Baring-Gould’s sources: Canonized by Pope Coelestins III., in 1192. Of local veneration in Orkney. Authority: — The Orkneyinga Saga.] Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, had two sons — Paul, who died in ro98, and Erlendr, who died in the same year. Erlendr had two sons — Erling, who was slain in Ireland, and S. Magnus, Earl of Orkney, slain in 1115. Gunnhild, daughter of Erlendr, married Kol Kalisson, and their son Kali, afterwards called Rognvald, is the subject of this memoir.
Paul, Earl of Orkney, had also children. His son Hakon became Earl, and died about 1128; leaving Harald, Slettmali, Paul Earl of Orkney, and Margaret, who married Maddad, Earl of Athole. Margaret became the mother of Harald Maddadson, who married Afreka, sister of Duncan, Earl of Fife.
Kol Kalisson, the husband of Gunnhild, daughter of Earl Erlandr of Orkney, lived on his estates at Agdir, in Norway, and it was there that his son Kali grew up to man’s estate. “ He was of middle size,” says the Saga-writer, “ well proportioned, and very handsomely shaped; his hair was of a light auburn colour. He was very affable and popular, and highly accomplished. He made the following verses: — ‘ ' At the game-board I am skilful; Knowing in no less than nine arts; Runic lore I well remember; Books I like; with tools I'm handy; Expert am I on the snow-shoes, With the bow, and pull an oar well; And, besides, I am an adept At the harp, and making verses.”
When aged fifteen he went with some merchants to England, taking with him a cargo of merchandize. The ship took harbour at Grimsby, and Kali was not struck with the attractions of the place. He made verses about Grimsby when he left it, not complimentary certainly: — " Unpleasantly we have been wading » In the mud a weary five weeks.
Dirt we had indeed in plenty, While we lay in Grimsby harbour. But now on the moor of sea-gulls Ride we o’er the hills of billow, Gaily as the elk of bowsprits Eastward ploughs its way to Bergen.”
One summer Kali went to Throndheim on the Norwegian ■S'. Ronald. coast. He was detained by weather in an island called Dolls, where was a cave bearing an ill name as the haunt of Trolls, who, it was said, had there amassed a heap of treasure.
Kali determined to explore the cave. He and another man penetrated far, till they came to a sheet of water. They fastened a rope between them, placed a torch in a pat of clay on their heads, and swam across the subterranean lake. On reaching the further shore they found no treasure, could penetrate no further, and thought that there was sensible a very unpleasant odour. They then raised a cairn, and swam back.
With Kali on several of his expeditions was one John Petersson, and the two young men contracted a warm friendship. This was unfortunately broken by a dispute ■ among their respective followers, which led to the murdering of one another’s relatives and servants, and Kali and John fighting against each other. The quarrel was with difficulty composed by King Sigurd of Norway, who ordered John Petersson to marry Ingritha, the sister of Kali; and the king gave to Kali the name of Rognvald, and the title of Earl of Orkney, a.d. 1129.
Next year Sigurd died, and the throne was contested by his son Magnus, and by Harald Gilli, an illegitimate son of King Magnus Barelegs. Kali, or Rognvald, as we mus now call him, supported the pretensions of Harald, and after four years of dispute, the kingdom was divided between Harald and Magnus. The Earldom of Orkney was confirmed by both kings to Rognvald. In rr39 Harald seized Magnus, blinded him, and took possession of the whole kingdom.
Kol, the father of Rognvald, then sent men to the Orkneys to ask Earl Paul1 to give up to his son the half of 1 Son of Paul and grandson of Thorfinn. the islands which had belonged to Erlendr, brother of Paul’s father. And if he refused, the men were to go to Frakork, daughter of Maddad, Earl of Athole, and Margaret daughter of Hakon, Earl of Orkney, and offer her and her son Olvir Rosta half the Earldom of Orkney if they would assist Rognvald in dispossessing Earl Paul.
When Paul heard the proposal of the messengers of Kol he was indignant. “ This claim,” said he, “ is audaciously planned, and with long forethought. Kol and Rognvald hope, with the assistance of the kings of Norway, to obtain my possessions. I will not reward perfidy by giving up my lands to a man so remotely connected as Rognvald. With God’s help I will defend my islands against him.” The messengers then went to Athole, and Frakork and her son Olvir at once accepted the proposal. Next summer Rognvald sailed with five or six ships to Shetland, where they were to meet the troops of Olvir. Frakork and Olvir mustered twelve ships, but the two armaments did not meet, owing to contrary winds. Olvir then sailed from the Pentland Firth and attacked Earl Paul’s vessels at sea. After a furious battle Paul defeated Olvir, and then sailed to Shetland to attack Rognvald. He took his ships by surprise, killed his men, and sailed back to Orkney, towing away with him Rognvald’s six ships. Rognvald returned to Norway, and was received with much ill humour by his father.
Next year he sailed at the head of another expedition to Orkney, and vowed to S. Magnus that, if he were successful, he would build a stone minster at Kirkwall, in Orkney, in his honour. A fair wind wafted the expedition to Shetland. By treachery, skilfully planned, the beacons on the Orkney isles were not lighted to warn Earl Paul of the approach of a hostile fleet, and before he was aware, Rognvald had landed in the Orkneys. Shortly after, a small party from Athole managed to capture Earl Paul, and carry him off captive to Earl Maddad of Athole. Margaret Countess of Athole, then sent messengers to Rognvald to claim half the Orkneys for her son Harald, then three years old. What became of Paul at Athole is not known. Some suspect that he was made away with by his sister Margaret, who wanted his title and share of the islands for her son. Rognvald now became sole Earl of Orkney, and in fulfilment of his vow he built the church of S. Magnus at Kirkwall. Harald Maddad’s son was invested with the title of Earl, but Rognvald ruled alone. Harald came to Orkney with his foster-father, Thorbiorn Klerk, son of Gudrun, daughter of Frakork.
Earls Rognvald and Harald visited King Ingi by invitation at Bergen, and there Earl Rognvald met with a returned Crusader, and became possessed by a strong desire to visit the Holy Land. On his return voyage to Orkney, Earl Rognvald was shipwrecked at Gulberwich in Shetland, and narrowly escaped with his life. Bishop William of Orkney strongly approved of his project to go a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and agreed to accompany him. Accordingly he went back to Norway to organize the expedition, and returned to the Orkneys, followed by a large number of jorsala-farers, Crusaders, mostly adventurers of very indifferent character, if we may judge by their turbulent and lawless behaviour during their stay in the Orkneys, where they spent the winter previous to their departure for the East.
The summer of 1152 was far advanced before Rognvald sailed, but he had a prosperous voyage, the adventures of which are detailed in the Saga.
Altogether the crusade partook of the character of a heathen viking expedition, rather than of a Christian pilgrimage. After having visited Jerusalem and bathed in the Jordan, Rognvald returned to Norway, by way of Constantinople,' Durazzo, Apulia, and Rome, and thence overland; the whole expedition occupying three years. In 1158 Rognvald was murdered at Calder in Caithness, by Thorbiorn Klerk, foster-father of Earl Harald, who had been made an outlaw by Earl Rognvald for a murder committed in Kirkwall, following on a series of acts of violence.
“ Earl Rognvald Kali died five nights after the summer Mary mass. Earl Harald brought the body with a splendid following to the Orkneys, and it was buried at the Magnus Church; and there it rested until God manifested Rognvald’s merits by many and great miracles. Then Bishop Bjami had his holy remains exhumed with the permission of the Pope. Where the blood of the Earl fell on the stones when he died, it may be seen to this day as fresh as if it had just come from his wounds.”
A full account of the adventures of S. Rognvald, or Ronald, as is the modern Scottish form of the name, may be read with interest in the English translation [the solemn moving of a saint’s relics to a new shrine] of the Orkneyinga Saga, by Mr. J. Anderson.1 1 Published by Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, 1873. SS. Z,z txoriits, and others.
