Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

AND EARLS OF CAITHNESS. 183
" Jocunda," daughter of Huntheafer King of North and South Mceri. Thcbotan
married, secondly, Ascrida, daughter of Rognvald, son of Olaus, King of
Norway, whose sons were — 1, Rognvald ; 2, Sigurt.
King Harald had already made Rognvald Earl of North and South Mceri, and
afterwards of Raumdal also, in Norway, and to these dominions he preferred
to return, and begged the king to bestow the Orcades on his brother " Sigurt."
I. Sigurt, therefore, became the first Jarl of Orkney and Shetland, and soon
made himself very powerful, conquering Caithness, or the " Ness," Ross, Moray,
and the Sudrlands (Sutherland). Elgin is said to have been founded by him,
and called after his favourite general, " Helgy."
Authors differ as to the precise date of Sigurt's settlement in Orkney ; but it
must have been some years earlier than is generally stated, as Harald Haarfager
was twelve years old on his accession in 861, and forty when his sons became
jealous of the power of Earl Rognvald and his family, which would be in 889,
and certainly the Orcadian earldom had been settled some years before that.
We are not told how long Sigurt held it, nor the date of his death ; but all
authorities agree that he died at " Burghead," — the " Phoroton Strapedon " of the
Romans, the " Broch " of the Danes and Norwegians — after a great battle, in
which he killed his opponent, the Scottish earl, " Melbridg " * (probably the
grandfather of Macbeth) ; but the dead man's projecting tooth did what his
armed hand could not do, and inflicting a wound on Sigurt's leg as he carried
off the head slung to his saddlebow, caused his death.
Some accounts say that he was buried at Burghead, others that his followers
transported his remains to the banks of the Ekkial (Oichel river), and that his
tomb still exists at a place called Ekkjalsbacca.
Earl Sigurt married " Jucunda," daughter of Olaus the White, King of the
Danes in Dublin. With her brother, "Thorstein the Red," he entered into a
partnership, and they overran Scotland, and took possession of all north of the
Oichel river.
The Earl of Caithness at that time was Dungal or Duncan, the first on
record. From him Dungals-bae, or Duncansbay, derived its name. " Unnar,"
the mother of Thorstein, induced him to marry Thorstein's daughter " Groa."
II. Gulturm or Gulthorm, Sigurt's only son, succeeded, but dying within a
year without heirs, the earldom returned to Earl Rognvald, who was still alive ;
therefore this must all have happened before the year 898.
And here we may remark that, although Harald had appointed sixteen earls
in Norway — one over each district — when he suppressed the small kings, they
appear to have been merely collectors of his scatts or land-tax, with the ex-
* "Mai or Melbridg," " the servant of Bridget;" a favourite saint in those days.