Torf-Einarr
Encyclopedia
Einarr Rögnvaldarson, Torf-Einarr or Turf-Einar (fl. early 890s–920s) was one of the Norse
Earls of Orkney. His rise to power is related in saga
s which apparently draw on verses of Einarr's own composition for inspiration. After battling for control of the Northern Isles
of Scotland
, Einarr founded a dynasty which retained control of the islands for centuries after his death.
, Norway
, by a concubine. Rögnvald's family conquered the Orkney and Shetland islands in the late ninth century, and Rögnvald's brother, Sigurd Eysteinsson
, was made Earl of Orkney. After his death on campaign, Sigurd was succeeded by his son, Guthorm, who died shortly afterward. Rögnvald sent one of his sons, Hallad, to govern the islands but Hallad was unable to maintain control, resigned his earldom and returned to Norway as a common landholder.
According to the Norse Heimskringla
and Orkneyinga saga
s, Rögnvald had little regard for his youngest son Einarr because Einarr's mother was a slave. The sagas record that Rögnvald agreed to provide Einarr with a ship and crew in the hope that he would sail away and never return. Einarr sailed to the Scottish islands, where he defeated two Danish warlords, Þórir Tréskegg (Thorir Treebeard) and Kálf Skurfa (Kalf the Scurvy), who had taken residence there, and established himself as earl. It is unclear whether the account in the sagas of Einarr's conquest is accurate. Though the Historia Norvegiæ
, written at the same time as the sagas but from a different source, confirms that Rögnvald's family conquered the islands, it gives few details. The scene in the sagas where Einarr's father scorns him is a literary device which often figures in Old Norse literature
. Much of Einarr's story in the sagas appears to be derived from five skald
ic verses attributed to Einarr himself.
, Einarr resisted Hálfdan's occupation of the islands. After a battle at sea, and a ruthless campaign on land, Einarr spied Hálfdan hiding on North Ronaldsay
. The sagas claim that Hálfdan was captured, and sacrificed to Odin
as a blood-eagle. While the killing of Hálfdan by the Orkney islanders is recorded independently in the Historia Norvegiæ, the manner of his death is unspecified. The blood-eagle sacrifice may be a misunderstanding or an invention of the sagawriters as it does not feature directly in the earlier skaldic verses, which instead indicate that Hálfdan was killed by a volley of spears. The verses do mention the eagle as a carrion bird, and this may have influenced the sagawriters to introduce the blood-eagle element. The sagas relate that Harald sought vengeance for his son's ignoble death, and set out on campaign against Einarr, but was unable to dislodge him. Eventually, Harald agreed to end the fight in exchange for a fine of 60 gold marks levied on Einarr and the allodial owners
of the islands. Einarr offered to pay the whole fine if the allodial landowners passed their lands to him, to which they agreed. Einarr's assumption of control over the islands appears well-attested and was considered by later commentators to be the moment at which the Earls of Orkney came to own the entire island group in fee
to the King of Norway. Others have interpreted the payment of 60 gold marks as wergild or blood money
.
s, Þórir Tréskegg (Thorir Treebeard) and Kálf Skurfa (Kalf the Scurvy), has a matching metre
and alliterative similarities to the attributed verses. Einarr must have had some fame as a poet, as his name is used in the Háttatal
, an examination of Old Norse poetry
written in the thirteenth-century, to refer to a specific type of metre, Torf-Einarsháttr.
The remainder of Einarr's long reign was apparently unchallenged, and he died in his bed of a sickness, leaving three sons, Arnkel, Erlend and Thorfinn
. The sagas describe Einarr as tall, ugly and blind in one eye, but sharp-sighted nonetheless. Despite these apparent disabilities, as well as his low-born mother, Einarr established a dynasty which ruled the Orkney Islands until 1470.
The sagas incorrectly claim that he was called "Turf-Einar" because he introduced the practice of burning turf or peat to the islands since wood was so scarce. The real reason for the nickname is unknown. While depletion of woodland could have caused a cultural shift from burning timber to peat, potentially the name arose because the sequestration of the common or allodial rights of the islanders by Einarr forced them away from coppicing
towards cutting turves.
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
Earls of Orkney. His rise to power is related in saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s which apparently draw on verses of Einarr's own composition for inspiration. After battling for control of the Northern Isles
Northern Isles
The Northern Isles is a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney...
of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Einarr founded a dynasty which retained control of the islands for centuries after his death.
Rise to power
Einarr was the youngest son of Rögnvald Eysteinsson of MøreMøre
Møre is the name of two traditional districts in different parts of Scandinavia.*Møre og Romsdal, Norway.*Möre, Sweden....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, by a concubine. Rögnvald's family conquered the Orkney and Shetland islands in the late ninth century, and Rögnvald's brother, Sigurd Eysteinsson
Sigurd Eysteinsson
Sigurd Eysteinsson was the second Viking Earl of Orkney, who succeeded his brother Rognvald Eysteinsson. He was a leader in the Viking conquest of what is now northern Scotland. Bizarrely, he was killed by the severed head of one his enemies, Máel Brigte, who may have been mórmaer of Moray...
, was made Earl of Orkney. After his death on campaign, Sigurd was succeeded by his son, Guthorm, who died shortly afterward. Rögnvald sent one of his sons, Hallad, to govern the islands but Hallad was unable to maintain control, resigned his earldom and returned to Norway as a common landholder.
According to the Norse Heimskringla
Heimskringla
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
and Orkneyinga saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s, Rögnvald had little regard for his youngest son Einarr because Einarr's mother was a slave. The sagas record that Rögnvald agreed to provide Einarr with a ship and crew in the hope that he would sail away and never return. Einarr sailed to the Scottish islands, where he defeated two Danish warlords, Þórir Tréskegg (Thorir Treebeard) and Kálf Skurfa (Kalf the Scurvy), who had taken residence there, and established himself as earl. It is unclear whether the account in the sagas of Einarr's conquest is accurate. Though the Historia Norvegiæ
Historia Norvegiæ
Historia Norwegiæ is a short Latin history of Norway written by an anonymous monk. The only extant manuscript, in the private possession of the Earl of Dalhousie and kept at Brechin Castle, Scotland, is fragmentary; what we have of the Historia is found on folios 1r-12r...
, written at the same time as the sagas but from a different source, confirms that Rögnvald's family conquered the islands, it gives few details. The scene in the sagas where Einarr's father scorns him is a literary device which often figures in Old Norse literature
Old Norse literature
Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to ca. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings.See:* Old Norse poetry* Edda* Norse saga* Icelanders' sagas* Kings' sagas* Legendary sagas...
. Much of Einarr's story in the sagas appears to be derived from five skald
Skald
The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...
ic verses attributed to Einarr himself.
Relations with Norway
The five verses attributed to Einarr describe a feud between the families of Rögnvald and the King of Norway, Harald Finehair. The poems are elaborated in the sagas, which say that two of Harald Finehair's unruly sons, Halvdan Hålegg (Hálfdan Longlegs) and Gudrød Ljome (Gudrod the Gleaming), killed Einarr's father Rögnvald by trapping him in his house and setting it alight. Gudrød took possession of Rögnvald's lands while Hálfdan sailed westwards to Orkney and displaced Einarr. The sagas say that King Harald, apparently appalled by his sons' actions, overthrew Gudrød and restored Rögnvald's lands to his son, Thorir Rögnvaldarson. From a base in CaithnessCaithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
, Einarr resisted Hálfdan's occupation of the islands. After a battle at sea, and a ruthless campaign on land, Einarr spied Hálfdan hiding on North Ronaldsay
North Ronaldsay
North Ronaldsay is the northernmost of the Orkney Islands, Scotland and with an area of is the fourteenth largest.-Geography:North Ronaldsay lies around north of its nearest neighbour, Sanday at . The island is around long along its length and is defined by two large sandy bays; Linklet Bay on...
. The sagas claim that Hálfdan was captured, and sacrificed to Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....
as a blood-eagle. While the killing of Hálfdan by the Orkney islanders is recorded independently in the Historia Norvegiæ, the manner of his death is unspecified. The blood-eagle sacrifice may be a misunderstanding or an invention of the sagawriters as it does not feature directly in the earlier skaldic verses, which instead indicate that Hálfdan was killed by a volley of spears. The verses do mention the eagle as a carrion bird, and this may have influenced the sagawriters to introduce the blood-eagle element. The sagas relate that Harald sought vengeance for his son's ignoble death, and set out on campaign against Einarr, but was unable to dislodge him. Eventually, Harald agreed to end the fight in exchange for a fine of 60 gold marks levied on Einarr and the allodial owners
Allodial title
Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign...
of the islands. Einarr offered to pay the whole fine if the allodial landowners passed their lands to him, to which they agreed. Einarr's assumption of control over the islands appears well-attested and was considered by later commentators to be the moment at which the Earls of Orkney came to own the entire island group in fee
Fee simple
In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
to the King of Norway. Others have interpreted the payment of 60 gold marks as wergild or blood money
Blood money (term)
Blood money is money or some sort of compensation paid by an offender or his family group to the family or kin group of the victim.-Particular examples and uses:...
.
Legacy
Apart from the five verses recorded in the sagas, no other examples of Torf-Einarr's poetry are known to survive, though they appear to be part of a larger body of work. A couplet that commemorates Einarr's defeat of the two pirate VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s, Þórir Tréskegg (Thorir Treebeard) and Kálf Skurfa (Kalf the Scurvy), has a matching metre
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
and alliterative similarities to the attributed verses. Einarr must have had some fame as a poet, as his name is used in the Háttatal
Háttatal
The Háttatal is the last section of the Prose Edda composed by the Icelandic poet, politician, and historian Snorri Sturluson. Using, for the most part, his own compositions, it exemplifies the types of verse forms used in Old Norse poetry...
, an examination of Old Norse poetry
Old Norse poetry
Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century...
written in the thirteenth-century, to refer to a specific type of metre, Torf-Einarsháttr.
The remainder of Einarr's long reign was apparently unchallenged, and he died in his bed of a sickness, leaving three sons, Arnkel, Erlend and Thorfinn
Thorfinn Turf-Einarsson, Earl of Orkney
Thorfinn 'Skullsplitter' Hausakljufr was earl of Orkney. He was the youngest son of Torf-Einarr. Thorfinn married Grelod, daughter of the Mormaer of Caithness and granddaughter of Thorstein the Red. Thorfinn and Grelod had five sons and two daughters...
. The sagas describe Einarr as tall, ugly and blind in one eye, but sharp-sighted nonetheless. Despite these apparent disabilities, as well as his low-born mother, Einarr established a dynasty which ruled the Orkney Islands until 1470.
The sagas incorrectly claim that he was called "Turf-Einar" because he introduced the practice of burning turf or peat to the islands since wood was so scarce. The real reason for the nickname is unknown. While depletion of woodland could have caused a cultural shift from burning timber to peat, potentially the name arose because the sequestration of the common or allodial rights of the islanders by Einarr forced them away from coppicing
Coppicing
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...
towards cutting turves.
External links
- Torf-Einarr jarl Poetry attributed to Einarr