sons, as remarked above, he had a great deal of trouble. They were
ambitious, stirring fellows, and grudged at their finding so little
promotion from a father so kind to his jarls; sea-robbery by no means
an adequate career for the sons of a great king, two of them, Halfdan
Haaleg (Long-leg), and Gudrod Ljome (Gleam), jealous of the favors won
by the great Jarl Rognwald. surrounded him in his house one night,
and burnt him and sixty men to death there. That was the end of
Rognwald, the invaluable jarl, always true to Haarfagr; and
distinguished in world history by producing Rolf the Ganger, author of
the Norman Conquest of England, and Turf-Einar, who invented peat in
the Orkneys. Whether Rolf had left Norway at this time there is no
chronology to tell me. As to Rolf's surname, "Ganger," there are
various hypotheses; the likeliest, perhaps, that Rolf was so weighty a
man no horse (small Norwegian horses, big ponies rather) could carry
him, and that he usually walked, having a mighty stride withal, and
great velocity on foot.

One of these murderers of Jarl Rognwald quietly set himself in
Rognwald's place, the other making for Orkney to serve Turf-Einar in
like fashion. Turf-Einar, taken by surprise, fled to the mainland;
but returned, days or perhaps weeks after, ready for battle, fought
with Halfdan, put his party to flight, and at next morning's light
searched the island and slew all the men he found. As to Halfdan
Long-leg himself, in fierce memory of his own murdered father,
Turf-Einar "cut an eagle on his back," that is to say, hewed the ribs
from each side of the spine and turned them out like the wings of a
spread-eagle: a mode of Norse vengeance fashionable at that time in
extremely aggravated cases!

Harald Haarfagr, in the mean time, had descended upon the Rognwald