Page "Orkneyinga saga" Paragraph 2

The Norse saga was written around 1230 ( three centuries after the events they record ) by an unknown Icelandic author and, as was generally the case with Icelandic language writing of this period, the saga is as much a fictional story as a historic document.

It is thought to have been compiled from a number of sources, combining oral legends with historical facts in order to tell the lives of the earls of Orkney and how they came about their earldom.