The Viking earl who offered to be dismembered, and was killed instead

In the spring of 1116, on the island of Egilsay, a ruler named Magnús Erlendsson offered to be cut apart, or blinded, and locked away for the rest of his life. Anything, it seems, to stay alive. His cousin and fellow ruler Hákon Pálsson had him killed instead.

Two cousins, one earldom, eight warships

Magnús and Hákon were cousins who had ruled the Earldom of Orkney together for years. The earldom covered Orkney, Shetland and Caithness, in the far north of what is now Scotland. Under a Norwegian tradition of inheritance, territory was divided between family members who had equal claims to it, so two or more earls, usually close relatives, often ruled side by side.

Hákon had decided he had had enough of sharing power. After tensions grew between the two men, he arranged what looked like a peace meeting. Magnús came to Egilsay and realised at once that he had been outwitted: Hákon had eight warships to his two, and meant him harm. It was Easter time, hardly a fitting moment for an act of great treachery.

Three offers, and a demand for a death

Magnús tried to bargain his way out. He made three offers, and each one is named in the saga that tells the story.

• He would travel to Rome and Jerusalem to "redeem both our souls", and never come back. Refused.
• He would go into captivity in Scotland. Also refused.
• He would be dismembered, or blinded, and imprisoned. Hákon was at first inclined to accept this one.

The chieftains of Orkney would not allow it. "We must kill one or the other of you now," they told the cousins, "and you shall not both rule the lands from this day forth." Hákon answered: "Kill him then! Because I want to rule the territory and the lands before I die so suddenly." The bargain of lost limbs and a prison cell was set aside, and the thing Magnús had offered everything to avoid was done instead.

How the killing was remembered

The killing of Magnús is arguably the central episode of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney, a narrative history of Orkney, Shetland and Caithness written in the early 13th century and embellished with layers of fantasy. In its telling, his death was a martyrdom, and miracles were credited to him. Two decades later he was recognised as a saint.

The saga describes Magnús as the most outstanding person, imposing in size, victorious in battles and wise in his understanding, and as a man who gave gifts to the powerful yet often showed the most care for poor people. Reverence for him grew among Orcadians, and so did the building made to hold his remains: St Magnus Cathedral, begun in Kirkwall in 1137. It still stands, and is Scotland's oldest and most northerly cathedral.

Hákon fares more strangely in the same saga, which does not paint the man behind the killing as wholly evil. After a short spell of oppressing Magnús's followers, he had a change of heart, travelled to Rome and Jerusalem and bathed in the river Jordan. He came home to become, in the saga's words, a good ruler who brought peace to his territory, and in the end the Orcadians wanted nothing more than to have Hákon and his offspring as their chieftains.