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Two great streams of Northern immigrationmet on the shores of Britain during the ninth,tenth, and eleventh centuries. The Norsemenfrom the deep fiords of Western Norway, fishing andraiding along the coasts, pushed out their adventurousboats into the Atlantic, and in the dawn of Northernhistory we find them already settled in the Orkney andShetland Isles, whence they raided and settled southwardto Caithness, Fife, and Northumbria on the east,and to the Hebrides, Galloway, and Man on the westerncoast. Fresh impetus was given to this outwardmovement by the changes of policy introduced byHarald Fairhair, first king of Norway (872–933). Throughhim a nobler type of emigrant succeeded the casualwanderer, and great lords and kings’ sons came over toconsolidate the settlements begun by humbler agencies.Iceland was at the same time peopled by a similar stock.The Dane, contemporaneously with the Norseman, cameby a different route. Though he seems to have beenthe first to invade Northumbria (if Ragnar and his sonswere really Danes), his movement was chiefly roundthe southern shores of England, passing over by wayof the Danish and Netherland coast up the EnglishChannel, and round to the west. Both streams met inIreland, where a sharp and lengthened contest wasfought out between the two nations, and where both6took deep root, building cities and absorbing much ofthe commerce of the country.

The viking was at first simply a bold adventurer,but a mixture of trading and raiding became a settledpractice with large numbers of Norsemen, who, whenwork at home was slack and the harvest was sown orreaped, filled up the time by pirate inroads on their ownor neighbouring lands. Hardy sailors and fearlessfighters they were; and life would have seemed tootame had it meant a continuous course of peacefulfarming or fishing. New possessions and new conquestswere the salt of life. “Biorn went sometimes on vikingbut sometimes on trading voyages,” we read of a manof position in Egil’s Saga, and the same might be saidof hundreds of his fellows.

It was out of these viking raids that the Dano-NorseKingdoms of Dublin and Northumbria grew, the Dukedomof Normandy, and the Earldom of Orkney andthe Isles.

The Danish descents seem to have been more directlyfor the purpose of conquest than those of the Norse,and they ended by establishing on the throne of Englanda brief dynasty of Danish kings in the eleventh century,remarkable only from the vigour of Canute’s reign.

The intimate connexion all through this periodbetween Scandinavia, Iceland, and Britain can only berealized by reading the Northern Sagas side by sidewith the chronicles of Great Britain and Ireland, andit is from Norse sources chiefly that I propose to tellthe story.

I desire to thank Mrs Muriel Press and Mr W. C. Green forkind permission to make use of portions of their translations ofLaxdæla and Egil’s Sagas; also Mr W. G. Collingwood for hisconsent to my adoption in my map of some of his boundariesfrom a map published in hisScandinavian Britain (S.P.C.K.); andto the Secretary of the Society for the Promotion of ChristianKnowledge for giving his sanction to this.

The first actual descent of the Northmen ischronicled in England under the year 787, and inIreland, upon which country they commencedtheir descents about the same time, under the year 795;but it is likely, not only that they had visited and raidedthe coasts before this, but had actually made somesettlements in both countries. The Ynglinga Saga tellsus that Ivar Vidfadme or “Widefathom” had takenpossession of a fifth part of England,i.e. Northumbria,before Harald Fairhair ruled in Norway, or Gorm theOld in Denmark; that is to say, before the history ofeither of these two countries begins. Ivar Vidfadmeis evidently Ivar the Boneless, son of Ragnar Lodbrog,who conquered Northumbria before the reign of HaraldFairhair. There are traces of them even earlier, fora year after the first coming of the Northmen toNorthumbria mentioned in the English annals wefind that they called a synod at a place named Fingall,or “Fair Foreigners,” the name always applied to12the Norse in our Irish and sometimes in our Englishchronicles. Now a place would not have been so namedunless Norse people had for some time been settledthere, and we may take it for granted that Norsesettlers had made their home in Northumbria at someearlier period. We find, too, at quite an early time,that Norse and Irish had mingled and intermarried inIreland, forming a distinct race called the Gall-Gael,or “Foreigners and Irish,” who had their own fleetsand armies; and it is said that on account of theirclose family connexion many of the Christian Irishforsook their religion and relapsed into the paganismof the Norse who lived amongst them. We shall find,as we go on in the history, that generally the contrarywas the case, and that contact with Christianity inthese islands caused many Norse chiefs and princes toadopt our faith; indeed, it was largely through Irishand English influence that Iceland and Norway becameChristian. Though we may not always approve of theway in which this was brought about, the fact itself isinteresting.

The first settlers in Iceland were Irish hermits, whotook with them Christian books, bells, and croziers,and the first Christian church built on the island wasdedicated to St Columba, the Irish founder of theScottish monastery of Iona, through whom Christianitywas brought to Scotland.

Yet there is no doubt that the coming of theNorthmen was looked upon with dread by the English,and there is a tone of terror in the first entry inthe chronicles of their arrival upon the coast. Thisentry is so important that we will give it in the wordsof one of the old historians: “Whilst the pious KingBertric [King of Wessex] was reigning over the western13parts of the English, and the innocent people spreadthrough the plains were enjoying themselves in tranquillityand yoking their oxen to the ploughs, suddenlythere arrived on the coast a fleet of Danes, not large,but of three ships only: this was their first arrival.When this became known, the King’s officer, who wasalready stopping in the town of Dorchester, leaped onhis horse and galloped forwards with a few men to theport, thinking that they were merchants rather thanenemies, and commanding them in an authoritativetone, ordered them to go to the royal city; but hewas slain on the spot by them, and all who were withhim.”1

This rude beginning was only a forecast of what wasto follow. We hear of occasional viking bands arrivingat various places on the coast from Kent to Northumbria,and ravaging wherever they appeared. At first theyseem to have wandered round the coast withoutthought of remaining anywhere, but about sixty yearsafter their first appearance (in 851), we find themsettling on the warmer and more fertile lands of Englandduring the winter, though they were off again when thesummer came, foraging and destroying. This becamea regular habit with these visitors, and led graduallyto permanent settlements, especially in Northumbria.The intruders became known as “the army,” and theappearance of “the army” in any district filled theinhabitants with terror. Our first definite story ofthe Northmen in England is connected with theappearance of “the army” in YorkshireA.D. 867.We learn from the English chronicles that violentinternal discord was troubling Northumbria at thistime. The king of the Northumbrians was Osbert,14but the people had risen up and expelled him, we knownot for what reason,2 and had placed on the throne aman named Ælla, “not of royal blood,” who seems tohave been the leader of the people.

Just at this moment, when the country was mostdivided, the dreaded pagan army advanced over themouth of the Humber from the south-east into Yorkshire.In this emergency all classes united for the commondefence, and we find Osbert, the dethroned king, noblymarching side by side with his rival to meet the Northmen.Hearing that a great army was approaching,the Northmen shut themselves up within the walls ofYork, and attempted to defend themselves behindthem. The Northumbrians succeeded in making abreach in the walls and entering the town; but, inspiredby fear and necessity, the pagans made a fierce sally,cutting down their foes on all sides, inside and outsidethe walls alike. The city was set on fire, those whoescaped making peace with the enemy. From that timeonward the Northmen were seldom absent from Northumbria.York became one of their chief headquarters,and the constant succession of Norse ships along thecoast gradually brought a considerable influx of Norseinhabitants to that part of England. It became, infact, a viking kingdom, under the sons of RagnarLodbrog, whose story we have now to tell. This wasin the time of the first Ethelred, when Alfred the Greatwas about twenty years of age. Ethelred was toomuch occupied in warring with the pagans in the Southof England to be able to give any aid to theNorthumbrians.

According to the Danish and Norse accounts,the leader of the armies of the Northmen onthe occasion we have just referred to was thefamous Ragnar Lodbrog, one of the earliest and mostterrible of the Northern vikings. The story of Ragnarstands just on the borderland between mythology andhistory, and it is difficult to tell how much of it is true,but in some of its main outlines it accords with therather scanty information we get at this time from theEnglish annals. An old tradition relates how Ragnargot his title of Lodbrog, or “Hairy-breeks.”

It is said that the King of the Swedes, who was fondof hunting in the woods, brought home some snakesand gave them to his daughter to rear. Of these curiouspets she took such good care that they multiplieduntil the whole countryside was tormented with them.Then the King, repenting his foolish act, proclaimedthat whosoever should destroy the vipers should have hisdaughter as his reward. Many warriors, attracted bythe adventure, made an attempt to rid the country of thesnakes, but without much success. Ragnar also determinedto try to win the princess. He caused a dress to bemade of woolly material and stuffed with hair to protecthim, and put on thick hairy thigh-pieces that the snakes16could not bite. Then he plunged his whole body, cladin this covering, into freezing water, so that it froze onhim, and became hard and impenetrable. Thus attired,he approached the door of the palace alone, his swordtied to his side and his spear lashed in his hand. Ashe went forward an enormous snake glided up in front,and others, equally large, attacked him in the rear.The King and his courtiers, who were looking on, fledto a safe shelter, watching the struggle from afar likeaffrighted little girls. But Ragnar, trusting to thehardness of his frozen dress, attacked the vipers boldly,and drove them back, killing many of them with hisspear.

Then the King came forward and looked closely atthe dress which had withstood the venom of the serpents.He saw that it was rough and hairy, and he laughed loudlyat the shaggy breeches, which gave Ragnar an uncouthappearance. He called him in jest Lodbrog (Lod-brokr),or “Hairy-breeks,” and the nickname stuck to him allhis life. Having laid aside his shaggy raiment and puton his kingly attire, Ragnar received the maiden asthe reward of his victory. He had several sons, ofwhom the youngest, Ivar, was well known in after yearsin Britain and Ireland, and left a race of rulers there.

Meanwhile the ill-disposed people of his own kingdom,which seems to have included the districts we now knowas Zealand or Jutland, one of those small divisions intowhich the Northern countries were at that time brokenup,3 during the absence of Ragnar stirred up the inhabitantsto depose him and set up one Harald as king.Ragnar, hearing of this, and having few men at hiscommand, sent envoys to Norway to ask for assistance.17They gathered a small host together, of weak and strong,young and old, whomsoever they could get, and had ahard fight with the rebels. It is said that Ivar, thoughhe was hardly seven years of age, fought splendidly, andseemed a man in courage though only a boy in years.Siward, or Sigurd Snake-eye, Ragnar’s eldest son,received a terrible wound, which it is said that Woden,the father of the gods of the North, came himself tocure. The battle would have gone against Ragnarbut for the courage of a noble woman named Ladgerda,who, “like an Amazon possessed of the courage of aman,” came to the hero’s assistance with a hundred andtwenty ships and herself fought in front of the host withher loose hair flying about her shoulders. All marvelledat her matchless deeds, for she had the spirit of a warriorin a slender frame, and when the soldiers began to wavershe made a sally, taking the enemy unawares on therear, so that Harald was routed with a great slaughterof his men. This was by no means the only occasionin the history of these times that we hear of women-warriors;both in the North and in Ireland womenoften went into battle, sometimes forming whole femalebattalions. The women of the North were brave, pure,and spirited, though often fierce and bitter. Theytook their part in many ways beside their husbandsand sons.

About this time Thora, Ragnar’s wife, died suddenlyof an illness, which caused infinite sorrow to her husband,who dearly loved his spouse. He thought to assuagehis grief by setting himself some heavy task, whichwould occupy his mind and energies. After arrangingfor the administration of justice at home, and trainingfor war all the young men, feeble or strong, who cameto him, he determined to cross over to Britain, since18he had heard of the dissensions that were going on,and the weakness of the country. This was before thetime of Ælla, when, as the Danish annals tell us, hisfather, Hame, “a most noble youth,” was reigning inNorthumbria. This king, Ragnar attacked and killed,and then, leaving his young and favourite son to rulethe Danish settlers of Northumbria, he went north toScotland, conquered parts of Pictland, or the North ofScotland, and of the Western Isles, where he made twoothers of his sons, Siward Snake-eye and Radbard,governors.

Having thus formed for himself a kingdom in theBritish Isles, and left his sons to rule over it, Ragnardeparted for a time, and the next few years were spentin repressing insurrections in his own kingdom of Jutland,and in a long series of viking raids in Sweden,Saxony, Germany, and France. His own sons were continuallymaking insurrections against him. Ivar only,who seems to have been recalled and made governor ofJutland, took no part in his brothers’ quarrels, butremained throughout faithful to his father, by whomhe was held in the highest honour and affection.Another son, Ubba, of whom we hear in the Englishchronicles, alternately rebelled against his father andwas received into favour by him. Then, again, Ragnarturned his thoughts to the West, and, descending onthe Orkneys, ravaged there, planting some of thoseviking settlements of which we hear at the opening ofScottish history as being established on the coasts andislands. But two of his sons were slain, and Ragnarreturned home in grief, shutting himself up in his houseand bemoaning their loss, and that of a wife whom hehad recently married. He was soon awakened from hissorrow by the news that Ivar, whom he had left in19Northumbria, had been expelled from the country,and had arrived in Denmark, his own people havingmade him fly when Ælla was set up as king.4 Ragnarimmediately roused himself from his dejection, gaveorders for the assembling of his fleet, and sailed downon Northumbria, disembarking near York. He tookIvar with him to guide his forces, as he was now wellacquainted with the country. Here, as we learn fromthe English chronicles, the battle of York was fought,lasting three days, and costing much blood to the English,but comparatively little to the Danes. The only realdifference between the Danish and English accounts isthat the Northern story says that Ælla was not killed, buthad to fly for a time to Ireland, and it is probable thatthis is true. Ragnar also extended his arms to Ireland,after a year in Northumbria, besieged Dublin, and slewits king, Maelbride (or Melbrik, as the Norse called him),and then, filling his ships with the wealth of the city,which was very rich, he sailed to the Hellespont, winningvictories everywhere, and gaining for himself the titleof the first of the great viking kings.

But it was fated to Ragnar that he was to die in thecountry he had conquered, and when he returned toNorthumbria from his foreign expeditions he was takenprisoner by Ælla, and cast into a pit, where serpents werelet loose upon him and devoured him. No word of complaintcame from the lips of the courageous old manwhile he was suffering these tortures; instead, herecounted in fine verse the triumphs of his life and thedangers of his career. This poem we still possess. Only20when the serpents were gnawing at his heart he washeard to exclaim: “If the little pigs knew the punishmentof the old boar, surely they would break into thesty and loose him from his woe.” These words wererelated to Ælla, who thought from them that some ofRagnar’s sons, whom he called the “little pigs,” muststill be alive: and he bade the executioners stop thetorture and bring Ragnar out of the pit. But whenthey ran to do so they found that Ragnar was dead; hisface scarred by pain, but steadfast as in life. Deathhad taken him out of the hand of the king.

In Ragnar Lodbrog’s death-song he recites in successionhis triumphs and gallant deeds, his wars and battles,in England, Scotland, Mona, the Isle of Man, Ireland,and abroad. Each stanza begins, “We hewed with ourswords!” Here are the final verses, as the serpents,winding around him, came ever nearer to his heart.

It seemed, toward the close of the ninth century,that England would gradually pass into the powerof the Danes and cease to be an independentcountry. They had established themselves not onlyin Northumbria, but in East Anglia and parts of Mercia.We have to think of England at this period not as oneunited kingdom, but as a number of separate principalities,ruled by different kings. The most powerfulof these principalities was Mercia, which occupied thewhole central district of England, from Lincolnshirein the north to Oxford and Buckingham in the south,and west to the borders of Wales. It was governed bya king named Burhred, who found great difficulty inholding his own against incursions from the Welsh onthe one hand and from the Danes of Northumbria onthe other.10

In the south the kingdom of Wessex was cominginto prominence. During the reigns of Alfred and hisbrother, Edward the Elder, Wessex not only held backthe Danes from their tide of progress, but gave itskings to the larger part of England. The kingdom ofWessex extended from Sussex in the east to Devon inthe west, and included our present counties of Hants,23Dorset, Somerset, Berks, and Wilts. It was from thissmall district that the saviour of England was to come,who, by his courage, perseverance, and wisdom, brokethe power of the Danes and kept them back from theconquest of the whole country, which at one timeseemed so probable. This saviour of England wasAlfred the Great.

We know the history of Alfred intimately, for it waswritten for us during the King’s lifetime by his teacherand friend, Asser, who tells us that he came to Alfred“out of the furthest coasts of western Britain.” Hewas Bishop of St David’s, in South Wales.

The account of his coming at Alfred’s request to givehim instruction and to act as his reader must be toldin his own interesting words. He tells us that at thecommand of the King, who had sent in many directions,even as far as Gaul, for men of sound knowledge to givehim and his sons and people instruction, he had comefrom his western home through many interveningprovinces, and arrived at last in Sussex, the countryof the Saxons.

Here for the first time he saw Alfred, in the royal“vill” in which he dwelt, and was received withkindness by the King, who eagerly entered into conversationwith him, and begged him to devote himself tohis service and become his friend. Indeed, so anxiouswas he to secure Asser’s services, that he urged himthen and there to resign his duties in Wales and promisenever to leave him again. He offered him in returnmore than all he had left behind if he would stay withhim. Asser nobly replied that he could not suddenlygive up those who were dependent on his ministrationsand permanently leave the country in which he hadbeen bred and where his duties lay; upon which the24King replied: “If you cannot accede to this, at leastlet me have part of your service; stay with me herefor six months and spend the other six months in theWest with your own people.” To this Asser, seeingthe King so desirous of his services, replied that hewould return to his own country and try to make thearrangement which Alfred desired; and from this timethere grew up a lifelong friendship between these twointeresting men, one learned, simple, and conscientious,the other eager for learning, and bent upon applyingall his wisdom for the benefit of the people over whomhe ruled.

From the life of Alfred, written by his master, wemight imagine that the chief part of the monarch’stime was devoted to learning and study. “Night andday,” Asser tells us, “whenever he had leisure, hecommanded men of learning to read to him;” so thathe became familiar with books which he was himselfunable to read. He loved poetry, and caused it to beintroduced into the teaching of the young. He withgreat labour (for his own education had been sadlyneglected) translated Latin works on history and religion,so that his people might read them. He kept what hecalled a “Manual” or “Handbook,” because he hadit at hand day and night, in which he wrote any passagethey came upon in their reading which especially struckhis mind. Asser tells us in a charming way how hebegan this custom. He says that they were sittingtogether in the King’s chamber, talking, as usual, ofall kinds of subjects, when it happened that the masterread to him a quotation out of a certain book. “Helistened to it attentively, with both his ears, and thoughtfullydrew out of his bosom a book wherein were writtenthe daily psalms and prayers which he had read in his25youth, and he asked me to write the quotation in thatbook. But I could not find any empty space in thatbook wherein to write the quotation, for it was alreadyfull of various matters. Upon his urging me to makehaste and write it at once, I said to him: ‘Would youwish me to write the quotation on a separate sheet?For it is possible that we may find one or more otherextracts which will please you; and if this should happen,we shall be glad that we have kept them apart.’

“‘Your plan is good,’ he said; and I gladly madehaste to get ready a fresh sheet, in the beginning of whichI wrote what he bade me. And on the same day, as Ihad anticipated, I wrote therein no less than threeother quotations which pleased him, so that the sheetsoon became full. He continued to collect these wordsof the great writers, until his book became almost aslarge as a psalter, and he found, as he told me, no smallconsolation therein.”

But, studious as was naturally the mind of Alfred,only a small portion of his life, and that chiefly whenhe became aged, could be given to learning. His careerlay in paths of turmoil and war, and his earlier dayswere spent in camps and among the practical affairs ofa small but important kingdom. Already as a childof eight or ten he had heard of battles and rumours ofwar all around him. He heard of “the heathen men,”as the Danes were called, making advances in the Isleof Wight, at Canterbury and London, and creeping upthe Thames into new quarters in Kent and Surrey.There his father, King Ethelwulf, and his elder brothershad met and defeated them with great slaughter atAclea, or Ockley, “the Oak-plain,” and they returnedhome to Wessex with the news of a complete victory.It was probably to keep his favourite child out of the26way of warfare and danger that Ethelwulf sent himtwice to Rome; the second time he himself accompaniedhim thither, and they returned to find that one ofAlfred’s elder brothers, Ethelbald, had made a conspiracyagainst his own father, had seized the kingdom,and would have prevented Ethelwulf from returninghad he been able. But the warm love of his people,who gathered round him, delighted at his return, preventedthis project from being carried into effect, andthe old man, desiring only peace in his family, dividedthe kingdom between his two eldest sons; but on thedeath of Ethelbald, soon after, Ethelbert joined thetwo divisions together, including Kent, Surrey, andSussex in the same kingdom with Wessex. WhenAlfred was eighteen years of age this brother also died,and for five years more a third brother, Ethelred, saton the throne of Wessex.

It was at this time, when Alfred was growing up tomanhood, that the troubles in Northumbria of which wehave already given an account took place. The reignof Ælla, and his horrible death at the hands of Lodbrog’ssons, was followed by the advance of the pagan army intoMercia, and it was here that Alfred came for the first,time face to face with the enemy against whom muchof his life was to be spent in conflict. Burhred, Kingof the Mercians, sent to Ethelred and Alfred to begtheir assistance against the pagan army. They immediatelyresponded by marching to Nottingham witha large host, all eager to fight the Danes; but thepagans, shut up safely within the walls of the castle,declined to fight, and in the end a peace was patchedup between the Danes and the Mercians, and the twoWessex princes returned home without a battle. Itwas not long, however, before the army was needed27again; for, three years later, in the year 871, whenAlfred was twenty-three years of age, “the army ofthe Danes of hateful memory,” as Asser calls it, enteredWessex itself, coming up from East Anglia, where theyhad wintered. After attacking the then royal city ofReading, on the Thames, they entrenched themselveson the right of the town. Ethelred was not able tocome up with them at so short notice, but the Earl ofBerkshire, gathering a large army, attacked them inthe rear at Englefield Green, and defeated them, manyof them taking to flight. Four days afterwards thetwo princes of Wessex, Ethelred and Alfred, came up,and soon cut to pieces the Danes that were defendingthe city outside; but those Danes who had shut themselvesin the city sallied out of the gates, and after along and hot encounter the army of Wessex fled, thebrave Earl of Berkshire being among the slain.

Roused by this disaster, the armies of Wessex, inshame and indignation, collected their whole strength,and within four days they were ready again to givebattle to the Danes at Ashdune (Aston), “the Hill ofthe Ash,” in the same county. They found the Danesdrawn up in two divisions, occupying high ground; whilethe army of Wessex was forced to attack from below.Both parties began to throw up defences, and the Daneswere pressing forward to the attack; but Alfred, who waswaiting for the signal to begin the battle, found thathis elder brother, Ethelred, was nowhere to be seen. Hesent to inquire where he was, and learned that he washearing mass in his tent, nor would he allow the serviceto be interrupted or leave his prayers till all was finished.It had been arranged that Alfred with his troops shouldattack the smaller bodies of the Danes, while Ethelred,who was to lead the centre, took the general command;28but the enemy were pushing forward with such eagernessthat Alfred, having waited as long as he dared for hisbrother, was forced at length to give the signal for ageneral advance. He bravely led the whole armyforward in a close phalanx, without waiting for theKing’s arrival, and a furious battle took place, concentratingchiefly around a stunted thorn-tree, standingalone, which, Asser tells us, he had seen with his owneyes on the spot where the battle was fought. A greatdefeat was inflicted on the Danes; one of their kingsand five of their earls were killed, and the plain ofAshdune was covered with the dead bodies of the slain.The whole of that night the pagans fled, closely followedby the victorious men of Wessex, until weariness andthe darkness of the night brought the conflict to anend.

It was in the midst of incessant warfare that Alfredascended the throne of Wessex. Ethelred, hisbrother, died a few months after the battle ofAshdune, and in the same year, that in which Alfredcame to the throne, no less than nine general battleswere fought between Wessex and the Danes. Botharmies were exhausted, and a peace was patched upbetween them, the Danish army withdrawing to theeast and north, and leaving Wessex for a short timein peace. But they drove King Burhred out of Mercia,and overseas to Rome, where he soon afterwards died.He was buried in the church belonging to an Englishschool which had been founded in the city by theSaxon pilgrims and students who had taken refuge inRome from the troubles in England.

It would seem that Alfred’s chief troubles during theyears following were caused by the fierce sons of RagnarLodbrog, brothers of Ivar the Boneless of Northumbria.These three brothers, Halfdene, Ivar, and Ubba,overran the whole country, appearing with greatrapidity at different points, so that, as one historiansays, they were no sooner pushed from one district thanthey reappeared in another. Alfred tried by everymeans to disperse the Danish army. He made them30swear over holy relics to depart, but their promise washardly given before it was broken again; he raised afleet after their own pattern and attacked them at sea;and he laid siege to Exeter, where they had entrenchedthemselves, cutting off their provisions and means ofretreat. It was like fighting a swarm of flies; howevermany were killed, more came overseas to take theirplace. “For nine successive years,” writes William ofMalmesbury, “he was battling with his enemies, sometimesdeceived by false treaties, and sometimes wreakinghis vengeance on the deceivers, till he was at lastreduced to such extreme distress that scarcely threecounties, that is to say, Hampshire, Wiltshire, andSomerset, stood fast by their allegiance.” He wascompelled to retreat to the Isle of Athelney, where,supporting himself by fishing and forage, he, with afew faithful followers, led an unquiet life amid themarshes, awaiting the time when a better fortuneshould enable them to recover the lost kingdom. Onehard-won treasure they had with them in their islandfortress. This was the famous Raven Banner, thewar-flag which the three sisters of Ivar and Ubba,Lodbrog’s daughters, had woven in one day for theirbrothers. It was believed by them that in every battlewhich they undertook the banner would spread like aflying raven if they were to gain the victory; but ifthey were fated to be defeated it would hang downmotionless. This flag was taken from the brothers inDevon at the battle in which Ubba was slain, and muchbooty with it. No doubt it was cherished as an omenof future victory by the followers of the unfortunateAlfred in their retreat.

But Alfred was not idle. Slowly but surely he gatheredaround him a devoted band, and his public reappearance31in Wiltshire some months afterwards, in the spring orsummer of 878, was the signal for the joyous return tohim of a great body of his subjects. With a largearmy he struck camp, meeting the foe at Eddington orEthandun, and there defeated the pagans in so decisivea battle that after fourteen days of misery, “drivenby famine, cold, fear, and last of all by despair, theyprayed for peace, promising to give the King as manyhostages as he desired, but asking for none in return.”“Never before,” writes Asser, “had they concludedsuch an ignominious treaty with any enemy,” and theking, taking pity on them, received such hostages asthey chose to give, and what was more important, apromise from them that they would leave the kingdomimmediately. Such promises had been given by the Danesbefore, and had not been kept. But the Danish chief orprince with whom Alfred was now dealing was of a differenttype from the sons of Ragnar. He was a man ofhigh position and character; not a viking in the usualsense, for he had been born in England, where his fatherhad settled and been baptized, and Alfred knew that inGorm, or Guthrum, he had a foe whom he could bothrespect for his courage and depend on for his fidelity.

This Gorm is called in the Northern chronicles,“Gorm the Englishman,” on account of his birth andlong sojourn in this country. Though a prince ofDenmark, he had spent a great part of his life in England,and he had held the Danes together, and been theirleader in many of their victories against Alfred. Itwas during his absence from England, when he hadbeen forced to go back to Denmark to bring thingsinto order in his own kingdom, that the English hadgathered courage, under Alfred’s leadership, to revoltagainst him. His absence was short, but he was unable32on his return to recover his former power, and the resultwas the great defeat of the Danes of which we havejust spoken. It had been one of Alfred’s stipulationsthat Gorm, or Guthrum (as he was called in England),should become a Christian; this he consented to do,the more inclined, perhaps, because his father had beenbaptized before him; accordingly, three weeks afterthe battle, King Gorm, with about thirty of his mostdistinguished followers, repaired to Alfred at a placenear Athelney, where he was baptized, Alfred himselfacting as his godfather. After his baptism, he remainedfor twelve days with the King at the royal seat ofWedmore; and Alfred gave him and his followersmany gifts, and they parted as old friends. His baptismalname was Athelstan. For a time he seems tohave remained in East Anglia, and settled that country;but soon afterwards he returned to his own kingdom,where the attachment of his people seems to have beenall the greater on account of his ill-luck in England.Though he irretrievably lost his hold on this country,he remained firmly seated on the throne of Denmark.He was the ancestor of Canute the Great, joint King ofDenmark and of England, who regained all, and morethan all, that his great-grandfather had lost in thiscountry, for Canute ruled, not over a portion of England,but over an undivided kingdom. Gorm died in 890.

The latter part of Alfred’s reign was devoted to theaffairs of his country. He gave his people good laws;dividing the kingdom into divisions called “hundreds”and “tythings,” which exercised a sort of internaljurisdiction over their own affairs. He rebuilt London,and over the whole of his kingdom he caused housesto be built, good and dignified beyond any that hadhitherto been known in the land. He encouraged33industries of all kinds, and had the artificers taughtnew and better methods of work in metals and gold.He encouraged religion and learning, inviting good andlearned men from abroad or wherever he could hear ofthem, and richly rewarding their efforts. He devotedmuch time to prayer; but his wise and sane mindprevented him from becoming a bigot, as his activityin practical affairs prevented him from becoming amere pedant. One of his most lasting works was theestablishment of England’s first navy, to guard hershores against the attacks of foreigners. All thesegreat reforms were carried out amid much personalsuffering, for from his youth he had been afflicted withan internal complaint, beyond the surgical knowledgeof his day to cure, and he was in constant pain of a kindso excruciating that Asser tells us the dread of its returntortured his mind even when his body was in comparativerest. There is in English history no characterwhich combines so many great qualities as that ofAlfred. Within and without he found his kingdom inperil and misery, crushed down, ignorant and withoutreligion; he left it a flourishing and peaceful country,united and at rest. When his son, Edward the Elder,succeeded him on the throne, not only Wessex but thewhole North of England, with the Scots, took him “forfather and lord”; that is, they accepted him, for thefirst time in history, as king of a united England. Thisgreat change was the outcome of the many years ofpatient building up of his country which Alfred hadbrought about through wise rule. He was open-handedand liberal to all, dividing his revenue into two parts,one half of which he kept for his own necessities andthe uses of the kingdom and for building noble edifices;the other for the poor, the encouragement of learning,34and the support and foundation of monasteries. Hetook a keen interest in a school for the young nobleswhich he founded and endowed, determining that othersshould not, in their desire for learning, meet with thesame difficulties that he had himself experienced. In hischildhood it had not been thought necessary that evenprinces and men of rank should be taught to read;and the story is familiar to all that he was enticed to alonging for knowledge by the promise of his stepmotherJudith, daughter of the King of the Franks, who hadbeen educated abroad, that she would give a book ofSaxon poetry which she had shown to him and his brotherto whichever of them could first learn to read it andrepeat the poetry by heart. Alfred seems to have learnedLatin from Asser, for he translated several famous booksinto Saxon, so that his people might attain a knowledgeof their contents without the labour through which hehimself had gone. When we consider that he was also,as William of Malmesbury tells us, “present in everyaction against the enemy even up to the end of his life,ever daunting the invaders, and inspiring his subjectswith the signal display of his courage,” we may welladmire the indomitable energy of this man. In his oldage he caused candles to be made with twenty-fourdivisions, to keep him aware of the lapse of time andhelp him to allot it to special duties. One of his attendantswas always at hand to warn him how his candlewas burning, and to remind him of the special duty hewas accustomed to perform at any particular hour ofthe day or night.

The latter years of Alfred were comparatively freefrom incursions by the Danes or Norsemen; this wasthe period during which the attention of the Norsewas attracted in other directions. The conquests of35Rollo or Rolf the Ganger or “the Walker” in theNorth of France were attracting a large body of the moreturbulent spirits to those shores which in after-timesthey were to call Normandy, or the land of the Northmen.After Gorm the Englishman’s submission toAlfred many of the Danes from England seem to havejoined these fresh bands of marauders, advancing upthe Seine to Paris, and devastating the country asfar as the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Marne on theeast and Brittany on the west. In time to come,under Rollo’s descendant, William the Conqueror,these people were once more to pour down uponEnglish shores and reconquer the land that their forefathershad lost through Alfred’s bravery and statesmanship.Rollo overran Normandy for the first timein the year 876,11 and William the Conqueror landed atPevensey in 1066, nearly two hundred years later.William’s genealogy was as follows:—He was son ofRobert the Magnificent, second son of Richard theGood, son of Richard the Fearless, son of WilliamLongsword, son of Rollo or Rolf the Walker—sixgenerations. The direct connexion between the Anglo-Normanhouses was through Emma, daughter ofRichard the Fearless, who married first Ethelred theUnready, King of England, and afterwards his enemyand successor, Canute the Great. It was on account ofthis connexion that William the Conqueror laid claimto the Crown of England.

There were yet other directions towardwhich the Norse viking-hosts had alreadyturned their eyes. Not far out from thecoasts of Norway lay the Orkney and Shetland Islands,and beyond them again the Faröe Isles rose bleak andtreeless from the waters of the northern sea. The shallowboats of the Norsemen, though they dreaded the openwaters of the Atlantic, were yet able, in favourableweather, to push their way from one set of islands toanother, and from the earliest times of which we knowanything about them they had already made somesettlements on these rocky shores. To the Norseman,accustomed to a hardy life and brought up towring a scanty livelihood almost out of the barrencliff itself, even the Orkney and Shetland Isles hadattractions. Those who have seen the tiny steadingsof the Norwegian farmer to-day, perched up onwhat appears from below to be a perfectly inaccessiblecliff, with only a few feet of soil on whichto raise his scanty crop, solitary all the year roundsave for the occasional visit of a coasting steamer,will the less wonder that the islands on the Scottish coastproved attractive to his viking forefathers. Often, incrossing that stormy sea, the adventurous crew found a37watery grave, or encountered such tempests that theviking boat was almost knocked to pieces; but on thewhole these hardy seamen passed and repassed overthe North Sea with a frequency that surprises us,especially when we remember that their single-sailedboats were open, covered in only at the stem or stern,12and rowed with oars. We hear of these settlers onour coasts before Norwegian history can be said tohave begun; and from early times, also, they carriedon a trade with Ireland; we hear of a merchant in theIcelandic “Book of the Settlements” named Hrafn,who was known as the “Limerick trader,” becausehe carried on a flourishing business with that town,which later grew into importance under the sons ofIvar, who settled there and built the chief part ofthe city.

But during the latter years of Alfred’s reign and formany years after his death a great impetus was givento the settlements in the North of Scotland by the comingto the throne of Norway of the first king who reignedover the whole country, Harald Fairhair. He establisheda new form of rule which was very unpopularamong his great lords and landowners, and the consequenceof this was that a large number of his mostpowerful earls or “jarls” left the country with theirfamilies and possessions and betook themselves toIceland, the Orkneys and Hebrides, and to Ireland.They did not go as marauders, as those who went beforethem had done, but they went to settle, and establishnew homes for themselves where they would be freefrom what they considered to be Harald Fairhair’soppressive laws. Before his time each of these jarlshad been his own master, ruling his own district as an38independent lord, but paying a loose allegiance to theprince who chanced at the time to prove the mostpowerful. From time to time some more ambitiousprince arose, who tried to subdue to his authority themen of consequence in his own part of the country,but hitherto it had not come into the mind of any oneof them to try to make himself king over the wholeland.

The idea of great kingdoms was not then a commonone. In England up to this time no king had reignedover the whole country; there had been separaterulers for East Anglia, Wessex, Northumbria, etc.,sometimes as many as seven kings reigning at the sametime in different parts of the country, in what was calledthe “Heptarchy.” It was only when the need of apowerful and capable ruler was felt, and there chancedto be a man fitted to meet this need, as in Alfred’s timeand that of his son, Edward the Elder, that the kingdomsdrew together under one sovereign. But even then itwas not supposed that things would remain permanentlylike this; under a weaker prince they might atany moment split up again into separate dynasties.In Ireland this system remained in force far longer,for centuries indeed, the country being broken up intoindependent and usually warring chiefdoms. Abroad,none of the Northern nations had united themselvesinto great kingdoms up to the time of Harald Fairhair,but about this date a desire began to show itself toconsolidate the separate lordships under single dynasties,partly because it chanced that men of more than usualpower and ambition happened to be found in them,and partly for protection from neighbouring States;in the case of Harald himself, his pride also led himto desire to take a place in the world as important39as that of the neighbouring kings. In Sweden KingEirik and in Denmark King Gorm the Old were establishingthemselves on the thrones of united kingdoms.The effort of Harald to accomplish the same task inNorway was so important in its effects, not only onthe future history of his own country, but on that ofportions of our own, that it is worth while to tell itmore in detail.

Harald was son of Halfdan the Black, with whosereign authentic Norwegian history begins. Halfdanruled over a good part of the country, which he hadgained by conquest, and he was married to Ragnhild,a wise and intelligent woman, and a great dreamer ofdreams. It is said that in one of her dreams she foretoldthe future greatness of her son Harald Fairhair.She thought she was in her herb-garden, her shiftfastened with a thorn; she drew out the thorn withher hand and held it steadily while it began to growdownward, until it finally rooted itself firmly in theearth. The other end of it shot upward and becamea great tree, blood-red about the root, but at the topbranching white as snow. It spread until all Norwaywas covered by its branches. The dream came truewhen Harald, who was born soon afterwards, subduedall Norway to himself.

Harald grew up strong and remarkably handsome,very expert in all feats, and of good understanding.It did not enter his head to extend his dominions untilsome time after his father’s death, for he was only tenyears old at that time, and his youth was troubled bydissensions among his nobles, who each wanted topossess himself of the conquests made by Halfdan theBlack; but Harald subdued them to himself as farsouth as the river Raum. Then he set his affections40on a girl of good position named Gyda, and sentmessengers to ask her to be his wife. But she was aproud and ambitious girl, and declared that she wouldnot marry any man, even though he were styled a king,who had no greater kingdom than a few districts. “Itis wonderful to me that while in Sweden King Eirikhas made himself master of the whole country and inDenmark Gorm the Old did the same, no prince inNorway has made the entire kingdom subject to himself.And tell Harald,” she added, “that when he has madehimself sole King of Norway, then he may come andclaim my hand; for only then will I go to him as hislawful wife.” The messengers, when they heard thishaughty answer, were for inflicting some punishmentupon her, or carrying her off by force; but they thoughtbetter of it and returned to Harald first, to learn whathe would say. But the King looked at the matter inanother light. “The girl,” he said, “has not spokenso much amiss as that she should be punished for it,but on the contrary I think she has said well, for shehas put into my mind what it is wonderful thatI never before thought of. And now I solemnlyvow, and I take God, who rules over all things,to witness, that never will I clip or comb my hairuntil I have subdued Norway, with scat,13 dues, anddominions to myself; or if I succeed not, I will diein the attempt.”

The messengers, hearing this, thanked the King,saying that “it was royal work to fulfil royalwords.”

After this, Harald set about raising an army and41ravaging the country, so that the people were forcedto sue for peace or to submit to him; and he marchedfrom place to place, fighting with all who resisted him,and adding one conquest after another to his crown;but many of the chiefs of Norway preferred death tosubjection, and it is stated of one king named Herlaugthat when he heard that Harald was coming he ordereda great quantity of meat and drink to be brought andplaced in a burial-mound that he had erected for himself,and he went alive into the mound and ordered it to becovered up and closed. A mound answering to thisdescription has been opened not far north of Trondhjem,near where King Herlaug lived, and in it were foundtwo skeletons, one in a sitting posture, while in a secondchamber were bones of animals. It is believed thatthis was Herlaug’s mound where he and a slave wereentombed; it had been built for himself and his brotherKing Hrollaug, to be their tombs when they were dead,but it became the sepulchre of the living. As forHrollaug, he determined to submit to Harald, and heerected a throne on the summit of a height on whichhe was wont to sit as king, and ordered soft beds tobe placed below on the benches on which the earls wereaccustomed to sit when there was a royal council. Thenhe threw himself down from the king’s seat into theseat of the earls, in token that he would resign hissovereignty to Harald and accept an earldom underhim; and he entered the service of Harald and gavehis kingdom up to him, and Harald bound a shield tohis neck and placed a sword in his belt and acceptedhis service; for it was his plan, when any chief submittedto him, to leave him his dominions, but to reduce himto the position of a jarl, holding his rights from himselfand owning fealty to him.

In many ways the lords were richer and better offthan before, not only because they had less cause tofight among themselves, being all Harald’s men, butbecause they were made collectors of the land dues andfines for the King, and out of all dues collected the earlreceived a third part for himself; and these dues hadbeen so much increased by Harald that the earls hadgreater revenues than before; only each earl wasbound to raise and support sixty men-at-arms for theKing’s service, while the chief men under them had alsoto bring into the field their quota of armed men. ThusHarald endeavoured to establish a feudal system inNorway similar to that introduced into England byWilliam the Conqueror, and in time the whole countrywas subdued outwardly to his service, and Harald wonhis bride. But although he cut off or subdued hisopponents and there was outward peace, a fierce discontentsmouldered in the minds of many of the nobleswho hitherto had been independent lords, and theywould not brook the authority of Harald, but fled oversea,or joined the viking cruisers, so that the seasswarmed with their vessels and every land was infestedwith their raids. It was at this time that Iceland andthe Faröe Islands were colonized by people driven out ofNorway, and others went to Shetland and the Orkneysand Hebrides and joined their countrymen there;others settled in Ireland, and others, again, lived aroving life, marauding on the coasts of their owncountry in the summer, and in other lands in the winterseason; so that Norway itself was not free from theirraids. King Harald fitted out a fleet and searched allthe islands and wild rocks along the coast to clear themof the vikings. This he did during three summers,and wherever he came the vikings took to flight, steering43out into the open sea; but no sooner was the King gonehome again than they gathered as thickly as before,devastating up into the heart of Norway to the north;until Harald grew tired of this sort of work, and onesummer he sailed out into the western ocean, followingthem to Shetland and the Orkneys, and slaying everyviking who could not save himself by flight. Then hepushed his way southward along the Hebrides, whichwere called the Sudreys14 then, and slew many vikingswho had been great lords in their time at home inNorway; and he pursued them down to the Isle of Man;but the news of his coming had gone before him and hefound all the inhabitants fled and the island left entirelybare of people and property. So he turned north again,himself plundering far and wide in Scotland, and leavinglittle behind him but the hungry wolves gatheringon the desolate sea-shore. He returned to theOrkneys, and offered the earldom of those islands toRagnvald, one of his companions, the Lord of More,who had lost a son in the war; but Ragnvald preferredto return with Harald to Norway, so hehanded the earldom of Orkney and the Isles over tohis brother Sigurd. King Harald agreed to this andconfirmed Sigurd in the earldom before he departedfor Norway.

When King Harald had returned home again, andwas feasting one day in the house of Ragnvald, Earl ofMore, he went to a bath and had his hair combed anddressed in fulfilment of his vow. For ten years hishair had been uncut, so that the people called himLufa or “Shockhead”; but when he came in with his44hair shining and combed after the bath, Ragnvaldcalled him Harfager, or “Fair Hair,” and all agreedthat it was a fitting name for him, and it clung to himthenceforward, so that he is known as Harald Harfagerto this day.

There is yet another direction to which wemust turn our attention, if we would understandthe grip that the Northmen at thistime had taken on the British Islands, and the generaltrend of Norse and Danish history outside their owncountry. Their conquests and influence in Irelandwere even more widespread and equally lasting withthose in England. We find them from the beginningof the ninth century (from aboutA.D. 800 onward)making investigations all round the coast of Ireland,and pushing their way up the rivers in different directions.The Norse, many of whom probably reachedIreland by way of the Western Isles and Scotland,consolidated their conquests in the north under aleader named Turgesius (perhaps a Latinized form ofThorgils), who ruled from the then capital of Irelandand the ecclesiastical city of St Patrick, Armagh.Thorgils was a fierce pagan, and he established himselfas high-priest of Thor, the Northman’s god of thunder,in the sacred church of St Patrick, desecrating it withheathen practices; while he placed his wife Ota aspriestess in another of the sacred spots of Ireland, theancient city of Clonmacnois, on the Shannon, with itsseven churches and its high crosses, from the chiefchurch of which she gave forth her oracles.

Soon after this there arrived in Ireland anotherchief, named Olaf the White, who chose Dublin, thena small town on the river Liffey, as his capital, buildingthere a fortress, and establishing a “Thing-mote,” orplace of meeting and lawgiving, such as he was accustomedto at home. From this date the importance ofArmagh waned, and Dublin became not only the Norsecapital of Ireland and an important city, but also thecentre from which many Norse and Danish kings ruledover Dublin and Northumbria at once. We shall seewhen we come to the time of Athelstan, and the storyof Olaf Cuaran, or Olaf o’ the Sandal, who claimedkingship over both Ireland and Northumbria, howclose was the connexion between the two.

The Danes, who succeeded the Norwegians, firstcame to Ireland in the year 847, probably crossing overfrom England. They had heard much of the successesof the Northmen or Norwegians in Ireland, and theycame over to dispute their conquests with them andtry to take from them the fruit of their victories. Theydid not at first think of warring with the Irish themselves,but only with their old foes, the Norsemen, whomthey were ready to fight wherever they could find them;but as time went on we find them fighting sometimeson one side and sometimes on the other, mixing themselvesup in the private quarrels of the Irish chiefsand kings, often for their own advantage. On theother hand, the Irish chiefs were often ready enoughto take advantage of their presence in the country toget their help in fighting with their neighbours.

The Kings of Dublin in the later time were Danishprinces, who passed on to other parts of Ireland, buildingforts in places which had good harbours and couldeasily be fortified, such as Limerick and Waterford,47which were for long Danish towns, ruled by Danishchiefs, most of them of the family of Ivar of Northumbria.Though their hold on their settlements was at all timesprecarious, and they met with many reverses, andseveral decisive defeats from the Irish, the Danesgradually succeeded in building up their Irish andNorthumbrian kingdom. The official title of theserulers was “King of the Northmen of all Ireland andNorthumbria.”

The story we have now to tell is connected with aprince who probably was not a Dane, but a Norseman,or a “Fair-foreigner,” as the Irish called them, todistinguish them from the Danes, or “Dark-foreigners.”This was Olaf the White, who came to Ireland in 853.In the course of a warring life he succeeded in makinghimself King of the Norse in Dublin. He seems to havebeen of royal descent, and he was married to Aud, orUnn, daughter of Ketill Flatnose, a mighty and high-bornlord in Norway. Aud is her usual name, but inthe Laxdæla Saga, where we get most of her history,she is named Unn the Deep-minded or Unn the Very-wealthy.All this great family left their native shoresafter King Harald Fairhair came to the throne, andthey settled in different places, Ketill himself in theOrkney Isles, where some of his sons accompanied him;but his son Biorn the Eastman and Helgi, another son,said they would go to Iceland and settle there. Sailingup the west coast, they entered a firth which theycalled Broadfirth. They went on shore with a fewmen, and found a narrow strip of land between the foreshoreand the hills, where Biorn thought he would find aplace of habitation. He had brought with him thepillars of his temple from his home in Norway, as manyof the Icelandic settlers did, and he flung them overboard,48as was the custom with voyagers, to see wherethey would come ashore. When they were washed upin a little creek he said that this must be the placewhere he should build his house; and he took forhimself all the land between Staff River and Lava Firth,and dwelt there. Ever after it was called after himBiorn Haven.

But Ketill and most of his family went to Scotland,except Unn the Deep-minded, his daughter, who waswith her husband, Olaf the White, in Dublin, thoughafter Olaf’s death she joined her father’s family in theHebrides and Orkneys, her son, Thorstein the Red,harrying far and wide through Scotland. He wasalways victorious, and he and Earl Sigurd subduedCaithness, Sutherland, and Ross between them, sothat they ruled over all the north of Scotland.15Troubles arose out of this, for the Scots’ earl did notcare to give up his lands to foreigners, and in the endThorstein the Red was murdered treacherously inCaithness.

When his mother, Unn the Deep-minded, heard this,she thought there would be no more safety for her inScotland; so she had a ship built secretly in a wood,and she put great wealth into it, and provisions; andshe set off with all her kinsfolk that were left alive; forher father had died before that. Many men of worthwent with her; and men deem that scarce any other,let alone a woman, got so much wealth and such afollowing out of a state of constant war as she had done;from this it will be seen how remarkable a woman shewas. She steered her ship for the Faröe Islands, andstayed there for a time, and in every place at whichshe stopped she married off one of her granddaughters,49children of her son, Thorstein the Red, so that hisdescendants are found still in Scotland and the Faröes.But in the end she made it known to her shipmatesthat she intended to go on to Iceland. So they setsail again, and came to the south of Iceland, to Pumicecourse,and there their good ship went on the rocks,and was broken to splinters, but all the sea-farers andgoods were saved.

All that winter she spent with Biorn, her brother,at Broadfirth, and was entertained in the best manner,as no money was spared, and there was no lack of means;for he knew his sister’s large-mindedness. But in thespring she set sail round the island to find lands of herown; she threw her high-seat temple pillars into thesea, and they came to shore at the head of a creek, soUnn thought it was well seen that this was the placewhere she should stay. So she built her house there,and it was afterwards called Hvamm, and there shelived till her old age.

When Unn began to grow stiff and weary in her ageshe wished that the last and youngest of Thorstein theRed’s children, Olaf Feilan, would marry and settledown. She loved him above all men, for he was talland strong and goodly to look at, and she wished tosettle on him all her property at Hvamm before shedied. She called him to her, and said: “It is greatlyon my mind, grandson, that you should settle downand marry.” Olaf spoke gently to the old woman, andsaid he would lean on her advice and think thematter over.

Unn said: “It is on my mind that your wedding-feastshould be held at the close of this summer, for thatis the easiest time to get in all the provision that isneeded. It seems to me a near guess that our friends50will come in great numbers, and I have made up mymind that this is the last wedding-feast that shall beset out by me.”

Olaf said that he would choose a wife who wouldneither rob her of her wealth nor endeavour to ruleover her; and that autumn Olaf chose as his wifeAlfdis, and brought her to his home. Unn exertedherself greatly about this wedding-feast, inviting to itall their friends and kinsfolk, and men of high degreefrom distant parts. Though a crowd of guests werepresent at the feast, yet not nearly so many could comeas Unn asked, for the Iceland firths were wide apartand the journeys difficult.

Old age had fallen fast on Unn since the summer,so that she did not get up till midday, and went earlyto bed. She would allow no one to come to disturbher by asking advice after she had gone to sleep at night;but what made her most angry was being asked howshe was in health. On the day before the wedding,Unn slept somewhat late; yet she was on foot whenthe guests came, and went to meet them, and greetedher friends with great courtesy, and thanked them fortheir affection in coming so far to see her. After thatshe went into the hall, and the great company with her,and when all were seated in the hall every one was muchstruck by the lordliness of the feast.

In the midst of the banquet Unn stood up and saidaloud: “Biorn and Helgi, my brothers, and all myother kinsmen and friends, I call as witnesses to this,that this dwelling, with all that belongs to it, I giveinto the hands of my grandson, Olaf, to own and tomanage.”

Immediately after that Unn said she was tired andwould return to the room where she was accustomed51to sleep, but bade everyone amuse himself as wasmost to his mind, and ordered ale to be drawn out forthe common people. Unn was both tall and portly,and as she walked with a quick step out of the hall, inspite of her age, all present remarked how stately theold lady was yet. They feasted that evening joyously,till it was time to go to bed. But in the morning Olafwent to see his grandmother in her sleeping-chamber,and there he found Unn sitting up against her pillow,dead.

When he went into the hall to tell these tidings,those present spoke of the dignity of Unn, even to theday of her death. They drank together the wedding-feastof Olaf and funeral honours to Unn, and on thelast day of the feast they carried Unn to the burial-moundthat they had raised for her. They laid her in a viking-shipwithin the cairn, as they were wont to bury greatchiefs; and they laid beside her much treasure, andclosed the cairn, and went their ways.

One of the kinsmen was Hoskuld, father of Olaf thePeacock, whose story will be told later on.

While Harald Fairhair was occupied in settlingthe Hebrides and Orkneys with inhabitantsfrom Norway, and Rollo and his successorswere possessing themselves of the larger part of theNorth of France, England and Ireland were enjoyinga period of comparative repose. The twenty-threeyears of Edward the Elder’s reign were devoted largelyto building up the great kingdom which his father,Alfred, had founded, but not consolidated; he broughtMercia more immediately into his power, and subduedEast Anglia and the counties bordering on thekingdom of Wessex; before his death Northumbria,both English and Danish, had invited him to reignover them, and he was acknowledged lord also ofStrathclyde Britain, then an independent princedom,and of the greater part of Scotland. In all his designsEdward was supported by the powerful help of his sister,Ethelfled, “the Lady of the Mercians,” as her peoplecalled her, a woman great of soul, beloved by her subjects,dreaded by her enemies, who not only assisted herbrother with advice and arms, but helped him in carryingout his useful projects of building and strengtheningthe cities in his dominions, a matter which had alsooccupied the attention of their father. This womanhad inherited the high spirit of Alfred; she was the53widow of Ethelred, Prince of Mercia, and she ruled hercountry with vigour after her husband’s death, buildingstrong fortresses at Stafford, Tamworth, Warwick,and other places; she bravely defended herself atDerby, of which she got possession after a severe fightin which four of her thanes were slain. The followingyear she became possessed of the fortress of Leicester,and the greater part of the army submitted to her;the Danes of York also pledged themselves to obey her.This was her last great success, for in 922 the Lady ofMercia died at Tamworth, after eight years of successfulrule of her people. She was buried amid the grief ofMercia at Gloucester, at the monastery of St Peter’s,which she and her husband had erected, on the spotwhere the cathedral now stands.

The most severe attack of the Danes in Edward theElder’s reign was made by two Norse or Danish earlswho came over from the new settlements in Normandyand endeavoured to sail up the Severn, devastatingin their old manner on every hand. They were met bythe men of Hereford and Gloucester, who drove theminto an enclosed place, Edward lining the whole lengthof the Severn on the south of the river up to the Avon,so that they could not anywhere find a place to land.Twice they were beaten in fight, and only those got awaywho could swim out to their ships. They then tookrefuge on a sandy island in the river, and many of themdied there of hunger, the rest taking ship and goingon to Wales or Ireland. One of the great lords of theNorthern army, well known in the history of his owncountry, Thorkill the Tall, of whom we shall hear again,submitted to Edward, with the other Norse leaders ofCentral England, in or about Bedford and Northampton.Two years afterwards we read that Thorkill the Tall,54“with the aid and peace of King Edward,” went overto France, together with such men as he could induceto follow him.

Great changes had been brought about in Englandduring the reigns of Edward and his father. Everywherelarge towns were springing up, overshadowed bythe strong fortresses built for their protection, manyof which remain to the present day. Commerce andeducation everywhere increased, and there was nolonger any chance of young nobles and princes growingup without a knowledge of books. Edward’s largefamily all received a liberal education, in order that“they might govern the state, not like rustics, but likephilosophers”; and his daughters also, as old Williamof Malmesbury tells us, “in childhood gave their wholeattention to literature,” afterwards giving their timeto spinning and sewing, that they might pass theiryoung days usefully and happily.

This was a change of great importance. The rulerwho succeeded Edward, his son, the great and noble-mindedAthelstan, was a man of superior culture, andthe daughters of Edward and Athelstan sought theirhusbands among the reigning princes of Europe.England was no longer a mere group of petty states,always at war with each other, or endeavouring topreserve their existence against foreign pirates; it wasa kingdom recognized in the world, and its friendshipwas anxiously sought by foreign princes.

Another thing which we should remark is that it wasat this time that the Norse first came into close contactwith England. Hitherto her enemies had been Danes,and the kingdom of Northumbria seems to have been aDanish kingdom. But Thorkill the Tall, King Hakon,the foster-son of Athelstan, King Olaf Trygveson, who55all came into England at this period, were Norsemen;and henceforth, until the return of the Danish kingsunder Sweyn and Canute the Great and their successors,it is principally with the history of the Kings of Norwaythat we shall have to deal, in so far as these kings wereconnected with the history of England.

Hitherto the connexion between Great Britain andNorway had been confined to the settlements of theNorse in the Western Isles and in Northern Scotland;but the partial retirement of the Danes from the Southof England, and the importance to which the countryhad recently grown, brought her into closer relationshipwith the North of Europe generally, and with Norwayin particular. This we shall see as our history proceeds.

England was fortunate in having three greatkings in succession at this critical period, allalike bent upon strengthening and advancingthe prosperity of the kingdom.

Athelstan, who came to the throne on the deathof his father Edward, had been a favourite grandsonof Alfred, and people said that he resembled his grandfatherin many ways. When he was only a little fellow,Alfred, delighted with his beauty and graceful manners,had affectionately embraced him, and prayed for thehappiness of his future reign, should he ever come tothe crown of England. He had presented him at anearly age with a scarlet cloak, a belt studded withbrilliants, and a Saxon sword with a golden scabbard,thus, as was customary among many nations at thistime, calling him even in boyhood to prepare himselffor war and admitting him into the company of theKing’s own pages. Alfred then placed him with hisdaughter Ethelfled, the “Lady of Mercia,” to be broughtup in a fitting way for the future care of the kingdom.The young prince could not have had a better instructress.Ethelfled’s liberal spirit, high courage, and goodunderstanding were passed on to her pupil. William57of Malmesbury, who had a great admiration for thisprince and gives us an excellent account of his reign,tells us that there was a strong persuasion among theEnglish that one more just and learned never governedthe kingdom; all his acts go to show that this praisewas well deserved. He was of a good height and slightin person, with fair hair that seemed to shine withgolden threads. Beloved by his subjects, he wasfeared and respected by his enemies. He obliged thewarlike tribes of Wales and Cumberland to pay himtribute, “a thing that no king before him had evendared to think of,” and he forced them to keep withinlimits west of the Wye, as he forced the Cornish Britonsto retire to the western side of the Tamar, fortifyingExeter as a post of strength against them. Not longafter his consecration at Kingston-on-Thames, in 925,amid the happy plaudits of the nation, Athelstanreceived from abroad many marks of the esteem inwhich he was held by foreign princes. Among others,Harald Fairhair sent him as a gift a ship with a goldenprow and a purple sail, furnished with a close fence ofgilded shields. This splendid present was received byAthelstan in state at York, and the envoys who presentedthe gift were richly rewarded by him, and sent homewith every mark of respect and friendliness.

There are two events in Athelstan’s reign that areof great importance to us in connexion with Norsehistory in these islands, the first being his wars inNorthumbria, the second his accepting Hakon, HaraldFairhair’s son, as his foster-child, and bringing him upin England under his own charge and tuition. Wewill deal with these two events in separate chapters.

It was part of Athelstan’s fixed policy, when comingto the throne, to bring into subjection to himself those58outlying portions of England which up to that timehad stood aloof as determined enemies to the centralpower and as absolutely independent kingdoms.Nothing would induce the Welsh or Cornishmen to yield,and we have seen that Athelstan was reduced topenning them up, as far as he could, into their owndistricts, beyond rivers which he endeavoured to makethe borders of their respective countries. But in thenorth he had yet a harder task in his endeavour to reducethe Danish kingdom of Northumbria to submission.

At this time the kingdom of Northumbria was ruledby two of the fiercest and most renowned of all theDanish chiefs who at different times made Englandtheir home. The names of these chiefs were SitricGale, or “The One-eyed,” and his son and successor,Olaf Cuaran, or “Olaf o’ the Sandal,” both men ofwild and romantic careers. Some think that the oldromance of “Havelok the Dane” really describes thehistory of Olaf Cuaran, but this I myself do not thinkto be likely, although Havelok also is called Cuaranin the story. But the name in his legend seems to meana “kitchen-boy,” because he was at one time so poorand needy that he was forced to act as messenger toan earl’s cook, whereas Olaf’s title is an Irish word,meaning “a sandal.” We do not know exactly whyhe was so named.

It would seem that at the beginning of his reign,Athelstan endeavoured by a friendly alliance to bringNorthumbria back to English rule. It was a favouriteand wise plan of his to make alliances by marriagewith foreign princes, and it shows in what esteem hewas held that men of power and position were readyto unite themselves with his family. One of his sistershe married to the Emperor Otto, the restorer of the59Roman Empire, and another he offered in marriageto Sitric Gale, after a friendly meeting arranged bythe two kings at Tamworth on the 3rd of February inthe year in which Athelstan came to the throne (925).With Sitric Athelstan made a close and, as he hoped, alasting covenant; but alas! Sitric died hardly morethan a year afterwards, and on his death Athelstan,evidently in consequence of the arrangement madebetween them, claimed the throne of Northumbria,where he seems to have been peacefully received bythe inhabitants. He spent this year in the north inactive endeavours to quell the last disaffected portionsin the realm. There is no doubt that at this timeAthelstan designed to unite the whole of Britain underhis own sway. He at first drove Howel, King of Wales,and then Constantine, King of the Scots, from theirkingdoms; but not long after, if we are to believe hisadmirer William of Malmesbury, moved with commiseration,he restored them to their original state, sayingthat “it was more glorious to make than to be a king.”However, he obliged both these princes to accept theircrowns as underlords to himself, thus establishing asuzerainty over them.

But his plans did not suit the turbulent Danish princes.Godfrey, brother to Sitric, was at the time of Sitric’sdeath reigning as King of Dublin, but on hearing ofAthelstan’s succession to the sovereignty of Northumbriahe came over hastily and claimed the kingdom. Hewas, however, a man hated both in Northumbria andin Ireland, and Athelstan was strong enough to drivehim out and send him back to Dublin with his Danesin the year 927.

But a more formidable foe than Godfrey was in thefield. This was Olaf o’ the Sandal (called Anlaf in the60English Chronicle), son of Sitric Gale, who seems tohave been in Northumbria at the time, but who wasexpelled with his uncle Godfrey, and went back with theDanes to Dublin. Godfrey died soon after, as theIrish annals tell us, “of a grievous disease,” and forten years Olaf nursed his wrath against Athelstan andawaited his opportunity to revenge himself upon him.He went to Athelstan’s enemy, the Scottish King,Constantine, and entered into a treaty with him,marrying his daughter; and Constantine never ceasedto urge him on to war with the King of England, promisingto support him in every way. Olaf remainedlong in Scotland, and was so much mixed up withScottish affairs, that some Scandinavian historians callhim “King of the Scots.”

It was in the year 937 that their preparations wereat length completed, and one of the most formidablecombinations ever formed against England came to ahead. The battle of Brunanburh, or Brumby, foughtin this year, is chronicled in the Irish and Norse annals,and the Saga of Egil Skalligrimson gives us a detailedaccount both of the battle itself and of the Norsemenwho took part in it. The English Chronicle breaks outinto a wild, spirited poem when describing this battle,and we are told by one English annalist that manyyears afterwards people spoke of the greatness of thisfight.

The battle was probably fought not far from theHumber, though the exact spot is not now known.From the north marched down the Scottish King andhis son, of whom the latter fell in the fight, Olaf o’ theSandal taking charge of a fleet of 115 ships, with whichhe sailed into the Humber. From Dublin the wholeforce of the Danish host in Ireland set sail to join and61support their fellow-countrymen from Scotland, Strathclyde,and Northumbria. This formidable host metthe forces of Athelstan and his brother, Edmund, andwas completely overthrown. Five kings lay dead onthe field, and five of Olaf’s earls. King Olaf16 himselfescaped to his ships and back to Ireland, with theshattered remnant of his magnificent army, thereto become a source of trouble and terror in days yetto come. The poem in the English Chronicle thusdescribes hisflight:—

William of Malmesbury tells us a romantic story ofOlaf Cuaran on the night before the battle. It mayvery well be true; it accords with all we know of hisadventurous character. The chronicler relates that onhearing of the arrival of the Danes and Scots in theNorth Athelstan purposely feigned a retreat. Olaf,who was still quite young and absolutely fearless,62wishing to discover the exact strength of Athelstan’sforces and how they were disposed, assumed the characterof a spy. Laying aside the emblems of royalty,he dressed as a minstrel, and taking a harp in his hand,he proceeded to the King’s tent. Singing before theentrance, and touching the strings of his harp in harmoniouscadence, he was readily admitted, and heentertained the King and his companions for some timewith his musical performance. All the time he waspresent he was carefully observing all that was saidand done around him. When the feast was over, andthe King’s chiefs gathered round for a conference aboutthe war, he was ordered to depart. The King sent hima piece of money as the reward of his song; but one ofthose present, who was watching him closely (for hehad once served under Olaf, though now he was goneover to the side of Athelstan), observed that the minstrelflung the coin on the ground and crushed it into theearth with his foot, disdaining to take it with him.When Olaf was well away this person communicatedwhat he had seen to the King, telling him that he suspectedthat the minstrel was none other than the leaderof his foes. “Why, then, if you thought this,” saidAthelstan angrily, “did you not warn us in time tocapture the Dane?”

“Once,” said the man, “O King, I served in the armyof Olaf, and I took to him the same oath of fidelity thatI afterwards swore to yourself. Had I broken my oathto him and betrayed him to you, you might rightlyhave thought that I would another time act in thesame way toward yourself. But now I pray you, OKing, to remove your tent to another place, and toendeavour to delay the battle till your other troopscome up.”

The King approved of this, and removed his tent toanother part of the field. Well it was that he did so,for that night, while Athelstan was still awaiting theremainder of his army, Olaf and his host fell upon himin the darkness of the night, the chief himself makingstraight for Athelstan’s tent, and slaying in mistakefor him a certain bishop who had joined the army onthe night before and, ignorant of what had passed,had pitched his tent on the spot from which the King’stent had been removed.

Olaf, coming thus suddenly in the darkness of thenight, found the whole army unprepared and deeplysleeping. Athelstan, who was resting after the laboursof the day, hearing the tumult, sprang up and rushedinto the darkness to arouse and prepare his people, butin his haste his sword fell by chance from its sheath,nor could he find it again in the gloom and confusion;but it is said that, when placing his hand on the scabbard,he found in it another sword, which he thought musthave come there by miracle, and which he kept everafter in remembrance of that night. It is probable thatin the hurry of dressing he had laid his hand on a weaponbelonging to one of the chiefs who fought on his side.

Thus in the darkness of night and in wild confusionbegan the battle which, in spite of all, was to endvictoriously for Athelstan and disastrously for hisenemies. The Northern story of the fight, which weare now about to tell, occurs in the Saga of Egil, son ofone Skalligrim, an old man who had betaken himselfto Iceland with most of his family, from the ruleof Harald Fairhair, and who stoutly opposed him onevery occasion.

Skalligrim had two strong, warlike sons, Thorolf andEgil. They found the life in Iceland wearisome, for they64preferred the turmoil of war; so they left old Skalligrim,their father, to his seal-fishing and whale-hunting andhis shipbuilding and smith-work, for he was a manwith many trades, and able and crafty, and careful insaving his money, and went off to fight in Norway andin England. Before the battle of Brunanburh theyhad offered their services to Athelstan, for the Norsewere ever ready to war against the Danes, and theywere in the fight of Brunanburh on his side, each ofthem commanding a troop of Norwegian soldiers, anddid much, as the Saga will show, to help in winning thebattle for the English.

The account of the battle of Brunanburh inEgil’s Saga begins by describing the strongcombination made against Athelstan by theprinces of the north of England with the Scots andWelsh and the Irish Danes, of whom we have alreadyspoken. They thought to take advantage of Athelstan’syouth and inexperience, for he was at this time onlythirty years old. Olaf o’ the Sandal is here called Olafthe Red, which may have been the title by which hewas known in Norway. He marched into Northumbria,“advancing the shield of war.” Athelstan, having laidclaim to Northumbria, set over it two earls, Alfgeirand Gudrek, to defend it against the Irish and Scots,and they mustered all their forces and marched againstOlaf. But they were powerless against his great army,and Earl Gudrek fell, while Alfgeir fled with the mostpart of his followers behind him. When Alfgeir reportedhis defeat to Athelstan he became alarmed, and summonedhis army together; he sent messengers in everydirection to gather fresh forces, and among those whoheard that he wanted men and came to his assistancewere the brothers Thorolf and Egil, who were coastingabout the shores of Flanders. Athelstan received themgladly, for he saw that they were trained fighting-menand brought a good following; but he wished them to66be “prime-signed,” in order that the Norse of his ownarmy might fight on good terms with them.

It was a custom in those days, when pagan mentraded with Christian countries, or when they tookarms for them, that they should allow themselvesto be signed with the cross, which was called “prime-signing,”for then they could hold intercourse withChristians and pagans alike, though they did not therebygive up their pagan faith, and usually returned to theirown worship when they went home to Norway or Iceland.Egil and Thorolf consented to this, for England was atthat time a Christian country. They entered the King’sarmy, and three hundred men-at-arms with them.

But the victory of Olaf had so strengthened his causethat Athelstan heard tidings from every quarter thathis earls and subjects were falling away from him andjoining Olaf. Even the two princes of the Welsh orBritons who had sworn allegiance to Athelstan, andwho had the right to march to battle before the royalstandard, passed over with their troops to the army ofhis foe. When the King received this bad news hesummoned a conference of his captains and counsellors,and put before them point by point what he hadbeen told. They advised that Athelstan should go backto the south of England, levy all the troops that he couldget together and march with them to the north; forthey felt that only the personal influence of the Kingcould save his kingdom against such a combination asthat which Olaf had gathered together. While hewas gone south the King appointed Thorolf and Egilchiefs over his mercenary troops, and gave them thegeneral direction of his army. They were commandedto send a message to Olaf, giving him tidings thatAthelstan would offer battle to him on Vin-heath in67the north, and that he intended to “enhazel” thebattle-field there; he appointed a week from that timefor the conflict, and whoever should win the battlewould rule England as his reward.

When a battlefield was “enhazelled” it was considereda shameful act to harry in the country untilthe battle was over. Olaf accepted the challenge,and brought his army to a town north of Vin-heathand quartered the troops there, awaiting the date of thebattle, while collecting provisions for his men in theopen country round. But he sent forward a detachmentof his army to encamp beside Vin-heath, and there theyfound the ground already marked out and “enhazelled”for the battle. It was a large level plain, whereon agreat host could manœuvre without difficulty. Ariver flowed at one side, and on the outskirts on theother hand was an extensive wood, and between thewood and the river the tents of Athelstan were pitched.All round the space hazel-poles were set up, to markthe ground where the battle was to be; this was called“enhazelling the field.” Only a few of the King’s menhad arrived, but their leaders wished them to pass fora great host, to deceive King Olaf. They planted thetents in front very high, so that it could not be seenover them whether they stood many or few in depth;in the tents behind one out of every three was full ofsoldiers, so that the men had a difficulty in entering, andhad to stand round the doors; but in every third tentthere were only one or two men, and in the remainingthird none at all. Yet when Olaf’s soldiers came nearthem they managed things so that Athelstan’s menseemed to be swarming before the tents, and they gaveout that the tents were over-full, so that they had notnearly room enough. Olaf’s troops, who were pitched68outside the hazel-poles, imagined that a great hostmust be there, and they feared the return of the Kinghimself with the succours he was collecting in the South.Meanwhile, through every part of his dominionsAthelstan sent out the war-arrow, summoning to battle.From place to place his messengers sped, passing thearrow from hand to hand, for it was the law that thewar-arrow might never stop once it was gone out, norbe dropped by the way. From day to day men flockedto the standard from all quarters, and at last it wasgiven out that Athelstan was coming or had come tothe town that lay south of the heath. But when theappointed time had expired and Olaf was busking himfor battle and setting his army in array, purposing toattack, envoys came to him from the leaders ofAthelstan’s host, saying: “King Athelstan is readyfor battle, and hath a mighty host. But he sends toKing Olaf these words, for he desires not to cause suchcarnage as seems likely; he is willing to come to termswith King Olaf, and offers him his friendship, with agift as his ally of one shilling of silver from every ploughthrough all his realm, if Olaf will return quietly toScotland.” Now this was all a ruse, for in fact Athelstanhad not yet arrived, and his captains were only seekingmore time, so that the battle might not be begun byOlaf until the King and his fresh troops were come.

Olaf and his captains were divided as to acceptingthese terms; some were against postponing the fight,and others said that if Athelstan had offered so muchat first he would offer yet more if they held out forhigher terms; others, again, thought the gift so greatthat they would do well to be satisfied with it andreturn home at once. When they heard that therewas division among Olaf’s counsellors, the messengers69were well pleased, and they sent word that if Olafwould give more time they would return to KingAthelstan and try if he would raise his terms for peace.They asked for three days’ further truce, and Olaf grantedthis.

At the end of the third day the envoys returned,saying that the King was so well pleased to have quietin the realm that he would give, over and above theterms already offered, a shilling to every freeborn manin Olaf’s forces, a gold mark to every captain of theguard, and five gold marks to every earl. Again theoffer was laid before the forces, and again opinionswere divided, some saying the offer should be takenand some that it should be refused. Finally King Olafsaid he would accept these terms, if Athelstan wouldadd to them that Olaf should have undisputed authorityover the kingdom of Northumbria, with the dues andtributes thereof, and be permitted to settle down therein peace. Then he would disband his army.

Again the envoys demanded a three days’ truce thatthey might bear the message to the King, and get hisreply; when this was granted, the messengers returnedto the camp. Now during this delay Athelstan hadarrived close to the enhazelled ground with all hishost, and had taken up his quarters south of the field,in the nearest town. His captains laid the whole matterof their treaties with Olaf before the King, and saidthat they had made those treaties in order to delay thebattle until he returned.

Athelstan’s answer was sharp and short. “Returnto King Olaf,” said he, “and tell him that the leavewe give him is to return at once to Scotland with allhis forces; but before he goes he must restore to usall the property he has wrongfully taken in this land.70Further, be it understood that Olaf becomes our vassal,and holds Scotland henceforth under us, as under-king.If this is carried out, then we will make terms of peace,that neither shall harry in the other’s country. Goback and give him our terms.”

The same evening the envoys appeared again beforeKing Olaf, arriving at midnight in his camp. TheKing had to be waked from his sleep in order to hearthe message from King Athelstan. Straightway hesent for his captains and counsellors, to place the matterbefore them. They discovered, too, that Athelstanhad come north that very day, and that the formermessages had not been sent by himself but by hiscaptains.

Then out spake Earl Adils, who had gone over fromAthelstan’s side to the side of the Scottish King: “Now,methinks, O King, that my words have come true, andthat ye have been tricked by these English. Whilewe have been seated here awaiting the answer of theenvoys they have been busy assembling a host. Mycounsel is that we two brothers ride forward this verynight with our troop, and dash upon them unawaresbefore they draw up their line of battle, so we may puta part of them to flight before their King be come upwith them, and so dishearten the others; and you withthe rest of the army can move forward in the morning.”The King thought this good advice, and the councilbroke up.

In the earliest grey of the dawn the leaders ofAthelstan’s host were warned that the sentries sawmen approaching. The war-blast was blown immediately,and word was sent out that the soldiers wereto arm with all speed and fall into rank. Earl Alfgeircommanded one division, and the standard was borne71before him, surrounded by a “shield-burgh” of soldierswith linked shields to protect it. The second division,which was not so large, was commanded by Thorolfand Egil. Thus was Thorolf armed. He had a redwar-shield on his arm, for the shields in time of peacewere white, but in time of war they were red. Hisshield was ample and stout, and he had a massivehelmet on his head. He was girded with the swordhe called “Long,” a weapon large and good. In hishand he had a halberd, with a feather-shaped bladetwo ells in length, ending in a four-edged spike; theblade was broad above, the socket both long and thick.The shaft stood just high enough for the hand to graspthe socket, and was remarkably thick. The socketfitted with an iron prong on the shaft, which was alsowound round with iron. Such weapons were calledmail-piercers.

Egil was armed in the same way as Thorolf. He wasgirded with the right good sword which he called the“Adder.” Neither of the captains wore coats of mail.All the Norwegians who were present were gatheredround their standard, and were armed with mail atevery point; they drew up their force near the wood,while Alfgeir’s moved along the river on their right.

When the captains of Olaf’s party saw that theiradvance was observed, they halted and drew up theirforce in two divisions, one under Earl Adils, whichwas opposed to Earl Alfgeir, the other under EarlHring, which stood opposite to Thorolf and Egil. Thebattle began at once, and both parties charged withspirit. The men of Earl Adils pressed on with suchforce that Alfgeir gave ground, and then the menpressed twice as boldly. In the end Alfgeir’s divisionwas broken and he himself fled south, past the town72in which Athelstan lay. “I deem,” he said to hisfollowers, “the greeting we should get from the Kingwould be a cool one. We got sharp words enoughafter our defeat by Olaf in Northumbria, and he willnot think the better of us now, when we are in flightagain before him. Let us keep clear of the town.”

So he rode night and day till he came to the coast,and there he found a ship which took him over toFrance, and he never returned to England. Thecaptains who had fought with him thought him noloss, for he was something of a coward, and his ownopinion of himself was ever better than that other menhad of him, and they had not approved when the Kinghad forgiven him his first flight and set him again ascaptain in his army.

Now when Adils turned back from pursuing Alfgeirand his men, he came to where Thorolf was makinghis stand against Earl Hring’s detachment, and joinedhis forces to theirs. When Thorolf saw that the enemyhad received reinforcements he said to Egil: “Letus move over to the wood, so that we may have it atour backs, that we be not attacked on all sidesat once.” They did so, drawing up under cover ofthe trees. A furious onset was made upon them there,and furiously they repelled it; so that though theodds of numbers were great, more of Adils’ men fellthan of Egil’s.

Then his “berserking fury”18 came upon Thorolf,and he became so furious that he bit the iron rim ofhis shield for rage; then he flung his shield on hisback, and, grasping his halberd in both hands, hebounded forward, cutting and thrusting on every73side. He shouted like a wild animal, and men sprangaway from him, so terrified were they; but he cleavedhis path to Earl Hring’s standard, slaying many on hisway, for nothing could stop him. He slew the manwho bore the earl’s standard and hewed down thestandard-pole. Then he lunged at the breast of theearl with his halberd, driving it right through his body,so that it came out at his shoulders; and he raisedthe halberd with the earl empaled upon its end overhis head, and planted the butt-end in the ground.There, in sight of friends and foes, the earl breathedout his life, expiring in agony. Then, drawing hissword, Thorolf charged at the head of his men, scatteringthe Scots and Welsh in all directions.

Thorolf and Egil pursued the flying foe till nightfall;and Earl Adils, seeing his brother fall, took shelterin the wood with his company; he lowered his standardthat none might recognize his men from others. Thenight was falling when Athelstan on the one side andOlaf on the other came up with the fighting contingent;but as it was too dark to give battle, both armiesencamped for the night; and it was told to Olaf thatboth his earls Hring and Adils were fallen, for no oneknew what had become of Adils and his men.

At break of day King Athelstan called a conference,and he thanked Thorolf and Egil for their brave fighton the day before, and placed Egil as leader of his owndivision in the van with the foremost men in the hostaround him. “Thorolf,” he said, “shall be opposedto the Scots, who ever fight in loose order; they dashforward here and there with bravery, and provedangerous if men are not wary, but they are unsteadyin the fight if boldly faced.” Egil liked not to beseparated from his brother, and said that he thought74ill-luck would come of it, and that in time to comehe often would rue the separation, but Thorolf said:“Leave it with the King to place us as he likes best;we will serve him wherever he desires us to be.”

After this they formed up in the divisions as theKing ruled, Egil’s division occupying the plain towardthe river, and Thorolf’s the higher ground beside thewood. Olaf also ranged his troops in two divisions, hisown standard being opposite the van of Athelstan’sarmy, and his second division, the Scots, commandedby their own chiefs, opposite to Thorolf. Each had alarge army; there was no great difference on the scoreof numbers.

Soon the forces closed and the battle waxed fierce.Thorolf thought to turn the Scottish flank by pressingbetween them and the wood and attacking them frombehind. He pushed on with such energy that fewof his followers were able to keep up with him; andjust when he was least on his guard, and all his mindwas fixed upon the army on his right, Earl Adils, whoall the night had lain concealed among the trees,leaped out upon him with his troop, and thrust athim so suddenly that he fell, pierced by the points ofmany halberds. The standard-bearer, seeing the earlfall, retreated with the banner among those that cameon behind.

From his position at the other side of the fighting-fieldEgil heard the shout given by the Scots whenThorolf fell, and saw the banner in retreat. Leavingthe fierce combat in which he was engaged with Olaf’stroops, he hewed his way across the plain until he cameamidst the flying Norsemen. Rallying them withhis shouts, he turned them back and fell with themupon the enemy. Not long was it ere Earl Adils met75his death at Egil’s hand, and then his followers wavered;one after another they turned to fly before the fearfulonslaught, each following his fellow; and Egil, pursuingthem, swept round behind and attacked thetroops of Olaf’s first division from the back. Thus,caught between two dangers, the force recoiled, andhavoc overtook them. King Olaf was wounded,and the greater part of his troops were destroyed.Thus King Athelstan gained a great victory.

When Egil returned from pursuing the flying foehe found the dead body of his brother Thorolf. Hecaused a grave to be dug, and laid Thorolf thereinwith all his weapons and raiment. Before he partedfrom him, Egil clasped on either wrist a goldenbracelet, and then they piled earth and stones uponhis grave.

Then Egil sought the King’s tent, where he andhis followers were feasting after the battle, with muchnoise and merriment. When the King saw Egil enterthe hall he caused the high seat opposite to himself tobe cleared for him; Egil sat him down there, and casthis shield on the ground at his feet. He had his helmon his head and laid his sword across his knees; nowand again he half drew it, then clashed it back intothe sheath. He sat bolt upright, but as taking nonotice of anything, and with his head bent forward.The King observed him, but said nothing. He thoughtthe tall, rough warrior before him was angry. Egilwas well made, but big-shouldered beyond other men,and with wolf-grey hair. Like his father he waspartly bald, swarthy and black-eyed. His face wasbroad and his features large and hard, and just nowhe looked grim to deal with. He had a curious trick,when he was angry, of drawing one eyebrow down76toward his cheek, and the other upwards towardthe roots of his hair, twitching them up and down,which gave him a ferocious appearance. The hornwas borne to him, but he would not drink. KingAthelstan sat facing him, his sword too laid acrosshis knees. At last he drew his sword from the sheath,and took from his arm a ring of gold, noble and good.He placed the ring on the sword’s point, stood upand reached it over the fire to Egil. At that Egilrose up and walked across the floor, striking his ownsword within the ring and drawing it to him. Thenboth went back to their places, and Egil drew themassive ring on his arm, and his face cleared somewhat,and his eyebrows returned to their natural place. Helaid down his sword and helmet and drank off at onedraught the horn of wine they brought him. Thenhe sang a stave to theKing:—

After they had supped, the King sent for two chestsof silver that he had by him in the tent, and handedthem to Egil, saying, “These, O Egil, I give thee totake to thy father in Iceland, in satisfaction for his sonThorolf, slain in my service; and to thee, in satisfactionfor thy brother. If thou wilt abide with meI will give thee such honour and dignities as thou77mayest thyself name.” Then Egil grew more cheerful,and he thanked the King, and said he would stay withhim that winter, but that in the spring he must hiehim home to Iceland, to tell the tidings to his father.He must go also to Norway, to see to the family ofThorolf and how they fared. So he stayed that winterwith the King, and gat much honour from him, andin the spring he took a large warship, and on boardof it a hundred men, and put out to sea. He andKing Athelstan parted with great friendship, andthe King begged Egil to return as soon as might be.And this Egil promised that he would do.

It was, as we saw, part of Athelstan’s policy ofconsolidation to ally his family with foreignprinces. After marrying one sister to SitricGale, King of the Danes of Northumbria, and anothersister to Otto, who became Emperor of the West in962, his next thought was how he could mingle hiscountry to his country’s advantage with the affairsof Norway, which under Harald Fairhair was growinginto a powerful kingdom. An opportunity soonoccurred, and Athelstan was not slow to make useof it.

King Harald Fairhair, who was then an old man ofseventy years of age, had a son born in 919. Themother was a woman of good family named Thora,and at the time when the child was born she was onher way to meet King Harald in a ship belonging tothe great Earl Sigurd, one of Harald’s wisest counsellors;but before they could reach the place wherethe King was staying the boy was born at a cove wherethe ship had put into harbour for the night, up amongthe rocks, not far from the ship’s gangway.

It was the custom in the old Norse religion of Odinor Woden to pour water over a child after birth andgive it a name, something after the manner of Christianbaptism; when the child was of high birth some79person of distinction was chosen to do this, for it wasa matter of importance and a solemn ceremony. Wehear of Harald himself, and of Olaf Trygveson, Magnus,and other kings, being thus baptized, and now EarlSigurd “poured water” over the new-born babe,and called him Hakon, after the name of his ownfather.20 The boy grew sturdy and strong, handsome,and very like his father, King Harald, and the Kingkept him close to himself, the mother and child beingboth in the King’s house as long as he was an infant.

Shortly after Hakon was born Athelstan had sentmessengers to King Harald to present him with asword, gold-handled, in a sheath of gold and silver,set thickly with precious jewels. Harald was muchpleased with this, thinking that it was a mark of respectto himself, but Athelstan had another intention.When the ambassadors presented the sword to theKing, they handed him the sword-hilt; but on theKing taking it into his hands, they exclaimed: “Nowthou hast taken the sword by the hilt, according toour King’s desire, and as thou hast accepted his sword,thou art become his subject and owe him sword-service.”Harald was very angry at Athelstan’sattempt to entrap him in this way, for he would besubject to no man. But he remembered that it washis rule, whenever he was very angry about anything,to keep himself quiet and let his passion abate, and80when he became cool to consider the matter calmly.He did this now, and consulted his friends, who advisedhim to let the ambassadors go safely away in thefirst place and afterwards consider what he would doto avenge the insult put upon him. So Harald consentedto this, and the messengers went back to Englandin safety.

But Harald did not forget what had happened.The next summer he fitted out a ship for England,and gave the command of it to Hauk Haabrok, a greatwarrior and very dear to the King. Into his handshe gave his son Hakon. Now it was considered inthose days that a man who fostered another man’sson was lower in authority and consideration thanthe father of the child, and it was Harald’s intentionto make Athelstan take his son Hakon as foster-son,and thus pay him back in his own coin. The shipproceeded to England, and they found the King inLondon, where feasts and entertainments were goingforward. Hauk and the child and thirty followersobtained leave to come into the hall where the Kingwas seated at the feast. Hauk had told his menhow they should behave. He said they should marchinto the hall and stand in a line at the table, at equaldistance from each other, each man having his swordat his side, but fastened beneath his cloak, so thatit could not be seen. They were to go out in the sameorder as they had come in. This they carried out,and Hauk went up to the King and saluted him inHarald’s name, and Athelstan bade him welcome.Then Hauk, who was leading Hakon by the hand,took the child in his arms and placed him onthe King’s knee. Athelstan looked at the boy, andasked the meaning of this. “It means,” said Hauk,81“that King Harald sends thee his child to foster.”The King was in great anger, and seized a sword thatlay beside him, and drew it, as though he would slaythe child.

“Thou hast borne him on thy knee,” said Hauk,“and thou mayest murder him if thou wilt; but Iwarn thee there are other sons of Harald behind whowill not let his death go unavenged.”

Then without another word Hauk marched out ofthe hall, his men following him in order; they wentstraight down to the ship and put out to sea, for allwas ready for their departure, and back they wentto King Harald. Harald was highly pleased whenthey told him what they had done, for it madeAthelstan, in the opinion of many people, subjectto him; but in truth neither was subject to the other,or less than the other, for each was supreme in hisown kingdom till his dying day.

When Athelstan began to talk to the boy, andfound him a brave, manly child, well brought up andopen in his ways, he took a liking to him, and hadhim baptized with Christian baptism, and broughtup in the Christian faith and in good habits,and made him skilful in all sorts of exercises;and the end of it was that he loved Hakon above allhis own relatives; and Hakon was beloved of allmen. King Athelstan gave the lad a gold-hiltedsword, with the best of blades. It was called “Quernbiter,”because to try it Hakon cut through a quernor mill-stone to the centre. Never came better bladeinto Norway, and Hakon kept it to the end, and itwas with that sword he was fighting on the day whenhe got the wound that brought him to his death.

When he was fifteen years old news cameto Hakon in England that his father HaraldFairhair had died. He had resigned hiscrown three years before his death, for he had becomefeeble and heavy and unable to travel through thecountry or carry out the duties of a king. So he hadparted the kingdom between his sons and lived inretirement on one of his great farms. He was eighty-threeyears of age when he died, and he was buriedunder a mound in Kormsund with a gravestone thirteenand a half feet high over his grave. The stone andthe mound are still to be seen at Gar, in the parishof Kormsund.

No sooner was Harald dead than dissensions brokeout between his sons, and they went to war with eachother, each one desiring to be sole king, as their fatherhad been. The chief of these sons was King EricBloodaxe, whose after-history is much mixed upwith that of England. He fought his brothers, andtwo of them fell in battle; but the country wasdisturbed because of these quarrels. Eric was astout and fortunate man of war, but bad-minded,gruff, unfriendly, and morose. Gunhild, his wife,was a most beautiful woman, clever and lively; butshe had a false and cruel disposition. They had83many children, who played their part in Englishhistory.

Hakon heard of all that was going on in Norway,and he thought that the time had come when he shouldreturn to his own country. King Athelstan gavehim all he needed for his journey, men, and achoice of good ships fitted out most excellently. Inharvest-time he came to Norway, and heard thatKing Eric was at Viken, and that two of his brothershad been slain by him. Hakon went to his old friendand fosterer, Sigurd, Earl of Lade, who was countedthe ablest man in Norway. Greatly did Sigurd rejoiceto see Hakon again, grown a handsome, stalwart man,as his father had been before him; and they madea league thereupon mutually to help each other. ButHakon had not much need of help, for when theycalled together a “Thing,” or parliament of the peopleof that district, and Hakon stood up and proposedhimself as their king, the people said to each other,“It is Harald Fairhair come again, but grown young”;and it was not long before they acclaimed him kingwith one consent. Hakon promised to restore theirright to own the land on which they lived (called“udal-right”), which his father had taken from themwhen he made them his vassals; and this speech metwith such joyful applause that the whole assemblycried aloud that they would take him as their king.So it came about that at fifteen Hakon became king,and the news flew from mouth to mouth through thewhole land, like fire in dry grass; and from everydistrict came messages and tokens from the peoplethat they would become his subjects. Hakon receivedthe messengers thankfully, and went throughall the land, holding a “Thing” in each district, and84everywhere they acclaimed him; for the more theyhated King Eric the more they were ready to replacehim by taking King Hakon. They called him Hakonthe Good.

At last, seeing that he could not withstand his brother,King Eric got a fleet together and sailed out to theOrkneys, and then south to England, plundering ashe went. Athelstan sent messengers to him, saying thatas King Harald Fairhair, his father, had been his friend,he would act kindly toward his son, and he offeredto make him King of Northumbria if he would defendit against other vikings and Danes and keep it quiet;for Northumbria was by that time almost wholly peopledby Northmen, and the names of many towns andvillages were Danish or Norse, and are so to this day.Eric gladly accepted this offer, allowing himself to bebaptized, with his wife and children and his followers,and settled down at York; and this continued tillAthelstan’s death.

It seemed that all would have gone well in Norwaywith King Hakon the Good after King EricBloodaxe left the country, but that he had itin his mind to make the people Christians whetherthey would or no. Hitherto they had sacrificed toOdin, or Woden, who gives his name to our Wednesday—i.e.Woden’s Day; and they had other godsand goddesses, such as Thor, the God of Thunder,from whom we get the name Thursday, or Thor’sDay, and Freya, a goddess, who gives her name toour Friday. They had many special festivals, butthe chief of all was Yule, in mid-winter, when theYule log was brought in from the forests and burnedwith great rejoicings, and cattle and horses wereslaughtered in sacrifice, and their blood sprinkled onthe altars and temple walls, and on the people besides.A large fire was kindled in the middle of the templefloor, on which the flesh was roasted, and full gobletswere handed across the fire, after being blessed by thechiefs. Odin’s goblet was first emptied for victoryand power to the king, and afterwards Freya’s gobletfor peace and a good season, and after that the “remembrance-goblet”was emptied to the memory ofdeparted friends. It was a time of great joy and86festivity. In Scotland and other places the nightof mid-winter is still called Hogmanay night, that is,the Norse “Höggn-nott,” or slaughter night, from thehogging or hewing down of the cattle for sacrifice,and many Hogmanay songs are still sung in this country.

The first thing King Hakon did was to orderthat the festival of Yule should begin at the sametime as Christmas did in Christian lands, as is thecase at this day; and this displeased the people, forthey did not like to change the day on which theyand their forefathers had held their feast. ThenHakon sent for a bishop and priests from Englandto instruct the people in Christianity. Hitherto therehad been no priests in Norway, but every man waspriest in his own house; and the chief man of eachplace conducted the sacrifices for his neighbours. Thepeople were against giving up their own religion andadopting a religion which they did not understandand which was foreign to them; but because theyloved their King they at first made no outcry, butdeferred consideration of the matter to the meetingof the chief “Thing,”21 which they called the “FrosteThing,” where men from every part of the countrywould be present. When the “Froste Thing” met, boththey and the King made speeches, and Earl Sigurdbegged the King not to press the matter, as it was plainthe people were against it; and at first he seemedto consent to this. But the next harvest, which wasthe time of the summer sacrifice, the nobles watchedthe King closely to see what he would do. Earl Sigurd,87who was a staunch pagan, made the feast, and theKing came to it. When the Odin goblet was filled,Earl Sigurd blessed it in Odin’s name, and drank tothe King, and then he handed the goblet to the Kingto drink. The King took the goblet in his hand, andmade the sign of the cross over it before he put it tohis lips. “What is the King doing?” said a lordwho stood near him. “He is making the sign ofThor’s hammer22 over the cup, as each of you woulddo,” said Earl Sigurd, thinking to shield the King.For the moment this satisfied the people, but nextday when the sacrifices were offered, and horse-fleshwas eaten, as was always done at a solemnfeast, Hakon utterly refused to join in the heathenfestival, nor would he touch even the gravy of thedish.

Great discontent was aroused at this, both the Kingand the people being very ill-pleased with each other,and on the next occasion it threatened to developinto war. From time to time Earl Sigurd came betweenthe King and the people and kept them at peace, butneither loved the other as before.

The latter years of Hakon’s reign were disturbedby the return of Eric Bloodaxe’s sons, and theirattempts to take the crown. For years they had beenmarauding on the coasts, but Hakon had driven themoff; and he had conquered them in the great sea-fightof Augvaldsness, after which they went south toDenmark, and rested there. King Hakon put allhis sea-coast subjects under tribute that they shouldraise and sustain in each district a certain numberof ships to defend the coast, and that they shoulderect beacons on every hill and headland, which were88to be lighted when the fleet of Eric’s sons appeared,so that by the lighting of the beacons the wholecountry could speedily be warned of the coming of theenemy. But when Eric’s sons actually came atlast with an overwhelming host, provided for themby the King of Denmark, the beacons were not lighted,because they came by an unexpected route, wherethey were not looked for. The beacons also had sooften been lighted by the country-people wheneverthey saw a ship-of-war or viking boat cruising abouton the coast, thinking that it brought Eric’s sons,that King Hakon had become angry at the waste oftrouble and money without any purpose, and hadheavily punished those who gave the false alarm.Thus it happened that when Eric’s sons’ host reallycame in sight no one was ready, and they had sailedfar north before anyone was aware of their presence.The people were afraid to give warning to the King,because of his anger if they gave a false alarm. Sothey watched the great fleet making its way northwardand turning in toward the island where theKing lay, and none of them dared go to inform him ofits coming. The King was supping in the house ofone of hisbondes named Eyvind, when at length one ofthe country-people took courage to come to the houseand beg that Eyvind would come outside at once,for it was very needful. Eyvind went up a littleheight, and there he saw the great armed fleet thatlay in the fiord. With all haste he entered the house,and, placing himself before the King, he cried: “Shortis the hour for action, but long the hour for feasting.”“What now is forward, Eyvind?” said the King,for he saw that something of import was in the air.Then Eyvind cried:

Then said the King: “Thou art too brave a fellow,Eyvind, to bring us a false alarm of war.” Heordered the tables to be removed, and went out tolook at the ships; and the King asked his men whatresolution they would take, to give battle there andthen, or to sail away northwards and escape. Theygave their voice for war, for they knew that this waswhat the King would choose, and made them readyspeedily. A great battle was fought that day, butin the end Eyvind was killed and the King receivedan arrow through his shoulder, and though he foughton, his blood ebbed out until he had no strengthleft, and he had to be carried to his ship. They sailedon awhile toward King Hakon’s house at Alrekstad,but when he came as far as Hakon’s Hill he was nearlylifeless; so they put in to shore, and he died thereby the shoreside, at the little hill beside which he hadbeen born. They buried his body in a mighty mound,in which they laid him in full armour and in his kinglyrobes; that mound is to be seen not far from Bergenat this day. So great was the sorrow at his deaththat he was lamented alike by his friends and hisenemies; for they said that never again wouldNorway see such a king. For all he was a Christian,90they spake over his grave wishing him a good receptionin Valhalla, the home of Odin and the gods. Itwas in the year 960 that the battle of Stord and thedeath of King Hakon took place. The men who hadfallen in his army were buried in mounds along thesea-shore, each great man among them laid in hisarmour, and one of the enemy’s ships turned bottomup over him, and the whole covered in with earthand stones. These were called “ship-burial” mounds,and many of them have been found in Norway.

One of the greatest Kings of Norway wasnamed Olaf Trygveson (i.e. the son of Trygve),who became King of Norway in 995. Hehad an adventurous career, part of it being connectedwith the British Isles, where he spent ten years inhiding in his youth, only returning to his nativecountry when his people called on him to take thecrown.

His father, Trygve, had been treacherously putto death shortly before he was born, and his motherhad fled away with a few faithful followers, and hadtaken refuge in a lonely island in a lake; here Olafwas born in 963, and baptized with heathen baptism,and called after his grandfather, a son of HaraldFairhair.

During all that summer Astrid, his mother, stayedsecretly in the island; but when the days grew shorter,and the nights colder, she was obliged to leave thedamp island and take refuge on the mainland, in thehouse of her father, reaching it by weary night-marches,for they feared to be seen if they travelled by day.But soon news reached them that their enemies weresearching for them, and they dared not stay longer,but clothed themselves in mean clothing and wenton again, meeting with many rebuffs, until at last92they got out of the kingdom, and were protected forthree years by Hakon the Old, King of Sweden. NowAstrid had a brother in Russia in the service of theRussian King, and she thought that Olaf would besafer if she went thither with him; so they set sailin a ship provided by Hakon the Old, but again ill-luckovertook them, for they were captured bypirates in the Baltic, and the little lad was separatedfrom his mother, and sold as a slave into Russia. Butthere a better fortune came to him, for he fell in withhis cousin, his mother’s nephew, who bought himfrom his master, and took him to the King’s palace,and commended him to the care of the Queen. ThereOlaf grew up, and men favoured him, for he was stoutand strong, and a handsome man, and accomplishedin manly exercises. But he dared not go back to hisown country, so he took ship and sailed to England,and ravaged wide around the borders. He sailed rightround Britain, and down to the coast of France, layingthe land waste with fire and sword wherever he came.After that he came to the Scilly Isles, and lay there,for he was weary after his four years’ cruise. This wasin 988. He did not wish it to be known who he was,so he called himself Ole instead of Olaf, and gave outthat he was a Russian. One day he heard that aclever fortune-teller was in the place, and he sentone of his company to him, pretending that this manwas himself. But the fortune-teller knew at oncethat this was not so, and he said: “Thou art not theKing, but I advise thee to be faithful to thy king.”And no more at all would he say to him than that.Then Olaf went to him himself, and asked what luckhe would have if he should attempt to regain hiskingdom. The hermit replied that he would become a93renowned king, and that he ought to adopt the Christianreligion and suffer himself to be baptized; and hetold him many things regarding his future. Thatautumn a summons was sent through the countryfor a great Thing-mote, or meeting of the Danes inthe South of England; and Olaf went to the Thingin disguise, wearing his bad-weather clothes and acoarse cloak, and keeping apart with his people fromthe rest. There was also at the Thing a lady calledGyda, who was sister of Olaf Cuaran, or Olaf o’ theSandal, Danish King of Dublin. She had been marriedto a great English earl, and after his death she ruledall his property. She had in her territory a strong,rough champion, named Alfvine, who wooed her inmarriage, but she did not favour his suit, sayingshe would only marry again as she pleased. She saidhe should have his answer at the Thing, so he camein his best, sure that the Lady Gyda would soon behis wife. But Gyda went all round the company,looking in each man’s face, to see whom she wouldchoose; but she chose none until she came whereOlaf stood. She looked him straight in the face, andin spite of his common clothing she thought the facegood and handsome. So she said to him: “Whoare you, and what do you here?” “My nameis Ole,” he replied; “but I am a stranger here.”“In spite of that,” she said; “wilt thou have mefor thy wife, if I ask thee?” “I do not think Iwould say no to that,” he answered; “but tell meof what country you are, for I am, as I said, a strangerhere.”

“I am called Gyda,” said she; “and I am sisterof the Danish King of Ireland. But I was marriedto an earl in this country. Since his death many94have asked for my hand, but I did not choose to marryany of them.” Then Olaf saw that she was a youngand very handsome woman, and he liked her well,and they talked a long while together, and after thatthey were betrothed. Alfvine was furious when heheard this, and he challenged Olaf to fight, but Olafand his followers struck down Alfvine and his men,and he ordered Alfvine to leave the country and neverreturn again. Then he and Gyda were wedded, andthey lived sometimes in England and sometimes inIreland.

It was in Ireland that Olaf got his wolf-hound, Vige.The Irish dogs were famous all over the world for theirgreat size and intelligence; they were large, smoothhounds, and the constant companions of men. Oneday Olaf and his men were sailing along the east coastof Ireland, when, growing short of provisions, theymade a foray inland, his men driving down a herdof cattle to the water’s edge. One of their owners,a peasant, came up and begged Olaf to give him backhis own cows, which he said were all the property hepossessed. Olaf, looking at the large herd of kineon the strand, told him laughingly that he mighttake back his own cows, if he could distinguish themin the herd. “But be quick about it,” he added,“for we cannot delay our march for you.”

He thought that out of such a number of cattleit would be impossible to tell which were owned byany single person. But the man called his houndand bade him go amongst the hundreds of beastsand bring out his own. In a few minutes the doghad gathered into one group exactly the number ofcows that the peasant said he owned, all of them markedwith the same mark. Olaf was so surprised at the95sagacity of the dog that he asked the peasant if hewould sell him to him. “Nay,” said the peasant,“but as you have given me back my cattle, I willgladly give him to you: his name is Vige, and hewill, I hope, be as good a dog to you as he is to me.”Olaf thanked the man, and gave him a gold ring inreturn, and promised him his protection. Fromthat time forth Olaf went nowhere without his dogVige; he was the most sagacious of dogs, and remainedwith Olaf till the day of his death. Once when Olafwas fighting in Norway, and driving his enemiesbefore him, Thorer, their leader, ran so fast that hecould not come up with him. His dog Vige wasbeside him, and he said, “Vige! Vige! catch thedeer!” In an instant Vige came up with Thorer,who turned and struck at him with his sword, givinghim a great wound; but Olaf’s spear passed throughThorer at the same instant and he fell dead. ButVige was carried wounded to the ships. Long afterwards,when Olaf disappeared after the battle ofSvold, Vige was, as usual, on his master’s ship, theLong Serpent. One of the chiefs went to him, andsaid: “Now we have no master, Vige!” whereuponthe dog began to howl, and would not be comforted.When theLong Serpent came near to land he sprangon shore, and ran to a burial-mound which hethought was Olaf’s grave and stretched himself uponit, refusing to take food. Great tears fell from hiseyes, and there he died, in grief for the loss of hismaster.

Now it began to be whispered about in Norwaythat to the westward, over the Northern Sea, wasa man called Ole, whom some people thought to bea king. At that time a powerful earl, named Hakon,96ruled in Norway, and the land prospered under him,but he himself was a man of unruly passions, and hispeople, especially the great lords, hated him for hisexactions and cruelties, and were ready enough toturn against him. Earl Hakon became alarmedlest this Ole, of whom men spoke, should turn outto belong to Norway, and should some day disputethe sovereignty of the kingdom with him. He recalledthat he had heard that King Trygve had had a son, whohad gone east to Russia, having been brought upthere by King Valdemar, and he had his suspicionsthat this Ole might prove to be Trygve’s son. Sohe called a friend of his, called Thorer Klakka, whowent often on viking expeditions, and sometimesalso on merchant voyages, and who was well knowneverywhere, and he bade him make a trading voyageto Dublin, as many were in the habit of doing, andthere to inquire carefully who Ole was. If it shouldprove that he was indeed Olaf Trygveson, he wasto persuade him to come to Norway, and by somemeans to ensnare him into the earl’s power. SoThorer sailed west to Ireland, and found that Olafwas in Dublin with his wife’s father, Olaf O’ the Sandal;then he went to do business with Olaf, and, being aclever, plausible man, they became acquainted. Thusgradually he learned from Olaf who he was, and thathe had some thoughts of going back to try to recoverhis kingdom; for his heart turned often toward hisnative land. Thorer encouraged him in every way,praising him highly and telling him that Earl Hakonwas disliked and that it would be easy for one of HaraldFairhair’s race to win the country to his side. Ashe talked thus Olaf began more and more to wishto return. But Thorer’s words were spoken deceitfully,97for he intended, if he could persuade Olaf toreturn to Norway, to give Hakon warning, so thatOlaf would at once be taken prisoner and put to death.In the end Olaf decided to go, and they set outby way of the Orkneys, with five ships; he sailedstraight out to sea eastward and gained the coast ofNorway, travelling in such haste that no one was wellaware that he was coming. As they came close toland tidings reached them that Hakon was near, andthat hisbondes or farmers and great men were all indisaccord with him. Thorer Klakka had not thoughtof this, for when he left Norway the people were atpeace with Hakon; now he saw that things might turnout in a very different way from what he expected.At that very moment Earl Hakon was flying from hislords, who were determined to kill him, and it did notcomfort him to hear that Olaf Trygveson was comeoverseas and was anchored in the fiord. He fled awaywith only one servant, named Kark, and took refugewith a woman whom he knew, named Thorer, beggingher to conceal him from his pursuers. She did notknow where she could hide him to prevent his beingdiscovered, for it was well known by all that she was afriend of his. “They will hunt for you here, both insidemy house and out,” she said. “I have only onesafe place, where they would never expect to find you,and that is in the pig-sty; but it is not a pleasantplace for a man like you.” “Well,” said the earl,“the first thing we need is our life; let it be madeready for us.”

So the slave dug a hole beneath the sty, and laidwood over the place where he had dug out the earth,and then the earl and Kark went into the hole, andThorer covered it with earth and dung and drove98in the swine round the great stone that was in thecentre of the sty.

When Olaf sailed with his five ships into thefiord all thebondes gathered joyfully to him, andreadily agreed to make him King of Norway. Theyset forth at once to seek Earl Hakon, in order to puthim to death; and it so chanced that they wentstraight to the house where Hakon lay, and searchedinside and out, but they could not find him. Hakon,from under the sty, could hear them searching, andcould dimly see their forms moving about, and hewas full of fear, for he was not a very brave man.Then, close by the great stone, Olaf held a council,and he stood upon the stone and made a speech tothem, promising a great reward to the man who shouldfind and kill the earl. All this was heard by Hakonand by Kark, his man.

“Why art thou so pale at one moment, and againas black as death?” said the earl to Kark. “Is itthy intention to win that reward by betraying me?”

“We were born on the same night,” said the earl,“and I think there will not be much more differencebetween the time of our deaths.”

King Olaf went away that evening. When nightcame the earl kept himself awake, for he was afraidof Kark; but Kark slept a disturbed sleep. Theearl at last woke him and asked him what he wasdreaming about.

“I dreamed I was at Lade, and Olaf Trygvesonwas laying a gold ring round my neck.”

“It will be a red and not a gold ring that Olaf willput about thy neck if ever he catches thee,” saidthe earl; “take you care of that. It is only from me99that you will enjoy good, so beware that you betrayme not.”

From that time each of them kept himself awake,watching the other, until toward daybreak the earl’shead fell forward, and he dropped asleep, for the airwas close and he was weary. But his sleep was sounquiet that he suddenly screamed out loudly, anddrew himself together, as if to spring up. On thisKark, dreadfully alarmed, drew a large knife out ofhis belt and struck at the earl, and in a moment hefell dead, with his head severed from his body. Thenin the early morning Kark got out of the hole withHakon’s head and ran with it to Olaf, telling whathad befallen them. But Olaf had him taken out andbeheaded. Soon after that Olaf was elected King ofNorway at a general Thing, as his great-grandfather,Harald Fairhair, had been. This was in the year 995.

It does not concern us here to follow the storyof Olaf Trygveson point by point. Much ofhis history is taken up with attempts to forceChristianity upon his people, as King Hakon had done.Having learned the doctrines of Christianity in Englandand been baptized there, he was determined that allhis people should follow his example and be baptizedalso. But the chief doctrine of Christianity, the loveof all men as brothers and the forgiveness of foes, hehad not learned; and when he proclaimed abroadthat “all Norway should be Christian or die” hewas far from the spirit of the Christian life. Hispersecutions of his people stain an otherwise greatand humane reign; and he was not content with forcinghis religion on Norway, but sent a priest of muchthe same temper as his own to convert Iceland toChristianity by similar means, stirring up strife andbringing misery upon a nation that heretofore hadbeen prosperous and peaceable. For though it mayhave been well for these countries to forsake theirold religion and embrace Christianity, it was an evilthing to force it upon the people in such a way.

Otherwise the reign of Olaf was a happy one; hewas loved by his friends and feared by his foes. But,as was usual when things went well, enemies began101to gather about him, and a coalition was formedbetween the Danish King Sweyn Fork-beard, and theSwedish King, who was his brother-in-law, to fightOlaf, and drive him out of his kingdom. It wasSweyn’s wife, Sigrid the Haughty, who urged him onto this. She had once been betrothed to Olaf, butthe betrothal had come to an end because Olaf insistedthat she should be baptized before he marriedher. When he spake thus to her she had replied:“It is for you to choose whatever religion suits youbest; but as for me, I will not part from my ownfaith, which was the faith of my forefathers beforeme.” Olaf was enraged at that, and he struck herface with his glove in his passion, and rose up saying,“Why should I care to marry thee, an aged womanand a heathen?” and with that he left her. Sigridthe Haughty had never forgiven the insult put onher by Olaf, and when she was married to Sweyn shethought her time was come to be revenged; so shestirred him up to make war on Olaf.

Olaf was very fond of having fine war-vessels builtfor him, of greater size and height than any that hadbeen built hitherto. He had a fleet of over seventyvessels, all good craft, to meet King Sweyn, but chiefof these were his own three ships, theCrane, theLongSerpent, and theShort Serpent. These were the finestvessels that had been planned in Norway, and wereknown all over the world. The lighter craft sailed first,and got out to sea, Olaf with his great ships followingmore slowly behind. Along with him was EarlSigvalde, whom he thought to be his friend, but whowas secretly in the pay of King Sweyn; he had inducedOlaf to postpone sailing on one pretence or another,until he heard that Sweyn had collected his whole102army and fleet together, and was lying under theisland of Svold, in the Baltic, awaiting Olaf Trygveson.The Swedish King, together with Earl Eirik were, withall their forces, watching anxiously for the comingof Olaf’s fleet. The weather was fine, with clearsunshine, and they went upon the island to see thevessels coming in from the open sea, sailing closetogether. They saw among them one large andshining ship. The two kings said: “That is a largeand very beautiful vessel; that will be theLongSerpent.” But Earl Eirik replied: “That is nottheLong Serpent; the vessel in which Olaf sails isgreater still than that.”

Soon they saw another vessel following, much largerthan the first, but no figure-head on her prow.“That,” said King Sweyn, “must be Olaf’s ship, butit is evident that he is afraid of us, for he has takenthe dragon off his prow, that we may not recognizehis ship.”

Eirik said again: “That is not yet the King’s ship,for his ship has striped sails. It must be ErlingSkialgson’s ship. Let it pass on, that it may beseparated from Olaf’s fleet.”

Next came up Earl Sigvalde the traitor’s ships,which were in league with the enemy; they turnedin and moored themselves under the island, for theydid not intend to fight for Olaf. After that camethree ships moving swiftly along under full sail, allof great size, but one larger than the rest. “Getyour arms in your hands,” said King Sweyn, “manthe boats, for this must be Olaf’sLong Serpent.”“Wait a little,” said Eirik again; “many other greatvessels have they besides the dragon ship.” Then all103Sweyn’s followers began to grumble, thinking thatEirik made excuses to prevent them from going towar, for he had been Olaf’s vassal at one time, andthey were doubtful of his fidelity. But as they complained,Eirik pointed with his finger out to sea. Andthere upon the horizon they saw four splendid shipsbearing proudly along, the one in the centre havinga large dragon-head, richly gilt. Then Sweyn stood upand said: “That dragon shall bear me high to-night,for I shall be its steersman.” And they all cried:“TheLong Serpent is indeed a wonderful ship, andthe man who built it must be great of mind.” Butin his excitement Eirik forgot where he was, and hecried aloud so that the King himself heard him: “Ifthere were no other vessels with King Olaf but onlythis one, King Sweyn would never with the Danishforces alone be able to take it from him.”

Then all the sailors and men-at-arms rushed totheir ships and took down the coverings or tents thatsheltered them on board, and got them ready forfighting. Earl Eirik’s vessel, which he used on hisviking expeditions, was a large ship with an iron combor spiked top on both sides to protect it, and it wasiron-plated right down to the gunwale.

When King Olaf sailed into the Sound, with theShort Serpent and theCrane attending on him, theother boats were lying by under the island, following inthe wake of the traitor, Earl Sigvalde, with their sailsreefed, and drifting with the tide. On the other sideof the Sound were the fleet of the enemy, trimmedand in full battle array, rowing out into the Sound;the fleets of Sweden and Denmark united together.When some of Olaf’s men saw this, they begged himto sail at full speed out of the Sound into the opensea again, and not risk battle with so great a force.104But the King, standing on his quarter-deck, in viewof all his host, exclaimed: “Strike the sails. Noman shall ever learn of me to fly before the enemy.Never yet have I fled from battle, nor ever will. LetGod dispose as He thinks best, but flight I never shallattempt.”

Then he ordered his war-horns to be sounded andthe ships to close up to each other, and lash themselvestogether, side by side, under the island, as the Norsewere wont to do in battle; thus no ship could forsakethe others, but all fought side by side to the end. TheKing’s ship lay in the middle of the line, with theCraneon one side and theLittle Serpent on the other, allfastened together at the head; but the dragon shipwas so long that it stood out behind the others; andwhen the King saw this he called out to his men tolay hisLong Serpent, the dragon ship, more in advance,so that its stern should lie even with the other shipsbehind.

“We shall have hot work of it here on the forecastle,if the King’s ship stands out beyond the rest,” saidUlf the Red.

“I did not think I had a forecastle man who wouldgrow red with dread,” said the King, punning on Ulf’sname.

“I hope you will defend the quarter-deck as wellas I defend the forecastle,” replied Ulf, who was vexedat Olaf’s sneer.

There was a bow in the King’s hands, and he fixedan arrow on the string to take aim at Ulf.

“Shoot the other way, King,” said Ulf, “where itis needed more; maybe you will need my arm to-day.”

King Olaf stood on the quarter-deck, high aboveall. He had a gilt shield and a helmet inlaid with105gold; over his armour he wore a short red cloak, sothat it was easy to distinguish him from other men.He asked one who stood by him: “Who is the leaderof the force right opposite to us?”

The King replied: “We have no fear of those softDanes, for there is no bravery in them. Who arethe troops on the right of the Danes?”

“It were better for these Swedes to be sitting athome killing pagan sacrifices, than venturing so nearthe weapons of theLong Serpent,” said the King.“But who owns the large ships on the larboard side?”

“Ah,” said the King, “it is from that quarter wemay expect the sharpest conflict, for his men areNorsemen like ourselves.”

The battle of Svold was fought in September, in theyear 1000, and it was one of the hardest sea-conflictsever known in the North.

King Sweyn laid his ship against theLong Serpent,and on either side of him the King of Sweden andEarl Eirik attacked theLittle Serpent and theCrane.The forecastle men on Olaf’s ships threw out grappling-ironsand chains to make fast King Sweyn’s ship, andthey fought so hotly there that the King had to escapeto another ship, and Olaf’s men boarded the vesseland cleared the decks. King Olaf the Swede faredno better, for when he took Sweyn’s place he foundthe battle so hot that he too had to get away out ofrange.

But it was a different story with Earl Eirik, as Olaf106had said. In the forehold of his ship he had had aparapet of shields set up to protect his men; and as fastas one man fell another would come up to take his place,and there he fought desperately with every kind ofweapon. So many spears and arrows were cast intotheLong Serpent that the shields could scarce receivethem, for on all sides the vessel was surrounded by theenemy. Then King Olaf’s men grew so mad withrage that they ran on board the enemies’ ships,to get at the people with stroke of sword at closequarters, but many of them missed their footing andwent overboard, and sank in the sea with the weightof their weapons. The King himself stood in the gangwayshooting all day, sometimes with his bow, butmore often casting two spears at once. Once, when hestooped down and stretched out his right hand, themen beside him saw that blood was running downunder his steel glove, though he had told no one thathe was wounded.

Einar Tambaskelfer, one of the sharpest of bow-men,stood by the mast, and aimed an arrow at Earl Eirik.The arrow hit the tiller end just above the earl’s headwith such force that it sank into the wood up to theshaft. The earl looked that way, and asked if theyknew who made that shot, but just as he was speakinganother arrow flew between his hand and his side, andfixed itself into the stuffing of his stool, so that thebarb stood far out on the other side. “Shoot thattall man standing by the mast for me,” said the earlto one who stood beside him. The man shot, andthe arrow hit the middle of Einar’s bow just as he wasdrawing it, and the bow split into two parts.

Not long after this the fight became so fierce thatit seemed as though none of Olaf’s men would be leftalive. Twice Earl Eirik boarded theLong Serpent,and twice he was driven off again, but so many ofthe fighting-men fell that in many places the ships’sides were quite bare of defenders. At length EarlEirik with his men boarded her again, and filled theship from stem to stern with his own host, so thatOlaf saw that all was lost. Then Olaf and his marshalsprang together overboard; but the earl’s men hadlaid boats around the dragon ship, to kill all who felloverboard. They tried to seize Olaf alive to bringhim to Earl Eirik; but King Olaf threw his shieldover his head and sank beneath the waters.

Many tales were told of the King, for none wouldbelieve that he was dead. Some said that he had castoff his coat of mail beneath the water and had swum,diving under the long ships, and so had escaped; onlyone thing is certain, that he never came back to Norwayor to his kingdom again. The poet Halfred speaksthus abouthim:—

The wildest of all the vikings were those whosettled in the Orkney Isles and carried ontheir raids from there. After Ragnvald hadgiven up his possessions in the Isles to Earl Sigurd,the earl made himself a mighty chief; he joined withThorstein the Red, son of Olaf the White of Dublin andUnn the Deep-minded, and together they harried andwon, as we have seen, all Caithness, and Moray andRoss,23 so that they united the northern part of Scotlandto the Orkney and Shetland Isles. The Scottish earlof those lands was ill-pleased at this, and he arrangedthat he and Sigurd should meet and discuss theirdifferences and the limits of both their lands. Melbrigdthe Toothy was the name of the Scots’ earl, becausehis teeth protruded from his jaws; and they arrangedto meet at a certain place, each with forty men. ButSigurd suspected treachery, and he caused eighty ofhis men to mount on forty horses. As they rode tothe place of meeting Melbrigd said: “I shrewdlysuspect that Sigurd hath cheated us; I think I seetwo men’s feet at each side of the horses; thus, theyare twice as many as we. Let us, however, do ourbest, and see that each man of us can answer for aman of them before we die.” So they marshalled109themselves to fight, and when Sigurd saw this heordered one half of his men to dismount and attackfrom behind, while the other half set on them in front.They had a good tussle after that, and Earl Melbrigdfell with all his men, and Sigurd’s men cut off theirheads and fastened them to their horses’ cruppers,and set off home boasting of their victory. The bleeding headsdangled behind them; and as he rode, EarlSigurd, intending to kick his horse with his foot tourge him on, scratched his leg against a tooth ofMelbrigd which stuck out from his head, and thewound became so swollen and painful that in the endhe died of it. Sigurd the Mighty is buried in a“howe,” or burial-mound, on the banks of the Oikel,in Sutherlandshire.

When Earl Ragnvald heard that his possessionsin Orkney were again without a lord, and that Sigurdhis brother was dead, he sent one of his sons, Hallad,to take his place; but vikings went prowling all overthose lands, plundering the headlands and committingdepredations on the coast. The yeomen broughttheir complaints to Hallad, but he did not do muchto right them; he soon grew tired of the whole business,resigned his earldom, and went back to Norway to takeup his own property. When his father heard of this,he was by no means well pleased. All men mockedat Hallad, and Ragnvald said his sons were very unliketheir ancestors. His eldest son, Rolf, was away inNormandy, plundering and conquering. He was amighty viking, and he was so stout that no horsecould carry him, and whithersoever he went he mustwalk on foot; hence he was called Rolf Ganger, orRolf the Walker. He was the conqueror of Normandy,and from him the Dukes of Normandy and Kings of110England were descended. King Harald drove himout of Norway because he had one summer made acattle foray on the coast of Viken, and plunderedthere. King Harald happened to be in the neighbourhood,and he heard of it, and it put him intothe greatest fury; for he had forbidden, under heavypenalties, that anyone should plunder within thebounds of his territories. Rolf’s mother, Hild, intercededfor him, but it was of no avail. She madetheselines:—

What she had predicted came to pass, for Ganger-Rolfwent west over the sea to the Hebrides, andthence to the west coast of France, which the Norsemencalled Valland, where he conquered and subduedto himself a great earldom, which he peopledwith Northmen, from which it was called Normandy.He was ancestor of William the Conqueror, Kingof England, and ruled in Normandy from 911 to927.

Earl Ragnvald had three other sons living at homewith him, and after Hallad’s return from Orkney hecalled them to him and asked which of them wouldlike to go to the islands; for he heard that two111Danish vikings were settling down on his landsand taking possession of them. Thorir said that hewould go if his father wished. But Ragnvald repliedthat he thought he had need of him at home, andthat his property and power would be greatest therewhere he was.

Then the second, Hrollaug, said: “Father, wouldyou like me to go?” The earl said: “I think yourway lies toward Iceland; there you will increaseyour race, and become a famous man; but the earldomis not for you.”

Then Einar, the youngest, came forward; he wasa tall, ugly man, with only one eye, yet very keen-sighted,and no favourite with his father. What hesaid was: “Would you wish me to go to the islands?One thing I will promise you that I know will pleaseyou; it is that I will never come back. Littlehonour do I enjoy at home, and it is hardly likelythat my success will be less anywhere else than it ishere.”

Earl Ragnvald said: “Never knew I any man lesslikely for a chief than yourself, for your mother’s peoplecome of thralls; but it is true enough that the sooneryou go and the longer you stay the better pleased Ishall be. I will fit out for you a ship of twentybenches,24 fully manned, and I will get for youfrom King Harald the title of Earl of Orkney in myplace.”

So this was settled, and Einar sailed west to Shetlandand gathered the people round him, for they wereglad to get rid of the vikings. They slew them bothin a battle in the Orkneys, and Einar took possession112of their lands. He was the first man who found outhow to cut turf for fuel, for firing was scarce on thoseislands and there was little wood; but after that menused peat; and they called him Torf-Einar, or Turf-Einar,on account of that.

The chief difficulty that Torf-Einar had was fromKing Harald Fairhair’s sons, who were now grownto be men. They were overbearing and turbulent,for they thought their father ought to have givenhis lands to them and not to his earls, and they setthemselves to revenge their wrongs (as they thoughtthem) on the King’s friends. They came down suddenlyon Earl Ragnvald and surrounded his house and burnthim in it and sixty with him. The King was so angryat this that one of them, Halfdan Long-legs, had tofly before his wrath, and he rushed on shipboard andsailed west, appearing suddenly in the Orkneys. Whenit became known that a son of King Harald was come,the liegemen were full of fear, and Earl Einar fledto Scotland to gather forces to resist him. But laterin the year, about harvest-time, he came back andfought Halfdan, and gained the victory over him.Halfdan slipped overboard in the dusk of eventideand swam to land, and a few followers after him, andthey concealed themselves in the rocks and cliffs ofthe islands. Next morning, as soon as it was light,Einar’s men went to search the islands for runawayvikings, and each man who was found was slain wherehe stood. Then Torf-Einar began to search himself,and he saw something moving in the island of Ronaldsay,very far off, for he was more keen-sighted thanmost men. He said: “What is that I see on the hillsidein Ronaldsay? Is it a man or is it a bird? Sometimesit raises itself up and sometimes it lays itself113down. We will go over there.” There they foundHalfdan Long-legs, and they cut a spread-eagle onhis back, and killed him there, and gave him to Odinas an offering for their victory; and Einar sang asong of triumph over him, and raised a cairn overhim, and left him there.25

But when this news reached Norway it was takenvery ill by Halfdan’s brothers and King Harald, and theKing himself ordered out a levy, and proceeded westwardto Orkney. When he heard that Harald wascoming, Torf-Einar fled to Caithness, but in the endthe quarrel was made up between them, on conditionthat the isles should pay the King sixty marks of gold.The people were so poor that they could not meet thefine, but Einar undertook the whole payment himself,on condition that they should make over to him theirallodial holdings, or freeholds. They had no choicebut to submit to this, and from that time till the timeof Earl Sigurd the Stout the earls possessed the properties;but Sigurd restored most of them to theiroriginal owners.26

Then King Harald went home to Norway, and EarlEinar ruled the Orkneys till his death.

It was a bad time for the Orkneys during the stayof Eric Bloodaxe and his sons in England. He ruledfrom York, which had been the capital of Northumbriaever since the half-mythical days of Ragnar Lodbrok.Every summer Eric and his band of followers fromNorway, bold and reckless men like himself, went ona cruise, plundering in the Hebrides and Orkneys, and114as far as Ireland or Iceland. Wherever they appearedthe people fled before them. In the Orkneys they committedgreat excesses and were much dreaded. Thiswas in the time of Thorfin Skull-splitter, Torf-Einar’sson, and of Earl Hlodver, his son, the father of EarlSigurd the Stout, who fell at the battle of Clontarf.Sigurd’s mother was Eithne, or Audna, an Irish princess,daughter of Karval, King of Dublin (872–887). Itwas she who worked the raven-banner that was carriedbefore the earl at Clontarf, which brought its bearersill-luck.27 She was a very wise and courageous woman,and people thought she was a witch on account of herknowledge.

Earl Sigurd the Stout was a powerful man and agreat warrior. While he was Earl of Orkney, OlafTrygveson made a raid upon the Orkney Isles on hisway to recover his kingdom of Norway. The earlhad gathered his forces for a war expedition, and waslying in a harbour near the Pentland Firth, for theweather was too stormy to cross the channel. As ithappened, Olaf, or, as he was then called, Ole (for hewas still in hiding), ran into the same harbour for shelter.When he heard that Sigurd the Stout was lying therehe had him called, and addressed him thus: “Youknow, Earl Sigurd, that the country over which yourule was the possession of Harald Fairhair, who conqueredthe Orkneys and Shetland (then called Hjaltland),and placed earls over them. Now these countriesI claim as my right and inheritance. You have nowcome into my power, and you have to choose betweentwo alternatives. One is that you, with all yoursubjects, embrace the Christian faith, be baptized,and become my men; in which case you shall have115honour from me, and retain your earldom as mysubject. The other is that you shall be slain on thespot, and after your death I will send fire and swordthrough the Orkneys, burning homesteads and men.Choose now which you will do.”

Though Sigurd saw well what a position he was inand that he was in Olaf Trygveson’s power, he repliedat once: “I will tell you, King Olaf, that I haveabsolutely resolved I will not, and dare not, renouncethe faith which my kinsmen and forefathers had beforeme, because I am not wiser than they; moreover,I know not that the faith you preach is better thanthat which we have had and held all our lives. Thisis my reply.”

When the King saw the determination of the earlhe caught hold of his young son, who was with hisfather, and who had been brought up in the islands.The King carried the boy to the forepart of the ship,and, drawing his sword, said: “Now I will show you,Earl Sigurd, that I will spare no one who will notlisten to my words. Unless you and your men willserve my God, I shall with this sword kill your sonthis instant. I shall not leave these islands until youand your son and your people have been baptizedand I have completely fulfilled my mission.” Inthe plight in which the earl found himself, he saw thathe must do as the King desired; so he and his peoplewere baptized, and he became the earl of King Olaf,and gave him his son in hostage. The boy’s namewas Whelp, or Hound, but Olaf had him baptized bythe name of Hlodver, and took him to Norway withhim; the boy lived but a short time, however, andafter his death Earl Sigurd paid no more homage toKing Olaf. It was fourteen years after the death of116Olaf that the earl went to Ireland, and was slain at thebattle of Clontarf in Dublin.

Ireland as well as Norway and the Orkneyshad her saga-tales of the events of the vikingperiod. About the middle of the tenth centurytwo princes, one in the north of Ireland and one inthe south, are noted for their wars against the Norse.Both had strange and romantic careers, and of bothwe have full details told by their own poets orchroniclers. These two contemporary princes wereMurtough of the Leather Cloaks, in Ulster, andCallaghan of Cashel, in Munster. The career of theformer concerns us most.

Murtough was a prince of the O’Neills, and he ruledhis clans from an immense fortress called Aileach,in North Londonderry, whose walls, with secret passagesin their thicknesses, remain to the present day totestify to the massive strength of the old fortifications.He was son of a brave king of Ireland, Niall Glundubhor “Black-knee,” who had fallen in fight with the Danesof Dublin after a short but vigorous reign, spent inwarring against his country’s foes. Murtough hadbeen brought up in the tradition of resistance to thecommon enemy, and well did he answer to the callof duty. No doubt he was determined to avenge hisfather’s fall. Again and again he gathered togetherthe clans over whom he ruled and endeavoured to push118back the invader. His career is a brilliant successionof victories. We first hear of him in full chase ofGodfrey and the Dublin Danes during one of theirraids on Armagh. Murtough stole up behind, comingon their track at fall of night, and only a few of theenemy escaped in the glimmering twilight, becausethey could not be seen by the Irish. Four years afterwardshe dealt them another severe blow on CarlingfordLough, in the middle of winter, which seems to havebeen Murtough’s favourite time for warfare, and hereeight hundred were killed, and the remainder besiegedfor a week, so that they had to send to Dublin forassistance. King Godfrey came to their aid, and raisedthe siege; but these defeats seem to have discouragedthe foreigners, for soon after this Godfrey left Dublinto claim the throne of Northumbria, left vacant bythe retirement of Sitric Gale, and Murtough tookadvantage of his absence to make a descent on Dublinwith Donagh, the King of Ireland, raiding south toKildare.

A misfortune overtook Murtough soon after hisreturn home. The Northern foreigners laid siege tohis fortress, and succeeded in taking him prisoner, andcarrying him off to their ships. The prince was ransomedby his people, and took his revenge by penetratingwith his fleet to the Hebrides, and carrying off muchbooty from their Norse inhabitants. This successfulforeign expedition so much increased his fame that wefind him soon afterwards making a warlike circuit of theentire country, and taking hostages of all the provincialkings of Ireland. It was this circuit through Irelandthat gained him his title of “Murtough of the LeatherCloaks,” from the warm cloaks of rough hide or leatherwhich he and his attendants wore to protect them119from the cold. The famous journey was performedin the depth of the winter of 942, after his return from“Insi-Gall,” or the Isles of the Foreigners, as theHebrides were frequently called. He summoned allthe clans over whom he ruled, and chose out of thema bodyguard of a thousand picked men, with whomhe proceeded eastward into Antrim, then south toDublin, thence into Leinster and Munster, and homewardthrough Connaught to Ulster again. Leinsterand Munster threatened to oppose him, but the sightof his thousand chosen warriors seems to have deterredthem. Murtough took with him his clan bard, whohas written in verse which still exists an account oftheir journey. Their leather cloaks they used forwraps by day and for tents by night. Snow oftenlay deep on the ground on which they had to sleep,but they would “dance to music on the plain, keepingtime to the heavy shaking of their cloaks.” Murtoughreturned home with an imposing array of princes ashis hostages, for none dare refuse to acknowledgehis supremacy. Sitric, a Danish lord of Dublin, wasdelivered to him by the Northmen; a prince of Leinsterfollowed, and a young son of Tadhg of the Towers,King of Connaught, who alone went unfettered, whileall the others were in chains. But his most audaciousstroke was the demand that Callaghan, King of Cashel,in Munster, should be delivered to him fettered. Suchan unheard-of demand was not easily acquiesced in;but Murtough would accept no other hostage, andat length, apparently at the King’s own request, hewas delivered into the hands of the proud prince ofthe North. This fettering of a King of Munster causeda sensation at the time and was the burthen of manypoems.

After his triumphal entry into his palace with hisprincely hostages, rejoicings and feastings went onfor the space of five months, the hostages taking partin all the festivities and being royally entertained.The Queen herself waited on them and saw to all theirwants. Before their arrival messengers had been sentforward to tell the Queen to send out her maidensto cut fresh rushes for the floor and to bring in kineand oxen for the feast. The Queen on her own behalf,to show her joy, supplied them all with food, andher banquets “banished the hungry look from thearmy.”

When the season of rejoicing was past Murtoughled the captive princes out of his castle, and lest heshould seem to be assuming glory and rights notproperly his own, he sent them under escort to theHigh-King of Ireland, begging him, in courtly language,to receive them in token of his submission and respect.His message runs thus: “Receive, O Donagh, thesenoble princes, for there is none in Erin so greatlyexalted as thyself.”

But Donagh, King of Ireland, would not accept sogreat a token of submission at Murtough’s hands.He replied: “Now thou art a greater prince than I,O King! Thy hand it was that took these princescaptive; in all Ireland is there none thine equal.”So the captives were sent back, and apparently set free,with the blessing of the King of Ireland.

Only one year afterwards, in 943, Murtough againmet the angry Northmen at the ford of Ardee, on theRiver Boyne, and fell by the sword of Blacaire, son ofGodfrey, lord of the Foreigners. There is somethingromantic and unusual in every act of this Northernprince of the O’Neills, and we feel inclined to echo121the despairing words of the old chronicler who recordshis death: “Since Murtough does not live the countryof the Gael is for ever oppressed.”

It would seem to have been a daughter of this braveMurtough whose story we find in the Icelandic LaxdælaSaga, and who in these troublous times was carriedaway by the Norse out of her own country and soldas a slave in Northern Europe, eventually being purchasedby an Icelander and carried away to Iceland.Her story is so interesting in itself and throws so muchlight on the conditions of the time that we will nowtell it at length. If it was really Murtough of theLeather Cloaks who was father to this poor enslavedprincess, torn from her home in Ireland and carriedfar overseas, never to return, we cease to wonder atthe persistent hatred with which Murtough pursuedthe foes at whose hand he had received so great injuriesas the death of his father and the loss of his daughter.In this case he was the grandfather of the famousIcelandic chief, Olaf Pa, or Olaf the Peacock.

Slavery was commonly practised in the days ofwhich we are writing, and slaves taken in warwere often carried from the British Isles to Icelandor Norway. There are many accounts of slaveswith Irish or Scottish names in the Icelandic “Book ofthe Settlements”; they appear often to have given greattrouble to their foreign masters. But it is less commonto find a lady of high rank, an Irish princess, carried offfrom her people and sold as a slave in open market.The lady was named Melkorka, and her story is foundin Laxdæla Saga, from which Saga we have alreadytaken our account of the life and death of Unn theDeep-minded.28 Parts of this Saga are closely connectedwith Irish affairs.

There was in the tenth century in Iceland a youngman whose name was Hoskuld. He was of good positionand held in much esteem both in Norway and at hisown home in Iceland. He was appointed one of thebodyguard of King Hakon, and he stayed each year,turn and turn about, at Hakon’s Court, in Norway andat his own home in Iceland, which he called Hoskuldstead.He was married to a handsome, proud, and123extremely clever woman, named Jorunn, who, thesaga says, “was wise and well up in things, and ofmanifold knowledge, though rather high-tempered atmost times.” Hoskuld and she loved each other well,though in their daily ways they made no show of theirlove. Hoskuld, with his wife’s money joined to his own,became a great chieftain, for Jorunn was daughter of thewealthiest land-owner in all that part of the country, andhis house and family stood in great honour and renown.

Now there came a time when the King, attendedby his followers, went eastward at the beginning ofsummer, to a meeting at which matters of internationalpolicy were discussed and settled between Norway,Sweden, and Denmark. From all lands men cameto attend the meeting, and Hoskuld, who at that timewas staying with his kinsfolk in Norway, went alongwith the rest. There was a great fair going on inthe town, with eating and drinking and games andevery sort of entertainment, and crowds passed toand fro along the streets. Hoskuld met many of hiskinsfolk who were come from Denmark, and one day,as they went out to disport themselves, he markeda stately tent far away from the other booths, with aman in costly raiment and wearing a Russian hat on hishead presiding at the door of the tent. Hoskuld askedhis name. He said his name was Gilli;29 “but mostmen call me Gilli the Russian,” he added, “and maybeyou know me by that name.” Hoskuld said he knewhim well, for he was esteemed the richest man of allthe guild of merchants. “Perhaps,” he said, “you124have things to sell which we might wish to buy.”Gilli asked what sort of things he might be lookingfor, and Hoskuld said he was needing a bondswoman,if he had one to sell. “There,” said the man, “Isee that you mean to give me trouble by asking forthings you don’t expect me to have in stock; butafter all perhaps I can satisfy you.”

Then Hoskuld noticed that right across the backof the booth there was a curtain drawn; when theman drew the curtain, Hoskuld saw that there weretwelve women seated behind it in a line across thebooth. Gilli said that Hoskuld might examine thewomen if he chose. Then Hoskuld looked carefullyat them, and he saw one woman seated on the outskirtsof the tent, a little apart from the rest, very poor andill-clad, but, so far as he could judge, fair to look upon.Then he asked: “What is the price of this woman if Ishould wish to buy her?” “Three silver pieces mustbe weighed out to me for that woman,” Gilli replied.“It seems to me,” said Hoskuld, “that you chargehighly for this woman, for that is the price of three.”“Choose any of the other women,” said Gilli, “and youshall have them at the price of one silver mark; butthis bondswoman I value more highly than the othereleven.” “I must see,” said Hoskuld, “how much silverI have in the purse in my belt; take you the scaleswhile I search my purse and see what I have to spend.”

Then Gilli said: “As you seem to wish to have thiswoman, Hoskuld, I will deal frankly with you in thematter. There is a great drawback to her which Iwish to let you know about before the bargain is struckbetween us.” Hoskuld was surprised, and he askedwhat it was. “The woman,” said Gilli, “is dumb.I have tried in every way to persuade her to talk, but125not a word have I ever got out of her, and sure I amthat she knows not how to speak.” “Bring out thescales, nevertheless,” said Hoskuld, “and weigh mypurse, that we may see how much silver is in it.”Then the silver was poured out, and it came to justthree marks. “Now,” said Hoskuld, “our bargainis concluded, for the marks are yours, and I will havethe woman. I take it that you have behaved honestlyin this affair, and have had no wish to deceive metherein.” When he brought her home, Hoskuld saidto her: “The clothes Gilli the Rich gave you do notappear to be very grand, though it is true that it wasmore of a business for him to dress twelve womenthan for me to dress one.” With that he opened achest and took out some fine women’s clothes and gavethem to her; and when she was dressed every one wassurprised to see how fair and noble she looked in herhandsome array. She was still quite young, for she hadbeen taken prisoner of war and carried away to Europewhen she was only fifteen winters old, and it wasremarked by all that she was of high birth and breeding,and that, in spite of her want of speech, she was no fool.

When Hoskuld brought his slave home to Iceland,Jorunn, his wife, asked the name of the girl whom hehad brought with him. “You will think I am mockingyou,” said Hoskuld, “when I tell you that I do notknow her name.” “In that you must be deceivingme,” said Jorunn; “for it is impossible that you havebeen all this time with this girl without inquiring evenher name.” So Hoskuld told her the truth, that thegirl was deaf and dumb, and he prayed that she mightbe kindly treated, more especially on that account.Jorunn said she had no mind to ill-use her, leastof all if she was dumb. But nevertheless she treated126the poor girl with disdain, and made a waiting-maidof her, and one day it is told that while Melkorka(for that was the woman’s name) was aiding her mistressto undress, Jorunn seized the stockings that werelying on the floor and smote her about the head.Melkorka got angry at this, and Hoskuld had to comein and part them. He soon saw that the mistress andmaid could not live happily together, therefore he preparedto send Melkorka away to a dwelling he hadbought for her up in Salmon-river-dale, on the wasteland south of the Salmon River. And all the timethe desolate girl, either from pride and despair orbecause she could speak no language but her nativetongue, kept up the illusion that she was deaf anddumb. Neither kind nor unkind treatment couldforce her to open her lips.

There came a time when Melkorka had a son, avery beautiful boy, who at two years old could runabout and talk like boys of four. And Hoskuld oftenvisited the two, for he was proud of the boy, and henamed him Olaf. Early one morning, as Hoskuldhad gone out to look about his manor, the weatherbeing fine, and the sun but little risen in the sky andshining brightly, it happened that he heard somevoices of people talking: so he went down to wherea little brook ran past the home-field slope, and hesaw two people there whom he recognized as the boyOlaf and his mother; then he discovered for the firsttime that she was not speechless, for she was talkinga great deal to her son.

It was in Irish that she was talking. Then Hoskuldwent to her and asked her name, and said it was uselessto try and hide it any longer. They sat down togetheron the edge of the field, and she told him of her birth127and history, that her name was Melkorka, and thatshe was daughter of a king in Ireland. Hoskuld saidthat she had kept silence far too long about such anillustrious descent. From that time forward Jorunngrew more bitter against the girl, but Hoskuld shelteredher, and brought her everything she needed. AndOlaf grew up into a noble youth, superior to othermen, both on account of his beauty and courtesy.Among the things his mother taught him was a perfectknowledge of her native tongue, which was destinedto stand him in good stead in later days.

At the age of seven years Olaf was taken in fosterageby a wealthy childless man, named Thord, who boundhimself to leave Olaf all his money. At twelve years thelad already began to ride to the annual Thing meeting,though men from other countrysides considered ita great errand to go; and they wondered at the splendidway he was made. So handsome and distinguishedwas he even then, and so particular about his war-gearand raiment, that Hoskuld playfully nicknamed him“the Peacock,” and this name stuck to him, so thathe is known in Icelandic story as Olaf Pa, or the Peacock.When Olaf was a man of eighteen wintersMelkorka told him that she had all along set her mindupon his going to Ireland, to find out her relativesthere. “Here,” said she, “you are but the son ofa slave-woman, but my father is Myrkjartan [Murtough],king amongst the Irish, and it would be easy for youto betake you on board the ship that is now in harbourat Bord-Eye and sail in her to Ireland.” Melkorkaeven determined, partly to gain money for her son’sjourney and partly to spite Hoskuld, whom she hadnever forgiven for having bought her as a slave, tomarry a man who had long wished to wed her, but128for whom she had no affection. He gladly providedall that Olaf required for his voyage in return forMelkorka’s hand, and Olaf made him ready to go.Before he left, Melkorka gave him a great gold finger-ring,saying, “This gift my father gave me for ateething-gift, and I know he will recognize it whenhe sees it.” She also put into his hands a knife anda belt, and bade him give them to her old foster-nurse.“I am sure,” she said, “they will not doubt thesetokens.” And still further Melkorka spake: “I havefitted you out for home as best I know how, and taughtyou to speak Irish, so that it will make no differenceto you where you come ashore in Ireland.” Afterthat they parted.

There arose a fair wind when Olaf got on board,and they sailed straightway out to sea. On the waythey visited Norway, and so well did King Haraldthink of Olaf that he would fain have had him staythere at his Court, but after a while he set forth theobject of his journey, and the King would not delayhim, but gave him a ship well fitted out, and badehim come again to him on his return. They met unfavourableweather through the summer, with plentifulfogs and little wind, and what there was contrary, andthey drifted wide of their mark, until on those on boardfell sea-bewilderment, so that they sailed for daysand nights, none of them knowing whither they weresteering. One night the watchman leapt up andbade them all awake, for he said there was land in sight,and so close that they came near to striking upon it.The steersman was for clearing away from the landif they could; but Olaf said: “That is no goodway out of our plight, for I see reefs astern. Letdown the sail at once, until daylight comes, and then129we can discover what land it is.” Then they castanchor, and they touched bottom at once. Duringthe night all on board disputed as to what land theycould have come to; but when daylight arose theyrecognized that it was a desolate part of the Irishcoast, far from any town; and Orn the steersmansaid: “I think the place we have arrived at is notgood; it is far from any harbour or market-town wherewe should be received in peace; here we are left highand dry, like sticklebacks, and according to the Irishlaw it is likely they will claim our merchandise asa lawful prize, seeing that we are near the shore; forthey consider as flotsam ships that are farther from theebb of the tide than ours.” But Olaf advised them totow out their boat to a deeper pool in the sea thathe had noticed during the ebb tide, and then no harmwould happen to them. Hardly had they done so thanall the people of the neighbourhood came crowdingdown to the shore, for the news spread of the driftingin of a Norwegian vessel close to the land. Two ofthe Irish pushed out in a boat and demanded whothey were, and bade them, according to the law ofthe country, to give up their goods. But Olaf’s knowledgeof Irish stood him in good stead, for he answeredthem in their own tongue that such laws held goodonly for those who had no interpreter with them, andthat they were not come to plunder, but as peacefulmen. The Irish, not satisfied with this, raised a greatwar-cry, and waded out to try to drag the ship in-shore,the water being no deeper for most of the way thanup to their arm-pits, or to the belts of those who weretallest. But just where the ship was anchored thepool was so deep that they could not get a footing.Olaf bade his crew fetch out their weapons and range130themselves in battle-line from stem to stern, theirshields hung upon the bulwarks, and overlappingall along the ship’s sides, and a spear-point thrustout below each shield.

Then Olaf, clad in gold-inlaid helmet and coat ofmail, his barbed spear in his hand and his gold-hiltedsword at his side, walked forward to the prow; beforehim was his red shield, chased with a lion all in gold.So threatening did things look that fear shot throughthe hearts of the Irish, and they thought that it wouldnot be so easy a matter to master the booty as theyhad imagined. They changed their minds, and nowthought that it was but the herald of one of thosewarlike incursions of which they had had such frequentand terrible experience. They turned back, and sentwith all haste to the King, who happened to be buta short way off, feasting in the neighbourhood. ThisKing, who rode down speedily with a large companyof followers, looking a party of the bravest, proved tobe Murtough, or Myrkjartan, Olaf’s grandfather. Hewas a valiant-looking prince, and the two companies,Icelanders and Irish, must have made a brave sightas they stood opposite to each other, one on the shipand the other on the shore, divided only by a narrowstrip of shallow water. The shipmates of Olaf grewhushed when they saw so large a body of fighting-men,for they deemed that here were great odds to dealwith. But Olaf put them in heart, saying, “Ouraffairs are in a good way; for the shouts of the Irishare not against us, but in greeting to Murtough,their king.” Then they rode so near the ship thateach could hear what the other said. The Kingasked who was master of the ship, and whence theyhad put to sea, and whose men they were. Then131he asked searchingly about Olaf’s kindred, for hefound that this man was of haughty bearing, andwould not answer any further than the King asked.Olaf answered: “Let it be known to you that weran our ship afloat from the coast of Norway, andthat these men with me are of high birth and of thebodyguard of King Harald, lord of Norway. As for myown race, I have, sire, to tell you this, that my fatherlives in Iceland, and is named Hoskuld, a man of goodbirth; but as for my mother’s kindred, I think itlikely that they are better known to you than to myself.For my mother is Melkorka, and it has been told meof a truth that she is your daughter, O King. Andit is this that has driven me forth on this long journey,to know the truth of the matter, and to me it is ofgreat import what answer you have to make to me.”At that the King grew silent, and hesitated long, consultingwith his counsellors; for though it was clearlyseen that Olaf was a high-born man, and that he spokethe best of Irish, the King doubted whether his storycould be true. But he stood up, and offered peaceand friendship to those that were in the ship. “Butas to what you tell me, Olaf, we will talk further ofthat.” After this they pushed forth their gangwaysto the shore, and Olaf and his company went on land;and the Irish marvelled to see such warrior-lookingmen. Olaf greeted the King, taking off his helmetand bowing before him, and the King welcomed himgladly. They fell then to talking, and Olaf pleadedhis case in a long and frank speech, and when he haddone he took from his finger the ring that his motherhad given him at parting, and held it out towardthe King, saying: “This ring, King, you gave toMelkorka as a teething-gift.” The King took the ring132and looked at it, and his face grew red, and then hesaid: “True enough are the tokens, and none theless notable to me is it that you have so many featuresof your mother’s family, so that by those alone youmight easily be recognized, and because of these thingsI will, in sooth, Olaf, acknowledge your kinship beforeall these men, and ask you to my Court with all yourfollowing; but the honour of you all will depend onwhat worth as a man I find you to be when I try youfurther.” Then the King commanded that riding-horsesshould be given to them, and they left some of thecrew to guard the ship, while they rode on together toDublin.

Men thought it great tidings that the King shouldbe journeying to Dublin with the son of his daughter,who had been carried off in war when she was onlyfifteen winters old. But most startled of all at thenews was the foster-mother of Melkorka, who wasbed-ridden, both from heavy sickness and becauseof her great age; yet without even a staff to supporther she arose from her bed and walked to meet Olaf.

The King said to Olaf: “Here is come Melkorka’sfoster-mother, and she will wish to hear all you cantell her about your mother’s life.” Olaf took the oldwoman in his arms and set her on his knee and toldher all the news; he put into her hands the knife andthe belt that Melkorka had sent, so that the agedwoman recognized the gifts, and wept for joy. “Itis easy to see,” she said, “that Melkorka’s son is oneof high mettle, and no wonder, seeing what stockhe comes of.” And with joy the old dame seemedto grow strong and well, and was in good spirits allthe winter.

The King was seldom at rest, for at all times the133land was raided by vikings and war-bands. ButOlaf joined with him in driving off the invaders, andthose who came thought that his was indeed a grimcompany to deal with. The King loved him betterthan his own sons, and at a solemn gathering of thewise men of his realm he publicly prayed him to remainwith him, offering him the kingdom in successionwhen his own day was done, and setting him before hispeople as his grandson and Melkorka’s son. Olafthanked him in fair and graceful words, but he refusedthe offer, for he said he had no real claim to thekingdom, as the King had sons, nor did he wish tostir up strife between them. “It is better,” he said,“to gain swift honour than lasting shame.” Headded that he desired to go back to Norway, wherevessels could pass peaceably from land to land, andthat his mother would have little delight in her lifeif he went not back to her. So the King said thathe must do as he thought best, and the assembly wasbroken up. Olaf bade a loving farewell to the King,who came with him to the ship and saw him on board,and gave him a spear chased in gold, and a gold-hiltedsword, and much money besides. Olaf begged thathe might take her old foster-mother to Melkorka;but the King thought her too aged for travelling, andhe did not let her go. So they parted the most lovingfriends, and Olaf sailed out to sea. After a winterspent with King Harald in Norway the King gaveOlaf a ship, and he sailed with a fair wind to Iceland,and brought his vessel into Ramfirth, where Hoskuldand his kinsmen greeted him warmly. It spreadabroad through all the land that he was grandsonof Murtough, King of Ireland, and he became veryrenowned on that account and because of his journey.134Melkorka came soon to greet her son, and Olaf mether with great joy. She asked about many thingsin Ireland, of her father first and then of her otherrelatives; and then she asked if her foster-motherwere still alive, and Olaf told her everything. Butshe said it was strange that he had not brought theold woman back with him, that she might have seenher once more. When Olaf told her that he had wishedto bring her, but that they would not allow her to go,“That may be so,” she said; but it was plain to beseen that she took this much to heart.

Olaf became a famous man both in Iceland andin Norway, and very wealthy, and he made a goodmatch with Thorgerd, daughter of Egil, and prospered.He called his eldest son Kjartan, after Myrkjartan, hismother’s father, the King of Ireland.

We now come to a battle that is famous alikein Norse and in Irish story. It wasthe final effort made by the Norsemen toassert their supremacy over Ireland, and the lastof several disastrous defeats which they encounteredat the hands of the Irish. Both the story-tellers ofthe North and the historians and bards of Irelandwrote long accounts of it, so that we know the detailsof the battle of Clontarf perhaps better than we knowthose of any other ancient battle fought in the BritishIsles. Except the battle of Brunanburh, no otherfight in these islands excited half so much attentionat this period. On the Norse side forces were gatheredfrom the Orkneys, the Isle of Man, and the Scottishcoast to support the Norse of Dublin; on the other werethe united forces of Munster and Connaught, supportedby Danish auxiliaries, and led by the aged King ofMunster, Brian Boru, or “Brian of the Tributes.”Brian had risen from being an outlawed prince ofpart of Munster, in the south of Ireland, to the positionof High-King of the whole country. When he wasa boy the foreigners had become so powerful in thesouth of Ireland that the Irish princes despaired ofeither driving them out of the country or defeatingthem in battle. They had adopted the weaker policy136of paying the intruders a heavy tribute, in order tokeep them quiet; and when Brian’s father, Kennedy,died, and Brian’s elder brother, Mahon, came to thethrone, he carried on the same policy. But Brianutterly refused to make any truce with the Northmen,or to pay them any tribute whatsoever; and when hesaw that Mahon was determined at all costs to keeppeace he left the royal palace of Kincora, on theShannon, and he and a band of the most hardy andindependent of the young chiefs of the neighbourhoodbetook themselves to the forests and wild parts ofNorth Munster, whence they issued forth by day ornight to attack and harass the Northmen. Manyof them they cut off and killed, but on the other handa number of Brian’s followers were slain, and theywere all reduced to great straits, from lack of foodand shelter. For, like Alfred the Great in similarcircumstances, they had to live in huts or caves orwherever they could get refuge; and often they couldget no food but roots and wild herbs, so that theirstrength was reduced, and in the wet weather theybecame in wretched plight. Brian’s brother, Mahon,hearing of this, sent for him, and tried to inducehim to give up his roving life and return to Kincora;but Brian, in no wise daunted by all that he had gonethrough, reproached Mahon for having made a dishonourabletruce with the foreigners, which neither theirfather nor any of their ancestors would have approved.When Mahon excused himself, saying that he did notcare to lead his clan to certain death, as Brian hadled the young chiefs, his brother replied that it wastheir heritage to die, and the heritage of all the clan,and whatever they might do they could not escapedeath; but that it was not natural or customary to137them to submit to insult or contempt at the handsof their enemies. And he so wrought upon Mahonthat he determined to adopt his brother’s advice, andthey called an assembly of the tribe, who with oneheart gave their voice for war. From that time forwardMahon and Brian grew stronger and stronger.They gained a great victory over the foreigners atLimerick, plundered their goods and sacked the fort;after that they set fire to the town and reduced itto ashes, and they banished Ivar, Prince of Limerick,to Wales. The soldiers of the Norsemen, who werebilleted on the people, and did them grievous wrong,were driven out, and Mahon reigned as undisputedking.

But treachery arose among his own followers, forsome of them were envious of his success, and Donovanand Molloy, two of his chiefs, betrayed him inDonovan’s own house, being instigated to the foulact by Ivar of Limerick, who wished to be revengedon Mahon. The prince was suddenly surroundedwhile he was at a peaceful meeting with the clergyof the province. He bore on his breast the Gospelof St Fin-Barre, to protect him, but when he saw thenaked sword lifted to strike he plucked it out of histunic and flung it over the heads of those that stoodnearest him, so that his blood might not stain it.The Gospel fell into the hands of a priest who stoodat some distance, with Molloy beside him. Notknowing that it was Molloy who had planned themurder of Mahon, nor understanding what was passing,the priest turned to Molloy and asked him what heshould do with the book. “Cure yonder man withit if he should come to thee,” laughed the traitor,and with that he leaped on his horse and fled from138the place. When the cleric perceived what was doneand that Mahon had been slain, he fervently cursedthe deed, and prophesied that evil would befall Molloy.Looking at the book he saw that it was sprinkled withMahon’s blood; he gave it to Colum, who was theabbot, and they wept at the sight of the blood on itspages, and at the death of the King.

After that the sovereignty fell to Brian, and thebeginning of his reign was one vigorous, long-continuedstruggle to rid his country from the hosts of the invaders.He made untiring war on them, driving them outof his territories, until he seated himself firmly on thethrone of Munster. Then he began to aspire further,and he thought that he would attempt the High-Kingshipof Ireland, and would endeavour to drivethe Northmen not only from the south, but from thewhole country. He marched north into Leinster,for the men of Leinster, with the Norsemen of Dublin,revolted from Brian, and they met at the Glen of theGap, in County Wicklow, at the pass beside the ancientpalace of the Kings of Leinster.

A great battle was fought between them, and Brianwas completely victorious; he marched on straightto Dublin, and took the Danish fort of Dublin, andplundered it, gathering the spoil of gold and silverornaments and precious stones, goblets and buffalohorns, wondrous garments of silk, and feather beds,with steeds and slaves, into one place, and dividingit among the clansmen. From Great Christmas toLittle Christmas Brian rested his army there (i.e. fromChristmas to Epiphany), and from that time forthno Irishman or Irishwoman needed any longer to sethands to menial labour, for things were changed,and the foreigners became their slaves and did the139kneading and grinding and washing for the householdsof the conquerors. Up to this time the foreignershad enslaved the Irish. Then Brian ravaged Leinster,and he caught Melmora, the King, hidden in a yewtree, where Morrogh, Brian’s young son, saw himconcealed among the branches, and pulled him down.He returned to Munster, having made peace withMelmora; and Sitric Silken-beard,30 the Norse Kingof Dublin, submitted to him, and Brian gave himhis daughter in marriage. For fifteen years therewas peace and prosperity in the country, and Briansent abroad to purchase books, and to find teachersand professors in place of those whom the Norsemenhad destroyed; he rebuilt churches, and encouragedlearning, and made bridges and causeways, and highroadsall through the country; and he strengthenedthe fortresses, and ruled well and generously. Hemade a royal progress through the land, taking hostagesfrom all the chiefs in token of their subjectionto him. But all the time the Northmenwere planning to avenge themselves upon him, byan expedition the like of which had not been madebefore into Ireland; and the King of Ireland,Melaughlan, whom Brian had dethroned, joined withthem against him.

A great fire may arise from a little spark,and the light which set Ireland and the Northablaze was kindled by the angry words of a jealouswoman.

Gormliath (or Kormlod, as she is called in Northernsaga) was the fiercest and most dreaded woman ofher time. She is said in the saga to have been “the140fairest of women, and best gifted in everything thatwas not in her own power, but it was the talk of men thatshe did everything ill over which she had any power”—thatis, she had the best gifts of nature, but out of herown will she did nothing but what was bad. Alreadyshe had been married to two husbands, to the lastDanish King of Dublin, Olaf o’ the Sandal, by whomher son was Sitric Silken-beard, the reigning kingwhen Brian conquered the fort of Dublin. But evenOlaf had found Gormliath too wicked a woman, andhe had sent her away, after which she married theKing of Ireland, Melaughlan, whom Brian dethroned.After his downfall she seems to have gone with Brianto Kincora, and been married to him, though herformer husband was still alive. So wicked a womanwas little comfort to any husband, and it was notlong before we find her parted from Brian also andtaking part against him in every way in her power.But at the time of our story she was living with Brianat Kincora, though her acts show that she had littlelove for him. She was a Leinster princess, and sisterof that King of Leinster whom Brian’s son had caughthiding in the yew tree. Brian had made peace withhim, and he had consented to pay tribute to Brianas his over-lord. One day he set forth to conducta tribute of pine trees for ship-masts to Brian, butat a boggy part of the road ascending a mountain adispute broke out between the drivers of the wagons,and to prevent the masts falling the King himselfsprang from his horse and put out his hand to supportthe mast that was in front. In doing so oneof the buttons of his silken tunic broke off. The tunichad been a gift to him from Brian, and had on it arich border of gold and buttons of silver. When he141arrived at the palace Melmora took off his tunic, andtook it to his sister Gormliath, asking her to sew onthe silver button. But the Queen angrily threw thegarment into the fire, reproaching him bitterly fortaking gifts from Brian or giving tribute to him, andin every way stirring him up against her husband.

The next morning fresh cause of quarrel arose outof a game of chess which Morrogh, son of Brian,was playing with Conang, his nephew. Melmora wasstanding by, teaching Conang the game, and he adviseda move which lost the game to Morrogh. At thatangry words arose between them, and Morrogh said:“It was thou that gavest advice to the foreigners atthe battle of the Gap when they were defeated.” “Iwill give them advice again, and they shall not bedefeated,” was Melmora’s retort. “Take care thatthou have the yew tree ready, then, in which to hidethyself and them,” was Morrogh’s reply. At thisthe King of Leinster grew furious, and the next morning,without asking permission or taking leave of anyone,he left the palace, and started to return to Leinster.He was mounting his horse on the east side of thewooden bridge of Killaloe, when a messenger overtookhim, sent hastily by Brian to beg of him to return;he gave the King’s message, telling him that Briandesired to part from him peaceably and to give himgifts of gold and vestments. The only reply thatMelmora made was to strike at the officer with hishorse-switch, so that he was carried back dying toKincora.

When this was related to Brian some of thosewho stood round him called on him to pursue Melmoraand force him to submit. But Brian said thathe would not pursue one who had been a guest142under his roof, but that at the door of his ownpalace in Leinster he would demand satisfaction fromhim.

Hardly had Melmora returned to his own palacethan he set himself with all his power to raise up enemiesto Brian. He said that he had received insult,not only to himself, but to the province, in the houseof Brian, and he incited the princes of the provinceto turn against the King of Munster. They declaredfor war, and began to assemble a great host. Moreover,Melmora sent messengers to stir up the princesof the north, so that on both sides, from Ulster andfrom Leinster, war was declared against Brian. Therebels effected an alliance with the foreigners of Dublin,who busied themselves in gathering the most formidablehost that ever reached the shores of Ireland. Andon his side also Brian bent all his efforts to gathertogether an army so great that it could not be overcome,and he plundered far and wide to get provisionsfor his host and to weaken the enemy. In the springhe was ready to set out for Dublin with his army,and when Sitric Silken-beard, Norse King of Dublin,saw that, he sent messengers to the Orkneys andto the Isle of Man to stir up the Northmen there tocome to his assistance and to the assistance of theKing of Leinster. It was Gormliath who egged himon. After Melmora left Kincora she returned toDublin and she employed all her wit to set her sonSitric against her husband, Brian. “So grim had shegot against him that she would gladly have had himdead,” says the saga. But Sitric and all the vikingchiefs knew the goodness of Brian’s heart, “that hewas the best-natured of all kings, and that he wouldthrice forgive all outlaws the same offence before he143would have them judged by the law; and from thatit was clear to them what a king he must have been.”But Gormliath would take no denial, and in the endshe got her way, and King Sitric set sail for theOrkneys.

We will now turn to the Orkneys and see whatwas happening there. It is Yule or Christmas,and at Earl Sigurd the Stout’s Court asplendid feast is in progress. The long hall is filled withguests, seated between double rows of pillars, and on thehearth in the centre of the hall the Yule-log is blazing.King Sitric Silken-beard, but newly arrived from Ireland,is placed in the high seat in the centre of the tables,with Earl Sigurd and Earl Gille on either hand. Theguests are ranged round the hall in the order of theirrank, and behind the earls, on the raised daïs, theminstrels are placed. Just at the moment a mannamed Gunnar, Lambi’s son, is relating to the assembledcompany the terrible story of the burning of Nial andhis family in Iceland, which had only just taken place.31

Gunnar himself had had a hand in the dastardlydeed, and to save himself he was giving a garbledversion of the tale. Every now and again he lied outright.Now it so happened that while he was talkingtwo other Icelanders, close friends of the house of Nial,came up to the door, and they stood outside andlistened, arrested by the false story which Gunnarwas relating to the earl. They had lately landedfrom Iceland, and the truth was well known to them.145One of the two was Kari, who had escaped from theburning, and he could not stand this, and with swiftvengeance, and a wild snatch of song upon his lips,he rushed into the hall, his drawn sword in his hand.In a moment the head of Gunnar was severed fromhis body, and it spun off on the board before theKing and earls, who were befouled with the spoutingblood. The earl exclaimed in his anger, “Seize Kariand kill him”; but never a man moved to put forthhis hand. “Kari hath done only what it was rightto do,” they all exclaimed, and they made a way forKari, so that he walked out, without hue or cry afterhim. “This is a bold fellow,” cried King Sitric, “whodealt his stroke so stoutly and never thought of ittwice!” And in spite of his anger Earl Sigurd wasforced to exclaim: “There is no man like Kari fordash and daring!”

Then King Sitric Silken-beard bestirred himself toegg on the earl to go to war with him against KingBrian, but at first the earl refused, for all his host wereagainst it, and liked not to go to war with so good aking. In the end, however, Sitric promised him hismother Gormliath’s hand and the kingdom of Irelandif they slew Brian, and then Sigurd gave him his wordto go. It was settled between them that the earlshould bring his host to Dublin by Palm Sunday, andon this Sitric fared back to Ireland, and told Gormliathwhat luck he had had. She showed herself well pleased,but she said that they must gather a greater forcestill. Sitric asked where this was to be found, andshe said that she had heard tidings that two vikingfleets were lying off the Isle of Man, thirty ships ineach fleet, with two captains of such hardihood thatnothing could withstand them. “The name of one,”146said she, “is Ospac, and the other’s name is Brodir.Haste thee to find them, and spare nothing to get theminto thy quarrel, whatever price they ask.” So Sitricset forth again, but the price that Brodir asked wasthe kingdom of Ireland and the hand of the fairGormliath. Sitric was much perplexed, but in the end hepromised, for he thought that if they gained the victoryEarl Sigurd and the vikings could fight it out betweenthem, and if they were conquered no harm was done.So he ended by promising all that they wished, onlyhe stipulated that they should keep the matter sosecret that it would never come to Earl Sigurd’s ears.They too were to arrive in Dublin before Palm Sunday,and Sitric left well satisfied, and fared home to tellhis mother.

But hardly had he gone than a fierce quarrel brokeout between the brothers. It would seem that theconference had been between Sitric and Brodir only,and that Ospac had not been informed of the pactuntil after Sitric had left. Then he roundly said thathe would not go. Nothing would induce him to fightagainst so good a king as Brian. Rather would hebecome a Christian and join his forces to those of theIrish King. Ospac, though he was a heathen, is saidto have been the wisest of all men; but Brodir bearsan ugly character. He had been a Christian, andhad been consecrated a deacon, but he had thrownoff his faith “and become God’s dastard,” as the sagasays, “and now worshipped pagan fiends and wasof all men most skilled in sorcery.” He wore a magiccoat of mail, on which no steel would bite. He wastall and strong and his hair was black. He wore hislocks so long that he tucked them into his belt.Fearful dreams beset him from night to night. A great147din passed over his ship, causing all to spring upand hastily put on their clothes. A shower of bloodpoured over them, so that, although they coveredthemselves with their shields, many were scalded,and on every ship one man died. They were so disturbedat night that they had to sleep during the day.The second night swords leapt out of their sheaths,and swords and axes flew about in the air and foughtof themselves, wounding many. They had to shelterthemselves, but the weapons pressed so hard thatout of every ship one man died. The third nightravens flew at them, with claws and beaks hard asof iron, and again in every ship a man died. Thenext morning Brodir pushed off in his boat to seekOspac to tell him what he had seen, and ask him themeaning of the portents. Ospac feared to tell hisbrother what these things boded, and though Brodirpromised that no harm should follow, he put off tellinghim until nightfall, for he knew that Brodir neverslew a man by night. Then he said: “Whereasblood rained on you, many men’s blood shall be shed,yours and others; but when ye heard a great din,then ye must have been shown the crack of doom,and ye shall all die speedily. When weapons foughtagainst you, they must forbode a battle; but whenravens overpowered you, that marks the evil spiritin whom ye put your faith, and who will drag youall down to the pains of hell.” Brodir was so wroththat he could answer never a word, but he mooredhis vessels across the sound that night, so that hecould bear down and slay Ospac’s men next morning.But Ospac saw through the plan, and while Brodir’smen were sleeping he slipped away quietly in thedarkness, having cut the cables of Brodir’s line, and148he sailed round the south of Ireland, and so up theShannon to Kincora. Here he told all that he knewto King Brian, giving him warning; and he was baptizedat Kincora, and became Brian’s ally, joininghis forces with those of the King.

All being prepared, King Brian marched on Dublin,setting fire on his way to all the country round, so thatthe Norsemen when they arrived saw the land as onesheet of flame. The battle was fought on the northside of the River Liffey, where the land falls low towardthe sea at Clontarf, up to the wooded country on theheights behind which Phœnix Park now extends.Here, with the wood behind them called Tomar’sWood, were the lines of the Irish forces, facing thebay where the Norsemen brought in their ships. Onthe south side of the river was the fort of the Norsemen,where Dublin Castle now stands, and from itswalls King Sitric and his mother Gormliath watchedthe fight. Besides these two, another spectatorfollowed the course of the battle. This was Sitric’swife, who was Brian’s daughter, married to thechief of her country’s foes. Though she stood byher husband’s side, her heart was with the men ofMunster, and with her father and brothers who ledtheir hosts. In the beginning of the day it seemedto the men of Dublin who were watching from thebattlements that the swords of the enemy were mowingdown Brian’s troops, even as the ripe corn in a fieldmight fall if two or three battalions were reaping itat once. “Well do the Norsemen reap the field,”said Sitric. “It will be at the end of the day, thatwe shall see if that be so,” said the wife of Sitric,Brian’s daughter.

All day long, from sunrise till evening, the battle149was fought. At full tide in the morning the foreignersbeached their boats, but when the tide returned atnight, they were being everywhere routed before theIrish, who rushed down upon them from the upland,pushing them farther and farther backward towardthe sea. Then, as they turned to fly, hoping to regaintheir vessels, they saw that the rising tide had liftedthe boats from their resting-places and carried themout to sea, so that they were there caught between theirenemies on the land and the sea behind, with no placeof safety to turn to. An awful rout was made of them,and the sounds of their shouting and war-whoopsand cries of despair were heard by the watchers ofthe fort. Then Brian’s daughter turned to her husband.“It appears to me,” she said, “that, like gad-fliesin the heat, or like a herd of cows seeking the water,the foreigners return to the sea, their natural inheritance.I wonder are they cattle, driven by the heat? Butif they are they tarry not to be milked.” The answerof her husband was a brutal blow upon the mouth.Close to the weir of Clontarf, where the River Tolkaseeks the sea, Turlough, the young grandson of Brian,pursued a Norseman across the stream. But therising tide flung him against the weir, and he wascaught on a post, and so was drowned, with his handgrasping the hair of the Norseman who fell underhim.

The day on which the battle was fought was GoodFriday, 1014. King Brian himself was too aged togo into battle; besides, it was against his will to fighton a fast-day; so his bodyguard made a fastnessround him with their linked shields upon a little height,and from the time of the beginning of the combathe knelt upon a cushion, with his psalter open before150him, and began to read the psalms and to pray aloud.There was with him a young lad, an attendant, whowatched the course of the fighting from the height,and from time to time he told his master what wasgoing forward. After the King had said fifty psalmsand prayed awhile he asked his attendant how thebattle went.

“Intermingled together and closely fighting arethe battalions, each of them within the grasp of theother,” said the boy; “and not louder would be thesound of blows of wood-cutters on Tomar’s Wood ifseven battalions together were cutting it down, thanare the resounding blows that fall from the swordson both sides upon bones and skulls.” The Kingsaid: “Do you see the standard of Morrogh, myson?” “It is standing,” said the lad, “and thebanners of Munster close about it; but many headsare falling round it, the heads of our own clan andthe heads of foreigners also.” “That is good news,”said the King. Then the lad readjusted the cushionunder Brian, and the King prayed again and sanganother fifty psalms; and all the time the fightingwas going on below. “What is the condition of thebattalions,” Brian asked again, “and where isMorrogh’s standard?” The lad said that therewas not a man on earth who could distinguish friendfrom foe, so covered were they all with gore andwounds; but as for the standard of Munster it wasstill standing, but it had passed away to the westward.Then the King said: “The men of Irelandwill do well so long as that standard stands.”

So the lad adjusted the cushion again and the Kingprayed and sang fifty psalms more; and now theevening was drawing on. Brian asked the attendant151again, in what condition the forces were. The ladreplied: “It seems to me as though Tomar’s Woodwere all on fire, and that all the young shoots andundergrowth had been cut away, leaving only thegreat oaks standing; so are the armies on either side;for their men are fallen thick, and only the leadersand gallant heroes remain alive. For they are groundabout like the grindings of a mill turning the wrongway. Yet it seems to me that the foreigners aredefeated, though the standard of Morrogh is fallen.”“Alas! alas! for that news,” said Brian. “Thehonour and valour of Erin fell when that standardfell, and the honour of Erin is now fallen indeed; andwhat avails it to me to obtain the sovereignty of theworld if Morrogh and the chiefs of Munster are slain?”“If thou wouldst take my advice,” said the lad,“thou wouldst mount thy horse and take refuge inthe camp, where every one who escapes alive out ofthis battle will rally round us; for it seems to methat the foreigners are afraid of retreating to the sea,and we know not at any moment who may find ushere.” “Indeed, my boy,” said Brian, “flightbecomes us not; and well I know that I shall notleave this place alive. For Evill, the fairy maid whoguards our clan, appeared to me last night and toldme that I should be killed this day. Wherefore takemy steed and escape, and arrange for my seemly burial,and for my gifts to the Church, for I will remain whereI am until my fate overtakes me.”

While he was saying these words a party of theNorthmen approached with Brodir at their head.“There are people coming toward us up the hill,”said the boy, “and all our bodyguard are fled.” “Whatlike are they?” inquired the King. “A blue, stark-naked152people they seem to me,” was the reply.“Alas!” said Brian, “they must be foreigners inarmour: for the Northmen fight not like our people intheir tunics, but with blue armour on their bodies;and no good will come to us if it is they indeed.” Thenthe old man arose and pushed aside the cushion andunsheathed his sword. But Brodir marked him not,and would have passed, had not one of his followers,who had been in Brian’s service, recognized the King.“The King,” he cried, “this is the King!” “No,no,” said Brodir, “this old man is a priest.” “Byno means so,” replied the man; “this is the greatking, Brian.” Then Brodir turned, and swung hisgleaming battle-axe above his head, and smote theKing: but ere he did so Brian had made a stroke athim, and wounded him in the knee, so that they felltogether; but Brian, the King, was dead. The ladTeigue had thrown his arm across the King to shieldhim, but the arm was taken off at the stump withthe same blow that slew the King. Then Brodirstood up and with a loud voice exclaimed: “Nowmay man tell his fellow-man that Brodir hath felledKing Brian.” But not long was his triumph: forOspac his brother and some of the Munstermen cameup, and they took Brodir alive, and put him to a crueldeath there upon the spot.

Two incidents must still be told. The first concernsthe raven banner that Earl Sigurd carried tothe fight. It was made in raven-shape, and whenthe wind blew out the folds it was as though a ravenspread its wings for flight.32 The banner, which waswrought with fine needlework of marvellous skill,153had been made for Sigurd by his mother, a princessof Irish birth, whose father was Karval, Prince ofDublin. So clever was she that she had a reputationfor witchcraft, for men thought her knowledge wasgreater than that of a woman. She was a person ofspirit and mettle; for once when her young son, Sigurd,asked her advice as to whether he should go outto fight with a Scotch earl, whose followers were seventimes greater in number than his own, she scornfullybade him go. “Had I known that thou hadst a desireto live for ever,” she had said, “I should have keptthee safely rolled up in my wool-bag. Fate ruleslife, but not where a man stands at the helm; andbetter it is to die with honour than to live with shame.Take thou this banner which I have made for theewith all my cunning; I ween it will bring victoryto those before whom it is borne, but death to himwho carries it.” This was true; wherever the ravenbanner went victory followed after it, and men wereslain before it, but he who was standard-bearer alwaysmet his death. Thus the banner came to have anevil fame, and it was not easy to find a man to carryit into battle.

In the battle of Clontarf the banner was borne aloftbefore the earl, but one of the bearers after anotherhad fallen. Then Earl Sigurd called on Thorstein,son of Hall o’ the Side, to bear the flag, and Thorsteinwas about to lift it when a man called out: “Donot bear the banner; for all those who do so comeby their death. Through it three of my sons havebeen slain.” “Hrafn the Red,” called out the earl,“bear thou the banner.” “Bear thine own crowthyself,” answered Hrafn. Then the earl said:“’Tis fittest that the beggar should bear his own154bag, indeed”; and with that he took down the bannerfrom its staff, and hid it under his cloak. Only ashort time after that, the earl fell, pierced throughby a spear.

The other incident also concerns Thorstein, thebrave young Icelander who had accompanied Sigurdto Ireland. He was only twenty years of age, andas fearless as he was brave. When flight broke outthrough all the host of the foreigners, Thorstein, witha few others, took their stand by the side of Tomar’sWood, refusing to fly. At last, seeing that hopewas past, all turned to follow with the rout saveThorstein only. He stood still to tie his shoe-string.An Irish leader, coming up at the moment, askedhim why he had not run with the others. “BecauseI am an Icelander,” said Thorstein, “and were I torun ever so fast I could not get home to-night.” TheIrish leader was so struck by the young warrior’scoolness and courage that he set him at liberty.Thorstein remained for some time in the householdof the Irish King, when all his fellows returned home,and he was well beloved in Ireland.

All through the North flew the tidings of Brian’sbattle, and the Norsemen felt that it was one of themost severe checks sustained by them in WesternEurope. On the evening of the battle a strangeportent happened in Caithness. A Norseman waswalking out late at night alone. He saw before hima bower, which he had never seen before, and twelvewomen riding, two and two, toward it. They passedinto the bower and disappeared from sight. Curiousto know what had become of the women, he wentup to the bower, and looked in through a narrow slitthat served for a window. Horrible was the sight155he saw. The women were seated in the bower, weavingat a loom. But when he looked he saw that skullsof men served as the weights, and that the web andweft were the entrails of dead men. The loom wasmade of spears, and swords were the shuttles, andas the weird women wove, blood dripped from theloom upon the floor. They sang this song as theshuttles sped, softly as though they keened theslain:—

Then they plucked down the woof and tore itasunder, but each held fast to what she had in herhand. And the watcher knew that these were theValkyrie women, who weave the threads of life andof death. He fled from the place, terrified, andspread the tidings of the slaughter; but the Valkyriemaidens mounted their steeds and rode, six to thenorth and six to the south; and the bower disappearedand was no more seen.

What was the Story of the Burning thatGunnar was telling to Earl Sigurd, andfor his share in which he lost his head byKari’s stroke?

Of all the sagas of Iceland the most famous andthe best known is the saga of Njal, or, as it is sometimescalled, the Story of the Burning. Njal or Nialis an Irish name, and there may have been someIrish mixture in his descent, though this is notproved from his genealogy. He was well known tobe the wisest and best of Icelanders, and he was solearned a lawyer that all men desired his advice whenany case came before the Court of Laws. He wasclear in his judgments, and on that account it wasbelieved that he could see into the future; people saidthat he had the “second-sight” and could foretell whatwould happen. Kind and generous too he was andalways ready to help a friend in need. His wife wasBergthora, a brave, high-spirited woman, and theyhad three daughters and three sons; the names ofthe sons were Skarphedinn, Grim, and Helgi. Theyhad, moreover, a foster-son, Hoskuld, whom Nialloved better than his own sons. Nial’s sons and158Hoskuld were never apart, and what the one thoughtor did the other did likewise.

The desire of travel came upon Nial’s sons whenthey were men, and Grim and Helgi fared abroad,and were away five winters, part in Orkney and partin Norway (989–994). They were well received inOrkney by Earl Sigurd the Stout, for he found themto be bold and trustworthy men, and he took theminto his bodyguard, and gave Helgi a gold ring andmantle and Grim a shield and sword. It was in theWestern Isles that they met Kari, Solmund’s son,who gave them help and brought them to the earl,and was ever their friend; and together they foughtfor Earl Sigurd against the Scots in Caithness, andagainst Godred, King of the Isle of Man, and everywherethey were successful and got renown. Whentheir time of sea-roving was past they busked themfor Iceland, and Kari with them; and Kari was therethat winter with Nial, and asked his daughter Helgato wife, and when they were married they were muchwith Nial, for he was now an old man, and he likedto have his children about him.

This was the more needful, for now when he wasseventy winters old troubles began to fall upon Nialand his sons. Evil men envied their prosperity, andhated Nial the more that all spake honourably ofhim and praised the valour and uprightness of hissons. These men of bad feeling went about toseparate the old man from his friends and stir upsuspicion against him, and it was thought likely thatfor all he was aged, and the justest of counsellorsand a friend whom no backbiting could shake evenwhen his friendship was sorely tried, his own prophecyof himself would come true, and that his end would159be far from that which anyone could guess. Butthings went quietly for a time, because it was hardto bring a cause of complaint against Nial. At lastthey thought that they had found a handle to turnagainst him when he erected a new Court of Law inthe island, which he called the Fifth Court; to thisappeals might be made when for any reason adecision on a case was not come to at one of theQuarter Courts then established in Iceland. Forthere were many suits pleaded in the Quarter Courtthat were so entangled that no way could be seenout of them, and many said that they lost time inpleading their suits when no decision was come to,and that they preferred to seek their rights “withpoint and edge” of sword, and to fight it out; sothat there was danger of anarchy in the country.But Nial’s plan was to refer these disputed cases toa higher court for its decision. But though allagreed that this was a wise plan, many of the judgesin the old Quarter Courts were annoyed that theirauthority was lowered and the supreme jurisdictiongiven to the new court, in which were to be placedonly the wisest and best men; and what angeredthem still more was that one of these new judgeswas Hoskuld, Nial’s foster-son. In the time of paganismthere were no clergy such as we have to-day, butthe chief of each large clan or family was its priest,and there was only a fixed number of priests in eachdistrict, men who were regarded as the head-menor chiefs of that Quarter. So long as the old faithremained in the land it was the head of the familywho offered the sacrifices for his own people.Hoskuld was made a judge in the new court, and hegot the priesthood with it; he was called the Priest160of Whiteness. His judgments were so just that manymen refused to plead in the other courts and wentto have their suits pleaded before Hoskuld’s court.Out of this jealousies arose, and above all two enemiesof Nial, Valgard the Guileful and his son Mord, wereangry because their court was left empty, whileHoskuld’s was full. One night Valgard was sittingover the fire when his son Mord came in. Valgardlooked up at him and said: “If I were a youngerman I should not be sitting here very busy doingnothing while the court of Hoskuld is crowded withsuitors; and now I regret that I gave up my priesthoodto thee; I see thou wilt take no action to supportit; but I, if I were young, would work things sothat I would drag them all down to death, Nial andall his sons together.”

“My plan is,” said Valgard the Guileful, “that youshould make great friendship with Nial’s own sons.Ask them to thy house and give them gifts when theyleave, and win their trust and goodwill, so thatthey shall come to have confidence in thee as muchas they have in one another. For awhile say nothingthat shall arouse suspicion of thy friendship, butwhen once they are won over, begin little by little tosow discord between them and Hoskuld, and keepon tale-bearing to each of the other, so that theywill be set by the ears, and will end by killing Hoskuldand then it is likely that they themselves will fall inthe blood-feud that will arise from his death, and sowe shall get rid of all of them, and thou mayest seizethe chieftainship when they are all dead and gone.”

“It will not be easy to do this,” answered Mord,“for Hoskuld is so much beloved that no one will161believe any ill of him. Moreover, he and Nial’s sons,his foster-brothers, are so warm in friendship togetherthat they are always in each other’s company andsupport each other in every way. Still, I will seewhat can be done, for Nial and his sons are no dearerto me, father, than they are to thee.”

From that time forward Mord was much at Nial’shouse, and he struck up a great friendship with Skarphedinn,and said he would willingly see more of him.Skarphedinn took it all well, though he said thathe had never sought for anything of the kind before;and he encouraged Mord to come backward and forward,so that often they spent whole days together;but Nial disliked his coming, for he distrusted theman, and often he was rather short with him.

This was while Grim and Helgi were sea-roving.But when they came home Mord said he would liketo give a great feast in their honour, because theyhad been long away. They promised to go, and hecalled together a crowded feast, and at their goingaway he gave them handsome gifts, with a brooch ofgold to Skarphedinn, and a silver belt also to Kari.

They went home well pleased, and showed theirgifts to Nial. But all he said was: “Ye will payfull dearly for those gifts before all is done.”

From that time Mord began to drop hints to Nial’ssons that Hoskuld was not dealing fairly with them,and to Hoskuld he told many tales of slighting wordsspoken about him by Nial’s sons. At first they paidlittle attention to it, but after a while, as these storiesgrew (and Mord had ever a new one when they met),a coldness sprang up between the sons and Hoskuld,and he came less often to their house, and when theymet they scarcely spoke together.162But Hoskuld knew not what to think, for he lovedhis foster-brothers well, and he found it hard tobelieve that they had the designs on him that Mordmade out. One day, when Mord had brought hima new story that Skarphedinn carried an axe underhis belt, intending to take an opportunity to kill him,Hoskuld broke out angrily: “I tell you this, Mord,right out, that whatever ill-tales you tell me of Nial’ssons, you will never get me to credit them; butsupposing such things were true, and it became aquestion between us whether I must slay them orthey me, I tell thee that far rather would I be slainby them than work the least harm to them. A badman thou art, with these tales of thine.”

Mord bit his lip, and knew not what to answer,but soon after that he went to Nial’s house and fella-talking to Kari and Skarphedinn in a low voice,telling them all sorts of evil of Hoskuld, worse thanbefore, and egging them on to kill him that veryevening. He said that if they did not kill Hoskuldhe would kill him himself for their honour. So hegot his way with them, and bound them to meet himthat night with their weapons and ride down toHoskuld’s house at Ossaby.

Then Bergthora, Nial’s wife, said to her husband:“What are our sons talking about out of doors?”

“In the old days when their counsels were good,”said Nial, “seldom was I left out of them, but nowthey make their plans alone, and tell me nothing ofthem.”

That night when it was dark the sons of Nial andKari arose and rode to Ossaby, their weapons in their163hands. They stopped under the fence that encircledHoskuld’s house, hidden from sight. The weatherwas good and the sun just risen.

Now it happened that about that time Hoskuld,the Priest of Whiteness, awoke, and put on his clothesand flung about his shoulders a new crimson cloakembroidered to the waist, which Flosi, his wife’suncle, had given him. He took his corn-sieve andwalked along the fence, sowing the corn as he went;but in his left hand he carried his sword.

Skarphedinn and the others sprang up as he camenear, and made a rush at him, but Hoskuld,seeing them, tried to turn away. It is not saidthat he defended himself with his sword fromSkarphedinn.

Then Skarphedinn ran up, crying out: “Do nottry to turn on thy heel, Whiteness Priest,” and withthat he hewed at him, smiting him on the head withsuch a blow that he fell on his knees.

“God help me, and forgive you,” said Hoskuld,as one after the other they thrust him through.

Then Mord slipped off as fast as he could, and gaveout through the country that Nial’s sons had slaintheir foster-brother, Hoskuld, but nothing was saidabout his own part in the matter.

The day was not far gone when he gathered mentogether to go down with him to Ossaby, to bearwitness of the deed, and he showed them the wounds,and said that this wound was dealt by Skarphedinn,the next by Helgi or Grim, the next by Kari, and soon; but there was one wound that he said he knewnot who dealt it, for that wound was made by himself.He it was who set on foot the law against the sons ofNial.

But the sons of Nial rode home, and Kari withthem, and they told Nial the tidings. “Sorrowfulare these tidings, and ill to hear,” said Nial, “andthis grief touches me very nearly. Methinks I wouldhave given two of my own sons to have had my foster-sonalive.”

“We will excuse thy words,” said Skarphedinn,“seeing that thou art an old man, and it was to beexpected that this loss would touch thee closely.”

“It is true that I am weak and aged,” said Nial;“but my age will not prevent what is to follow.”

“My death by violence,” he said, “and the deathwith me of my wife, and of all you my sons.”

They stood silent at that, for the old man’s prophecieshad seldom failed, and they felt that this onewould come to pass.

“Thy good fortune will bring thee safe out of it,”said Nial; “but they will spare no pains to have theein the same case with us.”

This one thing touched Nial so nearly that he couldnever speak of it without shedding tears.

As the time of the suit about Hoskuld’s death drewon, all men wondered how it would go with Nial’ssons. Those who knew Hoskuld contended that hehad been slain for less than no cause; and this wastrue; yet others saw clearly that if men of such worthas Nial and his sons were slain, whose family werealways held in the greatest respect, the blood-feudand the hue and cry would stir the whole country,and those who slew them would be hated by all. ButMord would not let the matter rest, but was ever165urging the relatives of Hoskuld on his wife’s side totake up the suit against Nial’s sons. So the suit wentforward, some taking Nial’s part and some the partof his enemies; but few men stood to aid Nial inthe suit.

Nial was often found sitting with his chin on the topof his staff, gazing out from the door of the booth, andhis hair looked greyer than its wont. “Things drawon to an end,” he would say; “and what must be,must be.”

But Nial’s enemies were loth to wait for hisclearing at law, and they planned to bringabout his death and the death of his sons. Aman Flosi was at the head of these conspirators, andhe it was who gathered together the party of men whohad agreed to kill Nial.

They all met together in Flosi’s house, Grani, Gunnar’sson, and Gunnar, Lambi’s son, and others with them.

Now about that time strange portents were seenat Bergthors-knoll, Nial’s home, and from that Nialand Bergthora his wife guessed that the end was near;but Skarphedinn laughed their fears to scorn.

A Christian man went out one night of the Lord’sday, nine weeks before the winter season, and heheard a crash, and the earth rocked beneath his feet.Then he looked to the west, and he saw a ringof fire moving toward him, and within the ring aman riding on a grey horse. He had a flaming firebrandin his hand, and he rode hard: he and theflaming ring passed the watcher by and went downtowards Bergthors-knoll. Then he hurled the firebrandinto Nial’s house, and a blaze of fire leapt upand poured over the house and across the fells. Andit seemed that the man rode his horse into the flamesand was no more seen Then the man who watched167knew that the rider on the grey horse was Odin, whoever comes before great tidings. He fell into a swoonand lay senseless a long time.

Not long after this an old wizened woman wholived in Nial’s service went out into the yard behindthe house with a cudgel in her hand. Nial’s sonscalled her the Old Dotard, because she would go aboutthe house babbling to herself, leaning on her crutch;but for all that she was wise in many things and foresighted,and some things that she prophesied cameto pass. She was ever murmuring about a stack ofvetches that was piled up in the yard, that they shouldbring it indoors, or move it farther away, and tosoothe her they promised they would do so; but thedays went on, and something always hindered it.This day she took her cudgel and began beating thevetch-stack with all her might, wishing that it mightnever thrive, wretch that it was!

Skarphedinn stood watching her, holding his sideswith laughter. He asked her why she beat the vetch-stack;what harm it had done to her.

“It has not harmed me, but it will harm my master,”she said; “for when they need firing for the fire that willburn my master, it is to the vetch-stack they will come,and they will light the house with it; take it away,therefore, and cast it into the water, or burn it up asfast as you can.”

Skarphedinn thought it a pity to waste the vetch,so he said: “If it is our doom to die by fire, somethingelse will be found to light the fire with eventhough the stack be not here. No man can escapehis fate.” The whole summer the old woman wasmuttering about the vetch-stack, but time went onand nothing was done.

One evening, as usual, Bergthora prepared thesupper, and she spoke to those about her and said:“Let everyone choose what he would like best toeat to-night, and I will prepare it for him, for it isin my mind that this is the last meal that I shallprepare for you.”

They asked her what she meant by that, and thenshe told them that she had heard tidings that a largeparty was riding toward the house, with Flosi atits head, and she thought it likely that this nightwould be their last. Nial said that they would supand that then they would prepare themselves. Whenthey sat down Nial sat at the head of the board, buthe ate nothing, and they saw that he seemed to bein a trance. At last he spoke and said: “MethinksI see blazing walls all round this room, and the gableis falling above our heads, and all the board is drenchedwith blood. It is strange that you can bring yourselvesto eat such bloody food!”

Then all that sat there rose, with terror on theirfaces, and they began to cry out and say that theymust save themselves before their enemies came uponthem. But Skarphedinn spoke up cheerfully, andbade them behave like men. “We more than allothers should bear ourselves well when evil comesupon us, for that is only what will be looked for fromus,” he said.

So they cleared the board, and Nial bade no mango to sleep, but to prepare themselves for what mightbefall. Then they went outside the door and waited.Counting Kari and the serving-men, they made nearthirty gathered in the yard and about the house.

As it was getting dark they heard footstepsapproaching, for the men with Flosi had tethered their169horses in a dell not far from the house, and hadwaited there till sundown. Nial said to his sons:“A great body of men seems to be approaching, but theyhave made a halt beyond the house. I think theyare more in number than ourselves, and that it wouldbe better for us to go inside the house and fight themfrom there; the house is strong, and they will be slowto come to close quarters.”

Skarphedinn did not think well of that. “Thesemen,” he said, “are come out for no fair fight; they arecome to do a foul and evil deed, and they will not turnback till we all are dead, for they will fear our revenge.It is likely that they will burn us out, dastards thatthey are, and I for one have no liking to be stifledindoors like a fox run to earth.”

“In the old days,” said Nial, “when ye were young,it was ever my counsel that ye sought, and your planswent well; but now I am old ye will have your ownway.”

“We had better do what our father wills,” saidHelgi; “whether his counsel be good or bad, it werebest for us to follow it.”

“I am not sure of that,” said Skarphedinn, “forthe old man is doting. But if it humours my fatherto have us all burnt indoors with him, I am as readyfor it as any of you, for I am not afraid of my death.”

With that they all went indoors, and Flosi, who waswatching what they would do, turned to his comradesand smiled. “The wise sons of Nial have all gonemad to-night,” he said, “since they have shut themselvesup in the house; we will take care that not oneof them comes out alive again.”

Then they took courage and went up close to thehouse, and Flosi set men on every side to watch that170no one escaped by any secret way. But he and hisown men went round to the front, where Skarphedinnstood in the doorway. One of the men, seeing Skarphedinnthere, ran at him with his spear to thrusthim through. But Skarphedinn hewed off the spearhead with his axe, and then with one stroke of hisweapon laid the man dead.

“Little chance had that one with thee, Skarphedinn,”said Kari; “thou art the bravest of us all.”

“I am not so sure of that,” said Skarphedinn, buthe drew up his lips and smiled.

Then Grim and Kari and Helgi began throwing outspears, and wounded many of those that stood round,while their enemies could do nothing against themin return. Flosi’s men, too, were unwilling to fight,and when they saw the old man and Bergthora standingbefore them, and the brave sons of Nial, and Kari,whom all men praised, their courage oozed away, forthese all were held in great respect from one end ofthe land to the other. It seemed to them a shamefulthing to attack them in their own house. Grani,Gunnar’s son, and Gunnar, Lambi’s son, moreover,who most had egged them on, now hung back, andwere more willing that others should go into dangerthan they themselves; they seemed ready on theslightest chance to slink away, for they werecowards.

Flosi saw that if they were to carry out their planthey must try some other means, for never wouldthey overcome Nial’s sons with sword and battle-axe,nor could they get at them within the house.

So then he made them all fetch wood and fuel andpile it before the doors. When Skarphedinn saw whatthey were about he cried out: “What, lads! are ye171lighting a fire to warm yourselves, or have ye takento cooking?”

“We are making a cooking-fire, indeed,” answeredGrani, Gunnar’s son, “and we will take care that themeat was never better done.”

“Yet you are the man whose father I avenged,”said Skarphedinn. “Such repayment as this was tobe looked for from a man like thee.”

But the fire made little way, for as fast as they litit the women threw whey or water, clean and dirty,upon it, and extinguished it. But one of the mensaid to Flosi: “I saw a vetch-stack standing outsidein the yard behind the house, dry and inflammable,and if we can stuff it lighted into the loft above the hallit will set the roof ablaze.”

They brought down the vetch, and stuffed it underthe roof, and set fire to it, and in a moment the roofwas ablaze over the heads of Nial and his sons. AndFlosi continued to pile the wood before the doors, sothat none could get out. The women inside beganto weep and to scream with fear, but Nial sustainedthem all, saying that it was but a passing storm, and thatit was long before they were like to have another such.Then he went to the door, and called out to Flosi,asking him whether he would be content to take anatonement for his sons.

Flosi replied that he would take none. “Here Iremain,” said he, “until all of them are dead; butthe women and children and slaves may go out.”Then Nial returned into the house, and bade thewomen go out, and all to whom leave was given.

“Never thought I to part from Helgi in such a wayas this,” said Thorhalla, Helgi’s wife; “but if I goout I will stir up my kindred to avenge this deed.”

“Go, and good go with thee,” said Nial; “for thouart a brave woman.” But all grieved most thatHelgi should die, for he was much beloved; and oneof the women threw a woman’s cloak over him, andtied a kerchief round his head, and against his willthey made him go out between them.

Flosi was watching them as they passed, and he said:“That is a mighty woman and broad across the shouldersthat walks in the middle of the others; take holdof her and see who she is.”

When Helgi heard that he flung off his cloak anddrew his sword, but Flosi hewed at him, and took offhis head at a stroke.

Now the fire was mounting the walls, and Flosi’sheart smote him at last that an old man like Nialshould burn in his own house, who had been so braveand noble a man. He went up to the door and calledto Nial, saying, “I offer thee and thy wife leave togo out, Master Nial, for it is unfit that thou shouldstburn to death indoors.”

“I will not come out,” said Nial, “for I am an oldman, and the time is past when I could have avengedthe death of my sons, and I have no wish to live inshame after them.”

“Come thou out, housewife,” called Flosi to Bergthora;“for I would not for anything in the worldhave thee burn indoors.”

“I was given away to Nial when I was young,”she answered, “and I pledged my word to him thenthat we twain should share the same fate together.But thou, child,” she said to Thord, Kari’s son, whohad stayed yet beside her, for he had the undaunted173heart of his father in him, “I would that thou shouldstgo out while there is time; I cannot brook to see alad like thee burned.”

“Thou hast promised me, grandmother, that so longas I desired to be with thee, thou never wouldst sendme away; and I think it now much better to die withthee and Nial than to live without thee after thy death.”

So they turned back into the house. “What shallwe do now?” Bergthora said to Nial.

“We will go to our bed,” said Nial, “and lay usdown; I have long been eager for rest.”

Then they laid themselves down on their bed, andthe boy lay between them, with his arm round theold woman’s neck.

“Put over us that hide,” said Nial to his steward,“and mark where we lie, for I mean not to stir aninch hence however the smoke or fire torment me.Here in this spot you will find our bones, if you comeafterwards to look for them.”

The steward spread the hide over the bed, andthen he went out with the others. Then Nial andBergthora signed themselves and the boy with thecross, and confided their souls into God’s hand,and that was the last word that they were heardto utter.

Skarphedinn saw how his father laid him down,and laid himself out, and he said this: “Our fathergoes early to bed to-night, and that is meet, for heis an old man.”

Then for a time Skarphedinn and Kari and Grimstood side by side, catching the brands as they felland throwing them out at their enemies; and Flosi’smen hurled spears from without, but they caughtthem and sent them back again. But in the end174Flosi bade his men cease throwing their spears, andsit down till the fire had done its work.

One man only escaped from the burning, and thatwas Kari, who leaped out on a fallen cross-beam,Skarphedinn helping him. “Leap thou first,” saidKari, “and I will leap after you, and we will get awayin the smoke together.” But Skarphedinn refused, andwould not go until Kari had got safe away, for hehad run along under the smoke, his hair and his cloakblazing; and he ran till he came to a stream, andthrew himself into it, and so put out the flames; andhe rested in a hollow, and got away after that.

But when Skarphedinn leaped to follow him thecross-beam gave way in the middle where it had beenburnt, and he was thrown backward into the house;and with a great crash the end of the roof fell abovehim so that he was shut in between the gable andthe roof and could not stir a step.

All night the fire burned fitfully, sometimes blazingup and sometimes burning low, and those outsidewatched it till dawn. And they said that all in thehouse must have been burned long ago. Then Flositold them to get on their horses and ride away, andthey were glad to do that. But as they rode from theplace they heard, or thought they heard, a song risingfrom far down in the fire beneath them, and theyshuddered and looked each in the other’s face for fear.

Some of them were for turning back to look for him,but Flosi forbade them, and urged them to ride awayas quickly as they could, for there was no man hefeared so much as Skarphedinn.

But when, many days afterwards, they sought175among the embers, they found Skarphedinn’s bodyupright against the gable-wall, but his legs burnedoff him at the knees. He had driven his axe intothe gable-wall so fast that they had much ado to getit out.

Nial and Bergthora lay beneath the hide dead, butunburned by the fire, and a great heap of ashes abovethem; also of the boy only one finger had beenconsumed.

Denmark became consolidated into a kingdomat a slightly earlier period than Norway, andthere was constant strife between the twoyoung nations. The first king of all Denmark wasnamed Gorm the Old (b. 830), but it is rather withthe reigns of his grandson, Sweyn Forkbeard, andhis great grandson, Canute the Great, that we have todo, for it was in their time that England was conqueredby Denmark, and became for the space of twenty-nineyears, from Sweyn to Hardacanute (1013–1042),a portion of the Danish dominions. This is an importantincident in the history of both countries, andwe must now see what the sagas have to tell usabout these events.

During the reign of Hakon the Good and the earlyyears of Olaf Trygveson in Norway, the King of Denmarkwas Harald Blue-tooth, son of Gorm the Old, whoreigned from 935 to 985, during the reigns of Athelstanthe Great and Edmund in England, and of the weakand insignificant kings, Edwy, Edgar, and Ethelredthe Unready, who succeeded them.

It was during the reign of Ethelred that for the firsttime there was raised a regular tax in England, calledthe Danegeld, or Dane-gold, paid by the English tothe terrible Danes in order to purchase peace from180them. But the effect of the tax was just the oppositeto that which the English desired; instead of keepingthe Danes out of the country, it brought them overin greater numbers, in the hope of getting more moneyout of the English. Both the south and east coastwere at their mercy, and wherever they appearedthe English troops fled at their approach; unled andunmarshalled, they could make no stand against theirfoes. In the year 994 Olaf Trygveson (reigned 995–1000)and Sweyn Forkbeard united their armies andmade a descent upon London with ninety-four ships,as we read in the English Chronicle. They weredriven away from London with great loss and damage,but they went burning and slaying all round the coast.They went into winter quarters at Southampton,where sixteen thousand pounds in money was paidto them to induce them to desist from their ravaging.But in the same year, at an invitation from the Englishking, Olaf paid a visit of state to Ethelred, and pledgedhimself that he would no more take arms againstthe English, which promise he loyally fulfilled. Histhoughts were, indeed, turning toward his own kingdomof Norway. But Sweyn made no such promise.Sweyn Forkbeard, called in his own country SveinTjuguskeg, who reigned over Denmark from 985 to1014, was son to Harald, Gorm’s son. The year beforehis father’s death he had come to him and askedhim to divide the kingdom with himself; but Haraldwould not hear of this. Then Sweyn flew to arms,and though he was overpowered by numbers andobliged to fly, Harald Blue-tooth received a wound whichended in his death; and Sweyn was chosen King ofDenmark. He was the father of Canute, or Knut,the Great.

On his succession he had given a splendid banquet, towhich he invited all the chiefs of his dominions, andthe bravest of his army and allies, and of the vikings whohad assisted him; on the first day of the feast, beforehe seated himself on the throne of his father Harald, hehad poured out a bowl to his father’s memory, and madea solemn vow that before three winters were past hewould go over to England and either kill King Ethelredthe Unready or chase him out of the country.

But a good time passed before Sweyn was able fully tocarry out his threat. In the meantime he was occupiedwith wars in Norway, where King Olaf Trygvesonhad come to the throne. The first thing he did wasto marry Sigrid the Haughty, whom Olaf had onceintended to marry, but with whom he had quarrelledbecause she would not be baptized, and who had neverforgiven Olaf for striking her in the face with his glove.Now she saw a chance of revenge, and she continuallyurged King Sweyn to give battle to Olaf. In theend he consented to do this, and he sent messengersto his kinsman the King of Sweden, and to Earl Eirikof Norway, and together they made the formidablecoalition which met Olaf Trygveson at the great sea-fightof Svold inA.D. 1000, where Olaf disappeared,as we have already related.

We must inquire what causes so much incensedSweyn against England that he determined aboveall other things to go to that country and avengehimself there. The thirty-seven years of Ethelred’sreign had been miserable for English and Danes alike.An old historian says that his life was “cruel in thebeginning, wretched in the middle, and disgracefulin the end.” Just at a time when a strong leaderwas most needed this idle and frivolous King gave182himself up to indolence and every kind of wickedness.Instead of organizing his armies he shut himself upin London, careless of what became of his kingdomand people so long as he himself was safe. He wascruel to his wife, Emma, daughter of Duke Richardof Normandy, a lady of high rank, and cowardly beforehis enemies. Indeed, his only idea of freeing thecountry from war was by paying large sums of moneyto the Danes to keep them quiet. At one time hepaid them twenty-four thousand pounds to go away,at others sixteen and thirty thousand; but the onlyresult of his gifts was to bring them back in greaternumbers. The English people were in a pitiable condition,forced to raise these large sums to pay theirenemies, who at the same time were pillaging androbbing them all over the country.

Then the King, who was too cowardly to fight,bethought him of another means to get rid of hisenemies. On St Brice’s Day, 1002, he sent forth asecret order that all the Danes in the kingdom shouldbe massacred in that single night. In many casesthe Danes had become friends of the English peopleamong whom they lived, or had married Englishwives and were living peaceably among the inhabitants;but on that terrible night each Englishman was forcedby his miserable King to rise up and massacre in coldblood the Danish people who lived with him, evenwives being compelled to betray their husbands andfriends to put to death their friends. Among thosewho fell on that fearful night was a beautiful sisterof Sweyn’s, who had married an English noblemanand embraced Christianity; she was living in England,and her presence there was looked upon as a pledgethat Sweyn would not attack the kingdom. She was183beheaded by command of one of the King’s worthlessfavourites, whom he afterwards raised to a high positionand made governor of the Mercians. First he murderedher husband before her face, and her young son waspierced through with four spears, and finally she herselfwas beheaded by the furious Edric. She bore herselfwith fortitude and dignity, and people said that indeath she was as beautiful as in life, for even hercheeks did not lose their colour.

Sweyn knew England well, for he had several timesraided there in his youth, and he was probably kept fullyinformed of all that was going on by the Danish chiefof the East Angles of Norfolk and Suffolk, who is wellknown both in Scandinavian and in English history.His name was Thorkill the Tall, and he was a greatviking, and called himself king, even when he had nolands to rule over. He was one of the noblest bornof the Danish men, and King Olaf the Saint of Norwaywas not ashamed to enter into partnership with him.In 1009 he sailed over to England with a vast army,and landed at Sandwich, taking Canterbury and overrunningall the south-east of England. Ethelred wasso terrified by this fresh incursion that he called thewhole nation out against the invaders; but in spiteof this they marched about wherever they pleased,taking Canterbury and settling down upon East Anglia,from which point Thorkill the Tall ravaged the country.“Oft,” says the old chronicler, “they fought againstLondon city, but there they ever met with ill fare;”but it was the only place of which this could be said.

When Thorkill had firmly seated himself in Englandhe invited Sweyn to come over, telling him that theKing was feeble, the people weak, and the commandersjealous of each other; and Sweyn, who was only184awaiting his opportunity, got together his fleet, andlanded at Sandwich in 1013. Before the year wasout all England north of the Thames was in his power,and paid him tribute and delivered hostages. Turningsouth, he compelled Oxford and Winchester to submit,and committing his fleet and hostages to the chargeof his son, Canute, he turned against London, the onlycity still holding out against him. Shut up withintheir walls, the Londoners awaited the onslaught ofthe Danes; inside were King Ethelred and Thorkill,who had deserted Sweyn and gone over to the King’sside. The Danes came on with headlong fury, noteven waiting to cross the bridge, but flinging themselvesinto the river in their haste to get over; butat the firmly closed gates of the city they receiveda sudden check. The citizens made wonderful exertions,and forced back the Danes from their walls;many of them were carried away by the stream anddrowned; and Sweyn was forced to retreat with theshattered remnants of his army to Bath, where thewestern lords, or thanes, submitted to him.

But the brave resistance of London and the faithfulnessof the city made no impression on the wretchedEthelred, whose only thought was how he mightescape from his kingdom, even though his going leftthe citizens without the semblance of a leader andopen to the worst assaults of their enemies. But theKing knew not which way to turn; he had alienatedhis friends and was despised by his foes. He fledfirst to the Isle of Wight, reaching the Solent bysecret journeys, and thence he bethought him that hewould pass over to Normandy, where his wife Emma’sbrother, Richard the Good, was Duke. He rememberedvery well, however, that he had treated his wife cruelly,185and he doubted whether Richard would be willing toreceive him. But taking refuge now behind her whomhe had formerly abused, he first sent Emma, withtheir children Edward and Alfred, to Normandy,hoping that if they were kindly received he himselfmight follow at Christmas. It was then the monthof August, and they set forth on a calm sea, withthe Bishop of Durham and Abbot of Peterborough toescort them, while Ethelred anxiously awaited themessage they would send. It was not long before helearned the welcome news that Richard had receivedhis sister with great affection, and that he invited theKing also to condescend to become his guest. Delightedwith this message, Ethelred lost no time in followinghis family to Normandy.

In the meantime Sweyn made himself master ofthe whole centre and north of England, and wasacknowledged as “full king.” Even London, fearingworse evils, submitted; and Thorkill forced the inhabitantsto support his army at Greenwich, whileSweyn required other parts of the country to raiseprovisions for his host.33

But an end was soon made of Sweyn’s ambitions,for shortly after Christmas, early in the year 1014, hesuddenly died—people said through the vengeanceof St Edmund the Martyr. The Danish army electedCanute, son of Sweyn, who was then in England, kingin place of his father.

When it became known that Sweyn wasdead, it was agreed at a meeting of theAngles to send for Ethelred out of Normandy;for the people thought it would be wiserto have their own lord, if only he could conduct himselfbetter, rather than another foreigner for their king;so they sent messengers to invite him to return.Ethelred was, however, as little trustful of his ownsubjects as he was of the Danes; and he first sentover his young son Edward to sound the English andsee if they were really inclined to obey him. Edwardfound them full of friendship, and they swore to supporttheir own princes, while every Danish king theydeclared to be a foreigner and outlaw from Englandfor ever. When he heard this, Ethelred, flatteredby the joyful greetings of his subjects, set to workto gather together an army against Canute, peopleflocking to him from every quarter. Among thosewho brought vessels to support him was Olaf theThick, afterwards King Olaf of Norway. He came tothe throne a year afterwards. On the death of KingOlaf Trygveson at the battle of Svold, Norway hadbeen divided up, and was ruled by Earl Eirik and KingSweyn. Olaf the Thick was a handsome man, and bold187in his character and acts. It is told of him that heliked not his step-father’s ways, because his step-father,with whom he was brought up, was a carefulhouseholder, who attended to his farm and servant-men,and did not disdain to superintend the work inthe fields or in the smithy himself. Of this the youngOlaf was disdainful, and one day, when his step-fatherhad sent him out to saddle his horse for him,he saddled a large he-goat instead. When his step-fatherwent to the door and saw what Olaf had done,he looked at the lad and said: “It is easy to seethat I shall get little obedience from thee. It is plainthat we are of different dispositions, and that thou arta prouder man than I am.” Olaf said nothing, butwent his way laughing.

Olaf was only twelve years old when he got his firstwar-ship and set out a-foraying in Sweden and Denmark.He met there Thorkill the Tall, who was comeover from England to raise more troops, and enteredinto alliance with him, and together they sailed toEngland, just before the death of Sweyn.

Olaf seems to have been sailing in the English Channelwhen Sweyn died, for as soon as he heard that Ethelredwanted troops to aid him in recovering his kingdomhe joined himself to him, hoping, no doubt, to reapsome advantage from the war, and to inflict a defeaton the Danes, whose kingdom it was always the desireof the Norsemen to add to the crown of Norway.34

Together he and Ethelred set sail, steering directfor London, which had always been faithful to itsking; but they found the Danish force stronglyensconced behind deep ditches and a high bulwarkof stone, timber, and turf in their castle opposite188Southwark, which the Danes called Sudvirke or,Southern Town, a great place of trade. King Ethelredsailed up the Thames, and ordered a general assault,but the Danes defended themselves bravely, andEthelred could make nothing of it.

Between the Danish castle, which afterwards wasknown as the Tower of London, and Southwark, wasold London Bridge, which was broad enough for twowagons to pass each other on it. The Danes hadstrongly fortified it with barricades and towers, andwooded parapets along the sides, breast-high, andbehind this the soldiers, who thickly covered thebridge, stood shooting down upon Ethelred’s fleet ofboats beneath them. King Ethelred was very anxiousto get possession of the bridge, but it was notclear how this was to be done. Then Olaf the Thicksaid he would attempt to bring his fleet up alongsidethe bridge, if the others would do the same. Thiswas his plan. He first ordered his men to land andpull down some old wooden houses that were nearthe river, and with the wood he made great platformstied together with hazel withes, so strong that stoneswould not penetrate them. These he placed overhis ships on high pillars so that they stretched outon each side of the boats, and it was possible for hismen to fight freely beneath them. The English shipsdid not take any precautions, but rowed up as theywere to the bridge: but so smart a shower of weaponsand great stones was shot down upon them that theywere forced to retreat, many of them badly damagedand their men wounded; for neither helmet nor shieldcould hold out against such a storm of missiles. ButOlaf’s vessels rowed up quite safely beneath the bridge,where they were sheltered from the enemy above;189and when they came under the bridge they tied theircables firmly round the wooden piles upon which thebridge was built, and then rowed off as hard as theycould go down-stream, the force of the river and oftheir oars alike pulling at the piles until they wereloosened at the bottom, and dragged out of theirplace. Now as the bridge was crowded with armedtroops, and heavy heaps of stones and weapons werecollected upon it, when the piles beneath were loosenedit gave way with a great crash, and most of those whowere on it fell into the water, the others flying to eitherside, some to the castle and some into Southwarkfor safety. Then Olaf’s troops landed on the Southwarkside, and stormed and took the place; and whenthe people in the castle opposite saw that the bridgeand the city of Southwark were in the hands of theenemy, to save more bloodshed they surrendered,for they saw that they could no longer hinder thepassage of the fleet up and down the river Thames.So Ethelred became their king; and Olaf remainedwith him until the King died, commanding all his forcesand fighting many battles, of which one was at Canterbury,where the castle was burned and many peoplekilled. Olaf fought also a great battle in East Angliaor Essex, and came off victorious; indeed, he was sosuccessful wherever he went that the saga says thatEthelred entrusted him with the whole land defence ofEngland, and he sailed round the country with his shipsof war! But the “Thing-men” or bodies of men-at-arms,who were trained soldiers and cared for little butfighting, still kept the field, and the Danes held manyof the castles. When Ethelred died Olaf stood outto sea, and went harrying in Normandy.

King Olaf always took his poet Sigvat, who was190called his skald, with him wherever he went. Sigvatsang the praises of his battles, and it is partly fromhis songs that the history of the time is known. Afterthe battle of London Bridge he sang a song, a form ofwhich is still common among us, and which childrensing in their singing-games, “London bridge is brokendown.”

Here is a verse of Sigvat’s song, which he made inthe year 1014, and which is still known to-day, thoughfew people remember when it was made, or why:

Canute, or Knut, the son of Sweyn, was inEngland when his father died. The Danesimmediately elected him king, and he layat Lindsey with his fleet when Ethelred returned toclaim the kingdom. Canute was one of the greatestkings who ever ruled in England. Though he beganhis reign with an exhibition of ruthless cruelty bymutilating the high-born young nobles whom Sweynhad placed in his charge, cutting off their ears andnoses, and afterwards boasting of his act, which madethe English fear that they had in him a cruel master,as time went on his mind seems to have widened outinto channels of broad and humane government. Eventhe English in the end agreed in styling him Canutethe Great, a title they had heretofore given only totheir own Alfred and Athelstan, the most constantenemies of the Danes. Canute’s ambitions wereimmense; he dreamed of no less a kingdom than thewhole North of Europe, from England and Scotlandon the west to Sweden on the East. Denmark andNorway he intended to weld into one country, overwhich he was to reign from England; for it washis intention no longer to rule England as aforeign conqueror, but to identify himself with the192country to which he had come and to be in every wayan Englishman. He determined that the countryover which he ruled should retain its own laws,and that the Church should be fostered and all ancientdues discharged and rights respected. In the fifteenthyear of his reign he expressed his ideas of governmentin a letter which he wrote to his people from Rome.It is worth while to listen to what he says. “I callto witness and command my counsellors, to whom Ihave entrusted the counsels of the kingdom,” hewrites, “that they by no means, either through fearof myself or favour to any powerful person, suffer,henceforth, any injustice, or cause such to be done,in all my kingdom.... I command all sheriffs orgovernors throughout my whole kingdom not to commitinjustice towards any man, rich or poor, but to allowall, noble and ignoble, alike to enjoy impartial law,from which they are never to deviate, either in hopeof royal favour or for the sake of amassing moneyfor myself; for I have no need to accumulate moneyby unjust exaction.... You yourselves know thatI have never spared, nor will I spare, either myselfor my labours for the needful service of my wholepeople.... I have vowed to God Himself, henceforthto reform my life in all things, and justly andpiously to govern the kingdoms and the peoples subjectto me, and to maintain equal justice in all things.”

These are the words of a high-minded man and a goodsovereign; and our English annals tell us that they werenot mere words, but were borne out by all Canute’s acts.

Yet at the beginning of his reign there was littlesign that the King would rise above the level of hisfather Sweyn’s mode of life. His mutilation of theyoung hostages was only one example of this. When193he began to reign he divided the kingdom into fourparts, retaining Wessex, and placing Mercia, East Anglia,and Northumbria each under a separate chief. Twoof these chiefs, Eirik and Thorkill the Tall, are wellknown in Norse history. Earl Eirik, or Eric, as heis called in the English chronicles, had been, as wehave read, fighting on the side of the Danish King,Sweyn, against his own sovereign, Olaf Trygveson, atthe battle of Svold.36 He was son of Earl Hakon, themost powerful lord in Norway and the ruler of Norwaybefore Olaf came to the throne37; after his fall andOlaf’s succession Earl Eirik and his brother, withmany valiant men who were of their family, had leftthe country and gone over to Denmark. Eirik enteredSweyn Fork-beard’s service and married his daughterin 996; he spent his time in cruising and harrying,until he joined Sweyn in his wars against Olaf; andafter Olaf’s disappearance at the battle of Svold EarlEirik became owner of his war-vessel theLong Serpent,and of great booty besides. He and Sweyn and theSwedish King divided Norway between them, andEirik got a large share and the title of earl, and heallowed himself to be baptized.

Earl Eirik had ruled peacefully over Norway fortwelve years when a message came to him out of Englandfrom King Canute, who was his brother-in-law, thathe should go to him in England and help him to subduethe kingdom. Eirik would not sleep upon the messageof the King, but that very day he got his ships togetherand sailed out of Norway, leaving his son, another Hakon,who was but seventeen years of age, to rule in hisstead. He met Canute in England, and was with himwhen he took the castle of London, and he himself194had a battle in the same place, a little farther up theThames. He remained in England for a year, fightingon Canute’s behalf at one place and another; and on thedivision of the kingdom by Canute he was made rulerof Northumbria.

But no sooner had Canute bestowed these possessionson his followers than he seems to have regretted itand desired to get them back into his own keeping.There is no doubt that there was growing up in hismind a design of ruling over a united England fromNorthumbria to the English Channel. In later dayshe attempted to add Scotland also to his dominions.

Determined, then, to extend his personal rule overthe whole country, he began by causing Edric, Lordof Mercia, to be put to death. Edric was a man ofevil life, and both Danes and English were glad to berid of him. According to one account, he had brought,about the death of the brave Edmund Ironside,Ethelred’s son, who had all this time been the greatantagonist of Canute, and who had engaged him in aseries of battles after the death of Sweyn, and in theend divided the kingdom with him. It seems notimpossible that Canute himself had connived at themurder of Edmund, for Edric was then Canute’s friend;however this may have been, it now served Canute’spurpose to accuse Edric of compassing Edmund’sdeath and to punish him for it. Next, Eirik was drivenout of England at the end of the winter, and Canuteadded Northumbria to his own dominions.38 Therenow only remained Thorkill the Tall to dispose of,who had long reigned over the East Angles, and hadproved himself a great warrior. On the first opportunityCanute outlawed him and drove him out of195the land; but no better fortune awaited him in Denmark.Fearing that so mighty a warrior, in orderto revenge himself on King Canute, would excite rebellionsand war in their country, some of the Danishchiefs met Thorkill at the shore and put him to deathbefore he could step on land (1021).39 Thus Canutebecame sole King of England and Denmark.

His next step was to banish Ethelred’s son Edwy outof England, and to marry his step-mother, Ethelred’swidow, who, strange as it may appear to us, consentedto wed with the enemy of her husband and family. Themarriage was a politic one for Canute, for it broughtto his allegiance many of the English who had hithertolooked upon him as a foreign conqueror and foe;and when in course of time Emma bore him a sonand daughter they began to look upon the son as therightful heir to the English crown. His fathernamed him Hardacanute. Canute had also a son by aformer wife, whose name was Harald, who immediatelysucceeded his father.

The sons of Ethelred the Unready who had fled toRouen to their uncle, Richard, Duke of Normandy, didnot at once give up hopes of regaining the kingdom.Northern story says that Olaf of Norway was again cruisingin those waters when the sons of Ethelred arrived.40He was not at all unwilling to enter into a compactto help them, if in return he were rewarded for it;196and they came to an agreement that, if they succeeded,Olaf should have Northumbria as his portion. Thiswas before St Olaf had gained his kingdom of Norwayfrom young Earl Hakon. They sent Olaf’s foster-father,a man called Hrane, into England to sound the peopleand to collect money and arms for the expedition.Hrane was all winter in England, and several of thethanes joined him and promised their aid; for theywould have been glad again to have a native king.But others had become so accustomed to the Danishrulers that they were not inclined to revolt and bringabout fresh war and bloodshed in the country. So inthe spring, when Olaf the Thick and the sons of Ethelredset out and landed in England, though at first they wona victory and took a castle, King Canute came downwith such a powerful host that they saw they couldnot stand before it, and they turned back and soughtsafety in Rouen again.

King Olaf did not return with them, for he bethoughthim that it was time to seek his own dominions. Hesailed first to the North of England to see the countryof the Northumbrians that had been promised to him.There he left his long-ships in a harbour, and took withhim only two heavy seafaring vessels with 260 pickedmen in them, armed and stout. They set sail then,but in the North Sea they encountered a tremendousstorm, and if they had not had “the king’s luck”with them all would have been lost. But they madethe shore in the very middle of Norway, at a placecalled Saela. The King said it was a good omen thatthey landed at this place, for Saell means “Lucky,”and he thought luck would be with them. As theywere landing the King slipped on a wet piece of clay,and nearly fell, but he supported himself with the197other foot. “Alas! if the King falls!” exclaimedOlaf. “Nay,” cried Hrane, “the King falls not, butsets his foot fast in the soil.” The King laughed at that,and said: “If God will, it may be so.”41

It was not long before they captured Earl Hakon,Eirik’s son, who was ruling the country, by drawing acable across the Sound between their two ships as hewas sailing by; for he thought they were two merchantvessels, and had no suspicion that they were Olaf’sboats. As he passed they drew up the cable tightbeneath his vessel, so that it was lifted half out of thewater and could not pass, and the earl was takenprisoner and brought before Olaf. This Earl Hakon, sonof Earl Eirik, was still only a youth as he stood beforeKing Olaf. Olaf said he would give him his life if heswore to give up the kingdom to him and leave thecountry and never take up arms against him; and thishe promised to do, and swore an oath upon it. Heturned his ships toward England, and entered KingCanute’s service; and Canute received him well, andplaced him at his Court, and there he dwelt a longtime.

For the first nine or ten years of his reign, Canuteremained in England, only occasionally goingover to Denmark to see that all was going onwell there. He spent this time in bringing back theEnglish nation to obedience to their own laws, theold laws of Edgar, for the first time insisting that,as parts of the same nation, Dane and Englishmanwere alike before the law and that no difference shouldbe made between them. He repaired throughoutEngland the churches and monasteries that hadbeen injured or destroyed by the wars of his fatherand himself, and at all places where he had foughthe erected churches in which prayers should beoffered for those who had been slain. A verysplendid monastery was built by him at the townsince called Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk, at theplace where lay the remains of Edmund, slain by theDanes in 870, who was called King Edmund the Martyr;parts of this monastery, at one time the richest inEngland, remain to this day. It was little dreamedby Canute that at this monastery the nobles ofEngland would in aftertimes meet to consider how theymight wring their country’s liberties from an Englishking. It was at Bury St Edmunds that MagnaCharta was drawn up and signed by the barons in1991214.42 Besides these benefactions, his queen, Emma,suggested to him that he should bestow rich almson Winchester, the old capital of the English, wherewas one of the finest cathedrals. Here he gaveso largely that the quantity of precious stones andvaluable metals dazzled the eyes of strangers. Emmaseems to have thought that if her husband gave hismoney in alms he would be the less likely to go onforeign expeditions; but all the time Canute wasplanning immense undertakings to extend his powerin the North of Europe. He grew tired of the peacethat was so grateful to his subjects; but on thisoccasion, instead of bringing fresh incursions offoreigners into England, he designed to add Swedenand Norway by English arms to his possessions inEngland and Denmark. He thought the time a goodone for his design, for the fame of his splendour andgood government had spread far and wide, and evenfrom Norway a great number of powerful men hadgathered to him, leaving their country on variouspretended errands. To every one Canute gave magnificentpresents, and the pomp and splendour of hisCourt and the multitude of his adherents impressed allwho came. Peace was so well established in his realmthat no man dared break it; even toward each otherthe people kept faith and good friendship. KingOlaf, or, as it is better to call him, St Olaf, though hedid not get that name till after his death, was notaltogether loved in Norway, though the country hadsubmitted to him with joy at the first. The peoplefound his rule harsh, and many of them would have200been willing enough to put the young Earl Hakon backin his place, or even Canute himself. This came toCanute’s ears, and he instantly equipped ambassadorsin the most splendid way, and sent them in the springof 1025 with his letters and seal to Norway. Olafwas ill at ease when he heard it, for he knew that itwas with no friendly purpose to him that the envoyswere sent. For a long time he refused to see them,and when they came before him and presented theirletters he was even more ill-pleased. Canute’s messagewas that he considered all Norway as his property,and that if Olaf desired still to retain his crown hemust submit to him, become his vassal, and receiveback his kingdom as a fief from him, paying him“scat” or dues.

At this Olaf answered furiously to the messengers:“I have heard,” he said, “in old stories that Gormthe Old, first king of Denmark, ruled but over a fewpeople, and in Denmark alone, but the kings whosucceeded him thought that too little. Now it iscome so far that King Canute, who rules over Englandand Denmark, and the most part of Scotland as well,claims also my paternal heritage, and then perhapswill promise some moderation after that. Does hewish to rule over all the countries of the North? Willhe eat up all the kail in England? He may do so ifhe likes, and make a desert of the country, before Ikneel to him, or pay him any kind of service. Andnow ye may tell him these my words: I will defendNorway with sword and battle-axe as long as life isgiven me, and I will pay scat and tribute to no manfor my kingdom.”

The messengers were by no means pleased to takethis message back to King Canute. When they told201him the reply of Olaf and that he would by no meanscome and pay scat to him, or lay his head between hisknees in sign of subjection, Canute replied: “KingOlaf the Thick guesses wrong if he thinks I shall eatup all the kail in England. I will soon let him seethat there is something else under my ribs than kail;and cold kail it shall prove for him.”

Soon after that, in 1026, Canute went over to Denmarkto see what Olaf was about, and to try to detach theKing of Sweden from Olaf’s side; but this he failedto do, for the King of Sweden feared that Canute, ifhe were successful against Olaf, would turn next againsthim and swallow him up also; so as soon as Canutehad returned to England the King of the Swedes andthe King of Norway made a meeting together, andswore to support each other against Canute, both ofthem meanwhile collecting what forces they could andagreeing to lie in wait for the King of England. Bythe winter of 1027 Olaf had got a good fleet together,and for himself he had built a very large ship with abison’s head gilded all over standing out from the bow.He called his vessel theBison. He sailed eastwardwith a mighty force, keeping close to land, and everywhereinquiring whether anything had been seen ofCanute, but all he could hear was that he was fittingout a levy in England, and getting together a greatfleet, over which Earl Hakon was second in command.Many of Olaf’s people got tired of waiting when theyheard that Canute had not yet come, and returnedhome, but the best of his warriors remained with him,and with these he sailed south to Denmark, giving outthat he intended to conquer the country. Here theKing of the Swedes met him with his army, and togetherthey made fearful ravages in the land, treating202the people with great severity, and dragging thembound and wounded to the ships. Many of the people,feeling themselves unable to withstand the unitedforce of the two kings, agreed to submit to them; butthe others were wasted with fire and sword. It wasjoyful tidings for them when they heard that Canuteand his fleet had really sailed and were on their wayto their help.

Sigvat the skald, who was sometimes with Olafin Norway and sometimes with Canute in England,made this ballad about the sailing of Canute theGreat:

Sigvat was a great skald, but though he was sometimesin Canute’s service he still loved Olaf the best.On one occasion he and another skald, named Berse,were at Canute’s Court together, and the King gavea gold ring to Sigvat, but to Berse (whose name meansa “bear-cub”) he gave two gold rings, much larger203and weightier than Sigvat’s, besides an inlaid sword.Sigvat made this song about it:

When Sigvat came back to Norway and presentedhimself before Olaf, who some time before had madehim his marshal, the King was about to sit down totable. Sigvat saluted him, but Olaf only looked athim, and said not a word. Then Sigvat and thosewho were standing by saw that Olaf knew well thatSigvat had been in England and had been receivedby King Canute. As the old proverb says, “Manyare the ears of a king.” The King said to Sigvat theskald: “I do not know if thou art my marshal or if thouhast become one of Canute’s followers.” Then Sigvatanswered the King in verse, telling him that Canutehad invited him to stay with him, but that he preferredto be at home with Olaf. After that King Olaf gaveSigvat the same seat close to himself that he had hadbefore, and the skald was in as high favour as everwith the King.

Things went on for some time in this way, Canutepassing backward and forward between England andDenmark, and ever gathering more ships for thefinal struggle with Olaf and the Swedish King. Hehimself had a dragon ship, said to have had sixtybanks of rowers, and the head gilt all over. EarlHakon had another dragon ship of forty banks, with204a gilt figure-head. The sails of both were in stripesof blue, red, and green, and the vessels were paintedfrom above the water-line, and all that belonged totheir equipment was most splendid. They had a vastnumber of men sailing in the ships. On the otherside the Kings of Norway and Sweden set out also,but as soon as it was noised that Canute the Old wason the seas no one thought of going into the service ofthese two kings. When the Kings heard that Canutewas coming against them they held a council as to whatthey should do. They were then lying with theirfleet in the Helga River, in the south of Sweden, andCanute was coming straight upon them with a war-forceone-half greater than that of both of them puttogether. King Olaf, who was very skilful in makingplans, went with his people up the country into theforest. The river flowed out of a lake in the forest,and he set his men to cut down trees and dam upthe lake where the river emerged with logs and turf,at the same time turning all the surrounding streamsinto the lake, so that it rose very high. All alongthe river-bed they laid large logs of timber. Thenthey waited till they got tidings from the SwedishKing (who had moved his fleet into concealment roundthe cliffs not far from the mouth of the river) thatKing Canute’s ships were close at hand. Canutearrived with his fleet toward the close of day, andseeing the harbour empty, he went into it with asmany ships as he could, the larger vessels lying outsidein the open water. In the morning, when it waslight, a great part of his men went on shore, some toamuse themselves, some to converse with sailors fromthe other ships. They observed nothing until the waterof the river began to rise, and then came rushing down205in a flood, carrying huge trees in its course, whichdrove in among the ships, damaging all they struck.Olaf had broken up his dam and let loose the wholebody of water from the lake. In a few moments thewhole of the low country was under water, and themen on shore were all swept away and drowned. Thoseon board cut their cables, and were swept outbefore the stream and scattered here and there. Thegreat dragon ship which Canute was in was borneforward by the flood, and because of her size she wasunwieldy, and they could not prevent her from drivingin amongst the Norwegian and Swedish ships, whosecrews immediately tried to board her, but her heightwas so great and she was so well defended that shewas not easy to attack. Seeing that Canute’s shipswere gradually collecting again, and finding that littlemore was to be gained by an uneven fight, King Olafstood off and out to sea, and, observing that Canutedid not follow, sailed away eastward toward Sweden.Many of the Swedish crew were so home-sick thatthey made for home, until the Swedish King had fewfollowers left, and Olaf was much perplexed what todo. Finally he determined to send his ships eastwardto the care of the King of Sweden, and he himself withthe bulk of his army set out to march on foot acrossSweden and so back to Norway, carrying their goodsas best they might on pack-horses. Some of the menwere old and did not like this plan. One of them,Harek of Throtta, who was aged and heavy, and who hadbeen on shipboard all his life, said to the King that itwas evident he could not go, nor had he any desireto leave his ship with other men. The King replied:“Come with us, Harek, and we will carry thee whenthou art tired of walking.” But Harek waited until206the King’s party had set off, and then he slipped downto his own ship, took down its flag and mast and sail,and covered all the upper part of the vessel with somegrey canvas, and put only two or three men sittingfore and aft where they could be seen, while the otherssat down low in the vessel. In this way he made itappear that it was only a merchant ship, and not awar-vessel, and so it slipped past Canute’s fleet withoutattack. As soon as they were well beyond Canute’sfleet they sprang up, hoisted the sails and flag andtore off the coverings, and then Canute’s men saw thatthey had let a war-ship escape them. Some of themthought it might even have been Olaf himself, butCanute said he was too prudent to sail with a singleship through the Danish fleet, and that more likelyit was Harek’s ship, or some one like him. Then hismen suspected that he had come to a friendly understandingwith Harek to let him pass safely, and itbecame known that they were on good terms afterthat. Harek went his way, and never stopped tillhe came safe home to his own house in Halogaland.As he was sailing he sang this ditty:

It was the policy of Canute to induce men to leaveKing Olaf the Saint by the promise of advancementand by bestowing on them splendid gifts. He drewsuch large revenues from England and Denmark thathe was able to make these presents without difficulty,and thus great numbers of the nobles were drawn207away from Olaf and secretly joined Canute. Thismade Olaf suspicious even of his best friends, andsometimes his suspicions proved to be true. Thereis a story of one Thorer, of whom the King thoughthighly, and who had entertained him to a magnificentfeast, who had, in spite of all, taken gifts from Canute.One day the King was speaking of this Thorer tohis follower Dag, and he praised him much; butDag made short replies. Olaf asked him why he didnot answer; and Dag replied: “If the King mustneeds know, I find Thorer too greedy of money.” “Ishe a thief, or a robber?” asked the King. “I thinkthat he is neither,” said Dag. “What then is thematter with him?” asked Olaf. “To win moneyhe is a traitor to his sovereign,” said Dag; “he hastaken money from King Canute the Great to betraythee.” “What proof hast thou of this?” demandedthe King. Dag replied: “He has upon his right arm,above his elbow, a thick gold ring, which Canute gavehim, but which he lets no man see.” Olaf was verywroth at that, and the next time Thorer passed him,in seeing that the wants of his guests were attendedto, the King held out his hand to him, and when hehad placed his hand in the King’s, the King felt it towardthe elbow. Thorer said: “Take care, for I have aboil on my elbow.” The King said: “Let me seethe boil. Do you not know that I am a physician?”Then Thorer saw that it was no use to conceal thering, and he took it off and laid it on the table. Olafasked if he had received that ring from King Canute,and Thorer could not deny it. Then the King wasso wroth that he would listen to no one, but orderedThorer to be killed on the spot. That act of Olaf’smade him very unpopular in the uplands.

Meanwhile Olaf heard that Canute the Great wasadvancing with a mighty host which was growinggreater every day. Men were flocking to him, andOlaf could not tell on whom to depend. His ships,too, which he had left behind in Sweden, could notget out past Canute’s fleet to come to his assistance;they had to wait until Canute had gone north toNorway, and then the best of them managed to steerround the Sound and join Olaf, and the rest were burned.King Canute made a march with his host throughNorway, holding a “Thing” in each place he cameto, and proclaiming Earl Hakon his governor-in-chief,and his son Hardacanute King of Denmark. Thegreat landowners, orbondes, gave him hostages in tokenof their fidelity, and the skalds combined to sing hispraises and celebrate his journeys in song. So thatwithout striking a blow Norway gradually fell fromthe hands of Olaf into the hands of Canute.

The next winter Earl Hakon followed Canute toEngland, but he was lost in a storm on his way back;he had gone over to celebrate his marriage to Gunhild,a niece of King Canute. He had been so much belovedin Norway that Olaf had seen that it was impossibleto stand before him, for the King’s followers lost noopportunity of falling away from him and placingthemselves under the rule of Earl Hakon. The peopleconsidered that Olaf had been too severe in his rule,although they had to confess that he was just; butwhen he tried to abolish all plundering and marauding,and punished all who disobeyed with death, the chiefsturned against him, though this was a good law, andone much needed to preserve peace and prosperityin the countries.

Olaf thought it wiser to withdraw for a time, and209he went east to Russia, where he was well received,and there he remained until he heard of EarlHakon’s death. Then he returned and gatheredhis forces together, and they met their foes at thefamous battle of Stiklestad, on 29 July, 1030, on theday of the great eclipse, fighting in the dark for themost part of the day; there Olaf fell, at the age ofthirty-five years, with three wounds which Thorsteinand Thorer Hund and Kalf gave him; and the greaterportion of his forces fell around him. After he wasgone and his severities were forgotten the peoplecanonized him as a saint, and he who during his lifetimewas called Olaf the Thick was called St Olafthenceforth.

King Canute never went again to Norway; heoccupied the latter years of his reign by quiet andgood government in England, the country he hadmade his home. He was a man who had dreameda great dream, the union in one vast sovereignty ofNorthern Europe, justly and peaceably ruled, andin part his dream came true; but as soon as his stronghand was withdrawn his empire fell to pieces of itself.His sons, Harald and Hardacanute (Harthacnut), inEngland and Denmark, and Sweyn, in Norway, had noneof the great qualities of their father, and his kingdomparted asunder in their hands. The popular idea ofCanute’s invincible power took shape in a story, wellknown to every one, that he one day caused his kinglyseat to be placed on the sea-shore and commandedthe waves to come no farther. When the water, inspite of his command, came up frothing round hisfeet he pointed to it, bidding his flattering followersmark that though they had protested there was nothingthat he could not do, the waves and winds were beyond210his authority: and he bade them refrain from suchflatteries, and from giving to him praise which wasdue to the Creator of the universe alone.

We need not give much attention to the reignof Harald, the son and successor of Canute.Though he reigned for over four years, thereis no good act told of him. The unfortunate son ofEthelred, Alfred the Ætheling, came over to Englandabout this time to try to recover his kingdom, buthe was seized by Earl Godwin, his eyes put out, andmost of his companions killed or mutilated. Theyoung prince was sent to Ely, where he lingered fora time, living a miserable existence on insufficientfood, and finally died, being buried in Ely Cathedral.Harald’s next act was to drive Emma, the late King’swife, out of the kingdom. Emma was not his ownmother; the chronicles show that he and Sweynwere Canute’s sons by another wife. For some timeQueen Emma was protected by Earl Godwin, whowas rapidly rising into power, and whose own son,another Harald (spelled in English Harold), wassoon to reign over the kingdom; but as soon asthe Danish King saw himself safely seated on thethrone he drove her out upon the sea, without anykind of mercy, in stormy weather. This was thesecond time this woman with a strange history wasforced to take refuge abroad. She went at firstback to Normandy, where she had taken refuge as212Ethelred’s wife, but being ill-received there, she passedon to Bruges, where the Earl of Flanders43 welcomedher kindly. It is difficult to imagine the feelingsof this queen, allied as she was to the house of theEnglish kings by her marriage with Ethelred, and tothe Danish kings, their worst enemies, by her marriagewith Canute: when her son Alfred the Ætheling cameto England, hoping to see his mother, she was notpermitted to see him, even had she wished it, or ableto prevent the evil deeds of his enemies. She remainedin Flanders until her other son, Edward the Confessor,came to the throne, when she returned to Winchester.She is said to have been inordinately fond of moneyand jewels, and to have accumulated great hoards ofwealth. She was sincerely attached to Canute, butwould do nothing for her elder sons, the children ofEthelred; when Edward the Confessor came to thethrone he complained greatly of this, and took fromher all her possessions, saying that she had never aidedhim with money when he was in need. She dieddishonoured at Winchester in 1052.

When Harald died at Oxford in 1040, the English,“thinking that they did well,” as the Chronicle says,sent at once for Hardacanute to come from Denmarkand occupy the throne of his father Canute and hishalf-brother Harald. They hoped little from Ethelred’ssons, but much from this son of the great Canute,whom they had rarely seen, for most of his life hadbeen passed in Denmark. He, too, was the son ofEmma, and seemed destined to unite the two races213of Danes and English into one nation. Their hopesin him were disappointed, as we shall see. But firstwe must retrace our steps a little and tell the historyof this prince. When Canute returned from his visitto Denmark in 1026 he had left his young son, thenonly nine years of age, to replace him there. Heplaced him under the charge of a very distinguishedman, Earl Ulf,44 who had married Canute’s sister andbecame the father of Svein, or Sweyn, who afterwardswas King of Denmark. Earl Ulf was left to actas regent of Denmark during Hardacanute’s childhood;but Queen Emma, the lad’s mother, wasambitious that her son should actually reign, boythough he was. She persuaded Ulf to have him proclaimedan independent king, without the knowledgeof his father, Canute. She secretly got hold of theKing’s seal and sent it off to Denmark, writing a forgedletter, which was supposed to be from King Canutehimself, and which she signed with his name, commandingUlf to have Hardacanute crowned Kingof Denmark. The earl called together an assembly ofthe nobles and declared that Canute had commandedhim to have Hardacanute crowned king; he producedin proof of this Canute’s seal and the forged letterwritten by Queen Emma. In consequence of thisthe nobles consented to take the boy for their king.Just at this moment the news arrived that King Olafwas coming from Norway with a great fleet, and wasto be joined by the King of Sweden, as we have related.45Ulf and the nobles gathered their troops together andwent to Jutland, but they saw that the army comingagainst them was far too great for them to meet aloneso they were forced to send for help to King Canute,214fearful as they were as to how he would regard theirdoings.

When Canute came with his army to Limfiord,where they were awaiting him, they sent to beg QueenEmma to find out whether he were annoyed or not.When Emma told the King, and promised that Hardacanutewould pay any fine he might demand if heshould consider that the boy had done wrong, Canutereplied that he was sure that Hardacanute had notacted on his own responsibility. “It has turnedout exactly as might have been expected,” he said.“He, a mere child without understanding, is in ahurry to have a crown on his head; but when an enemyappeared the country would easily have been conqueredunless I had come to his aid. If he wants me to forgivehim, let him come to me at once and lay down thismock title of king that he has taken, and I will seewhat is to be done.”

The Queen sent this message to her son, and beggedhim not to delay his coming. “For,” she said, “itis plain that you have no force to stand against yourfather.” Indeed, this was very true, for as soon asthe army and people of Denmark heard that KingCanute the Old was in the land they all streamed awayfrom Hardacanute to him with one consent; so thatEarl Ulf and his party saw that either they must maketheir peace with Canute at once or fly the country.All pressed Hardacanute to go to his father and tryto make terms, and this advice he followed. Whenthey met he fell at his father’s feet, and laid the kinglyseal on his knee. Canute took Hardacanute by thehand, and placed him beside him in a seat no lowerthan he had occupied before. Then Ulf took courageand sent his son Sweyn, Canute’s nephew, a boy of215the same age as Hardacanute, to plead for him, andto offer himself as hostage for his future loyalty.King Canute bade him tell his father to assemble hismen and ships and come to him, and then they wouldtalk of reconciliation. This the earl did, and togetherthey met the Kings of Norway and Sweden at thebattle of Helga River, where, as we saw, many of theirships were swept away by Olaf’s dam.

But Canute had never forgiven Earl Ulf for histreachery to him; and while they were lying in waitfor the enemy’s fleet in the Sound it happened thatEarl Ulf invited him to a banquet to try to make peacebetween them. The earl was a most agreeable host,and endeavoured in every way to entertain and amusethe King, but Canute remained silent and sullen, andhis face was stern. At last the earl proposed thatthey should play a game of chess, and a chess-boardwas set out for them. When they had played awhilethe King made a false move, at which Earl Ulf tookthe King’s knight; but the King put the piece backon the board and told the earl to make another move.At this the earl grew angry, for he was hasty of temper,stiff, and in nothing yielding; he threw over thechess-board, stood up, and went away. The King said:“Runnest thou away, Ulf the coward?” The earlturned at the door and said: “If thou hadst cometo battle at Helga River thou wouldst have run fartherthan I run now if I had not come to thy help. Thoudidst not call me Ulf the coward when the Swedeswere beating thee like a dog,” and with that he wentout and retired to bed. The King also retired, butnot to forget the words of Ulf. Early in the morning,while he was dressing, he was overcome by his anger,and said to his footboy: “Go to Earl Ulf and kill216him.” The youth was afraid to disobey, but aftera while he came back to the King. “Did you killEarl Ulf?” said the King. “I did not kill him,”said the youth, “for he was gone to church.” Atthat the King called Ivar, his chamberlain, and saidto him: “Go thou and kill the earl, wherever he is.”Ivar went to the church, and up to the choir, and thrusthis sword through the earl, who died on the spot. Hecame back to the King, with his bloody sword in hishand. “Hast thou killed the earl?” said Canute. “Ihave killed him,” said he. “Thou hast done well,” saidthe King.

After the murder was committed the monks orderedthe doors of the church to be closed and locked. Butthe King sent a message that they were to be openedand high Mass sung. Then Canute gave a greatgift of property to the church, and rode down to hisships, and lay there till harvest with a very largearmy.

When men fell away from King Olaf and joinedCanute, as we have related before, so that Norwayfell under his sway, Canute determined to return toEngland. He had Earl Hakon proclaimed Governorof Norway, and his son Hardacanute he led to thehigh seat at his side, gave him the title of king, andwith it the dominion of Denmark. He himself tookhostages from all the great lords for their fidelity,and returned to England.

When Earl Hakon died, Canute’s elder son,Sweyn, succeeded him in Norway, but shortly afterSt Olaf’s fall at the battle of Stiklestad his son Magnushad been accepted as King of Norway by the people,and Sweyn saw that he could not stand before him: sohe retired to Denmark, where his brother Hardacanute217received him with kindness and gave him a share inthe government of Denmark. There is little goodto be said of Hardacanute except this one thing, thathe was kind to his brothers and sisters, and even tohis half-brother, Edward the Confessor, who succeededhim on the throne of England; for, after Hardacanutebecame King of England, the gentle Edward, weariedwith wandering and exile from his native country,came to England, and was most lovingly welcomedby Hardacanute, and allowed to live in peace, sothat he was more happy than his brother Alfred, orindeed than any other of his family. In other waysHardacanute was a man with little to recommendhim, wild, undisciplined, and childish. The Englishhad cause to regret that they had chosen him to succeedthe great Canute and his feeble son Harald.

Hardacanute came almost as a stranger to Englandwhen Harald died in 1040. He had not been in thecountry since his babyhood, and he was unknown tothe English, as they were to him. His first act showedhis savage disposition. He caused the dead bodyof Harald, his half-brother, to be dug up and the headcut off and thrown into the Thames; but it wasdragged up soon after in a fisherman’s net, and theDanes buried it in their cemetery in London. Hisnext act was to impose an intolerable tribute onthe country in order to pay the shipmen in hisfleet a heavy sum of money. This aroused somuch opposition that two of his collectors were murderedin Worcester, upon which he sent his Danishcommanders to ravage and burn the whole countryand carry off the property of the citizens. It wasnot long, therefore, before all that had been gainedof good friendship and understanding between the218Danes and English by the wise rule of Canute was lostagain and they hated each other as much as before.Nor was there any regret when, two years after hisarrival in this country, the people learned that Hardacanutehad fallen down in a fit while he was drinkingat Lambeth, and that he had died without recoveringhis speech.

Instantly their thoughts turned to the race of theirEnglish kings, and before Hardacanute was buriedbeside his father at Winchester they had already chosenEdward as their king. He was crowned at Winchester,on the first day of Easter (1043), amid the rejoicings ofthe people, and with much pomp. Thus came to anend the union of Denmark and England, and with itthe mighty sovereignty of which Canute dreamed,and which his own force of character had broughtabout. Norway and Denmark reverted to their ownline of kings, and Edward and his successors soughtno more to re-establish the great consolidation ofnations over which Canute ruled.

But the power of the Danes in this country, thoughcrippled and broken, did not immediately come toan end: they played a large part in English historyfor another twenty-four years, when the conquestof England by the Normans brought to our shoresanother branch of the great Northern family of nationsand bound them to us for ever. William the Conquerorwas descended from Rolf the Ganger, or Walker,the viking chief who had called the land he conqueredin the North of France Normandy, or “the Northman’sLand,” in memory of the country from which he hadcome. The Dukes of Normandy were never part orparcel of the French people amongst whom they madetheir home in the North of France, but they speedily219felt themselves at home amongst the English and Danishpopulation in England, for the same blood flowedin the veins of Saxon, Dane, and Norman. All aliketraced their origin to the free countries of the North.

During the intervening space of which we have nowto speak the Kings of Denmark and Norway more thanonce revived their claim on England; but the timefor such a union had gone by, and the English peopleno longer desired to become a portion of the Danishrealm: they felt themselves strong and independentenough to stand alone.

The first case of which we speak was a claim made byKing Magnus the Good, son of St Olaf. No soonerwas he seated firmly on the throne of Norway andbecome ruler of Denmark than he began to thinkof laying claim to England, as his predecessorshad done. He sent ambassadors to King Edwardthe Confessor, with his seal and the following letter:“Ye must have heard of the agreement that I andHardacanute made, that whichever of the two survivedthe other should have all the land that the otherpossessed. Now it hath so turned out, as you havedoubtless heard, that I have taken the Danishdominions after Hardacanute. But before he diedhe had England as well as Denmark; therefore Iconsider that, in consequence of our agreement, Iown England also. Therefore I will that thou nowdeliver me my kingdom; and if not I will seek to takeit by force of arms; and let him rule it to whom fategives the victory.”

When King Edward read the letter and heard thisdemand he replied: “It is well known to all of youthat King Ethelred, my father, rightfully ruled thiskingdom, both according to the old and new law of220inheritance. So long as I had no kingly title I servedthose above me, in all respects as those do who haveno claim to the kingdom. Now I have received thekingly title and am consecrated king. If King Magnuscome here with an army, I will gather no armyagainst him; but he shall only get the opportunityof taking England when he first hath taken my life.Tell him these words of mine.”46

King Magnus reflected a while, and answered thus:“I think it wisest, and that it will succeed best, to letKing Edward have his kingdom in peace, so far as I amconcerned, and that I keep the kingdoms that Godhath put into my hands.” This was the last timethat a King of Denmark laid formal claim to the throneof England.

We need not linger over the reign of Edwardthe Confessor, the weak and womanishking who came to the throne of Englandon the death of Hardacanute; in fact, the countrycan hardly be said to have been governed by Edward,for he placed himself almost entirely in the hands ofEarl Godwin, who now with rapid strides advancedto be the first man in the kingdom and the real rulerof England. Edward was more fitted to be a monkthan a king. The mournful circumstances of his lifehad no doubt helped to make him timid and retiring,and he seems to have inherited the weak characterof his father, Ethelred the Unready. Yet he wasbeloved by his people, who regarded him as a saintand admired his devotion to the Church and to religion.He was simple and abstemious in his dress and habits,sparing in imposing taxes, and kind to the poor;it is said that he never uttered a word of reproach tothe humblest person. Moreover, though the sons ofGodwin stirred up strife at home, the King made noforeign wars, and the nation was thankful for peace.The only person toward whom he seems to have actedharshly was his mother, Emma, whom, as we havesaid, he deprived of all her wealth and lands, because222she had never assisted him when he was in distress.Edward must have been nearly forty years of agewhen he came to England from Normandy, just beforeHardacanute’s death; all these years he had passedin exile. It is a matter of wonder, when we considerthe miserable fate that overtook his brother Alfredon venturing to England, that Edward came at all;but he was received with kindness, and lived quietlytill the death of his half-brother. When he heardthat Hardacanute had died he was lost in uncertaintywhether to fly the kingdom or what to do. His weakmind was unable to form any plan, and in his perplexityhe betook himself to Earl Godwin, throwinghimself at his feet and praying him to assist him inescaping back to Normandy. At first Godwin wasperplexed what course to take, but he no doubt reflectedon the power which the King’s weakness would throwinto his own hands, and he determined on a bold course.Raising the King up, he reminded him that it wasbetter to live worthily in a position of power than todie ingloriously in exile; that he was the son of aKing of England, and the kingdom was his by right.If he thought fit to rely on him, whose authority wasalready so great in the country, he was sure that thenation would follow his lead. He proposed thatEdward should marry his daughter, and thuscement the friendship with himself; and Edward,who was ready to promise anything to secureEarl Godwin’s help, fell at once into his plans.Then, calling an assembly of the people, Godwinaddressed them so fluently and cleverly that, partlyby persuasion and partly by their willing consent,Edward was chosen king, and soon after crownedat Winchester on Easter Day (1043), all those223who opposed his election being driven out of thekingdom.

In spite of Edward’s marriage with Editha, thesaintly, learned, and beautiful daughter of Godwin,he soon fell out with the earl and his sons. The historiansof the time find it difficult to say who wasto blame in this, and where they fail we are not likelyto succeed.

Whether Godwin was sincerely attached to the causeof Edward or not, it is likely that his great power madethe King jealous; his sons, too, especially one of themnamed Sweyn, were wild and lawless, and constantlystirred up strife in the country. In the end Godwinand his sons were outlawed by the King and retired,the earl and Sweyn and Tosti to Flanders, and Haroldto Ireland, where they lay all the winter. Edwardwas so incensed with the whole family that he even sentaway his wife, stripping her of all her possessions,and handing her over to his sister. There were threatsof an invasion by Magnus, King of Norway, andthe whole country was disturbed; so much so thatEdward occupied himself in gathering together his fleet;and in spite of inexperience and feebleness he himselftook charge of the fleet at Sandwich, watching forthe return of Godwin. But after all Godwin cameback to England long before they were aware of it,and went secretly from place to place, making friendswith the sailors and boatmen all along the coast fromKent to the Isle of Wight, so that he and Harold, hisson, enticed to their side quite a large army, with whichthey began an advance on London.

King Edward, hearing this, sent for more men,but they came very late, and the fleet of Godwin sailedup the Thames to Southwark, waiting for the flood-tide224to come up. There they found the King’s menawaiting them, and they sailed along by the southshore under the bridge, their land forces gatheredon one side and the King’s on the other. But a fogthat arose obscured the armies from each other, anda great unwillingness was in the hearts of both to fightagainst their own race, for nearly all on both sideswere Englishmen. They felt that if they began fightingeach other, there would be no one to defend theland from their common enemies; thus, happily, a trucewas made between them, and a general council called.There Godwin spoke so well and eloquently that theKing received him and his sons back into full favour,restoring to him his earldom and possessions. TheNormans who had established themselves in Edward’sfriendship during the absence of Godwin, and whohad helped to inflame the King against him, werenow in their turn driven from the country, or escapedacross the sea themselves. The Queen was recalled, andGodwin and Harold settled down on their property;Sweyn, after many acts of piracy on the coast, andafter committing more than one murder, had goneon pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but fell a victim to theSaracens and never returned. The King had madeTosti Earl of Northumbria, but he was so turbulentand harsh that the Northumbrians rose up and drovehim out. Harold, his brother, on hearing what hadhappened, went north with an army to his assistance,but the Northumbrians, most of whom were Norsemenand men of great spirit, declared that they couldnot put up with Tosti’s cruelties, and they persuadedHarold to get the King to appoint a prince namedMorcar in his stead. Tosti, enraged against every one,went with his wife and children to Bruges, in Flanders,225where he remained till the death of Edward. Shortlyafter this Godwin died suddenly, while sitting withhis son Harold at a feast with the King, and Haroldsucceeded to the earldom.

The short remainder of Edward’s reign was spentin planning for the succession. He sent to the Kingof Hungary to ask him to send back to England Edwardthe Ætheling, son of Edmund Ironside, who had takenrefuge in his country. Doubtless the English peoplewould have welcomed him as king; but he was, likeso many of his family, a man feeble in mind and body,and he died soon after landing in England and wasburied at St Paul’s.

Some historians say, and William the Conqueror afterwardsdeclared, that Edward then sent Harold over tohim in Normandy to offer the crown to the duke; butwe shall never know whether this is true or not. Allwe know is that Harold was in Normandy about thistime, cast upon the Norman coasts by a storm, andthat, as the price of his return to England, Williamforced him to swear above holy relics an oath thathe would support the claim of the duke to the Crownof England.

After a reign of twenty-four years Edward laid downthe crown that he had worn so uneasily, dying onthe eve of Twelfth Day, immediately after the consecrationat Westminster of the glorious edifice thathe had built to receive his tomb.47 His last act,the remission of the hated Danegeld, now happilyno longer needed, was one of the most welcomemeasures of his long reign. His people thought thatin the mild King they had lost a saint, and they calledhim, as we call him still, Edward the Confessor.

The king who succeeded Edward was in everyway unlike him. The fair hair and beardand blue eyes of Edward, described by ourchroniclers, his long, feminine fingers, his florid complexionand thin form, belonged to quite a differenttype from the strong, able man who succeededhim. Harold had, in fact, been the real ruler of thekingdom since his father died; and he seems to haveinherited much of his father’s genius for administration.He, like all his family, was strongly opposed tothe Norman influence which was creeping into England,and he was looked upon by the people as the guardianof their liberties and the representative Englishmanof his day. There was no dispute or hesitationabout his accession to the throne: had all his racebeen royal he could not more quietly have succeededto the crown. His troubles arose, not from the Englishpeople, but from his own family. The Englishchronicles say that he was the eldest son of Godwin,but there seems some probability that the Norse sagasare right in making him a younger son, who hadbeen the favourite with his own father and also with theKing, and that it was Tosti’s anger at this preference227that made him, as the eldest son, take up arms againstHarold. They tell us that when Edward was dyingHarold bent down over the King, and then, straighteninghimself, he turned to those who were standingby, saying, “I take you to witness that the King hasnow made over to me the realm of England.” Whenthe news reached Tosti, who was, we remember,in exile in Flanders, he at once set out for Denmarkand Norway, to persuade their kings to help himto recover his own possessions in England. To Sweyn,King of Denmark, he offered his help to win the countryfor him and make him King of England, as Canute,his uncle, had been, if he would dethrone Haroldand restore to him, Tosti, his possessions in Northumbria.But Sweyn, who was in perpetual warfarewith Norway, would not be induced to take anotherexpedition on his hands.

“I,” he replied, “am so much smaller a man thanCanute the Great that I can hardly defend my owndominions against the Northmen. My uncle Canutegot the Danish throne by inheritance: he took Englandby slash and blow. Norway he took without a blowat all. But it suits me much better to do what I canwith the little ability I have than to try to imitateKing Canute’s lucky hits.” Tosti was angry at this,and replied: “The result of my errand is not whatI expected of a gallant man like thee when a relativecame to ask thy help in time of need. It may bethat I shall seek help where it might be less likely tobe got, and that I may come across a chief lessafraid than thou art, King, to undertake a greatenterprise.” The King and the earl parted, not thebest of friends.

Then Tosti went on to the new King of Norway, Harald228Sigurdson, called “Hardrada,” and talked him overto his cause, and at last he promised to go and attackEngland, Tosti having persuaded him that he couldeasily conquer England and add it to the dominionsof Norway. Harald Hardrada sent out the splitarrow, the sign of a war levy, through Norway, whileEarl Tosti sailed to Flanders to collect the men whohad accompanied him or had gathered to join his forces.There King Harald Hardrada joined him with a largefleet of nearly 300 vessels, besides provision-shipsand smaller craft. Before leaving Nidaros, Haraldhad visited St Olaf’s shrine, opened it, and taken outa piece of the Saint’s hair; then he locked the shrine,and threw the keys into the sea, since which time ithas never been opened again.

But it was with bad omens and many forebodingsthat Harald went on this expedition. A man in hisarmy dreamed that he saw a huge witch-woman ridingin front of the host on the back of a wolf, and shewas feeding the wolf with the bodies of men, andblood was dripping from its jaws. Another dreamedthat all over the fleet he saw a raven of death sittingon every ship’s stern, waiting to devour the slain.And the King himself dreamed that King Olaf methim and prophesied his death. These visions madethe whole host gloomy and fearful. The King tookhis wife and two daughters and one of his sons withhim to England, but he caused his son Magnus to beproclaimed king over Norway in case he did notreturn again.

Harold, Godwin’s son, was hardly seated on thethrone when he heard that his brother Tosti was cometo the South of England and was gathering greatmultitudes of men in the Isle of Wight. Harold had229been collecting an army, fearing an invasion by Williamof Normandy, for he knew well enough that Williamwould never forgive him for having broken his oathto him, or for forgetting his promise to come backfrom England to marry his young daughter, to whomhe had been betrothed in Normandy. He immediatelyprepared to lead his army south toward theplace where he heard that Tosti was; but the earltook ship again and slipped away north to his ownold earldom of Northumbria, where, in spite ofhis cruelties during his rule, he hoped to find somemen to help him. Harald Hardrada had crossedover with his fleet to Orkney, where the Earls of Orkney,Paul and Erlend, joined him with a great force; andthere he left his wife and daughters, taking his sonOlaf with him, and sailing south to meet Tosti inNorthumbria. When Tosti arrived he found theNorwegian King already plundering the country, andsubduing the people all along the coast. At Scarborough,which lies beneath a high cliff, the King hadfought his way inland, and on mounting the hill behindthe town he had caused a great pile of brushwoodto be made and set on fire; then his men with pitchforksthrew the burning wood down upon the town,so that one house after another caught the flame, andthe people surrendered. Then he passed on to theHumber, where Tosti joined him, and together theysailed up the river, awaiting the coming of Earl Morcar,whom Harold, Godwin’s son, had made earl whenTosti fled abroad, and who was advancing from Yorkwith a large army.

The King of Norway drew up his men near Fulford,south-east of York. They stood with one end of theirline toward the River Ouse, and the other ran along230a ditch on the land side. A deep morass, full of water,lay beside them. The earl’s army came down alongthe ditch, advancing bravely, for at first it seemedthat the Northmen at the end of the ditch would giveground before them. But King Harald Hardradaheard that the enemy were approaching; he orderedhis war-charge to be sounded, and with his banner,the Land-ravager, borne before him, he urged on hismen. Very vigorous was the charge, and the earl’sarmy broke before it; they turned and fled, some upand some down the river, while many leaped intothe ditch. So thick lay the bodies that it is said theNorsemen could go dry-foot over the morass, walkingon the slain. The song called “Harald Hardrada’sStave” says about this:

Earl Morcar is said by the Northern chronicles tohave been slain, and the rest of his men shut themselvesup in York.

It was at this moment that King Harold of Englandheard what was happening in the North. With incrediblequickness he turned his army northward,marching night and day the long journey to York.On the 25th of September, 1066, that fateful yearfor England, the two armies met at Stamford Bridge,or Stanforda Bryggiur, as the Norsemen called it.231The Norsemen were far from expecting his appearance;only the night before, York had surrendered into thehands of the Norwegian King, and it had been promisedthat on the Monday morning a general “Thing” wouldbe held in the castle to receive the King of Norway’sofficers and to accept his laws. The King had goneto his ships in a merry mood and was feasting with hismen. It was at this very moment that Haroldof England arrived with his great army from theSouth. On his appearance at York, the city had instantlyopened its gates to him, amid the joy andgood-will of all the people in the castle. So closelydid Harold’s army beset the town that no news wasallowed to pass out to let the Norwegian King knowwhat was happening inside. This was on Sundaynight.

On Monday morning the King of Norway called alevy, and ordered that two out of every three menshould follow him on shore, the remaining third tostay and guard the ships with his son Olaf, and theEarls of Orkney, Paul and Erlend. The weather wasuncommonly hot, and the sun blazing. The mentherefore laid aside their armour, and went on shoreonly with their shields, helmets, and weapons. Theywere very merry, for all had given way before them.They were on their way to the “Thing” at York, andthey knew nothing about the arrival of Harold’stroops. As they came near the castle they saw acloud of dust rising before them, as from horses’ feet,and shining shields and bright armour seemed to bevisible through the dust. The King halted his people,and calling Earl Tosti he asked him what this could be.He said it seemed like a hostile army, but on the otherhand it might be some of his relatives come to make232peace with them. The King commanded a halt todiscover what army it was; and as it drew nearerit seemed to increase in size, and the shining armswere to the sight like glancing ice.

The King said that there could be no doubt that thiswas a hostile army, and he asked what counsel theyshould take in this strait. Tosti advised that theyshould turn about to their ships and either takerefuge there or at least get their armour and weapons.But the King was not of that opinion. He was formaking ready for fight there and then. He placedthree of his swiftest lads on horses and sent them togather the rest of their people, and he ordered hisbanner, the Land-ravager, to be set up, and arrangedhis army in a long, shallow, curved line, with himselfand his banner and choice followers in the centre.And he said that the Englishmen should have ahard fray of it before they gave themselves up forlost.

The vast English army, both of cavalry and infantry,was not far off. Harald, King of Norway, rode onceround his troops, to see that all were in position.As he came near the front, on his black horse, thehorse stumbled and the King fell off. He sprang upin haste, crying out: “A fall is lucky for a traveller.”The English Harold saw his namesake fall. He turnedto the Northmen who were with him and said: “Doyou know the stout man who fell from his horse, withthe blue kirtle and the beautiful helmet?” “Thatis the King himself,” said they. “A great man,”quoth Harold, “and of stately appearance; but Ithink his luck has left him.”

Then twenty horsemen, in full armour, with theirhorses also clothed in armour, rode forward with King233Harold at their head to speak to his brother, EarlTosti. The brothers had been long separated, andneither of them at first recognized the other. Haroldrode up to Tosti and asked: “Is Earl Tosti in thisarmy?” “It is not to be denied that ye will findhim here,” said the earl. Then Harold, feigning tobe a herald, said: “Thy brother, King Harold ofEngland, sends thee salutation, and offers thee thewhole of Northumbria; and if this is not enough,he will give thee a third of the kingdom, if thou wiltsubmit to him.”

The earl said: “This is something different fromthe scorn and enmity he showed us last winter. Butif I accept his offer what will he give the King of Norwayfor his trouble?”

“He has also spoken of this,” replied the horseman.“This will he give him: seven feet of English groundto lie in, or as much more as he may need if he be tallerthan other men.”

“If that is so,” said Tosti, “go back and tell Haroldto prepare for battle; for never shall it be said thatTosti failed the King of Norway when he came toEngland to fight for him. Rather we will resolve todie with honour if we may not gain England by avictory.”

When the horsemen rode back King Harald Hardradasaid to the earl: “Who was that man whospoke so well?” “That,” said Tosti, “was KingHarold Godwinson, the King of England.” “Hadwe only known that,” said the King angrily,“never would Harold have returned alive to tellthe tale.”

But the earl said: “Although I knew my brother,I would not betray him or be his murderer when he234came to offer me peace; but that he was bold tocome thus so near us and ran a great risk, that is true,as you say.”

“He was but a little man,” said Harald, “yet I sawthat he sat firmly in his stirrups.”

On this the fight began; and so long as the Northmenkept their ground the English could do nothing againstthem, and kept riding round their close ranks, seekinga weak spot. At length the Norse grew tired ofthis, and broke their line, thinking to drive back theEnglish in flight; but from that time all went againstthem, and they fell in multitudes under the Englishspears and arrows. King Harald Hardrada becamewild with rage, and burst forth from his men, fightingand hewing down with both hands, so that no onecould stand before him; but at length he was hit inthe windpipe with an arrow, and he fell, for that washis death-wound. When they saw that the Kingwas dead the whole army paused awhile, and Haroldagain sent forward offers of peace; but the Norsemensaid they would rather fall one across the other thanaccept quarter from the English. It is told in theEnglish chronicles that the hardest fight was on thebridge, where one single Norseman stood at the entranceto the way to cover the flight of the Norse to theirvessels, cutting down all who ventured their feet uponthe structure. So many had he killed that at lastthe English feared to attempt to pass, and all stoodback, for the bridge was piled with dead. Theyoffered him peace, but scornfully he rejected it, andcalled on them to advance, deriding them as cowardsbecause they were afraid of one single man. At lengthan iron javelin, thrown from afar, transfixed thebrave warrior, and on his death the English passed235the bridge and pursued the flying Norsemen. Manyof the enemy fell through pure weariness, dying withouta wound, and darkness came on before the slaughterwas ended. Tosti was among the slain, but KingHarold protected Olaf, the young son of Harald Hardrada,and sent him and the Earls of Orkney safely home,when they had sworn allegiance to him. This princewas known as Olaf Kyrre, or “the Quiet,” in Norway,where he reigned from 1068 to 1093. It is said thatHarold would allow no spoil to his soldiers; and onaccount of this many of them were discontented, andstole away from him.

Hardly was the battle of Stamford Bridge concludedthan the news was brought to Harold thatWilliam had landed at Pevensey, and was overwhelmingthe South of England with his vastarmy. Seventeen days later the battle of Senlac, orHastings, as it is usually called, was fought andwon, Harold falling at set of sun, pierced by an arrowin the eye.

Thus came to an end at one time the English dynastyand the rule of Danish kings. No future King ofNorway or Denmark laid claim to the Crown of Englandas part of his rightful heritage; but the Normankings who reigned in England were themselves partof the same stock, and the fresh blood they broughtwas still Northman’s blood, come round by way ofNormandy.

The body of King Harald Hardrada was a year latertransported from England to Nidaros,48 and was thereburied in a church that he had built. From the timewhen, at fifteen years of age, he had fought with his236brother, St Olaf, at the battle of Stiklestad until hisdeath, he had ever been a bold and lucky warrior; buthis luck turned at Stamford Bridge.49 He was of greatheight—four Danish ells, or nearly eight feet. Itwas on this account that Harold offered him sevenfeet of English ground to be buried in, “or more ifhe needed it.”

Harald Hardrada was not the last Kingof Norway to visit these countries. Longafter this the Norwegian kings tried at timesto assert their rights over the Orkneys and other partsof Scotland, and came over to enforce their claim.King Magnus, who reigned after the death of OlafKyrre (1094–1103), made several descents upon Britainand Ireland; he stayed so long, and grew so fond of thelatter country, that he adopted the kilt, and was calledin consequence by his own people “Magnus Barelegs.”He seized the Earls of the Orkneys, the brothers Pauland Erlend, and sent them east to Norway as prisoners,and placed a son of his own over the Orkneys. Thenhe went south to the Hebrides (Sudreyar) and conqueredthe whole of the Western Isles, and seized the King’sson. After that he sailed to Wales, and fought thetwo Hughs, Hugh the Stout, Earl of Chester, andHugh the Bold, Earl of Salop, in the battle of AngleseaSound. He had with him there the son of EarlErland, afterwards Magnus “the Saint,” Earl ofOrkney, who sat down on the fore-deck with hispsalter open before him and would not take arms.The King asked him why he had not armed. He saidhe had no quarrel with anyone there, and would notfight. Then the King said angrily: “If you dare238not fight, go down below, and do not lie among otherpeople’s feet, for I do not believe it is from religiousmotives that you refuse to fight for us.”

But the lad sat on quietly, taking no shelter, andsinging during the battle, but getting no hurt, thoughmany of the King’s men were sorely wounded. WhenHugh the Bold was killed the others fled, and leftthe victory with King Magnus. He never forgaveMagnus, the earl’s son, for refusing to fight at AngleseaSound, and he made him his serving-man; but onenight the youth slipped away, and after concealinghimself in the woods he made his way to the Courtof the Scottish King, and did not return to the Orkneysuntil King Magnus was dead.

The King remained all the winter in the Hebrides,though many of his followers deserted and went home toNorway. The King of Scots offered him all the islandslying west of Scotland between which and the mainlandhe could pass with his rudder shipped. ThenMagnus landed in Cantyre, and had his boat draggedacross the neck of the mainland, himself holding thehelm; thus he got Cantyre for himself as well as theislands. He sent thence to Ireland for a wife for hisson, and married him to a daughter of Murtough, orMyrkiartan, King of Connaught, though his son was onlynine winters old and she only five. Such early marriageswere not uncommon in old times.

When Magnus returned home after this viking cruise,his people were astonished to see their King going aboutin a kilt, with bare legs and over-cloak, like a Scotsmanor Irishman; most of his followers being dressedin the same way as the King. He was taller thanmost men, and could everywhere be seen toweringabove his followers. His people had many names239for him. Magnus the Tall some called him, othersFighting Magnus; but his usual name was MagnusBarelegs, or Barefoot. He always said that he carednot when or how he died, so long as he lived withglory; his motto was: “Kings should live for gloryrather than for grey hairs.” We shall see that hedid indeed fall in youth, though rather ingloriously;but that was through no fault of his own.

When he had been nine years in Norway he beganto long for the free life of the West. In 1102 he equippeda great fleet to go out of the country, and all the mostpowerful men in Norway accompanied him. Hespent the winter with the King of Connaught, whosedaughter had married his son, and they went onfighting raids together, conquering Dublin and a greatpart of its neighbourhood. Toward the spring bothkings went on an expedition into Ulster, raidingand conquering in every direction; and after thatMurtough returned home to Connaught, biddingMagnus good-bye, for he thought it was time to goback to his own country. Magnus sent some of his mento defend the property they had won about Dublin,and he himself sailed northward, and lay out to seawith his whole fleet ready to sail. Unfortunately,on inquiry, they found that they were short of provisions,and had not nearly enough for the voyage.Magnus sent a message to Murtough, asking himwithout delay to send a herd of cattle to him, andtelling him that he would wait for them till St.Bartholomew’s Day. But on the eve of that day thecattle had not arrived, and Magnus, impatient to be off,said he would go on shore himself and see if the cattlewere coming, or if he could find other herds for food.

The weather was calm, the sun shone, and the road240lay through marsh and moss, with tracks cut throughthem and brushwood at the side of the tracks.

They pushed on till they got to a height whencethey could see over all the surrounding country. Theynoticed in the distance dust rising up from the roadas though under the feet of many men advancingtoward them. Some said it was the Irish army,others that it was their own men returning with thecattle. They halted awhile, and one of Magnus’searls said: “What, sire, would you have us do?The men think that we are advancing imprudently,for it is known that the Irish are treacherous. Adviseus what we should do.”

The King commanded them to draw up in line, lestthere should be treachery, he and Eyvind, his earl,going on first in front of the troop.

The King had a helmet on his head, and a red shieldinlaid with a gilded lion, and his sharp sword, Segbit,in his hand. He wore a little short cloak over hisshoulder above his coat of mail, embroidered beforeand behind with a lion in yellow silk, and all mensaid they had never seen one handsomer or moreactive than he. Eyvind had also a red cloak likethe King.

As the dust-cloud came nearer they saw that it wastheir own men driving the cattle. The Irish kinghad been faithful to his friends and had sent thekine. Thereupon they all turned to go back to theships; but the passage was so miry that they couldgo but slowly and in single file over the boggy places.As they were making their way thus, suddenly fromevery side up started the Irish and set upon them.Every mound or bushy point seemed to hold an enemy.Fighting began instantly, but in the order in which241they were going, divided into various bands andmarching singly on a raised passage of ground, theywere a good mark for the Irish, and they kept droppingone by one along the route.

Eyvind said to the King: “This retreat is going tobe unfortunate for our people; what counsel shall wegive them?”

“Blow the war-horn,” said Magnus, “and bid themform themselves as well as they can into a body withtheir shields linked closely together, and so retreatbackward under cover of their shields; as soon aswe get on to firm ground out of this treacherous morasswe shall clear ourselves fast enough.”

This was done, but though the Irish fell in crowdsunder their arrows and spears, two seemed to appearout of the marsh for every one who dropped. At onevery difficult and swampy piece of ground where therewere few places on which they could stand or passthe Norsemen fell in great numbers. The King calledone of his lords and bade him take his men out acrossa ditch to some points of higher ground and shootfrom there, while he and the main body got acrossthe bog. But as soon as ever these Northmen foundthemselves safe at the other side of the ditch, thinkingthat they had had enough of it, they made off as fastas they could to the ships, leaving their comradesin the lurch.

“Alas that ever I made thee a great man!” saidthe King when he saw this; “thou art deserting thyfriends and thy King like a coward!”

At the same moment King Magnus was woundedseverely by a spear, which passed through both hislegs above the knees. Laying hold on the spear-shaftbetween his legs, the King broke it in two, crying out:242“This is how we break spear-shafts, my lads. Onwith you all! Nothing hurts me.”

But it was not long afterward that, as he stumbledalong on his wounded legs, an Irishman came up behindand struck him in the neck with an Irish axe, andthat was his death-wound. He fell, and those aroundhim fled. But his man, Vidkun Jonson, smote downthe Irishman who had killed his master, and escaped,carrying with him the royal banner, and the King’ssword, Segbit. But he was thrice wounded as heran. He was the last man who got to the ships alive.Many great people fell with Magnus, but more of theIrish died than of the Norse. Those who got to theships sailed away at once, and took refuge in theOrkney Islands. Magnus was thirty years old whenhe fell at Downpatrick, in Ulster. He was belovedby his people, and there was quiet at home in Norwayin his days. But thebondes thought him harsh, andthey were oppressed by the heavy levies he had toraise for his war-expeditions. He was buried inIreland. He was so fond of that country that in thelast song he made, when his followers were trying topersuade him to leave Ireland and return to his capitalof Nidaros (now Drontheim) in Norway, he sang:

But his son, Sigurd Magnusson, called the Jewry-farer,on account of his visit to Jerusalem, although hehad married in Ireland, did not think as his father.As soon as he heard of his sire’s death he set offimmediately to claim the crown, leaving his Irishwife behind, and he took with him his whole fleet,243and never went back again to the West. It is saidthat he ever held Vidkun Jonson in the most affectionateregard, because he would not fly until he had savedthe banner and killed the man who gave Magnus hismortal wound.

The fame of King Magnus never quite died out ofIreland. In old poems he appears warring at thehead of a band of men for the conquest of Ireland,and in the “Ballad of King Magnus Barefoot” he ispictured as a being of gigantic proportions and a mightywarrior. Many legends and fairy-tales have Magnusfor their hero.

Though the viking period is generally spokenof as ending aboutA.D. 1100, it went on, asa matter of fact, long after that. The lastof the great vikings—that is, of those whose entirelife was spent in marauding expeditions—was Sweynof Orkney, called Sweyn, Asleif’s son, from his mother’sname, because his father had been burnt in his housewhen he was entertaining a party at Yule. He wasa wise man, and far-seeing in many things, but sodreaded that when it was heard that he was in anypart of the islands all the inhabitants would hide theirmovable property under the ground or cover it withheaps of loose stones. When he was an old man heused to keep eighty men in his house at his soleexpense; and his drinking-hall was the largest inthe Orkneys. His plan of life was this: In the springhe would stay at home and sow the most part of hisproperty with seed, doing a great share of the workhimself; and while the seed was springing up he wouldbe off marauding in the Hebrides or in Ireland, returninghome after midsummer. This he called his springviking. Then he stayed at home awhile to reap hiscrops and get in the harvest, and as soon as this wasfinished he would be away again up to the middleof winter, when it became too cold. Then he would245return again till spring. This he called his autumnviking.

The most famous of his viking raids was that calledthe “Broad-cloth Voyage,” or in Norse “Skrud-viking.”Sweyn had been plundering with five rowing vessels,all of good size, in the Southern Hebrides, andthence he went south to the Isle of Man, but he hadobtained very little booty, for the people had got windof his coming and had concealed their goods. Sohe went across to Ireland, plundering on the northcoast, and making his way down to Dublin. At theentrance to Dublin Bay they came across two Englishmerchant ships going to Dublin with a cargo of Englishcloth and other merchandise. Sweyn made for thevessels and offered to fight them. Being merchantmen,they made little resistance, and Sweyn’s party tookfrom them every penny’s-worth that was in the vessels,leaving the Englishmen only with the clothes theystood up in and enough provisions to give them achance of getting home alive. They got away asquickly as they could, while Sweyn and his men setsail for the Sudreyar, or Hebrides, and landed thereto divide their booty. As a piece of bravado, theysewed the cloth they had taken over their sails, sothat they looked as if they were all made of the finestcloth, and so home to the Orkneys; and becauseof this the cruise was known as the “Broad-clothCruise.”

It was on one of his expeditions against Dublinthat Sweyn met his fate. This was when he was anold man. Not long before, Earl Harald, who had beenfeasting with him after his return from the “Broad-clothCruise,” on the English mead and the winecaptured from the vessels, said to him: “I wish now,246Sweyn, that you would leave off your marauding expeditions.Your plundering has been successful a longwhile, but it might take a turn the other way; andit is good to drive home with a whole wain. Menwho live by unfair means often perish by them inthe end.” Sweyn answered the earl with a smile:“Excellent advice, my lord, and spoken like a friend.A bit of good counsel from you is worth thehaving. But I have heard it said that you havesome little matters on your own account to answerfor, not unlike those of which you complain tome.” “No doubt,” said the earl, “I have my ownshare to answer for; I but spoke as it came into myhead.”

Sweyn answered: “I take your advice as it isoffered to me, and, indeed, I begin to feel that I amgrowing old. Long fighting and hardships are beginningto tell upon me, and I had made up mymind to go only upon one expedition more. I willmake my autumn viking as usual, and I hope it willgo as well as my spring viking, and after that mywarfaring shall be over.”

“It is difficult to know, friend,” said the earl,“whether death or lasting fame will overtake youfirst,” and there their conversation ended.

Shortly after this Sweyn prepared to go on his autumnviking cruise with seven warships. They found littlebooty in the Sudreyar, and went on to Ireland, gettingagain as far south as Dublin, and entering the townbefore the inhabitants were aware of their presence.His attack was so sudden that he took the rulerscaptive, and gathered a great deal of plunder, andthe upshot of the matter was that the fort surrenderedto Sweyn and promised him a heavy ransom, and247that he might quarter his men on the town, and takehostages.

That night the chief men of the town had a meetingto consider the difficulties in which they were placed.They thought it grievous hardship that they shouldhave to surrender their town to the Orkneymen,especially to him whom they knew to be the mostexacting man in the whole West; and they agreedthat they would cheat Sweyn if they could. Sweynand his men were gone down to their ships for the night,but in the morning they were to come into the townto receive the hostages. The inhabitants resolvedto dig deep trenches inside the city gates, and in otherplaces between the houses in the streets through whichSweyn and his followers must pass, and armed menwere concealed in the houses. They placed planksover the pits, which would fall in as soon as menstepped upon them, and strewed straw over the planks,so that they might not be observed. All that nightthey worked and in the morning they were ready.

With the morning’s dawn Sweyn’s men rose andarmed themselves, to march into the town; and theDublin men lined either side of the way from thecity gate to the trenches. Not being on their guard,Sweyn and his men fell into them, and the Dublinpeople ran, some to the gates to close them, and someto the pits to kill the men who had fallen there. Itwas difficult to offer any defence, and Sweyn perishedmiserably with all who accompanied him. This isthe end of Sweyn’s history, and after him few men gavethemselves up to marauding, as was the custom in theold days. Sweyn would often raid a village and burnsix or more homesteads in a morning, so that theinhabitants fled wherever he came. An Icelander248named Eric, who went about with Sweyn and plunderedwith him, used to sing this ditty when they went outtogether:

251

FOOTNOTES

1 Ethelwerd’s Chronicle,A.D. 786 (recté 787).

2 Saxo’s Danish annals speak of Hame, the father of Ælla, as King ofNorthumbria (seep. 18), but he is unknown to the English Chronicles.

3 This is the account of Saxo; the Norse accounts differ from him asto the district over which Ragnar ruled.

4 The Northern chronicles here throw much light on the internalaffairs of Northumbria, which are only briefly dealt with in the Englishchronicles. But the general outline of events fits well into the Englishaccount.

5 i.e. the horns from which the ale was quaffed, made from thebranching or curved antlers of reindeer or ox.

6 i.e. “the Wanderer,” another name for Woden.

7 i.e. his sons, the children of Aslaug, his second wife.

8 i.e. the sword of Woden. The prophecy was shortly afterwardsfulfilled, for Lodbrog’s sons returned to Northumbria, dethronedÆlla, and put him to a cruel death.

9 i.e. the High Gods, who dwelt in Valhalla, or the home of theimmortals.

10 The great province of Northumbria extended from the Humber tothe Firth of Forth.

11 The English Chronicle, dating his rule in Normandy from this, hisfirst expedition thither, gives him a reign of fifty years; he actuallyreigned from 911–927A.D. (seep. 110).

12 In hot weather a tent was erected over the boat.

13 Scat was a land-tax paid to the king in money, malt, meal, or flesh-meat,and was adjudged to each king on his succession by the “Thing,”or assembly of lawgivers.

14 The bishop of the islands is still styled Bishop of Sodor (i.e. theSudreys) and Man. Up to the fifteenth century these bishops had togo to Trondhjem in Norway for consecration.

15 See chap. xv., “Wild Tales from the Orkneys,”p. 108.

16 Probably Olaf, son of Godfrey, King of Dublin.

17 i.e. Olaf Cuaran.

18 A sort of fury of war which attacked the Northmen when engagedin battle, and made them half-mad with ferocity.

19 i.e. the dead bodies of the warriors whom his arm had slain fed thefalcons, or carrion-birds.

20 Unnecessary doubt has been thrown upon this practice of paganbaptism, but the instances are too numerous to be set aside. Baptismis a widespread custom among different races. In pagan Irelandalso there are instances recorded of a sort of child-naming, combinedwith christening, by pouring water over the child. Baptismwas not invented by Christianity; it was adopted from the Jewishfaith into the new religion.

21 The “Thing” was a convention or parliament of the peopleassembled to make laws or come to decisions on important matters.There were both local and general “Things.” The place where the“Thing” was held was called the “Thing-mote.”

22 The hammer of Thor was somewhat like a Greek cross.

23 Chap. vi.,page 48.

24 Twenty benches probably meant forty rowers, besides other fightingmen. Two rowers at least would sit to each bench.

25 This cruel method of putting a foe to death was also practisedon Ælla of Northumbria; it was probably, as here, a sacrifice toOdin.

26 There are still a fewudal, or allodial properties, in Orkney.

27 See pp.152–3.

28 Chap. vi.p. 47.

29 The name Gilli is evidently either Scotch or Irish, which explainsthe fact that he had an Irish girl among his slaves. He either wasan inhabitant of these countries pretending to be a Russian merchant,or he was a Russian who had lived in Scotland.

30 Sitric Silken-beard was son of Olaf Cuaran, or Olaf o’ the Sandal,and his wife Gormliath, or Kormlod.

31 For the story of the burning of Nial, see chap. xx.pp. 157–175.

32 The same description is given of the banner of the sons of Lodbrog,taken by Alfred the Great.

33 Freeman (“Norman Conquest,” Vol. I., p. 342), considers thatThorkill acted throughout independently of Sweyn, and aimed at settingup a princedom of his own. He explains in this way Thorkill’ssudden alliance with Ethelred against Sweyn in 1013. Thorkill remainedfaithful to the English king until his flight, and later gave his adherenceto Canute, who first enriched and afterwards banished him (seepp. 193–4).

34 See note at end of this chapter.

35 Freeman will not accept any part of this story of Olaf’s interventionin English affairs, because it is not found in any of the EnglishChronicles. It, however, reads like the record of an actual attackupon the Danish forces in London, although the time and circumstancesmay have become confused in the mind of the Northern Chronicler.Sigvat’s poem tends to confirm its general accuracy.

36 pp. 102–107.

37 pp. 95–99.

38 The Norwegian chronicles say that Eirik died in England.

39 This is the Norse account. The English Chronicle, which is likelyto be correct in this matter, says that Canute was reconciled to EarlThorkill in 1023, and that he committed Denmark and his son Hardacanuteto his keeping, he himself taking Thorkill’s son back with himto England.

40 Emma’s two sons by Ethelred were Alfred (seepp. 211–212) andEdward the Confessor; she also had a daughter. Ethelred had severalsons by a former wife, of whom Edmund Ironside is the most famous.

41 The same story is told of the landing of William the Conqueror atPevensey; it is probably repeated from this incident in the life ofOlaf.

42 Magna Charta was then taken south by the barons to meet the Kingat Staines; it was signed by King John on an island in the Thamescalled Runnymede, on the 15th of June 1215.

43 Baldwin, Earl of Flanders in the ninth century, had married adaughter of Alfred the Great, hence the connexion with England.The same earl was, by another wife, the ancestor of Matilda, wife ofWilliam the Conqueror.

44 The English chronicles say of Thorkill the Tall.

45 p. 201–3.

46 See the whole of Edward’s speech in Snorre, “Saga of Magnus theGood,” Laing’s translation, 1889, vol. iii. p. 344–5.

47 Westminster Abbey was consecrated on the 28th of December 1065.

48 Nidaros, the old capital of Norway, was afterwards Throndhjem,or Drontheim.

49 Freeman considers that some of the details of the battle of StamfordBridge, as given in the Norse story, belong rightly to the battleof Hastings.

Index

Adils, E.,70,71–74
Ælla, King of Northumbria,14,18,19,20,21 andn.,26
Alfgeir, Earl,65,70–72
Alfred the Great,14,22–35,37,52,56,136;
his studies,23,24,34;
his laws and navy,32–33;
his “Manual,”24;
his liberality,33.
His “Life” (seeAsser)
Alfred “the Ætheling,”185,211–212,217,222
Alfvine, a champion,93–94
Amazons,17
Anglesea Sound, B. of,237–238 (seeMona)
Anses, the,21
Antrim,119
Ardee, B. of,120
Armagh,45–46,118
Armour,130,152,240
Ashdune, B. of,27–28,29
Aslang, w. of Raynar Lodbrog,21 andn.
Asser,23,28,31,34;
his “Life of Alfred,”23,24
Astrid, m. of Olaf Trygveson,91,92
Athelney, Isle of,30,32
Athelstan the Great, King of England,46,54,56–77,78–81,84,179
Aud (O. U. Audr),47 (andseeUnn)
Augvaldness, B. of,87
Baltic,92,103
Baptism, Christian,81,84,114–115,148;
Baptism, Pagan,78–79 andn.;
911 (andsee “Prime-signing”)
Bath,184
Bedford,53
Bergen,89
Bergthora, w. of Nial,157,162,168,170,172–73,175
Bergthors-knoll,166
Berkshire, E. of,27
“Berserkin fury,”72 andn.
Bertric, King of Wessex,12
Biorn, “the Eastman,”6,47–49,50
Blacaire, Danish, Lord of Dublin,120
“Bondes” or landowners,88,97,98,208,242
“Book of Settlements,”37
Brian Boru, King of Munster and Ireland,135–142,145,148–152;
his hardships,136;
King of Munster,138;
his beneficent reign,139;
his death at B. of Clontarf,149–152
Britain,6,16
Brodir, a Viking,146–147,151–152
“Broad-cloth” Cruise,245
Brunanburh, or Brumby, B. of,60–77,135
Burhred, King of Mercia,22,26,29
Burial (in mounds),41,82,89,109;
(ship-burials),51,90
Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk,198
Caithness,5,48,108,154,158
Callaghan, King of Munster,117,119
Canterbury,25,183,189
Cantyre,238
Canute, or Knut, “the Great” (King of England and Denmark),6,32,55,179,180,185,186,191–210,214–217,218,227
Carlingford Lough,118
Christianity,12,66,114–115,146;
forced upon Norway,85–87,100
Chronicles—
English Ch.,35n.,60–61,180,192,212;
Ethelwerd’s Ch.,13n.;
William of Malmesbury’s Ch.,30,34,54,57,59,61;
Asser’s “Life of Alfred the Great,”23,24
Clonmacnois,45
Clontarf, B. of,114,116,135,148–156
Conang, nephew of King Brian,141
Connaught,119,135
Constantine, King of the Scots,59,60
Cornwall,57–58
252Cumberland,57
Dane’s, first arrival of,11–13;
Conquests and Settlements,5,22,25–27,29,46,60–61,111,135,179,182,184,186,187,217–218;
called “Dark Foreigners,”47
Danegeld,179–180,152,225
Danish Kings,6,31,179,180,186,191,198–199,208,209,211–213,217,218,219,235
Danish Kings of Dublin and Northumbria,6,14,29,46–47,58–59,93,118–119
Death-Song (of Raynor Lodbrog),20,21
Denmark,31,39,40,87,123,179,191,203,209,212,213,216,217,218,219,220
Derby,53
Devon,22,30
Donagh, King of Ireland,118,120
Donovan, Munster Chief,137
Dorchester,13
Downpatrick,242
Dublin,19,46,96,116,117,118,142,145,148,239,245–47
East Anglia,22,27,32,38,183,189,193,194
Eddington, B. of,31
Edgar, King of England,179;
laws of,198
Editha, w. of Edward the Confessor,223,224
Edmund “the Martyr,” King of E. Anglia,185,198
Edmund, b. of Athelstan, King of England,61,170
Edmund “Ironside,”194,225
Edric, Lord, of Mercia,183,194
Edward the Ætheling,225
Edward “the Confessor,” King of England,185,212,217,219,221–225,226–227
Edward “the Elder,”33,38,52–54
Edwy, King of England,179
Edwy, s. of Ethelred the Unready,195
Egil, s. of Skalligrim,63,65–66,71–77
Egil’s Saga,6,60,63–65
Einar (called “Torf-Einar,”) E. of Orkney,111–113;
his son,114
Einar Tambaskelfer,106,107
Eirik, King of Sweden,39,40
Eirik Hakonson, Earl,102–107,181,186,193,194 andn. (andseeEric)
Eithne or Audua, m. of E. Sigard,114
Ely,211
Emma, Queen of Ethelred II. and of Canute,35,182,184–185,195,199,211–212,213–214,221
Englefield Green, B. of,27
English Channel,5,187,194
“Enhazelling,” a battle-field,67,69
Erling Skialgson,102
Eric, or Eirik, “Bloodaxe,” King of Norway,82,84,85,113;
King of Northumbria,84;
his sons,82,87–90,113
Essex,189
Ethelbald, King,26
Ethelbert, King,26
Ethelfled, “the Lady of the Mercians,”52–53,56
Ethelred I., King of Wessex,14,26,27–28,29
Ethelred II., “the Unready,”35,179–189,219,221;
his sons,195–196,211,212
Ethelred, Prince of Mercia,53
Ethelwulf, King,25,26
Eyvind,88–89
Eyvind, a Norwegian lord,240–241
Faröe Isles,36,42,48–49
Feudal System (in Norway),42
Fife,5
Fin-Barre, St, Gospel of,137–138
Fingall,11
Flanders,65,212 andn.,223,224,227
Flosi, an Icelander,166,170–174
Fosterage,80–81,128,132–134,157,159
France,18,35,52,72,92,218
Freeman, “Norman Conquest,”185n.,190n.,236n.
Gall-Gael,12
Galloway,5
Gaul,23
Germany,18
Gilli, the Russian,123 andn.,125
Glen of the Gap, B. of,138,141
253Gloucester,53
Godfrey, Danish King of Dublin,59–60,118
Godred, King of Man,158
Godwin, Earl,211,221–225;
sons of,221,223,226
Gorm the Old, King of Denmark,11,39,40,179,200
Gorm, or Guthrum, “the Englishman,”31,32,35;
baptismal name, Athelstan,32;
King of Denmark,31,32;
King of East Anglia,32
Gormliath, or Kormlod,139,140,142–143,145–146,148–149
Grani, Gunnar’s son,166,170–171
Greenwich,185
Grim, s. of Nial,157,158,161,163,173
Gudrek, Earl,65
Gunhild, w. of Eric “Bloodaxe,”82
Gunnar, Lambi’s son,144–145,157,166,170
Gyda, w. of Harald Fairhair,40
Gyda, sister of Olaf Cuaran,93–94
Hakon the Old, King of Sweden,92
Hakon “the Good,” King of Norway,54,57,79–90,122–123,179;
fostered by Athelstan,80–81;
returns to Norway,83–84;
forces the people to become Christians,85–86,100;
“Hakon’s Hill,”89–90
Hakon, Earl, Governor of Norway,95–99;
slain,99,193
Hakon, Earl, Eirik’s son,193,196,197,200,208,216
Halfdan, “Long-legs,” s. of Harald Fairhair,112–113
Halfdan the Black, King of Norway,39
Halfdene, s. of Raynar Lodbrog,29
Halfred, Norse poet,107
Hallad, s. of Ragnvald,109–110
Hame, f. of Ælla,14n.,18
Hampshire, or Hants,22,30
Harald, King of England, s. of Canute,195,209,211–212,217
Harald “Blue-tooth,” s. of Gorm “the Old,”179,180
Harald Fairhair, King of Norway,11,36–44,47,52,57,78–81,82,83,84,96,99,113;
his policy,5,37,39,40,42;
his sons,112–113
Harald Sigurdson, “Hardrada,” King of Norway,228–236,237
“Harald Hardrada’s Stave,”230
Harald, E. of Orkney,245
Hardacanute, King of Denmark and England,179,195,208,209,212–218,221,222
Harek of Throtta,205–206
Harold, s. of Godwin, King of England,211,223,224,225,226–236
Hastings, or Senlac, B. of,235,236n.
Hauk “Haabrok,”80–81
Hebrides, or Sudreys,5,18,37,42,43,48,52,55,110,113,119,237,238,244
Helga River, B. of,204–205,215
Helgi, s. of “Ketill Flatnose,”47,50
Helgi, s. of Nial,157,158,163,169–172
Hellespont,19
“Heptarchy,”38
Hereford,53
Herlang, King,41
Hlodver, Earl of Orkney,114
Hlodver, Sigurd’s son, “Whelp,”115
Hogmanay night,86
Hoskuld, f. of Olaf the Peacock,51,122
Hoskuld, foster son of Nial,157,159–165
Howel, King of Wales,59
Humber, River,14,60
Hungary, King of,225
Hrafn, the “Limerick trader,”37
Hrafn, “the Red,”153
Hrane,196–197
Hring, Earl,71–73
Hrollaug, King,41
Hrollaug, s. of Ragnvald,111
Iceland,5,6,37,42,47,49–50,63,66,114,121,122,144,154,157
Inti. Gall (seeHebrides)
Iona,12
Ireland,5,6,11,16,19,20,37,38,42,45–47,53,114,116,117,145,146,223,244
Irish hermits,12
Ivar the Boneless, s. of Ragnar Lodbrog,11n.,16,17,18,29,30;
called Ivar Vidfadme,11
254Ivar, Prince of Limerick,137
Jorunn, w. of Hoskuld,123,125–126
Jutland,16,18
Kari, Solmund’s son,145,158,161–164,168,170,174
Kark, a slave,98–99
Kennedy, f. of King Brian,136
Kent,13,25,26,223
Ketill “Flatnose,”47–48
Killaloe,141
Kincora, Palace of,136,140–142
Kingston-on-Thames,57
Kjartan, s. of Olaf “Pa,”134
Law-courts in Iceland,157–160
Laxdæla Saga,121,122
Lay of the Darts (“Darradar-Liod”),155–156
Leicester,53
Leinster,119,138–139,142;
Melmora, king of,139–141;
palace of,138
Liffey, River,148
Limerick,37,46,137
Lincolnshire,22
London,25,32,80,180,183,185,187,193,217
London Bridge, B. of,188–190
Maelbride (Melbrik), King of Dublin,19
Magna Charta,198–199 andn.
Magnus the Good, s. of St Olaf, King of Norway,219–220,223
Magnus the Good’s Saga,220
Magnus “Barelegs,” King of Norway,237–243;
ballad of,243
Magnus, St, E. of Orkney,237–238
Mahon, f. of King Brian,136–138
Man, Isle of,5,20,135,142,145,158
Melaughlan, King of Ireland,139
Melbrigd “the Toothy,”108–109
Melkorka, m. of Olaf “Pa,”122,126–128,131–134
Melmora, King of Leinster,139–142
Mercia,22,26,52–53,183,193,194
Molloy, Munster chief,137–138
Mona, or Anglesea,20,237–238
Morcar, Earl,229,230
Mord, s. of Valgard,160–164
Morrogh, s. of King Brian,139,141,150–151
Munster,119,135,139;
Callaghan, king of,117,119;
Brian, king of,135,138;
men of,148,151;
standard of,150
Murtough, King of Connaught,238–239
Murtough “of the Leather Cloaks,”117–121;
orMyrkjartan,127,130–133,134
Myrkjartan (seeMurtough)
Nial,144,157–175
Nial’s Saga (Njala),157
Niall “Glundubh,” or “Black-knee,” King of Ireland,117
Nidaros (Throndhjem, or Drontheim),228,235 andn.,242
Normandy,35,109–110,185,189,211,218,225,229,235;
Dukedom of,6,35,109–110,182,218
Norsemen—
Direction of their conquests,5,12,45–46,135,138,148–149,154;
called “Fair Foreigners,”47
Northampton,53
Northmen (see alsoNorsemen),11,12,13,14,46–47,118,120,138,142
Northumbria,5,12,13,18,19,22 andn.,26,29,38,52,61,193,224,227,233;
Danish kingdom of,6,46–47,54,58–59,78,84,113,118,194,196
Norway,36,42,43,55,66,78,100,113,114,123,158,179,187,191,196,199,203,209,215,216,218,219,227,237
Ockley, or Aclea, B. of,25
Olaf Cuaran “o’ the Sandal,” Danish King of Dublin,46,58–75,96;
called Olaf “the Red,”65
Olaf “Feilan,”49–51
Olaf “Pa,” or “the Peacock,”51,121,126–134
Olaf “the White,” King of Dublin,47–48,108
Olaf Trygveson, King of Norway,54,91–107,114–116,179,180,181,186,193;
called Ole,92–93,95–96;
becomes King,98–99;
his Irish hound,94–95;
his war-vessels,95,101–107;
255he disappears,107
Olaf “the Thick,” King of Norway (called “St Olaf”),183,186–190,195–197,199–209,216,228
Olaf, King of Sweden,101,102,105,181,193,201,203–205
Olaf “Kyrre,” s. of Harald Hardrada,229,235,237
O’Neills, Prince of,117
Orkney Isles,5,18,36,37,42,43,48,52,108,109,110,113–115,117,135,142,229,235,237,238,242,247;
Earldom of,6,43,111
Osbert, King of Northumbria,13,14
Ospac, a Viking,146–148
Otto, Emperor,58,78
Ouse, River,229
Oxford,184
Pagan army,14,26;
religion,45,66,78,85–87,101,146–147,159
Paris,35
Patrick, St,45
Paul and Erlend, Earls of Orkney,229,231,235,237
Pentland Firth,114
Pevensey,235
Pictland,18
Poets (called “bards” or “skalds”),107,135,190,202–203
Portents,147,151,154–156,166–167,168,228
Priesthood in Norway,86,159
“Prime-signing,”66
Radbard, s. of Ragnar Lodbrog,18
Ragnar Lodbrog,5,11n.,15,113;
origin of his sobriquet,15,16;
his kingdom in Britain,18;
his death,19,20;
his death-song,21;
sons of,14,26,29,31,37
Ragnhild, m. of Harald Fairhair,39
Ragnvald, E. of More,43–44,108–111
“Raven Banner,”30,114,152–154
Reading,27
Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy,35,182
Richard the Good, Duke of Normandy,184–185,195
Rolf, or Rollo “the Ganger,”35,52,109–110,218
Rome,29,192
Ross,48,108
Russia,92,96,209
Russian slaves,92,123–124
Sacrifices, Pagan,85,86–87,113 andn.,159
Sagas—
Egils,6,60,63–65;
Ynglinga,11;
Laxdæla,47,121,122
Sandwich,183,184,223
Saxo “Grammaticus,”14n.,16n.
Saxon Pilgrims in Rome,29;
Saxon Sword,56;
Saxon Poetry,34
Saxony,18
Scandinavia,6,183
Scarborough,229
Scilly Isles,92
Scotland,18,20,37,43,48–49,52,55,60,108,135,194,238;
Scottish warriors,74
“Second Sight,” belief in,157,167
Shannon, River,136
Shetland Isles,5,36,42,43,108,111,114
“Shield-burgh” of soldiers,71
Ships of War, called “Dragon-ships,”95,101–107,111,196,201,203–206;
iron-plated,103;
lashed together,104;
prepared for war,129–130;
as gifts,57;
(andsee “Boats”)
Sigrid “the Haughty” (w. of Sweyn),101,181
Sigurd “the Mighty,” Earl of Orkney,43,108–109
Sigurd “the Stout,” Earl of Orkney,113,114–116,144–146,152–154,157,158
Sigurd, s. of Magnus “Barefoot,”242
Sigurd, Earl of Lade,78–79,83,86–87
Sigvalde, Earl,101,102,103
Sigvat (Norse poet),189–190 andn.,202–203
Silver, chests of,76–77
Sitric, Danish lord of Dublin,119
Sitric “Gale,” King of Northumbria,58–59,60,78,118
Sitric “Silken beard,” Danish King of Dublin,139 andn.,140,142–143,144–146,148–149
256Siward or Sigurd, “Snake eye,”17,18
Skalligrim, f. of Egil,63–64
Skarphedinn, s. of Nial,157,161–164,167–175
Slavery,92,121,122,123–126
Somerset,23,30
Southampton,180
Southwark,188–189,223
Stafford,53
Stamford Bridge, B. of,230–236 andn.
Stiklestad, B. of,209,216,236
Stord, B. of,90
St Brice’s Day, Massacre of,182–183
Strathclyde,52,61
Sudreys,43 andn., andseeHebrides
Surrey,25,26
Sussex,22,23,26
Svold, B. of,102–105,181,186,193
Sweyn “Forkbeard,” King of Denmark and England,55,101,179–185,187,191,192,193,209
Sweyn, or Svein, n. of Canute, King of Denmark,213–214,227;
Sweyn, s. of Canute,216
Sweyn, Godwin’s son,223
Sweyn, Asleif’s son,244–248
Sweden,18,39,40,123,199,213,215
(andseeOlaf, King of Sweden)
Swedes, King of,15,101–102
Tadhg “of the Towers,” King of Connaught,119
Tamworth,53,59
Temple pillars,47–48
Thorstein, “the Red,”48–49,108
Thorstein, s. of Hall “o’ the Side,”153–154
Thames, River,25,27,188–189,194,217
“Thing” and “Thing-mote,”46,83,86 andn.,93,99,208,231
Thing-men or Soldiers,189
Thora, Ragnar’s wife,17
Thora, m. of Hakon “the Good,”78
Thord, Kari’s son,172–173,175
Thorer, a Norwegian lord,207
Thorer, a woman,97
Thorer “Klakka,”96–97
Thorfin “Skull splitter,”114
Thorkill “the Tall,”53–54,183,185,187,193–195 andn.
Thorolf, s. of Skalligrim,63,65–66,71–77
Tomar’s Wood,148,150,151
Tosti, Godwin’s son,223,224,226–229,232–235
Trondhjem,41
Trygve, f. of Olaf Trygveson,91,96
Turgesins, or Thorgils,45
Turlough, King Brian’s grandson,149
Ubba, s. of Ragnar Lodbrog,18,29,30
“Udal-right,”83,113 andn.
Ulf, Earl,213,215–216
Ulf “the Red,”104
Ulster,117,142,239,242;
Murtough, King of,117–120
Unn, or Aud, “the deep minded,”47–51,108,122
Valgard “the Guileful,”160
Valland,110
Vidkun Jonson,242–243
Vige, Olaf’s Irish hound,94–95
Viken, in Norway,110
Vikings,15,43,145–146;
raids of,18,42,108–109,111,244–248;
as traders,6;
kingdom of,14
Vin-heath,66–67
Wales,22,23,53,57–59,137,237
Warwick,53
Waterford,46
Wedmore,32
Week, names of,85
Wessex,12,22,25,26,27,33,38,193
Wight, Isle of,25,184,223,228
William the Conqueror,35,42,197n.,218,225,229,235;
his genealogy,35
Wiltshire,23,30,31
Winchester,184,199,210,212,218,222
Woden, or Odin,20,21,78,85,167,190;
his goblet,85,87
Worcester,217
Ynglinga Saga,11
York, City of,14,19,53,57,84,113,229,231;
B. of,19
Yorkshire,13
Yule, or Christmas,85–86,144
Zealand,16

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THE AGE OF THE VIKINGS
CHAP.		PAGE
I.	The First Coming of the Northmen	11
II.	The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrog, or “Hairy-breeks”	15
III.	The Call for Help	22
IV.	Alfred the Great	29
V.	Harald Fairhair, First King of Norway, and the Settlements in the Orkneys	36
VI.	The Northmen in Ireland	45
VII.	The Expansion of England	52
VIII.	King Athelstan the Great	56
IX.	The Battle of Brunanburh	65
X.	Two Great Kings trick each other	78
XI.	King Hakon the Good	82
XII.	King Hakon forces his People to become Christians	85
XIII.	The Saga of Olaf Trygveson	91
XIV.	King Olaf’s Dragon-ships	100
XV.	Wild Tales from the Orkneys	108
XVI.	Murtough of the Leather Cloaks	117
XVII.	The Story of Olaf the Peacock	1228
XVIII.	The Battle of Clontarf	135
XIX.	Yule in the Orkneys, 1014	144
XX.	The Story of the Burning	157
XXI.	Things draw on to an End	166
THE DANISH KINGDOM OF ENGLAND
XXII.	The Reign of Sweyn Forkbeard	179
XXIII.	The Battle of London Bridge	186
XXIV.	Canute the Great	191
XXV.	Canute lays Claim to Norway	198
XXVI.	Hardacanute	211
XXVII.	Edward the Confessor	221
XXVIII.	King Harold, Godwin’s Son, and the Battle of Stamford Bridge	226
XXIX.	King Magnus Barelegs falls in Ireland	237
XXX.	The Last of the Vikings	244
	Chronology	249
	Index	251

A.D.
787	First appearance of the Norse in Northumbria
795	First plunderings of the Norse in Ireland
795	Irish monks in Iceland
822	Halfdan the Black, King of Norway (d. 860)
832	The Norse appear in Kent
847	First coming of the Danes to Ireland
853	Olaf the White, King of the Norse in Dublin
867	Ælla King of Northumbria
871	Alfred the Great, King of England (d. 901)
872	Harald Fairhair, King of Norway (d. 933)
875	The Danes are subdued by Alfred, and Guthrum is baptized
878	Harald Fairhair raids in the Orkneys and makes Ragnvald earl. During Harald’s reign Iceland is peopled from Norway
890	Rolf Ganger, son of Ragnvald, Earl of More and Orkney, plunders in Normandy
900	Torf-Einar in Orkney. Harald Fairhair’s second expedition to the West
901	Edward the Elder, King of England (d. 925)
902	The foreigners are expelled from Dublin
917	Niall Glundubh (Black knee), King of Ireland, slain at battle of Kilmashog
924	Edward the Elder is chosen as “Father and Lord” by the Scots, Northumbria, and Strathclyde
925	Athelstan succeeds (d. 940)
933	Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway
934	Hakon the Good returns to Norway and is crowned king
935	Eric Bloodaxe leaves Norway and gets a kingdom in England
937	Battle of Brunanburh
939	Murtough of the Leather Cloaks makes a warlike circuit in Ireland250
941	Olaf Cuaran (of the Sandal) chosen King of Northumbria
942	The Danes desert Dublin and flee across sea
944	Olaf Cuaran expelled from Northumbria
949	Olaf Cuaran returns; expelled a second time in 952
960	Battle of Stord, and death of King Hakon the Good
963	Olaf Trygveson born in exile. Norway ruled by the sons of Eric Bloodaxe
979	Ethelred the Unready, King of England
985	Olaf Trygveson raids in the West and England. Sweyn Fork-beard becomes King of Denmark.
988	He marries Gyda, a sister of Olaf Cuaran. He is baptised in the Scilly Isles
993	Bambrough stormed
994	Olaf Trygveson and Sweyn Fork-beard are driven back from London. Olaf promises never again to fight with England
995	Earl Hakon slain; Olaf Trygveson becomes king of Norway
1000	He dies at battle of Svold
1002	Massacre of the Danes on St Brice’s Day
1004	Sweyn Fork-beard burns Norwich
1009–10		England ravaged by the Danes
1010	Siege of London and battle of Hringmara Heath
1013	Sweyn Fork-beard, King of England (d. 1014)
1014	Battle of Clontarf in Dublin. Ethelred II. goes to Normandy
1015	Reign of St Olaf in Norway (d. 1030)
1016	Death of Ethelred II. Reign of Edmund Ironside. Battle of Assandun and division of England between Edmund and Canute.
1017	Canute sole King of England
1028	Canute subjugates Norway
1030	Battle of Stiklestad and death of St Olaf
1030	Sweyn, Canute’s son, King of Norway (d. 1035)
1035	Magnus the Good, King of Norway (d. 1047)
1037	Harald, Canute’s son, King of England
1040	Hardacanute, King of England (d. 1042)
1043	Edward the Confessor, King of England
1065	Harold, Godwin’s son, consecrated king
1066	Battle of Stamford Bridge
1066	Battle of Hastings

The Coming of the Northmen	Frontispiece
	FACING PAGE
Ladgerda	16
Alfred at Ashdune	26
Harald Fairhair	42
Olaf Cuaran	62
Thorolf slays Earl Hring at Brunanburh	72
The dying King Hakon carried to his Ship	88
King Olaf’s “Long Serpent”	102
Murtough on his Journey with the King of Munster in Fetters	118
“Olaf took the Old Woman in his Arms”	132
Death of Brian Boru at Clontarf	152
“The Vision of the Man on the Grey Horse”	166
“Come thou out, housewife,” called Flosi to Bergthora	172
The Battle of London Bridge	188
King Canute and Earl Ulf quarrel over Chess	214
King Magnus in the Marsh at Downpatrick	240
MAP
British Isles in the time of the Northmen	176

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The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Northmen in Britain

THENORTHMENIN BRITAIN

Foreword

Contents

Illustrations

Authorities

TheNorthmen in Britain

THE AGE OF THE VIKINGS

Chapter IThe First Coming of the Northmen

Chapter IIThe Saga of Ragnar Lodbrog, or“Hairy-breeks”

Chapter IIIThe Call for Help

Chapter IVAlfred the Great(BORN 849; REIGNED 871–901)

Chapter VHarald Fairhair, First King of Norway, andthe Settlements in the Orkneys

Chapter VIThe Northmen in Ireland

Chapter VIIThe Expansion of England

Chapter VIIIKing Athelstan the Great(925–940)

Chapter IXThe Battle of Brunanburh

Chapter XTwo Great Kings trick each other

Chapter XIKing Hakon the Good

Chapter XIIKing Hakon forces his People to becomeChristians

Chapter XIIIThe Saga of Olaf Trygveson

Chapter XIVKing Olaf’s Dragon-ships

Chapter XVWild Tales from the Orkneys

Chapter XVIMurtough of the Leather Cloaks

Chapter XVIIThe Story of Olaf the Peacock(From Laxdæla Saga)

Chapter XVIIIThe Battle of Clontarf

Chapter XIXYule in the Orkneys, 1014

Chapter XXThe Story of the Burning(Nial’s Saga)

Chapter XXIThings draw on to an End

THE DANISH KINGDOM OF ENGLAND(1013–1042)

Chapter XXIIThe Reign of Sweyn Forkbeard

Chapter XXIIIThe Battle of London Bridge“London Bridge is broken down”

Chapter XXIVCanute the Great(1017–1035)

Chapter XXVCanute lays Claim to Norway

Chapter XXVIHardacanute

Chapter XXVIIEdward the Confessor(1042–1066)

Chapter XXVIIIKing Harold, Godwin’s Son, and the Battleof Stamford Bridge(1066)

Chapter XXIXKing Magnus Barelegs falls in Ireland

Chapter XXXThe Last of the Vikings

Chronology

FOOTNOTES

Index

Transcriber’s Notes

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

THE
NORTHMEN
IN BRITAIN

The
Northmen in Britain

Chapter I
The First Coming of the Northmen

Chapter II
The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrog, or“Hairy-breeks”

Chapter III
The Call for Help

Chapter IV
Alfred the Great(BORN 849; REIGNED 871–901)

Chapter V
Harald Fairhair, First King of Norway, andthe Settlements in the Orkneys

Chapter VI
The Northmen in Ireland

Chapter VII
The Expansion of England

Chapter VIII
King Athelstan the Great(925–940)

Chapter IX
The Battle of Brunanburh

Chapter X
Two Great Kings trick each other

Chapter XI
King Hakon the Good

Chapter XII
King Hakon forces his People to becomeChristians

Chapter XIII
The Saga of Olaf Trygveson

Chapter XIV
King Olaf’s Dragon-ships

Chapter XV
Wild Tales from the Orkneys

Chapter XVI
Murtough of the Leather Cloaks

Chapter XVII
The Story of Olaf the Peacock(From Laxdæla Saga)

Chapter XVIII
The Battle of Clontarf

Chapter XIX
Yule in the Orkneys, 1014

Chapter XX
The Story of the Burning(Nial’s Saga)

Chapter XXI
Things draw on to an End

THE DANISH KINGDOM OF ENGLAND
(1013–1042)

Chapter XXII
The Reign of Sweyn Forkbeard

Chapter XXIII
The Battle of London Bridge“London Bridge is broken down”

Chapter XXIV
Canute the Great(1017–1035)

Chapter XXV
Canute lays Claim to Norway

Chapter XXVI
Hardacanute

Chapter XXVII
Edward the Confessor(1042–1066)

Chapter XXVIII
King Harold, Godwin’s Son, and the Battleof Stamford Bridge(1066)

Chapter XXIX
King Magnus Barelegs falls in Ireland

Chapter XXX
The Last of the Vikings