General Notes

[Direct Linage1.FTW]

Note:
bk&q chart 27, NB10, pp 443-4, 480

Reign c947-77 as Earl of Orkney
p 444 He was the youngest son of Einar I and was probably born about the year 910 or slightly earlier. The sagas recall that he ruled jointly with his brothers Arnkel and Erlend, though he is unlikely to have done so from the start, and may only have done so once all three had become vassals to ERIK BLOODAXE, who imposed his authority on the earldom in 937. Thorfinn's nickname suggests he was strong and powerful in battle, and he almost certainly joined his brothers with their new leader in their raids about the coast. Thorfinn's brothers do not seem to have married, but Thorfinn married Grelod, the daughter of the mormaer of Caithness and granddaughter of THORSTEIN THE RED. He had five sons and two daughters. Whereas Thorfinn's elder brothers were closer companions of Erik's, and were with him during his final rule of York, Thorfinn remained behind in Orkney, and thus may have been the sole authority on the island for much of the time from 947 on. Even though he inherited the earldom after his brothers were killed alongside Erik in 954, he remained subservient to Erik's widow Gunnhildr and her sons when they returned to Orkney that same year. It was at this time that Thorfinn's son Arnfinn married Gunnhildr's daughter Ragnhild. However, once they left in 955, Thorfinn finally became sole earl, though he had to relinquish that briefly to Gunnhildr and her sons when they returned in 976. Thorfinn lived to an old age, probably about sixty-seven, and was accorded a proud Viking burial in the Sound of Hoxa off South Ronaldsay.

In researching Macbeth for her novel, King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett concluded that Macbeth and Thorfinn Earl of Orkney were one and the same, "Macbeth" being a baptismal name, but that research has never been published. What is certain is that early Annals and Scottish Regnal lists call Macbeth the son of Findlaech; and Thorfinn surely succeeded Sigurd "the Corpulent" as Earl of Orkney.