Earl Thorfinn sent Thorkel Fóstri to collect his revenues, but Earl Einar regarded it as chiefly owing to Thorkel that Earl Thorfinn had come into [his possessions in] the Islands. Thorkel left the islands suddenly, and went to Ness (Caithness). He told Earl Thorfinn that he had become aware that Earl Einar had intended to kill him, if his relatives and friends had not given him warning. “And now,” he added, “I will avoid the risk of having such a meeting with the Earl as shall bring matters to a crisis between us, and I will go farther away, where his power does not reach me.”
Thorfinn persuaded him to go to King Olaf, in Norway, and spend the winter with him in great friendship; “for you will,” he said, “be highly esteemed wherever you come among noble men; but I know your temper and that of the Earl to be such that you will not long refrain from hostilities.”
Thorkel then prepared for his departure, and in the autumn he went to Norway to visit King Olaf, and spent the winter with him in great friendship. The King often sought Thorkel’s advice, because he considered him a wise man and a weighty counsellor, and such was the truth. In telling of the Earls, the King found that he was very partial, a great friend of Thorfinn, and an enemy of Earl Einar. Early in the spring the King sent a ship with a message to Earl Thorfinn, asking him to come and see him; and the Earl did not put off the journey, for protestations of friendship had accompanied the message.
THORFINN went east to King Olaf in Norway, where he was well received, and spent the summer there; and when he prepared to go westward again, King Olaf gave him a large and excellent war-ship, fully equipped. Thorkel Fóstri went with the Earl, who gave him the ship in which he had come from the west in the summer. The King and the Earl parted great friends.
In the autumn Earl Thorfinn came to the Orkneys. When Earl Einar heard of it, he stayed with many men in his ships. Brúsi went to meet the two brothers, and tried to reconcile them; and once more they made peace and confirmed it with oaths. Thorkel Fóstri should be pardoned, and be a friend of Earl Einar, and each of them should give the other a banquet, and the Earl should first come to Thorkel at Sandvik.[246]