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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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the
result that they came to blows. Earl Rognvald,
who had been in Norway,
returned to Orkney unexpectedly, and came unawares upon Earl Thorfinn at night. He made
fast the doors of the house. Most men had gone to sleep, but Earl Thorfinn sat up drinking. Earl Rognvald
bore fire to the homestead and it was soon on fire. Earl Thorfinn advised his men to get what terms they
could, with the result that the women and thralls were allowed to come
out. Earl Rognvald said that Earl Thorfinn's bodyguard would be no better to him alive
than dead, and so they were burnt. However, Earl Thorfinn
broke through a wooden partition at the back of the house and escaped
with his wife in his arms. It was pitch-dark without any moon (nidh-myrkr), and Thorfin
got away unseen under cover of the smoke and darkness. He rowed in a
boat, alone, that night over to Caithness.
Everyone thought that he had been burnt in the house.
Earl
Rognvald now took possession of the island.
Just before Yule he went from Kirkwall,
with a large company, to an island to get malt to brew for Yule. Here
they were to remain all night. In the evening they sat long over a baking
fire (bak-eldr, a fire at which to bake the
body and limbs). The person who kindled the fire remarked that the
firewood was getting low. Then the earl made a slip of the tongue (mis-mali), he said, 'then are we FULL-OLD when these
are burnt,' he had said 'full-old' instead of 'full-warmed.' When he
discovered his slip, he remarked that he had never made one before and
related what King Olaf had said to him at Sticklestead,
when he had caught the king making a slip, 'If it ever so happened that I
should make a slip in my speech I should not expect to live long after
it. It may be that my kinsman Thorfinn is still
alive.' At that moment the house was surrounded by Thorfinn
and his men, who bore fire and laid a pile before the door. All the
inmates were allowed to escape except the earl and his men. When most had
come out, a man came to the door, clad in a linen garment, and bade Thorfinn to lend a hand to the 'deacon'; but, at the
same time, he steadied his hands on the balk (a wooden bar across the
doorway) and leapt out over the balk and over the heads of the ring of
men, so that he landed far outside of them and disappeared in the night-mirk. Thorfinn recognized Rognvald's agility and ordered his men to give chase.
One went along the seashore and heard a dog barking-Rognvald
had his lap-dog (Skikkju-rakki) with him, which
betrayed him-and there the earl was found and slain among the rocks.
Earl
Thorfinn remained on the island all night, and
next morning he slew those men who had escaped. He then rowed to Kirkwall, making it appear as though he were Rognvald returning with his malt. Here he was met by Rognvald's men, unarmed, who were forthwith seized
and slain.
Earl
Thorfinn ended his days as sole earl. He
visited Rome
in the same year as Macbeth, and built the first cathedral in Orkney at Birsa, where he died in 1064. His widow Ingibiorg, married King Malcolm III, and was the
mother of King Duncan II. [Scotland Under Her Early Kings, by E. Wm.
Robertson, vol. 1, page 162.]
This
ended the line of Earls of Orkney who descended from Einar,
the son of Rognvald. As will be seen by the
chart he was the ancestor of the Royal Scottish house of Bruce.
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