Scandinavian-Britain

THE EARLDOM OF ORKNEY 249Einar's name is also connected with an importantsocial revolution. He revenged his father by slayingHarald Fairhair's son, Halfdan Halegg; Uietrichsonthinks that the scene of the revenge was at Tresnesson Sanday, where a cairn may be Halfdan's grave.The " blood-eagle " by which he was executed wasrather a form of ignominious sacrifice to Odin thanan ingenious variety of torture jand it called forvengeance on Harald's part. He fined the Orkneyssixty marks of gold, which Einar paid on condition thatthe landowners gave up their odal rights to him.Of his three sons, Arnkel and Erlend fell with EirikBloodaxe at Stainmoor (954 ?),and the survivor,Thorfinn Hausakljuf (Skull- cleaver), by his marriagewith Grelaug, daughter of Dungal, Donnchadh orDuncan of Djincans-bae, added Caithness to Orkney.He was buried at Haugseid (Hoxa, South Ronaldsay),and Dietrichson, quoting a traditiongiven by Low inbe seen in a mound1 7 74, thinks that his grave mayformed out of the ruins of a broch.About this time, if there is any germ of truth ina legend to be found in the later and partly fictitiousFljbtsdcela-saga^ Shetland was ruled by a jarl namedBjorgiilf, connected by marriage with Denmark but;this statement is not confirmed.Eirik Bloodaxe left an evil legacy to the islands in hisdaughter Ragnhild, who married and murdered threeof Thorfinn's sons one after another. At Howardsty(Havardsteigr), near the famous stones of Stennis, thelargest of a group of Norse barrows was found to containan urn with ashes, conjectured to be the remains