mother not of the Moddan line, Frakark and Helga aimed at
obtaining the whole jarldom of Orkney for Harald, Helga's son by Earl
Hakon. With the object of getting rid of Paul, they went over with
Sigurd Slembi-diakn to Orphir in Orkney; and we have the story of
the poisoned shirt,[3] made there by Frakark and Helga, and by them
intended for Paul, but put on, in spite of their expostulations and
entreaties, by Harald, who died of its poison, leaving, however, one
son, Erlend, then an infant.

After this, Jarl Paul banished these ladies from Orkney about 1127,
and they "fared away with all their kith and kin, first to Caithness,
and then up into Sutherland to those homesteads which Frakark owned
there,"[4] and tradition[5] locates her residence at Shenachu or Carn
Shuin, on the east side of the River Helmsdale near Kinbrace above the
road. Possibly, however, they lived at Borrobol, the "Castle Farm";[6]
and there "there were brought up by Frakark Margret, Earl Hakon's
daughter, and Helga, Moddan's daughter," and also Eric Stagbrellir,
Frakark's grandnephew, and son of her niece Audhild by Eric Streita,
a Norseman, as well as Olvir Rosta and Thorbiorn Klerk, both Frakark's
grandsons, all of whom come prominently into our story. Audhild's son,
Eric Stagbrellir, in the end was the survivor of these, as well as of
all males of the Moddan line, and ultimately we hear of no descendants
in Cat of any of them save of Eric, and Eric's marriage with Ingigerd,
St. Ragnvald Jarl's only child, is the link between the line of Erlend
and that of Moddan, which united the Erlend and Moddan estates.

Of the line of Thorfinn we already know the royal origin and descent
from Malcolm II's third daughter.

Of the Moddan line the Saga says[7]--"These men were all of great
family and great for their own sakes, and they all thought they had
a great claim in the Orkneys to those realms which their kinsman Earl
Harald (Slettmali) had owned. The brothers of Frakark were Angus of
the open hand, and Earl Ottir in Thurso: he was a man of birth and
rank." These children of Moddan were probably of royal lineage or
kinship, as Moddan, who had been created Earl of Caithness by King
Duncan I, was that king's sister's son, and was probably, as we have
seen, their ancestor or kinsman. They were also probably descended
more remotely from Moldan, Maormor of Duncansby, a kinsman of Malcolm
II, but had all been driven back from the coast, save Earl Ottir, who
l