Sigurd of Westness

HERBJÖRG Paulsdatter .  Orkneyinga Saga names (in order) “Thora…Ingirid…Herbjorg…Ragnhild” as the daughters of “Earl Paul Thorfinnson” and his wife, adding that Herbjörg was the mother of “Ingibjorg the High-born, who married Sigurd of Westness, their sons were Hakon Pike-Staff and Brynjolf” and [daughter?] Sigrid, [mother?] of “Hakon the Child and of Herborg whom  Kolbein Heap married”[955].  m ---. (Cawley's Medlands)

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From THE ORKNEYINGERS SAGA

THE STORY OF EARL MAGNUS 39.       Now (7) the sons of earl Thorfinn took the realm after him.  Paul was the elder of them, and he took the lead over them.  They did not share the lands between them, and yet were a very long time well agreed in their dealings.  Ingibjorg earlsmother gave herself away, after the death of earl Thorfinn, to Malcolm the Scot-king, who was called long-neck;  their son was Duncan the Scot-king, father of William the nobleman.  His son’s name again was William the prince, whom all the Scots wished to take for the king.   Earl Paul, Thorfinn’s son, got to wife the daughter of earl Hacon Ivar’s son, and they had many children.  Their son’s name was Hacon.  They had a daughter whose name was Thora;  she was given away in Norway to Haldor, the son of Brynjulf (the old) camel.  Their son’s name was Brynjulf;  his son’s name was Haldor, who had to wife Gyrid Dag’s daughter.   Another daughter of Paul’s was named Ingirid, whom Einar Vorsacrow had to wife.   Herbjorg was the name of Paul’s third daughter;  she was the mother of Ingibjorg the honourable, whom Sigurd of Westness had to wife, and their sons were Hacon pick and Brynjulf.  Sigrid was another daughter of Herbjorg, the mother of Hacon bairn and Herborg, whom Kolbeinn the burly had to wife.   Ragnhilda was the name of a fourth daughter of earl Paul, she was the mother of Benedict, the father of Ingibjorg, the mother of Erling the archdeacon.  Bergliot was the name of another ? daughter of Ragnhilda, whom Havard Gunni’s son had to wife;  their sons were Magnus and Hacon claw, and Dufnjal and Thorstein.   These are all earls’ kin, and noblemen in the Orkneys, and all these men come into the story afterwards.   Earl Erlend Thorfinn’s son had to wife that woman whose name was Thora and was the daughter of Summerled the son of Ospak.   The mother of Ospak was Thordis, daughter of Hall o’ the Side.  Erling and Magnus were their (Erlend’s and Thora’s) sons, but their daughters were Gunnhilda and Cecilia, whom Isaac had to wife, and their sons (Cecilia’s and Isaac’s), were Endridi and Kol.  Jatvor was the name of a base-born daughter of Erlend, her son’s name was Borgar. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/is3/is303.htm

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Archeology Notes

Norse Hall; Council ORKNEY ISLANDS; Parish ROUSAY AND EGILSAY The great Norse Hall at Westness, which had been uncovered for several years, was planned in 1962 and shown to be over 100' long by c. 30' wide. Two periods were established. The building was originally a long- hall with stone-faced walls of turf set on the flat peaty soil behind the storm beach and with the outer end running up the rear slope of this beach. The building closely resembled the two great halls at Birsay, which were destroyed in the mid-11th century, but is better preserved. The second stage had a substantial rectangular building, possibly a tower, at one end, while the rest of the dwelling was rebuilt with thinner walls of drystone which might be no more than a sill course. Constructional analogies suggest that this stage belongs to the 12th c. The site was in the 12th century connected with the chieftain Sigurd of Westness and there can be little doubt that the dwelling was the hall of his ancestors. C A R Radford 1962; D M Wilson and D G Hurst 1965. http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/2167/details/rousay+westness/ (Picture of dig site too)