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Then came home from Micklegarth king Harald Sigurdson, and King Magnus gave him half Norway, and they were both kings therein for a while; but after the death of King Magnus many of those who had been his friends were ill-content, for all men loved him; but folk might not abide the temper of King Harald, for that he was hard and was wont to punish men heavily.
Thorstein Dromund was with the Varangians while the talk ran highest about these matters; so famed did he become that it was deemed that scarce had any man of the like prowess come thither; the greatest honours he gat from Harald Sigurdson, for he was of his kin; and after his counsels did Thorstein do, as men are minded to think.
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.
Ragnvald Brusi-son was "one of the handsomest of men, his hair long and yellow as silk, and he was stout and tall and an able splendid man of great mind and polite manners." He had saved King Olaf's brother Harald Sigurdson at the great battle of Stiklastad, after King Olaf, Ragnvald's own foster-father, was killed, and had fought with great distinction in Russia.
"The captain of these rebel scoundrels Thorolf Sigurdson of Benbecula," said the warrior, uncovering his head of ruddy curls. "I have been left warden of the castle of Rothesay by Rudri Alpinson; and now do I swear on mine honour, my lord, that this matter that hath just befallen is none of my doings, for I would fain have prevented it.
Ugly of countenance, but of great bodily strength and stature, crafty, self-seeking, treacherous and wholly unscrupulous, he is still known in the North as "the wicked Earl Harold," yet the Saga classes him with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdson as one of the three greatest of the Jarls and Earls of Orkney and Caithness.
"Well have you served him," said Kenric; "and now for your courtesy I thank you, Thorolf Sigurdson." Then Kenric bade Ailsa Redmain return with the two children to the abbey. "And now," he added, turning to the captain, "since you are here I would beseech you to grant me a few days' truce, that we may have time to bury our dead."
"If he had held this language a year ago," replied Tostig, who knew the speaker but too well, "he would have saved the lives of many men. But what will he offer my noble ally, King Harold Sigurdson?" "Seven feet of English earth," answered the horseman, proudly scanning the gigantic figure of the Sea-King, "or maybe a little more."
"My lord Kenric's castles and lands are in no wise lost to him," said Aasta more boldly. "How so? Not lost?" cried Roderic in surprise. "Where, then, is Thorolf Sigurdson, whom I left as warden over my isle of Bute?" "Thorolf Sigurdson, Heaven bless his honest heart! has gone home these many weeks past to Benbecula, and taken his cowardly Norsemen with him." "The traitor!" gasped Roderic.
Thereafter was Thorstein ever with the Varangians, and men say that he sought counsel of Harald Sigurdson, and their mind it is that Thorstein and Spes would not have taken to those redes but for the trust they had in him and his wisdom. Now as time wore on, goodman Sigurd gave out that he would fare from home on certain errands of his own.
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