General Notes

EARLDOM of ORKNEY [NOR] - subject to King of Norway until after 1379

Jarl Ragnvald then gave the Earldom to his next [illegitimate] son, Einar I (called Turf-Einar because he introduced the use of turf as fuel among his islanders), and gave him one longship and manned it for his use. Einar went to Shetland to gather a force, and thence south to the Orkneys, which had been occupied by the Danish pirates, Thori Tree-beard and Kalf Skurfa, both of whom he killed circa 894. Halfdan Haaleg, King Harald Haarfagriís son, unexpectedly raided Orkney after the burning of Jarl Ragnvald circa 894, and Turf-Einar fled, but returned, surprised Halfdan, defeated him, and next day captured him and cut a "spread-eagle" or "erne" upon his back in order to avenge Jarl Ragnvald. King Harald Haarfagri came with a fleet to the Orkneys circa 895, and collected a fine of 60 marks of gold from Jarl Turf-Einar for the slaughter of his son Halfdan Haaleg. The name of Jarl Turf-Einarís wife and the date of his death are not recorded; but he "ruled over the Orkneys for a long time and died of sickness." He had 3 sons: Arnkel, Erlend I and Thorfinn.  [Complete Peerage, X:Appendix A:4-5]

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The following was copied from Martha Jane Hicks web information.  I used her pedigree for portions of my own Scandinavian pedigrees:

The data in this section of royal Norwegian genealogy was compiled by historians, Anders Stilloff, and Ola Rob~le Hegge of Norway and presented in chart format by Carl M. Ringen Gunderson. The lineage presented here was given to me as part of my ancestry by genealogist Betty Rockswold, associated with the Valdres Samband Lag organization. When asked about the research done on the lineage, she said: "It would take a 'volume' to describe the connections to royalty of the KvAle line." She goes on to say that she sent a copy of the material to her skeptic cousin, Herman Nettum, in East Toten who is a noted genealogist. After examination of the chart, which Betty says she is sure he went over with a 'fine tooth comb' hunting for errors, his only criticism was that, while the lineage was correct, no one knows the first name of Earl Thorfinn Sigurdson's wife which was listed as being Ingeborg. It appears that the lineage in this database links to Scandinavian royalty insofar as the genealogy accounts written by the medieval writers is correct. The vice consul of Norway, Lars L~berg, says that the medieval writers, most notably Snorri Sturluson, may have had a political motive for presenting the royal line as an old Norwegian dynasty. Since the lineage in this database ties to the traditionally accepted royalty line, it is presented here.)

[Martha Jane Hicks - mjhicks1, worldconnect.rootsweb.com]