When he was fifteen years old news came to Hakon in England that his father Harald Fairhair had died. He had resigned his crown three years before his death, for he had become feeble and heavy and unable to travel through the country or carry out the duties of a king. So he had parted the kingdom between his sons and lived in retirement on one of his great farms. He was eighty-three years of age when he died, and he was buried under a mound in Kormsund with a gravestone thirteen and a half feet high over his grave. The stone and the mound are still to be seen at Gar, in the parish of Kormsund.
No sooner was Harald dead than dissensions broke out between his sons, and they went to war with each other, each one desiring to be sole king, as their father had been. The chief of these sons was King Eric Bloodaxe, whose after-history is much mixed up with that of England. He fought his brothers, and two of them fell in battle; but the country was disturbed because of these quarrels. Eric was a stout and fortunate man of war, but bad-minded, gruff, unfriendly, and morose. Gunhild, his wife, was a most beautiful woman, clever and lively; but she had a false and cruel disposition. They had many children, who played their part in English history.
Hakon heard of all that was going on in Norway, and he thought that the time had come when he should return to his own country. King Athelstan gave him all he needed for his journey, men, and a choice of good ships fitted out most excellently. In harvest-time he came to Norway, and heard that King Eric was at Viken, and that two of his brothers had been slain by him. Hakon went to his old friend and fosterer, Sigurd, Earl of Lade, who was counted the ablest man in Norway. Greatly did Sigurd rejoice to see Hakon again, grown a handsome, stalwart man, as his father had been before him; and they made a league thereupon mutually to help each other. But Hakon had not much need of help, for when they called together a “Thing,” or parliament of the people of that district, and Hakon stood up and proposed himself 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 king with one consent. Hakon promised to restore their right to own the land on which they lived (called “udal-right”), which his father had taken from them when he made them his vassals; and this speech met with such joyful applause that the whole assembly cried 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 the whole land, like fire in dry grass; and from every district came messages and tokens from the people that they would become his subjects. Hakon received the messengers thankfully, and went through all the land, holding a “Thing” in each district, and everywhere they acclaimed him; for the more they hated King Eric the more they were ready to replace him by taking King Hakon. They called him Hakon the Good.
At last, seeing that he could not withstand his brother, King Eric got a fleet together and sailed out to the Orkneys, and then south to England, plundering as he went. Athelstan sent messengers to him, saying that as King Harald Fairhair, his father, had been his friend, he would act kindly toward his son, and he offered to make him King of Northumbria if he would defend it against other vikings and Danes and keep it quiet; for Northumbria was by that time almost wholly peopled by Northmen, and the names of many towns and villages were Danish or Norse, and are so to this day. Eric gladly accepted this offer, allowing himself to be baptized, with his wife and children and his followers, and settled down at York; and this continued till Athelstan’s death.
Chapter XII
King Hakon forces his People to become Christians
It seemed that all would have gone well in Norway with King Hakon the Good after King Eric Bloodaxe left the country, but that he had it in his mind to make the people Christians whether they would or no. Hitherto they had sacrificed to Odin, or Woden, who gives his name to our Wednesday—i.e. Woden’s Day; and they had other gods and goddesses, such as Thor, the God of Thunder, from whom we get the name Thursday, or Thor’s Day, and Freya, a goddess, who gives her name to our Friday. They had many special festivals, but the chief of all was Yule, in mid-winter, when the Yule log was brought in from the forests and burned with great rejoicings, and cattle and horses were slaughtered in sacrifice, and their blood sprinkled on the altars and temple walls, and on the people besides. A large fire was kindled in the middle of the temple floor, on which the flesh was roasted, and full goblets were handed across the fire, after being blessed by the chiefs. Odin’s goblet was first emptied for victory and power to the king, and afterwards Freya’s goblet for peace and a good season, and after that the “remembrance-goblet” was emptied to the memory of departed friends. It was a time of great joy and festivity. In Scotland and other places the night of mid-winter is still called Hogmanay night, that is, the Norse “Höggn-nott,” or slaughter night, from the hogging 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 order that the festival of Yule should begin at the same time as Christmas did in Christian lands, as is the case at this day; and this displeased the people, for they did not like to change the day on which they and their forefathers had held their feast. Then Hakon sent for a bishop and priests from England to instruct the people in Christianity. Hitherto there had been no priests in Norway, but every man was priest in his own house; and the chief man of each place conducted the sacrifices for his neighbours. The people were against giving up their own religion and adopting a religion which they did not understand and which was foreign to them; but because they loved their King they at first made no outcry, but deferred consideration of the matter to the meeting of the chief “Thing,”[21] which they called the “Froste Thing,” where men from every part of the country would be present. When the “Froste Thing” met, both they and the King made speeches, and Earl Sigurd begged the King not to press the matter, as it was plain the people were against it; and at first he seemed to consent to this. But the next harvest, which was the time of the summer sacrifice, the nobles watched the King closely to see what he would do. Earl Sigurd, who was a staunch pagan, made the feast, and the King came to it. When the Odin goblet was filled, Earl Sigurd blessed it in Odin’s name, and drank to the King, and then he handed the goblet to the King to drink. The King took the goblet in his hand, and made the sign of the cross over it before he put it to his lips. “What is the King doing?” said a lord who stood near him. “He is making the sign of Thor’s hammer[22] over the cup, as each of you would do,” said Earl Sigurd, thinking to shield the King. For the moment this satisfied the people, but next day when the sacrifices were offered, and horse-flesh was eaten, as was always done at a solemn feast, Hakon utterly refused to join in the heathen festival, nor would he touch even the gravy of the dish.
Great discontent was aroused at this, both the King and the people being very ill-pleased with each other, and on the next occasion it threatened to develop into war. From time to time Earl Sigurd came between the King and the people and kept them at peace, but neither loved the other as before.
The dying King Hakon carried to his Ship