Ragnhild "The Wicked" Eiriksdotter - Evidence for her marriage to Lochaber

Started by Sharon Doubell on Monday, October 1, 2012
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10/1/2012 at 4:17 AM

Does anyone know where the evidence / suggestion that Ragnild married Ferguard FitzAlan of Lochaber, Thane of Lochaber comes from? The most I can find is this citation: http://www.mathematical.com/eriksdottirragnild.html - which itself views the match as unlikely.

It isn't that it is impossible - just that she was surely too busy marrying and murdering Thorfinn Skullsplitter's sons and grandsons (according to the Orkneying Saga), to be marrying in Lochaber too?

Any thoughts?

Private User
10/1/2012 at 4:57 AM

The only place I have found with a source(?) reference to this connection is:
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p128.htm#i14950

but that page are missing two of the Thorfinsson brothers which is the main key in the saga about her.

10/1/2012 at 5:44 AM

Thanks Private User - it seems to be mentioned often enough to leave it there too.

Private User
10/1/2012 at 5:52 AM

Nah, I would have cut that connection.

Private User
10/1/2012 at 6:04 AM

One of the reviews of the book The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland which is used as "source" tells: "I used to believe the fraudulent claims of Michael of Albany. The fact that he was a very bad historian (the footnotes are few and vague, and his "arguments" are often little more than leaps of faith)..."

and as I said that "source" leaves out the key information about Ragnhild (and the reason for the English nick "The Wicked"), the marriage and killing of the three Thorfinsson brothers is left out.

10/1/2012 at 6:07 AM

Someone will just put it back, though.

I think it's part of the Stewart Dynasty claim to the throne through Banquo. (Possibly fictional - but not definitely so)

Maybe Orkney & Caithness got too 'hot' for her after the murders & she had to move down a bit to the Great Glen.

10/1/2012 at 6:11 AM

Maybe, I can put a curator note that says the likelihood is tenuous.

The Orkneying Saga as a necessarily truth, is also a bit dubious. Could Thorfinn's sons & grandsons really have been so stupid, not to have noticed the body count :-)

10/4/2012 at 2:17 AM

As per this discussion, I am severing Ferquard from Ragnhild, before she gets the chance to murder him too :-) http://www.geni.com/discussions/113421?msg=821610

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