bearing man
in most things,"[17] differing indeed but little in character from
Sweyn himself "who was a wise man and foresighted about many things;
and an unfair overbearing man and reckless towards others," while they
were both said to be men "of power and weight," and at this time they
were fast friends.

Then follows the story of Frakark's Burning, one of the most purely
Sutherland tales in the whole Saga.[18]

Sweyn, to avenge on that lady and her grandson, Olvir Rosta, the
burning of his own father Olaf and of his house in Duncansby, openly
asked Jarl Ragnvald for "two ships well fitted and manned," sailed
to the Moray Firth, the Breithifiorthr or Broadfirth, as it was then
called, "and took the north-west wind to Dufeyra, a market town in
Scotland. Thence he sailed into the land along the shore of Moray
and to Ekkjals-bakki. Thence he fared next of all to Athole to Earl
Maddad, and lay at the place called Elgin and obtained guides, who
knew the paths over fells and wastes whither he wished to go.[19]
Thence he fared the upper way over fells and woods, above all places
where men dwelt, and came out in Strath Helmsdale near the middle of
Sutherland. But Olvir and his men had scouts out everywhere where they
thought that strife was to be looked for from the Orkneys; but in this
way they did not look for warriors. So they were not ware of the
host, before Sweyn and his men had come to the slope at the back of
Frakark's homestead. There came against them Olvir the Unruly with
sixty men; then they fell to battle at once, and there was a short
struggle. Olvir and his men gave way towards the homestead; for they
could not get to the wood. Then there was a great slaughter of men,
but Olvir fled away up to Helmsdale Water and swam across the river
and so up on to the fell: and thence he fared to Skotland's Firth,[20]
and so out to the Southern Isles. And he is out of the story. But when
Olvir drew off, Sweyn and his men fared straight up to the house, and
plundered it of everything; but, after that, they burnt the homestead
and all those men and women who were inside it. And there Frakark lost
her life. Sweyn and his men did there the greatest harm in Sutherland,
ere they fared to their ships."

Such is this Sutherland tale of Sweyn. According to the current
notions of blood feud, he merely discharged the solemn duty of
avenging his father's burning and death by a like burning and slaying
of the household of his father'