For a long tinse afterwards Earl Sigurd seems to have been in undisputed possession of the Sudreys, yet, as it is distinctly stated, tributary to the powerful ruler of Norway, Earl Hacon, as long almost as this prince lived. Beyond the annual tribute, however, no other sign or service of vassalage seems to have been enforced, and Sigurd ruled in fact as an independent and powerful monarch. He strengthened himself greatly by marrying a daughter of the Scottish King Malcolm (of the Moray dynasty, nephew of Finnlaich). A little before the death of Earl Hacon, he was unlucky enough to fall in with King Olaf Tryggvason, in the bay of Ronaldsvoe, when on his way from Dublin to get the Norwegian crown, who now availed himself of the opportunity–Sigurd being the weaker part–to take the earl prisoner, and restored him to liberty only on condition that he swore him fealty as his liege subject, and embraced Christianity with all his men! Olaf, however, did not reign for more than five years; after his fall in the battle of Swalder, A.D. 1000, Norway was divided among the victors, the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, and Earl Eric, son of Earl Hacon, and as there is no mention to be found of Sigurd's having acknowledged the superiority of any of these princes. It is very likely that during this interregnusm he ruled as an independent sovereign; his brother in law, the Earl of the Sudreys, continuing on the best terms with him, and consequently doubtless paying him tribute every year.
The interregnum ended by the accession of Olaf, the son of Harold, afterwards St. Olaf, to the Norwegian crown in 1015; - but shortly before that the Earl Sigurd fell in the great battle of Clontarf.; near Dublin (on the 23d of April, 1014), against Brian Boroimhe. He left four sons, three begotten before his marriage with the Scottish princess, now full-grown men; the fourth, Thorfiun, grandson of the Scottish king, still a child. These three divided Orkney and Shetlanid between themselves; but no mention is made, on this occasion, of the Sudreys. It may be that Earl Gille continued in his allegiance even to the sons of Sigurd; it may also be probable that King Cnut, who claimned for himself the right to the Norwegian crown, even tried to enforce the obedience of the Sudreys. It is told in a very old abridgment of the Norwegian history, written about 1180, only 166 years after the death of Earl Sigurd, that when King Olaf, on his arrival in Norway, captusred Earl Hacon, son of Eric, nephew of King Cnut, he made him swear that he would never return to Norway, and gave him the Sudreys, and assisted him to establish his power there. The last is not true, as far as regards Olaf; but it is not unlikely that King Cnut may have helped Earl Hacon to get possession of the Isles, especially as it is certain that Earl Hacon, when he made his last fatal voyage to Norway in the winter of 1029-30, went down and was drowned in the Pentland fith, which seems to imply, that lie did not come from the eastern parts of England, but from the west.
Be this, however, as it may, there can be no doubt, that Thorfinn, Earl Sigurd's fourth son, who, like his father, because one of the most powerful princes in those parts, extended his rule also to the Subreys. The Orkneyinga saga says so expressly. Outliving his elder bothers, he because the Lord of Orkney and Shretland; Caithness was givems him by his maternal grandfather, King Malcolm Mac Maibrigid, and after the death of Malcolm in 1029,a he sustained a successful war with King Malcolm Mac Kenneth, of the southern dynasty, conquered Sutherland and Ross, and made himself lord of Galloway, in the widest sense of this denoomination, viz. from Solway to Carrick, where he resided for long periods, and whence he made successful inroads, sometimes on Cumberland, the English possessioms of Duncan, King Malcolm's grand-son and future successor, sometimes upon Ireland, of which he is said to have conquered a part.
Afterwards, when Malcolm Ceanmor, the son of Duncan, aided by his relation, Earl Sigurd of Northumberland, vanquished Macbeth (1054), and drove him back towards the north, where at last he was killed in the battle of Lumuphanan (1057),––Thorfinn likewise seems to have met with no inconsiderable reverses, nay, there is even good reasosin to believe that he took part in the battle of 1054 c (which was fought somewhere in Lothian or Fife), and lost there a son, named Dolgfinn!
As lord of Galloway, it was very convenient for Thorfiun to make, as it is stated, frequent expeditions to Ireland and the Sudreys, and he mght easily maintain his superiority over at least a part of the latter. It cannot but have contributed greatly to the power of Thorfinn that in 1040 the famous Macbeth, soss of Finnlaich, established himself on the Scottish throne, having killed the above mentioned Duncan in a battle a we might even take it for granted that Thorfinn lent his aid to his kinsman Macbeth, and was subsequently rewarded with new extensive possessions; indeed, Thorfinn, according to the Orkneyinga Saga, possessed, besides the Sudreys and part of Ireland, not less than nine earldoms in Scotland (most likely Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Moray, Buchan, Atholl, Lorn, Argyll, Galloway), and it has been all but proved by a modern author, who combines a rare exteist of knowledge with no less sagacity, that what is called the dominion of Macbeth in Scotland was in reality the sway or influence exercised by Earl Thorfinn and the Norwegians of Orkney.b Afterwards, when Malcolm Ceanmor, the son of Duncan, aided by his relation, Earl Sigurd of Northumberland, vanquished Macbeth (1054), and drove him back towards the north, where at last he was killed in the battle of Lumuphanan (1057),––Thorfinn likewise seems to have met with no inconsiderable reverses, nay, there is even good reasosin to believe that he took part in the battle of 1054 c (which was fought somewhere in Lothian or Fife), and lost there a son, named Dolgfinn!
Seeing that Malcolm, no doubt by means of continual aid from England, was enabled even to crush Macbeth's successor Lulach of Moray, likewise a relation of Thorfinn, and (1058) to establish himself firmly on the throne, we may infer that Thorfinn shared the fate of his relatives, and was compelled to yield at least his possessions in the south of Scotland. But how far he lost also the Sudreys, or his part thereof, it is impossible to say with anything like certainty. We learn from the Irish annals, compared with the Welsh and Cornish ones, that in the yeare 1058 King Harold of Norway sent a fleet under the command of his son Magnus, with men from the Orkneys, Sudreys, and Dublin, to attack the western part of England, but without success.c From this it would appear too, that Thorfiun, feeling himself too weak to oppose the united force of Malcolm and the English, applied to his lord paramount, King Harold, for aid; and it would appear that then, at least, the Sudreys formed still a part of Thorfinn's dominions. The Norwegian prince Magnus, a near relation to Thorfinn's wife Ingebjorg, being then only a child, and consequently not fit to command in person, it is to be supposed that he was sent partly because of this very relationship partly in order to be proclaimed king in the countries which were to be conquered. Although this expedition was not successful, as far as regards England, we must, however, suppose that the Norwegian superiority was immaintained at least in the Isles.
The strife between Thorfinn and Malcolm no doubt continued till the death of the former (1064), when his widow Ingebjorg, the mother of his two young sons and successors Paul and Erlend, married Malcolm, which evidently indicates that a peace must have been concluded. That the young earls continued to keep the Sudreys, seems therefore most likely; this, at least, is the most natural way to account for the appearance of Gødred Crowan, as we learn hereafter, in the Norwegian army at Stanfordbridge.