Page "Magnus II of Norway" Paragraph 3

In the late 1050s Magnus led an expedition to the west, to the Northern Isles, the Hebrides, and the Irish Sea.

This expedition is only attested in contemporaneous non-Scandinavian sources and is entirely ignored by the sagas.

The year in which Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, died is nowhere recorded with precision ( the Orkneyinga saga states that it was in the latter days of Magnus's father ).

So it may be that Magnus's expedition was the occasion on which Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson, Thorfinn's successors as Earl, submitted to King Harald.

It has been suggested that Magnus also played some part in the war in Scotland in 1057 – 1058, perhaps supporting Máel Coluim mac Donnchada against Lulach.

In 1058 Magnus and his forces were active in Wales and perhaps in England.

According to the Irish Annals of Tigernach, Magnus's goal was to seize power in England, whereas the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle appears to associate the Norwegian fleet with the return to power of Earl Ælfgār.

The Annales Cambriae appear to support the Chronicle version, stating that Magnus Haraldsson laid waste to parts of England in support of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Ælfgār's son-in-law and ally.