"Some well and some poorly," answered Björn, and threw himself at the king's feet, embracing his knees; "every thing is in God's power and in yours, king. I have received money from Knut's men and sworn him allegiance; but now I will follow thee and not forsake thee as long as we are both alive."
"Few men have remained faithful to me in Norway," said the king, sadly, "when such men as thou art have been led astray. * * *"
He was not at first ready to accept Björn's invitation to return to his kingdom. In his forced inactivity a resolution had half matured in his mind to become a monk and go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. An offer from Jaroslav to accept a Russian province in fief he declined. Religious meditations occupied much of his time; and he acquired the reputation of being a holy man. While in this frame of mind, he had a vision in which he saw Olaf Tryggvesson who commanded him to go back to Norway and conquer it or die. He could now no longer hesitate. Much against the advice of Jaroslav and Ingegerd, he started out for Norway, leaving his young son Magnus at the Russian court. In Sweden he received permission from King Anund to collect whatever recruits he could; but while he accepted robbers and outlaws, if they would only be baptized, he had the courage to reject large bands of brave men who refused to renounce paganism.
ST. OLAF, FROM THE ANTEPENDIUM OF THE ALTAR IN DRONTHEIM CATHEDRAL. REMOVED 1691 TO COPENHAGEN.
Tradition has preserved with minute fidelity a number of incidents of King Olaf's progress through Sweden to the fatal field of Vaerdalen. There is a melancholy radiance, as of the setting sun, about his figure as he returns with the gospel of Christ to his people who had rejected him. First, Bishop Sigurd came to meet him and strongly dissuaded him from entering his kingdom. But he would listen to no remonstrance. Through forests and wildernesses he broke his way; cheerful amid the greatest hardships, encouraging his people and never showing, except on a single occasion, the foreboding that cast its shadow over his soul. When he crossed the mountains between Norway and Sweden, and he caught the first glimpse of the land of his birth with its rivers, mountains, and sunny valleys, he reined his horse and sat gazing, lost in thought, on the beautiful sight. A profound sadness was expressed in his features. At last the bishop roused him from his reverie, asking him what he was thinking.
"Strange things," answered the king, "have for a while been borne past me. It seemed to me, as if I looked not only out over Drontheim, but over all Norway; and the longer the vision lasted, the wider it grew, until I surveyed the whole world, both land and ocean. Then it seemed to me that I recognized all the places where I had ever been before; even as plainly I saw places where I had never been before;—nay even some of which I had never even heard—both inhabited and uninhabited, as far as the world goes."
It is then told that the bishop, dismounting from his horse and embracing the king's foot, said: "It is a holy man whom we are following."
Among the few Norsemen of rank who had joined Olaf before he crossed the boundary, was his half-brother Harold, the son of Sigurd Syr. He was only fifteen years old, but large for his age. He led 720 men under his banner. When the king's entire army was mustered, the day before the battle, it was found to number 4,100 men; but 500 of these were sent away because they were heathen, and many of them no doubt joined the hostile army. The king woke early on the morning of the battle, and called the poet, Thormod Kolbruna-Scald, and asked him to sing to him. Thormod stood up and sang with a ringing voice the ancient Bjarkemaal, which resounded over forest and field. The army woke and was arranged in battle array on the heights of Stiklestad in Vaerdalen; the peasant army, 10,000 strong being seen approaching in the distance. With the battle-cry: "Forward, Christ's men, Crusaders, the King's men!" Olaf's warriors rushed down the hill-sides, and the peasant army stormed to meet them with the cry: "Forward, forward, peasant-men!" The fight was long indecisive, though the king's men, on account of the advantage of their position, had the upper hand in the first onset. The peasants, however, fought with dogged determination, and their superior number told, the longer the battle raged. Olaf's ranks wavered and grew thinner. Then, with desperate courage, the king broke forth from the shield-burgh that surrounded him, and followed by a small band of devoted men, dashed against the front of the peasant host. One by one his men fell about him, and again and again his standard-bearer was cut down. Severely wounded, he stood leaning against a boulder, when Thore Hund sprang forward and plunged his spear into his abdomen. In the next moment Kalf Arnesson gave him a cut across the throat, which was the immediate cause of his death, though Thore Hund's spear had already dealt him a mortal wound. Then, so runs the record, the sun grew blood-red, and a strange red sheen spread over the landscape. Darkness fell upon the fighting hosts, and the sun grew black. A great terror took possession of the peasants, who saw in the eclipse[A] an evidence of the wrath of Olaf's God.
[A] This eclipse—lasting from 1 o'clock 31' P.M. to 4 o'clock 58', Aug. 31, 1030—fixes definitely the date of the battle. It was total in Vaerdalen.