Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
king ordered the land defence to be fitted out, Danavirke (1) (the
Danish wall) to be well fortified, and his ships of war rigged out.
He sent a message also to Earl Hakon in Norway to come to him early in
spring, and with as many men as he could possibly raise. In spring (A.D.
975) Earl Hakon levied an army over the whole country which was very
numerous, and with it he sailed to meet the Danish king. The king
received him in the most honourable manner. Many other chiefs also
joined the Danish king with their men, so that he had gathered a very
large army.
ENDNOTES: (1) Danavirke. The Danish work was a wall of earth, stones,
and wood, with a deep ditch in front, and a castle at every
hundred fathoms, between the rivers Eider and Slien,
constructed by Harald Blatand (Bluetooth) to oppose the
progress of Charlemagne. Some traces of it still exist.
--L.
25. OLAF TRYGVASON'S WAR EXPEDITION.
Olaf Trygvason had been all winter (A.D. 980) in Vindland, as before
related, and went the same winter to the baronies in Vindland which
had formerly been under Queen Geira, but had withdrawn themselves from
obedience and payment of taxes. There Olaf made war, killed many
people, burnt out others, took much property, and laid all of them under
subjection to him, and then went back to his castle. Early in spring
Olaf rigged out his ships and set off to sea. He sailed to Skane and
made a landing. The people of the country assembled, and gave him
battle; but King Olaf conquered, and made a great booty. He then sailed
eastward to the island of Gotland, where he captured a merchant vessel
belonging to the people of Jamtaland. They made a brave defence; but the
end of it was that Olaf cleared the deck, killed many of the men, and
took all the goods. He had a third battle in Gotland, in which he
also gained the victory, and made a great booty. So says Halfred
Vandredaskald:--
"The king, so fierce in battle-fray,
First made the Vindland men give way:
The Gotlanders must tremble next;
And Scania's shores are sorely vexed
By the sharp pelting arrow shower
The hero and his warriors pour;
And then the Jamtaland men must fly,
Scared by his well-known battle-cry."
26. OTTA AND HAKON IN BATTLE.
The Emperor Otta assembled a great army from Saxland, Frakland,
Frisland, and Vindland. King Burizleif followed him with a large army,
and in it was his son-in-law, Olaf Trygvason. The emperor had a great
body of horsemen, and still greater of foot people, and a great army
from Holstein. Harald, the Danish king, sent Earl Hakon with the army
of Northmen that followed him southwards to Danavirke, to defend his
kingdom on that side. So it is told in the "Vellekla":--
"Over the foaming salt sea spray
The Norse sea-horses took their way,
Racing across the ocean-plain
Southwards to Denmark's green domain.
The gallant chief of Hordaland
Sat at the helm with steady hand,
In casque and shield, his men to bring
From Dovre to his friend the king.
He steered his war-ships o'er the wave
To help the Danish king to save
Mordalf, who, with a gallant band
Was hastening from the Jutes' wild land,
Across the forest frontier rude,
With toil and pain through the thick wood.
Glad was the Danish king, I trow,
When he saw Hakon's galley's prow.
The monarch straightway gave command
To Hakon, with a steel-clad band,
To man the Dane-work's rampart stout,
And keep the foreign foemen out."
The Emperor Otta came with his army from the south to Danavirke, but
Earl Hakon defended the rampart with his men. The Dane-work (Danavirke)
was constructed in this way:--Two fjords run into the land, one on each
side; and in the farthest bight of these fjords the Danes had made a
great wall of stone, turf, and timber, and dug a deep and broad ditch in
front of it, and had also built a castle over each gate of it. There was
a hard battle there, of which the "Vellekla" speaks:--
"Thick the storm of arrows flew,
Loud was the din, black was the view
Of close array of shield and spear
Of Vind, and Frank, and Saxon there.
But little recked our gallant men;
And loud the cry might be heard then
Of Norway's brave sea-roving son--
'On 'gainst the foe! On! Lead us on!"
Earl Hakon drew up his people in ranks upon all the gate-towers of the
wall, but the greater part of them he kept marching along the wall
to make a defence wheresoever an attack was threatened. Many of
the emperor's people fell without making any impression on the
fortification, so the emperor turned back without farther attempt at an
assault on it. So it is said in the "Vellekla":--
"They who the eagle's feast provide
In ranked line fought side by side,
'Gainst lines of war-men under shields\
Close packed together on the fields,
Earl Hakon drive by daring deeds
The Saxons to their ocean-steeds;
And the young hero saves from fall
The Danavirke--the people's wall."
After this battle Earl Hakon went back to his ships, and intended to
sail home to Norway; but he did not get a favourable wind, and lay for
some time outside at Limafjord.
27. HARALD AND HAKON ARE BAPTIZED.
The Emperor Otta turned back with his troops to Slesvik, collected his
ships of war, and crossed the fjord of Sle into Jutland. As soon as the
Danish king heard of this he marched his army against him, and there was
a battle, in which the emperor at last got the victory. The Danish king
fled to Limafjord and took refuge in the island Marsey. By the help
of mediators who went between the king and the emperor, a truce and a
meeting between them were agreed on. The Emperor Otta and the Danish
king met upon Marsey. There Bishop Poppo instructed King Harald in
the holy faith; he bore red hot irons in his hands, and exhibited his
unscorched hands to the king. Thereafter King Harald allowed himself to
be baptized, and also the whole Danish army. King Harald, while he
was in Marsey, had sent a message to Hakon that he should come to his
succour; and the earl had just reached the island when the king had
received baptism. The king sends word to the earl to come to him, and
when they met the king forced the earl to allow himself also to be
baptized. So Earl Hakon and all the men who were with him were baptized;
and the king gave them priests and other learned men with them, and
ordered that the earl should make all the people in Norway be baptized.
On that they separated; and the earl went out to sea, there to wait for
a wind.
28. HAKON RENOUNCES CHRISTIANITY.
When a wind came with which he thought he could get clear out to sea, he
put all the learned men on shore again, and set off to the ocean; but
as the wind came round to the south-west, and at last to west, he sailed
eastward, out through Eyrarsund, ravaging the land on both sides. He
then sailed eastward along Skane, plundering the country wherever he
came. When he got east to the skerries of East Gautland, he ran in and
landed, and made a great blood-sacrifice. There came two ravens flying
which croaked loudly; and now, thought the earl, the blood-offering has
been accepted by Odin, and he thought good luck would be with him any
day he liked to go to battle. Then he set fire to his ships, landed
his men, and went over all the country with armed hand. Earl Ottar, who
ruled over Gautland, came against him, and they held a great battle with
each other; but Earl Hakon gained the day, and Earl Ottar and a great
part of his men were killed. Earl Hakon now drove with fire and
sword over both the Gautlands, until he came into Norway; and then he
proceeded by land all the way north to Throndhjem. The "Vellekla" tells
about this:--
"On the silent battle-field,
In viking garb, with axe and shield,
The warrior, striding o'er the slain,
Asks of the gods 'What days will gain?'
Two ravens, flying from the east,
Come croaking to the bloody feast:
The warrior knows what they foreshow--
The days when Gautland blood will flow.
A viking-feast Earl Hakon kept,
The land with viking fury swept,
Harrying the land far from the shore
Where foray ne'er was known before.
Leaving the barren cold coast side,
He raged through Gautland far and wide,--
Led many a gold-decked viking shield
O'er many a peaceful inland field.
Bodies on bodies Odin found
Heaped high upon each battle ground:
The moor, as if by witchcraft's power,
Grows green, enriched by bloody shower.
No wonder that the gods delight
To give such luck in every fight
To Hakon's men--for he restores
Their temples on our Norway shores."
29. THE EMPEROR OTTA RETURNS HOME.
The Emperor Otta went back to his kingdom in the Saxon land, and parted
in friendship with the Danish king. It is said that the Emperor Otta
stood godfather to Svein, King Harald's son, and gave him his name;
so that he was baptized Otta Svein. King Harald held fast by his
Christianity to his dying day.
King Burizleif went to Vindland, and his son-in-law King Olaf went with
him. This battle is related also by Halfred Vandredaskald in his song on
Olaf:--
"He who through the foaming surges
His white-winged ocean-coursers urges,
Hewed from the Danes, in armour dressed,
The iron bark off mail-clad breast."
30. OLAF'S JOURNEY FROM VINDLAND.
Olaf Trygvason was three years in Vindland (A.D. 982-984) when Geira
his queen fell sick, and she died of her illness. Olaf felt his loss so
great that he had no pleasure in Vindland after it. He provided himself,
therefore, with warships, and went out again a plundering, and
plundered first in Frisland, next in Saxland, and then all the way to
Flaemingjaland (Flanders). So says Halfred Vandredaskald:--
"Olaf's broad axe of shining steel
For the shy wolf left many a meal.
The ill-shaped Saxon corpses lay
Heaped up, the witch-wife's horses' (1) prey.
She rides by night: at pools of blood.
Where Frisland men in daylight stood,
Her horses slake their thirst, and fly
On to the field where Flemings lie.
The raven-friend in Odin's dress--
Olaf, who foes can well repress,
Left Flemish flesh for many a meal
With his broad axe of shining steel."
ENDNOTES: (1) Ravens were the witches' horses.--L.
31. KING OLAF'S FORAYS.
Thereafter Olaf Trygvason sailed to England, and ravaged wide around
in the land. He sailed all the way north to Northumberland, where he
plundered; and thence to Scotland, where he marauded far and wide.
Then he went to the Hebrides, where he fought some battles; and then
southwards to Man, where he also fought. He ravaged far around in
Ireland, and thence steered to Bretland, which he laid waste with fire
and sword, and all the district called Cumberland. He sailed westward
from thence to Valland, and marauded there. When he left the west,
intending to sail to England, he came to the islands called the Scilly
Isles, lying westward from England in the ocean. Thus tells Halfred
Vandraskald of these events:--
The brave young king, who ne'er retreats,
The Englishman in England beats.
Death through Northumberland is spread
From battleaxe and broad spearhead.
Through Scotland with his spears he rides;
To Man his glancing ships he guides:
Feeding the wolves where'er he came,
The young king drove a bloody game.
The gallant bowmen in the isles
Slew foemen, who lay heaped in piles.
The Irish fled at Olaf's name--