By Fiona Grahame

“No greater ring-giver ever roamed with warguard”

Earl Thorfinn The Mighty (1014 – c1060) ruled over lands in Orkney, Shetland, The Hebrides, Northern Scotland and parts of Ireland from his base in Birsay, Orkney.

The youngest son of Sigurd the Stout, himself a great warrior, and the daughter of Malcom King of Scots, Thorfinn Sigurdsson went to live with his grandfather in the Scottish Court at the age of 5. This was not unusual for the time when often sons were fostered out to the care and upbringing of powerful familial relations.

During his early years in the Christianised court of Malcolm, the King granted him lands in Caithness and Sutherland appointing agents to administer them on Thorfinn’s behalf. From the start, Thorfinn, had a powerful friend in his Scottish grandfather which was to work in his favour as he built up his own power base.

After his father’s death at the Battle of Clontarf, the extensive lands Earl Sigurd had acquired were divided up between his surviving sons with Einar Wrymouth, Bruisi and Thorfinn all eventually getting one third. But power is a hungry mistress and soon this division was to fall apart.

Thorfinn had in his close retinue two people who would be very influential in his story, his advisor the warrior Thorkell Forester, and his jarlaskáld (court poet) Arnor Thordarson.

Thorkell Forester, not only acted as an advisor but was extremely efficient at dispatching those who would impede Thorfinn’s journey to become the most powerful warrior in the north.

Earl Einar Wrymouth was angered at the growing strength  of Thorfinn with his lands in Caithness and Orkney. Looking for support for his claims, Thorfinn and his trusty advisor Thorkell, travelled to Norway to engage the support of King Olaf. To cement a peaceful agreement Thorkell organised a great feast in his hall in Sandwick. Great feasts and drinking were customary when arrangements were made between Earls. Einar Wrymouth was in attendance and after Thorkell’s feast the Norse men were to travel together to Einar’s Hall and continue the feasting there.

Thorkell left first, but returned unexpectedly as his men had told him of a suspected ambush. Entering the Hall he found Einar alone sitting on one of the benches which ran down the side of the room. In the centre of the room was the large hearth with the fire still well alight.

‘Are you ready yet?’ asked the impatient Einar.

‘I am ready now,’ answered Thorkell.

At this Thorkell struck Einar with his sword and he fell into the fire. Enter Icelandic warrior, Hallvard who said:

‘It is not very clever to leave the Earl in the fire and not pull him out.’

Which he did by driving a pole-axe into the nape of Einar’s neck and flicking his smouldering body onto the bench. And so ended the time of Earl Einar Wrymouth.

Earl Bruisi, the only brother left, inherited Einar’s portion of lands as a  result of a previous agreement. Thorfinn was not content with this and both Earls travelled to King Olaf to sort out an arrangement. King Olaf, who was to become Norway’s national saint, seized the opportunity to bring the Orkney Earl’s into line. They had been showing far too much independence and he  was concerned that Thorfinn, with his connections to the Scottish King, was gaining too much power.

The result was that King Olaf declared that the Earls held Orkney as a non-heritable administration and he had power over them. Einar’s third portion was to go instead to the crown. Thorfinn left thinking that was the end of the matter but Olaf had other ideas and granted Einar’s third to Bruisi and to make sure all this was adhered to he kept Bruisi’s son, Rognvald, as his insurance.  

This agreement lasted until the exile of King Olaf from Norway and Thorfinn took over Einar’s third.

The other influential man in Team Thorfinn was, his jarlaskáld, Arnor Thordarson. His verse, in addition to the much later Orkneyinga Saga, is the surviving record of Thorfinn ‘the tallest and strongest of men with black hair, sharp features and a grisly aspect.’ Arnor was also a skilled negotiator.

In his campaign against Karl Hundison (possibly the future King of Scots, MacBeth), Thorfinn’s military successes took him down through Scotland as far south as Fife. A great sea battle took place off Deerness, Orkney, and Karl was eventually forced to retreat to the Moray Firth. He never challenged Thorfinn again concentrating instead on gaining the throne of Scotland.

Thorfinn’s reputation continued to grow and when King Cnut visited Scotland c 1031 it is likely that the Orkney Earl travelled south to meet him. Cnut ruled over England, Denmark and Norway. He was interested in Orkney because of its geographical location on a prime maritime route.

All of this juggling maintaining the favour of various Norse and Scottish Kings, Thorfinn was skilled at. A slightly shaky time came when Bruisi’s son, Rognvald returned to Orkney for he was a great friend of Magnus, King of Norway (1035 – 1047), having been brought up in the Norwegian court. Thorfinn cut a deal with Rognvald, who was keen to regain his father’s inheritance, for two thirds of the Earldom in return for military assistance. This deal lasted a short time whilst the two raided south, down the west coast, into Galloway  – ‘they ravaged far and wide throughout England, killing, looting and burning wherever they went’, Orkneyinga Saga.

Rognavld sought the support of King Magnus of Norway against Thorfinn. Another warrior arrived in Orkney, Kalf Arneson, exiled there by King Magnus. Kalf Arneson was well known for changing to whichever side would benefit him the most but he was related to Earl Thorfinn through marriage. In Norway, pleading with King Magnus, Rognvald got the King to agree that Kalf could return from exile if he aided him.

Thorfinn and Rognvald met in a great sea battle at Rauðabjorg (possibly Roeberry, South Ronaldsay). It is now that Arnor Thordarson’s skill with words came into play. He was sent to speak with Karl Arneson. Whatever he said worked for Karl rejected the offer from Rognvald and the chance to leave his exile in Orkney, and threw his extensive military support in with Thorfinn. Rognvald was defeated and escaped to Norway.

Determined to get his inheritance back, Rognvald returned to his base in Kirkwall, Orkney. Preparing for the Yule time celebrations he sailed to Papa Stronsay, to collect malt for the festive ale and suffered a surprise attack by Thorfinn’s forces. The house he was in was set alight, but dressed as a priest Rognvald escaped, only to be betrayed in his hiding place by the barking of his pet dog. Unfortunately for him, Thorkel Forester, was there to make sure he never returned to Orkney, or anywhere else again, and killed him where he hid amongst the rocks.

‘Thorfinn and his men spent the rest of the night on the island and killed every one of Rognvald’s companions’, Orkneyinga Saga.

Karl Arneson was pardoned and returned to Norway.

From this time on, with no one else to topple him from power, Thorfinn travelled ever further afield. He sailed to the court of Harald Hardrada with two twenty-bench ships of over one hundred men. Warriors from all over the lands controlled by Thorfinn wished to sail with him because of his reputation as a mighty warrior. He sailed onward to Denmark and paid homage to King Sweyn, to Germany to the court of the Emperor Henry III and finally rode on horseback over the Alps to Rome. In Rome he received absolution for his sins from the Pope.

This was now a settled period when Thorfinn established a Bishopric in Birsay. Although there were small churches in the islands, a Bishopric was essential to fully Christianise the people. Bishop Turolf was established by order of the Pope and what followed was a period of considerable social restructuring as the old Norse/Celtic ways were dispensed with for the Romanised Christian ways to take precedence.

Thorfinn died in about 1060 and although he was indeed ‘Mighty’, the bóndi, the farmers and landholders, were crucial to the support the Earls needed, be it for what their land could produce, the taxes they could pay, or the fighting men they could provide. This was a factor the deeply unpopular and cruel Earl Einar Wrymouth had learned to his cost when he lost their support in his campaign against Thorfinn. There were checks and balances on an Earl’s power which only the foolhardy would forget.

Earl Thorfinn, the Mighty, was clever, skilled in diplomacy and in military campaigns. He amassed huge wealth from the lands he ruled over and the raids he led. The remains of his final home on the tidal island, the Brough of Birsay, are of paved and drained dwellings, including a sauna. Much of that settlement has plunged into the sea but there are the outlines of many longhouses and a church.

Despite all he had achieved, after his death, the lands he had acquired quickly returned to  their previous rulers. Orkney, however, would never be the same as the time of the great Viking raids south was over. Christian practices advanced into all levels of society and the links with Scotland became ever tighter.

‘The bright sun will blacken,

Heaven’s bowl break

asunder, earth sink in dark

seas, mountains soar

through ocean ere

the islands bear another

like Thorfinn: help him,

Heaven, this hero.’ – Orkneyinga Saga

This article was first published in iScot Magazine