Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/187

 OLAF, MAGNUS, AND SIGURD. 177 those Orkney and Hebridian Isles ; putting everytliing straight there, appointing stringent authorities, jarls, — nay, a king, * Kingdom of the Suderoer * (Southern Isles, now called Sodor), — and, as first king, Sigurd, his pretty little boy of nine years. All which done, and some quarrel with Sweden fought out, he seri- ously applied himself to visiting in a still more em- phatic manner; namely, to invading, with his best skill and strength, the considerable virtual or actual kingdom he had in Ireland, intending fully to enlarge it to the utmost limits of the Island if possible. He got prosperously into Dublin (guess a.d. 1102). Con- siderable authority he already had, even among those poor Irish Kings, or kinglets, in their glibs and yellow saffron gowns ; still more, I suppose, among the nu- merous Norse Principalities there. *King Murdog, ' King of Ireland,' says the Chronicle of Man, * had ' obliged himself, every Yule day, to take a pair of ' does on a journey, and walk across his court, at bid- ' ding and in presence of, Magnus Barefoot's messen- ' ger, by way of homage to the said King.* Murdog on this greater occasion did whatever homage could be
 * shoes, hang them over his shoulder, as your servant