THE NORSE OCCUPATION. 



[airfair) arose the assumption of sovereignty, by his 

 successors on the throne of Norway, to the Shetlands, 

 the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. The 

 exact date of the expedition has not been clearly estab- 

 lished, but it was probably about 888. 



Among the Norwegian kinglets who became the im- 

 placable foes of Harald, was one Ketil, son of Bjorn Buna, 

 called in the Sagas Ketil Flatneb or Flatnose, who was a 

 famous hersir in Norway. The Sagas disagree in describing 

 the circumstances under which Ketil left his native country. 

 According to one account, he was despatched with an army 

 by Harald to suppress the unruly Vikings of the Scottish 

 islands, and having established his authority, he formed 

 alliances with " the mightiest chiefs in the West," sent back 

 the army to Norway, and threw off his allegiance to the 

 Norwegian King. The other, and the more probable version, 

 is that he was one of those whom the high-handed pro- 

 ceedings of Harald drove into voluntary exile. It is 

 stated that he summoned a Thing of his kinsmen and 

 took counsel with them, placing before them the choice of 

 resistance to the yoke of Harald, or of leaving the country. 

 His sons, Bjorn and Helgi, wished to go to Iceland, as 

 they had heard that the land was good, " with plenty of 

 game and fish." Ketil was opposed to this suggestion, 

 preferring to go westward, " where he knew many places, 

 as he had ravaged widely there." Westward accordingly 

 he went. 



It is not difficult to identify Ketil Bjornson with Caitill 

 Find, or Cathal Finn, chief of the Gall-gael, who was 

 defeated in Munster in 857 by Olaf the White. The author 

 of the War of the Gaedhill with the Gaill, an ancient 

 and apparently authentic Irish tract translated by Dr. Todd, 

 states that Caitill Find was killed at the Munster fight, 

 which would at once dispose of any attempt to identify 

 the leader of the Gall-Gael with the Norwegian Ketil. 

 The Annals of Ulster offer no corroboration of the state- 

 ment in the tract, and the evidences of identification are 

 too strong to be ignored. Ketil's daughter, Aude, or 



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