The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

366 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
Latin translations of the Sacjas ; but
a strict comparison of the
different passages in which it occurs will show clearly that Ness
and Caithness must be held to have been names applied by the
Norwegians to different districts. Thus, in describing the civil
war which took place in the Orkneys about the year 1040
betvvcen Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, and Rognvald, his nephew
who claimed a part of the Islands of Orkney, in right of his
father, the Orkneyinga Saga says that "
Rognvald sent messengers
to Ncs and the Sudereyom to say that he had taken
possession of the kingdom which was Thorfinn's ; and that
none in these districts opposed him, but that Thorfinn was in
in the meantime in Katcnesi with his friends," thus showing
distinctly that Nes and Katenes could not have been applied
to the same district, but that there must have been a marked
difference between them. This is confirmed in another passage
of the same Saga, in which it is mentioned that Swen having
gone to Nes to plunder, was detained there by stormy weather,
and sent a messenger to that effect to larl Erland, at that time
in Katenes, and the same passage shows that Nes must have
been a district of considerable size, as it mentions Swen having
overrun the country and carried off an immense booty ; and
also that at this period, namely, towards the beginning of the
twelfth centur}', Nes belonged to the native inhabitants, other-
wise it would not have been made the ob'ect of a plundering
expedition ; a circumstance which was not the case with regard
to Caithness. It appears, in fact, distinctly from the Sagas,
that Ness was situated somewhere on the Northern shore of
Scotland, and that it included the north-western angle of the
country ; for the Earls of Orkney are frequently mentioned
as crossing the Pentland Firth into Nes, and on one occasion
Swen is stated, in the Orkneyinga Saga, to have gone from
Lewes into Scotland to meet the king of Scotland, and as
having passed through Ness on his way.
The district of Strathnaver, as we have seen, formed part of
the Riki of Katenes, and was known to the Norwegians by
the name of " Dolum a Katenesi." The only districts therefore
which at all answered to the description of Ness are those of
Assint Edderachylis and Diurnes ; these districts are not
included in any of the other earldoms comprehended in the