The Scots disembarked at a place since named Skothammer, or Skotkleven (the Scots' Cliff), in the vicinity of Klognæs farm, in a part of the Romsdal fiord called the Iisfiord, some miles from the present hamlet of Veblungsnæs, which was not then in existence. The Sagas of Gudbrandsdal, collected by Dean Krag, begin with a stirring account of the patriotism of Peder Klognæs or Klungnæs, the occupant of the farm of that name, who is popularly supposed to have prevented the two Scottish vessels from proceeding higher up the fiord, by representing that there was not sufficient water for them. He is therefore credited with the skilful deception of having induced the Scots to march two Norwegian miles (about fourteen English miles) out of their way, round the Iisfiord, over mountains and marshes, and through roadless forests intersected by almost impassable streams; all which delayed their progress, and enabled Peder to send a message to the authorities and to the Bönder, to save their goods in advance of the troops.[45]
It is more likely that the real reason for landing at Skotkleven was the desire of the shipmasters to get back to sea as quickly as possible, and not further endanger their safety by entering into a narrower and more remote part of the fiord.
It is scarcely necessary to follow and criticise the remainder of the Sagas, such as the meeting of Sinclair with the old woman (transformed by Edvard Storm into a mermaid), who predicted he "would come to bite the dust when he met the hardy men of the glen," and the romantic story of Guri, the maiden who made signals to the Bönder, and played a plaintive melody from the summit of a very high and distant cliff. The noble sacrifice another girl is reputed to have made of her lover, whom she sent to save the wife of Sinclair, is a story so very touching that we may be glad if future historical research should lead to the discovery that Captain Sinclair was accompanied on his adventurous expedition, not by "wild Turks" or bloodhounds,[46] but in reality by a wife and baby.
This Captain George Sinclair, whose name has been wrongly given to the Scots' expedition, was a son of David Sinclair of Stirkoke, the illegitimate son[47] of John, Master of Caithness, the eldest son of George, fourth Earl of Caithness. He was therefore a bastard nephew of George, fifth Earl of Caithness, who employed him, while he was preparing to leave for Norway, in the betrayal of Lord Maxwell, and in making him prisoner at Castle Sinclair, near Thurso.[48]
[45] No mention is made of Peder Klognæs in the Reports made by Envold Kruse, who merely says the Scots took with them "two Bönder in Romsdalen as guides." Andrew Ramsay and his companions deponed at Copenhagen that "the peasants showed them the way when they landed at Romsdal in the Iisfiord." Moreover, Peder Klognæs was not amongst those whom Christian IV. rewarded. The traditions respecting Peder Klognæs bear an extraordinary resemblance to those which attach in Russia to a popular hero named Ivan Susanin, whose devotion to his sovereign, by misleading a detachment of Poles in 1611, forms the subject of the patriotic Russian opera called "Life for the Tsar." Kostomaroff, a modern Russian historian of high standing, has proved that the peasant in question never rendered any such service, as neither the Czar nor the Polish detachment had been in the locality indicated at the time to which the legend refers.
[47] It is, however, stated in Henderson's "Notes on Caithness Families" that he received letters of legitimation in 1588.
[48] Lord Maxwell had been banished the realm for the slaughter of the Laird of Johnstone; but returning into Scotland in 1612, he had sought and obtained the hospitality of his friend the Earl of Caithness, whose countess was Lord Maxwell's cousin. In the hope of obtaining a reward from the king and favour from the Court and Privy Council, this Earl of Caithness, with the aid of Captain George Sinclair, delivered Lord Maxwell to the Council, and he was hanged at Edinburgh in the year 1613.
In the account given of this treacherous transaction by Sir Robert Gordon, it is mentioned that Captain George Sinclair was at that time "preparing himself for Sweden," and that the earl had sent him into Caithness to seize Maxwell, "under pretence of taking up men for his voyage to Sweden." The historian adds, that while the Earl of Caithness never obtained his expected reward, Captain George Sinclair "came to his deserved end" in Norway; and his version of the affair is, that as Sinclair "would not be persuaded by Colonel Ramsay to stay for him until he could be ready also to go," "he went forward with Captain Hay into Sweden," and so ran "headlong to his own destruction."—("History of the Earldom of Sutherland.") His brother, John Sinclair, was killed in the same year (1612) at Thurso.
Sir Robert Gordon is, however, not quite reliable in his account of that transaction, for he says that George Sinclair, "hearing of the wars then likely to fall out, and which ensued shortly between the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, he gathered together 150 men in Caithness. Having made up this company, he joins with Colonel Ramsay and Captain Hay to go into Sweden." The Calmar War commenced in the spring of 1611, a year before the levies were made in Scotland; and we have seen that Sinclair had arranged with Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay and Captain Hay to raise one hundred men each (the strength of a company of infantry in those days), and that only three hundred men were landed by them in Romsdalen.