Part 33

The King answered: 'So much less a man am I than my kinsman King Knut that I have hard work to hold the Danish realm against the Norwegians.

Knut the Old gat his Danish kingdom by inheritance but won England by warfare and strife, yet nevertheless at one time seemed he like to lose his life thereby. Norway gat he without battle.

Now would I liefer keep within compass according to my smaller conditions than assay to rival the success of my kinsman Knut.' Then said Tosti the Earl: 'Lesser is my errand hither than I had thought for; I deemed not that thou, a bold man, wouldst let me go in need. It may be that I am seeking friendship where it is not meet to seek it. But natheless it may hap that I find a chief who is less afeared of great ventures than thou art, King.' Thereafter they parted, the King and the Earl, and were not very well of one accord.

|| Tosti the Earl now turned him another way: he fared onward to Norway, to King Harald who was in Vik, and when they met the Earl made he known his mission to the King, recounting to him all concerning his journey since he had left England. And he craved help of the King so that he might regain his dominions in England.

But the King said as followeth: that the Norwegians had no wish to fare to England and harry with an English chief over them; 'folk deem,' said he, 'that the English are not full trustworthy.' The Earl answered: 'I wonder if it is sooth, that which I have heard men say in England, to wit, that thy kinsman King Magnus despatched men to King Edward, with the message that he, Magnus, owned England with no less right than Denmark, that he inherited it from Hordaknut (Hardicanute) and that the pact was ratified by their oaths?' The King answered: 'Why did he not have it if he owned it?' The Earl said: 'Why hast thou not Denmark even as King Magnus had it before thee?' The King answered: 'Little have the Danes to plume themselves on above us Norwegians, for many a hole have we burnt in those kinsmen of thine.'

Then said the Earl: 'Though thou wilt not tell me yet can I, nevertheless, tell thee how it was King Magnus took possession of Denmark, to wit, was it because the lords of the land there helped him, but thou gat it not because all the people of the land were against thee. King Magnus fought not to gain England because all the people desired to have Edward for their King. If thou wishest to conquer England then can I bring it about that many of the lords there will be thy friends and supporters, for nothing lack I against my brother Harald save the name of King. All men know that there has never been born in the northlands a warrior such as thou art.

Astonished am I that thou who foughtest fifteen winters for Denmark will not take England which is lying at thy hand.' King Harald pondered with care over what the Earl had said to him, and well wot he that in great measure had he said sooth; and added thereto conceived he the wish to conquer that kingdom.

Thereafter the King and the Earl talked long & oft together, & in the end covenanted they an agreement that come the summer they would fare to England and conquer the country. King Harald sent round the whole of Norway calling out a levy, one half of the general war-muster.

Now all this was much spoken of by men, and many were the guesses as to how things would go on the faring. Some reckoned & counted up all deeds of valour, swearing how naught would be impossible of King Harald, but said others that England would be difficult to conquer inasmuch as the people were exceeding numerous, & those warriors who were called the Thingmanna-hostSec. so doughty that one of them was better than two of Harald's best men.

Thus answered Ulf the Marshal:

'Never would the marshals Of the King (uncompelling Ever gat I riches) Turn them to the King's stern-hold Noble woman, an twain should be pressed back by One Thingman (other than That when young I learned me).'

|| That spring Ulf the Marshal died, & Harald when he stood by his grave said ere he quitted it: 'Here lies he that was ever the most faithful & the most dutiful to his lord.' To Flanders also sailed Earl Tosti in springtide so that he should meet the men the which had followed him from England, with those others also who were to join him from England and likewise from Flanders.

|| The host to King Harald was gathered together in SolundirSec. and when all things were made ready and he was about to set sail from Nidaros went he to the shrine of King Olaf, and thrusting his hands into the sanctuary cut he off the hair and the nails pertaining to the saint, and thereafter turned he the key once of the shrine and then threw that same key into the Nid; and since that time forsooth hath the shrine of the holy King Olaf never been opened.

Five and thirty winters had been encompassed since his fall, and five and thirty years had he lived in the world.

Then King Harald and the men that were with him gat them a course southward to meet his host; or ever that time it was a mighty force that met together, and it is told among men that to King Harald were nigh upon two hundredSec. keels, besides victualling ships and smaller craft. When they were lying off Solundir a certain man named Gyrd, who was on the own ship to the King, dreamed a dream, and to him it seemed as though he stood on that same ship and beheld up on the isle a great troll-woman, & in one hand held she a short sword and in the other a trough. And to him also did it appear that he was looking at all the other ships, and on the prow to each was perched a fowl of the air, and all of those same fowl were either eagles or ravens.

The troll-woman sang:

'King from the east in sooth To battle inciteth Many a warrior westward, (Joyful am I therefor); There may the raven find For itself food on the ships (It knows enow there is); With thee will I ever fare.'

|| Now a certain man hight Thord abode on one of the ships nigh to the own ship of the King, and on a night dreamed he that he saw the fleet to King Harald faring landward, and he seemed to wot that to England were they coming.

Then he saw on the land a vast host of men & both hosts were making them ready for battle, and for each were many banners held on high. Before the host of the men of the land rode a swarth troll-woman, sitting on a wolf, and the wolf had the body of a man in its mouth, & blood flowed from the corners thereof. And when it had eaten the man she threw yet another into its mouth, and thereafter threw she one man after another, but notwithstanding made it scant ado at swallowing them all. And so she sang:

'The troll makes the red shield gleam when war comes nigh. Bride of the giant-brood mishap to the King foretells. The quean with the jaws flings flesh of fallen warriors; Raging the wolf's mouth she dyes red with blood.'

|| Furthermore it befell that King Harald dreamed one night and in his vision lo he was in Nidaros, and there met he his brother, King Olaf, who chanted a verse to him:

'The burly King in many fights with honour conquered. I gat (because at home I stayed) a holy fall to earth. Still of this I fear me that death is nigh thee, King; The greedy wolves thou fill'st; Ne'er was this caused by God.'

|| Men spake low of many other dreams and omens of divers kinds, and the bulk of them were of ill import. Or ever King Harald left Throndhjem caused he his son Magnus to be accepted as King, and made he him ruler over the kingdom of Norway.

Thora, the daughter of Thorberg, also remained behind, but Queen Ellisif fared forth with King Harald and with them likewise her daughters Mary and Ingigerd; Olaf the son to King Harald also fared with him from the land.

|| When King Harald was ready, and a favourable wind had sprung up, sailed he out to sea & came to land at the Shetlands, but some of his ships went on to the Orkneys. King Harald lay at these isles a while or ever set he sail for the Orkneys, & from these latter took he with him many men & the Earls Paal and Erling, twain sons to Thorfin the Earl, but behind him left he there Queen Ellisif & their daughters Mary & Ingigerd. Thereafter sailed he southward alongside Scotland, & then alongside England, and went ashore there where it is called Cleveland.

And being come on land forthwith harried he the countryside, bringing it into subjection under him, & withal encountering no resistance. Thereafter went King Harald into Scarborough, & fought there with the men of the town, and he went up on to the cliff there and ordered a vast bonfire to be made and a light thereto put, and when it was ablaze, his men took large forks and with them rolled it down into the town, and then one house after the other began to burn, so that there was naught for the townsmen to do save to surrender. There slew the Norwegians many men, and took all the goods whereon they could lay hands. No choice had then the Englishmen, an they wished to keep their lives, save to make submission to King Harald.

Wheresoever he fared brought he the land into subjection, and he continued on his way southward off the coast with the whole of his host, bringing-to at Holderness, and there a band came against him, and King Harald did battle with them and gained the day.

|| Now having come thus far on his journey King Harald fared south to the Humber and went up that river and lay in it beside the banks.