went, as they did every year, to hunt
red deer and reindeer[38] in Caithness, their hunting ground being
probably near the Ben-y-griams, which lay on the way to Kildonan, or
Strathnaver, where Eric probably lived; and some think there are still
remains of walls used as a pen for driven deer on Ben-y-griam
Beg, though these are more probably the ancient ramparts of a
hill-fort.[39] When they landed at Thurso, they heard that Thorbiorn
Klerk was hiding and lying in wait in Thorsdale[40] in order to make
an onslaught on Ragnvald, if he got a chance. After riding with a band
of a hundred men, twenty of them mounted, they spent the night at a
place where there was what the Celts call an "erg" (_airigh_) but
the Norse call "setr," the modern sheiling. Next day, as they rode
up along Calfdale, Ragnvald was in advance of the party, and, at
a homestead called Force,[41] Halvard hailed him loudly by name.
Thorbiorn was inside the house, and burst out through an old doorway,
and dealt Ragnvald a great wound, and the jarl fell, his foot sticking
in his stirrup, when Stephen, an accomplice, gave him a spear thrust;
whereupon Thorbiorn, after dealing him another wound, and receiving
a spear thrust in the thigh himself, fled to the moor. Earl Harold at
first would not interfere; and though Magnus son of Havard Gunni's son
insisted, Earl Harold again declined to pursue Thorbiorn to the death,
but left Magnus to besiege him at Asgrim's Ergin or Shielings,[42] now
Assary, near Loch Calder, where, by setting fire to the hut in which
he was, his pursuers succeeded in smoking him out and killing him.
They then brought the jarl's body from Force to Thurso, and thence
took it over to Orkney, to be buried in the choir of St. Magnus'
Cathedral, which he had founded and built in his uncle's honour.

"Jarl Ragnvald's death was a very great grief, for he was very much
beloved there in the Isles, and far and wide elsewhere." It took place
on the 20th August 1158.

"He had been a very great helper," the Saga adds, "to many men,
bountiful of money, gentle, and a steadfast friend; a great man for
feats of strength, and a good skald" or poet. In 1192 he was canonised
as St. Ragnvald[43] with, it is said, full Papal sanction. Save during
Harold Maddadson's minority he was never Earl of Caithness, and then
had the title only as guardian of his ward Harold.

Ragnvald left a daughter, his only surviving child, Ingirid or
Ingigerd, whom as we have seen,