Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
when so dispersed, the Northmen accompanied the king. Dag proceeded with
his men on another line of march, and the Swedes on a third with their
troop.
212. OF VAGABOND-MEN.
There were two men, the one called Gauka-Thorer, the other Afrafaste,
who were vagabonds and great robbers, and had a company of thirty men
such as themselves. These two men were larger and stronger than other
men, and they wanted neither courage nor impudence. These men heard
speak of the army that was crossing the country, and said among
themselves it would be a clever counsel to go to the king, follow him to
his country, and go with him into a regular battle, and try themselves
in this work; for they had never been in any battle in which people
were regularly drawn up in line, and they were curious to see the king's
order of battle. This counsel was approved of by their comrades, and
accordingly they went to the road on which King Olaf was to pass.
When they came there they presented themselves to the king, with their
followers, fully armed. They saluted him, and he asked what people they
were. They told their names, and said they were natives of the place;
and told their errand, and that they wished to go with the king. The
king said, it appeared to him there was good help in such folks. "And I
have a great inclination," said he, "to take such; but are ye Christian
men?"
Gauka-Thorer replies, that he is neither Christian nor heathen. "I and
my comrades have no faith but on ourselves, our strength, and the luck
of victory; and with this faith we slip through sufficiently well."
The king replies, "A great pity it is that such brave slaughtering
fellows did not believe in Christ their Creator."
Thorer replies, "Is there any Christian man, king, in thy following, who
stands so high in the air as we two brothers?"
The king told them to let themselves be baptized, and to accept the true
faith. "Follow me then, and I will advance you to great dignities; but
if ye will not do so, return to your former vocation."
Afrafaste said he would not take on Christianity, and he turned away.
Then said Gauka-Thorer, "It is a great shame that the king drives
us thus away from his army, and I never before came where I was not
received into the company of other people, and I shall never return
back on this account." They joined accordingly the rear with other
forest-men, and followed the troops. Thereafter the king proceeded west
up to the keel-ridge of the country.
213. OF KING OLAF'S VISION.
Now when King Olaf, coming from the east, went over the keel-ridge and
descended on the west side of the mountain, where it declines towards
the sea, he could see from thence far over the country. Many people rode
before the king and many after, and he himself rode so that there was a
free space around him. He was silent, and nobody spoke to him, and thus
he rode a great part of the day without looking much about him. Then the
bishop rode up to him, asked him why he was so silent, and what he was
thinking of; for, in general, he was very cheerful, and very talkative
on a journey to his men, so that all who were near him were merry. The
king replied, full of thought, "Wonderful things have come into my mind
a while ago. As I just now looked over Norway, out to the west from the
mountains, it came into my mind how many happy days I have had in that
land. It appeared to me at first as if I saw over all the Throndhjem
country, and then over all Norway; and the longer this vision was before
my eyes the farther, methought, I saw, until I looked over the whole
wide world, both land and sea. Well I know the places at which I have
been in former days; some even which I have only heard speak of, and
some I saw of which I had never heard, both inhabited and uninhabited,
in this wide world." The bishop replied that this was a holy vision, and
very remarkable.
214. OF THE MIRACLE ON THE CORN LAND.
When the king had come lower down on the mountain, there lay a farm
before him called Sula, on the highest part of Veradal district; and as
they came nearer to the house the corn-land appeared on both sides of
the path. The king told his people to proceed carefully, and not destroy
the corn to the bondes. The people observed this when the king was near;
but the crowd behind paid no attention to it, and the people ran over
the corn, so that it was trodden flat to the earth. There dwelt a bonde
there called Thorgeir Flek, who had two sons nearly grown up. Thorgeir
received the king and his people well, and offered all the assistance in
his power. The king was pleased with his offer, and asked Thorgeir what
was the news of the country, and if any forces were assembled against
him. Thorgeir says that a great army was drawn together in the
Throndhjem country, and that there were some lendermen both from the
south of the country, and from Halogaland in the north; "but I do not
know," says he. "if they are intended against you, or going elsewhere."
Then he complained to the king of the damage and waste done him by the
people breaking and treading down all his corn fields. The king said it
was ill done to bring upon him any loss. Then the king rode to where the
corn had stood, and saw it was laid flat on the earth; and he rode round
the field, and said, "I expect, bonde, that God will repair thy loss, so
that the field, within a week, will be better;" and it proved the best
of the corn, as the king had said. The king remained all night there,
and in the morning he made himself ready, and told Thorgeir the bonde
to accompany him and Thorgear offered his two sons also for the journey;
and although the king said that he did not want them with him, the lads
would go. As they would not stay behind, the king's court-men were about
binding them; but the king seeing it said, "Let them come with us; the
lads will come safe back again." And it was with the lads as the king
foretold.
215. OF THE BAPTISM OF THE VAGABOND FOREST-MEN.
Thereafter the army advanced to Staf, and when the king reached Staf's
moor he halted. There he got the certain information that the bondes
were advancing with an army against him, and that he might soon expect
to have a battle with them. He mustered his force here, and, after
reckoning them up, found there were in the army 900 heathen men, and
when he came to know it he ordered them to allow themselves to be
baptized, saying that he would have no heathens with him in battle. "We
must not," says he, "put our confidence in numbers, but in God alone
must we trust; for through his power and favour we must be victorious,
and I will not mix heathen people with my own." When the heathens heard
this, they held a council among themselves, and at last 400 men agreed
to be baptized; but 500 men refused to adopt Christianity, and that
body returned home to their land. Then the brothers Gauka-Thorer and
Afrafaste presented themselves to the king, and offered again to follow
him. The king asked if they had now taken baptism. Gauka-Thorer replied
that they had not. Then the king ordered them to accept baptism and the
true faith, or otherwise to go away. They stepped aside to talk with
each other on what resolution they should take. Afrafaste said, "To give
my opinion, I will not turn back, but go into the battle, and take a
part on the one side or the other; and I don't care much in which army
I am." Gauka-Thorer replies, "If I go into battle I will give my help to
the king, for he has most need of help. And if I must believe in a
God, why not in the white Christ as well as in any other? Now it is my
advice, therefore, that we let ourselves be baptized, since the king
insists so much upon it, and then go into the battle with him." They
all agreed to this, and went to the king, and said they would receive
baptism. Then they were baptized by a priest, and the baptism was
confirmed by the bishop. The king then took them into the troop of his
court-men, and said they should fight under his banner in the battle.
216. KING OLAF'S SPEECH.
King Olaf got certain intelligence now that it would be but a short time
until he had a battle with the bondes; and after he had mustered his
men, and reckoned up the force, he had more than 3000 men, which appears
to be a great army in one field. Then the king made the following speech
to the people: "We have a great army, and excellent troops; and now I
will tell you, my men, how I will have our force drawn up. I will let
my banner go forward in the middle of the army, and my-court-men, and
pursuivants shall follow it, together with the war forces that joined
us from the Uplands, and also those who may come to us here in the
Throndhjem land. On the right hand of my banner shall be Dag Hringson,
with all the men he brought to our aid; and he shall have the second
banner. And on the left hand of our line shall the men be whom the
Swedish king gave us, together with all the people who came to us in
Sweden; and they shall have the third banner. I will also have the
people divide themselves into distinct flocks or parcels, so that
relations and acquaintances should be together; for thus they defend
each other best, and know each other. We will have all our men
distinguished by a mark, so as to be a field-token upon their helmets
and shields, by painting the holy cross thereupon with white colour.
When we come into battle we shall all have one countersign and
field-cry,--'Forward, forward, Christian men! cross men! king's men!'
We must draw up our meal in thinner ranks, because we have fewer people,
and I do not wish to let them surround us with their men. Now let the
men divide themselves into separate flocks, and then each flock into
ranks; then let each man observe well his proper place, and take notice
what banner he is drawn up under. And now we shall remain drawn up in
array; and our men shall be fully armed, night and day, until we know
where the meeting shall be between us and the bondes." When the king had
finished speaking, the army arrayed, and arranged itself according to
the king's orders.
217. KING OLAF'S COUNSEL.
Thereafter the king had a meeting with the chiefs of the different
divisions, and then the men had returned whom the king had sent out into
the neighbouring districts to demand men from the bondes. They brought
the tidings from the inhabited places they had gone through, that all
around the country was stripped of all men able to carry arms, as all
the people had joined the bondes' army; and where they did find any
they got but few to follow them, for the most of them answered that they
stayed at home because they would not follow either party: they would
not go out against the king, nor yet against their own relations. Thus
they had got but few people. Now the king asked his men their counsel,
and what they now should do. Fin Arnason answered thus to the king's
question: "I will say what should be done, if I may advise. We should
go with armed hand over all the inhabited places, plunder all the goods,
and burn all the habitations, and leave not a hut standing, and thus
punish the bondes for their treason against their sovereign. I think
many a man will then cast himself loose from the bondes' army, when he
sees smoke and flame at home on his farm, and does not know how it is
going with children, wives, or old men, fathers, mothers, and other
connections. I expect also," he added, "that if we succeed in breaking
the assembled host, their ranks will soon be thinned; for so it is with
the bondes, that the counsel which is the newest is always the dearest
to them all, and most followed." When Fin had ended his speech it met
with general applause; for many thought well of such a good occasion to
make booty, and all thought the bondes well deserved to suffer damage;