Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
isle of Rinansey? Is it a man or a bird? Sometimes it raises itself
up, and sometimes lies down again." They went to it, and found it was
Halfdan Haleg, and took him prisoner.
Earl Einar sang the following song the evening before he went into this
battle:--
"Where is the spear of Hrollaug? where
Is stout Rolf Ganger's bloody spear!
I see them not; yet never fear,
For Einar will not vengeance spare
Against his father's murderers, though
Hrollaug and Rolf are somewhat slow,
And silent Thorer sits add dreams
At home, beside the mead-bowl's streams."
Thereafter Earl Einar went up to Halfdan, and cut a spread eagle
upon his back, by striking his sword through his back into his belly,
dividing his ribs from the backbone down to his loins, and tearing out
his lungs; and so Halfdan was killed. Einar then sang:--
"For Ragnvald's death my sword is red:
Of vengeance it cannot be said
That Einar's share is left unsped.
So now, brave boys, let's raise a mound,--
Heap stones and gravel on the ground
O'er Halfdan's corpse: this is the way
We Norsemen our scat duties pay."
Then Earl Einar took possession of the Orkney Isles as before. Now when
these tidings came to Norway, Halfdan's brothers took it much to heart,
and thought that his death demanded vengeance; and many were of the same
opinion. When Einar heard this, he sang:--
"Many a stout udal-man, I know,
Has cause to wish my head laid low;
And many an angry udal knife
Would gladly drink of Eina's life.
But ere they lay Earl Einar low,--
Ere this stout heart betrays its cause,
Full many a heart will writhe, we know,
In the wolf's fangs, or eagle's claws."
32. HARALD AND EINAR RECONCILED.
King Harald now ordered a levy, and gathered a great force, with which
he proceeded westward to Orkney; and when Earl Einar heard that King
Harald was come, he fled over to Caithness. He made the following verses
on this occasion:--
"Many a bearded man must roam,
An exile from his house and home,
For cow or horse; but Halfdan's gore
Is red on Rinansey's wild shore.
A nobler deed--on Harald's shield
The arm of one who ne'er will yield
Has left a scar. Let peasants dread
The vengeance of the Norsemen's head:
I reck not of his wrath, but sing,
'Do thy worst!--I defy thee, king!--'"
Men and messages, however, passed between the king and the earl, and at
last it came to a conference; and when they met the earl submitted the
case altogether to the king's decision, and the king condemned the earl
Einar and the Orkney people to pay a fine of sixty marks of gold. As the
bondes thought this was too heavy for them to pay, the earl offered to
pay the whole if they would surrender their udal lands to him. This they
all agreed to do: the poor because they had but little pieces of land;
the rich because they could redeem their udal rights again when they
liked. Thus the earl paid the whole fine to the king, who returned in
harvest to Norway. The earls for a long time afterwards possessed all
the udal lands in Orkney, until Sigurd son of Hlodver gave back the udal
rights.
33. DEATH OF GUTHORM AND HALFDAN THE WHITE.
While King Harald's son Guthorm had the defence of Viken, he sailed
outside of the islands on the coast, and came in by one of the mouths
of the tributaries of the Gaut river. When he lay there Solve Klofe came
upon him, and immediately gave him battle, and Guthorm fell. Halfdan the
White and Halfdan the Black went out on an expedition, and plundered
in the East sea, and had a battle in Eistland, where Halfdan the White
fell.
34. MARRIAGE OF EIRIK.
Eirik, Harald's son, was fostered in the house of the herse Thorer, son
of Hroald, in the Fjord district. He was the most beloved and honoured
by King Harald of all his sons. When Eirik was twelve years old,
King Harald gave him five long-ships, with which he went on an
expedition,--first in the Baltic; then southwards to Denmark, Friesland,
and Saxland; on which expedition he passed four years. He then sailed
out into the West sea and plundered in Scotland, Bretland, Ireland, and
Valland, and passed four years more in this way. Then he sailed north to
Finmark, and all the way to Bjarmaland, where he had many a battle, and
won many a victory. When he came back to Finmark, his men found a girl
in a Lapland hut, whose equal for beauty they never had seen. She said
her name was Gunhild, and that her father dwelt in Halogaland, and was
called Ozur Tote. "I am here," she said, "to learn sorcery from two of
the most knowing Fins in all Finmark, who are now out hunting. They both
want me in marriage. They are so skilful that they can hunt out traces
either upon the frozen or the thawed earth, like dogs; and they can run
so swiftly on skees that neither man nor beast can come near them in
speed. They hit whatever they take aim at, and thus kill every man
who comes near them. When they are angry the very earth turns away in
terror, and whatever living thing they look upon then falls dead. Now ye
must not come in their way; but I will hide you here in the hut, and ye
must try to get them killed." They agreed to it, and she hid them, and
then took a leather bag, in which they thought there were ashes which
she took in her hand, and strewed both outside and inside of the hut.
Shortly after the Fins came home, and asked who had been there; and she
answered, "Nobody has been here." "That is wonderful," said they, "we
followed the traces close to the hut, and can find none after that."
Then they kindled a fire, and made ready their meat, and Gunhild
prepared her bed. It had so happened that Gunhild had slept the three
nights before, but the Fins had watched the one upon the other, being
jealous of each other. "Now," she said to the Fins, "come here, and lie
down one on each side of me." On which they were very glad to do so. She
laid an arm round the neck of each and they went to sleep directly. She
roused them up; but they fell to sleep again instantly, and so soundly
the she scarcely could waken them. She even raised them up in the bed,
and still they slept. Thereupon she too two great seal-skin bags, and
put their heads in them, and tied them fast under their arms; and then
she gave a wink to the king's men. They run forth with their weapons,
kill the two Fins, and drag them out of the hut. That same night came
such a dreadful thunder-storm that the could not stir. Next morning they
came to the ship, taking Gunhild with them, and presented her to Eirik.
Eirik and his followers then sailed southwards to Halogaland and he sent
word to Ozur Tote, the girl's father, to meet him. Eirik said he would
take his daughter in marriage, to which Ozur Tote consented, and Eirik
took Gunhild and went southwards with her (A.D. 922).
35. HARALD DIVIDES HIS KINGDOM.
When King Harald was fifty years of age many of his sons were grown up,
and some were dead. Many of them committed acts of great violence in the
country, and were in discord among themselves. They drove some of the
king's earls out of their properties, and even killed some of them.
Then the king called together a numerous Thing in the south part of the
country, and summoned to it all the people of the Uplands. At this
Thing he gave to all his sons the title of king, and made a law that his
descendants in the male line should each succeed to the kingly title and
dignity; but his descendants by the female side only to that of earl.
And he divided the country among them thus:--Vingulmark, Raumarike,
Vestfold and Thelamark, he bestowed on Olaf, Bjorn, Sigtryg, Frode, and
Thorgils. Hedemark and Gudbrandsdal he gave to Dag, Hring, and Ragnar.
To Snaefrid's sons he gave Ringerike, Hadeland, Thoten, and the lands
thereto belonging. His son Guthorm, as before mentioned, he had set over
the country from Glommen to Svinasund and Ranrike. He had set him to
defend the country to the East, as before has been written. King Harald
himself generally dwelt in the middle of the country, and Hrorek and
Gudrod were generally with his court, and had great estates in Hordaland
and in Sogn. King Eirik was also with his father King Harald; and the
king loved and regarded him the most of all his sons, and gave him
Halogaland and North More, and Raumsdal. North in Throndhjem he gave
Halfdan the Black, Halfdan the White, and Sigrod land to rule over. In
each of these districts he gave his sons the one half of his revenues,
together with the right to sit on a high-seat,--a step higher than
earls, but a step lower than his own high-seat. His king's seat each of
his sons wanted for himself after his death, but he himself destined it
for Eirik. The Throndhjem people wanted Halfdan the Black to succeed to
it. The people of Viken, and the Uplands, wanted those under whom they
lived. And thereupon new quarrels arose among the brothers; and because
they thought their dominions too little, they drove about in piratical
expeditions. In this way, as before related, Guthorm fell at the mouth
of the Gaut river, slain by Solve Klofe; upon which Olaf took the
kingdom he had possessed. Halfdan the White fell in Eistland, Halfdan
Haleg in Orkney. King Harald gave ships of war to Thorgils and Frode,
with which they went westward on a viking cruise, and plundered in
Scotland, Ireland, and Bretland. They were the first of the Northmen
who took Dublin. It is said that Frode got poisoned drink there; but
Thorgils was a long time king over Dublin, until he fell into a snare of
the Irish, and was killed.
36. DEATH OF RAGNVALD RETTILBEINE.
Eirik Blood-axe expected to be head king over all his brothers and
King Harald intended he should be so; and the father and son lived long
together. Ragnvald Rettilbeine governed Hadaland, and allowed himself to
be instructed in the arts of witchcraft, and became an area warlock.
Now King Harald was a hater of all witchcraft. There was a warlock in
Hordaland called Vitgeir; and when the king sent a message to him that
he should give up his art of witchcraft, he replied in this verse:--
"The danger surely is not great
From wizards born of mean estate,
When Harald's son in Hadeland,
King Ragnvald, to the art lays hand."
But when King Harald heard this, King Eirik Blood-axe went by his orders
to the Uplands, and came to Hadeland and burned his brother Ragnvald in
a house, along with eighty other warlocks; which work was much praised.
37. DEATH OF GUDROD LJOME.
Gudrod Ljome was in winter on a friendly visit to his foster-father
Thjodolf in Hvin, and had a well-manned ship, with which he wanted to go
north to Rogaland. It was blowing a heavy storm at the time; but Gudrod
was bent on sailing, and would not consent to wait. Thjodolf sang
thus:--
"Wait, Gudrod, till the storm is past,--
Loose not thy long-ship while the blast
Howls over-head so furiously,--
Trust not thy long-ship to the sea,--
Loose not thy long-ship from the shore;
Hark to the ocean's angry roar!
See how the very stones are tost
By raging waves high on the coast!
Stay, Gudrod, till the tempest's o'er--
Deep runs the sea off the Jadar's shore."
Gudrod set off in spite of what Thjodolf could say: and when they came
off the Jadar the vessel sunk with them, and all on board were lost.
38. KING BJORN KAUPMAN'S DEATH.
King Harald's son, Bjorn, ruled over Vestfold at that time, and
generally lived at Tunsberg, and went but little on war expeditions.
Tunsberg at that time was much frequented by merchant vessels, both from
Viken and the north country, and also from the south, from Denmark, and