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99:. According to this text, Máel Brigte was challenged by Sigurd to a 40-man-a-side battle to "settle their differences". Treacherously, Sigurd brought 80 men to the fight, and Máel Brigte knew he had been betrayed when he saw that each of Sigurd's horses had two men's legs on its flanks. Máel Brigte exhorted his men to "kill at least one man before we die ourselves" and although a fierce fight ensued, Máel Brigte was defeated and killed.
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records few specific dates and was not written down until circa 1200, some three centuries after the events it recorded about Máel Brigte and Sigurd took place. However it is thought that Sigurd
Eysteinsson (aka "the Mighty"), ruled from about 875–92 so Máel Brigte's death may have taken place in the
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Sigurd had his enemies' heads strapped to his victorious men's saddles as trophies, but as Sigurd rode home, Máel Brigte's buck-tooth scratched his leg. The leg became inflamed and infected, and as a result Sigurd died.
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The site of the battle is unknown. However the saga states that Earl Sigurd built a stronghold in the south of Moray, then a much larger province than today and that he was buried in a mound on the banks of the
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There is no other record of Máel Brigte's life. Although another of this name is described in the mid 11th century as being the father of the
Mormaer
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Oxford
Companion to Scottish History. Edited by Michael Lynch. Oxford University Press.
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Little is known of Máel Brigte's life, but the story of his death is recorded in the
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in the north. Oxford
Companion to Scottish History. pp. 428–430.
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of Orkney such as Sigurd
Eysteinsson. See Thomson (2008) p. 24-27.
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49:. The probable site of his burial mound, Sigurd's Howe, is shown.
268:'s expeditions are apocryphal and based on the later voyages of
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121:. Máel Brigte's power centre was probably in or near modern
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Pálsson and
Edwards (1981) "A poisoned tooth". pp. 27-28.
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Orkneyinga Saga: The
History of the Earls of Orkney
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329:and Edwards, Paul Geoffrey (1981).
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388:- likely location of Sigurd's Howe
125:. In the 13th century a farm near
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89:Battle with Sigurd the Mighty
72:. He was responsible – in a
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103:Posthumous killing of Sigurd
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422:9th-century Scottish people
74:bizarre posthumous incident
58:Máel Brigte the Bucktoothed
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417:Orkneyinga saga characters
234:Thomson (2008) translates
68:nobleman, most probably a
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76:– for the death of Earl
347:. Edinburgh. Birlinn.
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412:Scandinavian Scotland
285:Thomson (2008) p. 77.
180:Thomson (2008) p. 28.
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333:. Penguin Classics.
305:. London. Robinson.
251:Ashley, pp. 440–441.
213:in the south to the
157:Máel Coluim of Moray
16:For other uses, see
402:Nobility from Moray
266:Harald I of Norway
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64:was a 9th-century
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432:Mormaers of Moray
353:978-1-84158-696-0
321:978-0-19-923482-0
140:The landscape of
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142:Easter Ross
131:Easter Ross
119:River Oykel
80:of Orkney.
54:Máel Brigte
47:River Oykel
18:Máel Brigte
396:Categories
293:References
223:Sutherland
211:Drumochter
219:Caithness
123:Inverness
39:Caithness
385:NH758884
301:(1998).
35:Shetland
127:Dornoch
66:Pictish
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203:polity
112:Legacy
41:, and
31:Orkney
274:jarls
207:Elgin
163:Notes
84:Death
43:Moray
349:ISBN
335:ISBN
317:ISBN
307:ISBN
238:as "
221:and
147:The
60:or
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242:".
185:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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