Part 30

'To six Danish earls a guerdon hast thou to give For one single victory, (They whet the heat of battle). In the midst of the ranks Fin Arnason was taken Battle-strong, stout-hearted; Ne'er would he think to flee.'

|| Earl Hakon tarried behind with his ship, while the King and the rest were pursuing after the fugitives, for the Earl could not get his ship away from the spot where she was lying. Just at that time rowed up a man in a boat to the ship and brought-to at the poop; a big man was he with a broad-brimmed hat; 'Where is the Earl?' quoth he up to the ship. 'In the forehold,' answered they him back, 'binding the wound of a man who is bleeding.' The Earl viewed the man with the hat and asked what might his name be, to which he made answer: 'VandradSec. is here, speak to me, Earl.' Then looked the Earl over the gunwale at him.

Then said the boatman: 'I will receive my life of thee if thou wilt give it me.' Then the Earl rose up and called to two of his men, either of whom was dear to him, and said: 'Get into the boat and set Vandrad ashore; go with him to my friend Karl the Peasant, and tell him for a token to give Vandrad the horse which I gave to him yesterday, and to give him his own saddle, and his son for a guide.' Then stepped they into the boat & took the oars, & Vandrad steered.

This was hard nigh to the dawn of day, and there was much movement among the ships, craft both large and small, some rowing to land, others to sea.

Vandrad steered there where thought he there was most sea-room betwixt the craft, & whensoever any of the Norwegian ships rowed nigh them said the Earl's men who they were, & then all let them go as they listed. Vandrad steered along the shore & did not put to land ere they had come past the place where there was a great throng of ships.

|| Thereafter walked they to the homestead of Karl at about the hour when the light began to wax, and so went they into the living-room, and beheld Karl but now clad. To him told the men from the Earl on what mission had they come, and Karl said that first must they eat, & caused food to be set before them, & himself fetched them water for hand-washing. Then came the housewife into the chamber and straightway said she: 'Wondrous is it that we gat no sleep nor rest all night through, for the tumult and noise.' Karl answered: 'Knowest thou not that the Kings fought together yesternight?' She asked: 'Who won?' Karl answered: 'The Norwegians won.' 'Belike our King hath fled again,' said she. Karl replied: 'In a bad way are we with our King for he is both halt & craven.' Then spake Vandrad: 'The King is not craven, but neither he is victorious.' Now Vandrad was the last to wash his hands, and when he took the towel he dried himself in the midst thereof; but the housewife seized it and pulled it from him, saying: 'Little good canst thou do; 'tis the way of common folk to wet all the towel at once.' Vandrad answered: 'I shall yet come thither where I may dry myself midmost in the towel.' Then sat they at meat for a while but afterwards went out, and there was the horse standing ready, and that son of Karl who was to bear Vandrad company sat another horse, and together rode they forth to the forest. But the men from the Earl went back to their boat, & rowed out again to their ship.

|| Harald and his men pursued the fugitives a short way, and thereafter returned to those ships which had been deserted. And then searched they the slain, finding in the King's ship a number of dead men; yet not among them was the body of King Svein; natheless was it deemed certain that he must have fallen. King Harald let the corses of his men be laid out, or the wounds bound up of them that required it. Then caused he the bodies of the men of Svein to be borne ashore, & sent word to the peasants that they should bury them; thereafter caused he the plunder to be divided, and abode for a while there at that spot. And there learnt he the tidings that King Svein was come to Zealand, and that all of his host which had not been routed in battle had rejoined him, and to him likewise were come many other men, and that to him therefore was assembled a mighty large host.

|| Now as ye have heard tell afore, was Earl Fin Arnason captured in the battle, and before the King was he led. King Harald was then exceeding joyful, and said he, 'Here meet we twain, Fin, though lastwhiles in Norway; scarce hath the Danish court stood by thee! An ill piece of work will the Norwegians have to drag thee, blind man, after them, and keep thee alive.'

Then answered back the Earl: 'Many ill things have the Norwegians now to do, & the worst of these is thy bidding.'

Then said King Harald: 'Wilt thou have grace, though grace deservest thou not?' The Earl answered: 'Not from thee, hound!' The King said: 'Dost desire that thy kinsman Magnus should give thee grace?' Magnus, the son of King Harald, was captain of a ship at that time. Then said the Earl: 'What hath that whelp to do with the meting out of grace?' Thereat laughed the King, for he deemed it good sport to bait him, and said he: 'Wilt thou accept thy life from the hand of Thora, thy kinswoman?'

Then the Earl said: 'Is she here?' 'She is here,' said the King.

Then did Fin utter the scurvy words which were remembered long thereafter, and all were witness of how wroth he was since he could not still his words: 'It is not to be wondered at that thou hast bitten well since the mare is with thee.'

To Earl Fin was given quarter, and King Harald kept him with him for a time, but Fin was somewhat unjoyful, and unmeek in his words. Then King Harald said: 'I see thou wilt not be friends with me nor with my kindred, so I will give thee leave to fare to Svein, thy King.' The Earl answered: 'That will I accept, and the sooner I fare hence the more grateful I shall be.' Thereafter the King let Fin be taken even to the land, where was he made welcome by the Hallanders.

Thence sailed King Harald north with his host to Norway, faring first to Oslo, and in that place gave leave to all his men who desired it to go even to their own homes.

|| It is said that King Svein abode that winter in Denmark, and held his state as before.

And in the winter sent he men northward to Halland to fetch Karl the Peasant to him, and likewise Karl's wife; and when they were come and he had summoned Karl unto him he asked him if he had seen him before. Karl answered: 'I know thee now, King, and I knew thee then even so soon as I saw thee, and it is under God that the little help which I was able to afford thee was of use.' The King answered: 'For all the days I have yet to live I have to reward thee. Now firstly will I give thee whatever homestead in Zealand thou art minded to have, and I will furthermore make thee a great man an thou wottest how to act.'

Karl thanked the King well for his words, and said that there was still a favour he would pray of him. And the King asked what that might be. Karl said: 'I would ask this thing, King, that thou lettest me take my wife with me.' The King answered: 'I will not promise thee this thing, for I will get thee a much better & wiser wife; but thy wife may keep the small homestead ye have already; on that she can live.'

And the King gave Karl a large & noble stead & gat him a good marriage. This was known and told far and wide, yea even as far north as Norway.

|| The winter following on the battle of the Niz King Harald spent in Oslo. And when the host came up from the south in autumn many tales and legends went abroad of the autumn outside the Niz river, & everyone who had been there deemed he had something to tell. Once it happened that some men were sitting drinking in a small chamber, & full of talk were they, talking of the battle of the Niz, and of whom might have derived the greatest renown therefrom. All were agreed on one issue, however, and that was that no other had been such a man there as Earl Hakon: he it was who had shown greatest prowess, who was the boldest under arms, and the ablest, and the most fortunate, and whatsoever he did was that which availed most, & to him was accounted the victory. Now Harald was without, in the courtyard, speaking with some of his men, and thereafter went he before the doorway of the chamber and said: 'Every man now would like to be named Hakon,' and therewith went his way.

|| Earl Hakon fared to the Uplands in autumn, even to his dominions, and there tarried throughout the winter.

Right well beloved was he of the Upland folk. Now once it befell, when spring was drawing nigh, that some men were sitting drinking, & their talk was yet again of the battle of the Niz; and men lauded greatly Earl Hakon, but a few praised others no less.

When they had been talking thus a while a man answered: 'Mayhap other men besides Earl Hakon fought boldly outside the Niz, yet nevertheless methinks no one can have had the luck he had.'

They said it was no doubt his greatest luck that he had routed many of the Danes. The same man answered: 'Luckiest for him was it that he gave King Svein his life.' Another answered him: 'Thou wottest not what thou art saying.' He answered: 'Yea, I wot full well, for he who set the King ashore told me himself.' Thus it befell, as oft is said, that 'many are the King's ears.' These things were told to the King straightway, and the King had many horses taken and rode forthwith away in the night with two hundred men,Sec. and rode he the whole of that night and the following day. Then there came towards them on horseback certain men who were making for the town with meal and malt. Now faring with the King was one Gamal, & he rode up to one of the peasants who was a friend of his and spoke privily with him.

Gamal said: 'Money will I give thee, an thou wilt ride furiously by hidden ways such as thou wottest to be shortest to Earl Hakon: tell him that the King will slay him, for the King wotteth that the Earl helped King Svein to land outside the Niz.'

And the matter being covenanted between them rode the peasant hard, and came even to the Earl who was sitting drinking and had not gone to his rest. But when the peasant made known his errand, rose the Earl forthwith and all his folk; and the Earl caused his chattels to be removed from the house during the night. When the King arrived thither tarried he there the night, but Hakon the Earl had ridden his way. And in time came he east to the realm of Sweden, to King Steinkel, and abode with him the summer. King Harald then turned him back to town. In the summer the King fared north to Throndhjem and abode there, but in the autumn fared eastward again to Vik.

|| Earl Hakon went back in the summer to the Uplands, so soon as he learned that the King had fared northward, and there dwelt he until such time as the King came south again. Thereafter fared the Earl eastward to Vermaland and tarried there long in the winter; and King Steinkel gave the Earl rule and dominion over that part of the land.

When winter was wearing to an end, fared he westward to Kaumariki, and took with him many men whom the Gauts and Vermalanders had given him. And he took thence his land-dues and the taxes which he had a right to demand, & thereafter fared he back east to Gautland and dwelt there the spring.

King Harald abode the winter in Oslo, and sent his men to the Uplands to gather taxes and land-dues and the King's fines; but the Uplanders said that they would not pay to him all dues which it behoved them to pay into the hands of Earl Hakon even so long as he was alive and had not forfeited life or dominions; & no land-dues did the King therefrom obtain that winter.