Part 8

Vagn and his men were so bound that a rope was passed round their feet, but their hands were free. Then said one of them, 'I have in my hand a cloak-clasp, and into the earth will I thrust it if I wot anything after my head is off'-- and his head was struck off, and down fell the clasp from his hand.

Hard by sat a fair man with goodly hair and he swept his hair forward over his face, saying as he stretched forth his neck: 'Make not my hair bloody.' A certain man took the hair in his hand and held it fast, and Thorkel swang the axe so as to strike, but the viking drew back his head suddenly & he who was holding his hair moved forward with him, and lo, the axe came down on both his hands and took them off, thereafter cleaving the earth. Then Earl Eirik came up and asked: 'Who is that fine man?' 'Sigurd the lads call me,' said he, 'and I am thought to be a son to Bui: not yet are all the vikings of Jomsborg dead.' 'Thou must of a surety be a true son to Bui; wilt thou have quarter?' 'That dependeth upon who is the bidder thereof,' said Sigurd. 'He offereth it who hath power to give it, to wit Earl Eirik.' 'Then will I take it,' and loosed was he from the rope. Then said Thorkel Leira: 'Though thou grantest quarter, Earl, to all these men, yet never shall Vagn Akason depart hence alive,' & so saying he ran forward with uplifted axe. Just then the viking Skadi tripped in the rope, and dropped before Thorkel's feet, and Thorkel fell flat over him, and Vagn seizing the axe dealt Thorkel his death-blow. Then said the Earl: 'Wilt thou have quarter?' 'Yea will I,' said he, 'if we all are given quarter.' 'Loose them from the rope,' said the Earl, and so it was done accordingly.

Eighteen of these men were slain, but to twelve was quarter granted.

|| Now Earl Hakon & many of his men with him were sitting on a log.

Suddenly there twanged a bowstring from Bui's ship, but the arrow struck Gizur of Valders, a feudatory who was sitting by the Earl & was clad in brave apparel, & forthwith went sundry of Hakon's men out to the ship and found on it Havard the Hewer kneeling by the bulwarks, for his feet had been smitten off him. A bow had he in his hand and when they were come out to the ship, as aforesaid, Havard asked: 'Who fell off the tree-trunk?' 'One named Gizur,' they say. 'Then was my luck lesser than I wished.' 'Ill-luck enough,' say they, 'and more hurt shalt thou not do,' & therewith they slew him. After these things the dead were searched, and the booty brought together for division; five and twenty ships belonging to the Jomsborg vikings were thus cleared of booty. Tind saith as follows:

'He, feeder of ravens, (Their swords did smite their thighs) Against the friends of the Wends long did struggle, Until he who shields destroyed had Five and twenty ships laid waste.'

|| Thereafter were the hosts dispersed.

Earl Hakon betook him to Throndhjem, taking it full ill that Eirik had given Vagn Akason quarter.

Men say that during this battle Earl Hakon made sacrifice of his son Erling in order to gain the victory, and afterwards the hailstorm came, and that then the slaughtering changed over out of the hands of the Jomsborgers. After the battle Earl Eirik went to the Uplands, and from there east to his dominions, and with him went Vagn Akason. Thereafter Eirik gave the daughter of Thorkel Leira-- Ingibiorg was her name-- in marriage to Vagn, & a goodly long-ship to boot, well furnished in all things appertaining thereto, & a crew did he get him for the ship, and they parted in all friendship. Vagn thence fared southward home to Denmark, and became thereafter a famous man.

Many men of might are descended from him.

|| Now it hath been heretofore related how Harald the Grenlander was King of Vestfold, and how Asta, the daughter of Gudbrand Kula had he taken to wife. One summer when he was out laying waste the countries to the eastward, came he to Sweden where Olaf the Swede was King in those days. Olaf was the son of Eirik the Victorious and of Sigrid the daughter of Skogla-Tosti.

Sigrid was now a widow and to her pertained many great manors in Sweden. When she heard that her foster-brother Harald the Grenlander had come ashore not far from where at that time she was abiding, sent she messengers to him, bidding him to a feast which she was making ready to give. Thereat was Harald glad, and fared to Astrid with a great following of men. And a goodly feast was it withal: the King and the Queen sat in the high-seat and in the evening drank both together, and among the men flowed the ale freely.

At night when the King went to his rest his bed had on it a costly coverlet, and was hung with precious cloths; in that house there were but few men. And the King having unclad him, & gotten into bed, the Queen came hither to him and poured out a cup, and pressed him hard to drink; right kind was she to him withal. Now the King was exceeding drunken, and the Queen likewise.

Then fell the King asleep, and Sigrid went away to her bed. Now the Queen was a very wise woman, and far seeing in many things. The next morning flowed the drink ever apace, but as ofttimes cometh to pass when men have drunk heavily, even so the more wary of drink are most of them on the morrow. Yet was the Queen merry, and she and Harald spake much together, and as their talk ran on, the Queen said that she deemed her lands & kingdom in Sweden to be of no less worth than his in Norway. Now at this manner of talking the King waxed moody, and found but little pleasure in anything thereafter, and heavy at heart he made him ready to go; yet was the Queen exceeding merry, gave him great gifts, & accompanied him on his way.

|| So back to Norway fared he that autumn, & abode at home during that winter, but little enough pleasure gat he the while. The summer thereafter went he eastward with his host, and shaped his course for Sweden. Word sent he to Sigrid that he desired to meet her, & she rode down to him, & they talked together; then without more ado he asked her whether she would have him for mate, to which Sigrid made answer that to do such a thing would indeed be foolish, seeing that he is well married already, and better for him might not be. Harald confessed Asta to be a good wife and brave, 'but of such noble blood as mine is she not withal.' Then answered Sigrid. 'Maybe thou art of higher lineage than she, yet nevertheless it beseemeth to me that with her is the happiness of ye both.' And after that few were the words spoken between them before the Queen rode away.

|| Then was King Harald sick at heart, & he made him ready to ride inland to see Queen Sigrid yet once more. Many of his men counselled him therefrom, but none the less went he with a great following to the house of which Sigrid was lady. That same evening there came thither from the east, from Gardariki (western Russia), another king-- VissavaldSec. was his name, & he likewise came to woo Sigrid the Queen. The kings & all their retinue were given seats in a large & ancient chamber; & ancient also were the furnishings of this room, but drink more than enough went round that evening, so strong indeed that all became drunken, and both the head-guard, and the outer-guard fell asleep. Then, during the night-- and all this was caused by Queen Sigrid-- were they fallen upon with fire and sword; both the chamber & the men who were therein were burned, & of those who came out from it not one was allowed to go alive.

Quoth Sigrid on this matter, that she would teach small kings from other lands to woo her; & thereafter she was called Sigrid the Scheming.

|| It was the winter before these things befell that the battle with the Jomsborg vikings was fought in Hiorungavag. Now while Harald was gone inland, one Hrani was left in charge of the ships and men; but when the news came that Harald had been done to death, fared they thence forthwith, & going back to Norway recounted the tidings.

And to Asta went Hrani & told her all things concerning their voyage, & likewise the errand that had urged King Harald to Queen Sigrid. When she heard these tidings Asta went straightway to the Uplands to her father, and right welcome was she made, but exceeding wrathful were they both at the base design which had been toward in Sweden, & with Harald that he had been minded to leave her in loneliness. Asta, the daughter of Gudbrand, brought forth a son even there in the summer; this boy was called Olaf at his baptism, & Hrani poured the water over him. At the outset was the child reared by Gudbrand & Asta his mother.

|| Earl Hakon ruled the whole coast of Norway; sixteen counties had he under his sway, and forasmuch as Harald Fairhair had prescribed that an earl should be over every county, and that prescription had endured for long, there were under him sixteen earls. Thus it is said in the Vellekla:

'Where else know we the government (On this the hosts may ponder) Of one land-ruler over the lands of sixteen earls? Unto the four corners of heaven rises the rumour Of the doughty deeds of the belauded chieftain.'

|| During the rule of Earl Hakon the increase was good in the land, & peace was there within it among the peasantry. Well-beloved, too, was the Earl among them for the greater part of his life, but as his years waxed old it happened that his intercourse with women became unseemly, and to such a pass came this that the Earl would cause the daughters of powerful men to be brought unto him, when he would lie with them for a week or twain, and then send them back to their homes. This manner of acting brought him to great enmity with the kinsmen of these women, and the peasantry fell to murmuring, as is the wont of the folk of Throndhjem when things are not to their liking.

|| Now there came to the ears of Earl Hakon the fame of a man overseas westward who called himself Oli, & whom men held for a King; and he misdoubted from the talk of certain folk that this man must be of the lineage of the Norwegian Kings. He was told, indeed, that Oli called himself Gerdish (i.e., of Garda) by race, but the Earl had heard that Tryggvi Olafson had had a son who had been taken eastward to Garda (western Russia), and had been brought up there at the Court of King Valdamar, and that his name was Olaf.

Often had the Earl sought information about this man, and he misdoubted that he it was who had now come to the western countries. Now to Hakon the Earl was a great friend, one Thorir Klakka, who was known far and wide, for he had sailed long whiles as a viking, and at others as a merchant.

So west across the sea Earl Hakon now despatched this man, bidding him fare to Dublin as a merchant, as many were wont to fare in those days. It was laid on Thorir that he should ascertain of what manner of man was this Oli, and should he hear of a truth he was Olaf Tryggvason, or of the lineage of the Kings of Norway, then was Thorir, if it might be, to ensnare him into the power of the Earl.

|| So Thorir gat him west to Dublin, and enquiring there for tidings of Oli learned that he was with his brother-in-law King Olaf Kvaran.Sec. Thereafter Thorir brought it to pass that he gat speech of Oli, and when they had talked often and long (for Thorir was a very smooth-tongued man) fell Oli to asking about the Upland kings: which of them were still alive and what dominions pertained to them.

Likewise asked he concerning the Earl, and if he were much beloved in the country. Thorir answered: 'The Earl is so mighty a man that no one durst speak but as he wills, nevertheless the reason of this is that we have none other to look to. Verily know I the minds of many mighty men, & of the people likewise, & that they would be eager & ready were a king of the lineage of Harald Fair-hair to come to the realm.

Of this, however, is there no likelihood inasmuch as it has been well proven how little it availeth to contend against Earl Hakon.'