culture and language of the early inhabitants. Only two languages are found in pre-Norse Orkney, Old Gaelic (Old Irish) and Latin. The Romans were aware of (and probably circumnavigated) the Orkney Islands, which they called "Orcades", thought to be a Brythonic Celtic name. A "king of the Orcades" was one of the 11 rulers said to have paid tribute to Claudius following his invasion of Britain in AD 43. Indeed 4th and 5th century sources include the Islands in a Roman province. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Romans only traded with the inhabitants, perhaps through intermediaries; no signs of clear occupation have been found. But, according to scholars like Montesanti, "Orkney might have been one of those areas that suggest direct administration by Imperial Roman procurators, at least for a very short span of time". Early medieval period The Picts regained power until dispossessed by the Norse in the 9th century, with the possible interruption of a short period towards the beginning of the 6th century, when Dál Riata Gaels may have established a footing in the islands, followed by Celtic missionaries in about 565. They were companions of Saint Columba, and their efforts to convert the folk to Christianity seem to have impressed the popular imagination, for the names of several islands include the epithet "Papa" in commemoration of the preachers old. Norwegian rule Vikings having made the islands the headquarters of their aggressive expeditions (carried out indifferently against their own Norway and the coasts and isles of Scotland), Harold Hårfagre ("Fair Hair") subdued the rovers in 875 and annexed both Orkney and Shetland to Norway. They remained under the rule of Norwegian earls until 1231, when the line of the jarls became extinct. In that year the earldom of Caithness was granted to Magnus, second son of the Earl of Angus, whom the king of Norway apparently confirmed in the title. Recent studies from the field of population genetics reveal a significant percentage of Norse ethnic heritage—up to one third of the Y chromosomes on the islands are from western Norwegian ancestry, as opposed to Shetland, where over half the male lineage is of Norwegian stock. Some jarls of Orkney: Ragnvald Eysteinsson, d. c. 890 Turf-Einar, d. c. 910 Thorfinn Turf-Einarsson, Earl of Orkney, d. c. 963 Erlend II Hakon Paulsson, 1105–1123 Saint Magnus, 1106–1117 There is a legend that Henry Sinclair, 1st Earl of Orkney may have