Sigurd the Stout
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Sigurd Hlodvirsson, popularly known as Sigurd the Stout from the Old Norse Sigurðr digri, was an Earl of Orkney. The main sources for his life are the Norse Sagas, which were first written down some t
Excerpt from Njáls saga in the Möðruvallabók (AM 132 folio 13r) circa 1350
St Martin's Cross on Iona dates from about 800 AD, and would have been a landmark when Earl Sigurd ruled the Hebrides.
King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, who is said to have forcibly Christianised Orkney. Painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo.
Battle of Clontarf, oil on canvas painting by Hugh Frazer, 1826
Orkneyinga saga
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The Orkneyinga saga is a narrative of the history of the Orkney and Shetland islands and their relationship with other local polities, particularly Norway and Scotland, written in Old Norse. The saga
An example of a page from the Orkneyinga saga, as it appears in a printed copy of the 14th-century Flateyjarbók.
An early 19th-century illustration of "Mount Hekla from Odde"
Magnus Barefoot's army in Ireland. It has been argued that Magnus's actions in the west form the basis of the saga narrative about the submission of Orkney and Shetland to Harald Fairhair's fleet.
"Odin Rides to Hel" (1908) by W. G. Collingwood