BORN_SHORT ‎± 836 Maer, Nord-Trondelag, Norway, DIED_SHORT ‎890 Burned to death in his house. ‎, approximately 54 years
AKA: Ragnvald "the wise"

TITLES: Jarl of North and South More, Jarl of Ramsdal, Norway.

LIVING: Seen 867.

IDENTITY: This individual listed as the father of Rollo is very uncertain.

IDENTITY: Rognvald "The Wise" Eysteinsson (son of Eystein Ivarsson) is the founder of the Earldom of Orkney in the Norse Sagas. Three quite different accounts of the creation of the Norse earldom on Orkney and Shetland exist. The best known is that found in the Heimskringla, but other older traditions are found in the Historia Norvegiae and the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rognvald_Eysteinsson]

IDENTITY: Uncertain, but Earl Rognald of More was killed by Halfdan Long-leg and Gudrod Gleam, King Harald's son by Snaefrid.

The saga accounts are the best known, and the latest, of the three surviving traditions concerning Rognvald and the foundation of the Earldom of Orkney. Recorded in the 13th century, their views are informed by Norwegian politics of the day. Once, historians could write that no-one denied the reality of Harald Fairhair's expeditions to the west recounted in Heimskringla, but this is no longer the case. The Norwegian contest with the Kings of Scots over the Hebrides and the Isle of Man in the middle 13th century underlies the sagas.

In the Heimskringla, Rognvald is Earl of Møre. He accompanies Harald Fairhair on his great expeditions to the west, to Ireland and to Scotland. Here, Rognvald's son Ivarr is killed. In compensation King Harald grants Rognvald Orkney and Shetland. Rognvald himself returns to Norway, giving the northern isles to his brother Sigurd Eysteinsson.

The Heimskringla recounts other tales of Rognvald. It tells how he causes Harald Finehair to be given his byname Fairhair by cutting and dressing his hair, which had been uncut for ten years on account of Harald's vow never to cut it until he was ruler of all Norway, and it makes him the father of Ganger-Hrólf, identified by saga writers with the Rollo (Hrólfr), ancestor of the Dukes of Normandy, who was said to have been established as Count of Rouen by King Charles the Simple in 931.

Earl Rognvald is killed by Harald's son Halfdan Hålegg. Rognvald's death is avenged by his son, Earl Turf-Einar, from whom later Orkney earls claimed descent, who kills Halfdan on North Ronaldsay.

BORN_SHORT ‎± 850, DIED_SHORT ‎± 892 Orkney Islands, Scotland‎, approximately 42 years, BURIED_SHORT ‎ Ekkialsbakki, Sydero, Dornoch Firth, Scotland
TITLE: First Jarl of the Orkneys.

KINSHIP: Brother to Ragnvald I, the Wise. (7008, Orkneyinga Saga, table 1: p. 1)

IDENTITY: Sigurd I Riki, the Mighty. (7008, Orkneyinga Saga, table 1)
IDENTITY: Sigurd the powerful. (7008, Orkneyinga Saga, p. 199)
DISTINCTION: "First earl" of the Saga. (21, The Complete Peerage.)
TITLES: 1st Earl of Orkney. (21, The Complete Peerage.)
DEATH: 874. (7008, Orkneyinga Saga, p. xxiii, 204)
IDENTITY: The second Viking Earl of Orkney, succeeding his brother Rognvald Eysteinsson. A leader of the Viking conquest of northern Scotland. Got gangreen from his enemy's severed head.

BURIAL: Sydero on Dornoch Firth at the estuary of the Ekkialsbakki (Oykell). (1, The Complete Peerage.)
BURIAL: "Hoy-laid" (buried in a how or barrow, haugr) on Ekkialsbakki. . . . Siward's Hoch . . . the north bank of the Oykel's estuary.

BORN_SHORT ‎between 835-848 Møre, Nord-Trondelag, Norway

BORN_SHORT ‎862 Møre, Nord-Trondelag, Norway
IDENTITY: Harald Fairhair's third wife. Daughter of Eystein Glumra jarl of the Uplanders.