Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
And people learned with joy to hear
The clang of arms, and leaders' cheer.
Short before Yule fell out the day,
Southward of Aros, where the fray,
Though not enough the foe to quell,
Was of the bloodiest men can tell."
And Arnor says:--
"Olaf's avenger who can sing?
The skald cannot o'ertake the king,
Who makes the war-bird daily drain
The corpse-blood of his foemen slain.
Four battles won within a year,--
Breaker of shields! with swords and spear,
And hand to hand, exalt thy fame
Above the kings of greatest name."
King Magnus had three battles with Svein Ulfson. So says Thiodolf:--
"To our brave Throndhjem sovereign's praise
The skald may all his skaldcraft raise;
For fortune, and for daring deed,
His song will not the truth exceed.
After three battles to regain
What was his own, unjustly ta'en,
Unjustly kept, and dues denied,
He levied dues in red-blood dyed."
37. OF KING MAGNUS, AND THORFIN AND RAGNVALD, EARLS OF ORKNEY.
While King Magnus the Good, a son of King Olaf the Saint, ruled over
Norway, as before related, the Earl Ragnvald Brusason lived with him.
Earl Thorfin Sigurdson, the uncle of Ragnvald, ruled then over Orkney.
King Magnus sent Ragnvald west to Orkney, and ordered that Thorfin
should let him have his father's heritage. Thorfin let Ragnvald have a
third part of the land along with him; for so had Erase, the father
of Ragnvald, had it at his dying day. Earl Thorfin was married to
Ingebjorg, the earl-mother, who was a daughter of Fin Arnason. Earl
Ragnvald thought he should have two-thirds of the land, as Olaf the
Saint had promised to his father Bruse, and as Bruse had enjoyed as
long as Olaf lived. This was the origin of a great strife between these
relations, concerning which we have a long saga. They had a great battle
in Pentland Firth, in which Kalf Arnason was with Earl Thorfin. So says
Bjarne Gullbrarskald:--
"Thy cutters, dashing through the tide,
Brought aid to Earl Thorfin's side,
Fin's son-in-law, and people say
Thy aid made Bruse's son give way.
Kalf, thou art fond of warlike toil,
Gay in the strife and bloody broil;
But here 'twas hate made thee contend
Against Earl Ragnvald, the king's friend."
38. OF KING MAGNUS'S LETTER TO ENGLAND.
King Magnus ruled then both over Denmark and Norway; and when he had got
possession of the Danish dominions he sent ambassadors over to England
to King Edward, who brought to him King Magnus's letter and seal. And in
this letter there stood, along with a salutation from King Magnus,
these words:--"Ye must have heard of the agreement which I and Hardaknut
made,--that he of us two who survived the other should have all the land
and people which the deceased had possessed. Now it has so turned out,
as ye have no doubt heard, that I have taken the Danish dominions as
my heritage after Hardaknut. But before he departed this life he
had England as well as Denmark; therefore I consider myself now, in
consequence of my rights by this agreement, to own England also. Now
I will therefore that thou deliver to me the kingdom; otherwise I will
seek to take it by arms, both from Denmark and Norway; and let him rule
the land to whom fate gives the victory."
39. KING EDWARD'S ANSWER TO KING MAGNUS'S LETTER.
Now when King Edward had read this letter, he replied thus: "It is known
to all men in this country that King Ethelred, my father, was udal-born
to this kingdom, both after the old and new law of inheritance. We were
four sons after him; and when he by death left the throne my brother
Edmund took the government and kingdom; for he was the oldest of us
brothers, and I was well satisfied that it was so. And after him my
stepfather, Canute the Great, took the kingdom, and as long as he lived
there was no access to it. After him my brother Harald was king as long
as he lived; and after him my brother Hardaknut took the kingdoms both
of Denmark and England; for he thought that a just brotherly division
that he should have both England and Denmark, and that I should have no
kingdom at all. Now he died, and then it was the resolution of all the
people of the country to take me for king here in England. So long as I
had no kingly title I served only superiors in all respects, like those
who had no claims by birth to land or kingdom. Now, however, I have
received the kingly title, and am consecrated king. I have established
my royal dignity and authority, as my father before me; and while I live
I will not renounce my title. If King Magnus come here with an army, I
will gather no army against him; but he shall only get the opportunity
of taking England when he has taken my life. Tell him these words of
mine." The ambassadors went back to King Magnus, and told him the answer
to their message. King Magnus reflected a while, and answered thus:
"I think it wisest, and will succeed best, to let King Edward have his
kingdom in peace for me, and that I keep the kingdoms God has put into
my hands."
SAGA OF HARALD HARDRADE.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, was born in the year A.D. 1015, and
left Norway A.D. 1030. He was called Hardrade, that is, the severe
counsellor, the tyrant, though the Icelanders never applied this epithet
to him. Harald helped the Icelanders in the famine of A.D. 1056, and
sent them timber for a church at Thingvol. It was the Norwegians who
gave him the name tyrant in contrast to the "debonairete" of Magnus. He
came to Norway in A.D. 1046, and became sole king in A.D. 1047. He died
in A.D. 1066, and his son and successor Magnus died in A.D. 1069.
His saga is to be compared with "Agrip", "Fagrskinna", and
"Morkinskinna".
The skalds quoted are: Thiodolf, Bolverk, Illuge Bryndalaskald, Stuf the
skald, Thorarin Skeggjason, Valgard o' Val, Od Kikinaskald, Grane Skald,
Thorleik the Fair, Stein Herdison, Ulf the Marshal, Arnor the earls'
skald, Thorkel Skallason, and King Harald Hardrade himself.
1. HARALD ESCAPES FROM THE BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD.
Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, brother of Olaf the Saint, by the same
mother, was at the battle of Stiklestad, and was fifteen years old when
King Olaf the Saint fell, as was before related. Harald was wounded, and
escaped with other fugitives. So says Thiodolf:--
"At Haug the fire-sparks from his shield
Flew round the king's head on the field,
As blow for blow, for Olaf's sake,
His sword and shield would give and take.
Bulgaria's conqueror, I ween,
Had scarcely fifteen winters seen,
When from his murdered brother's side
His unhelmed head he had to hide."
Ragnvald Brusason led Harald from the battle, and the night after the
fray took him to a bonde who dwelt in a forest far from other people.
The peasant received Harald, and kept him concealed; and Harald was
waited upon until he was quite cured of his wounds. Then the bonde's son
attended him on the way east over the ridge of the land, and they
went by all the forest paths they could, avoiding the common road. The
bonde's son did not know who it was he was attending; and as they were
riding together between two uninhabited forests, Harald made these
verses:
"My wounds were bleeding as I rode;
And down below the bondes strode,
Killing the wounded with the sword,
The followers of their rightful lord.
From wood to wood I crept along,
Unnoticed by the bonde-throng;
'Who knows,' I thought, 'a day may come
My name will yet be great at home.'"
He went eastward over the ridge through Jamtaland and Helsingjaland, and
came to Svithjod, where he found Ragnvald Brusason, and many others of
King Olaf's men who had fled from the battle at Stiklestad, and they
remained there till winter was over.
2. HARALD'S JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE.
The spring after (A.D. 1031) Harald and Ragnvald got ships, and went
east in summer to Russia to King Jarisleif, and were with him all the
following winter. So says the skald Bolverk:--
"The king's sharp sword lies clean and bright,
Prepared in foreign lands to fight:
Our ravens croak to have their fill,
The wolf howls from the distant hill.
Our brave king is to Russia gone,--
Braver than he on earth there's none;
His sharp sword will carve many feast
To wolf and raven in the East."
King Jarisleif gave Harald and Ragnvald a kind reception, and made
Harald and Ellif, the son of Earl Ragnvald, chiefs over the land-defence
men of the king. So says Thiodolf:--
"Where Ellif was, one heart and hand
The two chiefs had in their command;
In wedge or line their battle order
Was ranged by both without disorder.
The eastern Vindland men they drove
Into a corner; and they move
The Lesians, although ill at ease,
To take the laws their conquerors please."
Harald remained several years in Russia, and travelled far and wide in
the Eastern land. Then he began his expedition out to Greece, and had a
great suite of men with him; and on he went to Constantinople. So says
Bolverk:--
"Before the cold sea-curling blast
The cutter from the land flew past,
Her black yards swinging to and fro,
Her shield-hung gunwale dipping low.
The king saw glancing o'er the bow
Constantinople's metal glow
From tower and roof, and painted sails
Gliding past towns and wooded vales."
3. OF HARALD.
At that time the Greek empire was ruled by the Empress Zoe the Great,
and with her Michael Catalactus. Now when Harald came to Constantinople
he presented himself to the empress, and went into her pay; and
immediately, in autumn, went on board the galleys manned with troops
which went out to the Greek sea. Harald had his own men along with him.
Now Harald had been but a short time in the army before all the Varings
flocked to him, and they all joined together when there was a battle. It
thus came to pass that Harald was made chief of the Varings. There was a
chief over all the troops who was called Gyrger, and who was a relation
of the empress. Gyrger and Harald went round among all the Greek
islands, and fought much against the corsairs.
4. OF HARALD AND GYRGER CASTING LOTS.
It happened once that Gyrger and the Varings were going through the
country, and they resolved to take their night quarters in a wood; and
as the Varings came first to the ground, they chose the place which was
best for pitching their tents upon, which was the highest ground; for
it is the nature of the land there to be soft when rain falls, and
therefore it is bad to choose a low situation for your tents. Now when
Gyrger, the chief of the army, came up, and saw where the Varings
had set up their tents, he told them to remove, and pitch their tents
elsewhere, saying he would himself pitch his tents on their ground.
Harald replies, "If ye come first to the night quarter, ye take up your
ground, and we must go pitch our tents at some other place where we best
can. Now do ye so, in the same way, and find a place where ye will. It
is, I think, the privilege of us Varings here in the dominions of
the Greek emperor to be free, and independent of all but their own
commanders, and bound only to serve the emperor and empress." They
disputed long and hotly about this, and both sides armed themselves, and
were on the way to fight for it; but men of understanding came between
and separated them. They said it would be better to come to an agreement
about such questions, so that in future no dispute could arise. It
came thus to an arbitration between them, at which the best and