The first important event in the lives of Paul and Erlend happened just before the Norman conquest of England.  They joined King Harald Sigurdson (Hardrada) and his son Prince Olaf, who was their second cousin on their mother’s side,[7] in an attack on England; and, after Harald’s death, and his army’s defeat by King Harold Godwinson of England at Stamford Bridge, in September 1066, (three days before William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey) the two Orkney jarls were taken prisoner, but, along with Prince Olaf, they were released.  On their return to Orkney, Paul asked the Archbishop of York to consecrate a cleric of Orkney as Bishop in Orkney, and the two brothers ruled harmoniously there until their sons Hakon on the one hand and Magnus and Erling on the other, who had been engaged in Viking cruises together as boys, grew up and quarrelled, and, as is usual, drew their fathers into the strife.  This strife was provoked by Hakon, and apparently lasted for many years,[8] Erlend supporting his own sons, and driving Hakon abroad to Norway about the year 1090.  Neither Paul nor Erlend seems to have been much in Sutherland or Caithness, in which the representatives of the Gaelic Maormors or Chiefs probably regained power, especially the family of Moddan, and extended their territories.

Meantime King Magnus Barelegs[9] of Norway, instigated by Hakon, and taking advantage of the contentions between 1093 and 1098 of the various claimants of the Scottish crown, Donald Bane (whom he supported), Duncan II, and Edgar, had made his several expeditions, in the closing years of the eleventh century, against the western islands and coasts of Scotland and Wales.  In the battle of the Menai Straits in 1098 we find that he had with him young Hakon Paulson, and also Erling and Magnus, Jarl Erlend’s sons, though Magnus, who had repented of his early Viking ways, after declining to take part in the fight against an enemy with whom he had no quarrel, escaped to the Scottish court.[10] In 1098 King Magnus had deposed and carried off Jarls Paul and Erlend to Norway, where they died soon after; and in the meantime he had appointed his own son, Sigurd, to be ruler of Orkney and Shetland in their place.[11] But on King Magnus’ death, during his later expedition to Ireland, where Erling Erlendson probably also fell, Prince Sigurd had to quit Orkney in order to ascend the Norwegian throne, leaving the jarldom vacant for the two cousins, Hakon Paulson and Magnus Erlendson.  The latter appears to have stayed for some years at the Scottish Court and afterwards with a bishop in Wales, and again in Scotland, but on hearing of his father’s death, went to Caithness, where he was well received and was chosen and honoured with the title of “earl” about 1103.  A winter or two after King Magnus’ death, or about 1105, Hakon came back from Norway with the title of Jarl, seized Orkney, and slew the king of Norway’s steward, who was protecting Magnus’ share, which after a time Magnus claimed, only to