The break-in is a historical fact: the runes are still there. One boasts that they were carved by the man most skilled in runes west of the ocean, and others refer to treasure.
The saga links the entry to a group of men sheltering from a snowstorm. In the Norse imagination a mound was a place where treasure sat with a guardian dead man, a draugr, and the tale of the treasure seekers belongs in that tradition.
This record keeps the line between the two. The runic graffiti and the entry are documented. The guardian draugr is a belief of the period, and I found no ghost report for Maeshowe.
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