1 6 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



relatives of Ketil Flatneb, who captured the governor's 

 wife, and daughter, and sold the latter as a slave. It is 

 highly probable that after their expulsion from the Hebrides, 

 the adherents of Ketil betook themselves to a life of piracy, 

 possibly under the leadership of Ketil's son-in-law, Thor- 

 stein the Red, a man of commanding abilities, who was 

 destined to cut an important figure in the history of 

 Scotland. 



The Outer Hebrides must have lain under the domi- 

 nation of Thorstein the Red until his death about 900, 

 when the ties which bound them to the Orcadian Jarldom 

 began to weaken, and the overlordship of Norway was suf- 

 fered, temporarily, to fall into abeyance. The Irish Annals 

 relate incursions during the tenth century of a powerful 

 tribe of Norwegians from the islands whom they call 

 "Lagmans"; in other words, the followers of the lawmen, 

 the chief judges of the islands, and the presidents of the 

 General Assemblies. These Lagmans are referred to as 

 allies of Magnus, son of Harald, a leader of the Danes of 

 Limerick, who ultimately became King of Man 'and the 

 Hebrides. About the end of the tenth century, Sigurd, 

 Jarl of Orkney, successfully re-asserted the claims of the 

 Jarldom over the Hebrides, and appointed his brother- 

 in-law, Gilli, his lieutenant in the South Isles. The 

 Orcadian domination, however, was of short duration, and 

 the Hebrides, or their southern portion, once more became 

 linked to the sovereignty of Man, Gilli being defeated 

 by Kenneth, brother of Reginald of Man. Kenneth's son, 

 Suibne, described in the Irish Annals as " son of Cinaedh, 

 King of the Gallgaidhel," succeeded Reginald in the govern- 

 ment of Man and its appendages. 



Both Sigurd and Suibne took part in the battle of 

 Clontarf (1014), which broke the Scandinavian power in 

 Ireland. Clontarf was the culminating point of a racial 

 contest for supremacy between the subject Celts and the 

 dominant Teutons in that country. It was the Bannock- 

 burn of Ireland, and, like the great battle which sealed the 

 independence of Scotland, victory lay with the patriots. 



