Who was King Karl Hundasson?

In the medieval Orkneyinga Saga, one of the primary sources for the history of Scandinavian Scotland we are presented with a character who opens the door to further mysteries and intrigue. A character named Karl Hundasson appears in the text as an enemy of the Norse rulers of the far north, yet we do not know with absolute certainty who he is, or supposed to be.  In the text he is called a King of Scots, but which one - if any - can he be identified with?  Looking at the actual references to him in the work hardly clear the matter up.

  In the saga we are told that King Malcom of Scotland died and was succeeded by Karl Hundasson, which - if we were delaing with a straight and factual account - should make it clear that it is Duncan, King of Scots, we are dealing with.  When Karl - whoever he was - claimed the throne of the Scots (probably in 1029), he immediately made claim on Caithness and therefore went to war with Earl Thorfinn of Orkney.  The Scottish campaign was led by Karl's nephew, a man named Muddan.  The latter raised a force in Sutherland and invaded Caithness.  But Earl Thorfinn raised a larger army and pursued them and subdued Sutherland and Ross and 'harried far and wide over Scotland'.  A second Scottish attack saw Muddan again leading land forces while Karl himself took a fleet round the north of the mainland.  This naval force met Thorfinn's fleet at Deerness and the Vikings again defeated the Scots.  A third, land encounter saw Karl and his force of Scots and Irish roundly defeated, which led to Thorfinn ravaging mainland Scotland as far south as Fife.  No further word is heard of Karl.

 

Son of A Dog.  The Macbeth Connection

   Whoever Karl was, he was an enemy to the Norse who was probably contemptuous to them.  The name, or nickname, evidently means 'peasant, son of a dog'.  While both names, Karl and Hundi, could be argued to be innocusous on their own, the combination of both leads us to this the intended man was being disparaged.  It also makes easy identification of the character very difficult indeed.  While I have given some possible suspects below, it might easily be none of them. It is also quite possible, as some historians have pointed out, that the character of Karl Hundasson may be an invention or a confused memory of several enemies of the Vikings combined into one character by the later compilers of the Orkeyinga Saga.  It has to be borne in mind that there was aggression between the Scots and Norse in the north  and west of the British Isles for over two centuries and there would have been plenty of warlords on the native side who m ay have been misremembered by later Viking poets. 

   In Njal's Saga there is a mormaer of Moray named  Hundi, and this has been equated by some as Findlech, the father of Macbeth.  It is certain that Macbeth was an aggressive war leader on various fronts, against the Scottish rulers to the south and certainly also against the Norse based in Orkney.  His status and success make him a prime suspect for being the despised Karl of Norse legend. 

   Macbeth's latter day literary association with the three Weird Sisters, in Shakespeare and his immediate sources, was shrewdly linked to the three Norns of Norse mythology by Nora Chadwick over fifty years ago, and this integral link with Scandinavian culture bolsters the supposition that he may be the man behind the shadowy moniker of Karl Hundasson.

 

Other Contenders

•  Malcolm MacKenneth,  son of Kenneth III of Scotland presented as the successor of Malcolm II (Máel Coluim mac Cináeda) in the northern parts of the kingdom while Duncan I (Donnchad mac Crínáin) ruled in the south. Authors, including P. A. Munch, declared Malcolm was Karl.  Taylor points out there are five separate Malcolms in the Norse annals relating to Scotland, three of whom were powerful leaders who may be regarded as candidates.

• Gillacomgain, Mormaer of Moray, who succeeded his brother Malcolm in 1032. This is William Thomson's favoured identification in his New History of Orkney (first edition, 1987).  He suggests the author of the saga assumed that the figure known as Karl was a King of Scots, when in fact he was more likely a Scottish regional ruler whose territory bordered on the Norse lands, and therefore the province of Moray. Thomson (2008) notes that the war with Hundasson seem to have taken place between 1029 and 1035 and that the Annals of Ulster record the violent death of Gillacomgain, son of Mael Brigte and Mormaer of Moray in 1032. He too is thus a candidate for Thorfinn's Scots foe—and the manner of his death by fire bears comparison with Arnór's poetic description of the aftermath of the battle at Torfness.

• Hlodver Hundi, brother of Earl Thorfinn.  This is the suggestion of Alex Woolf.  In the sagas there is mention of a 'Hvelp or Hundi' who was removed to Norway by King Olaf Trygvasson and died there. However this man seems to have died realtively yopung and may not have been amture enough at death to have fathered the mysterious Karl.

• Cuilean.  A. McBain argued that the appellation Hundasson directly equates with the Gaelic Cuilean. the name of several mormaers in the north of Scotland in the 10th and 11th centuries. 

• King Duncan I. This king of Scotland, who ruled from 1034 to 1040, was slain  by Macbeth in the north of the kingdom, but his other military campaigns were in the south and there is no substantial record of him in war against the Norse.