Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/90



carried to a height far greater than any of his predecessors laid low, and the fierce spirit of the old Norse king was at last broken. He resigned his kingdom, and went on a pilgrimage to Iona. Here, in 981, he closed his stormy life in penitence and peace.

Olaf had a sister Gyda who married the famous Olaf Tryggvason (, transl. S. Laing, i. 399-400). He was thrice married: first, to the daughter of Constantine II of Scotland; secondly, to the sister of Mailmora, king of Leinster, Gormflaith or Kormloda, who is quaintly described in the 'Njal's Saga' (cap. civ. p. 268); thirdly to Donnflaith, daughter of Muircheartach (d. 943) [q. v.] His sons were Reginald, who perished at Tara; Gluniaraim, who succeeded him in Dublin, and died in 989; Sitric, also king of Dublin, died 1042; Aralt, slain in 1000; Amancus or Amaccus, slain in Northumbria in 954; and Gillapatraic (?). He had also one daughter, Maelmuire, who married Malachv or Maelsechlainn II [q. v.], and died in 1021 (War of the Gaedhil, p. 278).

 OLAF (1177?–1238), called the Black, king of the Isles, was the son of Godred, king of the Isles, and of Fingola, granddaughter of Muircheartach (d. 1166), king of Ireland [see ]. His parents had been united in religious marriage through the intervention of Cardinal Vivian, papal legate, in 1176 (Chron. Regum Manniæ et Insularum, ed. Munch, i. 76, Manx Soc.) Olaf's father died in 1187, and though he had bequeathed his dominions to his legitimate son Olaf, the latter, being a child, was set aside in favour of his half-brother Reginald. Some years later Reginald assigned to Olaf the miserable patrimony of the island of Lewis in the Hebrides, where he dwelt for some time. Growing discontented with his lot, he applied to Reginald for a larger share of his rightful inheritance. This was refused, and about 1208 Reginald handed Olaf over to the custody of William the Lion of Scotland, who kept him in prison until his own death in 1214. On the accession of Alexander II Olaf was released, and returned to Man, whence he shortly set out with a considerable following of men of rank for Spain, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James at Compostella. On his return, Reginald, who was apparently reconciled to him, caused him to marry his own wife's sister, the daughter of a noble of Cantyre, and again assigned to him Lewis for his maintenance (ib. pp. 82-4). Olaf accepted the gift, and departed to Lewis. Soon after his arrival there, Reginald (?), bishop of the Isles, visited the churches, and canonically separated Olaf and his wife as being within the prohibited degrees of relationship, whereupon Olaf married Christina, daughter of Ferquhard, earl of Ross.

Aroused to anger, Reginald's queen, the sister of Olaf's divorced wife, called upon her son Godred to avenge the wrong done to her house. The latter collected a force and sailed for Lewis, but Olaf escaped to his father-in-law, the Earl of Ross, abandoning Lewis to Godred. Olaf was shortly joined by Paul Balkason, the leading chieftain of Skye, who had refused to join in the attack on Lewis. Entering into alliance, the two chieftains in 1223 successfully carried out a night attack upon the little island of St. Colm, where Godred was. The latter was taken and blinded, it is said, without Olaf's consent (ib. pp. 86-8; cf. Ann. Regii Islandorum, ap., Scriptt. Rer. Dan. iii. 84).

Next summer Olaf, who had won over the chiefs of the isles, came to Man to claim once more a portion of his inheritance. Reginald was forced to agree to a compromise by which he retained Man, with the title of king, while Olaf was to have the isles—namely, the Sudreys. The peace was of short duration, for in 1225 Reginald, supported hy Alan, lord of Galloway, attempted to win back the isles. The Manxmen, however, refused to fight against Olaf and the men of the isles, and the attempt failed. Shortly after Reginald, under pretext of a visit to his suzerain, Henry III of England, extorted one hundred marks from his subjects, wherewith he went to the court of Alan of Galloway and contracted a highly unpopular alliance between his daughter and