THE WORLD’S BEST HISTORIES
NORWAY
BY
SIGVART SÖRENSEN
EDITOR “MINNEAPOLIS TIDENDE”
WITH FRONTISPIECE
THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLICATION SOCIETY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Copyright 1899
By PETER FENELON COLLIER
Norway
THE INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN BY THE NORTHMEN
Norway.
PREFACE
IN preparing this volume it has been my aim to omit as few important events as possible without making the book a mere enumeration of names and dates. Above all, I have tried to be accurate. Among the works which I have used as sources, the first one to be mentioned is the great work of Snorre Sturlason: “The Heimskringla, or The Sagas of the Norse Kings,” and I have used the English translation of the same by Samuel Laing, Esq., revised edition by Rasmus B. Anderson (Scribner & Welford, New York, 1889). I have also found much assistance in O. A. Överland’s “Norges Historie.” Among many other works used as sources or consulted, are: J. E. Sars’s “Udsigt over den Norske Historie”; Jacob Aall’s “Erindringer”; F. Winkel Horn’s “History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North,” translated by R. B. Anderson (S. C. Griggs & Co, Chicago, 1895). The Constitution of Norway, the most liberal Constitution of Europe, appeared to me to be an appropriate closing chapter in a History of Norway. This interesting document has been translated into English by the Honorable Knute Nelson, United States Senator from Minnesota, to whom I am under obligation for permission to use his translation.
S. S.
Minneapolis, Minn., 1899.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| CHAPTER I THE NORTHMEN | |
| The Ancestors of the Present Norwegians—Early Social Conditions—Independenceand Self-government of the People—The Kingsof the old Northmen | [15] |
| CHAPTER II THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN | |
| The Creation of the World—Ask and Embla, the first HumanCouple—Asgard, the Dwelling of the Gods—The Struggle betweenGood and Evil—The End of the World—A new Race | [18] |
| CHAPTER III THE VIKING AGE | |
| The three Stages of the Viking Age—Cruises to Scotland, Ireland,England and other Countries—Norse Kingdom in Ireland | [26] |
| CHAPTER IV THE YNGLING FAMILY—HALFDAN THE SWARTHY | |
| Beginning of Authentic History—Olaf the Tree-feller—HalfdanWhiteleg—Gudrod the Hunter—Halfdan the Swarthy givesthe Eidsiva Law—Queen Ragnhild’s Dream | [29] |
| CHAPTER V HARALD THE FAIRHAIRED (860-930)—NORWAY UNITED | |
| King Harald’s Courtship—The Battle of Hafrsfjord—Norway Unitedunder one King—Emigration of the Discontented—Settlementin Iceland—The Cruise of Gange-Rolf—Northmen settle in Normandy—KingHarald’s Sons—Death of King Harald | [31] |
| CHAPTER VI BIRTH OF HAAKON THE GOOD—ERIK BLOOD-AXE (930-935) | |
| Sigurd Ladejarl—Erik and Queen Gunhild—Haakon, Athelstan’sFoster-son, proclaimed King—Erik Blood-Axe exiled and killedin a Battle in England | [36] |
| CHAPTER VII HAAKON THE GOOD (935-961) | |
| The Laws Improved—Other Reforms—First Attempts to IntroduceChristianity—Norway attacked by the Gunhild-sons—Battle ofFitje—Death of Haakon | [39] |
| CHAPTER VIII HARALD GRAYFELL AND HIS BROTHERS (961-970) | |
| Return of the Gunhild-sons—Earl Sigurd of Lade killed—The Murderof Trygve Olafson and Gudrod Biornson—Earl Haakon—HaraldGrayfell killed in Denmark | [42] |
| CHAPTER IX HARALD GRAYFELL AND HIS BROTHERS (961-970) | |
| Attacks by the Danish King, Harald Bluetooth—The Joms-vikings—SigvaldeJarl makes War on Haakon—The Battle in Hjorungavaag—Revoltagainst Earl Haakon—Olaf Trygvason arrivesin Norway—Earl Haakon killed by his Slave | [45] |
| CHAPTER X THE YOUTH OF OLAF TRYGVASON | |
| The Birth of Olaf—Flight to Sweden and Russia—Olaf sold as aSlave—Freed by his Uncle—Viking Cruises to Vendland, Englandand other Countries—Return to Norway | [51] |
| CHAPTER XI OLAF TRYGVASON (995-1000) | |
| Christianity Introduced in Viken—Erling Skialgson of Sole—GreatOpposition to Christianity—Founding of the Town of Nidaros—Olafwoos Queen Sigrid the Haughty—He marries Thyra fromDenmark—Building of the "Long Serpent"—Einar Thambaskelfer—Expeditionto Vendland—Battle of Svolder—Deathof Olaf Trygvason | [54] |
| CHAPTER XII THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA | |
| Erik the Red finds Greenland—Christianity Introduced—BiarneHeriulfson sees Strange Lands—Leif Erikson, the Discoverer ofAmerica—The new Country is called Vinland—Subsequent Journeysto Vinland—Thorfin Karlsefne | [65] |
| CHAPTER XIII THE EARLS ERIK AND SVEIN, SONS OF HAAKON (1000-1015) | |
| Norway Divided between the Victors at Svolder—Erling Skialgsonof Sole—Earl Erik leaves for England | [70] |
| CHAPTER XIV THE YOUTH OF OLAF HARALDSON | |
| Olaf’s Childhood—Olaf on his Viking Expeditions—Battles in England | [73] |
| CHAPTER XV OLAF THE SAINT (1015-1028) | |
| Return to Norway—Capture of Earl Haakon—The Earl vows neverto fight King Olaf—Olaf’s Reception by his Mother and Father-in-law,Sigurd Syr—Meeting of the District Kings—Olaf drivenaway from Nidaros—Battle of Nesje—Death of Earl Svein—Troublewith the Swedish King—Thorgny Lagman dictates tothe King—Enforcing Christianity—Conspiracy against the King—Olaf’sHalf-brothers—The Peace of Konungahella—Dale-Gudbrand—Canutethe Great claims Norway—Battle of Helge-Aa—Killingof Erling Skialgson—Olaf’s Flight to Russia | [75] |
| CHAPTER XVI THE BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD (1030) | |
| Biorn Stallare’s Visit to Olaf in Russia—King Olaf returns to Norway—HisVision—Thormod Kolbrunarskald—Battle Of Stiklestad—KingOlaf’s Death—Olaf Sigurdson leaves Norway | [99] |
| CHAPTER XVII KING SVEIN ALFIFUSON (1030-1035) | |
| The Rule of Alfifa—Attempt to introduce Feudal Laws—TheSanctity of King Olaf—Rumors of Miracles—Olaf declared theNational Saint—Trygve Olafson—Magnus Olafson returns toNorway—Alfifa and Svein flee to Denmark | [105] |
| CHAPTER XVIII MAGNUS THE GOOD (1035-1047) | |
| Magnus’s Birth and Baptism—Agreement with the Danish King,Hardeknut—Magnus and Kalf Arneson on the Battlefield ofStiklestad—Warning to the King—The Gray Goose—Magnusclaims the Danish Throne—Svein Estridson appointed Earl—Battleat Lyrskog Heath—Battles at Aaros and Helganes—Returnof Harald Sigurdson—Death of King Magnus | [109] |
| CHAPTER XIX HARALD HAARDRAADE (1047-1066) | |
| Harald’s Adventures in Southern Cities—Conflicts with Svein Estridson—Quarrelswith Einar Thambaskelfer—Murder of Einarand his Son—Agreement with Haakon Ivarson—Treachery toKalf Arneson—Battle of Nis-Aa—Peace Meeting at Gaut River—EarlToste arrives in Norway—The Battle at Stanford Bridge—Deathof King Harald—The Founding of Oslo | [116] |
| CHAPTER XX OLAF KYRRE (1066-1093) | |
| Magnus and Olaf divide the Power—Peace made with Svein Estridson—Deathof Magnus—The Founding of Bergen—Guild-brethren—Skule,Toste’s Son—Changes in Court Customs—Deathof Olaf Kyrre | [127] |
| CHAPTER XXI MAGNUS BAREFOOT (1093-1103) | |
| Haakon Proclaimed King in Throndhjem—Haakon dies on theDovre Mountain—Rebellion led by Thorer of Steig—Expeditionto the Western Isles—War with Sweden—Peace Meeting atKonungahella—Second Expedition Westward—Death of KingMagnus in Ulster | [131] |
| CHAPTER XXII SIGURD THE CRUSADER (1103-1130) AND HIS BROTHERS, EYSTEIN AND OLAF | |
| Division of the Country between the Brothers—Sigurd’s Crusade—Visitto Jerusalem—Return to Norway—King Eystein’s PeacefulWork at Home—Annexation of Jemteland—King Sigurdand Borghild of Dal—The "Man-measuring"—Death of Eystein—TheKalmar Levy—Sigurd shows Signs of Insanity—OttarBirting—Sigurd marries Cecilia—Death of Sigurd | [136] |
| CHAPTER XXIII MAGNUS THE BLIND AND HARALD GILLE (1130-1136) | |
| Harald Gille comes to Norway as a Pretender—Harald and Magnusdivide the Kingdom—Battle between the two Kings at Fyrileif—Haraldtakes Magnus prisoner at Bergen—Magnus maimed—SigurdSlembe arrives in Norway—Harald Gille murdered—Konungahelladestroyed | [147] |
| CHAPTER XXIV SIGURD MUND, EYSTEIN, AND INGE KROKRYG, THE SONS OF HARALDGILLE (1136-1161) | |
| Sigurd and Inge proclaimed Kings—Sigurd Slembe supportsMagnus the Blind—Battles at Minne and Krokaskog—Battle atHolmengraa—Magnus and Sigurd Slembe killed—Eystein proclaimedKing—Ottar Birting assassinated—King Sigurd slain—Deathof Eystein—Haakon, Sigurd Mund’s Son, given Titleof King—Fall of King Inge at Oslo | [151] |
| CHAPTER XXV THE CHURCH | |
| Visit of Cardinal Nicholas—An Archbishopric established at Nidaros—Cloistersin Norway | [159] |
| CHAPTER XXVI HAAKON HERDEBRED (1161-1162)—ERLING SKAKKE | |
| Erling Skakke has his Son Magnus proclaimed King—He seeksaid in Denmark—Defeats Haakon at Tunsberg—Battle ofSekken—Haakon killed | [161] |
| CHAPTER XXVII MAGNUS ERLINGSON (1162-1184)—THE BIRCHLEGS | |
| Sigurd Markusfostre—Battle of Ree—Magnus Crowned—Norwayattacked by the Danish King—Rebellion of the Hat-Swains—Peacewith Denmark—Erling made Earl of Viken—HaraldSigurdson Beheaded—Eystein Meyla—The Birchlegs—Eysteinkilled—The Youth of Sverre Sigurdson—Sverre ProclaimedKing at the Oere-Thing—Battle at Kalveskindet—The fall ofErling Skakke—Battle of the Ilevolds—Battle at Nordnes—ErikSigurdson (King’s-son)—Battle of Fimreite—Fall of KingMagnus | [163] |
| CHAPTER XXVIII SVERRE SIGURDSON (1184-1202) | |
| Sverre appoints Lawmen and Prefects—A new Pretender—TheKuvlung Party—The Varbelgs—Rebellion of the Oyskeggs—Battleof Florevaag—Sverre’s Struggle with the Hierarchy—BishopNicholas Arneson—Sverre Excommunicated—SverreCrowned in Bergen—Organization of the Bagler Party—Burningof Bergen—Papal Interdict against Norway—The BaglersDefeated at Strindsö—Uprising in Viken—The Siege at Tunsberg—Sverre’sSickness and Death | [178] |
| CHAPTER XXIX HAAKON SVERRESON (1202-1204), GUTHORM SIGURDSON (1204), AND INGEBAARDSON (1204-1217) | |
| Reconciliation with the Church—Inge Magnusson Killed—Death ofKing Haakon—Election of Guthorm Sigurdson—The PretenderErling Steinvegg—Death of Guthorm Sigurdson—Inge BaardsonProclaimed King—Birth of Haakon Haakonson—His Journeyacross the Mountains—The Baglers visit Nidaros—Death ofErling Steinvegg—Philip made King of the Baglers—Compromiseat Hvitings Island—Jealousy of Haakon Galen—YoungHaakon Disinherited—Death of King Inge | [190] |
| CHAPTER XXX HAAKON HAAKONSON THE OLD (1217-1263) | |
| Haakon Proclaimed King—Earl Skule’s Demands—Rebellion of theSlitungs—The Ribbungs—Treachery of Earl Skule—State Meetingin Bergen—King Haakon Married—Death of Bishop Nicholasand Sigurd Ribbung—Skule Raised to the Rank of Duke—DukeSkule Proclaimed King—Battles at Laaka and Oslo—DukeSkule Killed—Coronation of Haakon—King Haakon’s FameAbroad—Expedition to Scotland—Haakon’s Death | [199] |
| CHAPTER XXXI SNORRE STURLASON | |
| The Family of Snorre Sturlason—The Snorrelaug—Visit to Norway—SnorreMurdered—“The Heimskringla”—“The Edda” | [209] |
| CHAPTER XXXII MAGNUS LAW-MENDER (1263-1280) | |
| Peace Concluded with Scotland—Magnus as a Law-Giver—PrivilegesGranted to the Hanseatic League—The First Nobility—Deathof King Magnus | [212] |
| CHAPTER XXXIII ERIK PRIEST-HATER (1280-1299) | |
| New Struggle with the Church—War with Denmark—The Peace ofKalmar—Earl Alf Erlingson executed—The Maid from Norway—Deathof King Erik | [214] |
| CHAPTER XXXIV HAAKON V. MAGNUSSON (1299-1319) | |
| Audun Hugleikson Condemned for Treason—The false “Maid fromNorway”—The Peace of Copenhagen, 1309—New Law of Succession—Deathof King Haakon | [217] |
| CHAPTER XXXV MAGNUS ERIKSON SMEK (1319-1374)—HAAKON VI. MAGNUSSON (1355-1380) | |
| Magnus Smek Becomes King of Norway and Sweden—Erling VidkunsonAppointed Regent—Haakon Magnusson Acknowledgedas King of Norway—Battle at Enköping—Death of Magnus—Floodin the Gaula Valley—The Black Death | [219] |
| CHAPTER XXXVI OLAF HAAKONSON THE YOUNG (1381-1387) | |
| Olaf Becomes King of Denmark and Norway—The first Union withDenmark—A Pretender Executed | [223] |
| CHAPTER XXXVII MARGARET (1387-1389)—ERIK OF POMERANIA (1389-1442)—THE KALMARUNION (1397) | |
| Margaret Acknowledged as Ruler of Norway—Erik of PomeraniaChosen as King—The three Countries United—The KalmarUnion—Death of Queen Margaret—The Victualia Brethren—BergenPlundered—Revolt of Amund Bolt—Erik of PomeraniaDeposed in Denmark | [224] |
| CHAPTER XXXVIII CHRISTOPHER OF BAVARIA (1442-1448) | |
| Norway at first Loyal to Erik—Christopher Finally Accepted—Restrictionsof the Hansa Privileges | [229] |
| CHAPTER XXXIX THE UNION WITH DENMARK—CHRISTIAN I. (1450-1481) | |
| Christian Elected by one Party and Carl Knutsson by Another—ChristianCrowned—Closer Union with Denmark—The first ofthe Oldenborgs—War with Sweden—War with the Hansa—ChristianPawns the Norwegian Possessions | [231] |
| CHAPTER XL HANS (1483-1513) | |
| King Hans Crowned in Throndhjem—The Victory of the Ditmarshers—Revoltof Knut Alfson—Prince Christian as Regent—Warwith the Hansa Towns | [235] |
| CHAPTER XLI CHRISTIAN II. (1513-1523) | |
| The Lovely Dyveke and her Mother—The King’s Marriage—TheDeath of Dyveke—Torben Ox Executed—Christian Crowned asKing of Sweden—The Carnage of Stockholm—Gustavus Wasa—TheFlight of Christian II | [239] |
| CHAPTER XLII FREDERICK I. (1524-1533) | |
| Lady Inger of Oestraat—The King’s Recess—Attempt of ChristianII. to Recover Norway—Christian Imprisoned | [243] |
| CHAPTER XLIII INTERREGNUM (1533-1537) | |
| The Count’s Feud—King Christian Recognized—Revolt of the Archbishop—TheFlight of Olaf Engelbrektson | [247] |
| CHAPTER XLIV CHRISTIAN III. (1537-1559)—THE REFORMATION INTRODUCED | |
| The Catholic Faith Abolished—The Church Ordinance—Norway declareda Danish Province—Robbing the Norwegian Churches | [250] |
| CHAPTER XLV FREDERICK II. (1559-1588) | |
| The Northern Seven Years’ War—Battle of Svarteraa—Throndhjemtaken by the Swedes—Burning of Oslo—Sarpsborg Burned—Peaceat Stettin—Misrule in Norway—Erik Munk Deposed andImprisoned—City of Fredericksstad Founded | [252] |
| CHAPTER XLVI CHRISTIAN IV. (1588-1648) | |
| The Popular King—Frequent Visits to Norway—The Laws Improved—Warwith Sweden—The Scotch War—Colonel SinclairKilled—Peace at Knaeröd—The Peace of Lubeck—Second Warwith Sweden—Peace at Bromsebro—The Hannibal’s Feud—TheCity of Christiania | [255] |
| CHAPTER XLVII FREDERICK III. (1648-1670)—ABSOLUTISM INTRODUCED (1660) | |
| The last Royal Charter—War with Sweden—The Krabbe War—Peaceat Roskilde—The Peace broken by the Swedish King—Siegeof Halden—Peace of Copenhagen—The King’s Revolution—AbsolutismIntroduced—Kort Adeler | [261] |
| CHAPTER XLVIII CHRISTIAN V. (1670-1699) | |
| Extravagance at Court—German Manners Introduced—A newNobility—Peter (Schumacher) Griffenfeld—The Scania War—TheGyldenlöve Feud—A new Code of Laws | [267] |
| CHAPTER XLIX FREDERICK IV. (1699-1730) | |
| War with the Duke of Holstein—The Great Northern War (1709-1720)—NavalBattle in Kjögebugt—Charles XII. Invades Norway—TheHeroic Anna Kolbjörnsdatter—King Charles atFrederickshald—Peter and Hans Kolbjörnson—Peter WesselTordenskiold—The Battle of Dynekilen—King Charles XII.Killed before Frederickssteen—The Peace of Fredericksborg—TheSale of Norwegian Church Property—Hans Egede, Greenland’sApostle | [272] |
| CHAPTER L CHRISTIAN VI. (1730-1746) | |
| Pietism and Hypocrisy—Confirmation Introduced—Improvementin Popular Education—Famine in Norway—Ludvig Holberg—ErikPontoppidan | [281] |
| CHAPTER LI FREDERICK V. (1746-1766) | |
| More Liberal Christianity—Luxury at Court—An “Extra Tax”—Revoltin Bergen—Promotion of Science and Art | [284] |
| CHAPTER LII CHRISTIAN VII. (1766-1808) | |
| Johan Frederick Struensee—Reforms without Preparation—StruenseeExecuted—The Guldberg Period—Prosperity in Norway—CrownPrince Frederick as Regent—The Bernstorf Ministry—The“Armed Neutrality”—Naval Battle at Copenhagen, 1801—ThePeace of Tilsit—Bombardment of Copenhagen, 1807—TheNorwegian “Government Commission” | [286] |
| CHAPTER LIII FREDERICK VI. (1808-1814) | |
| War with Sweden—Battles at Lier, Toverud, Trangen, and Prestebakke—Armistice,December, 1808—Gustavus IV. Deposed—ChristianAugust becomes Crown Prince of Sweden—Peace ofJönköping—The Society for Norway’s Welfare—The Universityof Norway—Famine and Distress in Norway | [293] |
| CHAPTER LIV MARSHAL BERNADOTTE | |
| Candidates for the Swedish Succession—Baron Mörner goes to Paris—MarshalBernadotte—Crown Prince Charles John—Rupturewith Napoleon—Agreement with Russia—Norway Promised toSweden—Treaty of Kiel—Norway ceded to the Swedish King | [298] |
| CHAPTER LV NORWAY DECLARES HER INDEPENDENCE | |
| Norwegians Refuse to Recognize the Treaty of Kiel—Christian Frederickas Regent—The Constitutional Convention at Eidsvold—Constitutionof May 17, 1814—Christian Frederick elected Kingof Norway | [302] |
| CHAPTER LVI WAR WITH SWEDEN—UNION OF NOVEMBER 14, 1814 | |
| The Powers demand Acceptance of the Treaty of Kiel—War breaksout—Surrender of Fredericksstad—Siege of Frederickssteen—TheSwedes defeated at Lier and Matrand—Convention atMoss—The Storthing Convened—Christian Frederick Abdicates-Unionwith Sweden—Charles XIII. elected King of Norway | [306] |
| CHAPTER LVII THE UNION WITH SWEDEN | |
| The Rigsakt of 1815—Charles XIV. John ascends the Throne—NobilityAbolished—The Storthing rejects the King’s Propositions—IndependenceDay—The Storthing Dissolved in 1836—MinisterLövenskiold Impeached—Oscar I. becomes King—Norwaygets her own Flag—The German-Danish War—Charles XV.—NorwayProsperous—A Union Committee—Oscar II. ascendsthe Throne—The Office of Statholder Abolished—Conflict betweenKing and Storthing—Parliamentarism Adopted—TheAbsolute Veto—The Resolution of June 9, 1880—Selmer MinistryImpeached—The April Ministry—Johan Sverdrup formsa Ministry—Trial by Jury Introduced—Emil Stang—RectorSteen’s Ministry—The Consular Question—Stang again—Hagerup’sMinistry—Negotiations with Sweden—Steen’s SecondMinistry—Universal Suffrage—The Norwegian Flag | [310] |
| CHAPTER LVIII NORWEGIAN LITERATURE | [318] |
| CHAPTER LIX THE CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY | [325] |
HISTORY OF NORWAY
CHAPTER I
The Northmen
NORWAY (in the old Norse language Noregr, or Nord-vegr, i.e., the North Way), according to archæological explorations, appears to have been inhabited long before the historical time. The antiquaries maintain that three populations have inhabited the North: a Mongolian race and a Celtic race, types of which are to be found in the Finns and the Laplanders in the far North, and, finally, a Caucasian race, which immigrated from the South and drove out the Celtic and Laplandic races, and from which the present inhabitants are descended. The Norwegians, or Northmen (Norsemen), belong to a North-Germanic branch of the Indo-European race; their nearest kindred are the Swedes, the Danes, and the Goths. The original home of the race is supposed to have been the mountain region of Balkh, in Western Asia, whence from time to time families and tribes migrated in different directions. It is not known when the ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples left the original home in Asia; but it is probable that their earliest settlements in Norway were made in the second century before the Christian era.
The first settlers probably knew little of agriculture, but made their living by fishing and hunting. In time, however, they commenced to clear away the timber that covered the land in the valleys and the sides of the mountains and to till the ground. At the earliest times of which the historical tales or Sagas tell us anything with regard to the social conditions, the land was divided among the free peasant-proprietors, or bonde class. Bonde, in English translation, is usually called peasant; but this is not an equivalent; for with the word peasant we associate the idea of inferior social condition to the landed aristocracy of the country, while these peasants or bondes were themselves the highest class in the country. The land owned by a peasant was called his udal. By udal-right the land was kept in the family, and it could not be alienated or forfeited from the kindred who were udal-born to it. The free peasants might own many thralls or slaves, who were unfree men. These were mostly prisoners captured by the vikings on their expeditions to foreign shores; the owners could trade them away, or sell them, or even kill them without paying any fine or man-bote to the king, as in the case of the killing of a free man. As a rule, however, the slaves were not badly treated, and they were sometimes made free and given the right to acquire land.
In early days Norway consisted of a great number of small states called Fylkis, each a little kingdom by itself. The free peasants in a Fylki held general assemblies called Things, where laws were made and justice administered. No public acts were undertaken without the deliberation of a Thing. The Thing was sacred, and a breach of peace at the thing-place was considered a great crime. At the Thing there was also a hallowed place for the judges, or “lag-men,” who expounded and administered the laws made by the Thing. Almost every crime could be expiated by the payment of fines, even if the accused had killed a person. But if a man killed another secretly, he was declared an assassin and an outlaw, was deprived of all his property, and could be killed by any one who wished to do so. The fine or man-bote was heavier, the higher the rank of the person killed. For a thrall or slave no man-bote was paid.
The Thing or Fylkis Thing was not made up of representatives elected by the people, but was rather a primary assembly of the free udal-born peasant-proprietors of the district. There were leading men in the fylki, and each fylki had one or more chiefs, but they had to plead at the Thing like other free men. When there were several chiefs, they usually had the title of herse; but when the free men had agreed upon one chief, he was called jarl (earl), or king. The king was the commander in war, and usually performed judicial functions; but he supported himself from his own estates, and the free peasants paid no tax. The dignity of the king was usually inherited by his son, but if the heir was not to the liking of the peasants or people, they chose another. No man, however clear his right of succession, would think of assuming the title or power of a king except by the vote of a Thing. There he was presented to the people by a free peasant, and his right must be confirmed by the Thing before he could exert any act of kingly power. The king had a number of free men in his service, who had sworn allegiance to him, and who served him in war and in peace. They were armed men, kept in pay, and were called hird-men or court-men, because they were members of the king’s hird or court. If they were brave and faithful, they were often given high positions of trust; some were made lendermen (liegemen), or managers of the king’s estates.
CHAPTER II
The Religion of the Northmen
THE religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as that of all the other Germanic nations, and its main features will be given in this chapter.
In the beginning of time there were two worlds; in the south was Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler. In the north was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the dragon Nidhugger dwells. Between these worlds was the yawning abyss Ginungagap. From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the Ginungagap. The hoar-frost from these streams was met by sparks from Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on whose milk he lives. From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or frost-giants. As the cow licked the briny hoar-frost, the large, handsome and powerful Bure came into being. His son was Bur, who married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and Ve. Odin became the father of the kind and fair Æsir, the gods who rule heaven and earth.
Bur’s sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants descended. Bur’s sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of Ginungagap. Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth and of his blood the sea. His bones became the mountains, and of his hair they made trees. From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim. But his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds. Around the earth they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard. For protection against them the kind gods made from Ymer’s eyebrows the fortification Midgard as a defence for the inner earth. But from heaven to earth they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow.
The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the Dawn) of the Æsir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who was bright and fair as his father. Odin placed mother and son in the heavens and bid them each in turn ride over the earth. Night rides ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is every morning covered with dew. Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe, whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth.
A great number of maggots were bred in Ymer’s body, and they became gnomes or dwarfs, little beings whom the gods gave human sense and appearance. They lived within the mountains and were skilful metal-workers, but they could not endure the light of day. Four dwarfs, the East, West, North, and South, were placed by the gods to carry the arch of heaven.
As yet there were no human beings on earth. Then, one day, the three gods, Odin, Hœner, and Lodur, were walking on the shore of the sea, where they found two trees, and from them they made the first man and the first woman, Ask and Embla (ash and elm). Odin gave them life, Hœner reason, Lodur blood and fair complexion. The gods gave them Midgard for a home, and from them the whole human race is descended.
The ever green ash tree Ygdrasil is the finest of all trees. It shoots up from three roots. One of them is in the well Hvergelmer in Niflheim, and on this the dragon Nidhugger is gnawing. The other root is in Yotunheim, in the wise Yotun Mimer’s fountain. One of Odin’s eyes, which he pledged for a drink of the fountain, is kept here. Whoever drinks of this fountain becomes wise. The third root is in heaven, at the Urdar well, where the gods hold their Thing or court. To this place they ride daily over the bridge Bifrost. Here also the three Norns abide, the maidens Urd, Verdande, and Skuld (past, present, and future). They pour water from the well over the roots of the tree. The Norns distribute life and govern fate, and nothing can change their decision.
The dwelling in heaven of the Æsir or gods is called Asgard. In its middle was the field of Ida, the gathering place of the gods, with Odin’s throne, Lidskialv, from which he views the whole world. Odin is the highest and the oldest of the gods, and all the others honor him as their father. Odin’s hall is Valhalla. The ceiling of this hall is made of spears, it is covered with shields, and its benches are ornamented with coats of mail. To this place Odin invites all who have fallen in battle, and he is therefore called Valfather, i.e., the father of the fallen. The invited fallen heroes are called Einherier; their sport and pastime is to go out every day and fight and kill each other; but toward evening they awake to life again and ride home as friends to Valhalla, where they feast on pork of the barrow Særimner, and where Odin’s maidens, the Valkyrias, fill their horns with mead. These Valkyrias were sent by Odin to all battles on earth, where they selected those who were to be slain and afterward become the honored guests at Valhalla. At Odin’s side sit the two wolves, Gere and Freke, and on his shoulders the ravens Hugin and Munin. These ravens fly forth every morning and return with tidings from all parts of the world. Odin’s horse is the swift, gray, eight-footed Sleipner. When he rides to battle he wears a golden helmet, a beautiful coat of mail, and carries the spear Gungner, which never fails. Odin is also the god of wisdom and poesy; in the morning of time he deposited one of his eyes in pledge for a drink of Mimer’s fountain of wisdom, and he drank Suttung’s mead in order to gain the gift of poesy. He has also taught men the art of writing Runes and all secret arts.
Thor, the son of Odin, is the strongest of all the gods. His dwelling is called Thrudvang. He rides across the heavens in a cart drawn by two rams. He is always at war with the Yotuns or evil giants, and in battle with them he uses his great hammer, Mjolner, which he hurls at the heads of his enemies. The earth trembles under the wheels of his cart, and men call the noise thunder. Thor’s wife is Sif, whose hair is of gold.
Balder is a son of Odin and Frigg. He is so fair that his countenance emits beams of brightness. He is wise and gentle, and is therefore loved by all. His dwelling is Breidablik, where nothing impure exists. Nanna is his wife.
Njord comes from the race of the wise Vanir. He rules the wind, can calm the sea and stop fire, and he distributes wealth among men. His aid is invoked for success in navigation and fishing. His wife is Skade, daughter of a Yotun, and his dwelling is Noatun by the sea.
Frey, the son of Njord, rules rain and sunshine and the productiveness of the soil, and his aid is needed to get good crops, peace, and wealth. His dwelling is Alfheim. He sails in the magnificent ship “Skibladner,” which was built for him by the dwarfs. His wife is the Yotun daughter Gerd, but in order to get her he had to give away his good sword, so that he will be unarmed in the coming final battle of the gods.
Tyr, Odin’s son, is the god of courage and victory, whom brave men call upon in battle. He has only one hand, for the Fenris-Wolf bit off his right hand.
Brage, the long-bearded, is the god of eloquence and poetry. His wife is Idun, who has in her keeping the apples of which the gods eat to preserve their eternal youth.
Heimdal, the white god with teeth of gold, was in the beginning of time born by nine Yotun maidens, all sisters. He is the watchman of the gods. He is more wakeful than birds. He can see a hundred miles off, and he can hear the grass grow. His dwelling is Himinbjorg, which is situated where the Bifrost bridge reaches heaven. When he blows his Gjallar-horn it is heard throughout the world.
Among the other gods were Haad, son of Odin, blind but strong; the silent and strong Vidar; Vale, the archer; Ull, the fast ski-runner, and Forsete, the son of Balder, who settles disputes between gods and men.
Among the goddesses (or asynier), Frigg, Odin’s wife, is the foremost. She knows the fate of everybody and shields many from danger. Her dwelling is Fensal. Next comes Freya, the goddess of love. She is the daughter of Njord and sister of Frey. She is also called Vanadis, or the goddess of the Vanir. She was married to Odd, and by him had a daughter, Noss. But Odd left her, and Freya weeps in her longing for him, and her tears are red gold. When she travels her wagon is drawn by two cats. The name of her dwelling is Folkvang. There were also a number of other goddesses, who were in the service of either Frigg or Freya.
Æger, the ruler of the turbulent and stormy sea, is a Yotun, but he is a friend of the gods. When they visit him his hall is lighted with shining gold. His wife is Ran, and their daughters are the waves.
In the beginning there was peace among gods and men. But the arrival of the Yotun women in Asgard undermined the happiness of the gods, and in heaven and on earth a struggle commenced which must last until both are destroyed. The Yotuns continually attack the inhabitants of Asgard, and it is only the mighty Thor who can hold them at bay. It is the evil Loke, who is the worst enemy of gods and men. He belongs to the Yotun race, but was early adopted among the gods. He was fair in looks, but wily and evil in spirit. He had three evil children—the Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard-Serpent, and Hel. The gods knew that this offspring of Loke would cause great trouble; therefore they tied the Fenris-Wolf, threw the serpent into the sea, and hurled Hel down into Niflheim, where she became the ruler of the dead. All who die from sickness or age are sent to her awful dwelling, Helheim.
The greatest sorrow which Loke caused the whole world was that by his deceit he caused the death of the lovely god, Balder. Then the gods took an awful revenge. They tied him to three stones, and over his head they fastened a venomous serpent, whose poison always was to drip upon his face. Loke’s faithful wife, Sigyn, placed herself at his side and held a cup under the poisonous drip; but whenever the cup is full and she goes to empty it, the poison drips into Loke’s face, and then he writhes in agony so that the whole world trembles. This is the cause of earthquakes.
There will come a time when these gods and the world shall perish in Ragnarokk, which means the perdition of the gods. They will have many warnings. Corruption and wickedness will be common in the world. For three years there will be winter without sun. The sun and the moon will be swallowed up by the wolves of the Yotuns, and the bright stars will disappear. The earth will tremble, and the mountains will collapse, and all chains and ties are sundered. The Fenris-Wolf and Loke get loose, and the Midgard-Serpent leaves the ocean. The ship “Naglfar” carries the army of the Yotuns across the sea under the leadership of the Yotun Rym, and Loke advances at the head of the hosts from the abode of Hel. The heavens split, and the sons of Muspel come riding ahead, led by their chief Surt. As the hosts are rushing across the Bifrost, the bridge breaks behind them. All are hastening to the great battle-place, the plains of Vigrid, which is a hundred miles wide. Now Heimdal arises and blows his Gjallar-horn, all the gods are assembled, the ash Ygdrasil trembles, and everything in heaven and on earth is filled with terror. Gods and Einherier (the fallen heroes) arm themselves for the battle. In the front rides Odin with his golden helmet and beaming coat of mail and carrying his spear, Gungner. He meets the Fenris-Wolf, who swallows him, but Vidar avenges his father and kills the wolf. Thor crushes the head of the Midgard-Serpent, but is stifled to death by its venom. Frey is felled by Surt, and Loke and Heimdal kill each other. Finally Surt hurls his fire over the world, gods and men die, and the shrivelling earth sinks into the abyss.
But the world shall arise again and the dead come to life. From above comes the all-powerful one, he who rules everything, and whose name no one dares utter. All those who were virtuous and pure of heart will gather in Gimle in everlasting happiness, while the evil ones will go to Naastrand at the well Hvergelmer to tie tortured by Nidhugger. A new earth, green and beautiful, shall rise from the ocean. The gods awake to new life and join Vidar and Vale, and the sons of Thor, Mode and Magne, who have survived the great destruction and who have been given their father’s hammer, because there is to be no more war. All the gods assemble on the field of Ida, where Asgard was located. And from Liv and Livthraser, who hid themselves in Ygdrasil during the burning of the world, a new human race shall descend.
CHAPTER III
The Viking Age
IT is but natural that the ancient Norwegians should become warlike and brave men, since their firm religious belief was that those who died of sickness or old age would sink down into the dark abode of Hel (Helheim), and that only the brave men who fell in battle would be invited to the feasts in Odin’s Hall. Sometimes the earls or kings would make war on their neighbors, either for conquest or for revenge. But a time came when the countries of the north with their poorly developed resources became overpopulated, and the warriors had to seek better fields abroad. The viking cruises commenced, and for a long time the Norwegians continued to harry the coasts of Europe.
At first the viking expeditions were nothing but piracy, carried on for a livelihood. The name Viking is supposed to be derived from the word vik, a cove or inlet on the coast, in which they would harbor with their ships and lie in wait for merchants sailing by. Soon these expeditions assumed a wider range and a wilder character, and historians of the time paint the horrors spread by the vikings in dark colors. In the English churches they had a day of prayer each week to invoke the aid of heaven against the harrying Northmen. In France the following formula was inserted in the church prayer: “A furore Norman norum libera nos, o Domine!” (Free us, O Lord, from the fury of the Northmen!)
Gradually the viking life assumed a nobler form. There appear to be three stages or periods in the viking age. In the first one the vikings make casual visits with single ships to the shores of England, Ireland, France or Flanders, and when they have plundered a town or a convent they return to their ships and sail away. In the second period their cruises assume a more regular character, and indicate some definite plan, as they take possession of certain points, where they winter, and from where they command the surrounding country. During the third period they no longer confine themselves to seeking booty, but act as real conquerors, take possession of the conquered territory and rule it.
In the latter part of the eighth century the vikings first found their way across the North Sea to the islands north of Scotland. In 787 they landed for the first time on the British coast. In that year it is recorded in the English annals that Norwegians came in three ships and committed great ravages on the coasts of Wessex. Six years later they attacked Northumberland, where they caused even greater ruin. They especially plundered churches and cloisters. Soon they extended their plundering expeditions to the northern coast of France, where the powerful emperor Charlemagne was then the ruler. They made only small progress as long as he lived, but during the reigns of his weak successors they made havoc along the coasts of France, and also forced the Straits of Gibraltar and made unwelcome visits to the countries on the Mediterranean. Some of the French kings knew no better remedy than to pay the vikings great sums of money to keep them away from the country. Thus King Charles the Baldheaded paid in the year 846 a sum of 7,000 pounds of silver, and in 877 a further sum of 5,000 pounds, for this purpose.
The Northmen, by their viking expeditions, early took possession of the Orkneys, the Shetland Islands, the Hebrides and the Faroe Islands. In going westward to these islands they were sometimes driven out of their course, and thus Nadodd, who was on his way to the Faroe Islands, was driven far to the north and northwest and found a large uninhabited country, which was afterward called Iceland.
The vikings often came to Ireland, and about the year 837 they succeeded, under the leadership of the chieftain Thorgeisl, in establishing a kingdom at Dublin, which they strongly fortified. Thorgeisl appears to have ruled in Ireland until about 846, when he was drowned. A more permanent kingdom was established by Olaf the White, who took possession of Dublin and the surrounding country in 852. The dominion in Dublin of the Norwegians is supposed to have lasted for three and a half centuries.
As to the influence of the Northmen on the development of the countries visited by them during the later Viking periods, the eminent English writer Samuel Laing, the translator of the “Heimskringla,” or the Sagas of the Norse kings, says:
“All that men hope for of good government and future improvement in their physical and moral condition—all that civilized men enjoy at this day of civil, religious and political liberty—the British constitution, representative legislation, the trial by jury, security of property, freedom of mind and person, the influence of public opinion over the conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, the liberty of the press, the spirit of the age—all that is or has been of value to man in modern times as a member of society, either in Europe or in the New World, may be traced to the spark left burning upon our shores by these northern barbarians.”
CHAPTER IV
The Yngling Family—Halfdan the Swarthy
THE authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, or Halfdan the Black, who reigned from about the year 821 to about 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in the twelfth century, wrote the “Heimskringla,” or the Sagas of the Norse Kings, gives a long line of preceding kings of the Yngling race, the royal family to which Halfdan the Swarthy belonged; but that part of the Saga belongs to mythology rather than to history.
According to tradition the Yngling family were descendants of Fiolner, the son of the god Frey. One of the surnames of the god was Yngve, from which the family derived the name Ynglings. Their original home is said to have been Upsala in Sweden, but they were driven away on account of their cruelty. One of them, whose name was Olaf, emigrated with his followers to Vermeland, which he made habitable by cleaning away a great deal of the timber. Hence he was called Olaf the Tree-feller (Tre-telgja). His son, Halfdan Whiteleg (Hvitbein), conquered Romerike and other Norwegian districts, and Halfdan’s son also became king of Vestfold, or the country west of the Folden, the bay now called the Christiania Fjord. Vestfold now became the most important part of the country. In the neighborhood of the present town of Laurvik a famous temple was founded in Skirings-sal, where the kings often resided, and which soon became a popular trading place.
Halfdan Whiteleg’s grandson, Gudrod the Hunter, made war on Harald Redbeard, who was king of Agder, the southwestern part of Norway. He killed Harald and his son Gyrd, and took a great booty. He afterward married Harald’s daughter, Asa.
Gudrod’s son, Halfdan, surnamed the Swarthy, was only a year old when his father was killed, and his mother Asa then returned with him to Agder, where he grew up and became stout and strong. At the age of eighteen he became king in Agder, and soon afterward went to Vestfold, where he divided that kingdom with his brother Olaf. Halfdan increased his possessions, both by marriage and by warfare, until he ruled over the whole country around the Christiania Fjord, Thoten, Land, Hadeland, Romerike and Sogn. King Halfdan was a wise man, a lover of truth and justice. He made good laws, which he observed himself and compelled others to observe. He fixed certain mulcts, or penalties, for all crimes committed. His code of laws, called the Eidsiva Law, was adopted at a common Thing at Eidsvold, where about a thousand years later the present constitution of Norway was adopted.
Halfdan became the ancestor of the royal race of Norway, his son, Harald the Fairhaired, being the first king of united Norway. According to tradition, when Queen Ragnhild was with child she dreamed that she was standing in her herb-garden, and she took a thorn out of her chemise, and while she was holding it in her hand it grew into a great tree, one end of which struck roots into the earth, while the other raised itself in the air until she could hardly see the top or the end of its widely spread branches. The lower part of the tree was red with blood, but the stem was beautifully green, and the branches white as snow, and they spread over all Norway, and even much more. This dream was years afterward interpreted as having foretold the destiny of Ragnhild’s son.
One day in the spring of 860, when Halfdan the Swarthy was driving home from a feast across the Randsfjord, he broke through the ice and was drowned. He was so popular that when his body was found the leading men in each Fylki demanded to have him buried with them, believing that it would bring prosperity to the district. They at last agreed to divide the body into four parts, which were buried in four different districts. The trunk of the body was buried in a mound at Stein, Ringerike, where a little hill is still called Halfdan’s Mound.
CHAPTER V
Harald the Fairhaired (860-930)—Norway United
HARALD was only ten years old when he succeeded his father. Many of the chiefs thought that it would be an easy matter now to divide the country between them, but Guthorm, a brother of Harald’s mother, who was at the head of the government and commander of the army, soon subdued them.
When Harald had become old enough to marry, he sent his men to a girl named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of Hordaland, who was brought up as a foster-child in the house of a rich Bonde in Valders. Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When the men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry a king who had no greater kingdom than a few Fylkis (districts), and she added that she thought it strange “that no king here in Norway will make the whole country subject to him, in the same way as Gorm the Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala.” When the messengers returned to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty words, but Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow not to cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway and had become the sole king.
Harald immediately gathered an army and went northward over the Dovre Mountain, and after several battles conquered the whole of Trondelag, the common name of all the districts about the Throndhjem (Drontheim) Fjord. Here he procured ships, sailed southward along the coast and conquered one district after another in the western part of the country. Finally, the remaining kings gathered their men and ships and met Harald in naval battle in Hafrsfjord, a little inlet in Jæderen, near the present city of Stavanger. The battle was fierce and long, but Harald finally gained the day. After this battle, which occurred in 872, King Harald met no opposition, and was acknowledged as king of the whole of Norway. Shortly after the battle the king attended a feast given by Ragnvald, the Earl of More (Morejarl), and the latter cut the king’s hair, which had not been cut or combed for ten years, and gave him the surname, the Fairhaired. Harald shortly afterward married Gyda.
King Harald deprived the peasant-proprietors of their allodium or udal-right, and compelled them to pay land dues of their possessions. Over every Fylki or district he placed an earl (jarl), who was to administer justice and collect the taxes, of which he retained one-third as salary. In case of war the earl was to serve the king with sixty warriors. Each earl had under him four herses, each of whom had a royal estate of twenty marks annual income to manage, and was bound to support twenty men-at-arms.
Many of the proud peasants objected to the rule of Harald and to the payment of taxes. They wanted to be independent, as before, and left the country. Many of them settled on the Faroe Islands and the Scotch islands, and in the summer they would make viking cruises and harry the coasts of Norway to revenge themselves on the king. To stop this Harald sailed westward one summer with a fleet, fought the vikings and took possession of Shetland and the Orkney Islands, and placed an earl in charge of them. Many of the fleeing Northmen then sailed northward with their goods and men and settled in Iceland, where they established a free state, which existed for nearly 400 years.
Earl Ragnvald (Morejarl) was King Harald’s dearest friend, and the king had great regard for him, but he did not allow that to excuse a crime committed by his son. Ragnvald had a son by the name of Rolf, who was so stout and strong that no horse could carry him, and therefore he was called Gange-Rolf, or Rolf the Walker. He went early on viking cruises to the shores of the Baltic Sea. One summer, on his return from one of his expeditions, he made strand-hug in Viken. (Strand-hug was a foray for cattle to provision the viking ships.) Harald had declared this a great crime, and when he heard what Rolf had done, he called an extra session of the Thing, and had Rolf declared an outlaw in all Norway. Gange-Rolf, however, did not remain in Norway, but sailed westward to the Sudreys, the present Hebrides, and afterward joined the army of vikings, which, in the year 885, went to France and plundered the country around Paris and the province of Bourgogne. The Frenchmen made a compromise with the vikings, and for some years they spared the French coasts, but later Gange-Rolf returned with a great number of vikings, and finally compelled the French king, Charles the Simple, by the peace of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte to cede to him and his successors a large province, which he peopled with Northmen, and which, therefore, was afterward called Normandy. The French king also promised to let him marry his daughter Gizela if he would adopt Christianity. This Rolf agreed to, and he was baptized in the year 912, being christened Robert. He ruled his new country well, and died in the year 931. From him descended the mighty earls of Normandy, who in time conquered the kingdoms of England and Naples.
King Harald had many sons, and as they grew up they created a great deal of disturbance in the country. They had come from such different stock on the maternal side, and had been brought up so far from each other by rich peasants in different parts of the country, that brotherly feelings were little known to them. They became jealous of each other, and also jealous of the many mighty earls. They drove some of the earls from their estates, and even killed some of them. Thus two of the brothers set out one spring with a great force to attack Ragnvald, Earl of More, surrounded his house and burned him with sixty of his men.
Hoping to avoid further domestic disturbances, Harald called together a Thing at the Eidsiva Thing-place (the present Eidsvold), and summoned to it all the people of the Uplands. Here he gave to all his sons the title of king, and proclaimed a law that his descendants in the male line should each succeed to the title and dignity of king; but his descendants by the female side were to become only earls. He divided the country among his sons, but his dearest son, Erik, who was his son by the Danish Princess Ragnhild, and thus of royal birth on both sides, was to be acknowledged as their overlord. This the other brothers did not like, and the result was bloody conflicts. Erik first killed Ragnvald Rettilbeine, the ruler in Hadeland, because he was said to be a sorcerer. Next he attacked his brother Biorn, who generally lived at the trading-place Tunsberg, and who was called Biorn Farmand, or Biorn the Merchant, because he cared little for war, but more for trading expeditions. As he refused to pay tribute to Erik, the latter attacked and killed him, and plundered his house. King Biorn lies buried in the Seaman’s Mound (Farmandshaugen) at Sæheim (in the present Sem’s parish) in Jarlsberg. Halfdan the Black, who ruled in Throndhjem, resolved to avenge his brother Biorn’s death, and collected a great force of men and ships. Erik sought the aid of his father Harald, who also equipped a fleet and took up a position at Rein-plain on the north side of the Throndhjem Fjord; but now friends of both interceded in order to bring about a reconciliation. In Halfdan’s army there was a clever man called Guthorm Sindre, who had formerly been in the service of Harald, and was a great friend of both. He was a great skald (poet), and had once composed songs about the father and the son, for which they had then offered him a reward. He would take nothing at the time, but was given the promise that, some day or other, they should grant him any request he should make. He now went before King Harald with words of peace, and made the request that the kings should become reconciled. And the Saga adds: “So highly did the king esteem him that, in consequence of his request, they were reconciled.”
When Harald the Fairhaired was eighty years old, he became very weak and unable to bear the burden of the government. Then he brought his son Erik to his royal high-seat and gave him the power and the command over the whole land (930). Three years later King Harald died of old age. He was buried under a mound at Hauge, near Haugesund in Ryfylke. The gravestone is still to be seen. At the grave a large monument in memory of Harald was erected in 1872, one thousand years after the battle of Hafrsfjord.
CHAPTER VI
Birth of Haakon the Good—Erik Blood-Axe (930-935)
WHEN Harald the Fairhaired was nearly seventy years old, he begat a son by Thora Moster-stang (Moster-pole). She was so called because she was tall, and her family came from the island of Moster. She was very handsome, and was descended from good people, but was called the king’s servant-girl, for at that time, as the Saga says, “many were subject to service to the king who were of good birth, both men and women.” Sigurd Ladejarl, or Earl of Lade (near Throndhjem), was a friend of Thora’s family, and when she was about to be confined he brought her in his ship from Moster northward to Sæheim, where King Harald was then living. They spent the night at the shore south of the Alv-island, and [Pg 37]here Thora bore her child, on a stone near the ship’s gangway. It was a male child, and Earl Sigurd baptized him in heathen fashion, and called him Haakon after his own father. The boy soon grew handsome, large in size, and very like his father King Harald. When the king felt that he was not going to live much longer, he sent Haakon over to England to be brought up by the English king, Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great. King Athelstan had Haakon baptized and brought up in the Christian faith, and in good habits and all sorts of exercises, and it is said he loved Haakon above all his relations. He gave him a sword, of which the hilt and handle were gold; but the blade was still better, for with it Haakon cut a millstone to the centre eye. The sword was thereafter called Kvernbite (millstone cutter), and Haakon carried it to his dying day.
As stated, Erik was proclaimed king by his father in 930. Erik had early gone out on viking expeditions, and his daring enterprises had given him the surname Blood-Axe. He was handsome and manly-looking, but morally weak. He was hated during his father’s lifetime, because he had killed his brother Biorn the Merchant; but still more hated was his cruel and treacherous queen, Gunhild. She enticed him into killing several of his brothers, and it began to be the common belief that Gunhild and Erik were going to remove all his brothers, in order to secure the whole of the kingdom for themselves and their children. This plan, however, was frustrated by Haakon, the youngest son of Harald.
When Haakon, Athelstan’s foster-son, heard of his father’s death, he immediately prepared to leave England, and was given men and ships by King Athelstan. He sailed north to Tröndelagen, where he found the mighty Sigurd, Earl of Lade, who had been his mother’s friend and his guardian in early childhood. Sigurd received him well, and Haakon promised him great power if he became king. They assembled a great meeting of the peasants, where Earl Sigurd made a speech and advised the people to make Haakon their king. Thereupon Haakon arose and made a speech, which greatly pleased the peasants. They said to each other that it looked as if Harald the Fairhaired had come back and had become young again. Haakon promised, in case they would make him their king, to give them back the udal-right (allodium), which Harald had taken from them. His speech was so well received that the people cheered wildly, and with great enthusiasm they proclaimed him their king. He immediately started southward, and the other districts followed the example of Tröndelagen and swore allegiance to Haakon.
Erik made a desperate attempt to raise an army, but not succeeding, he had to leave the country with his wife Gunhild, his children, and a few followers (935). For some time he harried the coasts of Scotland and England as a viking, until finally he accepted a portion of Northumberland from King Athelstan on the condition that he was to defend the country against Norwegian and Danish vikings. Erik remained in England under shifting conditions, until he was killed in a battle in 954. After his death Queen Gunhild had a poem written in his honor, the so-called Eriksmál, of which a beautiful fragment still exists. Shortly after Erik’s death Queen Gunhild went to Denmark with her sons, and was well received by the Danish king, Harald Bluetooth (Blaatand), the son of Gorm the Old. The children of Erik Blood-Axe and Gunhild were: Gamle, Guthorm, Harald, Ragnfred, Ragnhild, Erling, Gudrod, and Sigurd Sleva. All the boys were handsome and of manly appearance, but in character they resembled their mother.
CHAPTER VII
Haakon the Good (935-961)
HAAKON did a great deal to improve the internal conditions of the country. He regulated the judicial districts, and gave the Gulathings-law for the western district, with common Thing-place at Gula (in Ytre Sogn), and the Frostathings-law for the northern district, with common Thing-place at Frosten (peninsula in Throndhjems-fjord). Much was done for the defence of the country against enemies. The whole coast was divided into Skibredes, or ship districts, each of which was to build, equip, man, and provision a ship for use in case of war. In order to inform the inhabitants of the approach of an enemy, King Haakon built Varder, or signal fires, on the highest mountains at proper distances from each other. By the successive lighting of these signal fires the news of war could be carried from the southernmost signal-place to the northern end of Halogaland in seven days. Warning was also to be sent around from house to house by Budstikke as a signal for the people to assemble. The Budstikke was a stick of wood like a very heavy cane, with a spike at the end of it. If the bearer of the message found nobody at home, he would stick the cane on the side of the door, and the owner of the house would, on his arrival home, immediately despatch it to the next house.
King Haakon, who had been brought up in the Christian faith, resolved to introduce Christianity in Norway, but when he took the preliminary steps he found no support from his otherwise faithful friend, Earl Sigurd of Lade, who was an ardent adherent of the Asa-faith. Fearing to offend the earl, Haakon postponed his effort for a time, until he thought he had gained sufficient popularity in the country. He then sent to England for a bishop and other teachers, and announced that it was his intention to have the whole people embrace the Christian religion. When he made this announcement to the assembled peasants at Throndhjem, they declined to commit themselves, and asked to have this very important matter referred to the Frosta-thing, where it could be legally settled.
At the Frosta-thing, where a great number of people were assembled, King Haakon made an earnest speech, in which he said that it was his command and his prayer to all, rich and poor, young and all, that they should forsake the old heathen gods, be baptized, and believe in the one living God, Jesus Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, abstain from work every seventh day, Sunday, and fast every Friday. A great murmur ran through the crowd of peasants, who complained that the king wanted to deprive them of their work and their old faith, and the mighty peasant, Asbiorn of Medalhus, arose and made a speech to the king, in which he said that they had had great faith in him when they chose him for their king, but now they had made up their minds to part with him and choose another if they were not left free to retain the religion they believed in. And the king was told that he must accept one of these conditions before the meeting was concluded. The king felt that there was no escape but to yield to the peasants, and Earl Sigurd of Lade, who had all the time been near the king, arose and said: “King Haakon is willing to acquiesce in your wishes, peasants. Never will he give up your friendship.” Encouraged by this the peasants afterward made the king participate in their heathen sacrifices, and the king was obliged to give up the attempt to introduce Christianity in Norway.
King Haakon soon afterward had to meet other demands upon him, when the southern parts of the country were attacked by the sons of his brother Erik, who, after their mother, were called the Gunhild-sons. Several times Haakon defeated the invaders, and after one great battle they stayed away for six years. Finally, in the twenty-sixth year of Haakon’s reign, while he and his men were enjoying a feast at Fitje on the island Stord in Hordaland, the enemy appeared again with a great naval force. Although greatly outnumbered by the enemy, Haakon’s men won the battle, and the aggressors were obliged to flee to their ships; but when Haakon pursued them without his coat of mail, he was hit in the armpit by a deadly arrow and received a wound from which he died, after being brought, shortly after the battle, to “Haakon’s Rock,” where he had been born. Before he died he requested his friends to send a ship after the sons of Gunhild, with the message asking them to return and assume the government, giving due respect to his adherents. He himself had no sons, and his daughter Thora could not, according to the law, succeed to the throne. Haakon was deeply mourned by friends and foes, and all said that Norway would never again get such a good king. The poet Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed a poem in his honor, the Haakonarmaal, in which he praised his virtues and described his reception in Odin’s Valhalla.
CHAPTER VIII
Harald Grayfell and his Brothers (961-970)
THE Gunhild-sons (or Eriks-sons) immediately returned to Norway when they received the message that Haakon the Good had named them as heirs to the throne. The oldest one, Harald Grayfell (Graafeld, so named after having once worn a gray fur robe), was considered as chief king, but their mother Gunhild was in fact the chief ruler. They were penurious and cruel, and soon became widely hated. There were many chiefs in the country at that time. Trygve Olafson, a grandson of Harald the Fairhaired, ruled in Viken, or the country around the Christiania Fjord; his cousin Gudrod, son of Biorn the Merchant, was chief in Westfold, and Earl Sigurd of Lade ruled the country around Throndhjem. Gunhild’s sons at first resided mostly in the middle of the country, but soon laid plans to obtain more power. By great promises they bribed Griotgard, a brother of Earl Sigurd, to send them word when there might be a favorable opportunity to attack and kill the earl. This plan succeeded. Having been notified by Griotgard that Earl Sigurd was at a feast at Oglo in Stjoradal and had but few men with him, King Harald Grayfell and his brother Erling surrounded the house at night, set fire to the building, and burned the earl and all his men.
When the people heard of Earl Sigurd’s death, there was a great uprising. They gathered a large fleet, and, after having proclaimed Sigurd’s son, Haakon, as their earl and commander-in-chief, they steered out of the Throndhjem Fjord, intent upon taking vengeance. When Gunhild’s sons heard of this, they fled southward to Raumsdal and South More. Some time afterward the Gunhild-sons attacked and murdered Trygve Olafson, king in Viken, and Gudrod Biornson, king in Westfold. Harald Grayfell hastened to Trygve Olafson’s home, hoping to be able to exterminate the whole race; but Trygve’s widow, Astrid, had fled with her foster-father, Thorolf Lusarskeg.
Gunhild’s sons collected a great army in Viken and sailed northward, collecting men and ships on the way from every district for the purpose of fighting Earl Haakon. When Earl Haakon heard of this, he also collected men and fitted out ships, but when he ascertained the size of the approaching fleet, he sailed with a few men south to Denmark, where he was well received by King Harald Bluetooth (964). Gunhild’s sons brought their army north to Throndhjem, and subdued the country and collected taxes, of which they had received none while Earl Haakon was there.
In Denmark Earl Haakon laid some deep plans to obtain power again. A nephew of King Harald Bluetooth, called Gold-Harald, had returned home and demanded half of the kingdom. As the king had no desire to yield to his demand, but still feared Gold-Harald’s influence with the people, Earl Haakon advised him to get Norway for his nephew instead. He was to invite the Norwegian king, Harald Grayfell, on a friendly visit to Denmark, and then have Gold-Harald kill him. Afterward it would be easy to take Norway on account of the very hard times prevailing there, and the great unpopularity of the Gunhild-sons. The plan was followed; but when Gold-Harald had killed Harald Grayfell, he was in turn attacked and killed by Earl Haakon. Soon after King Harald Bluetooth sailed for Norway with 720 ships. He had with him Earl Haakon, Harald Grenske, a son of King Gudrod, and many other great men who had fled from their udal estates in Norway on account of Gunhild’s sons. They won the country without resistance, and King Harald installed Haakon as earl of the northern and western parts of the country. The earl was to pay certain taxes to the king and help him with armed men in case of war. The king retained for himself the country around Viken, and left Harald Grenske there as his representative.
The two surviving brothers, Gudrod and Ragnfred, fled with their mother, Gunhild, to the Orkneys.
CHAPTER IX
Earl Haakon (970-995)
EARL HAAKON subdued all those parts of the country belonging to his dominion, and remained all winter (970) in Throndhjem. As he proceeded along the coast he ordered that in all his dominions the heathen temples and sacrifices should be restored, and continued as of old. The people thought they soon had proof that the gods were pleased with Haakon’s action, for, according to the saga, “the first winter that Haakon ruled over Norway the herrings set in everywhere through the fjords to the land, and the seasons ripened to a good crop all that had been sown,” while for several years previously dearth and hard times had prevailed.
Earl Haakon waited for an opportunity to repudiate his obligations to the Danish king, and it came in time. In 973, when Otto II. became emperor of Germany, King Harald Bluetooth prepared himself for war in order to resist the emperor’s claim to sovereignty over Denmark, and in 975 he ordered Earl Haakon to come to his aid with all the forces it was possible to raise. Haakon complied with the request, and for a time successfully fought the Germans. But when he had boarded his ships and prepared to sail homeward, the emperor returned for a second attack, and soon compelled the Danish king to make peace. King Harald Bluetooth agreed to introduce Christianity both in Denmark and in Norway. He sent for Earl Haakon and made him accept baptism and promise to introduce Christianity in Norway. Priests were sent with him to help him with this work. Haakon set sail with the priests on board; but no sooner did he get a favorable wind than he put the priests ashore, and sailed away. From now on he considered himself the sworn enemy of the Danes. He steered through the Sound, and harried the coasts on both sides. At the coast of East Gautland he made a great heathen sacrifice. Thereupon he burned his ships and marched through the country with his men. He defeated Earl Ottar, the ruler in Gautland, and continued his march through Smaaland and West Gautland to Norway. He again took up his residence in Throndhjem.
King Harald Bluetooth was greatly incensed at Earl Haakon’s action, and decided to take an awful revenge. He collected a great fleet, which he brought to Norway. He burned and destroyed the settlements and killed a great number of people wherever he came. In Lærdal in Sogn, it is said that only five dwellings were left unburned. The inhabitants fled to the woods with such movable goods as they could save. As soon, however, as it was reported that Earl Haakon was coming southward with a fleet, King Harald lost his courage, set sail, and returned to Denmark.
When Harald Bluetooth died (985), his son Svein, who afterward was given the surname Tjuguskeg (Fork-beard), became king of Denmark. He instigated the Joms-vikings to make war on Earl Haakon. These vikings were Danes, who lived at Jomsborg, Pomerania, on the island Wollin or Jom, at the mouth of the river Oder. They were very powerful and warlike, and had very strict laws. No one could join their company who was older than fifty or younger than eighteen years, and no woman was permitted to enter their burgh. They considered it a disgrace to show fear or to complain of pain. Earl Sigvald (Sigvalde Jarl), a son of King Strut-Harald of Scania (Skaane, in the southern part of Sweden), was chief of the Joms-vikings at this time. King Svein of Denmark invited these vikings to a great feast in memory of his father, and as Earl Sigvald’s father had fallen about the same time, he suggested that they should also drink his “funeral-ale.” The Joms-vikings came to the festival with their bravest men, forty ships of them from Vendland (Pomerania), and twenty ships from Scania. All the guests drank a great deal, and there was great gayety in the hall. According to old custom on such occasions they made solemn vows, in emptying the drinking-horns. King Svein, in drinking to his father’s memory, made the solemn vow, that before three winters were past he would go with his army to England and conquer King Ethelred. The guests also drank Christ’s health, and a bowl to the memory of Saint Michael. Thereafter Earl Sigvald drank to his father’s memory, and made a vow, that before three winters came to an end he would go to Norway and either kill Earl Haakon or chase him out of the country, and the other Joms-vikings vowed that they would go with Earl Sigvald to Norway and share in the fight. The next morning, when they had slept off their drink, they thought they had promised rather much, and, in order to find Earl Haakon unprepared, they sailed away on their expedition at once.
When Earl Erik, the son of Haakon, who was then in Raumarike, heard of the festival and of the vows of the Joms-vikings, he immediately gathered his men, and went to the Uplands, and thence over the mountains to Throndhjem, and joined his father, Earl Haakon. They immediately sent warnings around, and sent messages to North More and South More, and to Raumsdal, and also north to Namdal and Halogaland, summoning all the country to furnish men and ships. Earl Haakon went with an army to South More, and Erik was to follow with what army he could collect from the north.
Meanwhile, the Joms-vikings sailed slowly northward, plundering the coasts. Christmas night they were at Jæderen. At Hjorungavaag (on the island Hareidland in South More) they met Earl Haakon and his sons Erik, Svein, Sigurd and Erling. The earl had 180 ships and boats, fully manned and equipped, and the Joms-vikings had 60 ships. A bloody and fierce battle followed, probably the greatest that had ever taken place in Norway. At first the advantage was on the side of the Joms-vikings, and Earl Haakon was hardly pressed. So many spears were thrown against him that his armor was split asunder, and he threw it off. It is said that Earl Haakon then sacrificed his young son Erling to the gods in order to gain victory. A great hailstorm arose, and the Joms-vikings were defeated, but only after a most desperate fight. Earl Sigvald turned and fled with some of his ships; but many of his men preferred to fall in battle. Haavard the Hewer (Huggende) stood on his knees and fought, after both his feet had been cut off. One of the champions, Bue the Thick (Digre), received a terrible cut that took away his under-lip and chin, and, seeing that resistance was in vain, he took a chest full of gold in each hand and shouted: “Overboard, all Bue’s men,” and jumped into the sea. After the battle the dead were ransacked by Haakon’s men, and the booty brought together to be divided; and there were twenty-five ships of the Joms-vikings in the booty.
While Earl Haakon ruled over Norway there were good crops in the land and peace internally among the peasants. The earl, for a long time, was therefore well liked; but later he became proud and much given to debauchery. According to the saga, he would go so far as to have the daughters of people of high station brought home to him, and after keeping them a week or two send them home in shame. The people therefore began to murmur loudly, and finally they rose against him. Early in the year 995 Earl Haakon was at a feast at Medalhus in Gauldal. There was a mighty peasant in the neighborhood, by name Orm Lyrgja, who had a wife called Gudrun, a daughter of Bergthor of Lundar. She was called the Lundar-sun, because she was so beautiful. The earl sent his slaves to Orm, with the errand that they were to bring Gudrun to the earl. Orm first invited the slaves to take supper, and while they were eating and drinking he sent word around to all his neighbors, and soon had so many gathered at his house that he could refuse to let his wife be taken away. The slaves departed with many threats; but Orm sent out messages to all the neighboring country, and soon a large body of armed men were marching toward Medalhus where Haakon was. With a single thrall (slave) called Kark, who had been with him since boyhood, Earl Haakon fled across the Gaula River, rode his horse into a hole, and left his cloak behind on the ice, in order to make his pursuers believe that he had been drowned. Then he went to the estate of Rimul, where one of the earl’s mistresses, Thora, lived, and asked her to hide him for a few days until the army of the peasants had dispersed. They went to a swine-sty, where Kark dug a deep hole and covered it with boards. The earl and Kark went into the hole, and Thora covered it, and threw earth and manure over it, and drove the swine upon the top of it.
Olaf Trygvason had just then arrived in the country, and when the peasants heard he was of the family of Harald the Fairhaired, they flocked around him and hailed him as their king. Then they all set about hunting for Earl Haakon. At Rimul they looked everywhere for him without finding him. Then Olaf held a House-Thing or council out in the yard, and stood upon a great stone which lay beside the swine-sty, and made a speech to the people, in which he promised rewards and honors to the man who should kill the earl. This speech was heard by the earl and the thrall Kark.
“Why art thou so pale,” asked the earl, “and now again black as earth? Thou hast not the intention to betray me?”
“By no means,” replied Kark.
“We were both born on the same night,” said the earl, “and the time will be short between our deaths.”
King Olaf went away in the evening. When night came the earl kept himself awake; but Kark slept, and was disturbed in his sleep. The earl woke him, and asked him what he had been dreaming.
Kark answered: “I was at Lade, and Olaf Trygvason was laying a golden ring about my neck.”
The earl then said: “It will be a bloody ring Olaf will lay about thy neck if he catches thee. Take care of that! From me thou shalt enjoy all that is good, therefore betray me not.”
Then they both kept awake, evidently mistrusting each other. But toward morning the earl dropped asleep. Then Kark killed him, and cut off his head, and hastened to Olaf Trygvason with it, but Olaf had the faithless thrall decapitated. Earl Haakon was fifty-eight years old at his death, in February, 995.
CHAPTER X
The Youth of Olaf Trygvason
WHEN the Gunhild-sons had killed Trygve Olafson, king in Viken (the grandson of Harald the Fairhaired), in 963, Trygve’s widow Astrid fled with her foster-father, Thorolf Lusarskeg. Astrid was pregnant with a child of King Trygve, and she went to a lake and concealed herself on a small island with a few followers. Here she gave birth to a boy, and she called him Olaf, after his grandfather. She remained there all summer, but when the nights became dark, and the days began to shorten and the weather to be cold, she travelled further with Thorolf and a few others until she reached Ofrustad, where her father, Erik Biodaskalle, lived, and they remained there during the winter. But in the spring spies were sent out by Gunhild to find the boy, and Astrid had to flee again with her son. She proceeded eastward, and at last came to her father’s friend, Haakon the Old, in Sweden, where she and her son remained a long time and were well treated. When Gunhild heard that Astrid and her son Olaf were in Sweden, she sent ambassadors to the king of Sweden with the request that the king assist them in getting hold of Olaf Trygvason, to bring him back to Norway, where Gunhild would bring him up. Astrid then determined to go with her son to Gardarike, or Russia, where she had a brother, Sigurd Eriksson, who held a high position there. Olaf [Pg 52]was then three years old. As they sailed out into the Baltic, however, they were captured by vikings from Esthonia, who made booty both of the people and their goods, killing some, and taking others as slaves. Thorolf, whom they considered too old for a slave, was killed. Olaf was separated from his mother, and an Esthonian took him and a son of Thorolf as his share of the booty. The boys were sold for a stout and good ram, and a third man, called Reas, afterward bought Olaf for a good cloak. Olaf remained with Reas in Esthonia for six years (967-972), was treated well, and was much beloved by the people.
Sigurd Eriksson, the brother of Astrid, happened to come to Esthonia to collect taxes for King Valdemar (or Vladimir), king in Novgorod, Russia. In the market-place he saw a very handsome boy, and as he could see that he was a foreigner, he asked him his name and family. The boy answered that his name was Olaf, that he was a son of Trygve Olafson, and that Astrid, a daughter of Erik Biodaskalle, was his mother. Sigurd thus discovered that the boy was his sister’s son, and he bought him, and took him with him to Novgorod, He at first said nothing to the boy about their relationship, but treated him well. Olaf was then nine years old.
One day Olaf was in the market-place, where a great many people were assembled. There he saw and recognized Klerkon, who had killed his foster-father, Thorolf Lusarskeg, on the journey from Sweden. Olaf had a little axe in his hand, and with it he clove Klerkon’s skull, and then he ran home and told his uncle Sigurd what he had done. Sigurd immediately took Olaf to Queen Allogia, told her what had happened, and begged her to protect the boy. The queen took a liking to the boy, paid the fine for the manslaughter he had committed, and induced King Valdemar to admit him to his court, where he was brought up as a king’s son. Olaf remained with King Valdemar nine years (973-981).
At the age of eighteen Olaf was given ships by King Valdemar and set out on viking cruises. After a plundering visit to the island of Bornholm he came to Vendland (Pomerania), where he married Queen Geira, the daughter of King Burislav, and subdued the countries which had formerly belonged to her dominions, but had lately failed to pay her taxes. Every summer he made viking cruises, and in the winter he stayed with Queen Geira. Olaf had been three years in Vendland when Geira was taken sick and died. His grief was so great that he could not afterward stay in Vendland. He then provided himself with warships and made viking cruises to Denmark, England, Northumberland, Scotland, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, and western France. On returning from France he was driven by a storm to the Scilly Isles, where he and all his men were baptized in the Christian faith. Afterward Olaf came to England, and married Princess Gyda, a daughter of the Irish king Olaf Kvaran. The English annals contain many references to Olaf Trygvason, and name him as chief of a fleet of nearly 400 ships which, in the year 991, harried the east coast of England and won a great battle, after which the Englishmen were compelled to pay him 10,000 pounds in silver. Three years later he again attacked the coast of England, and the English king, Ethelred, had to beg for peace and promise to pay him 16,000 pounds in silver. Olaf and his army went into winter quarters in Southampton. Soon afterward King Ethelred invited him to his home; Olaf accepted the invitation, and the two became good friends. During his stay with the king, Olaf was confirmed, and King Ethelred himself became his sponsor and gave him many precious gifts. Olaf, for his part, made a solemn vow that he would never again attack the coasts of England, a promise which he appears to have kept.
Early in the year 995 Olaf proceeded to Norway, and arrived at Throndhjem just when the peasants had risen against Earl Haakon. They made him their chief, and when the earl was dead, and his sons had fled, Olaf Trygvason became king of Norway.
CHAPTER XI
Olaf Trygvason (995-1000)
OLAF TRYGVASON was twenty-seven years old when he came to Norway. At a general Thing at Throndhjem the people elected him king of all Norway, as Harald the Fairhaired had been, and in return he promised to enforce law and justice. The following spring and summer Olaf travelled through the whole country, to the southernmost part of Viken, and everywhere he was hailed as king, even by the chiefs in the Uplands and in Viken, who, during the reign of Earl Haakon, had at least nominally acknowledged the suzerainty of the Danish king. In the Uplands the petty kings, who were descendants of Harald the Fairhaired, were allowed to retain their possessions on the old conditions.
Olaf had decided, before he left England, to introduce Christianity in Norway, and he found it advisable to commence this work in Viken, where he had many of his relatives and warmest friends. Here was the rich and influential Lodin, who, some time before, had married Olaf’s mother Astrid. His mother’s brothers and two brothers-in-law of Olaf were also mighty people in that part of the country. Another reason for starting the work here was that a good many had already adopted the Christian faith under the influence of missionaries from Germany and Denmark. During his stay in Viken, Olaf called his relatives together and informed them of his intention to convert the whole of Norway to the Christian faith. He would accomplish that, he said, or die in the attempt. But he promised to make his relatives great and mighty men if they would support him with all their power. This they agreed to do, and as the most powerful men among the people had now acceded to King Olaf’s request, the others followed their example, and all the inhabitants of the east part of Viken allowed themselves to be baptized. Greater opposition was met in the north part of Viken (around “Folden”), where Christianity had not had so many former adherents. But Olaf would tolerate no opposition; those who opposed him he punished severely, killing some, mutilating others, and driving some into banishment. During that summer (996) and the following winter all Viken was made Christian.
The next spring King Olaf christianized Agder. He met no opposition until he came to Hordaland, where there were many mighty men. They met him fully armed at a public assembly, ready to resist; but after he had made his speech entreating them to accept Christianity, but adding that those who would not submit must expect punishment, their courage failed them, and all the people present were baptized before the assembly was dissolved. King Olaf then went with his men to the Gula-Thing, where one of the chieftains asked of the king, as a sign of goodwill, that he give his sister Astrid in marriage to their relation, Erling Skialgson of Sole, whom they looked upon as one of the most hopeful men in the country. This the king readily acceded to, since Erling was a man of good birth and fine appearance. Erling Skialgson and Astrid were married in the summer, and the king, who was present at the wedding, at his departure invested Erling with all the land north of the Sogne Fjord and east to the Lidandisnes, on the same terms as Harald the Fairhaired had given land to his sons.
After having christianized the people of Sogn, South More, Raumsdal and North More, King Olaf, after a year’s absence, returned to Throndhjem. At Lade he had the great heathen temple razed to the ground, took all the ornaments, and burned the temple with all the images. When the people heard of this they sent out war-tokens and collected a great force, with which they intended to attack the king. In the meantime Olaf sailed with his men out of the fjord along the coast northward, intending to proceed to Halogaland and baptize there. But when he came out to Bjarnaurar (Björnör), he heard from Halogaland that a force was assembled there to defend the country against the king. The chiefs of this force were Harek of Thiotta, Thorer Hiort from Vagar, and Eyvind Kinrifa. At the same time he learned that the peasants in Throndhjem had now dispersed. He therefore turned about and sailed in through the Throndhjem Fjord again.
In the fall King Olaf laid the foundation of the future city of Nidaros at the mouth of the river Nid. He built his royal residence at Skipakrok (the ships’ creek), built a church further up, and laid out building lots for the people. The work was pushed forward with energy, so that Olaf could take up his residence there in the winter, and by Christmas the church was also ready.
At the beginning of the winter Olaf summoned the peasants to a Thing at Frosta, and they came in great numbers, but also well armed. When the Thing was called to order, the king began in a mild manner to preach Christianity; but the peasants soon objected, and the mighty Jernskegge (Ironbeard), who was their spokesman, said that the will of the people was now, as formerly, that the king should not break the laws. They wanted the king to offer sacrifice, as other kings before him had done. If he did not do as they wanted, they would kill him or banish him from the country. Seeing that the people were in earnest, and had a superior force present, King Olaf talked to them in a more conciliatory manner, promised to be present at their midwinter sacrifices, and said that they could then further discuss the proposed change of faith. This speech was well received, and the assembly dispersed.
When Yuletide came, Olaf invited all the mighty peasants from Strinden, Gaulardal, and Orkadal to a feast at Lade. They came, were entertained in the best possible manner the first evening, and toward morning became quite drunk. The next day he called a House-Thing, where his men were present in much greater number than the peasants. He made a speech, in which he said that at Frosta he had offered them Christianity, but instead of accepting it they had demanded that he should offer sacrifice to their gods, as other kings had done. “Now,” he continued, “if I shall turn again to making sacrifice, then will I make the greatest of sacrifices that are in use, and I will sacrifice men. But I will not select slaves or malefactors for this, but will take the greatest men only to be offered to the gods.” Thereupon he selected eleven of the principal men, and all these, he said, he would offer in sacrifice to the gods for peace and a fruitful season, and ordered them to be laid hold of immediately. As the peasants saw that resistance was useless, they all submitted to the king’s demands. He spared their lives on the condition that they should be baptized, take an oath to support the true faith, and renounce all sacrifices to the heathen gods. They were then baptized, and had to send their sons, brothers or other near relations as hostages. Later on, King Olaf came with his men to Mærin, where the people were assembled. He promised to go into their temple to look at their ceremonies; but while there, he and his men knocked down and demolished the images of the gods, while the chief of the peasants, Jernskegge, was killed outside of the temple by one of the king’s men. When the king came outside, he demanded that the peasants be baptized, or fight with him on the spot, and as their chief was dead, and there was a superior force against them, they yielded, were baptized, and gave hostages for their perseverance in the faith.
In this and similar ways King Olaf succeeded in christianizing, in name at least, practically the whole of Norway. Christianity was also introduced in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Orkneys.
Queen Sigrid the Haughty (Storraade), widow of King Erik of Sweden, resided on her large estates in Gautland and wielded a great influence. Her son, Olaf the Swede, besides being king of Sweden, also ruled over Denmark, whence Svein Tjuguskeg had been expelled. Many were her wooers, but she had so far rejected all, and she even caused two of them, her foster-brother Harald Grenske and the Russian king Vsevolod, to be killed, by being burned in their lodgings, in order, as she said, to make petty kings quit courting her. Olaf Trygvason evidently thought that it would strengthen him if he could marry Sigrid, and sent messengers to her with a request for her hand. They were well received, and it was agreed that Olaf and Sigrid should meet at Konungahella, at the boundary line between Norway and Sweden, early in the spring. King Olaf sent Queen Sigrid as a gift the great gold ring he had taken from the heathen temple at Lade. She was greatly pleased with this ring, and had it passed around in her hall to be admired. When it came to her two goldsmiths they shook their heads, and upon being pressed, pronounced the ring false. The queen ordered the ring to be broken into pieces, and it was found to be copper inside. Sigrid became very angry, and said that Olaf would probably deceive her in more ways than this one.
Early in the spring Olaf met Queen Sigrid at the appointed place, and it seemed that they were coming to an agreement. But when Olaf insisted that Sigrid should become a Christian and be baptized, she answered: “I must not part from the faith which I have held, and my forefathers before me; but, on the other hand, I shall make no objection to your believing in the god that pleases you best.” Then King Olaf became angry and struck her in the face with his glove, saying: “Why should I care to have thee, an old faded woman, and a heathen jade?” Greatly enraged Sigrid cried: “This may some day be thy death.” Thus they parted. The king set off to Viken, and the queen returned to Gautland.
King Olaf unexpectedly met a new bride. The Danish king, Svein Tjuguskeg, had compelled his sister Thyra to marry King Burisleif of Vendland;[1] but Thyra had been with this heathen and dissolute husband only a week when she fled back to Denmark, and afterward, in order to avoid her brother, went to Norway, where she met King Olaf. “Thyra was a well-spoken woman,” says the saga, “and the king had pleasure in her conversation.” He also saw that she was a handsome woman, although she can not have been very young at that time, and the result was that they were married, much against the wish of Svein Tjuguskeg.
Shortly after this Sigrid the Haughty married Svein Tjuguskeg, who, by this relationship with King Olaf the Swede, recovered back his kingdom, Denmark. Their family connections also included the two sons of the late Earl Haakon, Erik, who married Svein Tjuguskeg’s daughter Gyda, and Svein, who married Holmfrid, a sister of Olaf the Swede. Thus the chain was formed, which for a long time was to have influence on the destiny of Norway.
Olaf Trygvason and his wife, Thyra, spent the winter after their marriage at Nidaros (Throndhjem). Queen Thyra often complained, and wept bitterly over it, that she, who had great possessions in Vendland, had no property here suitable for a queen, and she entreated the king to go to Vendland and have her property there restored to her. But all King Olaf’s friends advised him not to undertake such an expedition. It is told that on Palm Sunday the king was walking in the street, and met a man with a number of fine angelica roots, remarkably large for that early season. The king bought one, and brought it home to Queen Thyra, whom he found crying. He said to her: “See here, queen, is a great angelica stalk, which I give thee.” But she threw it away and said: “A greater present my father, Harald Gormson, gave to my mother; and he was not afraid to go out of the country and take what was his; but thou darest not go across the Danish dominions for that brother of mine, King Svein.” Then King Olaf sprang up, and answered with a loud oath: “Never did I fear thy brother, King Svein; and if we meet he shall give way before me!”
Shortly after Easter the king convoked a Thing in the town, and proclaimed to the people that in the summer he would go upon an expedition abroad, and announced how many ships and men he wanted from each district. The king had then just finished a ship which was larger and more magnificent than any other ship in the country. This ship was called the “Long Serpent” (Ormen lange). The crew was made up of picked men of great strength and courage, none of them more than sixty or less than twenty years of age. The only exception was Einar Thambaskelfer, who was only eighteen years old. Einar was unusually strong, and was considered the most skilful archer. He had a bow called Thamb, which he was wont to make quake; hence his name (Thambaskelfer, i.e., Thamb-quaker). The king himself commanded the “Long Serpent.” His half-brother, Thorkel Nefia, commanded the “Short Serpent,” and his mother’s brothers, Thorkel Dydril and Jostein, had the “Crane” (Tranen), and both these ships were well manned. King Olaf had sixty ships when he left Norway, and sailed southward through the Sound to Vendland. With him, on board the “Long Serpent,” were Queen Thyra, his sister Ingibjorg, bishop Sigurd, and several priests. Many of his friends had joined him on the journey south along the Norwegian coast, among them his brother-in-law, Erling Skialgson of Sole, who had a large and well-equipped ship. When King Olaf arrived in Vendland, he was well received by King Burisleif, his claims to Queen Thyra’s estates were peaceably settled, and he remained there a portion of the summer.
Sigrid the Haughty was Olaf Trygvason’s bitterest enemy after their meeting at Konungahella, when he struck her in the face with his glove. She urged King Svein much to fight King Olaf, saying that he had the more reason to do so, as Olaf had married his sister Thyra without his leave. King Svein finally resolved to attack King Olaf. He sent messengers to his brother-in-law, King Olaf the Swede, and to Earl Erik, inviting them to join him with an army, so that they all together might attack King Olaf Trygvason. He also sent Earl Sigvald to Vendland to spy out Olaf Trygvason’s movements, and by pretending friendship gain his confidence and lead him into a trap.
Between the island of Rügen and the mainland of the present Prussian province of Pomerania lies a little island called Greifswalder Oie, or Svolder, as it was called at that time. Here lay on the 9th of September, in the year 1000, a fleet of eighty ships. Sixty of them belonged to the Danish king Svein Tjuguskeg, fifteen to the Swedish king Olaf, and five to Earl Erik. They lay there waiting for King Olaf to pass by on his return home from Vendland.
With a light but favorable breeze the Norwegian fleet sailed out of the harbor, where it had been lying during the stay in Vendland. All the small vessels, which sailed faster, got out to sea before the others. Earl Sigvald with his ships remained near the king for a while, and then sailed ahead telling the king to sail in his keel-tracks, as he knew best where the water was deepest. The earl, who was informed of the presence of the Danish fleet, sailed close under the island of Svolder, and Olaf Trygvason with his remaining eleven large ships followed. Meanwhile the Danish king Svein, the Swedish king Olaf, and Earl Erik, gathered their forces and made ready for battle.
When Olaf Trygvason sailed in toward the island, the whole fleet of the enemy came out against him. When his chieftains saw this superior force they begged the king to proceed on his way, and not risk a battle against such odds. But the king, standing high on the quarter-deck of the “Long Serpent,” replied: “Strike the sails; never shall men of mine think of flight. I never fled from battle. Let God dispose of my life, but flight I shall never take.”
King Olaf ordered the ships to close up to each other. The “Long Serpent” lay in the middle of the line; on one side lay the “Little Serpent,” and on the other the “Crane.” King Olaf stood on the quarter-deck of the “Serpent,” high over the others. He had a gilt shield, and a golden helmet, and over his armor he had a short red jacket, so that he was easily distinguished from the others. When he saw the enemy’s ships drawing up for battle, he asked: “Who is the chief of the force right ahead of us?” The answer came that it was King Svein with the Danish army. The king said; “We are not afraid of these soft Danes, for there is no courage in them. But who are those on the right?” He was answered, that it was King Olaf with the Swedish forces. “Better it were,” said King Olaf, “for these Swedes to stay at home licking their sacrificial vessels,[2] than to come under our weapons. But who owns the large ships on the other side of the Danes?” “That is Earl Erik, the son of Haakon,” said his men. Then the king said: “He, methinks, has good reason for meeting us; and from these men we may expect the sharpest conflict, for they are Northmen like ourselves.”
The battle commenced and became very severe, and many people were slain. King Svein made a violent attack on the “Long Serpent,” but was soon compelled to retreat. Then Olaf the Swede came up with his fifteen ships, but he fared no better, and the king himself had a narrow escape from death. When Earl Erik came up with his ships the fight became most severe, and a great number of people fell. The men from the smaller ships soon began to seek refuge on board the “Long Serpent,” and at last all King Olaf Trygvason’s ships were cleared of men except the “Long Serpent.” Then Earl Erik brought his ship up to the side of the “Serpent,” and the fight went on with battle-axe and sword.
Einar Thambaskelfer stood at the mast of the “Serpent” and sent deadly arrows from his bow. He sent an arrow at Earl Erik, which hit the tiller-end just above the earl’s head so hard that it entered the wood up to the arrow-shaft. The earl had hardly time to ask whose shot it was, when another arrow flew between his arm and his side, and clear through a board behind him. Again Einar drew his bow, when it was hit by an arrow from the enemy and broke in two. “What was it that broke with such a noise?” cried King Olaf. “Norway, king, from thy hands,” answered Einar. “Not so,” said the king, “take my bow and shoot,” and the king threw his own bow to Einar. Einar took the bow, and drew it over the head of the arrow. “Too weak, too weak,” said he, “is the bow of the king,” and, throwing it aside, he took sword and shield, and fought desperately.
Finally, after a terrible combat, the earl’s men boarded the “Serpent,” and the few men who were left were killed or leaped overboard. King Olaf held his shield over his head when he threw himself in the water, and was drowned. Among the last men to leave the ship were Einar Thambaskelfer, who was captured in the water, and Thorkel Nefia, who swam ashore.
King Olaf Trygvason was thirty-six years old when he fell at Svolder. His widow, Queen Thyra, died shortly afterward from grief.
CHAPTER XII
The Discovery of America
DURING the reign of Earl Haakon a man from Jæderen, called Erik the Red, being obliged to leave Norway because he had killed a man, proceeded to the western part of Iceland. Here he committed a similar offence and was condemned at Thorsnes Thing to banishment. He had heard that a man called Gunbiorn, son of Ulf Krage, had some time ago been driven by the storm far westward and had seen a great country. Erik the Red fitted out a vessel and told his friends that he intended to find the country Gunbiorn had seen. He took with him a man by the name of Heriulf Bardson. They found the country (984), and on a visit later to Iceland Erik the Red gave such a fine description of the new country that it was called Greenland. A number of colonists returned [Pg 66]with him to the new country, and the foundation of several settlements were laid. In the summer of 999 Leif Erikson, a son of Erik the Red, made a visit to Norway, and as he met King Olaf Trygvason he adopted Christianity, and passed the winter with the king. In the following spring King Olaf sent Leif Erikson, together with a priest and other teachers, to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. Flourishing colonies, with churches, monasteries, and bishoprics, are known to have been maintained in Greenland until the end of the fourteenth century.
Biarne Heriulfson, a son of the above-named Heriulf Bardson, while sailing westward from Iceland in search of his father, met with stormy weather, northerly winds and fogs, and was driven out of his course. As he came to different shores, which, from the description he had received, could not be those of Greenland, he turned around, and, sailing in a northeasterly direction, finally arrived at his father’s home in Greenland. When telling of his discovery he was much ridiculed for not having landed and examined the new countries. Leif Erikson bought Biarne’s ship, and with a crew of thirty-five men set out, in the year 1000, to look for these lands. He came first to a land on his right as he sailed southward. It had great icy mountains in the interior and a shore of flat stones. He therefore named the country Helluland (from the Norse helle, a flat stone). He continued his course southward, and came to another country, which was level and covered with woods and had a low coast. He called this country Markland (outfield or woodland). The antiquaries consider Helluland to have been Newfoundland, and Markland some part of Nova Scotia. Leif and his party put to sea again with a northeast wind, and after two days’ sailing made land, and came to an island lying on the north side of the mainland. They entered the channel between the island and a point projecting northeast from the mainland, and at last landed at a place where a river which came from a lake fell into the sea. They found the country very agreeable, and, resolving to winter there, erected some houses. Leif divided his people into two parties, to be employed in turns in exploring the country and working about the houses. One evening it happened that one of the exploring party, a German by birth, named Tyrker, was missing. They went out to search for him, and when they met him he told them he had been up the country, and had discovered vines and grapes, a fruit with which he was acquainted from his native country. They now occupied themselves in gathering grapes and cutting vines, and felling timber with which they loaded the vessel. Leif called the country Vinland. Toward spring they made ready and sailed away, and returned to Greenland.
In the year 1002 Leif Erikson’s brother, Thorvald, fitted out a ship and sailed southward with thirty men, after consulting with Leif. They came to Vinland, to the houses put up by Leif, where they remained quietly all winter, and lived by fishing. In the spring Thorvald sent a party in the long-boat to explore the country to the south. They found the country beautiful and well wooded, but with little space between the woods and the sea, and the strand full of white sand. There were also many islands, and shallow water. They came back in the autumn to Leif’s houses. The following spring Thorvald sailed with his vessel eastward, then northward along the land. Outside of a cape they met bad weather and were driven ashore and broke their keel. They remained there a long time to repair their vessel. Thorvald said to his men: “We will stick up the keel here upon the ness and call the place Keelness.”[3] Then they sailed eastward along the country and landed on a headland, which Thorvald liked so well that he said he would like to make his home there. On going on board they saw three little hills on the sandy shore. They went up to them and found they were three canoes, made of skin, with three natives—or Skrælings, as the Northmen called them—under each canoe. They killed eight of them, while one made his escape in his canoe. Afterward a great number of the natives attacked Thorvald’s party. They were repulsed, but Thorvald was wounded by an arrow and died. He was buried on the headland which he had said he liked so well. His men remained there during the winter, and in the spring returned to Greenland.
In the summer of 1006, an Icelander by the name of Thorfin Karlsefne came to Greenland, and, in the winter, married Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein, third brother of Leif Erikson. By her advice he resolved to undertake an expedition to Vinland and establish a colony there. In the spring (1007) they set out with three ships, 160 men, and all kinds of live stock, and sailed to Vinland. Some time after their arrival there Gudrid bore a son, who was named Snorre. The colonists occasionally traded with the Skrælings, giving them pieces of cloth and dairy products for their skins; but when they refused to sell them weapons, the Skrælings became hostile to the settlers and attacked them repeatedly. These constant hostilities so disheartened the settlers that they resolved to leave the country, and, after three years’ sojourn in Vinland, Thorfin Karlsefne and his party returned to Greenland. Another expedition to Vinland was undertaken, shortly after their return, by Freydis, the illegitimate daughter of Erik the Red, her husband Thorvald, and two Norwegians named Helge and Finboge. This party quarrelled among themselves, and Freydis, who is described as a very bad woman, caused a great number of them to be murdered. The survivors returned to Greenland in the spring of 1013. The next summer, Thorfin Karlsefne went to Norway with his Vinland cargo and sold it to great advantage. He returned to Iceland and bought land there, and, according to the saga, many men of distinction are descended from him and his son Snorre, who was born in Vinland.[4]
CHAPTER XIII
The Earls Erik and Svein, Sons of Haakon (1000-1015)
AFTER the battle of Svolder, the three allied princes divided the kingdom of Norway between them. King Olaf the Swede got four districts in the Throndhjem country, and the districts of North More and South More and Raumsdal, and in the eastern part of the country he got Ranrike from the Gaut River to Svinesund. Earl Erik got four districts in the Throndhjem country, and Halogaland, Naumudal, the Fjord districts, Sogn, Hordaland, Rogaland, and North Agder, all the way to the Naze (Lindesnes, the southernmost point in Norway). The Danish king, Svein Tjuguskeg, retained Viken, which he had held before, and Raumarike and Hedemarken. After the division, the Swedish king gave his Norwegian possessions into the hands of his brother-in-law Svein, the brother of Earl Erik, on the same conditions as the sub-kings or earls held such possessions formerly from the chief king. At the same time the Danish king gave most of his possessions in Norway in fief to Earl Erik. Thus the two brothers together ruled over a larger territory than their father, Earl Haakon, had held; but they were not able to wield the same power. During his whole time, Earl Erik received no taxes from Rogaland, which Erling Skialgson ruled over with unlimited authority. The earls Erik and Svein were baptized, [Pg 71]and adopted the Christian faith; but as long as they ruled in Norway they allowed every one to do as he pleased as to the manner of observing his Christianity. On the other hand, they upheld the old laws, and all the old rights and customs of the country. They were popular men and good rulers. Of the two brothers Earl Erik had most to say in all public matters.
The earls tried to gain the friendship of Olaf Trygvason’s old friends, and in many cases they succeeded. The brave young Einar Thambaskelfer was won over by their giving him great fiefs in Orkadal, so that he became one of the most powerful and esteemed men in all the Throndhjem country. They also gave him their proud sister Bergliot in marriage. One mighty man, however, they tried in vain to conciliate. That was Erling Skialgson, the brother-in-law of Olaf Trygvason. He could not forgive Earl Erik for having joined the Swedes and Danes in an unexpected attack on Olaf Trygvason and causing his death. He managed to maintain a firm hold on the dominions his brother-in-law had given him. If the earls visited a neighborhood where they knew that Erling was staying, they always took with them a large armed force, and they never thought of visiting Erling on his estate, Sole. He had with him never less than ninety free men. If it was reported that the earls were in the neighborhood, he had two hundred men or more. He never went by water from one place to another except in a fully-manned ship of twenty benches of rowers. In the summer he used to make viking cruises in order to procure means with which to support his many men.
Erling was a good master. At home, on his estate, he always had thirty slaves besides the many servants engaged in work outside. He gave each of them a certain day’s work; when one of them was through with that, he had the balance of the day at his own disposal. Each one received a piece of land to cultivate, and what grain he produced he could sell and use the proceeds toward buying himself free. The amount needed for this purpose was fixed by the earl, and it was so low that many bought their freedom at the end of a year, while all who were at all industrious could make themselves free within three years. He also assisted his men after they had become free. Some of them were given land to clear and cultivate, while others were shown how to conduct the herring-fisheries.
After the death, in England, of the Danish king, Svein Tjuguskeg, his son, Canute (Knut) the Mighty, sent word to Earl Erik in Norway (his brother-in-law) to come over and help him to conquer England. The earl immediately called together the mightiest peasants, and in their presence divided the country between his brother Svein and his son Haakon. As the latter was only seventeen years old, the earl appointed his brother-in-law, Einar Thambaskelfer, guardian for him. Thereupon Earl Erik set sail for England. He met King Canute there, and was with him when he captured London. He was given Northumberland to govern, and remained there until his death.
From the short joint reign of Earl Svein and Earl Haakon in Norway only one event of importance is known. As soon as Earl Erik had left the country, they effected a reconciliation with the mighty Erling Skialgson at Sole, who had never been able to forgive Earl Erik for the assault on Olaf Trygvason, but readily made peace with Svein and Haakon; and the new friendship was further cemented by Aslak, Erling’s son, marrying Earl Svein’s daughter Gunhild (or Sigrid, as the name is given in another place). One good reason why the earls sought to strengthen their power by an alliance with the powerful chieftain, Erling Skialgson, was no doubt the unexpected appearance of a most threatening enemy, the young pretender to the throne, Olaf, son of Harald Grenske.
CHAPTER XIV
The Youth of Olaf Haraldson
OLAF HARALDSON, after his death called Olaf the Saint, was the son of Harald Grenske and Aasta. Harald Grenske, who, as we have seen, at one time governed Viken under the suzerainty of the Danish king, was the grandson of Biorn the Merchant—who was killed by Erik Blood-Axe—and a great-grandson of Harald the Fairhaired. Olaf was born shortly after the death of his father. His mother Aasta was then staying at the home of her father, Gudbrand Kula, a mighty man in the Uplands. Soon afterward, Aasta was married again to Sigurd Syr, who was king in Ringerike and a descendant of Harald the Fairhaired, and in his house Olaf was brought up. When King Olaf Trygvason came to Ringerike to spread Christianity, he induced Sigurd Syr and his whole family to be baptized, and he acted as godfather at the baptism of little Olaf.
One day, when Olaf was ten years old, King Sigurd wanted to ride out, and, as there was nobody else about the house, he told his stepson Olaf to go and saddle his horse. Olaf did not refuse, but he went to the goats’ pen, and put the king’s saddle on the largest he-goat, led him up to the door, and went in and told King Sigurd that his horse was saddled. When King Sigurd came out and saw what Olaf had done, he said: “Easy it is to see that thou wilt little regard my orders; and thy mother will think it right that I do not order thee to do anything against thy own inclination. I see well enough that thou art far more proud than I am.” Olaf answered little, but went his way laughing.
When Olaf grew up he became of medium height, but very stout and strong. He had light brown hair, and a broad face which was white and red. He had particularly fine eyes, which were beautiful, but piercing, so that one was afraid to look him in the face when he was angry. Olaf was very expert in all bodily exercises, understood well how to handle his bow, and was especially an expert in throwing his spear. He was well liked by his friends and acquaintances, was ambitious in his sports, and always strove to be the first.
Olaf was twelve years old when, for the first time, he went on board a ship of war (1007). His mother, Aasta, got Rane, who was called foster-father of kings, to command the ship and take Olaf under his charge. The men on board, however, gave Olaf the title of king. With two ships, Olaf first steered to Denmark and then to Sweden, where he harried the coasts and fought with vikings. Afterward he made cruises to Finland, Russia, and Gotland. Later he turned westward to Friesland and England, where he took part in the fights between the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons. From the poems of the Skalds it appears that he took part in the battle of Hringmara (1010), and in the storming of Canterbury (1012). In company with Thorkel the Tall (a brother of Earl Sigvald) he entered the English king Ethelred’s service, took part in his battles against the Danish vikings, and accompanied Ethelred on his flight to Normandy. From here he thought of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; but on the way he had, according to tradition, a remarkable dream. He thought he saw a tall and handsome man, who told him to return to Norway and take his Udal, adding “for thou shalt be king over thy country forever.”
CHAPTER XV
Olaf the Saint (1015-1028)
LEAVING his long-ships (battleships) behind him at Northumberland, Olaf sailed, in the fall of 1015, with two merchant-ships and 120 well-armed men, across the North Sea to Norway. After a stormy voyage he landed on the west coast of Norway, near a small island called Sæla. King Olaf thought this was a good omen, because that word means luck. He sailed southward to Ulfasund, where he heard that Earl Haakon was south in Sogn, and was expected north with a single ship as soon as the wind was favorable. King Olaf then sailed further south, and when he came to Saudungssund he laid one of his vessels on each side of the sound, with a thick cable between them. Soon after Earl Haakon came rowing into the sound with a manned ship; they saw Olaf’s ships, but thought they were only two merchant vessels, and rowed in between them. When the ship was over the cable, Olaf’s men on each side wound it up with the windlass, so that Haakon’s ship upset, and all his men plunged into the water. Most of them, however, were picked up and taken on board Olaf’s ship; only a few were drowned. Among those saved was Earl Haakon. He was a very handsome [Pg 76]boy of eighteen years, with fair, silken hair, bound about his head with a gold ornament. When Olaf saw him, he said: “True it is what has been said of your family: you are handsome people; but now your luck has deserted you.” Haakon replied: “It is always so, that sometimes one is victorious, and sometimes another. I am little beyond childhood in years; besides, we did not expect any attack. It may turn out better with me another time.” “But dost thou not fear that thou art now in such a condition that, hereafter, there will be neither victory nor defeat for thee?” asked the king. “That all depends upon thee,” said the earl. Olaf then asked what he would give if he were allowed to go unhurt. The earl asked what he demanded. “Nothing,” said the king, “except that thou shalt leave the country and take an oath that thou shalt never go into battle against me.” Earl Haakon agreed to this, took the oath, and rowed away with his men. As soon as possible he sailed over to England, to his mother’s brother, King Canute, who received him well. His father, Earl Erik, whom he afterward joined, considered his son’s oath binding upon him also, and he therefore made no attempt to win back the lost kingdom, but remained in Northumberland until his death (1024).
King Olaf now went southward along the coast, holding Things with the peasants in many places. Many went willingly with him, while others, who were Earl Svein’s relations or friends, refused him allegiance. He therefore decided first to apply to his relations, the kings in the Uplands, and see what support he could gain from them for his cause. He sailed east to Viken, set his ships on land, and proceeded with one hundred and twenty men up the country to Ringerike, to meet his stepfather, Sigurd Syr. The story of his reception at his mother’s home, as detailed in Snorre Sturlason’s Heimskringla, is very interesting, and gives a vivid picture of the life and customs at the home of a rich and mighty Norwegian in those days. The main portion of the description is here given.
As Olaf was approaching Sigurd Syr’s home some of the servants ran ahead to the house. Olaf’s mother, Aasta, was sitting in the room, and around her some of her girls. When the servants told her that King Olaf was coming, and that he might soon be expected, Aasta immediately got up, and ordered men and girls to put everything in the best order. She ordered four girls to bring out all that belonged to the decoration of the room, and put it in order with hangings and benches. Two men brought straw for the floor, two brought forward four-cornered tables and the drinking-jugs, two bore out victuals and placed the meat on the table, two she sent away from the house to procure in the greatest haste all that was needed, and two carried in the ale; and all the other serving men and girls went outside of the house. Messengers went to seek King Sigurd wherever he might be, and brought to him his dress-clothes, and his horse with gilt saddle, and his bridle which was gilt and set with precious stones. Four men she sent off in different directions to invite all the great people to a feast, which she was preparing as a rejoicing for her son’s return. She made all who were in the house dress themselves with the best they had, and lent clothes to those who had none suitable.
King Sigurd Syr was in the field superintending the harvest work when the messengers came to him with the news, and told him all that Aasta was doing at the house. He had many people with him working in the field. He probably did not like the interruption of the work caused by his wife’s message, but he dressed himself in the fine clothes sent him, mounted his horse, and rode home together with thirty well-dressed men whom he had sent for. As they rode up to the house, Olaf, under his banner, was seen coming up from the other side with one hundred and twenty men all well equipped. People were also gathered all around. King Sigurd saluted his stepson, and invited him and his men to come and drink with him. But Aasta went up and kissed her son, and invited him to stay with them, saying that all the land and people she could furnish would be at his service. King Olaf thanked her kindly for her invitation. Then she took him by the hand, and led him into the room to the high-seat, while King Sigurd got men to take care of their clothes, and see that the horses were cared for. Then Sigurd went in, and a great feast was had.
King Olaf had not been at the place many days before he called his stepfather, King Sigurd, his mother Aasta, and his foster-father Rane to a conference and consultation. He informed them that it was his intention to win back from the Danes and the Swedes the land of his forefathers or die in the attempt. He asked Sigurd to help him, and give him the best possible advice in the matter. King Sigurd thought the plan was very risky, but knew from experience that it would be useless to try to dissuade Olaf from it. He would, therefore, help him with goods and money; but he would not bind himself to anything more, before he knew the views and intentions of the other Upland kings.
In the Uplands there lived at that time many descendants from Harald the Fairhaired. They all bore the title of king, although their possessions were small. After the death of Olaf Trygvason they had acknowledged the suzerainty of the Danish king. One of them ruled over Raumarike, Hadeland and Thoten, another over Valders. In Gudbrandsdal there was a king named Gudrod, and in Hedemarken two brothers, Rorek and Ring, were the rulers. With these district-kings Sigurd Syr had a meeting in Hadeland which King Olaf also attended. Here Sigurd announced his stepson Olaf’s purpose, and asked their aid to accomplish the plan. He also told of the many brave deeds which Olaf had performed on his war expeditions.
King Rorek then made a speech against the proposed change. The people, he said, had had many experiences. When King Haakon, Athelstan’s foster-son, was king, all were content; but when Gunhild’s sons ruled over the country, they became so hated for their tyranny that the people would rather have foreign kings, who usually left the people to themselves if only the taxes were paid. When Earl Haakon had succeeded in establishing himself firmly as a ruler with the help of the people, he became so hard and overbearing toward them that they could no longer tolerate him. They killed him, and raised to the kingly power Olaf Trygvason, who was udal-born to the kingdom, and in every way well qualified to be a chief. The whole country’s wish was to make him supreme king, and raise again the kingdom which Harald the Fairhaired had established. But when King Olaf had become secure in his power, no man could manage his own affairs for him. With the small kings he was very hard, and collected even greater tribute than Harald the Fairhaired had done. A man was not even allowed to believe in what god he pleased. After Olaf Trygvason had been taken away, they had kept friendly with the Danish king, and had received great help from him in everything; they had been allowed to rule themselves, and had experienced no oppression. Rorek was, therefore, inclined to let well enough alone, and declined to take any part in the proposed plan. His brother Ring was of a different opinion. He said that even if he only could keep the same power and property that he held now, he would prefer to see one of his own race as supreme king rather than a foreign chief. And if Olaf succeeded in making himself supreme king, those of them would fare best who had best deserved his friendship. He believed Olaf to be an honorable man, and if they gave him aid now he would certainly show his gratitude afterward. He was in favor of giving Olaf all possible friendship and support. The others, one after the other, expressed the same opinion, and the result was that the most of them entered into a league with King Olaf. This league was confirmed by oath.
Thereafter the kings summoned a Thing, and here Olaf explained in a long speech what claims he had to the throne of Harald the Fairhaired. He requested the peasants to elect him king, and he promised them to uphold the old laws, and to defend the country. His speech was very well received. Then the different kings spoke in support of his request, and the result was that King Olaf was proclaimed king over the whole country according to the laws of the Uplands. The king thereupon proceeded through the Uplands accompanied by three hundred and sixty men, and from all directions the people flocked to him and hailed him as their king.
From the Uplands King Olaf hastened over the Dovre Mountain to the Throndhjem country. It was of importance to come there before the reports of his proceedings reached Earl Svein, who was about to celebrate Christmas at Steinker. At Medaldal, in Orkedal, he summoned the peasants to a Thing, where he requested them to accept him as king. They were without a leader and did not have sufficient strength to offer opposition to the king; so the result was that they took the oath of allegiance. At Griotar he met an army of about eight hundred men, which had been collected by Einar Thambaskelfer, but had been left without a leader while Einar went to Gauldal to get more men. Olaf offered the men peace and law, “the same as King Olaf Trygvason offered before me,” and then presented them with two conditions—either to enter his service or fight him. The result was that they hailed him as their king. When Earl Svein heard of this, he fled from Steinker with a long-ship and proceeded to Frosta. After having reached Steinker, Olaf again summoned a Thing, and compelled the people to recognize him as their king. He thereupon sailed to Nidaros, where he made preparations to celebrate Christmas. Earl Svein and Einar Thambaskelfer meanwhile gathered an army of 2,400 men, with which they suddenly descended upon Nidaros. Olaf and his men barely escaped, and fled southward to the Uplands by the same way they had come. Earl Svein took the Christmas provisions which Olaf’s party had been obliged to leave and then burned the town of Nidaros.
Olaf spent the winter in the Uplands, and in the spring gathered an army with which he intended to meet Earl Svein. The kings in Hedemarken furnished him with many armed men, and his stepfather, Sigurd Syr, joined him with a great force. During the winter he had built a ship, which was named “Karlshoved” (Carl’s Head, possibly intended to represent the head of Charlemagne, whose name was held in great veneration). On the bow of the ship was a crowned head, which the king himself had carved. With a fine and well-equipped fleet Olaf set out from Viken, going first to Tunsberg.
Earl Svein in the meanwhile collected a great force in the north. Many of the chiefs were his relatives and friends, and were able to give him great assistance. His brother-in-law, Einar Thambaskelfer, was on his side, and with him many other lendermen (a sort of local governors); and among them were many who had taken oath of allegiance to King Olaf the winter before. Earl Svein sailed south along the coast, drawing men from every district. When they came to Rogaland, Erling Skialgson of Sole joined them with a considerable force. Svein’s fleet is said to have consisted of forty-five ships, with probably upward of 2,500 men; Olaf hardly had half the number of ships, but his ships were considerably larger, so that the number of men was probably about the same. Toward the end of Easter he entered Viken with his fleet and put in at Nesiar (Nesje), a headland on the east side of the bay (near Fredriksværn).
On Palm Sunday, March 25, 1016, the two fleets met in battle. Before opening the battle Olaf had his ships tied together, his own ship, “Karlshoved,” occupying a place in the centre. On this ship were one hundred and twenty men armed in coats of mail, French helmets, and white shields, on which was a gilt or painted cross. Olaf had a white banner on which the figure of a serpent was sewed. The king instructed his men to defend themselves with the shields in the beginning, and take care of their lances and arrows, so that they were not thrown away to no purpose. This advice was followed with good results. When the conflict had become exceedingly sharp, and the missiles began to be scarce on the earl’s side, Olaf’s men were well supplied, and their attack was very severe. Men fell in great numbers on both sides, but mostly on the earl’s ships. King Olaf with the “Karlshoved” engaged Earl Svein’s ship, and his men were soon preparing to enter it. The earl, seeing his defeat, ordered his ship cut loose from the others, and at the last moment his brother-in-law, Einar Thambaskelfer, succeeded in pulling the ship out of the line of battle from behind, using his own vessel as a tow-boat. When the earl’s ship was gone, the flight became general. Some of the earl’s men fled up the country, others surrendered on the king’s mercy, but Earl Svein and his followers escaped out through the bay. Svein proceeded to Sweden to seek the aid of the Swedish king, while Erling Skialgson and some other chiefs sailed westward and returned to their homes. Earl Svein was well received by King Olaf the Swede, and it was agreed that next winter they should proceed with an armed force overland through Helsingland and Jemteland and down to the Throndhjem country, for the earl depended upon the faithful help of the people there. The summer was to be spent in viking expeditions in the Baltic. Svein made a cruise to Russia and plundered the coasts; in the fall he was taken sick there and died (1016).
King Olaf went north after the battle of Nesje, and settled down in Nidaros, where he rebuilt the royal residence and the church, and helped the merchants to rebuild the town. After the death of Earl Svein he was readily recognized by all the people in that part of the country as the rightful king. The Swedish king became very angry when he heard that he had lost the possessions in Norway which he had won by the battle of Svolder, and he threatened to take great revenge upon Olaf the Big, a nickname which he had given his Norwegian opponent on account of his stoutness. He sent tax-collectors into Norway, and when these were harshly treated, some of them even being killed, Olaf the Swede was highly enraged, and war between the two kings was threatened. King Olaf made preparations for an emergency, although he much preferred peace, and even wished to marry the Swedish king’s daughter. He built fortifications on a headland in the river Glommen, near the falls of Sarpen, and around these fortifications he laid the foundation of the town of Borg or Sarpsborg. The people on both sides of the boundary were very much displeased with the feud between the kings, and on both sides the kings were urged to make peace. The Norwegian king was willing enough, and sent conciliatory messages to Olaf the Swede, but the latter rejected all overtures. Finally the matter was brought to a crisis at a general Thing assembled at the Swedish city of Upsala. Here the king at first also refused to hear the propositions for peace, when Thorgny Lagman (lawman, a kind of judge at the Thing) rose, and made the following speech: “The disposition of Swedish kings is different now from what I hear it was formerly. My grandfather, Thorgny, could well remember the Upsala king Erik Eymundson, and used to tell of him that when he was in his best years he went out every summer on expeditions, and conquered Finland and Karelen, Esthonia and Courland and many parts of the eastern country. Even at the present day the earth-bulwarks and other great works which he made are to be seen. And yet, he was not so proud that he would not listen to those who had something to say to him. Thorgny, my father, was a long time with King Biorn, and well knew his ways and manners. At that time the kingdom was in great power and suffered no losses. He, too, was sociable with his men. I also remember Erik the Victorious, and was with him on many a war expedition. He enlarged the Swedish dominion and bravely defended it, and with him also it was easy to talk about public affairs. But the king we now have allows no one to talk with him of anything but what he himself desires to hear. He wants to have Norway laid under him, which no Swedish king before him ever desired, and thereby causes many men to be alarmed. But now it is the will expressed by us peasants that thou, King Olaf, make peace with the king of Norway, and give him thy daughter Ingegerd in marriage. If thou wilt reconquer the countries on the Baltic which thy relations and ancestors had there, we will all go with thee. But if thou wilt not now consent to what we demand, we will no longer suffer law and peace to be disturbed, but will attack thee and kill thee. So our forefathers did when, at the Mora Thing, they drowned five kings in a morass because they were filled with the same insupportable pride thou hast shown toward us. Now tell us, in all haste, which of these two conditions thou wilt choose.” The whole public approved, with clash of arms and shouts, the speech of Thorgny Lagman. Then the king rose and said he would do as the people desired. “All Swedish kings,” he said, “have done so, and have allowed the peasants to rule in all according to their will.” The murmur among the people then came to an end, and it was decided that the terms of peace offered by the Norwegian king were to be accepted, and that Ingegerd, the king’s daughter, was to be married to King Olaf of Norway.
In the meanwhile King Olaf travelled through the country, and carefully investigated the manner in which Christianity was observed. Where he found the people lacking in Christian knowledge, he taught them and furnished them with Christian teachers. If he met with obstinate opposition, he acted with severity and cruelty. “If any there were,” says the saga, “who would not renounce heathen ways, he took the matter so zealously that he drove some out of the country, mutilated others on hands or feet, or stung their eyes out; hanged some, slew some with the sword; but let none go unpunished who would not serve God.” In this way he proceeded through the country, accompanied by three hundred and sixty armed men.
King Olaf soon found that Christianity was thriving less the further he proceeded into the interior. In the Uplands five small kings came together at Ringsaker, and under the leadership of King Rorek conspired to kill King Olaf. “But it happened here,” says the saga, “as it usually does, that every one has some friend even among his enemies.” Ketil Kalf of Ringenes, who was present at the meeting of the conspirators, went down after supper to the lake (Miösen), and boarded a little vessel which King Olaf had made him a present of after the battle at Nesje. He had forty well-armed men with him, and rowed in all haste down the lake. He arrived early in the morning at Eid (Eidsvold), where he found the king and told him of the intention of the small kings of Upland. King Olaf immediately gathered his men, sailed north to Ringsaker, surprised the conspirators, and captured them.
King Olaf now availed himself of the opportunity that chance had given him, to rid himself of royal rivals who, as descendants of Harald the Fairhaired, claimed under the law to have as much right to their possessions as any supreme king, and who had always been in the way of a national unity. King Olaf now, by one decisive act, secured the unity and independence of the country, and prepared the way for the victorious entrance of Christianity.
King Ring and two other kings were banished from Norway, under oath never to return. Rorek was a treacherous man and could not be depended upon, so the king ordered both his eyes put out, and afterward took him with him in that condition wherever he went. He ordered Gudrod Valley-king’s tongue to be cut out, and of the lendermen and peasants who were implicated in the conspiracy some he banished from the country, some he mutilated, and with others he made peace. King Olaf took possession of the land that these kings had possessed. His stepfather, Sigurd Syr, who had had nothing to do with the conspiracy of the other small kings, died during the winter (1018), and now Olaf alone bore the title of King in Norway.
Shortly after his stepfather Sigurd Syr’s death, Olaf went to visit his mother, Aasta, and on this occasion it is told that she took her boys (half-brothers of Olaf) to show them to the king. King Olaf took Guthorm on one knee and his brother Halfdan on the other. He made a wry face at the boys, and pretended to be angry, and they became frightened and ran away. Then Aasta brought in her youngest son, Harald, who was then three years old. The king made a wry face at him also, but the boy only stared back at him. The king then took hold of the boy’s hair as if to pull it, but the boy in return pulled the king’s whiskers. “Thou wilt probably be revengeful some day, my friend,” said the king. The following day Olaf and Aasta were watching the boys at play down by the lake (at the Tyrifjord). Guthorm and Halfdan had built houses and barns and had little figures representing cattle and sheep. Little Harald was down by the water, where he had little chips of wood floating. The king asked him what they were, and Harald answered that they were warships. The king laughed, and said: “The time may come, kinsman, when thou wilt command ships.” Then the king called Guthorm and Halfdan up to him, and asked them what they would like to have above all. “Fields,” answered Guthorm. “And how large?” asked the king. “I would have that headland yonder sown with corn every summer,” answered the boy. The headland included ten farms. “There would be a great deal of corn there,” said the king. Turning to Halfdan, he asked what he would like best to have. “Cows,” said Halfdan. “And how many?” asked the king. “So many that when they came to the lake to drink they would stand close together around the whole lake,” was the answer. “You both take after your father in wanting a great husbandry,” said the king. “But what wouldst thou have?” he asked Harald. “Men,” replied the boy. “And how many?” “So many that in a single meal they would eat all of Halfdan’s cows,” was the answer. The king laughed, and said to Aasta: “Here, mother, thou art bringing up a king.” “And more is not related of them on this occasion,” says the saga; but the prophecy was fulfilled, for Harald, Sigurd’s son, in time became king of Norway.
The Swedish king broke the promises he had given at the Upsala Thing, and did not send his daughter Ingegerd to the appointed meeting-place on the boundary, when King Olaf of Norway came to fetch his bride. Shortly afterward the Swedes revolted, and the Swedish king again had to make concessions, and promise to make peace with the king of Norway. The latter had, in the meanwhile, against the wishes of her father, married Astrid, a younger half-sister of Ingegerd. At the peace of Konungahella, where the kings finally met, this marriage was approved by the Swedish king, the boundary lines between the two countries were finally agreed upon, and friendly relations were established.
After the peace of Konungahella, King Olaf was able to pay more attention to the domestic affairs of the country. He went north, and in the fall came to Nidaros, where he prepared to take up his winter residence. He made careful inquiries as to the condition of Christianity, and learned to his regret that it was not observed at all up north, in Halogaland, and was not observed as it should be in Naumdal and the interior of the Throndhjem country. In the spring Olaf started on an expedition north to Naumdal, where he summoned the peasants to meet him, and at every Thing he was accepted as king. He had the laws read to the people, and threatened them with loss of life, limbs, and property, if they would not subject themselves to Christian law. They all promised to obey, and the rich men made great feasts for the king. Thus he proceeded north to Halogaland, where Harek of Thiotta, a mighty man of the family of Harald the Fairhaired, after having made a feast for the king, was made lenderman, and was given the same privileges he had enjoyed under former rulers. The king remained most of the summer in Halogaland, went to all the Things, and baptized all the people. Thorer Hund, who lived on the island Biarkey and was one of the most powerful men in that northern country, also became one of Olaf’s lendermen. Toward the end of the summer King Olaf sailed back to Throndhjem.
During his stay at Nidaros the king ascertained that the people of the interior of the Throndhjem country were still offering sacrifices to the heathen gods for peace and a good season, and that Olver of Eggja, a mighty man in that neighborhood, presided over these sacrifice-feasts, although he had twice assured the king that the people were loyal Christians. Learning that they were preparing such a feast at Mæren, the king proceeded to that place one night with three hundred and sixty armed men, captured Olver of Eggja, and had him killed together with many others, and severely punished all the peasants who had taken a leading part in the sacrifices. In this way he brought the people back to the Christian faith, gave them teachers, and built and consecrated churches. The widow of Olver of Eggja, who was young and handsome, of good family, and rich, was given by the king in marriage to Kalf Arneson, a young favorite among the king’s men. The king also gave him an office, and Kalf thus became a great chief.
In the summer of 1021 King Olaf proceeded to Mœre and Raumsdal. In the fall he left his ships in Raumsdal and proceeded to Gudbrandsdal. The mightiest man there was Dale-Gudbrand, who ruled over the valley districts there with the authority of a king, although he did not bear the title. When he heard that Olaf was approaching, he summoned all the men in the valley to a Thing, where they decided to resist the attempt to force Christianity upon them. A force of eight hundred men, under the leadership of Alf, the son of Gudbrand, was sent against Olaf, but a battle had scarcely begun when the peasants fled, and Alf was captured. Then the king was invited to hold a Thing with the peasants, so they could discuss the proposed change of faith. To the request of the king that the people should believe in the true God and be baptized, Dale-Gudbrand replied: “We do not understand of whom thou art speaking. Dost thou call him God whom neither thou nor any one else can see? But we have a god who can be seen every day, although he is not out to-day, because the weather is wet. I expect that fear will mix with your very blood when he comes into the Thing. Now, since thy God is so great, let him make it so that to-morrow we have a cloudy day but without rain, and then let us meet again.” The next day when the Thing had assembled, the weather was such as Gudbrand had desired. Bishop Sigurd stood up in full vestments, with mitre on his head and crosier in his hand, and spoke to the peasants of the true faith, and of the many miracles that God had performed. On the third day the peasants came to the assembly carrying between them a great image of the god Thor, which they placed on the green. Dale-Gudbrand then said: “Where now, king, is thy god? I think he will now carry his head lower; and neither thou nor thy bishop are so bold to-day as on former days; for now our god, who rules over all, has come, and looks on you with an angry eye. And now I see well enough that you are terrified.”
The king instructed one of his men, Kolbein Sterke (Kolbein the Strong), to strike the image with his club with all his might, if in the course of the king’s speech it should happen that all the people looked in another direction. Then the king spoke to the people, saying: “Much hast thou talked to us this morning, and greatly hast thou wondered that thou canst not see our God. But I expect that he will soon come to us. Thou wouldst frighten us with thy god, who is both blind and deaf, and can neither save himself nor others, and cannot even move without being carried; but now I expect that he will soon come to grief. For turn your eyes toward the east. Behold our God advancing in great light!” The sun was just rising, and all turned to look. Immediately Kolbein struck the idol with his club, so that it burst into many pieces, and out of it ran rats as big as cats, snakes, and lizards, which had fattened on the good things that had daily been given to the god. At this the peasants became greatly terrified and fled. But the king ordered them together again, and urged them to abandon their worthless heathen gods, and finally he gave them the choice between accepting Christianity and fighting. Dale-Gudbrand then arose and said, that since their own god would not help them, they would have to believe in the king’s God and serve him. Then Olaf caused all the people in the valley to be baptized, and gave them teachers. Gudbrand himself and his son were baptized by the bishop. Gudbrand built a church on his estate, and he and Olaf parted as friends.
With the same firm hand King Olaf established Christianity in Hedemarken and Raumarike. During his stay in Raumarike he assembled a great Thing at Eidsvold and proclaimed the Eidsiva law for all the Uplands.
King Olaf succeeded in having Christianity established by law throughout the whole of Norway. He built many churches and gave property to them, so that there was at least one priest in each Fylki. With the assistance of Bishop Grimkjell he had a church law adopted. He also improved the civil laws, and had a fourth law-thing established for Viken, the Borge-Thing, which had its own law, and was held at the city of Borg (now Sarpsborg). However, by his cruel way of introducing Christianity, and his relentless way of enforcing all laws, Olaf gradually made many enemies; he severely punished all who broke the laws, whether they were high or low, and one after the other among the chiefs became unfriendly to him. Among the most dangerous of these enemies were Erling Skialgson of Sole, Thorer Hund of Biarkey and Harek of Thiotta.
At this time Canute (Knut) the Great, called by some Canute the Old, a son of the Danish king, Svein Tjuguskeg, was king of England and Denmark. Canute claimed the hereditary right to all Norway, and his sister’s son, Earl Haakon, who had held a part of it, appeared to him to have lost it in disgrace. Many of the discontented Norwegians went over to England, pretending various errands, and visited Canute the Great and Earl Haakon, who was staying with Canute. Every one who thus came was most hospitably received, and were given costly presents. The young earl listened with pleasure to the complaints of the discontented about King Olaf’s tyranny, and to their appeals for a return of the former state of affairs. Haakon forgot the oath he had given to King Olaf, and begged his uncle Canute to try if King Olaf would not voluntarily surrender the kingdom or at least a part of it. King Canute then sent magnificently equipped messengers to Norway, bearing his letter and seal.
King Olaf had come down from the Uplands in the spring (1025) and was sojourning in Tunsberg, when the messengers of Canute the Great arrived and made known their errand. “King Canute considers all Norway as his property,” they said, “his forefathers before him having possessed the kingdom; but as he offers peace to all countries, he will not invade Norway with an army if it can be avoided. But if King Olaf Haraldson wishes to remain king of Norway, he must come to King Canute, and receive the kingdom in fief from him, become his vassal, and pay the tribute which the earls before him have paid.” To this King Olaf replied: “I have heard that the Danish king Gorm was considered a good and popular king, although he ruled over Denmark alone; but the kings who succeeded him were not satisfied with this. It has now come so far that King Canute rules over Denmark and England, and has also conquered a great part of Scotland. And still he lays claim to the kingdom I have inherited. I think he ought to be satisfied with what he has. Does he wish to rule over all the countries of the North? Will he eat up all the cabbage in England? He will have to do so before I show him any kind of vassalage. Bring him this answer: I will defend Norway with battle-axe and sword as long as life is given me, and will pay tribute to no man for my kingdom.”
Later in the summer the discontented Norwegians in England were reinforced by Aslak and Skialg, the sons of Erling Skialgson of Sole, who, no doubt with their father’s knowledge and consent, went over to England and were received by King Canute with open arms.
King Olaf understood the danger that was threatening him and took measures to protect himself. He had spies out to keep an eye on the movements of Canute, and in the fall he sent messengers eastward to Sweden to his brother-in-law, King Anund Jacob, who had succeeded his father, Olaf the Swede, as king of Sweden, and let him know King Canute’s demands upon Norway, adding that, in his opinion, if Canute subdued Norway, King Anund would not long enjoy the Swedish dominions in peace. He therefore thought they ought to unite for their defence. King Anund received this message favorably, and promised to arrange a personal meeting with King Olaf in the near future.
In the autumn King Canute the Great came from England to Denmark, and remained there all winter with a large army. Believing that an offensive and defensive alliance between Norway and Sweden would be fraught with danger to his Danish kingdom, he sent messengers to the Swedish king, in order to win his friendship or at least secure his neutrality. But, although the messengers brought many costly presents for King Anund, they were very coolly received, and returned to King Canute with the information that he could not depend much upon the friendship of King Anund.
King Olaf spent the winter at Sarpsborg. Early in the spring he and King Anund met at Konungahella, on the Gaut River, where their alliance was concluded.
King Olaf set out with his men and raised a levy over the whole country. All the lendermen in the North followed him except Einar Thambaskelfer, who remained quietly on his great estate. Olaf sailed with his fleet south around Stadt, and many people from the districts around joined him. At Hordaland he heard that Erling Skialgson had left the country with a great force and several ships, and had sailed westward to England to Canute the Great. King Olaf proceeded eastward and then south to Denmark, where he first ravaged the coast of Seeland, and afterward met King Anund Jacob of Sweden, and with him harried the coast of Skåne (Scania, then a part of Denmark, now belonging to Sweden). They proclaimed to the people that they intended to conquer Denmark, and asked the support of the people for this purpose. Many men entered the service of the kings, and agreed to submit to them.
When King Canute heard in England that King Olaf had gone to Denmark with a plundering army, he collected a great force and a large fleet with which he proceeded to Denmark. Earl Haakon was second in command. King Olaf and King Anund now sailed eastward, and put up in Helgeaa, a short but wide river forming the outlet of a number of lakes near what was then the boundary between Sweden and Denmark. When they heard that King Canute was coming after them with his great force, they made preparations to receive him. They dammed up the lake at the head of the river, so that the water rose to a considerable height in the lake, while the river was quite low. Then the allies made their ships ready for battle. When Canute arrived, it was too late in the evening to begin the battle, and seeing the harbor empty, he entered it with as many ships as possible. Early in the morning the dam was broken, and the water rushed with great force down upon Canute’s fleet. A good many people were drowned, and the ships were scattered, some of them in a considerably damaged condition. However, when the fleet had again been collected, the allied kings perceived that it was of too formidable strength to be attacked, and so they withdrew. King Canute, after having vainly lain in wait for Olaf, and having no special desire for a war between Denmark and Sweden, sailed away and returned to England. King Olaf returned overland through Sweden to Norway.
In the following year (1028) Canute the Great returned with a large fleet to Norway. By a policy of general bribery he had won the friendship of a great many of the discontented chiefs. The saga says “that every man who came to him, and who he thought had the spirit of a man and would like his favor, got his hands full of gifts and money.” He first landed in Agder, where he summoned a Thing and received the oath of allegiance from the peasants. King Olaf was then in Tunsberg. Canute sailed northward along the coast, and everywhere he was hailed as king. In Ekersund Erling Skialgson came to him with many people, and King Canute and Erling renewed their league of friendship. Canute then continued his journey until he came to Throndhjem, and landed at Nidaros. Here a Thing was summoned, at which King Canute was proclaimed king of all Norway. Thorer Hund and Harek of Thiotta were present, and the king divided Halogaland between them. The king made Earl Haakon governor-in-chief of all the land he had taken on this expedition. At the same time he appointed his son Hardeknut king of Denmark. He gave Einar Thambaskelfer great gifts, and restored to him the fiefs he had formerly held.
When King Olaf heard that King Canute had gone south to Denmark he sailed with a few ships, and as many men as would follow him, up along the coast. When he came north to Eikundasund (Ekersund), he heard that Erling Skialgson was ready to meet him with a great force. On the 21st of December the king sailed out of the harbor, and the wind being strong and favorable, he sailed past the place where Erling was with his fleet. Erling soon pursued him, but was separated from his main force, and when he overtook King Olaf he was met by the whole of the latter’s force. A severe fight began, and many men fell on both sides; but finally Erling was the only man left on his ship. King Olaf who, with his men, had entered the ship, called out to him from the fore-deck: “Thou hast turned thy face straight against us to-day, Erling.” “Face to face shall eagles fight,” said Erling. The old man’s courage and manly defence had awakened Olaf’s sympathy, and the king asked him if he would enter his service. “That I will,” said Erling. He took off his helmet, laid down his sword and shield, and went forward to the fore-deck. King Olaf, who half regretted his kindly feelings toward the conquered man, gently scratched his cheek with the edge of his battle-axe, saying: “The traitor to the king must be marked.” Immediately one of the king’s men, Aslak Fitiarskalle, rushed up, and cleft Erling’s skull with his axe, saying: “Thus we mark the traitor to the king.” When the king saw the old chieftain lying dead at his feet he deeply regretted the ill-considered scorn he had uttered, and said to Aslak: “Ill luck was that stroke; for thou hast struck Norway out of my hands.” Erling Skialgson was sixty-two years old at the time of his death, and the saga says that he was the greatest and worthiest man in Norway of all those who had no higher title.
Olaf continued his journey northward, but was soon pursued by Erling’s sons, who had raised a great army. When he heard that Earl Haakon was also coming against him with an army from Throndhjem, he found himself compelled to flee from the country. He landed at Valdal and crossed the mountains to Gudbrandsdal and thence to Sweden, where he left his wife Astrid and his daughter Ulfhild. Olaf, with his son Magnus and a few faithful friends, travelled to Russia, where he was well received by his brother-in-law, King Jaroslav, who had married Ingegerd, the sister of the Swedish king, Anund Jacob.
CHAPTER XVI
The Battle of Stiklestad (1030)
IN the summer of 1029 Earl Haakon went to England to fetch his bride, Gunhild, a daughter of Canute’s sister. Everything was satisfactorily arranged, but on his return voyage his vessel foundered, and all on board were lost.
One of King Olaf’s best friends, Biorn Stallare,[5] believing that Olaf would not return to Norway, had been induced by great gifts and promises to give allegiance to Earl Haakon and King Canute; but when he heard that the earl had perished, so that the country was again without a chief, he greatly regretted that he had failed to be true to King Olaf, and it seemed to him that there was now some hope that Olaf might again become king if he came back to Norway. He therefore immediately journeyed east to Russia to Olaf, and told him of Earl Haakon’s death, and brought him other news from Norway. When the king asked him how his friends had kept their fidelity toward him, Biorn answered that it had been different with different people. Then he fell at the king’s feet, and said: “All is in your power, sire, and in God’s. I have taken money from King Canute’s men, and sworn them allegiance; but now I will follow thee, and not part from thee so long as we both live.” The king answered: “Arise, Biorn; thou shalt be reconciled with me; but reconcile thy perjury with God. I must know that but few men in Norway have adhered to their fealty to me, when such a man as thou art could be false to me.” Biorn named those who had principally bound themselves to be his enemies; among them were Erling’s sons, Einar Thambaskelfer, Kalf Arneson, Thorer Hund and Harek of Thiotta.
Olaf now made preparations for his return to Norway, and shortly after Christmas started with two hundred and forty men. His young son, Magnus, was left behind with King Jaroslav in Russia. In Sweden, King Anund received his brother-in-law well, and gave him four hundred and eighty picked warriors to go with him. When it was reported in Norway that King Olaf had come from the east to Sweden, his friends gathered aid for him in Norway. The most distinguished man in this party was Harald Sigurdson, Olaf’s half-brother, who was then quite young, but very stout and manly of growth. Many other brave men were there also; and they were in all seven hundred and twenty men, when they proceeded eastward through the Eid forest and Vermeland, and met Olaf in Sweden. Olaf’s kinsman, Dag Ringson, collected an army of about 1,400 men, with which he joined King Olaf.
When King Olaf had crossed the mountain and was descending on the west side, where it declines toward the sea, and he could see the country for many miles, he became sad and rode by himself in silence for quite a while. Finally, Bishop Sigurd rode up to him, and asked him why he was so silent, and what he was thinking of. The king answered: “Strange things came into my mind a while ago. As I looked down the valley, it appeared to me that I was looking over all Norway. It then came into my mind how many happy days I have had in this country. My vision went further, until I looked over the whole wide world, both land and sea. I recognized places where I have been before; but I also saw places of which I had never heard, both inhabited and uninhabited, as far as the world goes.” Then the bishop dismounted from his horse, kissed the king’s foot, and said: “It is a holy man whom we are now following.”
When King Olaf came down into Verdalen, he mustered his force, and he then had over 3,600 men. Among them were about six hundred who were heathens, and who refused to be baptized. These men were sent back, as Olaf would not have any heathens among his warriors.
In the evening Olaf’s whole forces took up their night-quarter in one place, and lay down under their shields; the king lay long awake in prayer to God, and slept but little. Toward morning he slumbered for a while, and when he awoke, day was breaking. The king thought it too early to awaken the army, and asked where the bard Thormod Kolbrunarskald was. Thormod was near by, and asked what the king desired. The king said: “Sing us a song.” Thormod arose and sang, so loud that the whole army could hear him, the old Biarkemaal.[6] Then the troops awoke, and, when the song was ended, the people thanked him for it, and the king gave him a fine gold ring.
The king now led his army further down the valley until he came to Stiklestad, where he placed his army in battle array against the peasants’ army. The lendermen and peasants had collected a vast army; it is said to have numbered 14,400 men. When the armies were near together, Thorer Hund went forward in front of the banner with his troop, and called out: “Forward, forward, Bonde-men!” The peasants repeated this war-cry and shot their arrows and spears. The king’s men now raised their battle-cry, and encouraged each other to advance, shouting: “Forward, forward, Christ-men! cross-men! king’s-men!” King Olaf’s army rushed down the hill upon the peasant army with a fierce assault, and for a moment drove it from its original position; but the chiefs urged their men forward, and forced them to advance again. The peasant army pushed forward from all quarters, and the battle became very severe. Those who stood in front hewed down with their swords; those who stood next thrust with their spears, while those in the rear shot arrows, cast spears, or threw stones, hand-axes, or pieces of timber. Many fell on both sides. When the ranks in front of the king’s banner began to be thinned, he ordered the banner moved forward, and the king himself followed with a party of chosen men, and placed himself in the front rank. King Olaf fought most desperately. He hewed at Thorer Hund, and struck him across the shoulders; but the sword would not cut, and it was as if dust flew from Thorer’s reindeer-skin coat. Then the king said to Biorn Stallare: “Do thou kill the dog on whom steel will not bite.” (Thorer’s surname Hund means dog.) Biorn turned the axe in his hand, and gave Thorer such a blow with the hammer of it on the shoulder that he staggered; but the next moment Thorer ran his spear through the body of Biorn, and killed him, saying: “Thus we hunt bears north in Finmark.” (Biorn means bear.) Thorstein Knarrarsmid, one of Thorer Hund’s followers, struck at King Olaf with his axe, and the blow hit his left leg above the knee. Fin Arneson immediately felled Thorstein; but the king, badly wounded, staggered toward a stone, threw down his sword and shield, and prayed God to help him. Then Thorer Hund struck at him with his spear, and the stroke went in under his mail-coat and into his abdomen. Still another wound was given the king on the left side of the neck, and these three wounds caused the death of King Olaf. He was then thirty-five years old.
The battle had lasted an hour and a half, and was now virtually ended. Dag Ringson and his men still fought desperately for a while, but they were soon overwhelmed by numbers and fatigue, and were obliged to retire. There was a valley through which many fled, and men lay scattered on both sides; many were severely wounded, and many so fatigued that they were unable to move. The peasants pursued them only a short way; for their leaders soon returned to the battlefield, where they had friends and relatives to care for.
It is said that Thorer Hund went to where King Olaf’s body lay, laid it out on the ground, and spread a cloak over it. He told afterward that when he wiped the blood from the face it was very beautiful, and the cheeks were red. Some of the king’s blood came on Thorer’s wounded hand, and it healed so speedily that he did not need to dress it. This was told by Thorer himself when King Olaf’s holiness came to be generally reported among the people; and Thorer Hund was among the first of the king’s powerful opponents who endeavored to spread abroad the belief in Olaf’s sanctity.
Harald Sigurdson, King Olaf’s half-brother, was severely wounded at Stiklestad; but one of Olaf’s men brought him to a peasant’s house the night after the battle, and the peasant cared for Harald, and healed his wound in secret, and afterward gave him his son to attend him.
Some time after the battle, two young men were one day riding across the mountain to Jemteland in order to reach Sweden. One of them was a peasant’s son from Verdalen, the other a young warrior, the last one of King Olaf’s men who fled from the country. As they were passing over the ridge, the young man turned to his companion, and sang:
“The wounds were bleeding as I rode;
And down below the peasants strode,
Killing the wounded with the sword,
The followers of their rightful lord.
From wood to wood I crept along,
Unnoticed by the peasant-throng;
Who knows, I thought, a day may come
My name will yet be great at home.”
It was Olaf’s brother, Harald, who was setting out to try his luck in foreign countries, whence he was to return one day, rich in honors and goods.
CHAPTER XVII
King Svein Alfifuson (1030-1035)
WHEN King Canute the Great heard that Earl Haakon had been lost in a shipwreck on his way to Norway, he concluded to put his natural son Svein on the throne of Norway. Svein’s mother was Ælfgifa, a daughter of an English chieftain in Northampton, but the Norwegians called her Alfifa and her son Svein Alfifuson. Svein had, a couple of years before, been appointed by King Canute to govern Jomsborg in Vendland; but after Earl Haakon’s death King Canute sent word to him to proceed to Denmark and from there to Norway, to take that kingdom in charge and assume the title of king of Norway. With a number of men from Denmark, Svein proceeded to Norway together with his mother, Alfifa, and he was hailed as king at every Thing. He had come as far as Viken at the time the battle was fought at Stiklestad, where King Olaf fell. He continued his journey northward until, in the autumn, he came to the Throndhjem country; and there, as elsewhere, he was received as king.
Svein was very young and inexperienced, and it was his mother who had most to say in governmental affairs. Together with Bishop Sigurd and some Danes, whom she had brought with her from Denmark, she commenced to rule the country in a very arbitrary manner, and the people soon became greatly discontented. For a time the disaffection smouldered beneath the surface; but when the foreign rulers proceeded to introduce a new system of laws, fashioned in accordance with the development of the feudal system in the rest of Europe, there was a general uprising throughout the country.
Among the laws introduced in King Svein’s name were the following: No man must leave the country without the king’s permission; or if he did, his property fell to the king. Whoever killed a man should forfeit his land and movable property. At Christmas every man had to give the king a certain portion of the products of his farm. The peasants were obliged to build all the houses the king required on his farms. For every seven males over the age of five years one man was to be furnished for the service of war. Every ship that went out of the country should have storage reserved for the king in the middle of the ship. Several heavy taxes were provided. And to all this was added a provision that the testimony of one Dane should invalidate that of ten Norwegians.
When these laws were announced at the Thing in Throndhjem, loud murmurs were heard among the people. Those who had not taken part in the uprising against King Olaf said: “Now take your reward and friendship from Canute and his race, ye men of the interior of Throndhjem who fought against King Olaf, and deprived him of his kingdom. Ye were promised peace and justice, and now ye have got oppression and slavery for your great treachery.” This was true, and the chiefs felt it well enough; but they were afraid of making open rebellion, as many of them had given King Canute their sons or other near relatives as hostages.
At this time the people began to talk much of King Olaf’s sanctity. There were many rumors of miracles in connection with the dead king, and it gradually became the general opinion that a great mistake or rather a crime had been committed by the rebellion against King Olaf. People began to severely reproach those who had excited opposition to the king, and among those especially accused was Bishop Sigurd. He got so many enemies that he found it most advisable to leave the country, and proceeded to England to King Canute. When Bishop Sigurd had left, the people of Throndhjem sent word to Bishop Grimkell, desiring him to come to Throndhjem. King Olaf had sent Bishop Grimkell back to Norway when he went east to Russia, and since that time Grimkell had been in the Uplands. He now came north and visited Einar Thambaskelfer, who received him with open arms. Einar congratulated himself upon not having taken part in the strife against King Olaf, and was now one of the mighty men who looked upon the dead king as a saint. Einar and the bishop obtained King Svein’s leave to exhume the body of Olaf. It is said that they found that the coffin had raised itself almost entirely to the surface of the earth, and when the coffin was opened they found that the king’s face was red as if he had merely fallen asleep, and his hair and nails had grown as if he had lived all the time. Grimkell now declared that King Olaf was truly a holy man, and with the approbation of the king and the decision of the Thing Olaf was declared the saint of the nation. His body was transported into Clement’s church, where a place was made for it near the high altar. The coffin was covered with costly cloth, and stood under a gold embroidered tent. People soon began to make pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint Olaf, and gradually a great number of churches were built and dedicated to him, not only in Norway, but also in other countries.
When King Svein had been three years in Norway, a young man, who called himself Trygve, and professed to be a son of Olaf Trygvason and Queen Gyda of England, came from the west with an armed force, intending to claim the throne of Norway. Svein called upon his chiefs to furnish him with men and ships in defence of the country, and an army was soon ready; but Einar Thambaskelfer, and Kalf Arneson, and some others refused to give aid. King Svein sailed south and met Trygve in battle in Sognesund. In this battle Trygve fell, and many of his men with him; but some fled, and others received quarter.
After the battle in Sognesund King Svein returned to Throndhjem; but his stay there was not of long duration. He met the people at a Thing, and heard their complaints, but no understanding could be reached. Shortly afterward the situation became so strained that King Svein and his mother found it necessary to remove to the southern part of the country to spend the winter. During this winter Einar Thambaskelfer and Kalf Arneson had many consultations in Nidaros with the other chiefs, and the result was that in the spring a deputation of prominent chiefs, including Einar Thambaskelfer and Kalf Arneson, proceeded east to King Jaroslav in Russia to offer the throne of Norway to Magnus, the son of Olaf the Saint, who had been raised at King Jaroslav’s court. They asked and received full forgiveness for having fought against Magnus’s father at Stiklestad. They thereupon swore allegiance to Magnus, who, on the other hand, promised them under oath that he would be true and faithful to them all when he got the dominions and kingdom of Norway. Einar and Kalf were to act as his foster-fathers and counsellors. Magnus returned with them to Norway and was welcomed with great joy. At Oere-Thing he was proclaimed king over the whole land. When King Svein heard this news he tried to raise an army; but nobody would listen to him, and he and his mother were obliged to flee to Denmark. Here Svein died in the year 1036; his father Canute dying a short time before him.
CHAPTER XVIII
Magnus the Good (1035-1047)
MAGNUS was a natural child of Olaf the Saint, his mother being a girl by the name of Alfhild, who was usually called the king’s slave-woman, although she was of good descent. She was a very handsome girl and lived in King Olaf’s court. It is said that when Magnus was born she was very sick, and it was some time after the birth before it could be discovered whether the boy was alive. A priest, who was present, requested Sigvat the Skald (poet) to hasten to the king and tell him of the event; but Sigvat refused, as the king had strictly forbidden anybody to awaken him in the middle of the night. As the child was very weak, however, they decided to baptize it, and Sigvat the Skald named the boy Magnus. The next morning the king demanded to know why they had named the boy Magnus, since there was no such name in his family. Sigvat said: “I called him after King Carl Magnus (Emperor Charlemagne), who, I knew, had been the best man in the world.” This satisfied the king.
Magnus was only eleven years old when he was proclaimed king at the Oere-Thing. In the beginning he allowed Kalf Arneson and Einar Thambaskelfer to take care of all government matters in his name; but he soon developed into a clever, intelligent young man with a great deal of independence. Hardeknut, who was then king of Denmark, was inclined to press his claims to Norway, which he had inherited from his father, Canute the Great, and collected an army. King Magnus also armed himself, and they were about to meet in battle at the Gaut River. However, the chiefs on both sides, who very much desired to avoid war, made overtures for peace, and the result was a friendly meeting between the kings at the Brenn Islands at the mouth of the Gaut River. They arranged for a brotherly union, under oath, to keep the peace with each other to the end of their lives; and if one of them should die without leaving a son, the survivor should succeed to both countries. Twelve of the principal men in each kingdom swore to the kings that this treaty should be observed.
After the conciliation at the Brenn Islands Magnus was in undisputed possession of his father’s throne. During his stay in the southern part of the country he had come in contact with his father’s former friends and faithful adherents, who had a great deal to say about the actions of the Throndhjem people toward King Olaf. Magnus listened with great eagerness to this talk, and, before he really understood it, he had become possessed of a bitter feeling against those men who had been his father’s opponents. He especially began to dislike Kalf Arneson, who, according to common belief, had dealt King Olaf the last deadly blow at Stiklestad. One day the king was at a feast at the Haug estate in Verdalen. At the table he said to Einar Thambaskelfer: “Let us ride to-day over to Stiklestad. I wish to see the different reminders of the battle.” Einar replied: “Well, I know little about how matters went there; but take Kalf with thee: he can give thee information about all that took place.” When the tables were removed, the king made himself ready, and said to Kalf: “Thou must go with me to Stiklestad.” After repeating this command the king went out. Kalf put on his riding clothes in all haste, and said to his foot-boy: “Ride immediately to Eggja, and order my house-servants to have all my property on board my ship before sunset.”
The king and Kalf now rode over to Stiklestad. They alighted from their horses, and went to the place where the battle had been. “Where did the king fall?” asked Magnus. Kalf pointed with his spear, and said: “There he lay when he fell.” The king further asked: “And where wast thou then, Kalf?” “Here, where I am now standing,” answered Kalf. The king turned red as blood in the face, and said: “Then thy axe could well have reached him.”
Kalf replied: “My axe did not come near him.” Then he immediately went to his horse, and rode away with all his men, while the king returned to Haug. When Kalf reached home he found his ship ready, and immediately sailed for the Orkneys. The king confiscated the Eggja estate and other possessions which Kalf left behind him.
Magnus commenced to severely punish many of those who had borne arms against Saint Olaf. He drove some of them out of the country, took large sums of money from others, and had the cattle of others slaughtered for his use. Thorer Hund had escaped punishment by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem shortly after Olaf’s fall, and it is said that he never came back. Harek of Thiotta was killed with the king’s consent by Asmund Grankelson, whose father had been killed by Harek. The people soon began to murmur, and the discontent spread throughout the country. In Sogn the people even gathered an armed force, and were determined to fight, if Magnus came into their district. When the young impetuous king heard of this, and made up his mind to punish the rebellious Sognings, his friends, who knew that the disaffection was widely spread through the country, decided to warn him of his danger. Twelve of his friends came together, and determined, by casting lots, which one of them should inform the king of the discontent of the people, and the lot fell upon Sigvat the Skald.
Sigvat then composed a poem, which he called “The Free-speaking Song” (Bersöglisvísur), in which he reminded the king of the promises he made when he was proclaimed king, and advised him to be guided by that respect for the laws and the rights of the people which his predecessors had shown. He blamed him for his severity, and warned him of the danger threatening him and his country.
Sigvat’s song made a deep impression on the young king, and from now on he was an entirely changed man. He consulted the most prudent men, and revised the laws, repealing such of Svein Alfifuson’s laws as were most obnoxious to the people. He codified the laws in a written book called “The Gray Goose” (Graagaasen).[7] It was only a short time before King Magnus became very popular, and was beloved by all the country people, who now called him Magnus the Good.
The Danish king, Hardeknut, who was also king of England, died of apoplexy at a wedding-feast at Lambeth, England, in June, 1042. This was the end of Danish rule in England. After the death of Hardeknut, his half-brother, Edward the Good, a son of the English king Ethelred and Queen Emma, was chosen king of England.
When King Magnus heard of Hardeknut’s death, he immediately sent word to Denmark that he intended to claim the Danish throne in accordance with the agreement made between himself and Hardeknut at their meeting at the Gaut River. Shortly afterward King Magnus proceeded to Denmark with a fine fleet of seventy ships. He was well received, and at a Thing assembled at Viborg, Jutland (where the Danes always elected their king), he was proclaimed king of all the Danish dominions. He remained in Denmark during the summer (1042), and wherever he came he was received with enthusiasm. He divided the country into districts and appointed administrative officers, gave fiefs to influential men, and took all steps to secure himself in power. In the autumn he returned to Norway.
Among the Danes who swore allegiance to King Magnus was Svein, commonly called Svein Estridson, a son of Earl Ulf. His mother was Estrid (Astrid), a daughter of King Svein Tjuguskeg. She was a sister of Canute the Great by the father’s side, and of the Swedish king Olaf by the mother’s side, her mother being Queen Sigrid the Haughty. One day, as King Magnus was sitting in his high-seat with a large number of men around him, and with Svein Estridson sitting on a footstool before him, the king made a speech, in which he said that he had promised the Danes a chief who could defend and rule the country in the absence of the king. “And,” he continued, “I know no better man fitted, in all respects, for this than Svein. I will therefore make him my earl, and give him the government of my Danish dominions while I am in Norway, just as King Canute the Great set his father, Earl Ulf, over Denmark while he was in England.” Einar Thambaskelfer, who was with the king, was very ill-pleased with this appointment, as he put no faith in Svein, and said to the king: “Too great an earl, too great an earl, my foster-son!”
King Magnus had an early opportunity to regret his choice, for, the same winter in which Svein was given the administration of the government of Denmark as earl, he successfully courted the friendship of the most influential men, and assumed the title of King of Denmark. King Magnus heard this news, and at the same time that the people of Vendland had a large army with which they plundered in Denmark. He then gathered a large force, with which he sailed to Denmark. There he summoned the people to come to him, and drew together a great army in Jutland. Ordulf, the duke of Brunswick, who the year before had married Ulfhild, the daughter of King Olaf the Saint, and the half-sister of King Magnus,[8] also came to his aid with a great force. King Magnus met the Vends in battle at Lyrskog Heath in Schleswig and gained a great victory. It was generally reported in the army that King Magnus had a vision the night before the battle, in which Olaf the Saint had appeared and had given the king advice. “It is the common saying,” says the saga, “that there never was so great a slaughter of men in the northern lands, since the time of Christianity, as took place among the Vendland people on Lyrskog Heath.” This was on the 28th of September, 1043. King Magnus followed up his victory, and sailed to Vendland, attacked and captured the fortress of Jomsborg. A great many of the people of Vendland submitted to King Magnus, while others fled the country.
After this King Magnus turned his attention to Earl Svein. A battle was fought, and Svein had to flee to his relatives in Sweden. But as soon as Magnus went to Norway, Svein would return to Denmark and strengthen himself with the Danes, and Magnus had continual wars with his earl. Among the principal battles were those at Aaros (now Aarhus) and Helganes.
When King Magnus came back to Norway in the autumn of 1045, after one of his battles with Svein, he heard that his relative, Harald Sigurdson, had come to Sweden on his way to Norway, and that Harald and Svein had come to an understanding, and intended to endeavor to subdue both Denmark and Norway. King Magnus then ordered a general levy over all Norway, and he soon collected a great army with which to meet the intruder. The relatives and friends of both Harald and Magnus, however, said that it would be a great misfortune if there should be war between them, and the result was a friendly meeting, where Magnus gave Harald half of his kingdom. They were to rule together on equal terms; but whenever they were together in one place King Magnus was to be “the first man in seat, service and salutation.” King Magnus died the following year (1047) on one of his expeditions to Denmark. Before his death King Magnus declared that Svein Estridson was to have Denmark, while Harald should rule over Norway.
CHAPTER XIX
Harald Haardraade (1047-1066)
HARALD, the son of Sigurd Syr and Astrid, now became the sole king of Norway. As we have seen, Harald fled from the country after the battle of Stiklestad (1030). He went to Russia to the court of King Jaroslav, who received him with kindness and made him a commander in the army. Harald remained in the service of King Jaroslav for three years, and then went with a body of men to Constantinople (called by the Northmen Miklagaard), where he soon became the captain or chief of the Varings. (The Varings were the bodyguard of the emperors, and the guard was composed mostly of Northmen.) With them he went on many expeditions, and always gained victories and a great deal of booty. He conducted expeditions against the Saracens in Africa (which the Varings called Serkland), where he gathered great wealth in gold, jewels, and other precious things. He also served in Sicily, where he won several battles. After having spent several years in these campaigns he returned to Constantinople, and then went to Jerusalem, and bathed in [Pg 117]the river Jordan, according to the custom of other pilgrims. Thereafter he returned to Russia and was received in the most friendly way by King Jaroslav. He married the latter’s daughter, Elisabeth, or Ellisif, as the Northmen called her.
When King Magnus died, Harald, as already stated, became sole king of Norway. But he also wanted Denmark, and called his men-at-arms together, and told them that he intended to go with an army to Viborg Thing and there proclaim himself king of Denmark, to which, he said, he had the hereditary right, as well as to Norway. The friends of the late King Magnus, however, did not like this, and Einar Thambaskelfer said that he considered it a greater duty to bring his foster son King Magnus’s corpse to the grave, and lay it beside his father King Olaf’s north in Throndhjem, than to be fighting abroad, and taking another king’s dominions and property. He ended his speech with saying that he would rather follow King Magnus dead than any other king alive. The result was that King Harald returned to Norway with his army. For many years thereafter King Harald was at war with Svein Estridson (or Ulfson), but did not succeed in driving him away from Denmark.
Einar Thambaskelfer was the most powerful man in the Throndhjem country. There was but little friendship between him and King Harald, although Einar retained all the fiefs he had held under King Magnus. Einar had many large estates, and was married to Bergliot, a daughter of Earl Haakon. Their son Eindride was married to Sigrid, a daughter of Ketil Kalf and Gunhild, King Harald’s sister’s daughter. Einar was well versed in law, and often acted as spokesman for the peasants at the Things, when the king demanded more of the people than was his right. This happened more than once, for Harald’s rule was quite severe. Therefore he was called Harald Haardraade, or Hard-ruler. Einar did not lack the boldness to assert his opinions at the Things, even in the presence of the king; and for this reason he was held in high esteem by the people, while the king came to hate him more after every such dispute. Einar, therefore, began to keep a number of men around him whenever the king was in the neighborhood. One day he came to the town (Nidaros) with eight or nine ships and nearly six hundred men. When Harald, who was standing in the doorway of his house, saw Einar going ashore, he exclaimed in verse: “Here I see Einar Thambaskelfer land with quite a force. In his haughtiness he probably expects even to fill the royal chair; for often has even an earl a smaller force of men with him. This Einar will some day deprive me of my kingdom, unless he himself has to kiss the thin lips of the axe.”
One day there was a meeting, at which the king himself was present. A thief had been caught and was brought before the Thing. The man had been in the service of Einar, who had liked him very well. Einar well knew that the king would not let the man off, especially as Einar took an interest in him. He therefore let his men arm themselves, went to the Thing, and took the man away by force. The mutual friends of the king and Einar then intervened and tried to bring about a reconciliation, and they succeeded so far that a day was appointed for a meeting between them at the king’s house at the river Nid. The king had the shutters for the smoke-hole in the roof closed so as to exclude the light. When Einar came into the yard with his people, he told his son Eindride to remain outside with the men, “for there is no danger here for me.” Eindride remained standing outside the door. When Einar came into the room, he said: “Dark it is in the king’s Thing-room.” At this some men fell upon him with spears and swords. “Sharp are now the bites of the king’s dogs,” said Einar, and rushed toward the king, but was felled to the floor by the king’s men. When Eindride heard the noise he drew his sword and rushed into the room; but he was instantly killed along with his father. The king then went with all his men to his ships, and rowed down the river, the peasants not having the courage to pursue him after having lost their leader. Einar’s wife Bergliot, who came up from her home, and in vain urged the peasants to pursue the murderers, said: “Now we miss my kinsman, Haakon Ivarson: Einar’s slayer would not be rowing out of the river if Ivar stood here on the river-bank.”
Bergliot sent word to Haakon Ivarson (a son of Ivar the White, nephew of Earl Haakon the Great), who was a mighty man in the Uplands, and requested him to avenge the death of Einar and Eindride. Meanwhile King Harald proceeded to his kinsman by marriage, Fin Arneson, who lived at Austraat in Yrjar, and persuaded him to first go to Nidaros and bring about a reconciliation with the peasants, and thereafter to proceed to the Uplands and reach an understanding with Haakon Ivarson, so that he would not oppose the king. In return for this the king promised to recall to the country Fin’s brother Kalf, and restore to him the estates and dignities of which King Magnus had deprived him. To Haakon Ivarson, Fin was to offer any favor he might wish short of the kingdom. Fin successfully accomplished both of the missions intrusted to him. Haakon Ivarson said, as to the conditions of peace: “I will be reconciled with King Harald if he will give me in marriage his relation Ragnhild, King Magnus Olafson’s daughter, with such dower as is suitable to her and she will be content with,” and Fin agreed to this on behalf of the king.
The next Christmas Haakon went to King Harald to ask the fulfilment of the pledges given him. The king said that he, for his part, would adhere to the whole agreement; but as for Ragnhild it would be necessary for Haakon to ask her consent himself. When Haakon came to Ragnhild, and paid his addresses to her, she answered: “I have no fault to find with thee, for thou art a handsome man, expert in all exercises. But thou must remember I am a king’s daughter, while thou art only a lenderman. Had my father, King Magnus, lived he would have found that no man less than a king was suitable for me; so it is not to be expected that I will marry one who has no princely rank.” Haakon then went to the king and demanded that he be made an earl under the agreement made with Fin Arneson. This the king refused to do, saying that it had been the custom since the time of Saint Olaf to have only one earl in the country, and he could not take the title from Orm, who now held it. Haakon now understood that there was nothing to obtain from the king, and left in disgust. Fin Arneson became very angry, and told the king that he had broken his word.
Haakon shortly afterward left the country with a well-manned ship, and went to King Svein of Denmark, who received him well and made him commander of his coast defence against the vikings from Vendland, Kurland and other eastern countries.
It was not a long time before Fin Arneson fell out with the king. His brother Kalf, who had been on a viking cruise to the “Western” (British) countries ever since he had left Norway, was recalled by the king and given back his estates according to agreement. But shortly afterward, during an expedition to Denmark, the king sent Kalf ashore on the island Fyen with a small force of men, and commanded him to attack a much stronger Danish force, promising that he would soon make a landing with the others and come to their assistance. Kalf obeyed, and was attacked by a great force of the enemy, and he and many of his men were killed. A long while afterward, when the Danes had withdrawn, Harald landed and made a plundering expedition into the country. Later he composed some verses, in which he boasted of having caused the death of thirteen men, and Fin rightly supposed that his brother was one of them. Fin took this matter so much to heart that he left Norway and went to King Svein of Denmark, who gave him a friendly reception. He swore allegiance to King Svein, and was made earl of Halland (now a province of Sweden), where he remained for a long time and defended the country against the Northmen.
Haakon Ivarson showed great zeal in his position as commander of the Danish coast defence, being out with his warships both winter and summer, and was in high favor with King Svein, until he attacked and killed the king’s nephew, Asmund, an ungovernable young man, who had been killing and plundering everywhere, both abroad and at home, and whom Haakon thought the king much desired to get rid of. The king sent Haakon a message that he had better leave the country. “Tell him,” he said, “that I will do him no harm; but I cannot answer for all our relations.” Haakon then proceeded north to his estates in Norway. During his stay in Denmark his relative, Earl Orm, had died. His many friends therefore gave themselves much trouble to bring about a reconciliation between him and King Harald, and in this they succeeded. Haakon was given the title of earl, with the same power that Earl Orm had had, and was married to Ragnhild, King Magnus’s daughter. He swore to King Harald an oath of fidelity and pledged himself to render all the service he was liable to.
In the winter of 1061-62, King Harald resided at Nidaros, where he commenced building a large warship. He sent a message south to Denmark to King Svein, and challenged him to meet him in the spring at the Gaut River and fight, with the understanding that the one who gained the victory should have both kingdoms. King Svein accepted the challenge, but did not keep the appointment. King Harald, who had arrived at the place agreed upon, heard that Svein’s forces lay in the south, partly at Fyen and partly about Seeland. Harald then sailed southward along Halland with one hundred and eighty of his ships, and brought up his fleet at the Nis-Aa (Nis River). Shortly afterward King Svein came upon them with a Danish fleet consisting of three hundred and sixty ships. King Harald held a war council, and many said that it would be better to fly than to fight with a fleet twice the size of their own. The king replied: “Sooner shall we all fall and lie dead one upon another than fly.” King Harald drew up his ships in battle array, laying his great dragon ship in the middle. At his side lay Ulf Stallara, and on the other wing lay the ships of Earl Haakon Ivarson from the Uplands. At the extremity of the other side lay the Throndhjem chiefs. It was late in the day when the battle began, and it continued the whole night. The battle was very severe, and toward morning the greater part of the Danish fleet broke into flight. While Harald pursued some of the Danes, King Svein made his escape with the aid of Earl Haakon Ivarson, who, during the battle, had contributed more than any one else to the victory of the Norwegians.
King Harald sailed north to Viken with all the conquered ships after the battle of Nis River, and spent the winter at Oslo. Earl Haakon went to the Uplands and remained in his dominions there during the winter. In the spring, however, he gathered all his loose property and fled eastward; for he heard that King Harald had again become his enemy, mainly because Haakon had allowed King Svein to escape after the battle of Nis River. Haakon proceeded to King Steinkel of Sweden, who gave him the province of Vermeland to govern. When Haakon heard that King Harald had gone north to Throndhjem, he made a hurried expedition back to the Uplands and collected the taxes due him. The next summer King Harald in vain tried to collect taxes in the same places. Then King Harald gathered an army, with which he invaded Sweden, and defeated Haakon. Upon his return he severely punished the people of the Uplands for having been disloyal. He maimed some, killed others, and robbed many of all their property.
Year after year King Harald had made war on Denmark without coming nearer to King Svein’s throne. It appears that finally the people in both counties became tired of this continual and wasteful warfare, and during the same winter that Earl Haakon had settled down in Vermeland, Sweden, there were many negotiations between leading men of both countries who wanted peace and demanded that their kings should come to an agreement. The result was a meeting of the two kings at the Gaut River, where peace was agreed upon. Harald was to have Norway, and Svein Denmark; the war should cease as it now stood, each retaining what he had got, and this peace should endure as long as they were kings. This peace was confirmed by oath, and the kings parted, having given each other hostages (1064).
In the year 1066, Earl Toste came from England and asked King Harald to aid him in an attempt to conquer England from his brother Harald Godwinson, who had been proclaimed king of England. Earl Toste had already been on a similar mission to Denmark, but King Svein Estridson had declared that he would be content if he could keep his own kingdom and defend that against the Northmen. King Harald Sigurdson looked upon the plan with more favor, and promised his help. He collected an army and sailed for England with a large fleet. Before he left Throndhjem he gave the reins of the government to his son Magnus, whom he had proclaimed king at the Oere-Thing. He took with him his younger son Olaf, the queen and two daughters. At first King Harald was very successful against the Englishmen, and after a great victory the citizens of York surrendered the city to him. In the evening he returned to his ships to spend the night. Later in the same evening, however, King Harald Godwinson arrived with a numerous army, and rode into the city with the goodwill and consent of the people of the castle. All the gates and walls were beset so that the Northmen could receive no report of their arrival, and the army remained all night in the town.
In the morning King Harald Sigurdson landed with a portion of his army, leaving the remainder behind with the ships. As they came across Stanford Bridge, they discovered a numerous army approaching. Earl Toste advised a speedy return to the ships to get more men and arms; but Harald Sigurdson did not wish to appear cowardly, and elected instead to send three messengers with their fastest horses back to the ships with an order to the men there to immediately come to their assistance. Harald then arranged his men in a line of battle, long but not deep. Then he turned both wings backward until they met together, so that the army formed a wide ring of the men standing shield to shield. Thus he would defend himself against the enemy’s horsemen, from whom he expected a violent attack. Those in the first rank were ordered to set the spear-shaft on the ground, and the spear-point against the horseman’s breast; those in the next rank were to direct the spear-point against the horse’s breast. Inside the ring, the bowmen were to stand, and here he also selected a place for himself and Earl Toste, and a body of chosen men. Now the English king approached with his army, which was twice as large as that of the Northmen. While Harald was yet arranging his army, riding around on his black horse, twenty horsemen came riding up from the English army, and asked if Earl Toste was there. The earl himself answered: “Here you can find him.” One of the horsemen, speaking for the English king, then offered the earl peace and a third of the kingdom if he would be reconciled with his brother. The earl said: “But if I accept this offer, what will he give King Harald Sigurdson for his trouble?” The horseman replied: “He will give him seven feet of English ground, or as much more as he may be taller than other men.” “Then,” said the earl, “return and tell King Harald to get ready for battle. Never shall the Northmen have a chance to say that Earl Toste left King Harald Sigurdson to join his enemy.” Then the horsemen returned to the English army. King Harald Sigurdson said to Earl Toste: “Who was the man who spoke so well?” “That was my brother, King Harald Godwinson,” said the earl. “Too late I learned that,” said the king; “for he had come so near to our army that he never should have been able to report the felling of our men.”
Now the battle began, the English horsemen advancing against the Northmen; but as long as the Northmen remained standing in a ring, shield to shield, and with the spears pointing out, the enemy could do nothing against them. But when the Northmen thought the enemy was retiring, they were imprudent enough to pursue the Englishmen, and thus break their own invincible ring. Then the Englishmen rode up from all sides, and made a terrible attack. Many people fell on both sides. King Harald Sigurdson was hit by an arrow in the throat and fell dead to the ground, and most of his men fell around him. Harald was fifty-one years old when he died (1066).
The town of Oslo (now a suburb of Christiania) was founded during the reign of King Harald Sigurdson. A church was built there and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The shrine of the holy Halvard, lately discovered and acknowledged as a national saint, was placed in this church.
CHAPTER XX
Olaf Kyrre, the Quiet (1066-1093)
THE English king permitted King Harald Sigurdson’s son Olaf to leave the country with the men he had left. Olaf proceeded to the Orkney Isles, where he remained during the winter (1066-67). The next summer he returned to Norway, where he was proclaimed king along with his brother, Magnus taking the northern and Olaf the eastern part of the country.
Shortly after the two brothers had assumed the government, the Danish king, Svein Estridson, gave notice that the peace between the Northmen and the Danes was at an end. The brothers hurriedly collected armies to defend the country, and Svein set out from the south with a Danish force. He met King Olaf on the coast of Halland, where an indecisive battle was fought. Soon afterward Magnus arrived with reinforcements from the north, but then negotiations were opened, and peace was concluded on the old conditions at Konungahella. The agreement here made was confirmed by Olaf taking King Svein’s daughter Ingerid in marriage.
The following year King Magnus died at Nidaros, April 28, 1069, after being ill for some time. His son, Haakon, who was fostered by Thorer of Steig in Gudbrandsdal, being only an infant child, Olaf now became sole king of Norway.
After the short conflict with Denmark, Olaf had no wars. A long period of peace was something new in the history of the country, and the people therefore gave King Olaf the surname Kyrre, i.e., the Quiet. He preserved law and order with firmness, and did a great deal to promote commerce and the prosperity of the towns. Before his time there were three towns in Viken (Tunsberg, Oslo, and Sarpsborg), and one in Throndhjem (Nidaros). King Olaf founded the merchant town of Bergen (then Björgvin), where many wealthy people settled down, and the place was soon regularly frequented by merchants from foreign countries. The other towns also made good progress.
In King Olaf’s time there were held a greater number of general entertainments and hand-in-hand feasts than formerly. Already, during the heathen time, the Northmen used to arrange feasts by clubbing together. After the introduction of Christianity they were continued, but naturally changed their character. These feasts, which from the time of Olaf Kyrre were called guilds, had a partly religious character, and appear to have been regular meetings of fraternities, whose members were pledged to defend and help each other. The members were called guild-brethren and guild-sisters, and each guild was under the protection of a saint. The members were governed by strict laws, and in order to insure good and peaceful behavior, men of dignity, both clergymen and laymen, were present at the meetings. King Olaf built several guild-halls in different parts of the country, among them the great guild-hall in Nidaros. The guild-brethren built Margaret’s church in Nidaros.
There are many stories of King Olaf’s good works. Once when he sat in the great guild-hall in Nidaros, one of his men said to him: “It pleases us, king, to see you so happy.” He answered: “Why should I not be happy when I see my subjects sitting happy and free in a guild consecrated to my uncle, the sainted King Olaf. In the days of my father these people were subjected to much terror and fear; the most of them concealed their gold and their precious things, but now I see glittering on his person what each one owns, and your freedom is my gladness.”
At the Things, King Olaf did not speak much, preferring to let others speak for him. One who was often intrusted with this duty was his foster-brother Skule, who was a son of Earl Toste, and was usually called the king’s foster-son. Skule, who had come over with him from England, was made commander of King Olaf’s court-men and was given the king’s cousin Gudrun in marriage. He was a dear friend of the king, who gave him fine estates near Konungahella, Oslo, and Nidaros. The principal one of these estates was Reine in Rissen, which became the seat of this afterward powerful family. Skule was the ancestor of King Inge Baardson and Duke Skule.
King Olaf made several changes in the rooms on the king’s estates. The king had formerly had his high-seat on the middle of one of two long benches at the long walls of the house; but Olaf had the high-seat removed to a cross-bench at the short wall facing the entrance. Formerly the fire was in the middle of the floor between the long benches; but Olaf had the fireplace removed to one corner of the room, where he had a kind of a chimney-place built. He had the floors, which had formerly been without covering, covered with stone and strewed with juniper-tops. He introduced table-cups instead of the deer-horns out of which they formerly used to drink. Much unusual splendor and foreign fashions in the cut of clothes were also introduced. King Olaf doubled the number of attendants, so that he had one hundred and twenty courtmen-at-arms (hird-men), sixty “guests,”[9] and sixty house servants. He used the fashion, which was introduced from the courts of foreign kings, of letting his grand butler stand at the end of the table, and fill the cups for himself and the other distinguished guests who sat at the table. He had also torch-bearers, who held as many torches at the table as there were guests of distinction present.
King Olaf Kyrre was a devout Christian. A better order was introduced in the affairs of the church, and the country was divided into three bishoprics. Many churches were built, among the largest of which were the Christ Church in Bergen and the Christ Church in Nidaros.
King Olaf died on his estate, Haukby, in Ranrike, September 22, 1098. His body was brought north to Nidaros and buried in Christ Church. The saga says of King Olaf: “He was the most amiable king of his time, and Norway was much improved in riches and cultivation during his reign.”
CHAPTER XXI
Magnus Barefoot (1093-1103)
IMMEDIATELY after the death of Olaf Kyrre, his son Magnus was proclaimed at Viken king of all Norway; but the Upland people chose his cousin Haakon, the foster-son of Thorer of Steig, as king. Haakon and Thorer went north to Throndhjem and summoned the Oere-Thing at Nidaros, and the people there proclaimed Haakon king of half of Norway, as his father had been. In order to win the goodwill of the Throndhjem people, Haakon relieved them of all harbor duties, did away with the Christmas gifts to the king, and gave them many other privileges. Thereafter he returned to the Uplands, where he gave the people the same privileges.
In the meanwhile King Magnus proceeded north to Nidaros, took possession of the king’s house built by Harald Haardraade, and remained there the first part of the winter. When Haakon heard of this he also came up to Nidaros, and negotiations were opened for a settlement between the rival kings, Haakon offering to accept half the kingdom and let Magnus retain the other half. Magnus refused to acknowledge any rights of Haakon, and a conflict seemed imminent. However, one day, after having made quite a demonstration with his force, Magnus sailed southward, and Haakon also decided to go south, taking the inland route. While he was crossing the Dovre Mountain, he pursued a ptarmigan, which flew up beside him; and during this chase he was taken violently ill, and died on the mountain. His body was brought back to Nidaros, and all the people went to meet the body, as the saga says, “sorrowing, and the most of them weeping; for all the people loved him with sincere affection.” Haakon, who was twenty-five years old at his death, was laid at rest in Christ Church (February, 1094).
Magnus Olafson was now sole king of Norway. A rebellion was started by some of the adherents of the late King Haakon, under the leadership of Thorer of Steig and the late Haakon’s near friend, Svein, who aspired to become king. Svein was a Dane by birth, said to be of high family and a brave warrior. His father was one Harald Flette, of whom nothing is known. Several chiefs took part in this movement, among them the rich and powerful man, Skialg Erlingson from Jadaren, and Egil Aslakson of Aurland. The force proceeded from Gudbrandsdal down to Raumsdal, and afterward north to Throndhjem. King Magnus’s liegeman and devoted friend, Sigurd Ulstreng, collected a force and met Thorer and Svein in battle, but suffered a bad defeat. He fled to King Magnus, who then collected an army, and proceeded north to Throndhjem. Magnus scattered the rebels, and captured Thorer of Steig and Egil Aslakson, and hanged them. Svein, Harald Flette’s son, fled out to sea first, and then sailed to Denmark and remained there. King Magnus punished severely all who had been guilty of treason toward him, killing some and burning the houses of others.
King Magnus now had undisputed control of Norway, and devoted himself to the care of his country and his people. By his vigorous rule he maintained peace and order, and rooted out all vikings and lawless men. With his restless and ambitious disposition, however, he yearned for greater deeds and for fame in war. Wishing to retake the western countries, which had been dependencies of Norway under his ancestors, he set out with a great fleet, and first came to the Orkney Islands. There he took the two earls, Paul and Erlend, prisoners, and sent them to Norway, and placed his eight year old son Sigurd as chief of the islands, leaving some wise men with him as counsellors. Then King Magnus proceeded to the Southern Hebrides, where he harried the coasts and plundered wherever he came. Afterward he sailed to Wales and won a battle at Anglesey Sound, and took the Anglesey Isle. After this battle he returned north with his fleet, and came first to Scotland. He made a peace with the Scotch king, by which all the islands lying west of Scotland should belong to the king of Norway. King Magnus remained all the winter in the southern isles, and the next summer he returned with his fleet to Norway (1099).
During their long stay in the Western countries King Magnus and his men had adopted some of the habits and fashions of clothing of those countries. They wore short jackets and kilts without breeches. On account of this the king was called Magnus Barefoot or Bareleg.
A short time after his return to Norway, King Magnus became involved in war with the Swedish king, Inge Steinkelson. Magnus insisted that the Gaut River and Lake Venern should be considered the boundary between the countries, so that the Swedish district of Dalsland would belong to Norway. This war lasted for two years, and was generally unsuccessful for King Magnus. In the spring of 1100 there was a battle at Foxerne (at the Gaut River, between Kongself and Wenersborg), in which the Norwegians were overwhelmed by numbers, driven to flight, and many of them killed by the pursuing Swedes. King Magnus was easily known, for he was a stout man, had a red cloak over him, and bright yellow hair that fell over his shoulders. Ogmund Skoptason, who was also a tall and handsome man, rode at the side of the king. He saved the king by putting on the king’s cloak. He started off in a little different direction, and the Swedes, supposing him to be the king, rode after him, while the king proceeded to his ships. Ogmund escaped with great difficulty, but succeeded at last in reaching the ships. King Magnus then sailed down the river and proceeded north to Viken.
The next summer a meeting of the kings was agreed upon at Konghelle on the Gaut River. The Danish king, Erik Eiegod, desired to have an archbishopric established for the northern countries, and it was important to have the other kings with him to execute this plan. By his mediation the meeting of the three kings was arranged, and they soon came to an understanding. Each should possess the dominions his forefathers had held before him, and each should make good to his own men the loss and manslaughter suffered by them. King Inge agreed to give King Magnus his daughter Margaret in marriage. This agreement was proclaimed to the people, and thus, within a short hour, the greatest enemies were made the best of friends.
Shortly afterward Margaret, King Inge’s daughter, came to Norway with an honorable retinue, and her wedding with King Magnus was celebrated with great festivities. The Norwegians liked their new queen, whom they considered as a pledge of the peace with Sweden, and they therefore called her Fridkolla, i.e., the peace-girl.
When Magnus had been nine years king of Norway, he again sailed westward with a great force. He first conquered the Isle of Man, and afterward proceeded to Ireland and conquered a great part of that country. He lay at Ulster, and was about ready to return to Norway, when he was suddenly attacked by an Irish army. King Magnus had a helmet on his head, a red shield on which there was a golden lion, and was girt with his costly sword, Legbit; in his hand he had a short spear, and over his shirt a red silk cloak. King Magnus received a wound, being pierced by a spear through both thighs above the knees. The king took hold of the shaft between his legs, broke the spear in two, and said: “This way we break spearshafts, boys; let us go briskly on; nothing ails me.” A little later King Magnus was hit in the neck with an Irish axe, and this was his death-wound. Then those who were behind fled. Vidkun Jonson, from Biarkey (a great-grandson of Thorer Hund), instantly killed the man who had given the king his death-wound, and fled, after having received three wounds; but he brought the king’s banner and the sword Legbit to the ships. Vidkun Jonson was the last man who fled. The Northmen who escaped sailed away immediately.
King Magnus was thirty years old when he fell.