Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Giparde. He gave himself out for a good knight, and offered his services
to King Magnus; for he understood that in the king's dominions there was
something to be done. The king received him well. At that time the
king was preparing to go to Gautland, on which country the king had
pretensions; and besides he would repay the Gautland people the disgrace
they had occasioned him in spring, when he was obliged to fly from
them. He had then a great force in arms, and the West Gautlanders in the
northern districts submitted to him. He set up his camp on the borders,
intending to make a foray from thence. When King Inge heard of this
he collected troops, and hastened to oppose King Magnus; and when King
Magnus heard of this expedition, many of the chiefs of the people urged
him to turn back; but this the king would not listen to, but in the
night time went unsuspectedly against the Swedish king. They met at
Foxerne; and when he was drawing up his men in battle order he asked,
"Where is Giparde?" but he was not to be found. Then the king made these
verses:--
"Cannot the foreign knight abide
Our rough array?--where does he hide?"
Then a skald who followed the king replied:--
"The king asks where the foreign knight
In our array rides to the fight:
Giparde the knight rode quite away
When our men joined in bloody fray.
When swords were wet the knight was slow
With his bay horse in front to go;
The foreign knight could not abide
Our rough array, and went to hide."
There was a great slaughter, and after the battle the field was covered
with the Swedes slain, and King Inge escaped by flight. King Magnus
gained a great victory. Then came Giparde riding down from the country,
and people did not speak well of him for not being in the fight. He went
away, and proceeded westward to England; and the voyage was stormy, and
Giparde lay in bed. There was an Iceland man called Eldjarn, who went to
bale out the water in the ship's hold, and when he saw where Giparde was
lying he made this verse:--
"Does it beseem a courtman bold
Here to be dozing in the hold?
The bearded knight should danger face:
The leak gains on our ship apace.
Here, ply this bucket! bale who can;
We need the work of every man.
Our sea-horse stands full to the breast,--
Sluggards and cowards must not rest."
When they came west to England, Giparde said the Northmen had slandered
him. A meeting was appointed, and a count came to it, and the case was
brought before him for trial. He said he was not much acquainted with
law cases, as he was but young, and had only been a short time in
office; and also, of all things, he said what he least understood to
judge about was poetry. "But let us hear what it was." Then Eldjarn
sang:--
"I heard that in the bloody fight
Giparde drove all our foes to flight:
Brave Giparde would the foe abide,
While all our men ran off to hide.
At Foxerne the fight was won
By Giparde's valour all alone;
Where Giparde fought, alone was he;
Not one survived to fight or flee."
Then said the count, "Although I know but little about skald-craft,
I can hear that this is no slander, but rather the highest praise and
honour." Giparde could say nothing against it, yet he felt it was a
mockery.
16. BATTLE OF FOXERNE.
The spring after, as soon as the ice broke up, King Magnus, with a great
army, sailed eastwards to the Gaut river, and went up the eastern arm of
it, laying waste all that belonged to the Swedish dominions. When they
came to Foxerne they landed from their vessels; but as they came over
a river on their way an army of Gautland people came against them,
and there was immediately a great battle, in which the Northmen were
overwhelmed by numbers, driven to flight, and many of them killed near
to a waterfall. King Magnus fled, and the Gautlanders pursued, and
killed those they could get near. King Magnus was easily known. He was
a very stout man, and had a red short cloak over him, and bright yellow
hair like silk that fell over his shoulders. Ogmund Skoptason, who was
a tall and handsome man, rode on one side of the king. He said, "Sire,
give me that cloak."
The king said, "What would you do with it?"
"I would like to have it," said Ogmund; "and you have given me greater
gifts, sire."
The road was such that there were great and wide plains, so that the
Gautlanders and Northmen were always in sight of each other, unless
where clumps of wood and bushes concealed them from each other now and
then. The king gave Ogmund the cloak and he put it on. When they came
out again upon the plain ground, Ogmund and his people rode off right
across the road. The Gautlanders, supposing this must be the king, rode
all after him, and the king proceeded to the ships. Ogmund escaped with
great difficulty; however, he reached the ships at last in safety. King
Magnus then sailed down the river, and proceeded north to Viken.
17. MEETING OF THE KINGS AT THE GAUT RIVER.
The following summer a meeting of the kings was agreed upon at Konghelle
on the Gaut river; and King Magnus, the Swedish king, Inge, and the
Danish king, Eirik Sveinson, all met there, after giving each other safe
conduct to the meeting. Now when the Thing had sat down the kings went
forward upon the plain, apart from the rest of the people, and they
talked with each other a little while. Then they returned to their
people, and a treaty was brought about, by which each should possess the
dominions his forefathers had held before him; but each should make good
to his own men the waste and manslaughter suffered by them, and then
they should agree between themselves about settling this with each
other. King Magnus should marry King Inge's daughter Margaret, who
afterwards was called Peace-offering. This was proclaimed to the people;
and thus, within a little hour, the greatest enemies were made the best
of friends.
It was observed by the people that none had ever seen men with more
of the air of chiefs than these had. King Inge was the largest and
stoutest, and, from his age, of the most dignified appearance. King
Magnus appeared the most gallant and brisk, and King Eirik the most
handsome. But they were all handsome men; stout, gallant, and ready in
speech. After this was settled they parted.
18. KING MAGNUS'S MARRIAGE.
King Magnus got Margaret, King Inge's daughter, as above related; and
she was sent from Svithjod to Norway with an honourable retinue. King
Magnus had some children before, whose names shall here be given. The
one of his sons who was of a mean mother was called Eystein; the other,
who was a year younger, was called Sigurd, and his mother's name was
Thora. Olaf was the name of a third son, who was much younger than the
two first mentioned, and whose mother was Sigrid, a daughter of Saxe of
Vik, who was a respectable man in the Throndhjem country; she was the
king's concubine. People say that when King Magnus came home from
his viking cruise to the Western countries, he and many of his people
brought with them a great deal of the habits and fashion of clothing of
those western parts. They went about on the streets with bare legs,
and had short kirtles and over-cloaks; and therefore his men called
him Magnus Barefoot or Bareleg. Some called him Magnus the Tall, others
Magnus the Strife-lover. He was distinguished among other men by his
tall stature. The mark of his height is put down in Mary church, in the
merchant town of Nidaros, which King Harald built. In the northern door
there were cut into the wall three crosses, one for Harald's stature,
one for Olaf's, and one for Magnus's; and which crosses each of them
could with the greatest ease kiss. The upper was Harald's cross; the
lowest was Magnus's; and Olaf's was in the middle, about equally distant
from both.
It is said that Magnus composed the following verses about the emperor's
daughter:--
"The ring of arms where blue swords gleam,
The battle-shout, the eagle's scream,
The Joy of war, no more can please:
Matilda is far o'er the seas.
My sword may break, my shield be cleft,
Of land or life I may be reft;
Yet I could sleep, but for one care,--
One, o'er the seas, with light-brown hair."
He also composed the following:--
"The time that breeds delay feels long,
The skald feels weary of his song;
What sweetens, brightens, eases life?
'Tis a sweet-smiling lovely wife.
My time feels long in Thing affairs,
In Things my loved one ne'er appears.
The folk full-dressed, while I am sad,
Talk and oppose--can I be glad?"
When King Magnus heard the friendly words the emperor's daughter had
spoken about him--that she had said such a man as King Magnus was
appeared to her an excellent man, he composed the following:--
"The lover hears,--across the sea,
A favouring word was breathed to me.
The lovely one with light-brown hair
May trust her thoughts to senseless air;
Her thoughts will find like thoughts in me;
And though my love I cannot see,
Affection's thoughts fly in the wind,
And meet each other, true and kind."
19. OF THE QUARREL OF KING MAGNUS AND SKOPTE.
Skopte Ogmundson came into variance with King Magnus, and they
quarrelled about the inheritance of a deceased person which Skopte
retained; but the king demanded it with so much earnestness, that it had
a dangerous appearance. Many meetings were held about the affair,
and Skopte took the resolution that he and his son should never put
themselves into the king's power at the same time; and besides there was
no necessity to do so. When Skopte was with the king he represented to
him that there was relationship between the king and him; and also
that he, Skopte, had always been the king's friend, and his father's
likewise, and that their friendship had never been shaken. He added,
"People might know that I have sense enough not to hold a strife, sire,
with you, if I was wrong in what I asked; but it is inherited from my
ancestors to defend my rights against any man, without distinction of
persons." The king was just the same on this point, and his resolution
was by no means softened by such a speech. Then Skopte went home.
20. FIN SKOPTASON'S PROCEEDINGS.
Then Fin Skoptason went to the king, spoke with him, and entreated
him to render justice to the father and son in this business. The king
answers angrily and sharply. Then said Fin, "I expected something else,
sire, from you, than that you would use the law's vexations against
me when I took my seat in Kvaldinsey Island, which few of your other
friends would do; as they said, what was true, that those who were left
there were deserted and doomed to death, if King Inge had not shown
greater generosity to us than you did; although many consider that we
brought shame and disgrace only from thence." The king was not to be
moved by this speech, and Fin returned home.
21. OGMUND SKOPTASON'S PROCEEDINGS.
Then came Ogmund Skoptason to the king; and when he came before him he
produced his errand, and begged the king to do what was right and proper
towards him and his father. The king insisted that the right was on his
side, and said they were "particularly impudent."
Then said Ogmund, "It is a very easy thing for thee, having the power,
to do me and my father injustice; and I must say the old proverb is
true, that one whose life you save gives none, or a very bad return.
This I shall add, that never again shall I come into thy service; nor
my father, if I can help it." Then Ogmund went home, and they never saw
each other again.
22. SKOPTE OGMUNDSON'S VOYAGE ABROAD.