 There is limited evidence that Caithness may have had an intermediate phase of Gaelic-speaking control between the Pictish era and the Norse takeover, but if it existed it is likely to have been short-lived.Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorstein the Red moved on northern Scotland, conquering large areas variously described in the sagas as constituting all of Caithness and Sutherland and possibly including territory in Ross and even Moray during the last decade of the 9th century.The "Orkneyinga Saga" relates how the former defeated the Pict Máel Brigte Tusk but died from an unusual post-battle injury.