Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/142

 134 CHRONICLE OF THE SAGA VII. Chapter CII. The agree- ment of the earls. a Thing with the bonders. Then Thorkel again made a speech, in which he entreated the earl to spare the people. The ear] now was angry, and said the lot of the bonders should be made worse in consequence of his intercession ; and worked himself up into such a rage, that he vowed they should not both come next spring to the Thing in a whole skin. Then the Thing was closed. When Aamund heard what the earl and Thorkel had said at the Thing, he told Thorkel to leave the country, and he went over to Caithness to Earl Thorfinn. Thorkel was afterwards a long time there, and brought up the earl in his youth, and was on that account called Thorkel the Fosterer ; and he became a very celebrated man. There were many powerful men who fled from their udal properties in Orkney on account of Earl Einar's violence, and the most fled over to Caithness to Earl Thorfinn ; but some fled from the Orkney Islands to Norway, and some to other countries. When Earl Thorfinn was grown up he sent a message to his bro- ther Einar, and demanded the part of the dominion which he thought belonged to him in Orkney ; namely, a third of the islands. Einar was nowise inclined to diminish his possessions. When Thorfinn found this he collected a war-force in Caithness, and proceeded to the islands. As soon as Earl Einar heard of this he collected people, and resolved to defend his country. Earl Bruse also collected men, and went out to meet them, and bring about some agreement between them. An agreement was at last concluded, that Thorfinn should have a third part of the islands as of right belonging to him, but that Bruse and Einar should lay their two parts together, and Einar alone should rule over them ; but, if the one died before the other, the longest liver should inherit the whole. This agreement seemed reasonable, as Bruse had a son called Rognvald, but Einar had no son. Earl Thor-