Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
almost to the middle of his leg, and so strong that no weapon ever
pierced it. Then said King Harald Sigurdson, "These verses are but ill
composed; I must try to make better;" and he composed the following:--
"In battle storm we seek no lee,
With skulking head, and bending knee,
Behind the hollow shield.
With eye and hand we fend the head;
Courage and skill stand in the stead
Of panzer, helm, and shield,
In hild's bloody field."
Thereupon Thiodolf sang:--
"And should our king in battle fall,--
A fate that God may give to all,--
His sons will vengeance take;
And never shone the sun upon
Two nobler eaglet; in his run,
And them we'll never forsake."
95. OF THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE.
Now the battle began. The Englishmen made a hot assault upon the
Northmen, who sustained it bravely. It was no easy matter for the
English to ride against the Northmen on account of their spears;
therefore they rode in a circle around them. And the fight at first was
but loose and light, as long as the Northmen kept their order of battle;
for although the English rode hard against the Northmen, they gave way
again immediately, as they could do nothing against them. Now when the
Northmen thought they perceived that the enemy were making but weak
assaults, they set after them, and would drive them into flight; but
when they had broken their shield-rampart the Englishmen rode up from
all sides, and threw arrows and spears on them. Now when King Harald
Sigurdson saw this, he went into the fray where the greatest crash of
weapons was, and there was a sharp conflict, in which many people fell
on both sides. King Harald then was in a rage, and ran out in front of
the array, and hewed down with both hands; so that neither helmet nor
armour could withstand him, and all who were nearest gave way before
him. It was then very near with the English that they had taken to
flight. So says Arnor, the earls' skald:--
"Where battle-storm was ringing,
Where arrow-cloud was singing,
Harald stood there,
Of armour bare,
His deadly sword still swinging.
The foeman feel its bite;
His Norsemen rush to fight,
Danger to share,
With Harald there,
Where steel on steel was ringing."
96. FALL OF KING HARALD.
King Harald Sigurdson was hit by an arrow in the windpipe, and that
was his death-wound. He fell, and all who had advanced with him, except
those who retired with the banner. There was afterwards the warmest
conflict, and Earl Toste had taken charge of the king's banner. They
began on both sides to form their array again, and for a long time there
was a pause in fighting. Then Thiodolf sang these verses:--
"The army stands in hushed dismay;
Stilled is the clamour of the fray.
Harald is dead, and with him goes
The spirit to withstand our foes.
A bloody scat the folk must pay
For their king's folly on this day.
He fell; and now, without disguise,
We say this business was not wise."
But before the battle began again Harald Godwinson offered his brother,
Earl Toste, peace, and also quarter to the Northmen who were still
alive; but the Northmen called out, all of them together, that they
would rather fall, one across the other, than accept of quarter from
the Englishmen. Then each side set up a war-shout, and the battle began
again. So says Arnor, the earls' skald:--
"The king, whose name would ill-doers scare,
The gold-tipped arrow would not spare.
Unhelmed, unpanzered, without shield,
He fell among us in the field.
The gallant men who saw him fall
Would take no quarter; one and all
Resolved to die with their loved king,
Around his corpse in a corpse-ring."
97. SKIRMISH OF ORRE.
Eystein Orre came up at this moment from the ships with the men who
followed him, and all were clad in armour. Then Eystein got King
Harald's banner Land-ravager; and now was, for the third time, one of
the sharpest of conflicts, in which many Englishmen fell, and they were
near to taking flight. This conflict is called Orre's storm. Eystein
and his men had hastened so fast from the ships that they were quite
exhausted, and scarcely fit to fight before they came into the
battle; but afterwards they became so furious, that they did not guard
themselves with their shields as long as they could stand upright. At
last they threw off their coats of ringmail, and then the Englishmen
could easily lay their blows at them; and many fell from weariness,
and died without a wound. Thus almost all the chief men fell among the
Norway people. This happened towards evening; and then it went, as one
might expect, that all had not the same fate, for many fled, and were
lucky enough to escape in various ways; and darkness fell before the
slaughter was altogether ended.
98. OF STYRKAR THE MARSHAL.
Styrkar, King Harald Sigurdson's marshal, a gallant man, escaped upon a
horse, on which he rode away in the evening. It was blowing a cold wind,
and Styrkar had not much other clothing upon him but his shirt, and
had a helmet on his head, and a drawn sword in his hand. As soon as his
weariness was over, he began to feel cold. A waggoner met him in a lined
skin-coat. Styrkar asks him, "Wilt thou sell thy coat, friend?"
"Not to thee," says the peasant: "thou art a Northman; that I can hear
by thy tongue."
Styrkar replies, "If I were a Northman, what wouldst thou do?"
"I would kill thee," replied the peasant; "but as ill luck would have
it, I have no weapon just now by me that would do it."
Then Styrkar says, "As you can't kill me, friend, I shall try if I can't
kill you." And with that he swung his sword, and struck him on the neck,
so that his head came off. He then took the skin-coat, sprang on his
horse, and rode down to the strand.
Olaf Haraldson had not gone on land with the others, and when he
heard of his father's fall he made ready to sail away with the men who
remained.
99. OF WILLIAM THE BASTARD.
When the Earl of Rouen, William the Bastard, heard of his relation, King
Edward's, death, and also that Harald Godwinson was chosen, crowned,
and consecrated king of England, it appeared to him that he had a
better right to the kingdom of England than Harald, by reason of the
relationship between him and King Edward. He thought, also, that he
had grounds for avenging the affront that Harald had put upon him
with respect to his daughter. From all these grounds William gathered
together a great army in Normandy, and had many men, and sufficient
transport-shipping. The day that he rode out of the castle to his ships,
and had mounted his horse, his wife came to him, and wanted to speak
with him; but when he saw her he struck at her with his heel, and set
his spurs so deep into her breast that she fell down dead; and the
earl rode on to his ships, and went with his ships over to England.
His brother, Archbishop Otto, was with him; and when the earl came to
England he began to plunder, and take possession of the land as he came
along. Earl William was stouter and stronger than other men; a great
horseman and warrior, but somewhat stern; and a very sensible man, but
not considered a man to be relied on.
100. FALL OF KING HARALD GODWINSON.
King Harald Godwinson gave King Harald Sigurdson's son Olaf leave to go
away, with the men who had followed him and had not fallen in battle;
but he himself turned round with his army to go south, for he had heard
that William the Bastard was overwhelming the south of England with a
vast army, and was subduing the country for himself. With King Harald
went his brothers Svein and Gyrd, and Earl Valthiof. King Harald
and Earl William met each other south in England at Helsingja-port
(Hastings). There was a great battle in which King Harald and his
brother Earl Gyrd and a great part of his men fell. This was the
nineteenth day after the fall of King Harald Sigurdson. Harald's
brother, Earl Valthiof, escaped by flight, and towards evening fell in
with a division of William's people, consisting of 100 men; and when
they saw Earl Valthiof's troop they fled to a wood. Earl Valthiof set
fire to the wood, and they were all burnt. So says Thorkel Skallason in
Valthiof's ballad:--
"Earl Valthiof the brave
His foes a warming gave:
Within the blazing grove
A hundred men he drove.
The wolf will soon return,
And the witch's horse will burn
Her sharp claws in the ash,
To taste the Frenchman's flesh."
101. EARL VALTHIOF'S DEATH.
William was proclaimed king of England. He sent a message to Earl
Valthiof that they should be reconciled, and gave him assurance of
safety to come to the place of meeting. The earl set out with a few men;
but when he came to a heath north of Kastala-bryggia, there met him two
officers of King William, with many followers, who took him prisoner,
put him in fetters, and afterwards he was beheaded; and the English call
him a saint. Thorkel tells of this:--
"William came o'er the sea,
With bloody sword came he:
Cold heart and bloody hand
Now rule the English land.
Earl Valthiof he slew,--
Valthiof the brave and true.
Cold heart and bloody hand
Now rule the English land."
William was after this king of England for twenty-one years, and his
descendants have been so ever since.
102. OF OLAF HARALDSON'S EXPEDITION TO NORWAY.
Olaf, the son of King Harald Sigurdson, sailed with his fleet from
England from Hrafnseyr, and came in autumn to the Orkney Isles, where
the event had happened that Maria, a daughter of Harald Sigurdson, died
a sudden death the very day and hour her father, King Harald, fell. Olaf
remained there all winter; but the summer after he proceeded east to
Norway, where he was proclaimed king along with his brother Magnus.
Queen Ellisif came from the West, along with her stepson Olaf and her
daughter Ingegerd. There came also with Olaf over the West sea Skule, a
son of Earl Toste, and who since has been called the king's foster-son,
and his brother Ketil Krok. Both were gallant men, of high family in
England, and both were very intelligent; and the brothers were much
beloved by King Olaf. Ketil Krok went north to Halogaland, where King
Olaf procured him a good marriage, and from him are descended many great
people. Skule, the king's foster-son, was a very clever man, and the
handsomest man that could be seen. He was the commander of King Olaf's
court-men, spoke at the Things (1) and took part in all the country
affairs with the king. The king offered to give Skule whatever district
in Norway he liked, with all the income and duties that belonged to the
king in it. Skule thanked him very much for the offer, but said he
would rather have something else from him. "For if there came a shift
of kings," said he, "the gift might come to nothing. I would rather
take some properties lying near to the merchant towns, where you, sire,
usually take up your abode, and then I would enjoy your Yule-feasts."
The king agreed to this, and conferred on him lands eastward at
Konungahella, Oslo, Tunsberg, Sarpsborg, Bergen, and north at Nidaros.
These were nearly the best properties at each place, and have since
descended to the family branches which came from Skule. King Olaf
gave Skule his female relative, Gudrun, the daughter of Nefstein, in
marriage. Her mother was Ingerid, a daughter of Sigurd Syr and Asta,
King Olaf the Saint's mother. Ingerid was a sister of King Olaf the
Saint and of King Harald. Skule and Gudrun's son was Asolf of Reine, who
married Thora, a daughter of Skopte Ogmundson; Asolf's and Thora's son