Then when I was nineteen, and a good leader, as they said, the words that my mother spoke to Jarl Rognvald came true, and he died even as he had slain my father.

For Halfdan and Gudrod, Harald Fairhair’s sons, deeming that the Jarl stood in their way to power in Norway, burned him in his hall by night, and so my feud was at an end.  But the king would in nowise forgive his sons for the slaying of his friend, and outlawed them.  Whereon Halfdan came and fell on us in the Orkneys; and that was unlucky for him, for we beat him, and Jarl Einar avenged on him his father’s death.

Now through this it came to pass that I saw Norway for the last time, for I went thither in Einar’s best ship to learn if Harald meant to make the Orkneys pay for the death of his son—­which was likely, for a son is a son even though he be an outlaw.

So I came to my mother’s place first of all, and full of joy and pleasant thoughts was I as we sailed into the well-remembered fiord to seek the little town at its head.  And when we came there, nought but bitterest sorrow and wrath was ours; for the town was a black heap of ruin, and the few men who were left showed me where the kindly hands of the hill folk had laid my mother, the queen, in a little mound, after the Danish vikings, who had fallen suddenly on the place with fire and sword, had gone.  They had grown thus bold because the great jarl was dead, and the king’s sons had left the land without defence.

There I swore vengeance for this on every viking of Danish race that I might fall in with; for I was wild with grief and rage, as one might suppose.  I set up a stone over the grave of my mother, graving runes thereon that should tell who she was and also who raised it; for I was skilled in the runic lore, having learned much from one of Einar’s older men who had known my father.

Thereafter we cruised among the islands northwards until we learned that Harald was indeed upon us, and then I saw my last of Norway as we headed south again, and the last hilltop sank beneath the sea’s rim astern of us.  I did not know that so it would be at that time—­it is well that one sees not far into things to come—­but even now all my home seemed to be with Einar; and that also was not to last long, as things went.  How that came about I must tell, for the end was that I came to Alfred the king.

When we came back to Kirkwall, I told the jarl all that I had done and learned; and grieved for me he was when he heard of my mother’s death.  Many things he said to me at that time which made him dearer to me.  Then after a while he spoke of Harald, who, as it seemed, might come at any time.

“We cannot fight Norway,” he said, “so we must even flit hence to the mainland and wait until Harald is tired of seeking us.  It is in my mind that he seeks not so much for revenge as for payment of scatt from our islands.  Now he has a reason for taking it by force.  He will seek to fine us, and then make plans by which I shall hold the jarldom from him for yearly dues.”