The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

62 THE HIGHLANDERS [parti
kingdom, as he appears to have died a very few years afterwards.
On his death the chief authority in the isles was assumed by his
son Helgi and his grandson Thorstein the Red, the son of his
daughter Audur and Olaf the white, king of Dubhn. The
native chiefs of the isles seem soon after this to have embraced
a favourable opportunity of again throwing off the yoke of the
Norwegians altogether ; as we find that Helgi left the Hebrides
and settled with his adherents in Iceland, while at the same
time Thorstein the Red, Ketil's grandson, proceeded in com-
pany with his mother to the Orkneys. ^
Sigurd, then Earl of the •
Orkneys, received Thorstein with
hospitality, and forming a close alliance with him, he
took advantage of this great accession to his strength,
First Nor-
the'north'ot ^o make a descent in company with his ally upon the
a!'u.'s"m-!)oo. northern districts of Scotland. The two pirate kings
rapidly
made themselves masters of the districts of
Kateness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray, and their progress
southward was only arrested by that part of the great barrier
of the Grampians which forms the southern boundary of the
district of Marr. The Norse Sagas have recorded the names
of two of the Scottish larls or Maormors who were slain in
this expedition, Meldun and Melbrigda Tonn ; the latter of
these Maormors appears to have been the last who Sigurd,
opposed
and was therefore in all probability
The death of this Maormor was revenged
Maormor of Marr.
upon Sigurd in a
most remarkable manner, if we are to believe the incident as
related in the Norse Sagas. Melbrigda, say these writers,
derived his appellation of Tonn from his possessing a very
prominent tooth, and Sigurd having slain him in battle, cut
off his head and suspended it to the front of his saddle as he
galloped over the field of his victory. The violence of the
motion occasioned the prominent tooth to inflict a wound on
the thigh of the larl, which inflamed,
and ultimately caused the larl's death.
produced mortification,
He was buried in the
territories of him he had slain. ^
On the death of Sigurd, his son Guttorm succeeded to him
as Earl of Orkney, while Thorstein the Red, retaining possession
'
Snorro, Orkneyinga Saga. Land-
namabok, Laxdaela Saga, Olafs Saga.
"
Landnamabok, Olafs Saga, &c.