Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time

avid an

obably about 1211. The Mackays were beginning to occupy the western parts of Strathnavern, their title being probably their swords, and they held their lands "manu forti," their country being a refuge for their Morayshire kinsmen, the MacHeths, who were in constant rebellion. The eastern portion of Strathnavern, and particularly the neighbourhood of Loch Coire and Loch Naver, and all the Strathnaver valley were probably insecurely held by members of the Erlend and Moddan family after Harald Ungi's death at the battle of Clairdon in 1198; and Gunni, probably a grandson of Sweyn Asleifarson, who had married Ragnhild, Harald Ungi's youngest sister, after the death in the same battle of Lifolf Baldpate, her first husband, became chief of the Moddan Clan there and in Caithness. After 1200 Ragnhild had by Gunni a son called Snaekoll Gunni's son, who thus became, on

ght years of his rule,1 more or less inefficient probably through ill health, he shared the earldom and what had been left to him of its lands with his younger brother John. David died w

ter, whose name is not known, as a hostage for her father's loyalty, and a guarantee of the peace then made, under which John was probably recognised as earl and as entitled to his reduced territory. His daughter may, at this time, have been her father's sole heiress, although she did not remain so, because we find that he had a

ing's seal.6 In 1218 John was present at Bergen to witness the ordeal successfully undergone by King Hakon's mother in order to

d demanded that the earl should protect them against the bishop's rapacity, and, either at the earl's suggestion or without any opposition on his part, they at

oor; and was straightway smitten across the face, and fell down dead inside the loft. And when the bishop was told that, he answered, 'That had not happened sooner than was likely, for he was always making our matters worse.' Then the bishop bade Rafn tell the freemen that he wished to be reconciled with them. But when this was told to the freemen, all those among them who were wiser were glad to hear it. Then the bishop went out and meant to be reconciled. But when the worse kind of men saw that, those who were most mad, they seized Bishop Adam, and brought him into a little house and set fire to it. But the ho

ing that "two bad things were before them, that it was unbearable" and that "he could suggest no other choice,"10 that is, but to pay the bishop's tithes, however exorbitant, or not pay them, or possibly to make an end of him. It is clear also that the monk who was with the bishop was to blame for his exactions. But

d into Caithness with an army, and took vengeance on the bishop's murderers by mutilating a large number of those conc

he bishop, who was escaping from the fire, to be cast into it again, and the bodies of two others previously

s for the murder of the bishop. Wyntoun, however, stat

d that erle

unto the

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re herd, pe

rtion of it, which, as stated, had been given to Gilbert de Moravia by Hugo in 1211, and without the Moddan family's lands near Loch Coire and in Strathnaver and Caithness, and without Harald Ungi's moiety or half share of the Caithness earldom; a

t thither again to leave his only son, Harald, as a hostage for his own loyalty.16 In 1226, Harald was drowned at sea, probably on his return voyage, thus leaving John without any

a friend of the Norse king, by giving him a like vessel, "The Ox," to enable him to complete his voyage back from Norway to his own kingdom, and in the same y

nstantly in attendance at the Norse, than at the Scottish Court. At the same time it became more and more likely that he would have to choose between his two maste

m him Jarl Ragnvald's lands in Orkney. But the earl, who held Orkney in its entirety as the representative of the line of Paul and of Harold Maddadson, who had seized it when Jarl St. Ragnvald died in 1158, refused to give Snaekoll any part of those lands; and Snaekoll, failing to obtain any redress, sought the aid of Hanef, formerly a page, but now Commiss

the cellar of his lodgings. After the affray they crossed over to Orkney, where they fortified the small but massive castle20 or tower of Kolbein Hruga or Cobbie Row, in the Island of Vigr or Wyre, now called Veira, near Rousay in Orkney, and provisioned i

luable a pawn to be sacrificed, was retained, and lived long in Norway with Earl Skuli, and afterwards with King Hakon.21 It is noteworthy that a gaedinga ship (no Jewish Ship,22 as Torfaeus states, but a ship of the gaedingar or lendirmen of the Earl of

Snaekoll, being deprived of his rights in Orkney by King Hakon, returned late in life to Caithness, where th

kin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, who had died before her. From her name of Johanna this lady is stated to have been a daughter of Earl John, amongst others by so eminent an authority as the late Mr. William F. Skene in a paper "on the Earldom of Caithness," first read to th

possessed by the line of Erlend Thorfinnson, and that Joanna (or Johanna) was Earl John's daughter, and, as such,

Johanna was no daughter of John, and that it was the Erlend half of the Caithness earldom lands that went to her and her husband Freskin de Moravia of Duffus, while the moiety of Paul, in our opinion, remained with

resent rests on mere speculation and guesswork, and the opinions expressed here must be accepted as me

eal with this difficult su