nd in the upper valleys and
hills of Sudrland and Caithness, to which he had a claim. Thirteen
of Ragnvald's men fell in the fray, and he himself was wounded in the
face. Ultimately, the earls were reconciled on the 25th of September
1154, and about 1156 joined forces and went to Orkney against Sweyn
and Erlend, who pretended they were sailing for the Hebrides, but
put their ships about at Store[34] Point in Assynt, and after all but
seizing Jarl Ragnvald at Orphir in Orkney, captured his ships, though
he and Harold escaped, each in a small boat, across the Pentland Firth
to Caithness.[35] Returning thence, in Sweyn's absence for the night
they attacked Erlend, who had disregarded all Sweyn's warnings and
advice to keep a good look-out, off Damsey, near Finstown. In this
fight Jarl Erlend, the last descendant in the male line of Thorfinn
then alive, was slain, while drunk, his body being found next day
transfixed by a spear, and he left no issue to inherit his title
of earl or the other Moddan lands, left to him by Earl Ottar, which
probably devolved on Eric Stagbrellir in 1156, as he could hold them
against Thorbiorn Klerk.

All Erlend's success, if we are to believe the Saga, this portion of
which is written largely to glorify Sweyn, probably by his relative
Bishop Bjarni, had been arranged by Sweyn's really marvellous cunning;
and Ragnvald, no doubt feeling how dangerous an enemy Sweyn was, and
that he was backed by the Scottish king, immediately sent for him in
order to reconcile him to Harold. But Harold, soon afterwards, robbed
Sweyn's house in Gairsay; and Sweyn, in his turn, attacked the house
where Harold was, and nearly succeeded in burning him alive. Later on
Harold all but caught Sweyn off Kirkwall, but Sweyn gave him the slip,
by running his ship into a tidal cave in Ellarholm, off Elwick in
Shapinsay, in 1155, and disappearing till the coast was clear, when he
got away in a small boat.

Afterwards Sweyn and Earl Harold were reconciled, and Sweyn and
Thorbiorn Klerk and Eric Stagbrellir went on a viking cruise to the
Hebrides, and, after a great victory at the Scilly Isles, returned
with much booty to Orkney.[36]

In the year 1157 or 1158, Sweyn defeated Gilli Odran, steward of Earl
Ragnvald's lands in Caithness, who had fled to the west and was caught
in Murkfjord (possibly Loch Glendhu at Kylestrome in Eddrachilles) and
was slain there with fifty of his men by Sweyn.[37]

In 1158, Ragnvald and Harold