The Forgotten Viking Lords of the Far North

Before we begin, if you enjoy Viking history, Norse legends, forgotten kings and brutal stories of the medieval world, you can also find more from me on Spotify, the link will be in the description below. For centuries, the windswept islands of Orkney and Shetland stood at the heart of the Viking world. Ruled by powerful Norse Jarls, these remote northern strongholds became centres of warfare, trade, ambition and blood-soaked rivalry. From legendary sea kings to the mighty earls of Orkney, their stories would shape the islands for generations. In this video, we explore the Viking lords who ruled at the edge of the North Atlantic. The story of Viking Orkney and Shetland is really one story, because for most of the Norse period, the two island groups were treated as parts of the same northern Jarldom. Together they formed the Northern Isles, a power base that sat between Norway and Scotland and gave its rulers control over some of the most important sea routes in the North Atlantic. Orkney lay closest to the Scottish mainland and became the political heart of the Jarldom, while Shetland stretched farther north toward Norway and acted as a natural bridge across the North Sea. In the sagas, the two island groups are repeatedly bound together, ruled by the same Jarls, fought over by the same dynasties, and drawn into the same struggle between Norwegian kings, Scottish rulers and ambitious Viking warlords. The beginnings of that Jarldom are wrapped in legend. The main surviving narrative comes from the Orkney Inga saga, written centuries after the events it describes. Like many Icelandic sagas, it preserves old genealogies, poems, family traditions, and stories that may contain genuine memories. According to the saga, the Viking transformation of the Northern Isles became tied to the rise of Harald Fairhair. Harald was remembered as the king who brought much of Norway under his rule, forcing rival chieftains either to submit or to flee. Some of those exiles supposedly sailed west and settled in Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides. From there they raided Norway, using the islands as safe bases beyond Harald's immediate reach. This eventually provoked the king into action. The saga claims Harald launched a great western expedition, sailing across the sea to attack the Vikings of Orkney, Shetland, and farther south. During this campaign, one of his closest allies was Roggenvald Eistensson, the Jarl of Moor. The sagas portray Roggenvald as a powerful aristocrat and trusted supporter of Harald Fairhair. During the western campaign, one of his sons was supposedly killed, and in compensation, Harald granted him Orkney and Shetland. That moment is often treated as the formal creation of the Jarldom of Orkney, but there is an immediate complication. Roggenvald apparently had little interest in leaving Norway. Instead, he handed the islands over to his brother Sigurd. He was later remembered as Sigurd the Mighty, and is the first figure in the sagas present as actually ruling the islands. He is one of the earliest great warrior Jarls in the story, and is remembered not simply for holding Orkney, but for expanding Norse power into northern Scotland. From the islands, Sigurd crossed the Pentland Firth and attacked territories in Caffness and Sutherland. The northern isles were strategically placed at the centre of northern sea travel. Ships from Norway could reach Shetland, continue to Orkney, and then sail south towards Scotland, the Hebrides, and Ireland. A ruler who controlled both island groups could move men, weapons, and supplies with remarkable speed. He could strike the Scottish mainland, and then retreat behind the sea. He could communicate with Norway, while also becoming involved in the politics of Britain. Sigurd's death became one of the most famous and grotesque episodes in the Orkninga saga. He supposedly fought a local ruler named Mael Brichter. Sigurd defeated him, cut off his head, and tied it to his saddle as a trophy. As Sigurd rode away, one of the teeth scratched his leg. The wound became infected, and Sigurd died from it. It is a perfect saga death, violent, ironic, and almost supernatural in its sense of fate. After Sigurd came his son Guthorn, who according to the saga ruled only briefly before dying. The Earldom then returned to the wider family of Roggenvalda. One of his sons, Hallard, was sent to take control of the northern isles. Hallard however proved unable to deal with the Viking raiders, who were still using Orkney and Shetland as bases. The sagas describe him struggling to maintain order, until he finally abandoned the Earldom and returned to Norway. Hallard's failure is important because it sets up the rise of a man who would later become the true dynastic founder. When Hallard returned home in disgrace, another of Roggenvald's sons stepped forward. His name was Einar, but history remembers him as Torf Einar. The sagas portray Einar as an outsider within his own family. His mother was said to have been of low birth, possibly a concubine or enslaved woman, and Roggenvald supposedly regarded him as inferior to his higher born brothers. Einar was not the obvious heir, nor the son expected to achieve greatness. He was darker, rougher and less favoured, but he was also ambitious and capable. When Hallard gave up Orkney, Einar asked for the chance to take it. Roggenvalda agreed, perhaps because he did not expect much from him. Einar sailed to Orkney and found the islands still troubled by powerful raiding chiefs. These men were apparently using the northern isles as bases and had made Hallard's impossible. Einar confronted them, defeated them and established himself as Jarl. This is the moment when the Jarldom becomes more stable in the saga tradition. One of the most dramatic episodes of his life began back in Norway. According to the Hemskringla and the Orkneyinga saga, two sons of Harald Fairhair, Halfdan Longleg and Gudrod the Gleaming, turned against Roggenvalda. They attacked his hall and burned him alive. The motives are tangled up with royal rivalry and inheritance, but the result was clear. Torf Einar's father was dead, killed by the sons of the king whose western conquests had supposedly created the Jarldom. Halfdan then fled west to Orkney and attempted to seize the islands. For Einar, this became both a political struggle and a blood feud. He was temporarily driven from Orkney and withdrew toward the Scottish mainland, probably using Cap Ness as a base. Then he gathered forces and returned. The saga says Einar defeated Halfdan and hunted him down. Halfdan tried to hide, but was captured. What follows is one of the most infamous stories in Viking literature. Einar is said to have ordered Halfdan's execution by the Blood Eagle, cutting open his back and sacrificing him to Odin as revenge for his father's death. The political consequences were serious. Einar had killed a son of Harald Fairhair, even a powerful Jarl could not expect to do that without consequences. Harald supposedly sailed west to punish him, and the confrontation ended not with Einar's destruction, but with negotiation. The king demanded compensation, and Einar agreed to pay. The saga then tells another important story about landholding in Orkney. Harald demanded a large payment from the islanders, but Einar offered to pay the full amount himself. In return, he took ownership rights over their lands. The islanders therefore became his tenants or dependents, and Einar's power increased dramatically. Whether this transaction really happened in such a precise form is debated, but the story clearly reflects later memories of how the Jarls came to dominate landholding in Orkney. Einar survived the confrontation with Harald and remained in control. That survival says a great deal about the balance of power in the Northern Isles. Kings of Norway could claim authority over Orkney and Shetland, but a local Jarl with ships and loyal followers could still behave with remarkable independence. The Jarldom was tied to Norway, but it was never simply another ordinary Norwegian province. Torf Einar's descendants continued to rule after him. His sons included Arknel, Erland and Thorfin Skullsplitter, and it is through this family that the Jarldom passed into the next generation. Thorfin Skullsplitter in particular became an important link in the dynasty, and through him the line continued toward later Jarls, whose power stretched across both island and mainland territories. As the dynasty developed, Orkney and Shetland remained politically united. Shetland rarely appears as a completely separate kingdom, because its rulers were generally the same men who ruled Orkney. Yet Shetland remained vitally important. The Norse transformation of Shetland was particularly deep. Scandinavian settlement became so extensive that Old Norse shaped the language and place names of the islands for centuries. The later Norne language is and survived long after the Viking Age had ended. This means Shetland was not merely governed by Norse aristocrats. It became culturally Scandinavian at a very deep level. The same was true in Orkney. Norse place names, farming traditions, law and social organisation became dominant. The Jarls ruled over communities that increasingly saw themselves as part of a Norse Atlantic world, rather than merely an outpost of mainland Scotland. Several generations after Torfaenar came one of the most powerful of all Orkney's Jarls, Sigurd the Stout. He ruled around the turn of the eleventh century and controlled not only Orkney and Shetland's, but territories in northern Scotland. His career shows the full scale of what Torfaenar's dynasty had become. Sigurd the Stout became deeply involved in the politics of the British Isles. He eventually sailed to Ireland and fought in the Battle of Clontarf. This occurred in the year 1014 and it is one of the most famous battles of the Viking Age. According to later tradition, Sigurd carried a magical raven banner into the battle, supposedly woven by his mother, and was said to guarantee victory for the army while bringing death to the men who carried it. At Clontarf, the prophecy turned against him, Sigurd was killed and his death became another great saga moment in the history of Orkney's Jarls. The ruler of the Northern Isles had died hundreds of miles from home in a battle outside Dublin, demonstrating just how wide the political world of Orkney and Shetland had become. The dynasty did not die with him, his sons inherited the Jarldom, and the family continued into the eleventh and twelfth centuries. By then however, the old Viking world was changing, Christianity had become firmly established, and the Jarls increasingly behaved like medieval aristocrats, rather than pagan warlords. One of the most famous later figures was Saint Magnus. His story belongs to a very different Orkney from the one ruled by Torf Einar. Magnus became involved in a struggle over the Jarldom, and was eventually killed by his rival, Hakon Polson, in the early twelfth century. His death was later remembered as martyrdom, and he became the patron saint of Orkney. The cult of Saint Magnus helped transform the islands culturally. The magnificent Saint Magnus Cathedral was built in Kirkwall in his honour, and it remains one of the most extraordinary monuments to Norse rule in Britain. By this point, the descendants of the Viking Sea Kings were building cathedrals, rather than pagan temples, but they still ruled the same Northern Islands. Another major figure was Roggenwald Calicolson, one of the most celebrated later Jarls in the Orkney Inga saga. He was a warrior, a poet, politician, and a pilgrim, and his life reflects the transformation of Norse aristocratic culture. He fought for the Jarldom, travelled widely, and helped establish Saint Magnus Cathedral. In him, the old Viking warrior tradition and the new Christian world existed side by side. The direct Norse dynastic line finally ended in the thirteenth century. John Haraldsson, who became Jarl in the early 1200s, is often regarded as the last member of the old native line. His reign took place in a world very different from that of Sigurd the Mighty or Torf Einar. Norway and Scotland had become stronger centralised kingdoms, and the Jarls to negotiate carefully between both. John was caught in conflicts involving the Scottish crown, the church, and local nobles. In the year 1231, he was murdered, and with his death, the old dynasty that saga tradition traced back to Torf Einar came to an end. I would like to give a huge thank you to all of my members, your contribution really helps make all of these videos possible. A special thank you to Stephanie Hassan, Theresa Lux, and John Sides. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like, subscribe, and share. And I'll see you all soon for another history profile.