Thorfinn Torf-Einarsson also known as Thorfinn Skull-splitter (from the Old Norse Þorfinnr hausakljúfr) was a 10th-century Earl of Orkney. He appears in the Orkneyinga saga and briefly in St Olaf's Saga, as incorporated into the Heimskringla. These stories were first written down in Iceland in the early 13th century and much of the information they contain is "hard to corroborate".

Family

Thorfinn was the youngest son of Torf-Einarr, himself the son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, the first Earl of Orkney. Torf-Einarr had two other sons, Arnkel and Erlend who "fell in a war expedition" at an unspecified location in England along with Erik Bloodaxe, who was Torf-Einarr's kinsman through his sister Álöf who was married to Torf-Einarr's brother Thorir. Erik's widow, Gunnhildr then fled north to Orkney with her sons who used the islands as a base for summer raiding expeditions. each of whom had a son called Einar - Einar kliningr ("Buttered-bread") and Einar harðkjotr ("Hard-mouth"). According to St Olaf's Saga his sons became Earls after him who then ruled as earl for a time. Not content with this new arrangement Ragnhild then conspired with her nephew Einar kliningr, who killed Havard at the battle of Havarðsteiger near Stenness. Einar and Ragnhild then fell out and the latter persuaded Einar harðkjotr to attack and kill his cousin Einar kliningr in turn. Ragnhild's ambitions were still not assuaged and this "female spider" then colluded with Ljot Thorfinnson whom she married and then he had the second Einar killed.

thumb|left|The old [[watermill and mill pond at Ham, Caithness]]

Skuli gave allegiance to the Scots king who gave him the title Earl of Orkney but he never gained control of the islands, being killed in battle against Ljot in the Dales of Caithness at which Ljot "fought like a hero". Ljot then took control of Caithness but this angered the Scots and the Mormaer of Moray brought a large army north. They engaged in battle at Skitten Mire (now called the Moss of Killimister) near Wick and although outnumbered Ljot had the victory. However he later died of wounds suffered there and "people thought it a great loss".|group="Note" Hlodvir then became earl and "ruled alone over this country".

Interpretations

Kjarvalr Írakonungr appears in the Landnámabók and has been identified as Cerball mac Dúnlainge, King of Osraige who died in 888. There is clearly a chronological problem with Earl Hlodvir, whose son Sigurd was killed at Clontarf in 1014, marrying the daughter of a king who died more than 120 years before that. Furthermore, Thorstein "the Red" Olafsson (fl. late 9th century and Hlodvir's great-grandfather) was apparently married to a granddaughter of Kjarvalr. Woolf (2007) concludes that the saga writers may have confused this story about the provenance of Sigurd Hlodvirsson with one about Thorstein, a close ally of Sigurd Eysteinsson.

Thomson (2008) concludes that there is "no real reason to trust the details of this bloodthirsty story" about Thorfinn's children, and speculates about

the saga writer's intentions.

See also

  • Battle of Stainmore - where Erik Bloodaxe was killed. Arnkel and Erlend Torf-Einarsson are not mentioned by the Northumbrian sources that record this event.
  • Stone Lud, said to mark the grave of Ljot Thorfinnson.

References

Notes

Footnotes

;General references

  • Crawford, Barbara E. (1987) Scandinavian Scotland. Leicester University Press.
  • Muir, Tom (2005) Orkney in the Sagas: The Story of the Earldom of Orkney as told in the Icelandic Sagas. The Orcadian. Kirkwall. .
  • Pálsson, Hermann and Edwards, Paul Geoffrey (1981). Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney. Penguin Classics.
  • Sturlason, Snorri Saga of Olaf Haraldson. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  • Thomson, William P. L. (2008) The New History of Orkney. Edinburgh. Birlinn.
  • Wenham, Sheena "The South Isles" in Omand, Donald (ed.) (2003) The Orkney Book. Edinburgh. Birlinn.
  • Woolf, Alex (2007) From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070. Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press.