Orm

Orm appears in the Heimskringla in two distinct roles. He is first identified as an earl in the Uplands, the text noting simply that "Orm was at that time earl in the Uplands" (Heimskringla, 42. Of Earl Orm). A more vivid scene places him as a "King-brother" in mortal danger during the fall of King Eystein: a Birkebein swung his axe at Orm as he lay on a bench, but Orm "drew in his feet instantly, threw them over his head, and the blow fell on the bench, in which the axe stuck fast" (Heimskringla, 42. The Fall of King Eystein). This narrow escape connects him to the Birkebeins civil conflict and to Earl Orm, Hakon the Great, and the political networks of Viken, Bergen, and Oslo.