"Ye are badly off, ye Norsemen, for you have a mad king; and yet methinks that, in a short while, you will be willing to give the red gold to have me as your king, rather than Harold or Magnus; for the former is cruel; the latter is devoid of sense."
CHAPTER XX.
MAGNUS THE BLIND (1130-1135) AND HAROLD GILLE (1130-1136).
When the tidings of his father's death reached him, Magnus hastened to summon a thing in Oslo and have himself proclaimed king of the whole country. Harold, who had been waiting for this opportunity to break his oath, did the same at Tunsberg; only he contented himself preliminarily with half the kingdom. Magnus naturally refused to recognize his claim, and the people were soon divided into two parties, one of which sided with Magnus, while the other supported Harold.
In point of character they were both equally unfitted for the leadership of a nation. Magnus was a coarse, avaricious, and arrogant roisterer, addicted to drink, and incapable of any noble impulse. Harold was a weak and vacillating man, jolly, liberal, and easy-going, in whom the Irish characteristics predominated. He was pliable as wax in the hands of the liegemen, to whom he left all the cares of state, while he himself conceived of the royal dignity as a mere privilege to live high, wear good clothes, and enjoy certain honors in daily intercourse. The tribal magnates, who had long been excluded from the power which they believed to be their due, were therefore attracted to him, while Magnus repelled them by his haughtiness and avarice.
For three years the two rivals kept the peace; but the fourth winter after their accession, Magnus began to collect troops, and attacked Harold at Fyrileiv (1134) in Viken, winning a great victory. He was so elated at his success that, contrary to the advice of the liegemen, he dismissed his army and betook himself to Bergen, where he lived riotously, paying no heed to Harold's movements. The latter, in the meanwhile, had found a refuge in Denmark, and had received the province of Halland in fief. He soon gathered a sufficient force to invade Norway, and as he sailed northward to Bergen, he gained many adherents in the coast-shires. Magnus, when he heard of his approach, lost his head completely, rejected the counsel of his friend, Sigurd Sigurdsson, and contented himself with scattering about the city a kind of sharp, iron "foot-hooks," which in the end only injured his own men, and locking the harbor with iron chains, whereby he prevented his own escape, when shortly afterward the town fell into his enemy's hands. Most of his men then abandoned him, while he himself, with his faithful friend, Ivar Assersson, remained on his ship, until it was boarded by Harold's men.