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Thorfinn “The Black” or “The Mighty” Sigurdsson, 18th Jarl of Orkney (1009 – 1064)

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 29, 2021
184 Comments on Thorfinn “The Black” or “The Mighty” Sigurdsson, 18th Jarl of Orkney (1009 – 1064)

Arms of the feudal Earls of Orkney

Relief map of the Orkney Islands

MV Earl Thorfinn arrives at Westray. Orkney Ferries operate a fleet of inter-island ferries.

St Martin’s Cross on Iona dates from about 800 AD, and would have been a landmark when Earl Sigurd ruled the Hebrides.

Raven artwork on a Swedish Vendel era shield, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.

Battle of Clontarf, oil on canvas painting by Hugh Frazer, 1826

An eighteenth-century illustration of Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig (died 1014).

My agnatic lineage genealogical origins trace to Norway, at least as far back in history as the 5th-century AD. They, known by the Irish as the Finngaill, conquered the region around Donegal (Irish: Dún na nGall, meaning ‘fort of the foreigner’), Ireland, during the latter half of the 9th century (thereafter, an exclusive Viking enclave I would imagine). My agnatic forebears migrated from Orkney, Scotland, to Donegal, Ireland, during the latter half of the 12th century. The first patriarch to settle there was Kolli Kollson (born c. 1150; Thorfinn the Black’s 2nd great-grandson). He and his descendants’ Irish surname became Coileain (or O’Coileain). According to the pedigree, the subsequent generation resided in Cork, then a Viking sea trading port, before the clan returned to Donegal after the next or same generation. Their descendants immigrated to England during the early 14th century (see Collins (Kollsson) Agnatic Norwegian Lineage (650 – present) for more information).

Thorfinn briefly allied with his cousin Mac Bethad mac Findlaích (ca. 1031 – 1057) King of Scotland, Shake-speare’s “MacBeth” in their pact to kill their cousin King Duncan, son of Crínán of Atholl, Lay Abbott of Dunkeld (980 – 1045) Primogenitor of Dunkeld Dynasty. Soon after the battle fought between the threesome at Elgin in the summer of 1040, Macbeth was crowned King of Alba (today’s Scotland) after Duncan was slain.

The Battle of Clontarf pitted ThorFinn’s father, Sigurd “The Stout” Hlodvirsson (c. 960 – 23 April 1014), leader of the Viking army, against his cousin Brian Boru (941 – 1014) Founder of the O’Brien Dynasty of Irish High Kings, leader of the Irish army. Both were slain during the course of the battle that concluded in a decisive victory for the Irish.

Vikings would not dominate as rulers of Ireland until their Norman (Norsemen) descendants invaded the island in 1171 under the command of Richard “Strongbow” de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (1130 – 1176) Justiciar of Ireland. The invasion marked the beginning of the end of the High Kings rulership of Ireland that putatively commenced three millennia before.

Thorfinn Torf-Einarsson, Sigurd’s paternal grandfather, had “skull-splitter” as a grisly sobriquet. Personally, I would have kept my distance from him even if he looked like he was having anything less than a bad hair day (which probably accounts for his living to advanced old age).

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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