sate down there in his realm. King Magnus and Harold sailed to Denmark, and stayed there that summer. King Sweyn would not come out to meet them; he was in Scanör with his host. In that summer king Magnus took that sickness which led him to his death. He gave it out then before all the people that he gave all the realm of Norway to his father's brother Harold. (4)

37. Earl Thorfinn now ruled over the Orkneys and all the rest of his realms. Kalf, Arni's son, was also mostly with him. Sometimes he went west sea-roving, and harried the coasts of Scotland and Ireland; he was also in England, and was for a while over the Thingmen's band. When earl Thorfinn heard of the death of king Magnus, he sent then men east to Norway to find king Harold and greet him with friendly words; he says, thus, that he wishes to become his friend. But when that message came to the king, he took it well, and the king promised him his friendship. And when this message came back to the earl, he made ready his voyage, and had with him from the west two ships of twenty benches each, and more than a hundred men, all fine picked fellows. Then he fared east to Norway, and found the king in Hördaland. He gave him a very hearty welcome; and at their parting the king gave him good gifts. Thence the earl sailed south along the land and so to Denmark. There he fared round the land, and found king Sweyn in Aalborg; he asked the earl to his house, and made him a grand feast. Then the earl laid bare his purpose how he meant to go south to Rome. But when he came to Saxony, he met there the kaiser Henry, and he gave the earl a very hearty welcome, and gave him many great gifts. He got him, too, many horses, and then he made ready his journey south. Then he fared to Rome and saw the pope there, and there he took absolution from him for all his misdeeds. The earl turned thence to his journey home, and came back safe and sound into his realm; and that journey was most famous. Then the earl sat down quietly and kept peace over all his realm. Then he left off warfare; then he turned his mind to ruling the people and land, and to law-giving. He sate almost always in Birsay, and let them build there Christchurch, a splendid minster. There first was set up a bishop's seat in the Orkneys. Earl Thorfinn had to wife Ingibjorg earlsmother; they had two sons, who grew up out of childhood; the name of one was Paul and the other's Erlend; they were tall men and fair, and took more after their mother's side. They were men wise and meek. The earl loved them much, and so too did all the people.

38. Earl Thorfinn held all his realms till his death day; it is soothly said that he has been the most powerful of all the Orkney earls. He owned nine earldoms in Scotland, and all the Southern isles, and he had a great realm in Ireland. So says Arnor earlskald:
                         the way from Tuskar-skerry
                         to Dublin hosts obeyed him,
                         Thorfinn, raven-feeder;
                         I tell how liegemen loved him."
Earl Thorfinn was then five winters old when Malcolm the Scot-king, his mother's father, gave him the title of earl; but afterwards he was sixty (5) winters earl. He breathed his last about the end of king Harold Sigurd's son's days. He is buried at Christchurch in Birsay, which he let be built. The earl's death was a great grief in the Orkneys and in his lands of heritage. But in those lands which he had laid under him with war, then many thought it great thraldom to abide under his power. Then many realms fell away which the earl had laid under him, and men looked for trust under those chiefs who were there home-born to rule in those realms. So losses were very soon plainly seen when earl Thorfinn fell away.
These songs were sung about the battle between earl Rognvald Brusi's son, and earl Thorfinn:
                        "Loath am I to tell the story,
                        How I witness was when men
                        Broke the truce between the earls,
                        Equal corpses got the corbies:
                        Off the isles the mighty monarch
                        Tore the sea's blue tent in twain,
                        Storm-cold waters then were stiffened,
                        Striking ships with buffets sore.
                        Hard mishap uprose triumphant
                        As the earls in onslaught strove,
                        Many a man then learnt the lesson
                        How to fall in bloody fight;
                        Hard beneath the headland ruddy
                        Hearty friends of ours fought,
                        Storm of spear-points followed after,
                        Many mild folk there met grief.
                        Gloom o'er gleaming sun shall gather,
                        Earth 'neath billow black be merged,
                        Austri's burden (6) break to pieces,
                        Main-sea mount above the mountains;
                        Ere among those isles a fairer
                        Chieftain shall again be born,
                        Thorfinn trusty lord of thanes
                        Long may God him guard alive."