Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/405

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 397 While King Magnus the Good, a son of King Olaf saga vm. the Saint, ruled over Norway, as before related, the Chapter Earl Rognvald Brusesson lived with him. Earl Thor- ofKing 1 ' finn Sigurdsson, the uncle of Rognvald, ruled then Magnus, over Orkney. King Magnus sent Rognvald west to fi nn and Orknev, and ordered that Thorfinn should let him Ro p v ^ ld J ' earls ot have his father's heritage. Thorfinn let Rognvald Orkney, have a third part of the land along with him ; for so had Bruse, the father of Rognvald, had it at his dying day. Earl Thorfinn was married to Ingeborg, the earl-mother, who was a daughter of Finn Arne- son. Earl Rognvald thought he should have two thirds of the land, as Olaf the Saint had promised to his father Bruse, and as Bruse had enjoyed as long as Olaf lived. This was the origin of a great strife between these relations, concerning which we have a long saga. They had a great battle in Pentland Firth, in which Kalf Arneson was with Earl Thorfinn. So says Biorn Gulbraascald : — " Thy cutters, dashing through the tide. Brought aid to Earl Thorfmn's side, Finn's son-in-law, and people say Thy aid made Bruse's son give way. Kalf, thou art fond of warlike toil, Gay in the strife and bloody broil; But here 'twas hate made thee contend Against Earl Rognvald, the king's friend." King Magnus ruled then both over Denmark and chapter Norway; and when he had got possession of the Danish onion* 11 dominions he sent embassadors over to England to Magnus's King Edward, who brought to him King Magnus's letter and seal. And in this letter there stood, along with a salutation from King Magnus, these words : " Ye must have heard of the agreement which I and Hardacanute made, — that he of us two who survived the other should have all the land and people which the deceased had possessed. Now it has so turned