Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
of the Orkney Islands, as the earls before him, his father Paul or
his Uncle Erland, had possessed it; and Earl Hakon then sailed back
immediately to Orkney.
3. KING SIGURD'S JOURNEY OUT OF THE COUNTRY.
Four years after the fall of King Magnus (A.D. 1107), King Sigurd sailed
with his people from Norway. He had then sixty ships. So says Thorarin
Stutfeld:--
"A young king just and kind,
People of loyal mind:
Such brave men soon agree,--
To distant lands they sail with glee.
To the distant Holy Land
A brave and pious band,
Magnificent and gay,
In sixty long-ships glide away."
King Sigurd sailed in autumn to England, where Henry, son of William the
Bastard, was then king, and Sigurd remained with him all winter. So says
Einar Skulason:--
"The king is on the waves!
The storm he boldly braves.
His ocean-steed,
With winged speed,
O'er the white-flashing surges,
To England's coast he urges;
And there he stays the winter o'er:
More gallant king ne'er trod that shore."
4. OF KING SIGURD'S JOURNEY.
In spring King Sigurd and his fleet sailed westward to Valland (A.D.
1108), and in autumn came to Galicia, where he stayed the second winter
(A.D. 1109). So says Einar Skulason:--
"Our king, whose land so wide
No kingdom stands beside,
In Jacob's land next winter spent,
On holy things intent;
And I have heard the royal youth
Cut off an earl who swerved from truth.
Our brave king will endure no ill,--
The hawks with him will get their fill."
It went thus:--The earl who ruled over the land made an agreement with
King Sigurd, that he should provide King Sigurd and his men a market at
which they could purchase victuals all the winter; but this he did not
fulfil longer than to about Yule. It began then to be difficult to get
food and necessaries, for it is a poor barren land. Then King Sigurd
with a great body of men went against a castle which belonged to the
earl; and the earl fled from it, having but few people. King Sigurd took
there a great deal of victuals and of other booty, which he put on board
of his ships, and then made ready and proceeded westward to Spain. It so
fell out, as the king was sailing past Spain, that some vikings who were
cruising for plunder met him with a fleet of galleys, and King Sigurd
attacked them. This was his first battle with heathen men; and he won
it, and took eight galleys from them. So says Haldor Skvaldre:--
"Bold vikings, not slow
To the death-fray to go,
Meet our Norse king by chance,
And their galleys advance.
The bold vikings lost
Many a man of their host,
And eight galleys too,
With cargo and crew."
Thereafter King Sigurd sailed against a castle called Sintre and fought
another battle. This castle is in Spain, and was occupied by many
heathens, who from thence plundered Christian people. King Sigurd took
the castle, and killed every man in it, because they refused to be
baptized; and he got there an immense booty. So says Haldor Skvaldre:--
"From Spain I have much news to tell
Of what our generous king befell.
And first he routs the viking crew,
At Cintra next the heathens slew;
The men he treated as God's foes,
Who dared the true faith to oppose.
No man he spared who would not take
The Christian faith for Jesus' sake."
5. LISBON TAKEN.
After this King Sigurd sailed with his fleet to Lisbon, which is a
great city in Spain, half Christian and half heathen; for there lies
the division between Christian Spain and heathen Spain, and all the
districts which lie west of the city are occupied by heathens. There
King Sigurd had his third battle with the heathens, and gained the
victory, and with it a great booty. So says Haldor Skvaldre:--
"The son of kings on Lisbon's plains
A third and bloody battle gains.
He and his Norsemen boldly land,
Running their stout ships on the strand."
Then King Sigurd sailed westwards along heathen Spain, and brought up
at a town called Alkasse; and here he had his fourth battle with the
heathens, and took the town, and killed so many people that the town
was left empty. They got there also immense booty. So says Haldor
Skvaldre:--
"A fourth great battle, I am told,
Our Norse king and his people hold
At Alkasse; and here again
The victory fell to our Norsemen."
And also this verse:--
"I heard that through the town he went,
And heathen widows' wild lament
Resounded in the empty halls;
For every townsman flies or falls."
6. BATTLE IN THE ISLAND FORMINTERRA.
King Sigurd then proceeded on his voyage, and came to Norfasund; and
in the sound he was met by a large viking force, and the king gave them
battle; and this was his fifth engagement with heathens since the
time he left Norway. He gained the victory here also. So says Haldor
Skvaldre:--
"Ye moistened your dry swords with blood,
As through Norfasund ye stood;
The screaming raven got a feast,
As ye sailed onward to the East."
King Sigurd then sailed eastward along the coast of Serkland, and came
to an island there called Forminterra. There a great many heathen Moors
had taken up their dwelling in a cave, and had built a strong stone wall
before its mouth. They harried the country all round, and carried all
their booty to their cave. King Sigurd landed on this island, and went
to the cave; but it lay in a precipice, and there was a high winding
path to the stone wall, and the precipice above projected over it. The
heathens defended the stone wall, and were not afraid of the Northmen's
arms; for they could throw stones, or shoot down upon the Northmen under
their feet; neither did the Northmen, under such circumstances, dare
to mount up. The heathens took their clothes and other valuable things,
carried them out upon the wall, spread them out before the Northmen,
shouted, and defied them, and upbraided them as cowards. Then Sigurd
fell upon this plan. He had two ship's boats, such as we call barks,
drawn up the precipice right above the mouth of the cave; and had thick
ropes fastened around the stem, stern, and hull of each. In these boats
as many men went as could find room, and then the boats were lowered
by the ropes down in front of the mouth of the cave; and the men in the
boats shot with stones and missiles into the cave, and the heathens were
thus driven from the stone wall. Then Sigurd with his troops climbed
up the precipice to the foot of the stone wall, which they succeeded in
breaking down, so that they came into the cave. Now the heathens fled
within the stone wall that was built across the cave; on which the king
ordered large trees to be brought to the cave, made a great pile in the
mouth of it, and set fire to the wood. When the fire and smoke got the
upper hand, some of the heathens lost their lives in it; some fled; some
fell by the hands of the Northmen; and part were killed, part burned;
and the Northmen made the greatest booty they had got on all their
expeditions. So says Halder Skvaldre:--
"Forminterra lay
In the victor's way;
His ships' stems fly
To victory.
The bluemen there
Must fire bear,
And Norsemen's steel
At their hearts feel."
And also thus:--
"'Twas a feat of renown,--
The boat lowered down,
With a boat's crew brave,
In front of the cave;
While up the rock scaling,
And comrades up trailing,
The Norsemen gain,
And the bluemen are slain."
And also Thorarin Stutfeld says:--
"The king's men up the mountain's side
Drag two boats from the ocean's tide;
The two boats lay,
Like hill-wolves grey.
Now o'er the rock in ropes they're swinging
Well manned, and death to bluemen bringing;
They hang before
The robber's door."
7. OF THE BATTLES OF IVIZA AND MINORCA.
Thereafter King Sigurd proceeded on his expedition, and came to an
island called Iviza (Ivica), and had there his seventh battle, and
gained a victory. So says Haldor Skvaldre:--
"His ships at Ivica now ride,
The king's, whose fame spreads far and wide;
And hear the bearers of the shield
Their arms again in battle wield."
Thereafter King Sigurd came to an island called Manork (Minorca), and
held there his eighth battle with heathen men, and gained the victory.
So says Haldor Skvaldre:--
"On green Minorca's plains
The eighth battle now he gains:
Again the heathen foe
Falls at the Norse king's blow."
8. DUKE ROGER MADE A KING.
In spring King Sigurd came to Sicily (A.D. 1109), and remained a long
time there. There was then a Duke Roger in Sicily, who received the king
kindly, and invited him to a feast. King Sigurd came to it with a great
retinue, and was splendidly entertained. Every day Duke Roger stood at
the company's table, doing service to the king; but the seventh day of
the feast, when the people had come to table, and had wiped their hands,
King Sigurd took the duke by the hand, led him up to the high-seat, and
saluted him with the title of king; and gave the right that there should
be always a king over the dominion of Sicily, although before there had
only been earls or dukes over that country.
9. OF KING ROGER.
King Roger of Sicily was a very great king. He won and subdued all
Apulia, and many large islands besides in the Greek sea; and therefore
he was called Roger the Great. His son was William, king of Sicily, who
for a long time had great hostility with the emperor of Constantinople.
King William had three daughters, but no son. One of his daughters he
married to the Emperor Henry, a son of the Emperor Frederik; and their
son was Frederik, who for a short time after was emperor of Rome. His
second daughter was married to the Duke of Kipr. The third daughter,
Margaret, was married to the chief of the corsairs; but the Emperor
Henry killed both these brothers-in-law. The daughter of Roger
the Great, king of Sicily, was married to the Emperor Manuel of
Constantinople; and their son was the Emperor Kirjalax.
10. KING SIGURD'S EXPEDITION TO PALESTINE.
In the summer (A.D. 1110) King Sigurd sailed across the Greek sea to
Palestine, and thereupon went up to Jerusalem, where he met Baldwin,
king of Palestine. King Baldwin received him particularly well, and rode
with him all the way to the river Jordan, and then back to the city of
Jerusalem. Einar Skulason speaks thus of it:--
"Good reason has the skald to sing
The generous temper of the king,
Whose sea-cold keel from northern waves
Ploughs the blue sea that green isles laves.
At Acre scarce were we made fast,
In holy ground our anchors cast,
When the king made a joyful morn
To all who toil with him had borne."
And again he made these lines:--
"To Jerusalem he came,
He who loves war's noble game,
(The skald no greater monarch finds
Beneath the heaven's wide hall of winds)
All sin and evil from him flings
In Jordan's wave: for all his sins
(Which all must praise) he pardon wins."
King Sigurd stayed a long time in the land of Jerusalem (Jorsalaland) in
autumn, and in the beginning of winter.
11. SIDON TAKEN.
King Baldwin made a magnificent feast for King Sigurd and many of his
people, and gave him many holy relics. By the orders of King Baldwin
and the patriarch, there was taken a splinter off the holy cross; and
on this holy relic both made oath, that this wood was of the holy cross