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Brusi and Einar then pooled their share of the islands, Einar having the control of both; and Thorfinn got his trithing, managing it by his men, who collected his scatt and tolls under Thorkel Fostri, whom Einar plotted to kill.
He could thus ultimately hope to oust Somarled, Brusi and Einar, Jarl Sigurd's sons by his first wife, and their overlords, the Norse kings, from Orkney and Shetland, and to add those islands to his dominions. Meantime, Somarled, Brusi and Einar took no share in Cat. Thorfinn had Cat, all for himself, as a fief of the Scottish king.
For they were meek men, especially Brusi; and, when Somarled died, though Einar wanted two shares for himself, and fought to retain them, he only wearied out his followers and alienated them by his cruelty. They, therefore, went over to Thorfinn in Caithness.
We should also note that Thorfinn's cruelty made it difficult for him ever to hope to obtain and keep the throne of Scotland, which thus fell to Macbeth. Meantime Jarl Brusi had died about 1031, and though he left a son Ragnvald, this son was long abroad in Norway, where he was taught all the accomplishments suitable to his rank, and remained there at the time of his father's death.
On Einar's death, Brusi tried to get two-thirds of the isles, but Thorfinn now claimed a half share, and King Olaf, in spite of a visit by Thorfinn to him in Norway, ultimately awarded Brusi two-thirds, Thorfinn having the rest.
Although the history of the time of Thorfinn Sigurdson, the first Scottish Earl of Caithness and Sutherland, would have been of great interest to inhabitants of those counties, the Orkneyinga Saga contains but little information about his doings in them, because he bent all his efforts towards extending his dominion over the islands which formed his father Sigurd's jarldom, his policy, in his youth at least, being directed to this object by his grandfather, Malcolm II. Indeed during the life of that king, Thorfinn appears to have established himself at Duncansby in Caithness, on the shore of the Pentland Firth, and to have occupied himself in endeavouring to induce his three surviving half-brothers, Somarled, Brusi, and Einar, to part with as large a share as possible of Orkney and Shetland, and cede it to himself.
Brusi, however, being unable to defend the isles from pirates, about the year 1028 gave up one of his trithings to Thorfinn on his undertaking the defence of the isles, for which a powerful fleet would be essential, and Brusi died in 1031. After this settlement of their claims, Malcolm II died in 1034 at the age of eighty; and his death wrecked his policy.
He sent Thorkel to King Olaf in Norway to seek protection for himself against Einar, and Thorkel came back bearing an invitation to Thorfinn to visit the Norwegian court, from which the jarl returned as much in favour with the king as Einar was in disgrace. Brusi then tried to reconcile Thorfinn and Einar, and Thorkel was to be included in the settlement.
He was, in fact, by race and descent, almost a pure Gael, and at Malcolm's court must have spoken only Gaelic. Of his three half-brothers, Somarled and Brusi were not unwilling to give Thorfinn a share of the Orkney jarldom.
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