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isthmus (Satíriseið) which connects the peninsula of Cantire with the mainland, and which to the present day is called by the Gaels "Tarbet" (a place over which vessels can be dragged). The King himself sat at the helm, and thus acquired the peninsula, besides all the Western Islands. Having appointed his son Sigurd king of the Sudreyjar, he returned home to Norway, where, with several of his followers, he adopted the dress generally worn in the Western Isles. " They went about the streets with bare legs, and wore short coats and cloaks; whence Magnus was called by his men Barfod, or Barbeen" (Barefoot, or Barelegs), says the Icelandic historian, Snorre Sturlesön, who, as is well known, lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. It is remarkable enough that this is the oldest account extant of the well-known Scotch Highland dress, whose high antiquity is thus proved.

The Jarl Ottar, who after Magnus Barfod's expedition was made governor of Man, was expelled by the inhabitants of that island ("Manverjar "), who chose in his place another jarl named Macmanus (or Magnusön). But a civil war now broke out in the island, and as King Magnus Barfod fell in Ireland in 1103, when on a fresh expedition to the Western Islands, Godred Crovan's family regained the Manx throne. It appears, however, that they acknowledged the supremacy of Norway; at all events, the previously distinct bishoprics of the Sudreyjar (founded in 838) and of Man were united after Magnus Barfod's expedition, and connected more closely than ever with Norway, by being subjected to the archbishopric of Trondhjem. From 1181 until 1334 the bishops of the Sudreyjar ("Episcopi Sodorenses") were consecrated by the Archbishop of Trondhjem. In the year 1380 the bishopric of Man was again separated from that of the other Sudreyjar; but the subsequent bishops of Man have retained to the present day the old title of bishop of Sodor (and Man), taken originally from Sudreyar.

About the same time that the proper Sudreyar were,

with regard to ecclesiastical matters, united with Man, many of them were, as to secular government, separated from that island; although, since the time of Harald Haarfager, all had been governed by the same kings. Jarl Somerled, who was related in various ways to the Norwegian chiefs on the islands, had assumed the dominion of Cantire, Argyle, and Lorn (the "Dalir i Skotlandsfirdi" of the Sagas). After a naval battle, in the year 1156, with the Manx king, Godred Olavesön, Jarl Somerled compelled Godred to resign to him all the Sudreyjar from Mull to Man, which possessions afterwards remained in his family (“Dalverja-Ætt ”). His youngest son, Dugal, the founder of the family of the Mac Dougals of Lorn, obtained Argyle and Lorn, whilst Cantire and the islands were assigned to his eldest son Ragnvald, or Reginald. Meanwhile Godred Crovan's successors reigned over Man, and frequently, as it seems, over the islands to the north of Mull likewise, and particularly Lewis. They constantly sought to strengthen their diminished power by forming alliances with royal families, and other powerful races in Ireland, Scotland, and Norway. Thus King Harald Olafsön, whose father. King Olaf Godredsön had, in the year 1230, repaired to King Hakon Hakonsen in Norway, and taken the oath of allegiance to him, married King Hakon's daughter Cecilie; but on the voyage home from Norway in 1248, the royal couple perished in the dangerous Somburg Röst, to the south of Shetland, together with the Manx bishop, Lawrence, and a numerous retinue of Manx chiefs. Harald's brother, King Ragnvald, was shortly afterwards murdered by the knight Ivar, and was succeeded on the throne by his youngest brother Magnus, who was the last of Godred Crovan's descendants, and above all the last Norwegian who filled the throne of Man.

The Scotch kings had long been aiming at the expulsion of the Norwegians from the north and west of Scotland. Alexander the Second (1214-1249) repeatedly sent ambassadors to King Hakon, in Norway, offering to pur

chase the right of that kingdom to the Norwegian possessions in Scotland; but as they did not succeed, Alexander declared that he would not rest till he had planted his banner on the farthest point of the Norwegian dominions in Scotland. But whilst he lay with part of his army at the island of Kerrera (" Kjarbarey "), not far from Mull, he fell sick and died, after which the army was disbanded. However, his successor, Alexander the Third (1249-1289), zealously prosecuted the plan for the expulsion of the Norwegians. The Scots having at length begun to ravage the Sudreyjar, and particularly the Isle of Skye, with fire and sword, King Hakon, when the tidings reached Norway, equipped a large fleet, and issued orders for an expedition to avenge the attack that had been made on his dominions.

Accordingly, in 1263, he sailed with a large and wellappointed force to Elwick (" Ellidarvik ") on Shapinsay, in the Orkneys, and thence to Ragnvaldsvaag ("Rögnvaldsvágr") under South Ronaldshay, near Pentland Firth. He had despatched several ships before him to the Sudreyjar, whose crews devastated the coasts of Sutherland, particularly the district around the firth of Durness ("Dyrnes"), where they destroyed a castle and burnt more than twenty mansions. The King then sailed to the before-mentioned isle of Kerrera, where he assembled his fleet, consisting of about 200 ships. King Magnus from Man, and King Dugal from the Sudreyjar, joined him there; but Ion, the other king of the Sudreyjar, or, as he was called in Scotland, Ewen, was exempted by King Hakon from fighting against the Scots. King Hakon permitted his men to devastate the islands and coasts of the Firth of Clyde. Some of his chiefs sailed up Loch Long ("Skipafjörðr "), and hauled their ships over the narrow strip of land, called Tarbet, into Loch Lomond ("Lokulofni "), whence they harried the surrounding district of Lennox ("Lofnach "). Meanwhile verbal messages passed between the Norwegian and Scottish kings, but without leading to any reconciliation. The time was

thus whiled away till late in the autumn, when King Hakon anchored with his fleet under Cumbrey in the Clyde, opposite the hamlet of Largs. Here he was assailed by such a furious storm, that his Norwegians, unacquainted with the equinoctial gales on the west coast of Scotland, imagined that the tempest had been evoked by witchcraft. Some of the King's ships were driven ashore near Largs, when the Scots immediately began to attack them. As the Scotch king had in the meantime arrived on the spot with a large army, a fierce battle took place on the plain near Largs (3rd of October, 1263), in which the Norwegians, who were exhausted by their endeavours to save their ships, and who on account of the storm could not avail themselves of their whole force, were overpowered. King Hakon then sailed with the remainder of his fleet round Cape Wrath to "Goafjörðr " (undoubtedly the excellent harbour in Loch Eribol in Sutherland), and after suffering much from violent storms and tempests, at length again reached Ragnvaldsvaag in the Orkneys. He now prepared to pass the winter in Kirkwall, where, however, he shortly afterwards died (16th December, 1263).

The battle of Largs, the last combat in these western regions between the kings of Scotland and Norway, was of a decisive character. The kings in Sudreyjar and Man, who could now no longer venture to reckon upon adequate protection from Norway, submitted to the dominion of the Scotch king. King Magnus Hakonsön, of Norway, found it most advisable (1266) to cede Norway's supremacy over the Sudreyjar and Man to the Scottish crown for the sum of 4000 marks sterling and a yearly tribute of 100 marks. But the Scots did not obtain immediate possession of Man. King Magnus died there in 1265, and was buried in the convent of Russin, near Derby Haven (Rögnvaldsvágr "), which one of his forefathers had founded, or at all events enlarged, in 1134, and which already contained the bones of several Norwegian kings, chiefs, and ecclesiastics (as, for instance, of Bishop

Reginald, 1225; King Olave Godredsön, +1237; and the chief Gospatrick, +1240). With Magnus the family of Godred Crovan became extinct; but the powerful knight Ivar assumed the dominion of Man; and it was not till the year 1270 that the Scots, who had landed in Ragnvaldsvaag, succeeded, in a hard-fought battle, in killing Ivar, together with a great number of the leading men of the island, who had fought desperately for their independence.

Thus was terminated the actual Norwegian dominion over the Sudreyjar. As the battle of Largs considerably contributed to this event, it is no wonder that this battle, and above all King Hakon's expedition, still figure in Scottish traditions. On the battle-field near Largs-where human bones, as well as "Danish axes" and swords, are often found-are still to be seen two almost unique barrows or tumuli, the most remarkable in Scotland, being about 25 feet high, and nearly 20 feet broad at the top, in which the Norwegians and Scots who had been slain are said to have been buried. One of the mounds, which stands just at the back of the town, and close to the shore, is probably the grave of the Norwegians; for the Sagas, whose accounts agree on the whole so exactly with the localities that they must have been derived from eyewitnesses, relate that King Hakon, the day after the battle, buried his dead on the coast, in the neighbourhood of a church. The other mound stands on the plain, a few thousand paces farther off. According to the statements of the common people, on the day of the battle, blood flowed instead of water in a little rivulet or beck that runs past"Killing Craig." A number of smaller barrows and scattered stones, formerly to be seen on the plain, were likewise ascribed by tradition, though certainly without reason, to the same battle. They undoubtedly belonged to a far more ancient time; as is also the case with an excellent silver-gilt brooch found near Hunterston, about three miles from Largs, which was at once said to have

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