When Harald Hardrada, the eleventh-century Norwegian king, returned from a battle in the Mediterranean with a piece of Persian silk, little did he know he would change Scottish folklore and the Clan MacLeod family history for ever. But he did . . .
On his return, he asked his wife Princess Elisiv of Kyiv to turn the silk into a battle flag, which he named Landetðuna. It didn’t bring Harald much luck, though. The flag flew over him when he was killed fighting the English at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. One of the few Viking survivors of that battle was Godred Crovan, a Norse-Gael ruler of the Kingdom of the Isles. Godred fled from Yorkshire to the Hebrides, taking the battle flag with him, where he joined his sister Helga of the Beautiful Hair.
