22 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



to this summary treatment of his representative. Things 

 had not been going well in his island dominions. Paul 

 and Erlend, the Jarls of Orkney, had not been giving 

 satisfaction to their liege lord ; Lagman had apparently 

 not shown the gratitude which the clemency of Magnus 

 might have been expected to produce ; and to crown all, 

 his deputy had been burnt alive by the contumacious 

 Lewismen. Nothing short of a clean sweep would satisfy 

 him this time. And so, the great expedition of 1098, con- 

 sisting of 60 large well-built ships, and manned by trained 

 warriors, left the shores of Norway on a punitive and 

 re-organising mission. 



Hakon, son of Jarl Paul of Orkney, had visited the Court 

 of Norway, and urged Magnus to undertake the expedition, 

 hoping doubtless to reap some material benefits for him- 

 self, while venting his jealous spite on his uncle, Erlend, 

 and his sons. But whatever the ulterior motives of Hakon, 

 it is evident that Magnus needed no extraneous induce- 

 ment to undertake his great scheme of revenge and 

 re-conquest. 



On arriving at the Orkneys, Magnus deposed the Jarls 

 Paul and Erlend, and sent them to Norway, appointing in 

 their stead his own son Sigurd, with a Council of advisers 

 to assist him in the government of the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands. From the Orkneys he sailed to Lewis, where 

 he took a gruesome revenge for the slaughter of Ingemund 

 and his companions. A skald named Bjorn Cripplehand, 

 who accompanied Magnus on this expedition, has left the 

 following account of the devastation wrought by his 

 master in the Long Island: 



"Fire played in the fig trees of Liodhus (Lewis); it 

 mounted up to heaven. Far and wide the people were 

 driven to flight. The fire gushed out of the houses. The 

 liberal King went with the fire over Ivist (Uist). The 

 buendar (chief men) lost life and property. The King 

 gained much gold."* 



* This is the version given in the Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis. The 

 version of Morris and Magnusson is more ornate. 



