Vikings in Stronsay

Norwegian settlers arrived in Orkney in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, and though the islands did provide bases for Viking raids elsewhere, most of the settlers were farmers, raising cattle and sheep. Norse names of farms and fields still abound in the island and signs of Viking settlements have been unearthed, many as a result of coastal erosion. Stronsay gets several mentions in the Orkneyinga Saga, the most dramatic of which has to do with the murder of Earl Rognvald on Papa Stronsay (little Papey):

CHAPTER XVIII
 
EARL RÖGNVALD SLAIN.

Earl Rögnvald resided in Kirkiuvag (Kirkwall), and brought there all necessaries for the winter; he had a great number of men, and entertained them liberally. A little before Christmas the Earl went with a numerous following 38into little Papey to fetch malt for the Christmas brewing. The evening which they stayed in the islands they sat a long time round the fires to warm themselves, and he who had to keep up the fires said they were running short of fuel. Then the Earl made a slip of the tongue in speaking, and said: “We shall be old enough when these fires are burnt out,” but he intended to have said that they would be warm enough; and when he noticed his blunder he said: “I made a slip of the tongue in speaking just now; I do not remember that I ever did so before, and now I recollect what my foster-father King Olaf said at Stiklestad when I noticed a slip of the tongue which he made—namely, that if it ever so happened that I should make a slip in my speech I should not expect to live long after it. It may be that my kinsman Thorfinn is still alive.”

At that moment they heard that the house was surrounded by men. It was Earl Thorfinn and his men. They set the house on fire immediately, and heaped up a large pile before the door. Thorfinn permitted all others to come out except Earl Rögnvald’s men, and when most of them had gone out a man came to the door dressed in linen clothes only, and asked Earl Thorfinn to lend a hand to the deacon; this man placed his hands on the wall and sprang over it and over the ring of men, and came down a great way off, and disappeared immediately in the darkness of the night. Earl Thorfinn told his men to go after him, saying: “There went the Earl, for that is his feat and no other man’s.” They went away, and divided into parties to search for him. Thorkel Fóstri with some others went along the beach, and 39they heard the barking of a dog among the rocks by the sea. Earl Rögnvald had had his favourite dog with him. Thorkel had the Earl seized, and asked his men to kill him, offering them a reward in money. But no one would do it. So Thorkel Fóstri slew Earl Rögnvald himself, as he knew that one of the two (Earls) must die. Then Earl Thorfinn came up, and did not find fault with the deed. They spent the night in the island, and all were killed who had accompanied Earl Rögnvald thither.

Next morning they took a barge and filled it with malt; then they went on board and ranged the shields which had belonged to Earl Rögnvald and his men along the bulwarks, neither had they more men in the barge than Rögnvald had had. So they rowed to Kirkiuvag (Kirkwall); and when those of Rögnvald’s men who were there saw the vessel they thought it was Earl Rögnvald and his men returning, and they went unarmed to meet them. Thorfinn seized thirty of them and slew them; most of them were henchmen and friends of King Magnus. To one of the King’s henchmen the Earl gave quarter, and told him to go east to Norway and tell King Magnus the tidings.

(from public domain version (Gutenberg Project, 2018) of Orkneyinga Saga, Ed. Joseph Anderson, translated by Jon A. Hjaltalin and Gilbert Goudie