Part 31

|| Now betwixt Norway and Denmark there were sent that winter messengers and messages, for both Norwegians and Danes alike desired to make peace and agreement either with other, and they prayed their Kings to do the same. The sending of these messages appeared prone to bring about concord, for in the end a peace-meeting was agreed upon in the River betwixt King Harald and King Svein. When spring-tide was come both Kings called out many men and ships for this journey. Saith a skald in a poem:

'Leader of armed men, he who the ground engirdles From Eyrasund northward shuts with his long-ship's prows The land (the haven spurned he). Gleaming with gold the stems cut the waves keenly; Onward of Halland west, with host aboard, and the keels thrilling. Harald firm-oathed! oft hast thou the earth engirdled with thy ships; Svein, too, through the sound sailed the King to meet. Praise-dight filler of ravens, who every bay doth close, Hath out a teeming host of Danes, from the south all.'

|| It is said here that these Kings kept to their agreement, to wit, that there should be a meeting betwixt them; and that both came to the marches. It is set forth thus below:

'Shrewd leader of armed men To trysting south once more Thou sailst as all Danes wished (No lesser was thy purpose). Svein now to the northward fares The land-marches nigh, The tryst to keep with Harald-- Windy was the weather off the land.'

|| When the Kings were come face to face the one with other forthwith betwixt them was broached ye matter of peace; and no sooner was this opened than many men made plaint of the harm they had suffered through war-fare, rapine, and the slaying of men. And long talked they about this, as is said hereafter:

'The yeomen shrewd Such words do say aloud That when the men meet, An' angered are mostly The others. Far seemeth Concord to lie from men Who on all things quarrel (The chiefs' arrogance waxeth). With danger fraught will be Wrath of the princes be If peace be agreed on, Those who are peace-makers In scales must weigh all things. Seemly for Kings to say What e'er the host liketh; Bad will would it cause Were the yeomen's state worsened.'

|| Then the best men and the wisest conferred together, and peace was made betwixt the Kings, in such wise that King Harald was to have Norway & King Svein Denmark as far as the marches which had aforetime divided the kingdoms; neither was to make redress to other; there where the land had been pillaged the matter was to be passed over; and he who had taken plunder was to keep it.

This peace was to ensue even so long as the twain were Kings; the covenant was bounden with oaths, & thereafter gave the Kings one another hostages; even as is said hereafter:

'Thus have I heard it said That Svein and Harald both (God works it) gladly gave Hostages one to other. Let them so keep their vows (All ended was with witness) And the whole peace so fully That the folk break it not.'

|| King Harald tarried in Vik during the summer, and sent men to the Uplands to collect the dues & taxes he had there; but the peasants in plain words said that they would bide the coming of Earl Hakon, until such time as he should come to them. Earl Hakon was then up in Gautland with a large host. When summer was wearing to a close sailed King Harald south to Konungahella (King's Rock), and he took all the light craft whereon he could lay hands & went up the River, and at the falls thereof had the boats haled across land and so put onto Lake Wenern. Thereafter rowed he east across the lake where he asked tidings of Earl Hakon.

Now when the Earl gat news of the journey of the King, came he down from the country and made endeavour to prevent the King from harrying, for to Earl Hakon was a large host which the Gauts had given him. King Harald laid his boats up the mouth of a river, and thereafter made a landing, but left some of his men behind to watch the craft. And the King himself and some of his men rode on horseback, but many more went afoot. Their way led them through a wood, & thereafter a bog lay before them on which were small bushes, then after that a copse, and when they were come up to the copse sighted they the host of the Earl; and a bog there was betwixt them and it.

Then both hosts arrayed themselves, & King Harald commanded his men to sit up on the hillside: 'Let us first tempt them to make an onset; Hakon hath no mind to wait,' said he.

The weather was frosty with some driving snow, and the men to Harald sat under their shields.

Now the Gauts had taken little apparel on them and were starved with the cold, but the Earl bade them bide until the King should make an onset and they could all stand alike in height. Earl Hakon had the banner which had been that of King Magnus Olafson. Now the head-man to the Gauts was one hight Thorvid, and he was mounted on a horse the reins of which were tied to a stake standing in the bog. He spake & said: 'God knows we have a large host here and many stout men; let not King Steinkell hear that we are not helping this good Earl well. I wist that if the Norwegians make onset against us we shall stand firm, but if the young men falter & bide not, then do not let us run farther than thither to the brook, and if the young men again falter, which I wot will not befall, then do not let us run farther than thither to the hill.'

At that moment ran up the host of the Norwegians shouting their war-cry and beating their shields, & then the host of the Gauts likewise began to shout, and the horse to the head-man pulled so hard at its rein, being afrighted at the host-cry, that the stake came up & flew past the head of the chief, wherefore he shouted: 'Such a mischance as thou shootest, Northmen,' and therewith galloped away. King Harald had ere this said to his men: 'Though we make din and shouting about us, yet let us not go down the hill or ever they come hither to us,' and they did according as he had said.

As soon as the war-cry was heard, caused the Earl his banner to be borne forward, and when they were come under the hill rushed the King's men down upon them, and some of the men to the Earl fell forthwith and some fled; but the Norwegians drave not them that fled very far, for it was late in the day. There took they the banner of Earl Hakon, and as much of weapons and apparel as they could lay hands on. And the King let both the banners be borne in front of him when he fared down the hill; and his men spake one with another as to whether or no Earl Hakon might be fallen. Now when it came to faring through the wood they had to ride in single train, and behold a certain man rode straight across their way, and thrust a spear through him that bore the banner to the King, and seizing the stave thereof rode he off another way in the wood with the banner. When the King was told of this cried he: 'The Earl lives! Give me my mail-shirt!' And rode he in the night to his ships. Now said many men that the Earl had avenged himself. Then chanted Thiodolf:

'Steinkell's host who to the Warlike Earl should help yield (That brought the King to pass) To hell, I ween, have fared. But those who would better The matter say, Hakon fled because the hope of help Therefrom but ill had proven.'

|| King Harald spent what was left of the night on his ship. In the morn, when it was light saw men that ice had formed round the ships so thick that it was feasible to walk round about them.

Then bade the King his men hew the ice and release his ships into the lake, and so went the men and set to work to hew the ice. King Harald's son Magnus steered the ship which lay lowest in the river-mouth and nighest out to the lake.

Now when the men had almost chopped the ice away a certain man ran out on it to the place where they were about to hew, and thereafter fell to chopping as if he were mad and raving. Then said a man: 'Now is it again as often before, no one is so good at giving a helping hand as Hall Kodransbane; behold now, how he is hewing the ice.'

But the man of Magnus's ship who was hight Thormod Eindridison, when he heard the name of 'Kodransbane,' ran to Hall and gave him his death-blow.

Kodran was the son of Gudmund Elyolfson, and Valgerd that was sister to Gudmund was the mother of Jurunn, Thormod's mother.

Thormod was a winter old when Kodran was slain, and never had he set eyes on Hall Utryggson before this time.

By this, then, the ice was broken away even so far as the lake and Magnus brought his ship out, & got under way forthwith, and sailed west across the lake; but the King's ship which was the uppermost in the channel came out the last. Now Hall had been of the fellowship of the King and was very dear to him, and the King was exceeding wroth, so that when he came latest into haven he found that Magnus had already helped the murderer to the forest, though he offered atonement for him, would he have gone against Magnus and his folk, had not the friends of both brought about their appeasement.

|| King Harald fared up to Raumariki this winter, and to him was a large host.

And he bore cases against the peasants for the keeping back from him of dues and taxes, and for inciting his enemies to strife against him.

And some of the peasants caused he to be taken, and some he maimed and others killed and others he deprived of all their possessions.

Those who could get away fled, but the King burned the countrysides wide about and laid them waste. Thus saith Thiodolf: