Summary
Summary of The Orkneyinga Saga
Key ideas
Key idea 1
One family links many island lives
The Orkneyinga Saga follows generations of Norse earls ruling Orkney and Shetland, rather than a single hero on one adventure. Around the ruling family stand warriors, a saint, a poet, and a farmer who goes raiding between seasons of work.
Their lives connect the islands to Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and the Hebrides. The sea brings these places together, carrying rulers and rivals into one another's paths. Through this chain of lives, the saga shows how family ties and struggles for land shape a whole island society.
Key idea 2
Violence establishes the earls' power
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Key idea 3
Thorfinn joins conquest to Christian rule
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Key idea 4
Magnus refuses violence for his claim
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Key idea 5
Rognvald builds power through sacred memory
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Key idea 6
Raiding survives beside careful political rule
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Key idea 7
History speaks through deeds and verses
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Key idea 8
Kinship and faith pull power apart
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love Viking history, Scotland and its islands, and family feuds told with dry humour.
What this book is
The Orkneyinga Saga is the history of the Norse earls who ruled Orkney and Shetland, and of the people around them. It was written in Iceland around the year 1200 by an author whose name is lost. It follows the islands from the first Norse settlers to the late twelfth century, across several hundred years and many generations of one ruling family.
This is not a single adventure with one hero. It is a chain of lives, told in the plain style of the Icelandic sagas. You meet earls who win lands by the sword, a saint who is murdered at a peace meeting, a poet who builds a cathedral, and a farmer who raids every summer. You also get a view of how the Norse world joined Norway, Scotland, Ireland and the Hebrides into one sea of kings and quarrels. Let us begin where the saga does, with the founding of the earldom and the men who made it.
In this summary
- 1An earldom is won by forceFree
- 2Thorfinn the Mighty rules a sea kingdom
- 3A saint is murdered at Egilsay
- 4Rognvald builds a cathedral for his uncle
- 5Svein Asleifarson, the last great raider
- 6How the saga was made and why it lasts
Key point 1 of 6
An earldom is won by force
The saga opens with legend before it reaches history. It gives the Orkney earls a long ancestry that runs back to old Norse kings and giants. Then it moves to firmer ground, with Harald Fairhair, the king who is said to have pulled Norway under one crown. Many chiefs who hated his rule sailed west, and some used Orkney and Shetland as bases to raid the Norwegian coast.
Harald answered by sailing west himself and clearing the islands of these raiders. One of his closest friends, Rognvald of Møre, lost a son in that campaign. As payment, the king gave Rognvald the islands. Rognvald passed the earldom to his brother Sigurd, who became the first earl in the saga's account, and the family line begins with him.
Sigurd is known as Sigurd the Mighty, and he spends his rule pushing south into mainland Scotland. He fights the local rulers of the north and takes land in Caithness and beyond. One of his enemies is a Scottish leader called Máel Brigte the Toothed. The two agree to a meeting with forty men each, but Sigurd brings eighty by putting two men on every horse.
Sigurd wins the fight and cuts off the heads of his foes, then ties them to his saddle as trophies. As he rides home, the buck tooth of Máel Brigte scrapes his leg. The wound swells and festers, and the earl dies of it. The story shows the saga's early mood. Power comes by violence, victory is never clean, and even a dead enemy can have the last word.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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What wider change does Thorfinn's later life suggest?
Right. “The earls began as heathen raiders, and they now turn into Christian lords who give lands to the Church.”Not quite. “The earls began as heathen raiders, and they now turn into Christian lords who give lands to the Church.”
Why does Rognvald promise to build a minster at Kirkwall?
Right. “If he wins the islands, he will build a great stone minster at Kirkwall in honour of his uncle.”Not quite. “If he wins the islands, he will build a great stone minster at Kirkwall in honour of his uncle.”
What does Svein's life show about the islands?
Right. “His life shows that the Viking ideals of loot and honour survived for generations alongside Christian kingship.”Not quite. “His life shows that the Viking ideals of loot and honour survived for generations alongside Christian kingship.”
Questions about The Orkneyinga Saga
What is the Orkneyinga Saga about?
It is the history of the Norse earls of Orkney, told from the first settlement of the islands to the late twelfth century. It covers their wars, family feuds, voyages, and the rise of Christianity in the islands.
Who wrote the Orkneyinga Saga and when?
The author is unknown. Scholars think an Icelander wrote it around 1200, using older oral tales, written sources, and poems by court poets called skalds. It is among the earliest Icelandic sagas.
Is the Orkneyinga Saga a true story?
It mixes history with legend. Later chapters, closer to the author's own time, are generally more reliable, while the earliest parts include myth. Historians use it carefully as a source for medieval Orkney and northern Scotland.
Who was Saint Magnus in the Orkneyinga Saga?
Magnus Erlendsson was an earl of Orkney who refused to fight a needless battle and later fell victim to his cousin Haakon. He was honoured as a saint, and Kirkwall's cathedral is named for him.
Is the Orkneyinga Saga hard to read?
No. The saga is told in a plain style, with short, blunt narration. Each part follows vivid people, such as a saint murdered at Egilsay or a farmer who raids every summer, so the stories stay clear and lively.
