The Orkneyinga Saga

Its
earlier chapters, down to the division of the Earldom between Thorfinn
and Brúsi, are incorporated into the Olaf Saga of Snorri Sturluson, and
are there cited as from the “Jarla Saga,” or Saga of the Earls. It must
therefore have been in existence as a completed work before 1241, the
date of Snorri’s death. The compiler of the Fagrskinna, which is shown
by internal evidence to have been written between 1222 and 1225, also
quotes from it, by the title of “Jarla Sagan.” The closing chapters of
the Orkneyinga Saga, in its present form, recording the burning of
Bishop Adam, could not have been written before 1222; but, as it is
stated in the last chapter that the terrible retribution exacted by the
Scottish King for the murder of the Bishop was still in fresh memory, it
may very well have been completed before 1225. No manuscript of the
Jarla Saga is known to exist, and the original form of what is now
called “The Orkneyinga Saga” is thus matter of conjecture. We know it
only as the substance of its earlier chapters was given by Snorri
previous to 1241, and in the expanded version of the Flateyjarbók, where
it is pieced into the Sagas of Olaf Tryggvi’s son and Olaf the Holy. The
Flateyjarbók, however, is nearly a century and a half later than
Snorri’s work, having been written between the years 1387 and 1394.

The object of the present issue being simply to provide a plain,
readable, and unadorned translation of the Orkneyinga Saga (which has
been hitherto inaccessible to the English reader), it has been deemed
advisable to adhere to the form of the Saga adopted by its first editor
Jonæus, though not to Jonæus’s text, which is by no means free from
corruptions. The Christiania edition of the Flateyjarbók, printed
literally from the manuscript, has afforded the means of rectifying the
text where necessary; and the expanded version of the earlier chapters
given in the Flateyjarbók has also been translated and inserted as an
appendix, for the sake of the fuller details which it supplies of the
earlier history of the Earldom. In one sense it might have been
desirable to have compiled a text which would have given the fullest
history of the Orkney Earls, but this would not have been the
“Orkneyinga Saga.” It would have necessitated the collection and
critical collation of all the passages in all the Sagas and early
writings relating to the history of the Northmen in Scotland—a work
which has long been in progress in abler hands, and under more
favourable auspices.

The Introduction, however, has been compiled with a view to supplement
the Saga narrative, as well as to furnish a continuation of the history
of the Earldom down to the time when it ceased to form part of the
Norwegian dominions. Some account of the islands previous to the Norse
invasion, and a few notices of their antiquities and ecclesiastical
remains, as well as of the existing traces of the Norsemen, seemed
requisite to supplement the notes in illustration of the text.
Chronological and Genealogical Tables have been added to facilitate
reference; and on the maps of Scotland and of the island-groups which
formed the Earldom proper are shown the names of the principal places
mentioned in the Sagas as known to the Northmen.

In conclusion, I have to express my obligations to those kind friends
who have aided me with their advice and assistance. To Dr. John Stuart,
Dr. John Hill Burton, Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., and Colonel Balfour of
Balfour and Trenaby, I am indebted for many valuable suggestions. To the
first-named gentleman I am also under obligations for the use of the
woodcuts of the symbols of the Sculptured Stones. The Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland have generously contributed the woodcuts of the
Bressay Stone, the Saverough Bell, and the Sword and Scabbard-tip; to
the Society of Antiquaries of London I am indebted for the illustrations
of the Stones of Stennis; to Mr. James Ferguson and Mr. John Murray for
those of Maeshow; to Mr. Thomas S. Muir for the Dragon of Maeshow, the
etchings of the churches of Weir and Lybster, and the ground-plans of
the ancient churches; to Messrs. Chambers for the woodcut of Mousa; and
to Dr. Daniel Wilson and Messrs. Constable for those of the Brooch and
Comb, illustrating the burial-usages of the Norsemen. The view of
Egilsey church is from a photograph, for which I am indebted to Mr.
George Petrie of Kirkwall, whose pleasant companionship in a pilgrimage
among the localities described in the Saga is gratefully remembered.

                                                                   J. A.

         NATIONAL MUSEUM
    OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND,
         October 1873.


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                               CONTENTS.


INTRODUCTION.

                                                        PAGE

                I. EARLIEST HISTORICAL NOTICES OF         ix
                     THE ORKNEYS

               II.