Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
the castle-men; told them, in a parley, of the death of their commander;
and begged of the priests to grant him burial in the castle. When the
castle people heard this news, there were many among them who ruled over
cloisters or other great establishments within the place, and who were
very eager to get the corpse for their church, knowing that upon that
there would follow very rich presents. A great many priests, therefore,
clothed themselves in all their robes, and went out of the castle with
cross and shrine and relics and formed a beautiful procession. The
Varings also made a great burial. The coffin was borne high in the air,
and over it was a tent of costly linen and before it were carried many
banners. Now when the corpse was brought within the castle gate the
Varings set down the coffin right across the entry, fixed a bar to keep
the gates open, and sounded to battle with all their trumpets, and drew
their swords. The whole army of the Varings, fully armed, rushed from
the camp to the assault of the castle with shout and cry; and the monks
and other priests who had gone to meet the corpse and had striven with
each other who should be the first to come out and take the offering at
the burial, were now striving much more who should first get away
from the Varings; for they killed before their feet every one who was
nearest, whether clerk or unconsecrated. The Varings rummaged so well
this castle that they killed all the men, pillaged everything and made
an enormous booty.
11. OF HARALD.
Harald was many years in these campaigns, both in Serkland and in
Sicily. Then he came back to Constantinople with his troops and stayed
there but a little time before he began his expedition to Jerusalem.
There he left the pay he had received from the Greek emperor and all the
Varings who accompanied him did the same. It is said that on all
these expeditions Harald had fought eighteen regular battles. So says
Thiodolf:--
"Harald the Stern ne'er allowed
Peace to his foemen, false and proud;
In eighteen battles, fought and won,
The valour of the Norseman shone.
The king, before his home return,
Oft dyed the bald head of the erne
With bloody specks, and o'er the waste
The sharp-claw'd wolf his footsteps traced."
12. HARALD'S EXPEDITION TO PALESTINE.
Harald went with his men to the land of Jerusalem and then up to the
city of Jerusalem, and wheresoever he came in the land all the towns and
strongholds were given up to him. So says the skald Stuf, who had heard
the king himself relate these tidings:--
"He went, the warrior bold and brave,
Jerusalem, the holy grave,
And the interior of the land,
To bring under the Greeks' command;
And by the terror of his name
Under his power the country came,
Nor needed wasting fire and sword
To yield obediance to his word."
Here it is told that this land came without fire and sword under
Harald's command. He then went out to Jordan and bathed therein,
according to the custom of other pilgrims. Harald gave great gifts to
our Lord's grave, to the Holy Cross, and other holy relics in the land
of Jerusalem. He also cleared the whole road all the way out to Jordan,
by killing the robbers and other disturbers of the peace. So says the
skald Stuf:--
"The Agder king cleared far and wide
Jordan's fair banks on either side;
The robber-bands before him fled,
And his great name was widely spread.
The wicked people of the land
Were punished here by his dread hand,
And they hereafter will not miss
Much worse from Jesus Christ than this."
13. HARALD PUT IN PRISON.
Thereafter he went back to Constantinople. When Harald returned to
Constantinople from Jerusalem he longed to return to the North to his
native land; and when he heard that Magnus Olafson, his brother's son,
had become king both of Norway and Denmark, he gave up his command in
the Greek service. And when the empress Zoe heard of this she became
angry and raised an accusation against Harald that he had misapplied the
property of the Greek emperor which he had received in the campaigns in
which he was commander of the army. There was a young and beautiful girl
called Maria, a brother's daughter of the empress Zoe, and Harald had
paid his addresses to her; but the empress had given him a refusal. The
Varings, who were then in pay in Constantinople, have told here in
the North that there went a report among well-informed people that the
empress Zoe herself wanted Harald for her husband, and that she chiefly
blamed Harald for his determination to leave Constantinople, although
another reason was given out to the public. Constantinus Monomachus was
at that time emperor of the Greeks and ruled along with Zoe. On this
account the Greek emperor had Harald made prisoner and carried to
prison.
14. KING OLAF'S MIRACLE AND BLINDING THE GREEK EMPEROR.
When Harald drew near to the prison King Olaf the Saint stood before him
and said he would assist him. On that spot of the street a chapel has
since been built and consecrated to Saint Olaf and which chapel has
stood there ever since. The prison was so constructed that there was a
high tower open above, but a door below to go into it from the street.
Through it Harald was thrust in, along with Haldor and Ulf. Next night
a lady of distinction with two servants came, by the help of ladders,
to the top of the tower, let down a rope into the prison and hauled them
up. Saint Olaf had formerly cured this lady of a sickness and he had
appeared to her in a vision and told her to deliver his brother. Harald
went immediately to the Varings, who all rose from their seats when he
came in and received him with joy. The men armed themselves forthwith
and went to where the emperor slept. They took the emperor prisoner and
put out both the eyes of him. So says Thorarin Skeggjason in his poem:--
"Of glowing gold that decks the hand
The king got plenty in this land;
But it's great emperor in the strife
Was made stone-blind for all his life."
So says Thiodolf, the skald, also:--
"He who the hungry wolf's wild yell
Quiets with prey, the stern, the fell,
Midst the uproar of shriek and shout
Stung tho Greek emperor's eyes both out:
The Norse king's mark will not adorn,
The Norse king's mark gives cause to mourn;
His mark the Eastern king must bear,
Groping his sightless way in fear."
In these two songs, and many others, it is told that Harald himself
blinded the Greek emperor; and they would surely have named some duke,
count, or other great man, if they had not known this to be the true
account; and King Harald himself and other men who were with him spread
the account.
15. HARALD'S JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.
The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where Maria
slept and carried her away by force. Then they went down to where the
galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and rowed out into Sjavid
sound. When they came to the place where the iron chain is drawn across
the sound, Harald told his men to stretch out at their oars in both
galleys; but the men who were not rowing to run all to the stern of the
galley, each with his luggage in his hand. The galleys thus ran up
and lay on the iron chain. As soon as they stood fast on it, and would
advance no farther, Harald ordered all the men to run forward into the
bow. Then the galley, in which Harald was, balanced forwards and swung
down over the chain; but the other, which remained fast athwart the
chain, split in two, by which many men were lost; but some were taken up
out of the sound. Thus Harald escaped out of Constantinople and sailed
thence into the Black Sea; but before he left the land he put the lady
ashore and sent her back with a good escort to Constantinople and bade
her tell her relation, the Empress Zoe, how little power she had over
Harald, and how little the empress could have hindered him from taking
the lady. Harald then sailed northwards in the Ellipalta and then all
round the Eastern empire. On this voyage Harald composed sixteen songs
for amusement and all ending with the same words. This is one of them:--
"Past Sicily's wide plains we flew,
A dauntless, never-wearied crew;
Our viking steed rushed through the sea,
As viking-like fast, fast sailed we.
Never, I think, along this shore
Did Norsemen ever sail before;
Yet to the Russian queen, I fear,
My gold-adorned, I am not dear."
With this he meant Ellisif, daughter of King Jarisleif in Novgorod.
16. OF KING HARALD.
When Harald came to Novgorod King Jarisleif received him in the most
friendly way and he remained there all winter (A.D. 1045). Then he took
into his own keeping all the gold and the many kinds of precious things
which he had sent there from Constantinople and which together made up
so vast a treasure that no man in the Northern lands ever saw the
like of it in one man's possession. Harald had been three times in the
poluta-svarf while he was in Constantinople. It is the custom, namely,
there, that every time one of the Greek emperors dies, the Varings are
allowed poluta-svarf; that is, they may go through all the emperor's
palaces where his treasures are and each may take and keep what he can
lay hold of while he is going through them.
17. KING HARALD'S MARRIAGE.
This winter King Jarisleif gave Harald his daughter Elisabeth in
marriage. She is called by the Northmen Ellisif. This is related by Stuf
the Blind, thus:--
"Agder's chief now got the queen
Who long his secret love had been.
Of gold, no doubt, a mighty store
The princess to her husband bore."
In spring he began his journey from Novgorod and came to Aldeigjuborg,
where he took shipping and sailed from the East in summer. He turned
first to Svithjod and came to Sigtuna. So says Valgard o' Val:--
"The fairest cargo ship e'er bore,
From Russia's distant eastern shore
The gallant Harald homeward brings--
Gold, and a fame that skald still sings.
The ship through dashing foam he steers,
Through the sea-rain to Svithjod veers,
And at Sigtuna's grassy shores
His gallant vessel safely moors."
18. THE LEAGUE BETWEEN KING HARALD AND SVEIN ULFSON.
Harald found there before him Svein Ulfson, who the autumn before (A.D.
1045) had fled from King Magnus at Helganes; and when they met they
were very friendly on both sides. The Swedish king, Olaf the Swede, was
brother of the mother of Ellisif, Harald's wife; and Astrid, the
mother of Svein, was King Olaf's sister. Harald and Svein entered into
friendship with each other and confirmed it by oath. All the Swedes were
friendly to Svein, because he belonged to the greatest family in the
country; and thus all the Swedes were Harald's friends and helpers also,
for many great men were connected with him by relationship. So says
Thiodolf:
"Cross the East sea the vessel flew,--
Her oak-keel a white furrow drew
From Russia's coast to Swedish land.
Where Harald can great help command.
The heavy vessel's leeward side
Was hid beneath the rushing tide;
While the broad sail and gold-tipped mast
Swung to and fro in the hard blast."
19. KING HARALD'S FORAY.
Then Harald and Svein fitted out ships and gathered together a great
force; and when the troops were ready they sailed from the East towards
Denmark. So says Valgard:--
"Brave Yngve! to the land decreed
To thee by fate, with tempest speed
The winds fly with thee o'er the sea--
To thy own udal land with thee.
As past the Scanlan plains they fly,