Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
in battle; for we have the largest and best ship in all the fleet. But
now I see that Gregorius, the man to whom I owe the most, is in need of
help; so we must hasten to the fight where it is sharpest. It is also
most proper that I should be in the battle; for the victory, if we win
it, will belong to me. And if I even knew beforehand that our men were
not to gain the battle, yet our place is where our friends are; for I
can do nothing if I lose the men who are justly called the defence of
the country, who are the bravest, and have long ruled for me and my
kingdom." Thereupon he ordered his banner to be set up, which was done;
and they rowed across the river. Then the battle raged, and the king
could not get room to attack, so close lay the ships before him. First
he lay under the East-country trading ship, and from it they threw down
upon his vessel spears, iron-shod stakes, and such large stones that
it was impossible to hold out longer there, and he had to haul off. Now
when the king's people saw that he was come they made place for him, and
then he laid alongside of Eindride Jonson's ship. Now King Hakon's men
abandoned the small ships, and went on board the large merchant vessels;
but some of them sprang on shore. Erling Skakke and his men had a
severe conflict. Erling himself was on the forecastle, and called his
forecastlemen, and ordered them to board the king's ship; but they
answered, this was no easy matter, for there were beams above with an
iron comb on them. Then Erling himself went to the bow, and stayed there
a while, until they succeeded in getting on board the king's ship: and
then the ship was cleared of men on the bows, and the whole army gave
way. Many sprang into the water, many fell, but the greater number got
to the land. So says Einar Skulason:--
"Men fall upon the slippery deck--
Men roll off from the blood-drenched wreck;
Dead bodies float down with the stream,
And from the shores witch-ravens scream.
The cold blue river now runs red
With the warm blood of warriors dead,
And stains the waves in Karmt Sound
With the last drops of the death-wound.
"All down the stream, with unmann'd prow,
Floats many an empty long-ship now,
Ship after ship, shout after shout,
Tell that Kign Hakon can't hold out.
The bowmen ply their bows of elm,
The red swords flash o'er broken helm:
King Hakon's men rush to the strand,
Out of their ships, up through the land."
Einar composed a song about Gregorius Dagson, which is called the
River-song. King Inge granted life and peace to Nikolas Skialdvarson
when his ship was deserted, and thereupon he went into King Inge's
service, and remained in it as long as the king lived. Eindride Jonson
leaped on board of King Inge's ship when his own was cleared of men, and
begged for his life. King Inge wished to grant it; but Havard Klining's
son ran up, and gave him a mortal wound, which was much blamed; but he
said Eindride had been the cause of his father's death. There was much
lamentation at Eindride's death, but principally in the Throndhjem
district. Many of Hakon's people fell here, but not many chiefs. Few of
King Inge's people fell, but many were wounded. King Hakon fled up the
country, and King Inge went north to Viken with his troops; and he, as
well as Gregorius, remained in Viken all winter (A.D. 1160). When King
Inge's men, Bergliot and his brothers, sons of Ivar of Elda, came from
the battle to Bergen, they slew Nickolas Skeg, who had been Hakon's
treasurer, and then went north to Throndhjem.
King Hakon came north before Yule, and Sigurd was sometimes home at
Reyr; for Gregorius, who was nearly related to Sigurd, had obtained for
him life and safety from King Inge, so that he retained all his estates.
King Hakon was in the merchant-town of Nidaros in Yule; and one evening
in the beginning of Yule his men fought in the room of the court, and in
this affray eight men were killed, and many were wounded. The eighth
day of Yule, King Hakon's man Alf Rode, son of Ottar Birting, with about
eighty men, went to Elda, and came in the night unexpectedly on the
people, who were very drunk, and set fire to the room; but they went
out, and defended themselves bravely. There fell Bergliot, Ivar's son,
and Ogmund, his brother, and many more. They had been nearly thirty
altogether in number. In winter died, north in the merchant-town, Andres
Simonson, King Hakon's foster-brother; and his death was much deplored.
Erling Skakke and Inge's men, who were in Bergen, threatened that in
winter they would proceed against Hakon and his men; but it came to
nothing. Gregorius sent word from the east, from Konungahella, that
if he were so near as Erling and his men, he would not sit quietly in
Bergen while Hakon was killing King Inge's friends and their comrades in
war north in the Throndhjem country.
12. THE CONFLICT UPON THE PIERS.
King Inge and Gregorius left the east in spring, and came to Bergen; but
as soon as Hakon and Sigurd heard that Inge had left Viken, they went
there by land. When King Inge and his people came to Bergen, a quarrel
arose between Haldor Brynjolfson and Bjorn Nikolason. Bjorn's house-man
asked Haldor's when they met at the pier, why he looked so pale.
He replied, because he had been bled.
"I could not look so pale if I tried, at merely being bled."
"I again think," retorted the other, "that thou wouldst have borne it
worse, and less manfully." And no other beginning was there for their
quarrel than this. Afterwards one word followed another, till from
brawling they came to fighting. It was told to Haldor Brynjolfson, who
was in the house drinking, that his house-man was wounded down on the
pier and he went there immediately. But Bjorn's house-men had come there
before, and as Haldor thought his house-man had been badly treated, he
went up to them and beat them; and it was told to Bjorn Buk that the
people of Viken were beating his house-men on the pier. Then Bjorn and
his house-men took their weapons, hurried down to the pier, and would
avenge their men; and a bloody strife began. It was told Gregorius that
his relation Haldor required assistance, and that his house-men were
being cut down in the street; on which Gregorius and his men ran to the
place in their armour. Now it was told Erling Skakke that his sister's
son Bjorn was fighting with Gregorius and Haldor down on the piers, and
that he needed help. Then he proceeded thither with a great force, and
exhorted the people to stand by him; saying it would be a great disgrace
never to be wiped out, if the Viken people should trample upon them
in their own native place. There fell thirteen men, of whom nine
were killed on the spot, and four died of their wounds, and many were
wounded. When the word came to King Inge that Gregorius and Erling were
fighting down on the piers, he hastened there, and tried to separate
them; but could do nothing, so mad were they on both sides. Then
Gregorius called to Inge, and told him to go away; for it was in vain to
attempt coming between them, as matters now stood. He said it would be
the greatest misfortune if the king mixed himself up with it; for he
could not be certain that there were not people in the fray who would
commit some great misdeed if they had opportunity. Then King Inge
retired; and when the greatest tumult was over, Gregorius and his men
went to Nikolas church, and Erling behind them, calling to each other.
Then King Inge came a second time, and pacified them; and both agreed
that he should mediate between them.
When King Inge and Gregorius heard that King Hakon was in Viken, they
went east with many ships; but when they came King Hakon fled from them,
and there was no battle. Then King Inge went to Oslo, and Gregorius was
in Konungahella.
13. MUNAN'S DEATH.
Soon after Gregorius heard that Hakon and his men were at a farm called
Saurby, which lies up beside the forest. Gregorius hastened there; came
in the night; and supposing that King Hakon and Sigurd would be in the
largest of the houses, set fire to the buildings there. But Hakon and
his men were in the smaller house, and came forth, seeing the fire, to
help their people. There Munan fell, a son of Ale Uskeynd, a brother of
King Sigurd Hakon's father. Gregorius and his men killed him, because he
was helping those whom they were burning within the house. Some escaped,
but many were killed. Asbjorn Jalda, who had been a very great viking,
escaped from the house, but was grievously wounded. A bonde met him, and
he offered the man money to let him get away; but the bonde replied, he
would do what he liked best; and, adding that he had often been in fear
of his life for him, he slew him. King Hakon and Sigurd escaped, but
many of their people were killed. Thereafter Gregorius returned home
to Konungahella. Soon after King Hakon and Sigurd went to Haldor
Brynjolfson's farm of Vettaland, set fire to the house, and burnt it.
Haldor went out, and was cut down instantly with his house-men; and in
all there were about twenty men killed. Sigrid, Haldor's wife, was a
sister of Gregorius, and they allowed her to escape into the forest in
her night-shift only; but they took with them Amunde, who was a son
of Gyrd Amundason and of Gyrid Dag's daughter, and a sister's son of
Gregorius, and who was then a boy about five years old.
14. OF THE FALL OF GREGORIUS DAGSON.
When Gregorius heard the news he took it much to heart, and inquired
carefully where they were. Gregorius set out from Konungahella late in
Yule, and came to Fors the thirteenth day of Yule, where he remained a
night, and heard vespers the last day of Yule, which was a Saturday, and
the holy Evangel was read before him. When Gregorius and his followers
saw the men of King Hakon and Sigurd, the king's force appeared to them
smaller than their own. There was a river called Befia between them,
where they met; and there was unsound ice on the river, for there went
a stream under the ice from it. King Hakon and his men had cut a rent
in the ice, and laid snow over it, so that nobody could see it. When
Gregorius came to the ice on the river the ice appeared to him unsound,
he said; and he advised the people to go to the bridge, which was close
by, to cross the river. The bonde-troops replied, that they did not know
why he should be afraid to go across the ice to attack so few people
as Hakon had, and the ice was good enough. Gregorius said it was seldom
necessary to encourage him to show bravery, and it should not be so now.
Then he ordered them to follow him, and not to be standing on the land
while he was on the ice, and he said it was their council to go out upon
the dangerous ice, but he had no wish to do so, or to be led by them.
Then he ordered the banner to be advanced, and immediately went out
on the ice with the men. As soon as the bondes found that the ice was
unsound they turned back. Gregorius fell through the ice, but not very
deep, and he told his men to take care. There were not more than twenty
men with him, the others having turned back. A man of King Hakon's troop
shot an arrow at Gregorius, which hit him under the throat, and thus
ended his life. Gregorius fell, and ten men with him. It is the talk of
all men that he had been the most gallant lenderman in Norway that any
man then living could remember; and also he behaved the best towards
us Icelanders of any chief since King Eystein the Elder's death.
Gregorius's body was carried to Hofund, and interred at Gimsey Isle, in
a nunnery which is there, of which Gregorius's sister, Baugeid, was then
the abbess.
15. KING INGE HEARS OF GREGORIUS'S FALL.
Two bailiffs went to Oslo to bring the tidings to King Inge. When they