Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
8. OF KING INGE'S LETTER TO KING SIGURD.
The people of Viken and of Bergen complained that it was wrong for
King Sigurd and his friends to be sitting quietly north in the town of
Nidaros, while his father's murderer was cruising about in the ordinary
passage at the mouth of the Throndhjem fjord; and King Inge and his
people, on the other hand, were in Viken in the midst of the danger,
defending the country and holding many battles. Then King Inge sent a
letter north to the merchant-town Nidaros, in which were these words:
"King Inge Haraldson sends his brother King Sigurd, as also
Sadagyrd, Ogmund Svipte, Ottar Birting, and all lendermen, court-men,
house-people, and all the public, rich and poor, young and old, his own
and God's salutation. The misfortune is known to all men that on account
of our childhoods--thou being five, and I but three years of age--we can
undertake nothing without the counsel of our friends and other good men.
Now I and my men think that we stand nearer to the danger and necessity
common to us both, than thou and thy friends; therefore make it so
that thou, as soon as possible, come to me, and as strong in troops as
possible, that we may be assembled to meet whatever may come. He will be
our best friend who does all he can that we may be united, and may take
an equal part in all things. But if thou refuse, and wilt not come after
this message which I send thee in need, as thou hast done before, then
thou must expect that I will come against thee with an armament; and let
God decide between us; for we are not in a condition to sit here at so
great an expense, and with so numerous a body of troops as are necessary
here on account of the enemy, and besides many other pressing charges,
whilst thou hast half of all the land-tax and other revenues of Norway.
Live in the peace of God!"
9. OTTAR BIRTING'S SPEECH.
Then Ottar Birting stood up in the Thing, and first of all answered
thus: "This is King Sigurd's reply to his brother King Inge--that God
will reward him for his good salutation, and likewise for the trouble
and burden which he and his friends have in this kingdom, and in matters
of necessity which effect them both. Although now some think there is
something sharp in King Inge's message to his brother Sigurd, yet he has
in many respects sufficient cause for it. Now I will make known to you
my opinion, and we will hear if King Sigurd and the other people of
power will agree to it; and it is, that thou, King Sigurd, make thyself
ready, with all the people who will follow thee, to defend thy country;
and go as strong in men as possible to thy brother King Inge as soon as
thou art prepared, in order to assist each other in all things that
are for the common good; and may God Almighty strengthen and assist you
both! Now, king, we will have thy words."
Peter, a son of Saudaulf, who was afterwards called Peter Byrdarsvein,
bore King Sigurd to the Thing. Then the king said, "Ye must know that,
if I am to advise, I will go as soon as possible to my brother King
Inge." Then others spoke, one after the other; but although each began
his speech in his own way, he ended with agreeing to what Ottar Birting
had proposed; and it was determined to call together the war-forces, and
go to the east part of the country. King Sigurd accordingly went with
great armament east to Viken, and there he met his brother King Inge.
10. FALL OF MAGNUS THE BLIND.
The same autumn (A.D. 1139) Sigurd Slembe and Magnus the Blind came from
Denmark with thirty ships, manned both with Danes and Northmen. It was
near to winter. When the kings heard of this, they set out with their
people eastwards to meet them. They met at Hvalar, near Holm the Grey,
the day after Martinmas, which was a Sunday. King Inge and King Sigurd
had twenty ships, which were all large. There was a great battle; but,
after the first assault, the Danes fled home to Denmark with eighteen
ships. On this Sigurd's and Magnus's ships were cleared; and as the
last was almost entirely bare of men, and Magnus was lying in his bed,
Hreidar Griotgardson, who had long followed him, and been his courtman,
took King Magnus in his arms, and tried to run with him on board some
other ship. But Hreidar was struck by a spear, which went between his
shoulders; and people say King Magnus was killed by the same spear.
Hreidar fell backwards upon the deck, and Magnus upon him; and every
man spoke of how honourably he had followed his master and rightful
sovereign. Happy are they who have such praise! There fell, on King
Magnus's ship, Lodin Saupprud of Linustadar, Bruse Thormodson; and
the forecastle-men to Sigurd Slembidjakn, Ivar Kolbeinson and Halyard
Faeger, who had been in Sigurd Slembe's fore-hold. This Ivar had been
the first who had gone in, in the night, to King Harald, and had laid
hands on him. There fell a great number of the men of King Magnus and
Sigurd Slembe, for Inge's men let not a single one escape if they got
hold of him; but only a few are named here. They killed upon a holm
more than forty men, among whom were two Icelanders--the priest Sigurd
Bergthorson, a grandson of Mas; the other Clemet, a son of Are Einarson.
But three Icelanders obtained their lives: namely, Ivar Skrauthanke, a
son of Kalf Range, and who afterwards was bishop of Throndhjem, and was
father of the archbishop Eirik. Ivar had always followed King Magnus,
and he escaped into his brother Jon Kauda's ship. Jon was married to
Cecilia, a daughter of Gyrd Bardson, and was then in King Inge's and
Sigurd's armament. There were three in all who escaped on board of Jon's
ship. The second was Arnbjorn Ambe, who afterwards married Thorstein's
daughter in Audsholt; the third was Ivar Dynta, a son of Stare, but on
the mother's side of a Throndhjem family,--a very agreeable man. When
the troops came to know that these three were on board his ship,
they took their weapons and assaulted the vessel, and some blows
were exchanged, and the whole fleet had nearly come to a fight among
themselves; but it came to an agreement, so that Jon ransomed his
brothers Ivar and Arnbjorn for a fixed sum in ransom, which, however,
was afterwards remitted. But Ivar Dynta was taken to the shore, and
beheaded; for Sigurd and Gyrd, the sons of Kolbein, would not take any
mulct for him, as they knew he had been at their brother Beintein's
murder. Ivar the bishop said, that never was there anything that touched
him so nearly, as Ivar's going to the shore under the axe, and turning
to the others with the wish that they might meet in joy here-after.
Gudrid Birger's daughter, a sister of Archbishop Jon, told Eirik Odson
that she heard Bishop Ivar say this.
11. SIGURD SLEMBE TAKEN PRISONER.
A man called Thrand Gialdkere was the steersman of King Inge's ship. It
was come so far, that Inge's men were rowing in small boats between the
ships after those who were swimming in the water, and killed those they
could get hold of. Sigurd Slembe threw himself overboard after his ship
had lost her crew, stripped off his armour under the water, and then
swam with his shield over him. Some men from Thrand's vessel took
prisoner a man who was swimming, and were about to kill him; but he
begged his life, and offered to tell them where Sigurd Slembe was, and
they agreed to it. Shields and spears, dead men, weapons, and clothes,
were floating all around on the sea about the ships, "Ye can see," said
he, "a red shield floating on the water; he is under it." They rowed
to it immediately, took him, and brought him on board of Thrand's ship.
Thrand then sent a message to Thjostolf, Ottar, and Amunde. Sigurd
Slembe had a tinder box on him; and the tinder was in a walnut-shell,
around which there was wax. This is related, because it seems an
ingenious way of preserving it from ever getting wet. He swam with a
shield over him, because nobody could know one shield from another where
so many were floating about; and they would never have hit upon him, if
they had not been told where he was. When Thrand came to the land with
Sigurd, and it was told to the troops that he was taken, the army set
up a shout of joy. When Sigurd heard it he said, "Many a bad man will
rejoice over my head this day." Then Thjostolf Alason went to where
Sigurd was sitting, struck from his head a silk hat with silver fringes,
and said. "Why wert thou so impudent, thou son of a slave! to dare to
call thyself King Magnus Barefoot's son?"
Sigurd replied, "Presume not to compare my father to a slave; for thy
father was of little worth compared to mine."
Hal, a son of the doctor Thorgeir Steinson, King Inge's court-man, was
present at this circumstance, and told it to Eirik Odson, who afterwards
wrote these relations in a book, which he called "Hryggjarstykke". In
this book is told all concerning Harald Gille and his sons, and Magnus
the Blind, and Sigurd Slembidjakn, until their deaths. Eirik was a
sensible man, who was long in Norway about that time. Some of his
narratives he wrote down from Hakon Mage's account; some were from
lendermen of Harald's sons, who along with his sons were in all this
feud, and in all the councils. Eirik names, moreover, several men of
understanding and veracity, who told him these accounts, and were so
near that they saw or heard all that happened. Something he wrote from
what he himself had heard or seen.
12. TORTURE OF SIGURD SLEMBE.
Hal says that the chiefs wished to have Sigurd killed instantly; but the
men who were the most cruel, and thought they had injuries to avenge,
advised torturing him; and for this they named Beintein's brothers,
Sigurd and Gyrd, the sons of Kolbein. Peter Byrdarsvein would also
avenge his brother Fin. But the chiefs and the greater part of the
people went away. They broke his shin-bones and arms with an axe-hammer.
Then they stripped him, and would flay him alive; but when they tried to
take off the skin, they could not do it for the gush of blood. They took
leather whips and flogged him so long, that the skin was as much taken
off as if he had been flayed. Then they stuck a piece of wood in his
back until it broke, dragged him to a tree and hanged him; and then
cut off his head, and brought the body and head to a heap of stones and
buried them there. All acknowledge, both enemies and friends, that no
man in Norway, within memory of the living, was more gifted with all
perfections, or more experienced, than Sigurd, but in some respects he
was an unlucky man. Hal says that he spoke little, and answered only
a few, and in single words, under his tortures, although they spoke to
him. Hal says further, that he never moved when they tortured him, more
than if they were striking a stock or a stone. This Hal alleged as proof
that he was a brave hero, who had courage to endure tortures; for he
still held his tongue, and never moved from the spot. And farther he
says, that he never altered his voice in the least, but spoke with as
much ease as if he was sitting at the ale-table; neither speaking higher
nor lower, nor in a more tremulous voice than he was used to do. He
spoke until he gave up the ghost, and sang between whiles parts of the
Psalm-book, and which Hal considered beyond the powers and strength of
ordinary men. And the priest who had the church in the neighbourhood let
Sigurd's body be transported thither to the church. This priest was a
friend of Harald's sons: but when they heard it they were angry at him,
had the body carried back to where it had been, and made the priest pay
a fine. Sigurd's friends afterwards came from Denmark with a ship for
his body, carried it to Alaborg, and interred it in Mary church in that
town. So said Dean Ketil, who officiated as priest at Mary church, to
Eirik; and that Sigurd was buried there. Thjostolf Alason transported