Talk:Torf-Einarr

Death date
Crawford writing in 2004 says he was living in the 930s. I'm inclined to take modern scholarship over the date from 1916. DrKiernan (talk) 19:28, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Somehow I missed this suggestion. The dates for the early earls are mostly guesswork but I will take a proper look at this asap. Ben   Mac  Dui  17:17, 5 August 2014 (UTC)


 * There is a more general blether at Talk:Earl of Orkney. The suggestions for Torf-Einarr's death are:
 * Johnston (July 1916) (see over)
 * Muir, Tom (2005) Orkney in the Sagas: The Story of the Earldom of Orkney as told in the Icelandic Sagas. The Orcadian. Kirkwall. In the Preface the table lists T-Einarr as "d. c. 910" which is pretty much all that Johnston says.
 * Crawford (2004) as you suggest has him living until the 930s.
 * Crawford (1987) Scandinavian Scotland repeats c. 910.
 * I'm not aware of any hard evidence either way. Two of his sons died c. 954 and the third, Thorfinn, possibly c 963. If you guess that Einarr already a child prior to his Orkney sojourn then his death in 910 as a man in late middle age or older is reasonable. If you guess that its more likely that his two oldest sons were well under 50 when they died than perhaps 930 is your answer. I am all in favour of modern scholarship if it's well argued but the evidence available to 19th century historians does not (in this case at least) seem to be any different to that available today. Possibly the best solution is to enlarge slightly on these speculations in the article. Ben   Mac  Dui  18:18, 5 August 2014 (UTC)


 * These two dates seem to be at the extreme ends of the range, so perhaps the range should be given, e.g.
 * | reign            = c. 895 to 910 or later
 * | death_date       = 910 to 930s "


 * If you do wish to say something of how the dates are calculated, then Mike Ashley's British Monarchs [a general popular compendium not a specialist work] gives regnal dates of "c894–?920" (p441) and says "Allowing for the ages of his sons to succeed him he must have ruled to at least the year 920 or later." (p442). So, that could be used to put together a sentence along the lines you're thinking of, though I'm happy just with the range personally. DrKiernan (talk) 18:48, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for these suggestions. I'll look at it again soon. Ben   Mac  Dui  07:38, 6 August 2014 (UTC)