Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Northmen, set themselves down then in those countries.
ENDNOTES: (1) Skerries are the uninhabited dry or halt-tide rocks of a
coast.--L.
23. HARALD HAS HIS HAIR CLIPPED.
After King Harald had subdued the whole land, he was one day at a feast
in More, given by Earl Ragnvald. Then King Harald went into a bath, and
had his hair dressed. Earl Ragnvald now cut his hair, which had been
uncut and uncombed for ten years; and therefore the king had been called
Lufa (i.e., with rough matted hair). But then Earl Ragnvald gave him the
distinguishing name--Harald Harfager (i.e., fair hair); and all who saw
him agreed that there was the greatest truth in the surname, for he had
the most beautiful and abundant head of hair.
24. ROLF GANGER DRIVEN INTO BANISHMENT.
Earl Ragnvald was King Harald's dearest friend, and the king had the
greatest regard for him. He was married to Hild, a daughter of Rolf
Nefia, and their sons were Rolf and Thorer. Earl Ragnvald had also three
sons by concubines,--the one called Hallad, the second Einar, the third
Hrollaug; and all three were grown men when their brothers born in
marriage were still children Rolf became a great viking, and was of so
stout a growth that no horse could carry him, and wheresoever he went he
must go on foot; and therefore he was called Rolf Ganger. He plundered
much in the East sea. One summer, as he was coming from the eastward on
a viking's expedition to the coast of Viken, he landed there and made
a cattle foray. As King Harald happened, just at that time, to be in
Viken, he heard of it, and was in a great rage; for he had forbid,
by the greatest punishment, the plundering within the bounds of the
country. The king assembled a Thing, and had Rolf declared an outlaw
over all Norway. When Rolf's mother, Hild heard of it she hastened to
the king, and entreated peace for Rolf; but the king was so enraged that
here entreaty was of no avail. Then Hild spake these lines:--
"Think'st thou, King Harald, in thy anger,
To drive away my brave Rolf Ganger
Like a mad wolf, from out the land?
Why, Harald, raise thy mighty hand?
Why banish Nefia's gallant name-son,
The brother of brave udal-men?
Why is thy cruelty so fell?
Bethink thee, monarch, it is ill
With such a wolf at wolf to play,
Who, driven to the wild woods away
May make the king's best deer his prey."
Rolf Ganger went afterwards over sea to the West to the Hebrides, or
Sudreys; and at last farther west to Valland, where he plundered and
subdued for himself a great earldom, which he peopled with Northmen,
from which that land is called Normandy. Rolf Ganger's son was William,
father to Richard, and grandfather to another Richard, who was the
father of Robert Longspear, and grandfather of William the Bastard, from
whom all the following English kings are descended. From Rolf Ganger
also are descended the earls in Normandy. Queen Ragnhild the Mighty
lived three years after she came to Norway; and, after her death, her
son and King Harald's was taken to the herse Thorer Hroaldson, and Eirik
was fostered by him.
25. OF THE FIN SVASE AND KING HARALD.
King Harald, one winter, went about in guest-quarters in the Uplands,
and had ordered a Christmas feast to be prepared for him at the farm
Thoptar. On Christmas eve came Svase to the door, just as the king went
to table, and sent a message to the king to ask if he would go out with
him. The king was angry at such a message, and the man who had brought
it in took out with him a reply of the king's displeasure. But Svase,
notwithstanding, desired that his message should be delivered a second
time; adding to it, that he was the Fin whose hut the king had promised
to visit, and which stood on the other side of the ridge. Now the king
went out, and promised to go with him, and went over the ridge to his
hut, although some of his men dissuaded him. There stood Snaefrid, the
daughter of Svase, a most beautiful girl; and she filled a cup of
mead for the king. But he took hold both of the cup and of her hand.
Immediately it was as if a hot fire went through his body; and he wanted
that very night to take her to his bed. But Svase said that should not
be unless by main force, if he did not first make her his lawful
wife. Now King Harald made Snaefrid his lawful wife, and loved her so
passionately that he forgot his kingdom, and all that belonged to his
high dignity. They had four sons: the one was Sigurd Hrise; the others
Halfdan Haleg, Gudrod Ljome and Ragnvald Rettilbeine. Thereafter
Snaefrid died; but her corpse never changed, but was as fresh and red
as when she lived. The king sat always beside her, and thought she
would come to life again. And so it went on for three years that he
was sorrowing over her death, and the people over his delusion. At
last Thorleif the Wise succeeded, by his prudence, in curing him of his
delusion by accosting him thus:--"It is nowise wonderful, king, that
thou grievest over so beautiful and noble a wife, and bestowest costly
coverlets and beds of down on her corpse, as she desired; but these
honours fall short of what is due, as she still lies in the same
clothes. It would be more suitable to raise her, and change her dress."
As soon as the body was raised in the bed all sorts of corruption and
foul smells came from it, and it was necessary in all haste to gather a
pile of wood and burn it; but before this could be done the body turned
blue, and worms, toads, newts, paddocks, and all sorts of ugly reptiles
came out of it, and it sank into ashes. Now the king came to his
understanding again, threw the madness out of his mind, and after that
day ruled his kingdom as before. He was strengthened and made joyful by
his subjects, and his subjects by him and the country by both.
26. OF THJODOLF OF HVIN, THE SKALD.
After King Harald had experienced the cunning of the Fin woman, he was
so angry that he drove from him the sons he had with her, and would not
suffer them before his eyes. But one of them, Gudrod Ljome, went to his
foster-father Thjodolf of Hvin, and asked him to go to the king, who was
then in the Uplands; for Thjodolf was a great friend of the king. And
so they went, and came to the king's house late in the evening, and sat
down together unnoticed near the door. The king walked up and down
the floor casting his eye along the benches; for he had a feast in the
house, and the mead was just mixed. The king then murmured out these
lines:--
"Tell me, ye aged gray-haired heroes,
Who have come here to seek repose,
Wherefore must I so many keep
Of such a set, who, one and all,
Right dearly love their souls to steep,
From morn till night, in the mead-bowl?"
Then Thjodolf replies:--
"A certain wealthy chief, I think,
Would gladly have had more to drink
With him, upon one bloody day,
When crowns were cracked in our sword-play."
Thjodolf then took off his hat, and the king recognised him, and gave
him a friendly reception. Thjodolf then begged the king not to cast off
his sons; "for they would with great pleasure have taken a better family
descent upon the mother's side, if the king had given it to them." The
king assented, and told him to take Gudrod with him as formerly; and he
sent Halfdan and Sigurd to Ringerike, and Ragnvald to Hadaland, and all
was done as the king ordered. They grew up to be very clever men, very
expert in all exercises. In these times King Harald sat in peace in the
land, and the land enjoyed quietness and good crops.
27. OF EARL TORFEINAR'S OBTAINING ORKNEY.
When Earl Ragnvald in More heard of the death of his brother Earl
Sigurd, and that the vikings were in possession of the country, he sent
his son Hallad westward, who took the title of earl to begin with, and
had many men-at-arms with him. When he arrived at the Orkney Islands,
he established himself in the country; but both in harvest, winter, and
spring, the vikings cruised about the isles plundering the headlands,
and committing depredations on the coast. Then Earl Hallad grew tired
of the business, resigned his earldom, took up again his rights as an
allodial owner, and afterwards returned eastward into Norway. When Earl
Ragnvald heard of this he was ill pleased with Hallad, and said his son
were very unlike their ancestors. Then said Einar, "I have enjoyed but
little honour among you, and have little affection here to lose: now
if you will give me force enough, I will go west to the islands, and
promise you what at any rate will please you--that you shall never see
me again." Earl Ragnvald replied, that he would be glad if he never came
back; "For there is little hope," said he, "that thou will ever be an
honour to thy friends, as all thy kin on thy mother's side are born
slaves." Earl Ragnvald gave Einar a vessel completely equipped, and he
sailed with it into the West sea in harvest. When he came to the Orkney
Isles, two vikings, Thorer Treskeg and Kalf Skurfa, were in his way with
two vessels. He attacked them instantly, gained the battle, and slew the
two vikings. Then this was sung:--
"Then gave he Treskeg to the trolls,
Torfeinar slew Skurfa."
He was called Torfeinar, because he cut peat for fuel, there being no
firewood, as in Orkney there are no woods. He afterwards was earl over
the islands, and was a mighty man. He was ugly, and blind of an eye, yet
very sharp-sighted withal.
28. KING EIRIK EYMUNDSON'S DEATH.
Duke Guthorm dwelt principally at Tunsberg, and governed the whole of
Viken when the king was not there. He defended the land, which, at that
time, was much plundered by the vikings. There were disturbances also up
in Gautland as long as King Eirik Eymundson lived; but he died when King
Harald Harfager had been ten years king of all Norway.
29. GUTHORM'S DEATH IN TUNSBERG.
After Eirik, his son Bjorn was king of Svithjod for fifty years. He was
father of Eirik the Victorious, and of Olaf the father of Styrbjorn.
Guthorm died on a bed of sickness at Tunsberg, and King Harald gave his
son Guthorm the government of that part of his dominions and made him
chief of it.
30. EARL RAGNVALD BURNT IN HIS HOUSE.
When King Harald was forty years of age many of his sons were well
advanced, and indeed they all came early to strength and manhood. And
now they began to take it ill that the king would not give them any
part of the kingdom, but put earls into every district; for they thought
earls were of inferior birth to them. Then Halfdan Haleg and Gudrod
Ljome set off one spring with a great force, and came suddenly upon Earl
Ragnvald, earl of More, and surrounded the house in which he was, and
burnt him and sixty men in it. Thereafter Halfdan took three long-ships,
and fitted them out, and sailed into the West sea; but Gudrod set
himself down in the land which Ragnvald formerly had. Now when King
Harald heard this he set out with a great force against Gudrod, who
had no other way left but to surrender, and he was sent to Agder. King
Harald then set Earl Ragnvald's son Thorer over More, and gave him
his daughter Alof, called Arbot, in marriage. Earl Thorer, called the
Silent, got the same territory his father Earl Ragnvald had possessed.
31. HALFDAN HALEG'S DEATH.
Halfdan Haleg came very unexpectedly to Orkney, and Earl Einar
immediately fled; but came back soon after about harvest time, unnoticed
by Halfdan. They met and after a short battle Halfdan fled the same
night. Einar and his men lay all night without tents, and when it was
light in the morning they searched the whole island and killed every
man they could lay hold of. Then Einar said "What is that I see upon the