fin the third part.
Thorfin was usually in Caithness and elsewhere in Scotland; but placed
men of his own over the islands. It was left to Bruse alone to defend
the islands, which at that time were severely scourged by vikings; for
the Northmen and Danes went much on viking cruises in the west sea,
and frequently touched at Orkney on the way to or from the west, and
plundered, and took provisions and cattle from the coast. Bruse often
complained of his brother Thorfin, that he made no equipment of war for
the defence of Orkney and Shetland, yet levied his share of the scat and
duties. Then Thorfin offered to him to exchange, and that Bruse should
have one third and Thorfin two thirds of the land, but should undertake
the defence of the land, for the whole. Although this exchange did not
take place immediately, it is related in the saga of the earls that it
was agreed upon at last; and that Thorfin had two parts and Bruse
only one, when Canute the Great subdued Norway and King Olaf fled
the country. Earl Thorfin Sigurdson has been the ablest earl of these
islands, and has had the greatest dominion of all the Orkney earls; for
he had under him Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebudes, besides very great
possessions in Scotland and Ireland. Arnor, the earls' skald, tells of
his possessions:--

"From Thurso-skerry to Dublin,
All people hold with good Thorfin--
All people love his sway,
And the generous chief obey."

Thorfin was a very great warrior. He came to the earldom at five years
of age, ruled more than sixty years, and died in his bed about the
last days of Harald Sigurdson. But Bruse died in the days of Canute the
Great, a short time after the fall of Saint Olaf.

110. OF HAREK OF THJOTTA.

Having now gone through this second story, we shall return to that which
we left,--at King Olaf Haraldson having concluded peace with King Olaf
the Swedish king, and having the same summer gone north to Throndhjem
(1019). He had then been king in Norway five years (A.D. 1015-1019). In
harvest time he prepared to take his winter residence at Nidaros, and
he remained all winter there (A.D. 1020). Thorkel the Fosterer, Amunde's
son, as before related, was all that winter with him. King Olaf inquired
very carefully how it stood with Christianity throughout the land, and
learnt that it was not observed at all to the north of Halogaland,
and was far from being observed as it should be in Naumudal, and the
inter