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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



one of his henchmen landed and, becom- 

 ing friendly with the keeper, managed to 

 find a secret opportunity to pour water 

 on the wood of a freshly built beacon so 

 it could not burn. 



By such methods Rognvald contrived 

 to gain a foothold in Orkney, singing his 

 rhymes as he went. 



Then Swein Asliefson, the great Vi- 

 king, came upon the scene. In a barge, 

 accompanied by thirty men, he sailed 

 across the Pentland Firth from Scotland, 

 where he had been in hiding because of 

 some of his crimes. Seeing some men on 

 a headland, where they were hunting 

 otters, he caused twenty of his men to lie 

 down and conceal themselves. The hunt- 

 ers, mistaking the ship for a merchant- 

 man, called to him to bring his wares 

 ashore to Earl Paul, who was one of their 

 party. 



Swein's men came to land', killed nine- 

 teen of the party, and seized Paul, carry- 

 ing him away to Scotland, whence he 

 never returned. Swein became a power- 

 ful man in the earldom and lived and 

 died "the holy Earl Rognvald's hench- 

 man." 



Rognvald, having thus obtained pos- 

 session of the lands in 1136, proceeded to 

 perform his vow in the very next year, 

 his father Kol superintending the build- 

 ing of the Cathedral. 



Rognvald became a "Jorsalafarer" in 

 1 151 and, according to the sagas, recited 

 poetry all the way to Jerusalem. We 

 have already had a glimpse of how his 

 men raided the mound of Maeshowe in 

 search of treasure. He was murdered in 

 1 1 58, after ruling twenty-two years; his 

 remains were interred in the Cathedral 

 and his name went on the calendar of 

 saints before the end of the century. 



THE "SHOW-PLACE" 01? THE ORKNEYS 



The Cathedral of St. Magnus is dis- 

 tinctly the "show-place" of the Orkneys. 

 It is not remarkable so much for its 

 length and breadth and height as for its 

 fine state of preservation, despite its age. 

 Melrose Abbey, in Scotland, was founded 

 about the same time (1136), but in 1544 

 was a ruin, and suffered still further in 

 the Reformation. Dryburgh, built almost 

 simultaneously, shared the same fate. 



But while the reformers were pound- 



