"Harald Fairhair" and his ancestors

11 :':

m

jiii

illil

©IKIQVNG LIST OCT 1

W

V

VOL. IX. PART I.

<>

*^J:^-f-tyt^, /r . x/V^T-^^irtrzy^ ,

7^

"HARALD FAIRHAIR"

and his Ancestors.

PART I.
By Sir HENRY H^^HOWORTH, "^

K.C.I.E., D.C.L.. F.R.S.. F.S.A..
Vice-President.

Being two Papers read before the Viking Society, London,
on May 4th and November 2nd, 1918.

" HARALD FAIRHAIR "
and his Ancestors.

PEOLOGUE.

IPKOPOSE in the following pages to describe
the reign of the greatest of the Norwegian
kings, who probably shares with the famous
Emperor Otho the First, the reputation of being
the most heroic figure in the European history of
the 10th Century — namely, Harald Halfdaneson,
known from the profusion and beauty of his
locks, as Fairhair, the founder of the kingdom
of Norway.

The exceptional features of Harald's career
make it necessary, if we are to understand its
real meaning, to try and grasp the earlier con-
dition of Norway as it may be gathered from the
scanty materials alone available. This I propose
to do shortly, before turning to the Life of the
Great King. Especially do I deem it convenient
to do so because it is an almost untrodden field in
English literature, and I intend, therefore, to
condense some of the information on the subject
which was admirably sifted by Munch, one of the
few great historians the world has known, which I
shall quote from Clausen's German translation
of the first two volumes, and shall supplement it
by the later researches of Vigfusson and Powell,
G. Storm, A. Bugge and others.

During recent years it has become more and more
probable that the same Scandinavian stock which
inhabits the great peninsula has been there from
very early times and has probably been very little
altered in its more general features. I do not propose

2 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

at this stage to discuss at length the archaeology
of the race — this would involve a long description
— nor yet the religion, the laws, or the customs of
the people, but only its political history and the
distribution and movements of the communities
into which it was divided in early mediaeval times.
Munch and others have established the conclusion
that the Norwegian race in early tinjes comprised
three great communities, one of them occupying
Norway east of the ^' keel " or backbone of the
country, and two of them occupying the whole
seaboard from Norland to the great inlet of Yiken
and the Christianiafiord. These were known as
the Thronds, in the north-west ; the Hords in the
south-west, and the Kaums in the Uplands, i.e.^
the northern part of Norway, east of the Dovrefelds.

Munch made it plain that the stock which
peoples the whole maritime district of North-
West Norway, including the widely ramified
Throndheimfiord and extending from the province
of North Mere in the South to that of Norland
inclusive, is united by certain unmistakable
common features, physical, artistic and linguistic,
and notably also by the local nomenclature. In
all these respects it differs generally from the
people to the South, who are separated from them
by Eaumdal.

The race occupying the long maritime dis-
trict just named were called Thronds (Throendr):
What the etymology of the name was, does not
seem very certain. Munch suggests that it means
the prosperous (op. cit., 114, note 2). Thrond
occurs as a personal name in several places in the
the Heimskringla, and occurs also as a place-name,
notably where it gives its name of Throndheim
(i.e.^ the home of the Thronds) to the great inland
fiord of Central Norway.

" Ha aid Fair hair''' and his Ancestors. 3

The name occars at a very early period, and is
found in the form Throwende, in '' Widsith" or the
Travellers' Tale, one Une of which reads : " I was
in Throwende," while the indigenous Norwegian
chronicle known as the Fundinn Noregr, makes
them the earliest inhabitants of Norway.

The province of Halogaland was originally the
focus and heart of this community, and a headland
called Trondenaes occurs on the north-east side
of the Hinn-isle in Halogaland (see Magnusson,
Heimskringla IV., 285).

The name Halogaland was long ago explained
by Adam of Bremen as meaning the Holy or
Sacred Land." He says: ''''Hoc ignonuites paqani
terram illam vacant sanctam et beatarii, quce tale
miracidum prcestat viortalihus.'' This etymology
has been adopted by Munch, whom it is generally
safe to follow. He says : " Hdlugr is an archaic
form of heilagr holy, whence haaloga land the
holy land. In Anglo-Saxon it w^as called Halga-
land, which is the same thing, and the modern
pronunciation Helge land probably comes from an
old form Helga land." (Munch op. cit., 1, 98,
note 3).

Adam of Bremen speaks of Halagland (as he
calls it) as an island near Normannia not less in
size than Iceland or Greenland, op. cit., 245. His
mistake was corrected by a scholiast, who says of
it that " it is the furthest part of Nordmannia and
nearest to the Scridfingi " — i.e., to the Lapps.

As Munch says, Heligoland, also called Fosete,
situated in the bight of the Elbe, is the same name
and has no other etymology than that of Holyland.
In the case of the Norwegian Holyland, the name
is best explained by its having been the oldest seat
of the race who dwelt there (ib., 96). It further
seems to me that he is right in attributing the

4 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

reference in Eyvind Scaldaspieler's famous poem,
the Haleyiatal, in which he applies the name
'' Mandheim," meaning the first homeland of men,
not to Suithiod or Sweden, as some have done, but
to Halogaland, the country of the hero whose
praises he was singing (op. cit., 96, Note 2). The
name-Thorscliff, now Thorshaug, in the parish of
Stadsbygden-in-Fosen to the north of Throndheim,
no doubt recalls a famous shrine of Thor in this
district, which may have given its name to
Halogaland.

The God Thor, or Thor, was well known
to the Germanic peoples as well as the
Scandinavians. The Anglo-Saxons knew him as
Thunor, i.e., the Thunder God and he presided
over heaven and the phenomena of the air and
thus corresponded to Zeus or Jupiter. It is a daring
and perhaps a foolish suggestion to hint that the
names Thor and Thrond were connected, and that
the Thronds w^ere the special cultivators of the
worship of Thor, who was the great god of Western
Scandinavia, as Odin seems to have been of the
East, where he had probably largely superseded
Thor. It is at least noticeable how frequently his
name occurs among those of the early Icelandic
settlers. Miss Philpotts, in her admirable account
of Germanic heathenism, says that at least one out
of every five emigrants to Iceland in heathen times
bore a name of which Thor formed a part, and in
Iceland we hear of settlers consecrating their land
to Thor and naming it after him. (Cambridge
Mediaeval History, Vol. II., 481). It is interesting
to remember that our Thursday still commemorates
the famous God, while the winter month of the
Norsemen was called Thor's month.

It will be convenient to here set out an account
of one of the temples dedicated to Thor. The best

^^ Harald Fairhair'" and his Ancestors. 5

description of such a building is contained in the
Eyrbyggja Saga, and the account is worth re-
peating at length. We there read of an exile
from Most, an island off South Hordaland, called
Rolf. He had charge of the Temple of Thor
in that island, and was a great friend of the
God, whence he was styled Thorolf. He was
outlawed by King Harald Fairhair, as we shall see.
Thereupon he made a great sacrifice to Thor and
asked of him whether he should make peace with the
King or begone. The reply of the god was that he
should go to Iceland. He therefore pulled down the
temple and took with him most of its timbers and
some mould from under the altar where Thor had
sat (probably also the altar itself), and when he
reached Iceland he threw over into the sea the
pillars of his high seat which had been in the
temple, and on one of which Thor was carved, and
he declared over them that he would settle in
Iceland wherever Thor should contrive that the
pillars should land. They in fact landed in a
firth he called Broadfirth, which they afterwards
called Temple Wick. The promontory where
Thorolf had landed was called Thor's Ness, and he
afterwards went further to the river called Thor's
river, and settled his people there, and there he
set up for himself a great house at Temple Wick,
which he called Temple Stead, and there he built
a temple. It had a door in the side wall and
near to one end of it. Inside the door stood the
pillars of the high seat, and nails were driven into
them which were called the God's nails, and within
it was a great frith-place {i.e,^ the sanctuary, a
kind of apse), and near by was another house of
the fashion, says our author, of a choir in a church,
and in the midst of it stood an altar on which
lay a ring without a joint, that weighed twenty
ounces on which all oaths were sworn, and which

6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

the chief must wear on his arm at all male ^' motes"
or assemblies. On the altar also stood the blood
bowl and therein the blood-rod like a sprinkler,
with which the blood from the bowl, which was
called " Hlaut," was sprinkled. It was blood
which had flowed from beasts that had been
sacrificed to the Gods, and round the altar stood
the Gods arranged in the holy place. To that
temple all men paid toll, and were bound to follow
the temple priest in all journeys, as (says the author)
do the Thingmen their leaders, but the Chief
must uphold the temple at his own cost, so that it
should not go to ruin, and hold sacrifices there.

On the ness or headland was a fell, and Thorolf
held it in such awe that no unwashed man was
allowed to cast his eyes on it and neither man nor
beast could be killed on it. Thorolf called it Holy
Fell, and he arranged to be buried there when he
died, together with all his kindred from the ness,
and he ordered that all oaths were to be sworn on
the tongue of the ness where Thor had landed, and
there he set up a fylki-thing (Eyrbyggja Saga,
chapters iii. and iv.). In the Kjalnesinga Saga we
have some additional details. It says Thorgrim
was a great settler. He had a large temple built
in his home-field at Kjalness 100 feet long, and
sixty feet wide, to which all his Thing men paid
toll. From its end there projected a building-
shaped like a cap {i.e.., an apse). It was arranged
with hangings, and had windows all round. Thor
stood in the middle, and on either hand the other
gods. In the front was an altar, highly wrought
and covered on the top with iron, on which burnt
a fire which must never go out, and which they
called a hallowed fire.

In the notice last mentioned the writer goes on to
tell us that the ring placed on the altar was made

'''' Harald Fairhair" and his Ancestors. 7

of silver, and on it all oaths relating to ordeal cases
had to be taken. The blood-bowl was a large one
and made of copper, and the blood was sprinkled on
arms and heads. The money of the temple was to
be spent in entertaining visitors at sacrifices.

Magnusson reports the discovery in recent years
of the remains of a private blood-house. These
showed that at one end of it was a semi-circular
chamber separated from the main building by a
party wall.

In sacrificing men, they were to be hurled into
the fire which was by the door and was called the
pit of sacrifice. From Hauk's edition of the
Landnama, we learn that before using the ring
or swearing upon, it was reddened with the
blood of a sacrificed heifer. The temple guardians
were chosen at the Thing according to their
wisdom and goodness, and had the further duty of
ruling the pleadings of cases and naming the
judges. They were called " Godher " (op. cit. xxxi —
xxxiv).

Returning to Halogaland; an early notice of
the district is that contained in King Alfred's
version of Orosius, where he quotes the narrative
of a visitor who went to see him from Norway who
was named Othere, and who claimed to be a native
of Halogaland. He told the King (who, by the
way, he styles Hlaford or Lord) that his home lay
further north than that of any other Northman.
Rask ingeniously suggested that he filled an
official post in the far north of Norway and
collected the taxes there. It is difficult to explain
how Othere came to pay a visit to England from
so remote a place, and it has been suggested that
he was in fact one of Harald's victims and that he
actually settled in England and may even have
been a jarl Othere or Othir, who is named as

8, Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

taking part in a fight there in the year 911, (See
Dahlmann Forschungen, i., Note 410). But this
is very doubtful, and there is another candidate
for the distinction. The name Othere was not
uncommon in Norway. Othere's notice of the far
north is one of the most interesting relics of
9th Century literature which we possess, but
cannot be pursued here.

In the romantic legend about the origin of
the Norwegian rulers contained in the Fundinn
Noregr and also as an introduction to the Orkney
Saga and which is founded largely on geographical
assonances and names, the district inhabited by
the Thronds is treated as the earliest home of the
Norsemen. We read of the two brothers Norr
and Gorr who divided the country between them,
Norr taking the inland parts and Gorr the islands
and outscars. The latter was to have all the islands
between which and the mainland he could pass in
a ship with a fixed rudder. His sons were Heiti
and Beiti, who were also sea kings and fought
against Norr's sons, in which first one side won
and then the other. Thus we are told that Beiti
ran into Throndheim and lay in the place called
Beitsfiord and Beitstede, thence he made them drag
his ship from the innermost bight of Beitstede
and so north over the isthmus. That is to where
the NaUmdale comes down from the east. He
himself sat on the poop and held the tiller in
his hand, and claimed for his own all that lay
on the larboard side, including much cultivated
land. Munch, in discussing this Saga, rationahses
it by claiming it as a proof that the peninsula
bounded by the Naumdal Eid or transit, was
peopled by the same section of the Thronds as
the seaboard, and not by an invasion from
Throndheim fiord itself. Among the names com-
pounded with Beit above named, he mentions in

" 1 1 (I raid hairhair" atid his Aiuestors. 9

this district Beitstadt and Beitstadt fiord, Beitsjor,
also called Beit's Sjor — i.e.^ Beit's landing-place,
and the lake of Beit. (Op. cit. i., 99 and Note).

There is a good deal of evidence to show, as we
shall see, that the Thronds were once ruled by a
special dynasty of kings who probably controlled
the whole race. One of this Koyal stock, on the
extinction of the race of Harald, became the
King of the whole of Norway — namely, Hakon
the 2nd. His deeds and those of his ancestors
were recorded in a famous poem (an imitation of
Thiodulf's Ynglingatal), and written by Hakon's
Court poet, Eyvind Skaldaspieler, who lived in
the end of the 10th Century. The poem is
referred to in the preface to the Ynglinga Saga,
and there it is expressly said that Eyvind derived
his hero from Saemingr, the son of Yngwi Frey.
These rulers were referred to in the list as
Kings and iarls of Halogaland, which originally,
doubtless, comprised the whole country of the
Thronds.

Eyvind'G poem has most unfortunately only
been preserved in fragments, which barely include
one-fifth of the whole. Four of them are
preserved in the King's lives ; a fifth in the
MS. known as Fagrskinna, and the rest in the
Edda and Skalda. These fragments are given by
Vigfusson and York-Powell (See Corpus Poet.
Bor., i., 251 — 253), and in a restored text (lb. ii.,
657—658).

Fortunately, portions of the poem have
survived as prose paraphrases and quotations
elsewhere. Among them we have preserved a
list of Hakon's professed ancestors derived through
many generations from Saemingr, the son of Odin
and the giantess Skadhi, whose reputed descend-
ants were known as Saemings, and formed the

lo Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

third great Koyal stock of the North, the others
being the YngUngs and the Scioldings.

In the following list it will be seen that the
earlier rulers of Halogaland are called kings, and
the later ones iarls : —

KINGS. IARLS.

1.

Odin, who married the

14.

Hersir (? Hersi).

giantess Skadhi.

15.

Brandr-iarl.

2.

Saemingr.

16.

Brvniolfr

3.

Godh-hialti.

17.

Bardhr.

4.

Swerd-hialti.

18.

Hergils.

5.

Hodhbroddr.

• 19.

Havarr.

6.

Himitileygr.

20.

Haraldr Trygill.

7.

Vedhr-hallr.

21.

Throndr.

8.

Hav^arr Handrami.

22.

Haraldr.

9.

Godgestr.

23.

Herlaugr.

10.

Heimgestr Huldar-

24.

Griotgardhr.

brodhir.

25.

Hakon Urna-iarl.

11.

Gylaugr.

26.

Sigurd Hlada-iarl.

12.

Godhlaugr.

27.

Hakon Hlada-iarl

13.

Mundill Gamli.

Note.— W^e Vigfusson and Powell, C.P.B. ii., 522 and 3,
taken from Eyvind's poem and The Flatey Book. It will
be noticed that one of these iarls is called Throndr.
1 think Vigfusson is unreasonably sceptical about at
least the later of these names. The order of the
names 11 and 12 is reversed in the Ynglingatal
(see below).

The first of those in the above list who is
mentioned in the Ynglinga Saga was a king called
Gudlaug who belonged to the heroic age. He is
the first ruler of any part of Norway to be named
in the Heimskringla. We there read that Jorund
and Eric were the sons of Yngwi, son of Alric,
King of Sweden. They were great warriors, and
one summer were harrying Denmark, when Gudlaug
(^.6. Godlaugr), " King of Haloga," happened to be
there. With him they had a battle, and his ship
was " cleared," i.e., its crew were destroyed, and he
was captured. They brought him to land at

*' Harald Fairhair'' and his Avcestors. ii

Straumeyjarnes and there hanged him, and there his
folk heaped up a mound over him. Two verses
of Eyvind are quoted in the YngHnga Saga for
this account. In them we are further told that
the " ness," or headland, was known far and wide
from being marked by a stone on the king's
mound. (Ynglinga Saga, ch. 26. For the poem
see Vigfusson and Pow^ell, Corp. Poet. Bor., i.,
p. 252). The locality of Straumeyjarnes is not now
known. The two Swedish brothers got great fame
from this deed.

Presently, we are told, Jorund became King
at Upsala, and he often went a-warring, and
one summer went to Denmark and harried in
Jutland, and went up the Lim-liord where he
plundered, and then landed his ships in Odd-
sound, when there came thither Gylaug, King
of Halogaland, the son of the above named
Gudlaug, and a battle took place between the two
kings. The people of the country having heard of
it came together from all sides, both great and
small, and King Jorund's men were overwhelmed
by the nmltitude and his ships were " cleared." He
himself leapt overboard and began to swim, but
they laid hands on him and brought him to land,
and King Gylaug reared a gallow^s, and led Jorund
thither and hanged him on it. This was reported
by Thiodolf in the Ynglingatal (Op. cit., ch. 28),
and probably was derived by Eyvind from that
poem. I do not understand Vigfusson's note on
this verse. (See op. cit., i., 523).

■The next time we read of Halogaland w^as
when Adils was reigning in Sweden. We are told
that he was fond of horses, and sent a present of
one called "Kaven" to Godguest, the King of
Halogaland. King Godguest mounted it, and the
horse threw him and he was killed (Ynglinga Saga,

1 2 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

op. cit. 33). This was at Omd in Halogaland.
Omd was the eastern part of the island of Hin,
now called Hindo in Halogaland. (See the fourth
volume of Magnusson's Heimskringla, page 270),
Up to this point Halogaland is the only part
of Norway, and its kings are the only rulers of that
land named in the Heimskringla, and it all points
to its having then been the focus and centre of
Norwegian life (at least on its west coast) in
very early time. Nothing in fact is reported of
the eastern and southern parts of Norway until the
Ynglings invaded it after the death of King
Ingiald of Sweden.

Turning to later times, we have a curious
legend professing to show why the kings of Halo-
galand became iarls. In the poem of Eyvind, as
we learn from the fragment on early Norwegian
history known as Agrip, where it is quoted as the
authority, it is said that Hersi (the fourtenth in
the above list) was king in Naumdale (a fylki
or shire of the Thrond-land). His wife's name
was Wigtha, after whom the river Wigtha in
Neamdal {sic) was said to have been named. Hersi
having lost her, wished to make away with
himself in order to join her, and asked if any
precedent could be found for a King having
committed suicide. On search being made a
precedent was found for a iarl having done so,
but not for a king. Hersi then went to a
certain house on a hill and rolled himself
down, saying that he had rolled himself out
of the king's title. He then hanged himself in a
iarl's title, and his offspring would never after-
wards take upon them the title of king (C.P.B.,
528). This story is an interesting folk-tale.
It is clearly an invention to cover some less
romantic cause which it was necessary to disguise.
I. have not seen this suggested, but it seems

" Harald Fait hair" and his Ancestois. 13

highly probahle. Kings in old days did not
generally exchange their position for that of iarls
except under compulsion. Let us, therefore, turn
aside to another more probable folk tale.

It would seem that at an early time Haloga-
land was divided into a number of shires or
" fylkis," each of them wdth its petty ruler, but all
subordinate to one supreme chief, who had his seat
in the fylki called Naumdal, and the first of the
iarls of Halogaland in the Ust above quoted is
called King of Naumdal in a tale to w4iich w^e
will now turn.

Harald Fairhair was not the first Conqueror
who subdued this part of Norway. We are told in
the saga of King Hakon that Ey stein was called the
ruthless (hardhradi), the njighty (inn riki), the evil
(inn illi), and the evil-minded (illradhi). The focus
of his wdde realm was Heathmark where he
lived, and whence he ruled the Uplands in Eastern
Norway (Ynglinga, ch. 49-54). He invaded and
conquered the " Isles fylki " and the " Sparebiders
fylki " in the district of Throndheiu), over which he
set his son Osmund, whom the Thronds presently
slew. He thereupon made a second invasion of
Throndheim, which ho harried far and wide and
completely subdued its people. This we are ex-
pressly told in the Saga of Hakon the Good,
ch. xiii., and it probably occurred in the time of
Harald Fairhair's father or grandfather.

Ari tells us that in order to punish the murder
of his son, Eystein imposed a ujost ignominious
punishment on the people of Throndheim. He
bade them choose whether they would be governed
by his thrall who w^as called Thorir Faxi or his
hound who was called Saur. They thought they
would have more of their ow^n way under the latter,
on whom therefore their choice fell. They then

14 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

had the dog bewitched, so that he had the wisdom
of three men, and he barked two words and spoke
the third. A collar was wrought for him and chains
of gold and silver, and when the roads were bad
his courtmen carried him on their shoulders. A
high seat was decked out for him, and he sat on a
horse as kings were wont to do. He dwelt at the
Inner Isle, i.e. the Eyna fyiki, and had his abode
at the stead called Saur's home, and it was said
he came to his death in this wise — the wolves
fell on his flocks and herds, and his courtmen
egged him on to defend his sheep ; so he leapt
from his horse and went to meet the wolves,
but they tore him asunder. This folk-tale may
contain some elements of truth, for it was quite
after the taste of these grim Norsemen to humiliate
their enemies by a punishment of this kind.

Eystein, we are told, did many other marvellous
deeds among the Throndheimers, and to escape
from his ravage and cruelty many Lords and other
people fled the country abandoning, their old odal
lands, i.e. lands that paid no tax (op. cit.).

Among them was Ketil Jamti, the son of
Onund, iarl of Sparbyggja-fylki now Sparburn
and he crossed over the keel or Great Mountains
and went eastwards with a great company of men
who took their families with them. They cleared
the woods and peopled the great countrysides
there, and the country was thence known as
Jamtaland (ib. ch. xiv.).

Ketil's grandson was Thorir Helsing, who was
outlawed from Jamtaland for murders he had
committed there, and migrated thence through the
woods to the East, where many people joined him,
and the district was afterwards called Helsingland
after him. The Norwegians, however, only settled
the western part of Helsingland, while the

*' Harald Fair hair ^' and his Ancestors. 15

coastlands of the province were settled by the
Swedes. All this seems to me quite rational and
probable. The migration eastwards continued in
later days, thus we read how, in the reign of Harald
Fairhair, Wethorm, the son of Wemund the Old,
a mighty hersir, fied from King Harald into
Jamtaland and cleared the wild forests or marks
there (Landnamadel v., 15, 1).

What is plain from all this story is that the
Thronds were at that time conquered by Eystein
the Great, the King of the Uplands, who had other
sons beside Osmund, and we nowhere hear that
his victims recovered their independence again.
I would urge as a most reasonable solution of the
difficulty that Eystein, in fact, divided the country
among his own relatives, and that the various
Kinglets who were found in Throndheim, Naumdal
and North Mere when Harald arrived were his
descendants, in one case only, namely, in that
of the specially sacred Land of the Thronds, to
which the name Halogaland was now limited, was
an exception apparently made. There, as we have
seen, the old dynasty which claimed descent from
Odin continued to reign, not as Kings but as iarls
— that is, they paid tribute to the conquerors.
The critical distinction between a King and an
iarl was the payment of skat or tribute, and a
ruler, however small his kingdom, if he paid no
skat was styled a king. This seems to be a rational
explanation of the change of the rulers of Haloga-
land from the status of Kings to that of iarls.

As I have said, Halogaland (the land of the
Thronds) was doubtless divided from early times
into several " fylkies " or provinces, answering to
the Northfolk and Southfolk in England, who were
all governed by the same code of laws but had their
own independent administration. Four of them

1 6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

were situated on the coast, namely, Ramnafylki,
Nord Mere, Naumdal, and the most northern, i.e,
Halogaland. Halogaland was separated by an inlet
named Nid from N. Mere in the South, and had no
definite boundary in the North, where it bordered on
the great stretch of land reaching to the North Cape,
which was peopled by a thin sprinkling of Lapps.
The Norse inhabitants were chiefly gathered in the
southern parts, where the temple of Thor was
planted on Thor's Ness. In later times it furnished
a few emigrants to Iceland, and produced some
famous writers, notably the poet of the oldest
Eddaic poem, the Yolundarkuidha, and there at
Tiolto was the home of the last great skald of
the Viking period, Eyvind Skaldaspieler, see
A.Bugge (Op. cit., 210.) Each of the other fylkies
had its sacred fane, called Hof or Thorshof,
where the great gods were worshipped and which
formed the focus and central point of the shire.
Each of the smaller divisions, also had its Thor's
temple, and its ^' Thing," or Assembly. On the
west side of the Great Mountain, in fact, Thor was
everywhere, and his larger temples were the finest
buildings in the land.

The whole district of Throndheim, called
Dronthemen's by Adam of Bremen, was divided
into a series of cantons, some large and some small
forming eight "inland fylkies," as they are called ;
they numbered 3 to 10 in the list quoted below,
each with its petty ruler and all bound together
by a common dialect and laws. The names of
these were: — The Orkdale fylki, so called from the
river Orke ; this is the westernmost of the fylkies
and on the south of the Firth; Gauldoela fylki,
from the river Gaul; Strinda fylki and Stioradoela
fylki, from the river Stiora ; these were grouped
about the entrance of the fiord ; further inland
there lived the so-called Inlanders, namely,

^' Harald Fair hair " and his Ancestors. 17

Verdaela fylki, so called from the river Vera;
Skeyna fylki, Sparbyggia fylki, and Kyna fylki.

I will now abstract from Munch : " Nordnwen
denes aeldste Gudeog Helte Sagn, 178," a list of
the fylkies into which the land of the Thronds
(which was subject to the Frosta Thing) was
divided, with the situation of their principal
temples, where known : —

. 1. Haleygja fylki Throndarnes

2. Naumdael fylki Jod

3. Sparbyggia fylki Maerindelni

4. Eyna fylki Hiissladir (Saurshaugz)

5. Verdaela fylki Haugr

6. Skeyna fylki ?

7- Stiordoela fylki Stjoiadal

8. Strinda fylki Hladir

9. Gauldoela fylki Medalhiis

10. Orkdoela fylki Niardvik

11. Nordrmoera fylki Yrjum

12. Raumsdoela fylki Veey.

The larger part of these fylkies, as is obvious,
took their name from the principal valleys which
traversed them. The two first and the two last
faced the sea, and were largely backed by moun-
tains and forests which made access to them from
the land side almost impossible at this point.
North Mere was separated from Halogaland by a
narrow Sound called the Nid, which gives access
to the great inland Throndheim fiord that consists
of a congeries of converging valleys and water-
ways. Naumdale lay north of the great Firth,
and was nearer to Iceland than any part of
Norway, and naturally supplied a greater number
of the emigrants, who came from Norway to that
island, than any other district. The Thrond extended
southward to North-Mere fylki which had its
counterpart in South Mere, but was, however,
occupied by another race, the Hords. The two
Meres apparently originally represented waste

1 8 Siigd'Book of the Viking Society.

districts separating the territories of the Thronds
and Hords. They are now separated by a fylki
called Kaumdal, which is the frontier of the
Thronds in the South. Smaa-land, a similar district
in Sweden, was called Mere by Othere.

Behind these four districts lay, as I have said,
the sprawling Throndheim fiord, throwing out its
arms in different directions, like a huge starfish, and
reminding us of the Lake of the Four Cantons
in Switzerland. It was naturally landlocked, and
its inhabitants were not fishermen and navigators,
but cultivated their rich lands and migrated
eastward, and not westward, when conditions
demanded it, and in this way largely peopled the
Osterdals and the northern frontier of Sweden.

Having described the Thronds let us now turn
to their neighbours, the Hords. They gave their
name to Hordaland, now known as Sondre Bergen-
husamt, which was the kernel of their land. Munch,
in his analysis of the population of South West
Norway, shows that from Hordaland itself, north-
wards as far as the Northern frontier of South
Mere, the land was peopled by Hords. This is
shown by the common dialect prevailing there, and
especially by the fact that it was all subject to the
same code of Laws and was obedient to the same
great Thing or National Assembly.

This code was known as the Gulathingslag,
a.nd took its name from Gula in North Horda-
land, and no doubt embodied the old Common
Law Qf the Hords. It was also obeyed in later
times beyond the borders of the Hords themselves
by at least two communities, which once no
doubt, had local codes of their own, namely, the
Eugians in Rogaland and the district of Agder,
both of them famous. To thein we will return
presently. The Hords, properly so called, occupied

" Ha f aid Fat f hair*' and his Ancestors. 19

the fylkies of North and South Hordaland, Har-
danger, Sogn, Hallingsyadal, Waldres, South
Fiord, North Fiord, and the western part of Gud-
brandsdal called Lorn or Loar (Munch H. N. F.
i. 110).

South of this land of the Hords was Rogaland,
^.e., the land of theliygiar orRugians. The two, how-
ever, were very close akin. The Rugians held the
coast and also the islands as far as the eastern district
called the Vik: the frontier between the two ran
between the hamlets of Nedenaes and Bratsberg
called Rygiarbit in old days. Originally Rogaland
also included the western part of Thelemarken with
the so-called Robygger whence Robygdelag got its
name. The latter points to the Rugians having once
had a code of their own, and dominated Agder.
Munch suggests that Robygger is short for Rogbyg-
ger. (Munch, op. cit., 107).

In regard to Agder, it was once a se[)arate
kingdom and the seat of more than one legend.
It seems plain that earlier however it formed a part
of the land of the Rugians. The name, according to
Munch, originally merely meant a strip of coast,
and was given to the maritime border between the
Ryfylki and the Vik, part of which, was known as
Ryuiarbit. At all events, it is plain that during the
Middle ages the whole of Rogaland and Agder
were subject to the Gulalag.

Both the Hords and Rugians were known in
very early times. The Hords have been very
reasonably associated with the Kharudes, who
formed a section of the army that invaded Gaul
under Ariovistus, in Csesar's times, and who are also
mentioned in the Morumentum Ancyranum, dating
from the reign of Augustus, and by Ptolemy.
They were probably in part at least living in

20 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Jutland, and doubtless gave its name to Harde-
Syssel in that peninsula.

The Eugians (the Eygir of the Northern
writers) also had colonies south of the Baltic.
The island of Eugen was no doubt connected with
them. They are, in fact, mentioned as Ulmerugii
or Island-Eugii by Jordanes and in the legends of
Scandinavia as Holm-rygir. Eugii are also described
as living near the Vistula, and are met with in the
legends of the Goths and Lombards, and took a part
in the great Teutonic invasion of the 4th and 5th
centuries.

The two tribes, as I have said, were closely
united in the most ancient Sagas and in the
early romantic history of Norway called the
Fundinn Noregr, we are told that Gard Agde, the
son of Nor the Just, ruled over Agder, Eogaland
Horda land, Sogn, the Fiords and South Mere.
According to the same document, Gard Agde's sons
were Hord, King of the Hords, Eugalf of the
Eugians, Thrum of Egden, Wegard of Sogn fiord,
Freygard of the Firths, Thorgard of South Mere
and Griotgard of Nord Mere. (Munch, op. cit.,
110, and note 3).

It is a curious fact, that has not been so far
as I know noticed, that Odoaker, who deposed
the last Eoman Emperor Eomulus Augustulus
and occupied his place, probably came from this
district of Norway. He ruled over a confederacy
of four tribes — namely, the Eugii, the Turcilingi,
the Sciri and the HeruH. In one place Jordanes
calls him '' genere RugusP While in another he
calls him '' Turcilingorum rex.'"

It would seem that the Turcilingi were, in fact,
a tribe of the Eugii. What is interesting to us is
that their name is clearly compounded of the

** Harald Fairhair'^ and his Ancestors. 21

Scandinavian name Thurkil. The Sciri it has long
ago been suo:geste(l gave its name to Sciringshal, the
famous early trading mart, situated in the king-
dom of Westfold, (|uite near Rogaland. A colony
of tliem seems to have settled at the mouth of
the Vistula, where Pliny puts them. The name
also reminds us of " the Scoringa " of Paul the
Deacon. In regard to the Heruli, the most
puzzling of all the tribes who invaded the Roman
Empire, who filled such a notable place in the
history of the 4th and 5th Century, and who
apparently formed the great bulk of the army of
Odoakar, I believe they were no other than Hords
or Haeretha-men with a somewhat altered name.
At least I know of no other tribe but the Heruli
to which Jordanes' language can apply. He
says of them : " Qm inter omnes Scandiae nationes
nomeu sibi ob nimium proceritatem ajf'ectant prae-
cipuuniy (Jordanes Hist. Goth., ch. 3). Pro-
cupius has much to say of them as a seafaring
race, and tells us how a branch of them, after
their great migration, returned again to their old
home in Scandinavia, and that they '' settled near
the Goths, the most numerous of the peoples of
Thule." They probably were the tribe otherwise
called Hirri.

Jordanes speaks of a King Kodulv, who visited
Theodoric in Italy. A. Bugge would identify
him with the King of the Heruli of the same name
mentioned by Procopius, and with the Koadulv
mentioned in the famous R()ksetenn in East
Gothland, who reigned over a number of tribes
in South- Western Norway. Aruth was the name of
another Chief of the Heruli. Bugge identifies it with
the name Hord (See A. Bugge Die Wikinger, I. 16
and 17). The names in the list are corrupted
almost beyond recognition, but something can be

22 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

made of them. There are the Tilae or people of
Thelemark,and the Granii,no doubt the people who
gave its name to the fylki of Grenlaiid near
Kogaland. In Agandziae, Zeuss and MuUenhof
suggest, we have the same stock as the people of
Agder, the former adding the phrase : " Vielleicht
nur in Gothischen Munde umgehildet mit participial
endungT The Ethelrugi Zeuss would make the
Rugians of the west part of Thelemark. The
Arochiranni, Munch divides into Arochirani,
and makes the latter a corruption of Hords and
of Kaumi, and Sygni, i.e., the people of Sogn.
(Zeuss Die Deutsche und der Nachbar-stamme,
507; Munch 1.124).

There still remains another famous stock, the
Burgundians, who very probably came from this
district. It is usual to derive them from the small
Baltic island of Bornholm, where a colony of them
doubtless existed, but like Eugen it was probably
only a colony, and it is noteworthy that the chief
centre in the fylki of South Mere was called
Borgund.

A. Bugge condenses a graphite picture of the
south-west districts of Norway occupied by the
Hords and Rugians in early times, and especi-
ally Yaederen and the Hardanger fiord, the lowland
in the south of Norway, enclosed by the sea on
the one side and the fjeld on the other hand, which
already in the bronze age, the early iron age and
even earlier, was one of the most populous districts
of Norway.

Its excellent soil made it the most fertile
part of Norway, enabling it to support a large
population. From Yaederen was the shortest
passage to Jutland, and both districts seem at
one time to have been closely united together.
Thence also the passage was the shortest to

" Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 23

England. At the time of the great race migrations
as is shown by its archa3ological remains, it was
closely tied to the lands beyond the North Sea.

In the Viking time Hordaland and Rogaland
were among the great foci of piracy in Norway,
and were the homes of some of the greatest of
the pirate chiefs — of Geirmund and his brother
Hainund Heljarskinn and of Anund Trefot. who
were descended from the ohi kings of Horda-
land (A. Biigge, op. cit. I. 205).

In early times again, Yaederen was the
special home of design in handicrafts and of
carved Runic stones in Norway. They were
doubtless learnt in the West, where the arts were
much more developed. Certain stones found in the
district, and notably the famous Kleppe stone,
are markedly like those from the Isle of Man and
the Hebrides. It was from the West that the
shorter Runic stave which prevailed in Yaederen
at one time and also other artistic ideas must have
come, and were thence imported into East Gothland
and the island of Gotland. It was in this district
also that memorial stones began to be erected
which were clearly inspired by those in the West,
in the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. (A. Bugge,
Die Wikinger, 208 and 209).

After the Viking time, Yaederen sank again
into obscurity. Professor Sars is of opinion that
Harald Fairhair, when he conquered Western
Norway, laid a particularly heavy hand on this
district so that it never recovered again during the
Middle Ages. It occurs sometimes in the sagas
of the time of Olaf Trygvesson and Olaf Haraldson,
but no such heroes as Erling Skjalgsson of 8ole,
are then heard of It must be remembered,
however, that after Norway became united into a

24 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

kingdom, there was not the same scope for
buccaneering on a great scale that there was in
the earlier time.

Half, or Halv, was King of Hordaland at the
beginning of the Viking time, and was the hero of
a poem which now only survives in the Half's
Saga. In later times, this poem partly inspired
Frithiofs Saga and alsa Esaias Tegner in his famous
story. Other poems also existed about other kings
in Hordaland and Rogaland. Thus there has been
preserved a strophe from one about the brothers
Geirmund and Hamund Heljarskiri above men-
tioned, who were so alike that their own mother
could not distinguish them.

At the beginning of the Viking period its
chiefs were apparently already intermarrying with
Anglo-Saxon wives. A. Bugge identifies the
Ljufvina of the Saga, who married Hjorz
Halvsson, with the Anglo-Saxon name Leofwynn
or Lewina, the female complement of the well-
known Anglo-Saxon man's name Leofwine. He
suggests that he lived at the beginning of the
9th Century, and was the father of Geirmund and
his brother above named. In the Saga she
is called the daughter of the King of Biarma,
but this is clearly a mistake, for at this time the
Norsemen had not found their way to the
White Sea, and her name clearly shows she
was an Anglo-Saxon. As we shall see, at
the great battle of Hafursfiord, there were pre-
sent Western warriors. Among them, perhaps,
as Gustav Storm has suggested, was Olaf the White
from Dublin. The poet Hornkloti, apostrophises
the " Western swords." Among these were, no
doubt, the swords inlaid with the names of English
makers on which my friend Lorange wrote such
an excellent monograph. The spears and white

•' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 25

shields (probably made of the linden or lime tree),
of those who came to the great fight, were also
doubtless importations.

A. Bugge also attributes one of the Eddaic poems
to an author from Hordaland — namely, the splendid
Hyndlaliod. Its author, Ottar, sprang from the old
Kings of Hordaland, and was of the same stock
as (jreirmund Heljarskinn and on the mother's
side was related to Hordakari, whose family is
described by Snorri as the most famous one in
Hordaland. To it Erling Skjalgsson belonged.
Ottar became a Viking and resided in the West,
and Bugge would identify him with Ottar the
iarl, or Ottar the black, who is mentioned as
raiding in England in 910—9-20 (Op. cit., 207).

So famous werei the Hords, that Hordaland is
the name by which Norway is fii-st referred to in
our own vernacular literature, and from it the fii'st
piratical attack of the Vikings was made on our
English coasts The name occui-s in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle as Haeretha land (see A.S.d
MSS., D. & E. sub. ann., 787). By the Irish
writers the name is given in the form Hirotha or
Irruaith. (See Todd, Chronicle of the Gaedhill
and Gael. xxxv. I., note).

Another and more usual name for Norway in
the Irish writers was Locldannoch or the land
of the fiords or firths, a specially ai)propriate
nanie for this coast of Norway, where two of
the fy Ikies were known as North Fiord and
South' Fiord.

It is a pity that we have so litth^ recorded
about the local history of this district before the
time of Harald Fairhair, for it is quite plain that
the Norwegian raids upon the British Isles for
a period of nearly eighty years after the one just

26 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

mentioned (the real date of which, as I long ago
showed, was 793) down to the battle of Hafurs-
fiord, were conducted in great part, if not
altogether, by the men of Hordaland. These
raids, as well as the story of the earlier settle-
ments of the Norwegians in the West, are how-
ever, much too large a subject to be treated in this
prologue, and need a special memoir to illustrate
them.

When Harald comes on the scene we find
him marrying the proud daughter of the King
of Hordaland, who refused to wed him till he
was master of all Norway. This shows the
pretensions of the race at that time and also
its wealth and prosperity.

The country occupied by the Hords was
divided like that of the Thronds into a
number of fylkies, each with its great
Thor temple, its local Thing and its large
Hall, the dwelling of its local ruler. These
fylkies are thus enumerated by Munch, who gives
the corresponding '• county towns " where the
institutions in question were planted. They were
as follows : —

Name of

Site of Hof or

Fylki.

Thor's Temple.

Sunnmoera

fylki

,{i.e.^ Souih Mere) .

Borgund

Firdha

(i.e.^ the Firths)

.. Gaulum

Sygna

(ie., Sogn) ...

.. Vik

Horda

Gula and Mostri

Valdres

Aurdal

Haddinjg-jada

H ,,

...

.. Ali

Rygjia

Gond

Ecjda

CAgder) ... .,

Thruma

These different fylkis had a common centre at
Gula in Hordaland, from which their code of laws

'' Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors y-j

was named. Each, however, had its separate ruler.
Although styled kings, they no doubt accepted the
hegemony of the ruler of the dominant fylki of
Hordaland, the king of which at the accession of
Harald Fairhair was the hitter's father-in-law, Eric.
Having dealt with the Thronds and the Hords,
we will now turn to the third main division of the
Norse people — namely, the Haunis. The great
area east of the Dovrefjelds and west of Sweden,
and bounded on the north by huge forests and
wastes, was in early times, so far as can be seen,
peopled only by a very scanty population of Finns,
divided into two sections witli very dift'erent
histories. A northern section occupying a hilly
and not too fertile land, and a southern one com-
prising the fertile lands round the Clnistiania
fiord and eastward as far as West Gothland.
The former was known as Alfheim, and was so-
called from the two great rivers, with their
affluents, which watered it — namely, the (ilommen
or Kauma. and the Klar-elf or Gotha.

Munch identifies the Alfheimers with the
Hilleviones of Pliny, the Helvikones of Tacitus,
and the Heliouen of Ptolemey. Pliny sa vs of them
that they came from another world, which Munch
explains as meaning that they were immigrants
into the country where they were then living.
He further argues that they came from the North
and occupied a district once occupied by another
people. With this he compares the legendary
story preserved in the so-called Fundinn Noregr,
about the origin of the Norway peoples. It tells
us that Nor (the e[)onymos of the Northmen) had
a son Ranma, who was settled in Alfheim, which
included all the countiy through which the two
rivers flowed. By Vergdis, the daughter of the
giant Thrym, Rauma had thi-ee sons among

28 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

whom he divided his realm. Bi oin to(k
Eaumdal ; Brand, Gudbrandsdal ; and Alf,
Osterdal and all the country north of the Worm
as far as the Gaut-Elf and the Raum-Elf, the
modern Gota and Glommen He goes on to say
that other sons of Kaum settled in Hadaland,
Haddingadal and Ringeriki, which he looks upon
as later acquisitions of the Raums. The focus of
their count i*y in early times was apparently
Raumariki, so-called from the river Rauma, and
hence the race wliich peopled it were afterwards
known as Raums, while the name Alfheim was
restricted to the fylki, bounded on either side by
the two great rivei-s just named, which had a
different history. The Uplands, properly so
called, comprised the fylkies or counties of
Gudbrandsdal, Hedemark, Thoten, the southern
part of Herdalen, Raumariki, and generally the
country watered by the Rauma, the Logen, the
Worm and (xlommen rivers.

It is interesting to find some of the names sur-
viving in this district in use as early as the time
of Joidanes. He speaks of the Raumarici, the
Ragnarici and the Fervir, (? corruption of Ferdir).

Munch gives us a list of these fylkies in the
Uplands, with the sites of the great Thor
temples, marking the central focus of each of
them : —

Fylki. Site of Temples.

Rauma fylki ... Ullinshof at Uileisakri

Hardha ,, ... Thotmi

Ringariki ,, ... Niardharhof and a temple at Gron

Heina ,, .. Thorshof at Redahu (Vang), a

hof at Cyjunir and another

at Skaun

Eystridalir Alfrhimir

Gudbrandsdalir ... Fron near Hundthorp

^^ Hnrald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 29

Eysteiii the Great, whom 1 have spoken of
above, was the ruler of the Uphinds. I have
ah'eady described his famous campaign against
the Thronds. He had several sons namely
Hogni and Frotlii, Eystein the Younger, and
Osmund. While Hedemark or Heathmark, was
the centre of his realm and he was sometimes
called King of Hedemark, he was also the ruler
of the great fylkies of Hadeland, Thoten,
Raumariki, Gudbrandsdal, and Osterdaler. He
was in fact the great overlord of the Raumfolk,
and doubtless belonged to a very old stock.

The fylkies, over which he ruled, were grouped
round the great lake formerly called Miors and
now known as Mjosen, the second largest lake in
Norway, and containing a famous sacred island
with a noted shrine of Thor. It was also known as
the Watersend (Magnusson HeimskringlalV., 265),
and stretches from Gudbrandsdal to Kaumariki.

Hedemark is the district north of Raumariki,
and bounded on the east by the Glommen and by
the Wormen the river of Gudbr«vndsdal. Its name
shows it w^as a frontier district or mark. Thoten,
the modern Toten, was bounded on the east by
the Mjosen lake and the Wormen, which separated
it from Hedemark, on the south by Raumariki.
Hadeland was situated immediately to the
8.W. of Thoten and bordered the Randsford.

The districts which were occupied by the
Thronds, Hords and Raums were not always
conterminous, which accounts for their different
customs, laws and dialect. Munch has shown very
clearly what happened. It was similarly explained
by Geiger in regard to Sweden. The earlier tribal
settlements were doubtless once quite isolated.
Each tribe having round it as a protection a

30 Suga-Book of the Viking Society.

Mark or frontier, which, in the North really
meant a wide stretch of impassable forest. As
the population grew the forest was gradually
reclaimed by industrious settlers — saeters they are
called in the North. The Anglo Saxons called
them saetas, as in Dorsaetas, Defnsaetas, etc.
They increased in numbers, and gradually pushed
on as an advanced guard of each tribe until the
two streams met.

Munch cells us that their ancient homes are
marked both in the North and South by differ-
ences in dialect, pointing to there having been
a gap between them at one time. " A mark," in
fact, tliat is a stretch of unoccupied land, separated
in each case the great tribal areas. It was. the
best protection available in a wild country. The
intervening gaps were afterwards filled up by
immigrants from either side. In this way the upper
parts of the so-called Gsterdals were gradually
encroached upon by settlers from Throndheim,
and we find the people in them speaking the
dialect of the Thronds. The Thrond speech extends
to Noros on the Upper Glommen, but south of
that town not a trace of it is to be found. There
they speak the Rauma dialect as far as Quickne, a
place near where the Glommen and the Grka
come together, and where there is another similar
frontier. Munch says that it is clear the settling
of this part of the country has come from two
sides, and that the streams of population ran from
Tonset in the north to the Lower Neendal in the
south.

So much for the frontier between the Eaums
and the Thronds. The evidence points to similar
results in the south-west between the former and
the Hords. Munch shows that the inhabitants
of the upper parts of the valleys to the east of

" Harald Fairhair'" and his Ancestors, 31

the mountains aiul south of Gudbrandsdal — i.e., of
Waldres and Hallingdal, are in dialect, appear-
ance and habits much more like their neighbours
on the other side of the mountains in 8ogn and
Hardanger, who were Hords, than with those of
their neighbours in the lower part of the same valleys
showing whence the latter came. On the other hand,
their land in Hadeland, Sigdal and Ringariki,
obviously received their first inhabitants from
the west — i.e., from the land of the Hords by
the easy route of Fillefjeld Hemsedalsfjeld, the
Aurlandsfjeld and the heights of Ustedal. This
becomes more probable when we remember that
Waldres and Hallingdal were in ancient times
treated as part of the ancient Hord confederacy,
and were subject to the jurisdiction of the Gula-
thing. In this district, therefore, we .igain have
two streams of people — one from the West and the
other from E-aumdal It is not only the valleys
belonging to the water shed of the Drams Elv to
which this applies. Thelemark is also divided
into two portions separated by their dialect. That
in the Eastern, is quite unlike that in the Western
'• setars," and it cannot be doubted that the two
sections of Thelemarken got their population partly
from the East — i.e., from Westfold, which was
perhaps once called Thyle or Thule, and partly
from the West from the land of the Rugians.

Munch has collected a good deal of evidence to
show that the people of Rogaland, who were
closely akin to the Hords and obeyed the Gula
thing, also sent considerable colonies across the
mountains northward and eastward ; both Thele-
mark and Numedal afford proofs of this.

So much for the three great tribes which
occupied Norway in early times. We still have
to consider another district which had a distinct

32 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

history. South of the Uplands, comprising all the
fertile lands round the Christiania fiord, and extend-
ing from Westfold in the West to West Gothland
in the East inclusive, was apparently in early times
occupied by a different race, and probably it was in
fact dominated, as it was almost certainly civilised
by the Goths, and Munch thus accounts, not only
for the artistic work found in the graves in this
district being so like that in the graves of East
and West Gothland, but for the earliest Runic
inscriptions of this same district being written in
Gothic runes and in the Gothic speech. He is
very emphatic in this matter and says that one of
the Gothic monuments has been found even west
of Westfold in Thelemark. He also quotes the
occurrence of " mark " in the latter name, and in
Yingul-mark as due to Gothic influence.

In later times, as we shall see, there is reason
to think that a portion of it at least formed a
part of the realm ruled over by Signrd Ring, the
heroic chief of the Skioldung race, and by his
ancestors. Eric, the Swedish Ring, claimed that
Sifirnrd had ruled the Raum realm and Westfold,
out to Grenmar, Vingulmark, and thence away
South. (Saga of Harald Fairhair, ch. xiv.)

Round the Tyrifiord in South -Western Norway
was a noted centre of wealth and culture.
Ringariki in this district, like Yaederen further
west, is noted for the number and beauty of its
monuments and the carved work on them, and it
was clearly one of the great centres of culture
in the Viking time. The very rich country west
of the Christiania fiord, the Viken of the Norse-
men, was the focus of their wealth, enterprise
and artistic skill. Near Hole, not far from the
modern Svangstraudvei they found a valuable
material for these monuments in the red sandstone

'^ Harald Fair hair" and his Ancestors. 33

which occurs there. Thence they were carried to
the neighbouring districts. On these stones we have
representations of hawking scenes and other sub-
jects, in wliich human figures occur, and which are
decorated with intertwined snakes and also with ac-
anthus leaves. A. Bugge mentions such stones from
Tandberg in Ringariki, from Strand inUpperHalling-
dal, from Vang in Valclres, from Djnna in Hadeland
and Alstad in Toten. The greater part of them are
carved from the sandstone of Hole. This district
was divided up, like the rest of Norway, at the time
we are chiefly interested in now% into a number of
fylkies. Those occupying the district collectively
known as Viken, comprised : —

Name of Fylkis. Site of Thor's Temple.

Groena fylki. Lillaheradhr (?)

Vestfold Skiring^ssal and Saeheimi

Vingfulmark Osloarheradhi and Tunum

Alfheimr Konungahellu (?)

As we shall see later, the first two were united
under one ruler, and were named Westfold, which
became the nucleus of the later kingdom of
Norway. To the origin and growth of this we
will now turn.

Note I. — It is interesting to remember that Adam of Bremen in regard
to Thor has the phrase : " Thor praesedit in aere qui tonitrus
et fulmina, ventos imhrcsque serena et fruges gubernat."

Note II.— Munch has an interesting paragraph about the particle rik or
ric which terminates certan names in South Norway. He says: In
the old German world we never find the designation rigi or riki
except in the case of conquered districts or those from which the
former inhabitants have been dispossessed. Thus, Frankrige,
France ; Myrcena-rica, Mercia ; Beornica-rige, Bernicia ; Deorarige,

34 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

Deira, West Seaxenarige, Wessex, etc. In Norway we have the
fylkis of Raumariki, Ranrike, and Ringariki pointing to these dis-
tricts having been conquered from others. Their conquerors
must have come from the south-east, i.e., from the land of the
Goths, whose north-west frontier was doubtless Hedemark, while
Vingulmark points to another marchland.

Note III. — In the Ynglinga Saga, c. 49, we read that Halfdane Huitbein
was buried at Skaereidh in Skiringesal. These two names,
says Munch, correspond with the Scoringa and Scoeri of Paul
Warnefrid. the historian of the Lombards. He suggests that the
Winili, as the latter ^ere originally called, first made their way to
Vingulmark, and thence to Skiringesal and Rygiarbit, whence with
the Scyri and Rugians they fought with the Wendles (the Vandals),
op. cit. 1, 113.

THE
ANCESTORS OF HARALD HAARFAGKE.

Before I enter into the main part of my
subject, I must lay down certain postulates
which it is necessary to remember, and which,
it is possible, may not meet with universal
acquiescence. In the first place I hold that
among the Norsemen such a thing as a parvenu
ruler or chief was unknown. Among no race was
loyal attachment to the sacred stock (to which
alone the kings and chiefs belonged) more marked.
The slaughter of particular chiefs was common
enough, but this was followed by their being
replaced by others of the same family and
blood. The families which had this hereditary
privilege were deemed to be the direct descendants
of the famous companions of Odin, the Asirs, or
Anses, and to them, and them alone, belonged the
privilege of ruling.

In the next place we cannot help thinking that
the amount of disintegration in the communities

^^ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 35

which held Scandinavia in early days has been a
good deal exaggerated by the recent critical
historians. It is true that before the end of the
8th Century there was not the cohesion in the
government that there was in later tinies, and
that the supreme chief was not the autocrat he
afterwards became. His authority was consider-
ably distributed, and there were a number of
so-called district, or-fylki, kings who divided
the lands among them, each controlling his own
patrimony ; but it seems to me that there was,
nevertheless, a veiy distinct acceptance of the
feudal and patriarchal notions by which the
head of the house, the high priest of the
community, was de facto, as well as de jure, the
supreme ruler of all. I take it that the com-
munity was, in this respect, organised very much as
a Scotch clan or an Irish sept was, with the senior
chief and many subordinate and semi-independent
ones. The district chiefs all belonged to the same
race as all the chiefs of the Macleods or Campbells
theoretically do : all having a common ancestoi*,
all obeying at critical times, and at all times
acknowledging as their head, the Lord of Dun-
vagan or the Macallum Mor. Thus we find that
when the great chief had a mortal struggle, the
various branches. of the house gathered round him
at his summons, and joined their ships to his.
The amount of independence exercised by the
district kings no doubt varied with the locality.
In districts like Western Norway where every
fiord is separated by difficult barriers from the
next one, or where the intercourse either by land or
water was difficult, and probably intermittent only,
the maximum of independence would be reached.
There the little community and, in many cases, the
isolated farm would be practically independent.

36 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

The same rale, caused by the same circumstances,
held good in the Peloponnesus in ancient times
and in the promontory of Sorrento in mediaeval
ones. In more fertile and thickly peopled dis-
tricts, which were more accessible and more
valuable, the authority of the supreme chief was
doubtless more marked and his visits more frequent :
the association of liberty with a rugged country is
well explained in such instances at least.

These postulates are reasonable and generally
accepted, and are both supported by ample
evidence. Thus, if we turn to the earliest poetic
literature of the North, the "Traveller's Tale"
and " Beowulf," we are struck by finding the
Scandinavian district divided into a number of
so-called ''gaus," or provinces, each one occupied
by a separate clan, as in Ireland and Celtic
Scotland in mediaeval times ; each clan subject
to a royal stock, all belonging to the sacred caste
tracing descent from Odin and his Asirs, and
thus having, for its chiefs at least, a common
pedigree. A few lines of the "Traveller's Tale"
will exhibit this division into communities,
each with its royal caste. I take the following at
haphazard : —

Sigehere longest
Ruled the Sea Danes.
Hnaef the Hocings,
Helm the Wulfings,
Wald the Woings,
Wod the Thyrings,
Saeferth the Sycs,
The Sweons Ongendtheov,
Sceafthere the Ymbers,
Sceafa the Longbeards, &c., &c.
Sedgefield's editioji of Widsith lines^ 28-32.

It is not my present purpose to examine these
clans and their ruling stocks in detail. Our story

*' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 37

begins at a much later stage, when tlie petty
communities were being consolidated into larger
kingdoms by the absorption of several by the more
vigorous and ambitious among them. This con-
solidation had a very potent effect indeed on the
social condition of the north of Europe. Denmark
and Sweden were the first to feel its effects, and
were presently followed by Norway. Norway's
consolidation occurred just at the beginning of
its written history, and, in fact, its real history
begins with this consolidation. The movement
took place under the leadership of the royal
stock of the Ynglings, which, if we are to credit
the very reasonable tradition to be presently
referred to, was expelled from Sweden by the
Scioldungs. We must always remember that
the first kings of Norway were Swedes and not
Norwegians. This revolution is described for us m
the last chapter of the Ynglinga Saga, the general
truth of which I cannot see the smallest reason
to doubt. This consolidation of power in the
North, and especially the internecine struggle
between the Scioldungs and the Ynglings just
referred to, more than aught else caused, as 1
believe, the vast impulse given to piracy and
foreign colonisation in the ninth and tenth centuries,
and converted w4iat had previously been, so far as
our facts point, a peaceable, trading, stay-at-home
folk into an army of plunderers which assailed
every part of the European seaboard. It was as
exiles and expatriated chieftains that many of the
Norsemen emigrated from their rugged homes, and
the migration only ceased when the rival stocks
of sacred blood had settled down into what
became their normal distribution. Before entering
on our main subject we must say something about
our authorities.

38 Saga-Book of the Vikmg Society.

In a paper written many years ago on the early
history of Sweden, I urged that the Ynglinga
and the Scioldunga Saga (of which last we have
fragments remaining, the most important being the
well-known Sogubrot) were probably written by
one person, and I suggested that this person was
Snorri, the author of the Heimskringla. Since
writing that paper I have had the advantage of
reading the admirable prolegomena to the Stur-
lunga Saga, written by my friend, Professor
Vigfussion, in which I found my main contention
confirmed — namely, that the early part of the
Heimskringla and the original draft of the
Scioldunga were by one hand. Vigfusson has,
however, I think, shown very clearly that the
author of the two in their early form was not
Snorri, as I urged, but his predecessor, Ari
Thorgilsson, styled Frothi, or the Learned, who
was born in 1067 and died in 1148, and who
was douMess the first Norse writer who wrote
prose history. One of the books he is known to
have written was called the " Konunga-bok,"
or Kings' Book. In regard to it, Vigfusson
tells us that the superscription of the Codex
Frisianus has the words, " Here beginneth
the Book of Kings according to the records of the
Priest Ari, the Historian : opening from the three-
fold division of the world, which is followed by
the History of all the Kings of Norway." To this
statement is prefixed a short introduction con-
taining a life of Ari. The words quoted can only
mean, either that the following Sagas are Ari's
" Book of Kings," or that they are derived
therefrom. The discrepancy between the myth-
ology of the Ynglinga and the Prose Edda
(which was Snorri's own work) may be noted
as some confirmation of this view " (Op. cit.,

" Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 39

xxix). Vigfusson concludes that Ari's " Kon-
unga-bok" probably ended with the death of
King Harald Sigurdson, commonly called Harald
Hai'drada. His work has been embodied in and
forms the greater part of the Heimskringla ; and
it is nearly certain, as Vigfusson says, that the
first book of the Heimskringla — namely, the
Ynglinga Saga, with which we have alone to deal
here — is Ari's own work, with slight, if any,
alterations.

Let us examine the Ynglinga a little more
closely. In the preface to the Heimskringla we
read, ''The lives and times of the Yngling race
were written from Thiod wolf's relation, enlarged
afterwards by the accounts of intelligent people."
The relation referred to was a poem written
by Thiodvvolf the Wise of Hvin, a valley
west of Lindnesnaes. Thiodwolf composed this
poem, which was called the '' Ynglinaatal," or
Yngling-tale— i.^., the list or succession of the
Ynglings — at the instance of Rognvald, called
the Mountain High, who was first cousin to Harald
Haarfagre, at whose court Thiodwolf was the
chief Scald, or poet. Thiodwolf was on very
friendly terms with Harald Haarfagre himself,
and became the foster-father of his son Gudrod,
who was drowned because he would persist in
sailing out in stormy weather contrary to the
advice of the old seer (Id., i. 304-5). This enables
us to fix the date when Thiodwolf flourished and
wrote his poems on the Descent of the Ynglings
as the earlier part of the tenth century ad. He
is one of the oldest of the Scalds whose composition
has come down to us and who treated his subject
historically.

Vigfusson was the first to analyze the versicles
of Thiodwolf, and to show that, as we have them,

40 Saga-Book oj the Viking Society

they are very corrupt, owing to theii* long passage
through many fragile memories, instead of being
written down, and owing also to the language
having altered and become largely obsolete and
unintelligible and been misunderstood.

Fortunately the character and structure of
Northern poetry, and especially its rhythm and
alliteration, make it possible to restore it when
corrupted with some certainty, and it has been
done with marvellous insight by Vigfusson, in
this case. He has shewn that we have only
a fraction of the poems preserved in the versi-
cles as we have them. I have not noticed the
fact anywhere, but it is curious that in almost
every case the only versicle which is preserved
about each king is the last one — i.e., that reporting
his death and place of burial ; all the rest are gone.

The poem, in fact, had no doubt become largely
quite obscure and incomprehensible after the people
in the North had thrown away their old gods and
their old modes of thought, and the versicles that
were preserved in a corrupt form were doubtless
kept alive merely as a convenient memoria technica
to preserve in a ready way a record of the
catalogue of the early rulers. Originally we can
hardly doubt that this poem was a genuine
historical epic. It was matched in the early
poetry of Ireland by similar poems, one famous
one of which is still extant, dating from almost
the same time. It is almost certain that in this
case the poem of Thiodwolf was intact in its
original form in the time of Ari Frothi, and
that he really t^'anslated it into prose in the
vernacular of his day. This was supplemented by
certain additions from tradition or early songs,
and we doubtless have its contents substantially

•* Hill aid Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 41

preserved for us as incorporated in the Yn^linga
Saga, witli some further additions made by Snorri,
and notably the early section about Odin and other
gods and including the first thirteen chapters, none
of which, it will be noted, is marked by a versicle.

Vigfusson has argued very reasonably that in
Ari's original Ynglinga none of the versicles
were, in fact, inserted, for they repeat the same
story in part, and confuse the narrative, but
that they were added by Snorri, who broke up what
remained of the poem and distributed it in Ari's
narrative. This is strongly supported by the
corrupt state of the text of these versicles as
we find them in the Heimskringla.

It seems plain, however, that we have in the
prose part of the Ynglinga a perfectly reputable
historical document of the 1 1th Century, based
on a quite respectable historical poem of the
early part of the 10th Century, that is of an
approximate date to that of the composition of
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, before which the late
Mr. Freeman, who poured contempt on what he
called "mere sagas," used to do obeisance night
and morning.

In addition to the edition of the Ynglinga in
the Heimskringla we have an independent witness
about it in the so-called *' Historia Norvegiae."
It only now exists in a Scotch MS. of the
15th century, but was composed much earlier,
since it is quoted in the composition known as
" Agrip," and was therefore composed before 1190.
It was written in Latin by a Norwegian. The
earlier part, as my friend Gustav Storm showed,
is based upon the Ynglingatal before it was
sophisticated by Snorri's addition (Storm's *'Snorre
Sturlasson's Historieskrivning, etc.," 22 and 23).

42 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

Beside this we have another tradition, doubt-
less also derived from Thiodwolf s poem, if not
from the '• Historia JSorvegiae" in the account of
the Upland Kings, by Hauk Erlendson, who was
born inNorway. He is named as Lawman of Ice-
land in 1294 and also Lawman of the Gulathing of
Norway, and died in 1334 (Vigfusson, preface to
the Sturlunga Saga C 2, x, 1 ).

With the earlier part of the Ynglinga Saga,
before chapter xxxviii., we have nothing to do at
present. We begin with the death of Ingiald
Illradi, or Evil -heart, who, by his conquests
and diplomacy, became sole king of Sweden. He
filled the canvas with a considerable figure, and
eventually was burned to death in a fire lit by
himself while entertaining some of his under-
kings, having already destroyed all the rest — a
notable and terrible holocaust. Whatever may
may be the case in regard to the earlier parts of
Thiodwolfs story, I cannot help thinking that
from the time of Ingiald, who was but six
generations removed from him, the tradition was
perfectly lively and reliable. In our own day a
tradition ranging over six generations and extend-
ing considerably over a century is a very ordinary
occurrence, especially about famous characters
who have taken part in history. Many of our
own acquaintances repeat stories told them by
their grandfathers which they heard from theirs,
and which are quite reliable. But in our sophisti-
cated society this is accidental only. The
introduction of contemporary writing and of print-
ing has done away with the necessity for pre-
serving a special aptitude for the preservation
of a viva voce tradition. Before contemporary
chronicles were introduced such traditions were
preserved in songs and recited sagas by schools

^^ Harald Fair hair" and his Ancestors. 43

of Scalds, whose continuity and wide dispersal
made their report most vahiable, since they
checked one another. They took the part of State
historiographers, and the limits of a possible
tradition reaching back without written records
were greatly extended. At all events there can
be no question that within six generations such
traditions, when stated boiid-Jide, and when not
obviously fables, are worthy, of considerable credit.

Our present purpose is with Ingiald's succes-
sors, and not with himself. We are told by Ari
that he married Gauthild, the daughter of Algaut,
the son of Gautrek the Bounteous and grandson
of Gaut, from '' whom Gothland took its name."
Gauthild's mother was Alof, daughter of Olaf
Skygne or the Farsighted, king in Nerike. ( Ynglinga
Saga, xxxiii. and xlvi.). Munch argues that the
repetition of the particle "Gaut" in these names,
the introduction of Olaf Skygne, (who with
Gautrek the Mild are named as contemporaries
of Vikar and Starkad in the Gautrek Saga), and
the connection of several of the names in form
with Gothland, points to a mythical origin to
the whole. This rather points, in my view,
to Ari havhig followed the practice of Saxo
Grammaticus in connecting names of a quite
probable authenticity with others of the same
sound; and thus rounding of!' a truncated
pedigree by a bold leap into the realms of
myth where eponymous names such as Gaut
abound. To proceed with our story, however. By
Gauthild, Ingiald had two children — a daughter,
Asa, whom he married to Gudrod, king of
Scania, and who brought about the death of
her husband and his brother Halfdane, and
eventually perished with her father. Beside his
daughter Asa, Ingiald had a son, Olaf, who lived

44 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

with his mother's foster-father Bove, in West
Gothland, where he was brought up with Saxi,
Bove's son, who was surnamed Flettir (Ynghnga
Saga, xhii). Saxi Flettir is named by Saxo Gram-
maticus in conjunction with Sali Gothus as fighting
in the Bravalla struggle on the side of Ringo
{i.e., of Sigurd Ring). He brings them both from
the northern part of the river Albis (i.e., the Elf
par excellence, the Gothelf). In the fragment of
the Scioldunga Saga called Sogubrot, the two
are respectively styled Saxi Flettir and Sali
Gautski, and are also brought from the north of
the Gothelf, and therefore from Alfheim. The
conjunction of two such different authorities, as
are the author of the Sogubrot and of Saxo in this
statement is notable and interesting. " Flettir,"
says Mliller, is an "appellative, and means a cleaver"
C'diffisor," Miiller's Saxo, \. 381, note 5f Mag-
nuson equates the name with that of Fletcher
Heims. iv. 174). The Saxi Flettir of the two notices
is no doubt the same person. Miiller and Munch
have argued that a foster-brother of Olafs could
not have fought at Bravalla ; but this is by no
means so clear, for, as we shall see presently, Olafs
grandson outlived the victor at Bravalla, Sigurd
King, who, again, lived for many years after that
fight. But to resume.

The Ynglinga Saga tells us that when Olaf
heard of his father Ingiald's death he went, with
those men who chose to follow him, to Nerike —
i.e., tjie Nether rik, or Nether realm — situated
in the western part of Sweden it abuts on
the north-eastern corner of Lake Wenern and
is bounded on the west by Wermeland. He
fled thither because the Swedes had risen with
one accord to drive out the family of Ingiald and
all its supporters. His maternal gra^ndmother, as

*' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 45

we have seen, came thence. Munch suggests that
as Olaf was brought up in Gothhmd, and as the
statement of the Saga seems to imply that he
had not returned to his home in Sweden wlien liis
father died, that his followers were in fact Goth-
landers. (Munch, Hist, of Norway, ii. 107, note 2).
"When the Swedes heard where he was, he could not
remain in Nerike, but went on westward with his
followers through the forest to a river which comes
from the north and falls into the Wenern lake and
is called the Klar river. There they sat them-
selves down — turned to, and burnt and cleared the
woods. Soon there were great districts, with
settlements in them, which were collectively called
Wermeland, and we read that a good living was
to be made there. When it was told of Olaf in
Sweden that he was clearing the forests, they
laughed at his proceedings and called him Tretelia,
or the Tree-feller. There were many people who
fled the country from Sweden on account of King
Ivar, who had meantime come from Scania, and had
supplanted the family of Ingiald and become
ruler at Upsala, and when they heard that King
Olaf had got good lands in Wermeland, so
great a number came there to him that the
land could not support them." Here we have,
detailed, in neither unintelligible nor incredible
form, the ftrst colonisation on a considerable scale
of the western and remote province of Sweden
called Wermeland.

The Klar Elf, or Klar river, of this notice was
the Gauta Elf, and was also known in early
times as Eystrielfr ; in a document of the
13th century it is called Gautelfr (See AaFs
Snorri, p. 31, note to chap. xlvi). Wermeland
probably merely means the warm land. Geijer
says it was a debatable territory between the

46 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Swedes and Norwegians — ^' Inter Norntanniam et
Svioniani Vernielani,'' says Adam of Bremen —
subject to either kingdom alternately. The early
settlers kept to the fertile dales along the
rivers in the Western part of Wermeland,
between the dales were forests and mountains ;
the whole of Eastern Wermeland was a wilder-
ness. The settled districts were separated from
Norway by the Eidha Skoge, or Waste Wood, whose
name survives in the parish of Eda in Wermeland
and Eidskog in Norway, through which the road
into that country has long passed. Towards
Gothland forests were the boundary both on the
eastern and western side of Lake Wenern. Above
Wermeland the Skridfins or Finn Laps still
wandered in the 11th Century ; the name of
Dalecarlia was not then known. (Geijer, Eng.
Trans. 19). Northern Wermeland must have
been at the tmie we are describing very
scantily peopled, althotigh, as we know from the
archaeological remains that are still found there,
its southern part had been partially settled long
before, and, in fact, Snorri suggests this when he
makes Olaf's foster-father come from there.

Let us on with our story. We are told that Olaf
got a wife called Solva or Solveig, the daughter of
Halfdane Guldtand, or Gold-Tooth, the son of Solve
Solveson, who was the son of Solve the Old, who
first settled in Soloer (Ynglinga Saga, xlvi.).
Munch argues, reasonably, in regard to these names
that they are artificial, and that their common
particle " Sol " has some connection with Soleyer,
whose etymology is still unknown. Saxo explains
it as meaning " insula? solis," islands of the sun ;
but this, says Munch (ii. 106, note 1), cannot
be so, since in ancient times the name was
written Soleyar, and not Soleyyar. The district

*♦ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 47

lay immediately west of Wermeland, and between
it and the Glommen. Soloyar, or Soleyar, now
called Soloer (says Aal), although forming no part of
liaumariki, was yet included in the Rauma fylki (i.^.,
the gau, or county, of Rauma) . It formed a long nar-
row strip, bounded on the east by Wermeland, on the
north by the so-called Alfrhiem's Herad (surviving
in the parish of Elverum), on the west by the river
Glommen, and on the south by Alfheim and
Raumariki {i^ee Aal's map). It has been suggested
that the early chiefs of Soloer had their seat at the
house called Kongshaug, in the parish of Grinder,
which in the Red Book and in charters of the
fourteenth century was called Konungshof (Aal,
op. cit., 32 note).

By Solva, Olaf had two sons, Ingiald and
Halfdane. The latter was brought up in Soloer,
in the house of his grandfather Solve, and was
called Halfdane Huitbein — i.e., White Leg (Yng-
linga Saga, xlvi.). We have described the
overpeopling of Wermeland by the immigrant
Swedes. " There then came dear times and
famine," says our author, '^ which they ascribed to
their king — as the Swedes used always to reckon
■good or bad crops for or against their kings." The
distress was attributed to Olaf's neglecting the
sacrifices ; they therefore gathered their troops
and surrounded his house, and burnt him in it,
offering him as a sacrifice to Odin for good crops.
Thiod wolf's verses describing this are as follows : —

The temple destroyer" by the bay,

The corpse of Anleiff the tree-hewer (swallowed),

And the ember hot Forniot's son!

Dissolved the frame of the Swedish king,

So the Scion of Upsala's glorious race

Disappeared long ago.!

* i.e., the fire. f Forniot was the father of Logi fire.
\ Vigfusson and Yorke-Powell, Corpus, etc., i. 249.

48 Saga-Book of the Vikmg Society.

It is said that the haugr, or mound, in which
his remains were buried is still to be seen at
Safiebro, in the Herad of Naes, not far from the
Wenern (Aal's Snorri^ note to chap. xlvi.). The
sacrificing of the king in a time of calamity was
widely recognised in early times in the North.
Geijer tells us that sometimes the shedding- of noble
blood was deemed requisite, even that of the nearest
and dearest. In the appendix to the old Law of Goth-
land we read, " In that time when men believed
in groves and mounds, in holy places and palings,
then sacrificed they to the heathen gods their sons
and daughters and their cattle, withmeatand drink."
Adam of Bremen reports how a Christian had
seen at Upsala seventy-two dead bodies of immo-
lated men and animals hanging in the sacred grove
of the temple at Upsala, which shone with gold,
and in the interior of which were set up the images
of Odin, Thor, and Freya.

In regard to this saga it will be seen that
Thiodwolf's verses do not say anything about Olaf
having been burnt alive, but merely report the
burning of his body on the shore of the lake, as
was usual in the case of all royal funerals. The
" Historia Norvegise " distinctly tells us that
he died full of years in Sweden, and says
nothing about his tragical end as reported in
the Ynglinga Saga. Its words are, " Olavus diu
et pacifice functus regno, plenus dierum obiit
in Suecia " (See Storm, op. cit. 110.) Hauk
Erlendson also says that Olaf ruled over
Wermeland till his old age ; nor does he say any-
thing about his having been sacrificed. (Munch,
ii. 106, note 2). The phrase in the verse about the
burning of the body has been probably mistaken
by the author of the prose setting. Olaf Tretelia,
as king of Wermeland, is mentioned in Egils Saga

''*' Hnrald Fairhair'' and his Aucesiors. 49

(Op. cit. ch. 73), one of the mo6t important
and earliest of the Sagas. He is also named in
the " Langfedgatal " as the son of Ingiald Illradi,
while an " Olavus Wermorum regulus" is njen-
tioned by Saxo (Op. cit. i. 370) ; but, as usual
with him, in connection with names from heroic
times, and in a story full of anachronisms. As
the tale is quaint, it may not be inappropriate to
interpolate it here as a folktale only. It is intro-
duced to show the prowess of Olo, whom he makes
the son of Sigurd by a sister of Harald Hildetand,
and assigns him a special role during the latter's
reign. Inter alia, he says that at that time the
insolent conduct of the brothers Scatus and
Hiallus had reached such a point of wantonness,
that they took virgins of remarkable beauty away
from their parents and violated them. It came
about that, intending to carry of! Esa, daughter
of Olavus the ruler of the Wermii, they an-
nounced to her father that, if he was unwilling
for her to submit to their desires, he must fight
them, either personally or by means of some
champion, in defence of his child. When Olo
heard this, rejoicing in the opportunity of fight-
ing, he went to the house of Olavus, having first
borrowed a rustic dress as a disguise. He was sit-
ting among those at the end of the table, and seeing
the distress of the king's family, he entered into
conversation with his son, and inquired why the
rest looked so sad. The latter told him that,
unless some defender speedily intervened, his
sister's chastity would be violated by some very
formidable warriors. Olo then inquired further
what reward would be given to the man who
should risk his life for the virgin. Olavus, being
pressed by his son on the point, answered that his
daughter would be ceded to the champion, an
answer which greatly aroused Olo's desire to

50 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

hazard the danger. The maiden, however, used*
always to examine the faces of her father's guests
near at hand and attentively, with a light, in order
that she might form a better idea of their manners
and dress. It is also believed that she could dis-
criminate, from the lineaments of the countenance,
the stock of those she examined, and, by mere
sagacity of sight, distinguish whether a person
was of high descent or no.

When she drew near to Olo, who, as we have
seen, was disguised, she viewed him with a very
searching examination, was seized with horror
at the unwonted expression of his eyes, and fell
down almost insensible. When her strength
gradually returned and her spirit revived, she
again tried to examine the youth, but again fell
down and lay as if insensible. Sbe tried again a
third time to raise her closed and downcast eyes.
Not only her eyes but her feet also now failed, and
she again suddenly fell. When Olavus saw this he
asked why she had thus thrice fallen. She replied
that she was struck with horror at the truculent
expression of the stranger ; while she asserted that
he was of royal descent, and that if he prevented
the ravishers from carrying out their purpose she
would deem him quite worthy of her embraces.
Olo, who had his face muffled up with a woollen
wrapper, was now requested by all to put aside this
veil and let them see his face. Thereupon, he bade
them all to be more cheerful and to lay aside their
grief, uncovered his face and drew the eyes of all
upon him in admiration of his remarkable beauty
— for he had yellow shining hair. He took care,
however, to keep his eyes concealed by his eyelids,
lest they should strike fear into the beholders.
The guests were so elated that they danced, and
the courtiers leaped with joy. " In this way the

** Harald Fairhair"' and his Ancestors. 51

kindly promise of the guest drove away the
common fear of all." In the midst of these pro-
ceedings Hiallus and Scatus came up with ten
slaves as if to carry off the maiden straightway.
This threw everything into tumult and confusion.
They challenged the king to fight, or surrender his
daughter ; but Olo at once stopped their boasting
by accepting the challenge, making one condition
only, that no combatant should approach another
behind, but that they should only fight face to face.
He succeeded in slaying the twelve with his sword
named Lagthi, and thus accomplished a unique
exploit. The place where the fight took place was
an island which stood in the middle of a marsh,
and not far from it, says Saxo^ is a village which
has a memento of this struggle, bearing conjointly
the names of the brothers Hiallus and Scatus.
Olo now married the maiden, and by her had a
son Omund. (Saxo, ed. Miiller, 370-72). This
story, like many others in Saxo, is full of anachro-
nism. Sniallus and Hiallus (Sniallr and Hiallr)
are mentioned in the '^ Mantissa " appended to
the " Landnama-bok " as the sons of King Vatnar,
and are made contemporaries, not of Harald
Hildetand, but of Harald Hardrada. (Op. cit. 388).
They are also named in the history of King Half.
(Fornald, Sogur, ii. 28. See Notae Uberiores to
MiiUer's Saxo, 215-16).

The Saga reported by Saxo must be treated,
like hi« other tales, as another instance w^here he
has fathered a famous heroic tale upon well-
known names. At all events, the fact that he
associates his Olaf, the petty king of the Werme-
landers, with figures of the mythical cycle, and
that his chronology is entirely arbitrary, is not
enough to remit the quite reasonable story told as in
the Ynglinga to the land of mere legend ;- for. we

52 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

must remember that Thiodwolf lived well within
the reach of a lively tradition about Olaf Tretelia.
To return to the Ynglinga.

" Those of the Swedes who had more under-
standing, found that the dear times proceeded
from there being a greater number of people oh
the land than it could support, and that the king
could not be blamed for this. They took the reso-
lution, therefore, to cross the Eida forest with all
their men." This was the Eydaskog, already
named, which formed the march between Sweden
and Norway. " The emigrants, having crossed the
forest, arrived unexpectedly in the district of
Soloer, where they put to death King Solve, and
took prisoner his grandson, Olaf the Tree-feller's son,
Halfdane Huitbein or Whiteleg (who had been
brought up there). They made him their king.
He thereupon subdued Soloer " (Id. xlviii.).

We are told in the fiftieth chapter of the same
Saga that Olaf's other son, Ingiald, succeeded his
father in Wermeland. The real story seems, to be
that the revolution which had taken place at
Upsala, by which the old royal stock there was
driven out, led, as was very natural, to a consider-
able migration, voluntary or otherwise. The
emigrants followed the steps of their expatriated
chiefs westward to Wermeland. Finding no
elbow-room there, they left Ingiald in charge of
that province which had been his father's, and
went onward across the forest to join Halfdane
Huitbein in Soloer. Hauk Erlendson, in his
account of the Upland Kings, says nothing of
Halfdane having killed King Solve, nor of the
Swedish expedition to Soloer, but merely that he
succeeded his grandfather there ; and it may be
that the account in the Ynglinga has been to
this extent coloured.

'''■ Harnld Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 53

Halfdane Huitbein, says the Ynglinga, became
a great king. He was, in fact, the real founder of
the Norwegian Monarchy. Munch, who is dis-
posed (as I think) capriciously to question the
connection of Olaf Tretelia with the stock of the
later Westfold kings, says of Halfdane Huitbein
that his historical existence is not to be doubted.
(Op. cit. ii. 107). He is made the son of Olaf
Tretelia in the " Langfedgatal," and in Hauk
Erlendson's account of the Upland chiefs. The
" Landnama-bok " makes Halfdane Huitbein the
ancestor of the famous king of Dublin, Olaf the
White. (Op. cit. 106). He married Asa, a
daughter of Eystein the Severe, otherwise called
the Great, king of the Uplands, by whom he had
two sons, Eystein and Gudrod. (Ynghnga, xlix.).

Halfdane's father-in-law, Eystein the Great,
was a much more important figure than has
generally been supposed. A large part of the
various districts peopled by the Eauma clan were'
united in obeying a common code of laws known
as the Eidsivathing, and in being, as we have seen,
subject to Eystein the Great, for we presently find
his sons and grandson having a fierce struggle with
the descendants of Halfdane for the districts w^hich
the latter had appropriated ; among these we are
expressly told was Hedemark, where Eystein had
his court. Eystein was, in fact, master of all Norway
east of the Dovrefelds, except Westfold, Alfheim,
and Vingulmark. He thus ruled over the so-called
Uplands, including Hedemark, Thoten, Eaumariki,
Hadeland, Eingariki, &c. In addition to this he
also, as I have described in the Prologue, made a
famous conquest west of the Dovrefelds. *It is clear,
therefore,' that Halfdane made a great alliance when
he married his daughter, and this distinction he
doubtless owed to his ancient and unmatched

54 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

pedigreQ. Halfdane Huitbein's heritage in the
district of Soloer wa^ doubtless too narrow for the
Swedish emigrants who had joined : him from
Upsala, who were probably among the most

» martial men of his country, and ready enough to
assist an adventurous chieftain. During the life
of his father-in-law Halfdane, Eystein apparently
remained quiet and it was only on his death that
he began his conquests of which we have only

. very meagre details. We are told that he first
proceeded with an army to Eaumariki, which he
plundered and subdued (Ynglinga, xlviii.).

Eaumariki lay west of Soloer, and formed with
ic the Eauma fylki, the two being only separated
by the river Glommen. It was doubtless settled
from an early date, and it is probable that the
original people of Soloer came from Eaumland.

In addition to Eaumariki, Halfdane subdued a
great part of Hedemark, Thoten and Hadeland
' (Id., xlix.). Hedemark is the district north of
of Eaumariki, and bounded on the east and west
by the Glommen and the Vormen, the river of
Gudbrandsdal. Its name shows it was a frontier
district. (For Thoten see ante p. 29). Hadeland
was situated immediately to the south-west
of Thoten, and traversed by the Eands-fiord.
Hadeland, or Hadaland, according to the Sagas
was so named from one of the grandsons of the
mythical Nor, called Haud, or Hod, and according.
to an obscure report, he lived at a place in
Thingelstad Sogn, near which there is still a
mound known as Kongshaug. These various
districts, as I believe, were conquered by Halfdane
■from his own brothers-in-law, the sons of Eystein
the Great of the Uplands. It was doubtless from
this conquest that Halfdane was called the King
of the Uplands. (Landnamma bok ed., Vigfusson,

" Harald Fair hair ''^ and his Ancestors, 55

ii., 144). This did not include all his kingdom,
however. In chapter xxxvii. of the Yynglinga
Saga, we are told that his son Eystein married
Hilda, daughter of Eric Amarson, who was king
in Westfold. King Eric died without leaving a
son during Halfdane's life, whereupon he and his
son took possession of Westfold.

The story shews that Halfdane only acquired
Westfold in his old age, at all events after his son's
marriage.

The district of Westfold is described in a
work entitled " Regesta Geographica in scripta
Islandorum, etc.," (Royal Ant. Soc, vol. xii.,
Copenhagen, 1846). In it we read that Westfold
was the part of Norway bordering the Christiania
fiord on the west. It was bounded on the east
by Yinguhuark and Fiordis, on the west by
Gronalandr or Gronafulki, and on the north by
Ringariki,' and in ancient days comprehended,
beside the modern governments of larlsbergen
and Laurvigen, the districts bordering them on
the north, namely, the parishes of Sandveren,
Ekeren, and Liericum. Westfold was divided into
two parts, Upsio (Of si or Upsi), and Westmare,
the former in the north, the latter in the south,
and near the sea. Tunsberg, one of the most ancient
emporia of Norway, was situated there (Kruse
Chron. Nort., 69, 70),

Munch argues that the early inhabitants of
Westfold belonged to the same Rauma clan as the
folk in the neighbouring gaus (Op. cit., i. 104).
The famous code known as Eidsivathing's law had
authority there as in the country of the Raumas
(Id., ii. 168), and it would naturally have formed
part of Eystein the Great's dominions, and pro-
bably of those of his ancesters ; but at this
time we are expressly told in the Ynglinga that

5^ ^CLga-Book of the Viking Society.

Eric, who was king in Westfold, was the son of
Agnar, who was the son of Sigtryg, king in Yendil.
The question arises, where was Vendii. Some
have suggested Yingulmark ; but this is quite out
of the question : Vingahnark is always so called in
the Heimskringla, and it was ruled by quite a
different set of kings. There is no place in
Norway or Sweden answering to the name Vendii,
and we must cross over the water to Jutland to
find it. The part of Jutland, north of the Lim-
fiord is still called Wendsyssel ; Syssel or Sysla
being a well-known early Norse land-division, of
which several examples may be found in Aal's map ;
ithe inhabitants, also call it Yendilsbyggiar. It
seems to me that this is the Vendii referred to as
the homeland of the early Westfold kings. On
turning to the thirty-first chapter of the Ynglinga
Saga, we read how when King Frode of Denmark
was away from home, Ottar, the ruler at Upsala,
set sail for Denmark and wasted the land. Inter
alia, he sailed north to Jutland, entered the
Limfiord, and plundered in Vendii. The Danes
collected an armament ; a battle was fought in the
great inlet ; Ottar was killed, and his body given
to the wild beasts and ravens. The victors then
made the figure of a crow in wood, sent it to
Sweden, saying he had been no better than that,
whence he was called Ottar Vendilcrow. (Ynglinga,
xxxi. and Aal's note). In Thiod wolf's verse, which
is appended to the notice of this Ottar, Vendsyssel
is replaced by Vendii.

There can be little doubt, therefore, that, accord-
ing to the Ynglinga Sa,ga, Westfold, for some time
before Halfdane Huitbein took possession of it,
was ruled by a dynasty which came from Jutland,
and which doubtless had authority on both sides of
the water. This introduces some curious subjects

*' Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 57

of speculation. Such a dynasty was no doubt an
intrusive one in WestfoJd, and the authority it
exercised both there and in Jutland probably led,
as we shall see, to a more important claim of
similar authority, but in a reverse way, somewhat
later. In addition to his other possessions already
named, we are told that Halfdane, on the death of
his brother Ingiald, took possession of Wermeland,
imposed scatt, or taxes, upon it, and placed iarls
there as long as he lived.

Thiodwolf tells us Halfdane lived to be an old
man, and that he died in his bed at Thoten,
whence his body was transported to Westfold, and
that it was laid at Skaereid, near Skiringesall.
(Ynglinga Saga, xlix). Hauk Erlendson, who here
contradicts Thiodwolf, and is not therefore of much
value, says he was buried at Thoten.

I will now extract some phrases from Jacob
Aal a^bout the famous site at Skiringesall — just
named. It has been the subject of much debate,
and has been fixed in several positions, as in
Bohuslan, in Skane, in the neighbourhood of
Stockholm, and even in Prussia, notwithstanding
that Snorri and the authors of the Sogubrot and
the Fagrskinna put it in Westfold. Aal says that
in the 15th Century the name survived as that
of the district forming the parish of Tiolling in
the bailiwick of Laurvig. (Op. cit. ch. xlix, note).
The Sogubrot tells us that a great temple of Freya
once stood there. This temple. Munch suggests,
was built by Halfdane and his son Eystein, who
also probably introduced the w^orship of Freya,
the special divinity of the Ynglings, from Upsala.
(Op. cit. ii. 75). He adds that not far from the
sea, on an open space in this district, is the old
church of Thioling (or Tiolling, formerly called
Thiodalyng, the people's heath). On this

58 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

open space are still the remains of a stone
circle, which was probably connected with some
great Tiling^ or meeting-place for law-making;
not far off is another and smaller circle. The
church .doubtless marks the site of the former
heathen temple, and the open place is where the
great gathering of the people of Yiken took place
(Munch, ii. 139).

Close by Thioling, is a field containing a
number of mounds, where many antiquites have
been found (Id. 141, note), no doubt marking the
site of an early cemetery. Somewhat to the west
was the royal seat of Geirstad (now Gierrstad),
to which we shall revert presently. Besides being
a great religious and political meeting-place,
Skiringesall was also a noted staple or market,
and this was why it was probably visited by the
famous navigator Othere, or Ottar, in the ninth
century, whose story has been written by King
Alfred (See Bosworth's edition, 46, note 53) From
its repute as a market came, no doubt, the fact
that the name ^' Kaupangr," ^.e., a cheaping or
mart (reminding us of Cheapside) is still applied
to two farms on the so-called Yiggs Fiord.
The Yiggs Fiord and Sandy Fiord were formerly
united by a creek running from Siavagaristra
(now Sogrist in Thioling parish) to Eid (Eidet).
This creek converted Skaerid, near Skiringesall,
into an island. It is now a peninsula called
Lande, separating the two fiords. Close by,
again, is an island which in the Red Book, dating
from the end of the fourteenth century, was called
Thorsoy, i.e. Thor's island. The mart at Skiringes-
all was doubtless supplanted by that at Tunsberg
(Snorri ed. Aal, op. cit., xlix. note. Magniisson
Heinskringla, iv. 277 and 278). With Hetheby,
in Jutland, Skiringesall, formed a twin haven,

*' Harald hairhair'' and his Ancestors. 59

where .the mercantile world of the North met,
and where, doubtless, at special times, fairs on
a large scale were held. At Hkiringesall, as Munch
says, there, no doubt, assembled traders from
widely separated districts, Helgelanders and Prus-
sians, Thronders, Saxons, and Wends, Danes and
Swedes. There were exchanged, cordage made of
walrus hide, and peltries from the far North,
amber from Prussia, costly stuffs from Greece and
the East, Byzantine and Arabic money, bangles
and brooches of silver, and richly decorated armour
and weapons. Let us now go on with our story.

As Halfdane was an old man when he died, and
was the successor of Olaf, the victim of Ivar
Vidfame, it is almost certain that he himself was
the contemporary of Ivar's successor, Harald
Hildetand, who ruled both at Upsala and also at
Lethra. Halfdane's territory was a very consider-
able one, and, as the representative of the senior
line of the Yngling race, he no doubt had, a
prestige far surpassing those Norwegian rulers who
were still independent.

By Asa, his wife, already named, Halfdane
had two sons, Eystein and Gudrod. The former,
as we have seen, had married the daughter and
heiress of Eric, the ruler of Westfold. He
succeeded his father in Raumariki and Westfold,
and lived to a great age. It is equally probable,
therefore, a priori, that Eystein w^as the contem-
porary of Sigurd Ring, and the Sagas, in fact,
as we shall now see, bring the two into contact.

Arngrim Jonsson, who, in 1596, published a
well-known work, entitled " Eegum Danorum frag-
menta ex vetustissimis Norvegiorum commen-
tariis historicis Islandorum, translata," has a
very curious fragment on the death of Sigurd

6o Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

King, which Vigfusson says is evidently taken
from another manuscript of the Skioldunga than
that from which the Sogubrot comes. This
fragment enables us to complete the incident at
the close of the ordinary version of the Sogubrot.
In the latter we read that " when Sigurd was
very old, he happened to be in West Gothland
in autumn, dispensing justice amoug his people,
when the sons of King Grandalf — i.e.^ his brothers-
in-law — went to ask his assistance against King
Eystein of Westfold. At this time the sacrifices
were being oJffered at Skiringesall, which it was
the custom for the people of all Yiken to celebrate
there." At this point the " Sogubrot " breaks off.
The fragment preserved by Arngrim, which is
translated into Latin, tells us that on the death of
his wife Alfhilda, the mother of Ragnar Lodbrog,
Sigurd determined to find himself a fresh wife.
Having, therefore, set out from his province of Vestra
Gotia {i.e.^ West Gothland), he went to Skiringes
all in Yikia {i.e.^ Viken), in Norway, to attend
the solemn sacrifices which were at that time
being carried on there, and he saw a beautiful
maiden named Alfsol, daughter of Alf, king of
Vendil, and having seen her was determined to
secure her, notwithstanding that the gods were
unwilling. She had two" brothers, named Alf and
Inguo, from whom Sigurd asked their sister in
marriage. They refused to give the young maiden
to the old greybeard. Sigurd was enraged that
he, such a great king, should be thus thwarted by
the sons of a petty chief. He threatened them
with war, but, on account of the solemn sacrifices
then going on, had to postpone his vengeance.
Presently he prepared an armament to punish
them ; and, as they were too weak to resist him,
they gave their sister poison. In the struggle
which ensued they were both killed. Sigurd King

'"'■ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 6i

himself, however, was so badly wounded in tlie
struggle that his end was clearly seen. He ordered
the bodies of the two brothers to be put in a ship,
which he himself mounted, and lay down in the
poop with the corpse of the beautiful Alfsol. The
ship was charged wirh inflammable matter, it was
set on fire, and he held the rudder himself as the
wind blew it out to sea. The crowd on the strand
was greatly moved tliat he, the author of so many
crimes and the master of so many kingdoms,
preferred to visit Odin with regal pomp, after the
fashion of his ancesters, rather than pass away into
senile imbecility. Before setting sail he had made
himself a mound on the strand as a memorial of
himself. This was called Ringshaug. Munch
says a place called Eingshaug is still to be found in
the parish of Slagn) north of Tunsberg (Vigfusson,
Sturluiiga Saga, Prolegomena, xc, note. Munch,
op. cit. ii. 81 and 82, notes). One thing to be
remembed from these notices is that they point to
Sigurd Ring having had a potent position in
Norway at this time, when he probably, in fact,
held the hegemony of Scandinavia.

If Sigurd be the Sigifrodus of the Frank
Chronicles, as has been often argued, and as I have
a strong conviction he was, we may place his death
approximately about the year 800. He is last
mentioned by name by Eginhardt, in the year 798 ;
while in 804 we meet with his successor Godfred,
as king of the Danes.

Let us now continue our story. I would
tentatively suggest as probable that Eystein,
against whom Sigurd Ring went to war in his last
days, did not long survive his rival, but died
shortly after. We will now set down what the
Ynglinga Saga has to say of him. It tells us that
in his time " there lived at Yarna a king named

62 ' Saga" Book of the Viking Society '

Skiold, who was a great wizard. King Ey stein went

with some warships to Varna, and plundered there,

carrying away what he could of clothes and other

valuables, and of the peasants' stock, and killing

their cattle on the strand for provision, and then

went off. King Skiold came to the strand with his

army just as Eystein was at such a distance over

the fiord that the former could only see his sails.

Then he took his cloak, waved it, and bl-ew iirto it.

King Eystein was sitting at the helm as they sailed

within the larl soy, or Earl's isle, and another ship

was sailing at the .side of his, when there came a

stroke of a wave, by which the boom of the other ship

struck the king and threw him overboard, which

proved his death. His men fished up his body,

and it was carried into Borro, where a mound was

thrown over it upon a cleared field out towards the

sea at Yodle " (Ynglinga Saga, li.). Thiodwolf's

verse reads thus in Vigfusson's translation : —

" King Eystein, struck by the boom, went to Hel"^

and the Washer of Blades is now lying under the

bones of the sea (i.e., the stones) on the beach,

where the icy cold Wadle Stream, runs into the

bay close by."

In regard to the various localities in this notice,
the name Varna, Vaurno, or Vorno, denoted, in
early times, not only the farm Vaerno, but com-
prised the ecclesiastical district of Rygge. as far as
Kambo, with the exception, perhaps, of Joeloen.
At early as the thirteenth century the knights of
St. John of Jerusalem built a hospital at Varna.
Munch says this foundation is still called Waerne
(Op. cit., ii. 138, note 1). The Earl's Island, or
larlsoy, is on the opposite side of the Christiania
fiord in Vingulmark. It is still called Jaerso,
and is near Tunsberg. . Borro, or Borra, now

*" The Maid of Byleists' brother,'

** Harald Fairhatr'* and his Ancestors. 63

called Borre, is situated about a Norwegian mile
north of Tunsberg. Vadle is now called Void,
and is a farm near the fiord, close to Borre, where
the mounds of Eystein and his son still remain.

On Eystein's death he was succeeded by his son
Halfdane, known as the Mild, and the Bad Enter-
tainer. This was because, though he was lavish in
giving his men gold, which he distributed as pro-
fusely as other kings did silver, yet he starved them
in their diet. We are told he was a great warrior
who had been on viking cruises and had collected
great property. Munch suggests that he was the
same Haldane who was sent as his envoy by King
Sigfred (i.e., Sigurd King) in 807 to the Frank
emperor, but this is very improbable. The later
kings of Westfold and their descendants were at
deadly issue with the Scioldung family, and were
not their familiars. Again, the envoy Halfdane
was father of Harald Klak, and, if so, was
himself the son of another Harald, and, as I have
argued, was the son of Harald Hildetand.

In the text of the Ynglinga it is said that
Halfdane the Mild took Eystein's kingdom after
him. He married Hlif, the daughter of King Day
of Westmere. His chief manor was Hottar in
Westfold, and he there died in his bed and was
laid in a mound at Borre (Ynglinga, ch. lii.) close
to his father. Let us now turn to Gudrod,
who was the son of Halfdane Whitefoot, and a
brother of Eystein, and not a son of Halfdane the
Mild, as some have thought. We are expressly
told that Halfdane Whitefoot had two sons,
Eystein and G-udrod (Ynglinga, ch. xlix).

The Ynglinga Saga gives Gudrod the surname
Mikillati {i.e., the Magnificent) also Veidhikonge
{i.e.,, the Hunter) ; the latter name also occurs in

64 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

the " Historia NorvegiBe," where he is called " Gun-
thodus rex Yenator," some reminiscence, probably,
of his fame as a sportsman. In the " Langfedgatel "
Gudrod is surnamed Gofuglati i.e.^ the Magnani-
mous). In several of the genealogies he is styled
hinn Giafmildi (^.e.. Very Beneficent). In the
"Mantissa," or , supplement to the " Landnama,"
he is called Gudrod Leoma (^.e., Splendoris).
These various synonyms are evidence of the im-
portant position he filled (Vigfusson, i. 271). It is
curious that the Monk of St. Gallen, in reporting
the death of Godfred (which he, strangely enough,
states took place on the river Mosel, during his
invasion of the Empire) says further that he was
killed by his son, ivUpm about to release a ducli from
a falcon^ in revenge for the wrong he had done his
mother in taking another wife (Pertz, ii. 757).

Gudrod's wife was Alfhild the daughter of
Alfarin of Alfheim, in the maritime district on the
east of the Wik, between the Raum elf and the
Gaut elf, and with her he got as a dowry one
half of Yingulmark. Their son was Olaf, after-
wards called Geirstadalf. When she presently
died, we are told, Gudrod sent messengers to
Harald Redlip, King of Agdir, to ask for the
hand of his daughter Asa, but was refused. He
thereupon launched his ships and went with a
great host to Agdir, where he arrivM unawares,
Harald, nevertheless, dared to face his powerful
assailant, but the odds were too great, and he was
killed, together with his son Gyrd. Gudrod then
carried off Asa, whom he married, and by her had
a son named Halfdane (Ynglinga Saga, ch. 1.).

Gudrod had succeeded to a great heritage from
his father, and was no doubt the most potent
ruler in the' North in his time.

^^ Harald Fair hair'* arid his Ancestors. 65

I long ago identified him with the Godfred who
was the contemporary and rival of the Emperor
Charles the Great. I did not then know that Munch
had already published this conclusion.

I will remit the evidence to a note at the end
of this paper. Meanwhile I shall take it for
granted that the identification is a reasonable one,
and shall proceed to record his doings, and those
of his sons, outside of his own lands. I shall first
epitomize what had happened in the further lands
of the Empire in previous years.

In the year 777 Charles the Great (more widely
known as Charlemagne), invaded Saxony with an
armament, to punish the Saxons for repeated
rebellions and the slaughter of his garrisons.

The pomp of his surroundings and the strength
of his forces cowed them, and he marched through
Westphalia and held a general assembly at Pader-
born, at the sources of the Lippe, where he built a
fortress at Eresburgh, not far from where Drusus had
planted his stronghold. A great crowd of Saxons
were baptized and did homage, one only of their
chiefs, the most redoubtable and dangerous of them
all, whose real name was probably Withmund, but
who is generally known by his nickname of Witikind
refused to bend his neck, and fled with his followers.

The annals of Lorsch tell us that he fled to
Northmannia {in partilus Nortmanniae), while in
the annals of Eginhardt, the biographer of Charles
the Great, we are told that he went to Sigifridus,
the King of the Danes.

Sigfred and Godfred are German forms of the
Norse names Sigurd and Gudrod, and I have long
held that this Sigfred was no other than the famous
Northern hero — Sigurd Ring.

The Battle of Bravalla, in which Sigurd Ring
defeated his uncle Harald Hildetand and sup-

66 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

planted him, as ruler of Sweden and Denmark, was
a notable struggle. It has been hypothetically
dated by Kunlk and others about the year 775.
After this struggle Sigurd was acknowledged as
^' Imperator," or over chief, of the greater part of
Scandinavia, and he filled that position for some
time. His reign, therefore, coincides exactly with
that assigned to Sigifridus in the Frankeil annals,
and the identification of the two rulers as one
person seems quite reasonably.

Eeturning to the annals: about the year 781,
the Emperor, having meanwhile put down some
fresh outbreaks among the Saxons, sent St. Willchad
to plant Christianity in Wigmodia, the district
between the Elbe and the Weser, where Bremen
afterwards stood ; this mission was a partial success,
and thus was the faith first carried to the borders
of the Danish land.

In 782 Charles held another great assembly
on the Lippe, which, we are told in the Lorsch
Annals, was attended by envoys from king Sigfred,
namely, Halbtani and his companions. In two
late copies of the Lorsch annals, one of the Fulda
annals and in the chronicle of Eeginon the name
Godfred is wrongly substituted for Sigfred, while
Eeginon, who was not remarkable for his accuracy,
calls the envoy Altdeni and gives him a companion
whom he calls Hosmund, which is not a Norse but
a Saxon name and which he has apparently made
by misreading the word sociils in the earlier
authorities.

Pertz rightly insists that we are bound by the
testimony of the oldest copies of the Lorsch
annals and those of Eginhardt, which were contem-
porary. The name of the envoy was no doubt the
well known Norse name Halfdane. He was
doubtless a person of moment, and possibly a

'* Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 67

relative and the deputy of Sigurd Ring, in Jutland,
and was not improbably sent to enquire what was
the meaning of the ambiguous movement on his
borders, and whether it meant the planting there
of an advanced post of the Empire from which
the land might be menaced.

The assembly was followed by another revolt of
the Saxons under Witikind, in which the Frank
garrisons in Saxony, were again slaughtered, and
the Christian missions in Friesland, and the young
Church there were desolated. These outrages were
punished ruthlessly by the beheading of 4,500
Saxons. The Emperor now began a policy of trans-
planting large bodies of Saxons to other parts of
the Empire and replacing them by Slavs.

The year 792 is marked, m the Biography of
Charles by Eginhardt, by the ominous sentence that
" the Emperor left Aachen " (Aix Chapelle, as the
French call it) in March and made a journey
along the maritime district of Gaul and Germany,
which was infested by Normans, who were called
Danes {contra Nortmannos qui Danos vocantur)
and he ordered a special fleet to restrain them.

The next year is notable for the first attack
made by the Northmen on Britain {vide infra).

In 797 the Franks employed their new fleet for
the first time and punished the Saxons beyond the
Elbe (Annales Eginhardti ad an). The next year
the Saxons from the other side of the Elbe killed-
some Frankish envoys who had been sent to obtain
a redress of grievances, and also put to death
another one who had the Slav name of Godescalc,
i.e., Gottschalk. They had been sent by the Emperor
to the Danish king, who is again called Sigifridus
i.e., Sigurd, by the Chronicler Eginhardt. This is
the last time he is named, and it is remarkable that

68 Sag a- Book of the Viking Society

for the next few years there is no mention of the
Northmen in the Frankish annals pointing to its
having been a turbulent period in their land. When
a northern king is next mentioned, he is called
Godfred and it is most likely that Sigfred had died
soon after his last mention in the chronicles.

The interval between the years 797 and 804 is
a blank in the Frankish Chronicles as far as the
Northmen is concerned, and it no doubt corresponds
with great changes among them. Sigurd's great
victory over his uncle Harold Hildetand had no
doubt prostrated all rivals. According to all the
traditions he left an only son, Ragnar Lodbrog,
whose story is one of the great enigmas of early
Northern history. He probably succeeded to only a
small part of his father's kingdoms, and became
famous not as a great territorial ruler, but as the
greatest of the Vikings.

Meanwhile, his relatives, the sons of Harald
Hildetand, asserted their pretentions. One of
them, Eystein, became King at Upsala and in the
Saga of Ragnar Lodbrog, the latter is made to
have a struggle with him. Another son, Thrond,
is named as the ancestor of an Icelandic family in
the Landnamabok. This family was named Odd-
werja and to it belonged Saemund Frothi. The
descent is thus given. Harald Hildetand, King of
Denmark, the father of Hrcerck Sloengvand-bauga,
the father of Thorolf Wagane, father of Wemund
Ordhlokar, father of Walgard, father of Rafn the
Fool, who emigrated to Iceland from Throndheim
(Landnamabok ed., Vigfusson, v. 3.1). I believe
that a third one was the Halfdane, who was sent as
an envoy to the Emperor by Sigurd, as w^e have seen.
He was apparently the ruler of Jutland under him,
and on his patron, Sigurd's death, apparently
sought refuge from the Emperor.

'* Harald Fairhair^^ and his Ancestors, 69

The death of Sigurd King also gave an oppor-
tunity to a stronger person than any of the sons
of Harald Hildetand, namely Gudrod, who also
possessed a wider kingdom and a larger fleet. His
position in Viken, looking straight upon Jutland, was
a powerful vantage, nor could he forget that Westf old,
the focus of his kingdom, was recently held by a
ruler who also governed at least Northern Jutland
(vide ante), nor that he had a heavy debt to exact
from the person who, I take it, was then its ruler ;
since his predecessors had expelled his own from
their ancient heritage. I have no doubt that he
used all his advantages and proceeded to drive out
Halfdane.

This is strongly confirmed by a curious and
neglected entry in the narrative of the anonymous
Saxon poet, who for the most part follows Eginhardt,
but who here records the very interesting fact, not
mentioned by the latter, that Halfdane, the leader
of the Northmen, and with him a considerable force,
submitted to the Emperor and tried to enter into
a perpetual pact with him.

Interea N orthmannorutn dux Alfdetti dictiis
Augusto magna sese comitante caterva
Subdidit atque /idem studuit firmare perennem,

(Poeta Saxo, Pertz, i. 263).

This admission to the Empire of a great
Northern chief with a considerable following is
hardly a probable event, unless he was in fact an
outcast from his own country, and it is significant
that his disappearance from Jutland is coincident
with Grudrod's appearance there. I suggested long
ago that it is quite probable that the Emperor
granted Halfdane an appanage in Friesland, where
Harald Klak, who was probably his son, received
one some years later. This was quite consonant
with the policy of the Franks at this time, which

70 - Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

was to play one of the frontier rivals against
another, and to embroil his neighbours, while a
feudatory Norse chief in Friesland would be a good
fence against his countrymen's piratcal attacks.

We are told by both Eginhardt and Keginon
that in the year 804 " Godfred, the Danish King "
went with his fleet, and all the army of his kingdom,
to Sliesthorp (i.e., the far-famed mart of Schleswig,
on the Schlie. Eginhardt, in his biography, ex-
plains that the enmity {iniviicitia) of the Northmen
arose from the appropriation of the Saxon land
beyond the Elbe by the Franks. A very notable
encroachment of this kind was made by the latter in
the year 804, when, according to the Chron. Moiss-
iacense, the inhabitants of the three gaus or
counties of Wigmodia, Hostinga and Eosoga, which
formed the later diocese of Bremen, were transported
and their lands largely made over to the Slavs
called Obotriti. From this time the district
of Wagria became a Slav land. According to
Eginhardt, Godfred had promised to attend the
Imperial diet, but was restrained by the counsel
of his own people. This not very friendly mood
seems to me to point to some change of policy
and to strengthen the view that he was
himself an intruder into Jutland, which probably
he appropriated at this time. The Emperor
who was at Hollenstedt, south of Harburg, sent
some envoys to treat for the return of fugitives
(probably Saxons).

No doubt Gudrod would hesitate before making a
direct attack on the Frankish forces, when they were
in strength in Saxony, and he doubtless had in view
an attack upon some of their allies, and especially
the hated Slavs who" had been introduced into what
he deemed his borders without his permission, and
against whom he had made due preparations. These

*' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors, 71

lasted some time, but we are told that in 808, while
the emperor was at Aachen, Gudrod and his men
marched against the Obotriti. Charlemagne sent
his son Charles to the Elbe with an army of
Franks and Saxons, with orders to resist him if he
attempted to cross the Saxon frontier. Gudrod
ravaged the borders of the Slavs, captured some
of their fortresses, drove away Thrasco, one of
their chiefs, hanged Godelaib, another, made
the two sections of the Obotriti tributary, and
also destroyed their emporium on the coast, called
in the Danish tongue Eerie. This, as we are
told by Adam of Bremen, was the site of the old
Mecklenburg, near Wismar, and its inhabitants were
afterwards known as Reregi : " T>einde secuntur
Ohodriti qui nunc Beregi vocantur et civitas eorum
Magnoyolis'' (Adam of Bremen, Pertz, ix. 311;
Ann. Laur. 808 ; Chron. Moiss., ib. Ann. St. Amandi,
p. ii). Gudrod carried off its merchants, and im-
posed a heavy tribute on the Obotriti (Eginhardt in
Pertz, i. 195 ; Kruse, 46.) I have small doubt that
this expedition has been confused by the author of
the longer saga of Olaf Trygvason (copying Saxo),
with the campaign against the Friesians in 810,
and by the " Islandic Annals," and that they have
converted the emporium Reric into a Hraerek or
Rurik prince of Friesia, who is quite unknown to
the contemporary Frank annalists. This campaign
cost Gudrod some of his best men, and among
them, according to Eginhardt, was Reginold, his
brother's son, who was killed wdth many Danes in
attacking a town. The '' Chronicon Moissiacense,"
calls him Gudrod's nephew, and the first in the king-
dom after himself (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 195 ; Chron.
Moiss., Pertz, ii. 258 ; Kruse, Chron. Norm., 46, 48).
To oppose the attacks of Gudrod, Charlemagne's son,
Charles, crossed the Elbe into Lauenburg, marched
in the direction of the modern Lubeck, and having

72 Sagd'Booik of the Viking Society.

devasted the lands of the Linones and Smeldingi
(Slavic tribes which had gone over to Gudrod), he
once more recrossed the Elbe. According to one
ingenuous writer, his expedition was by no means
altogether a success, for he lost most of his men
(Lesser Annals of Lorsch, Pertz, i. 263 : Kruse,
49, 50.) G-udrod had been assisted in his campaign
by the Wiltzi, another Slavic tribe, the eastern
neighbours of the Smeldingi and Linone^, who were
ancient foes of the Obotriti. They returned home
with a considerable booty. Gudrod himself, after
his campaign, sent his fleet round to Schleswig,
marched his army there, and proceeded to build a
mound along the northern shores of the Eider,
from one sea to the other. This was pierced by a
single gateway for the passage of men and mer-
chandise. After dividing the work among his
chiefs he returned home. This mound was
according to Worsaae, probably not the cele-
brated Dannewirke (that having been traditionally
connected with another Danish king, namely,
Gorm the Old), but rather an older and ruder
mound which still runs along the Eider. The
making of a mound by Gudrod is, however,
distinctly mentioned in the Annales Islandiac, and
it is there expressly called the Danewirke. The
larger mound ran from the termination of the
Schley inlet (Selke Noer) as far as Kurburg, or
perhaps to Hollingstette. It is 20 feet high, and
the narrow entrance mentioned by the annalist is
situated near the village of Little Danewirke, now
called Ost Kalegat (Kruse, 48 ; Chron. Moiss, p. 48).
Having heard that the emperor was displeased at his
campaign against the Obotriti in the previous year,
Gudrod, in 809, sent him envoys asking him to fix
a convention beyond the Elbe, where explanations
might be given. Such a convention was held at
Badenfiiot (probably the village now called Baden-

"' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 73

Heth, on the banks of the Stur — Kruse, 50, note).
This convention was apparently not very effective
in huuibUng the Danes, but, on the contrary, we find
that directly after, Thrasco, the Duke of the Obo-
triti, and the 'protege of the Franks, surrendered
his daughter as a hostage to Gudrod. This was
probably to secure his neutrality in the war which
he was then pressing against the old enemies of
his people, the Wiltzi, and from which he returned
with a great booty. He afterwards, with the
assistance of the Saxons, captured the chief town
of the Smeldingi, ^.e., Mollen.

When the emperor heard of the arrogant
behaviour of the Northern king, he determined to
build a fortress beyond the Elbe, and having
collected a number of artificers in Gaul and
Germany, he sent them thither under command
of the Saxon Count Egbert. I have else-
where in a paper in the Numismatic Chronicle
on the coinage of Egbert, King of England,
identified him with this Count Egbert. The
former was certainly living at the Court of Charles
the Great at this time and his name is very
specially an English one. Esesfeldt was fixed upon
as the site of the fortress It has been identified
by several inquirers with Itzehoe on the Stur.
Mannert (Gesch. der alt. Deuts., i. 486), would place
it on the site of Gluckstadt at the mouth of that
river. We are told it was occupied by Egbert on
the Ides of March.

Meanwhile Thrasco, the chief of the Obotriti,
was treacherously killed by an emissary of Gudrod's
at Eerie (Eginhardt, i. 196, 197 ; Kruse, 51), which
may have been meant as a counter blow. He was
probably considered a too faithful friend of the
Franks to be well disposed to the Northmen. These
acts were hardly a gauge of peace. We next read

^4 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

how Godfred, i.e. Gudrod, at the head of 200 ships,
fell upon Friesia, devastated its coasts and islands,
and fought three battles with the Fresians, whom
he made tributary, exacting a sum of 100 pounds
of silver from them, after which he returned home
(Einhardt, Pertz, i. 197, 198 ; lb., Vit., Car. ch. 14,
17 ; Poeta Saxo, v. 403, 404; Fulda Annals, ib., i.
354, 345 ; Kruse, 53, etc.). This may have been a
blow against Halfdane who, as we have seen, was
then probably the emperor's feudatory there. A
curious fact is cited by Depping to show to what
straits the Friesians were at this time reduced. He
quotes an old law by which a captive Friesian, who,
in the service of the Northmen, should attack a
village, violate women, kill men, or burn houses, was
not to be punished when he returned home ; it being
held that he was not a free agent, but only doing
the bidding of his exacting masters. Another law
authorised mothers to dispose of the property of
such of their children as were carried off, showing
how hopeless their return generally was.

We at all events find that the throne of
Jutland was immediately occupied by one who
courted the friendship of the Franks, while the
SODS of Godfred escaped beyond the water —
assuredly this means their withdrawal to Westfold.

Saxo, as I mentioned in a previous page, tells
us that, when Godfred exacted tribute from the
Friesians, he made them throw their money into
the hollow of a shield and guessed from the sound
whether it was good coin or no. Miiller throws
light on this story from some rather ghastly
features of the old laws of the North in reference
to compounding for punishment ; thus he tells us
how, by the law of Sialand (Lib. ii. cap. 39), two
pieces of money {prer) were to, be paid in cases
of wounding, for each bone out of the wound which

'^ Harald Fairhair*' and his Ancestors. 75

made a sound when thrown into the hollow of a
shield. (" Hwaert hen i mulltigh shiaelder thaer
botaes twa orae foraeT) This almost incredible
provision is repeated in the Friesic laws (Ed.
Gaertner. Addit. Sapient, tit. iii § 24) in the
following words : — " ]^i ossa de vulnere exierint
taiitcE magnitudinis^ ut in scutum j actum XII.
'pedum spatio distante homine possit audiri, tin urn
ter IV. solid, componat, aliud ter duohus, tertium
ter una solido.'' The same occurs again in the
Kipuarian Code, tit. Ixx. § 1 (See Miiller, op. cit.
251). What was true of bones was transferred to
the coin paid, in Saxo's narrative, and perhaps also
in the popular traditions which had reached him.
In the law just cited, the person testing the sound
was to stand twelve feet off. In Saxo's narrative
this has grown greatly, for he tells us Godlred had
a building erected 240 feet long, containing twelve
rooms of equal size, in the innermost of which sat
the royal tax-collector, while the shield was placed
in the one at the other end of the building. Saxo
also tells us that when Godfred conquered the
Saxon chiefs (this, as we have seen, is an
unwarranted assertion) he imposed a tribute of a
hundred white horses, which were to be paid on the
accession of each king. Miiller explains that in the
middle ages it was customary to use white horses
in solemn processions, as when homage was done ;
and that it is not improbable some Saxon chiefs
may have done homage to the Norse chief and
offered him a present of white horses (Op. cit. 251).

Saxo has another story about Godfred of the
usual type in which he has borrowed the incidents
and the facts from other sagas, and the only interest
of which is the local colour which he has pre-
served. In this he tells us that Godfred was
famous not only for his prowess but for his

7^ Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

liberality, and he was no less clement than strong.
At this time, he says, Goto, i.e., Gautr, the king
of Norway was visited by Bero, and Eefo
(Eefr means a fox), from Thule, who presented
him with a bracelet of great weight. The by-
standers thereupon declared that Goto's generosity
was unsurpassed. Kefo however, who, notwith-
standing the present, was disposed to be candid,
declared that Godfred, whom he treats as a
Danish king, excelled him in this quality. UlvuS,
i.e.., Ulf, who was nettled at this, thereupon
preferred a wager to Eefo to go and test
the Danish King. Eefo accordingly set out,
and found Godfred seated on his throne dividing
prey or booty among his soldiers. On being asked
what his name was he answered that he was a
little fox. This aroused the laughter of some and
the admiration of others. ''A fox," said Godfred,
" ought to take its prey in its mouth," and thereupon
detaching his bracelet he tried to insert it in Eefo's
proffered lips. The latter placed it on his arm and
showed it, decorated as it was with gold, to all pre-
sent. Meanwhile he hid the other bracelet which had
no ornament on it so that it might not tempt Godfred
into another act of generosity, but that his gift should
be spontaneous. He was delighted, not only with
the value of the gift, but at having won his wager.
When Godfred heard of the bet and how it had
been won by accident rather than by design he was
more delighted than Eefo himself. The latter
returned to Norway to obtain the wager, which
being refused, he killed the king there and carried
off his daughter as a prize to Godfred (Saxo i. 435).

This story has been shown by Miiller in his
Notae Uberiores to Saxo, to have been transferred to
Godfred (a supposed Danish king) from another God-
fred altogether, for the Saga occurs in an Icelandic

'■*• Harald Fairhair" and his Ancestors. 77

recension. As Miiller says, Saxo's narrative
shows it is an epitome. In the first place, two
Thylenses, Bero and Eefo, are mentioned by him
as taking part in the adventure ; but Bero speedily
disappears from the scene altogether, and Ulvo is
introduced without warning as if he had been
already described. Nor does Saxo explain how the
quarrel arose between Eefo and Goto, his former
benefactor, which led to his carrying off his
daughter.

In the much longer Icelandic legend (Forn. Sog.
iii. 40 — 53) the story is more consistent. According
to this account, Kefo, or Giafa Eefr, who was the
son of a rich Norwegian peasant, born on an island
in the north of Norway called Jadria, spent his
youth in great squalor and indolence. Being scolded
by his father, he expressed his willingness to leave
home if he might take with him the thing his father
most valued. To this the father consented, and he
accordingly led away an ox whose horns had been
decorated with gold and silver and been united
by a silver ring.

This ox he took as a present to Nerio, or Nerius,
iarl of the Uplands, a prudent, and a very firm
person, who was his father's patron. Nerio accepted
the gift, presented him in return with a be-
coming garment, and also with a gilt shield. Eefo
having observed that Nerio directly after repented
of having parted with such a rich shield, he
willingly returned it again. Nerio was pleased
with this, and gave Eefo a touchstone (coticula)^
and bade him go to Gautric, or Gotric, king of
Gothland, who, after the death of his beloved wife,
was accustomed to assuage his sorrow by hawking.
He was to seize the opportunity when the king,
was sitting alone on a mound and was looking for
stones with which to excite the hawks, and then he

78 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

was to slip the touchstone into his hand. Kefo
duly performed his task and slipped the stone into
the king's hand, who, in return, gave him a golden
bracelet. Eefo now returned to Nerio, and spent
the winter with him. Again, on his persuasion, he
went to Ella, king of England, and presented him
with the bracelet.

Ella in return, gave him a ship laden with mer-
chancise and furnished with sailors, and, in addition,
gave him two beautiful Melitaean, i.e.^ Maltese dogs,
which Eefo in turn gave to Eolf Krak, who repaid
him with the gift of a laden ship, as well as a
decorated helmet and corslet of singular fabric.

The helmet and corslet he presented to Olav, a
sea king who had command of eighty ships, and
who offered in return to let Eefo have the use of
them on some occasion. Having put himself at
the head of these, he set out against king Gotric,
to whose generosity he owed his subsequent good
fortune, and compelled him to adopt him as his
son-in-law. Nerio, by whose counsel Eefo had acted
in these matters, now deemed that he had in some
measure repaid him for the ox he had given him.

This Saga agrees with the story told by Saxo
in the names of two of its chief actors, Gotric and
Eefo. Saxo, could not well introduce Eolf Krak,
king of Denmark, nor Nerio, chief of the Uplands,
into his story without making it incredible, and in
appropriating the story he had to make some
sacrifices to consistency and he apparently con-
verted the name of Nero or Nerio into Bero. Some
of the incidents in Saxo's narrative, and its
terminating phrase about Eefo's journey to Sweden,
prove, perhaps, that he had before him a more
perfect copy of the Saga in some respects than i^
extant in the Icelandic edition.

" Hurald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 79

The story, however, is quite a fabulous one, and
full of anachronisms, Eolf Krak and Ella, King of
England, i.e., of Northumbria, being brought into
contact. Ella seems to have been a generic name for
English kings among some Icelandic Saga-tellers,
and its occurrence causes difficulty as is well a
known in explaining the Sagas about Kagnar
Lodbrog. Another anachronism of a very patent
kind is the bringing of Thylenses or Icelanders- into
contact with King Godfred. Iceland was not
discovered till long after the latter's reign.

Returning to our main story it is strange to read
the notice of the preparation of the Frankish forces
to meet the attacks of the Saxons, and their
march towards the Rhine mentioned in the same
paragraph with the death of an elephant which
had been sent as a present to Charlemagne by
Aaron, the King of the Saracens, i.^., by Harun-
az-Rashid, the Khalif of the Arabian Nights.
The Franks marched towards the Alar, and at
its confluence with the Weser, they awaited
the attack of the Norsemen, who had boasted
loudly of their intentions after the Friesian war.
They did not, however, come, but news arrived
that Godfred had been assasinated (Eginhardt,
Pertz, 197, 198), assuredly an abrupt and tragical
phrase. The Chronicle of St. Gallen says the
deed was done by one of his sons in revenge
for his having deserted his mother in favour of
another wife (Pertz, ii. 757).

The Ynglinga Saga has a different story. It
says that when his son Halfdane was one year old
and another son Olaf was twenty, Gudrod went on
a round of visits. He lay with his ship in Stifia-
sund, and there was heavy drinking, and having
drunk hard he got very tipsy. His ship was
connected with the shore by gangways. When

8o Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

it was dark, he went ashore and had got to
the end of the gangway when a man ran a spear
into him and killed him. The man was instantly
put to death, and in the morning it was discovered
that he was Queen Asa's foot-boy, nor did she
conceal that it was done by her orders. In Thiod-
wolfs versicles as edited by Vigfusson we read :
" Gudrod the Magnificent (in Gaofoglati), who
lived long before, was struck down by treason, and
a deadly hatred long nursed, drew treachery upon
the King, upon the drunken prince ; and the
traitorous messenger of Asa won a murderous
victory over the King, yea the prince was
stabbed to death on the ancient bed of Stiflasund"
(Vigfusson Corp. Poet, 1.250 note).

Saxo merely says that Godfred was the victim of
the treachery of one of his dependents, which agrees
with the story told in the Ynglinga, and is another
proof that the Godfred of the Franks and Gudrod
were the same person, and, if so, the Frank Annals
are witness that he died in 810. In the annals of
the so-called Rykloster we read that when he had
defeated the Emperor and laid waste Saxony he
was thrust through the body.

Gudrod's Norwegian possessions stretched from
the modern Folda, along the shores of the
Christiana fiord as far as the Miosa lake and
the Kandsfiord, and thence directly south as far
Kygiarbit. They reached eastward as far as
Soloer and Wermeland inclusive.

The death of so great a chieftain would have
caused a great gap anyhow, but it was made
greater by the misfortunes or perhaps the incompe-
tence of his eldest son Olaf, (who was only twenty)
and who succeeded to most of his possessions in
Norway. In Jutland he was succeeded, we are

*' Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 8 1

expressly told, not by either of his sons, but by
Hemming. Eginhardt calls him his brother's son
(Pertz, i. 197). We shall return to him presently,
meanwhile a few words about Olaf The later Saga
of Olaf Tryggveson calls him a brother of Godfred,
but this cannot weigh against the contemporary
Frank annals, while Saxo makes him his son.

This seems to be a mistake, and to have
arisen from a confusion between Halfdane, the
brother and predecessor of Gudrod, and Halfdane,
the deputy of Sigurd Ring in Jutland, who
was a 'protege of the emperor. It is most un-
likely that Gudrod, who had sons of his own, who
as we shall see were very active at this time,
should have been succeeded by his nephew, and, as
we shall see presently. Hemming was really a son
of another Halfdane, who belonged to a rival
family to that of Gudrod, and which had been
driven from Jutland by himself, had recovered
it on his death. In this way only can we explain
what happened

The new king came to terms with the Empire,
and in a treaty made between them in 811 the
Eider was acc'epted as the frontier between the
two kingdoms (Helmold, Kruse, 58). Steenstrup
argues that this was not the North Eider, or
Treewe. This is the Danish view, the German
view as maintained by Waitz, Simson, and
others is that the boundary was the Treewe.
Thus the border district occupied by the Transal-
bingian Saxons, with the Obotriti of Wagrien, over
which Godfred had exacted a kind of suzerainty,
were surrendered to the Franks. This treaty was
concluded at a conference held on the Eider, in
which ten chiefs on the side of the Franks were
met by an equal number of Danes.

82 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

In a letter from Pope Leo, the names of the
Franks are thus given :— 1. Count Walach, son of
Bernhard, that is Walach or Wala, afterwards Abbot
of Corbey, cousin to Charlemagne (and son of his
uncle Bernard, by a Saxon mother) ; whom he had
sent against the Lombard King Desiderius (Simson,
Jahrbuch, 466 and note 5). 2. Count Burchard ; who
was mmei^ stabuli to the Emperor, and was sent
by him, in 807, with a fleet to Corsica to fight the
Moors (Eginhardt sub an. calls him missus donnni).

3. Count Unroch who was sent into Dalmatia ; he
was the grandfather of the Emperor Berenger,
(Einh, sub an. 817, Sims., 466 and note 5).

4. Count Wodo, or Odo, doubtless the Odo legatus
mentioned in 810 as the commander of Hohbuoki
(Eginhardt annales Pertz i, 197). 5. Count Megin-
hard, i.e., the father of Eberhard the Saxon, who was
killed in 881 by the Norsemen. 6. Count Egbert
(already named as the founder of a fortress across
the Elbe and probably the later King Egbert of
Wessex). 7. Count Theotheri, w^ho was doubtless
the same person sent as an envoy to the Danes
with Kruodmund in the next reign. 8. Count
Abo, probably Abbio, who was baptised with
Witikind, {Annales Lauriss. and Eginh. sub anno
785 ; Kruse, 62). 9. Count Ostdag, doubtless a
Saxon. Count Wigman, a Saxon, mentioned in
939 (Pertz, i, 619). On behalf of the Danes the
deputies were thus named : — Two brothers of
Hemming named Hancwin (probably a corruption
of Hakon, Dahlman, I., 25) and Augandeo (Aug-
antyi', ib.), and the following chief men : — Osfred,
styled Turdimul (? from Islandic tutinn thick,
and muli mouth, Dahlmann 25), Warstein (this
name also occurs in the Landnama bok, Y. Powell) :
Suomi ? and L'rm, and another Osfred, the son
of Heilig (i.e., Helye), and Osfred of Sconaowe,

^^ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 83

^.^., of Scania, and Hebbi, (reminding us of
Hubba Y.P.), and Aowin (Eanwind, i.e., Onwend).
The names are given by Eginhardt in their
Frankish form (Pertz. i. 198-9, suh an. 811.

We are told that peace was sworn according to
the method of the Danes.

The Emperor now divided his army into three
sections ; one was sent into IVittany, another into
Pannonia, and the third crossed the Elbe into the
country of the Slavic Linones, which restored the
fortress of Hohbuoki, destroyed the previous year
by the Wiltzi. Charles himself went to Bononia,
i.e., Boulogne, where the ships he had ordered to
be built the year before were assembled. He
restored the pharos there, doubtless that which
had been built by the Roman Emperor Caligula ;
and caused the nocturnal fire to be relighted.
Eginhardt speaks of it as antiquitus constitutam.
He then went up the Scheldt to Ghent {in loco
qui Ganta vocatur), where he inspected another
fleet, and in the middle of November returned
to Aachen, where there came Aowin and Hebbi,
two envoys of the king (Hemming) bearing gifts.
While the Emperor thus extended a civil hand to
the Norsemen, he carefully prepared more effica-
cious defences for the coasts.

The Frankish chronicles here introduce us to a
fierce struggle. Sigfred, i.e., Sigurd, (who by
Eginhardt is called the nephew of Godfred), and
Anulo the nephew or grandson (nepos) of Harald
who was formerly king (that is, of Harald Hilde-
tand) ; in this battle we are told that 10,940
men fell.

Anulo is translated Ringo by Saxo and in the
longer life of Olaf Trygveson, which at this point
apparently follows him, it has been supposed by

84 Saga-Book of the Vikivg Society.

some that by him Sigurd Ring was really meant,
while it is almost clear that the latter had been
dead some years.

Who then was Anulo ? He was clearly a pre-
tender. The name Anulo is conjugated Anulo
Anulonis, and has apparently nothing to do with
Annulus as Saxo thought. It is probably some
form of a Norse name. Munch suggested that
it stood for Aale, formerly Anli, Saxon Anlo,
(op. cit., ii. 153, note 2).

I have suggested that he was the son of
Halfdane (above mentioned as having had authority
in Jutland) and the brother of Hemming

As I read the difficult story, the fight which
occurred, took place between some relative of
Gudrod, possibly a son, named Sigurd, and the
family of Haldane whom Gudrod had expelled
from Jutland. The {)arty of the former won the
fight, and that that of Gudrod which had been in
possession of Jutland, and had expelled Hemming,
was defeated and driven out. We are told by the
Frankish writers (whose story at this time is not at
all clear), that both Sigurd and Anulo were killed
in the battle. What seems plain is that the party
opposed to Gudrod's interests, and who were his
heirs, won the day,. It was fought in 812, and the
number of casualties shows that it was a despeiate
struggle and a huge strain on such thinly peopled
countries as the Scandinavian lands.

The next few years were occupied with a per-
sistent struggle in which the sons of Gudrod and
those of Haldane, took a part and in which the suc-
cess was intermittent on either side. The general
result was the great set-back of the new Nor-
wegian kingdom, which is not disguised by Ari's
phrases about the courage and manliness of Olaf,
the King of Westfold, and probably accounts for

^ Harald Fairhair'" and his Ancestors. 8::

the virtual silence of the Northern Sagas on the
details of the struggle for which we have to turn
to the Frankish historians. It is curious that even
these do not mention the particular names of
the Norse chieftains at this time, and only refer
to them as " the sons of Godfred." Of their
opponents it only mentions two, namely, the two
brothers Harald and Keginfred, the sons of Half-
dane, who fought against the Emperor's proteges
and dependents.

Olaf, according to the Ynglinga Saga, wasv a
great warrior, and was yery handsome, strong, and
large of growth. This is an astounding statement,
for it is immediately followed by the most complete
confession of disaster that was perhaps ever
recorded in such a few sentences. It tells us that
the very wide dominions, which had been conquered
by Olaf's father and grandfather, were reduced
to the small districts of Westfold and Westmar (the
latter being named as his in the Flatey-bok).
Meanwhile King Alfgar of Alfheim took all
Vingulmark (part of which had been ruled over by
Olafs father) and placed his son Gandalf over it,
after which the father and son reduced the greater
part of Raumariki. On another side Hedemark
and Soloer with Thoten and Hadeland were
recovered by Hogne, son of Eystein the Great of
the Uplands. Hauk Erlendson, in his account of
the Kings of the Uplands, and the Flatey-bok, with
whom Munch agrees, say this last conquest was
made by Eystein, son of Hogne, and grandson of
Eystein the Great (Ynglinga Saga, ch. 54; Munch,
154). Wermeland was also conquered by the Swedish
king. Meanwhile, Gudrod's widow Asa, ruled
over Agdir, in the name of her young son Halfdane.

It is not to be wondered at that Gudrod's sons
also lost their hold on Jutland, which the two

86 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

victorious brothers Harald and Reginfred appro-
priated.

We are told that in the same year they sent
envoys to make a pact with the Emperor, and to
ask him to send them back and to release their
brother Hemming, shewing he was still living
(Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 199); he was doubtless the
same Hemming, who died in Walcheren, as I shall
show presently, many years later, and is there dis-
tinctly called the son of Halfdane. The next year an
imperial conventum or council was held at Aachen,
where at the request of their king [i.e., Hemming),
it was determined by the Emperor to send sixteen
of the Frank and Saxon chiefs across the Elbe to
ratify a peace with the Danes. They accordingly
went, and met sixteen of the latter. They took with
them Hemming, and returned him to his people.
His brothers were at this time absent with their
army, and had gone to Westarfold, which region
we are told lay beyond their kingdom between the
north and west, and looking towards Britain
(Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 200). Steenstup and his
followers have tried to claim that Westarfold was
some obscure place in Denmark, but as Pertz, i.
200, note 17, and Kruse have argued a view which
is also Simson's, the expression domi non erant,
shows they were not then in any part of Denmark
(Simson, 521 note). It was clearly the district
of Westfold in Norway, which looks towards
England, and was the very homeland of Gudrod
and his people, and then subject to the rival
family of Inglings. We are told the two
brothers reduced the chiefs and people of
Westerfold to obedience (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 200 ;
Kruse, 69). •

The same year, i.e., in 813, Godfred's sons
returned from exile with not a few of the chief

** Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancesiors. 87

Danes who had left their country {relicta palria is a
most suggestive phrase) and had sought refuge
among the Swedes. They also collected a large
body of people from all parts of Denmark, who
had joined them etiam regno iion multo eos labore
pepulerunt. They were api)arently welcomed by
a large number of their father's folk, and fought
against the two kings and drove them and their
brother Hemming out (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 200 ;
Chron. Moiss., id i. 3) 1 , ii. 259). Meanwhile, Karl
the Great died on the 28th of January, 814
{See the fine account of his death and burial in
Hodgkin, Invaders of Italy, vii. 200, etc.). His
strong arm and vigorous policy had preserved the
empire from ravage. The garrisons he fixed on
the coast, the guardships he had built on the rivers,
the heavy hand he laid on marauders had restrained
the pirates of Denmark and the Saracens from too
daring attacks, But even these precautions had
not entirely availed. Already the bold seamen of
the North had coasted round the peninsula, and
entered the Mediterranean, and the monk of Saint
Gallen relates how the Emperor one day, when in
one of his southern ports, saw from the walls the
ships of the Northmen in the distance, and
although they dared not beard him, he is said to
have lamented for the fate of the empire and for
his descendants (Pertz, ii. 757, 758).

It is convenient at this point to refer to a
mythical story which has deceived many people,
(including myself, in former days), about a supposed
paladin of Charlemagne known as Olger the Dane,
the alleged hero of many adventures. A certain
Otger, who was one of Charles' marcMones^ is
mentioned by the Monk of St. Gallen, in his life of
Charles ; also in the Ann. Lob., 771, and the C'hron.
Moiss. in 773), but he is not call a Dane by any of

8S Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

them. The first reference I can find to an Olger
"the Dane" at this date attributes to him the
rebuilding of Saint Martin's Church at Cologne
after it had been burnt by the Saxons in the 778,
and is contained in the so-called Chronicle of
St. Martin, a forgery of the Monk Legepont,
and dating from the 18th century.

Between the years 814^ — 19 the monastery of
St. Filibert on the island of Noirmouttier was
sacked by the Norsemen. (The island was also
called Hermutier = Heri Monasterium ; Herio or
Heri being the name of the island on which it
stood.) ; it was south of the Loire. Depping (i. 67,
68) tells an anecdote referring to a fresh prevision
of calamity at this time : Liudger, a scholar of
Alcuin's, had been a youthful missionary among
the Westphalians and Friesians. He also wished
to go among the Northmen to reclaim them to
Christianity, but the Emperor, who had made
him Bishop of Munster, would not permit him.
His influence among the Friesians was too
valuable for his life to be risked on such a
dangerous errand. Liudger, too, saw the dangei*
that loomed in the future. Depping tells how he one
night dreamed that clouds came from the north,
covered the face of the sun, and threw a gloom
over the earth. " I shall not see it," he said to his
sister, " but you will ; " and truly, as his biographer
says, they came frequently after he was dead, and
ravished the land mercilessly {Altfridus vita sancti
Liudgeri, lib. ch. 2, &c., Depping, 68, note). These
calamities did not come at once. The first suc-
cessor of Charlemagne was quite equal to defending
his frontiers, however incapable he was of man-
aging his household. He was a soldier as well as
a scholar. The Avars and the Saracens had both
tested his prowess before his father's death and

^^ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 89

after he was crowned at Rheims by Pope Stephen
himself, the ICniperor Louis received lordly em-
bassies from Nicephoros, Emperor of Byzantium,
and the Khalif Abdurrahman, the rulers of the
two strongest empires of his day. It is not strange,
therefore, that the Northmen respected his borders.
Their intestine quarrels continued, however. In
814 the two kings Harald and Keginfred who had
been expelled by the sons of Godfred, and had
sought shelter among the Obotriti, collected an
army and returned the next year to the "attack.
In the fight that ensued, Reginfred and the eldest
son of Godfred are said by one authority to have
been killed (Chron. Moiss, an., 813). The leport
about Keginfred is doubtful however, since Adam
of Bremen says distinctly thai he took to piracy
(Gest. Hamb. Ecc. Pont, i. 17; see vii. 291, note 54).
The Ynglinga Saga says the same of Olaf, the
elder son of Gudrod. The invaders were evidently
defeated, for we are told by Eginhardt that Harald
repaired to the Emperor and acknowledged his su-
premacy {se in manus illius comynendavit—Egxwh^vdt,
Pertz,i. 201 ; Kruse, 72, 73). He apparently asked
for help in recovering Jutland. He was told to
return to Saxony (Saxony beyond the Elbe is doubt-
less meant) and to wait awhile, when he might hope
for assistance. The Emperor gave orders that the
Saxons and Obotriti should prepare to assist him.
It was proposed to advance while the rivers were
still frozen, but a sudden thaw broke them up, and
the expedition was postponed till May 815. The
combined troops, led by the Imperial legate
Baldric, then crossed the Eider and advanced
seven days' journey into the Danish district called
Sinlendi, i.e., the Sillende of Other (Kruse, 73 ;
Simson says Sinlendi, east of Schleswig, Jahr-
bucher III., i. 52, note 6), without doubt the later

90 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Schleswig. They went as far as the coast, where they
entrenched themselves. Godfred's sons meanwhile
retired to an island three miles off the mainland
(Kruse suggests the island of Alsen, op. cit. 74 ;
he follows Leibnitz, but Simson, Dummler, etc.,
suggest more probably, Funen). There they as-
sembled a large army and a fleet of 200 ships.
The Franks dared not cross arms with them, and
contented themselves with ravaging the districts
around, carried off forty hostages, and then
returned to the Emperor, who was at Paderborn.
Dahlmann makes out that the camp of the
invaders was at Snogoi, opposite the town of
Middlefart, in Funen, where the Belt is very
narrow (op. cit., i. 27.)^ The Convention at
Paderborn wished to settle the question of the
eastern frontiers of the Slavs and Danes, and also
the affairs of Harald (Simson, 53, xide Theganus,
Pertz ii, 523, Einh. Ann. ; Pertz. i. 202).

This expedition of the Frank Emperor seems
utterly indefensible. To take the part of a fugitive
chief who has been driven out of his country, and to
invade and ravage that country with no substantive
quari'el of one's own, is surely to attempt severe
reprisals when opportunity arrives, and we need
not travel far, when we find such policy in vogue,
to excuse and palliate the cruel ravages of the
pirates a few years later. Louis had no more right
to intervene in the domestic quarrels of his neigh-
bours than Napoleon in those of Spain. If it was
then deemed good policy to sow discord among the
frontagers of the empire by taking the side of
fugitives and pretenders (a policy carried out with
the Obotriti as well as the Danes), we need not

* It would seem from the confused account in the Icelandic annals
that Ragnar Lodbrog was thought to have been opposed to Harald on
this occasion (Kruse, 75).

" Humid Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 91

wonder that such sowing should have led to a plenti-
ful growth of ill-feeling on the part of the victims.
To the diet at Paderborn in 815, went envoys from
the Danes asking for peace (Theganus, Vit. Lud.,
Pertz, ii. 593). Louis was too strong to be
attacked, nor was his strength tempered with
overmuch courtesy, for we are told that in 817 the
sons of Godfred sent envoys to him to complain of
the continual attacks of his protege Ha raid, and
ottered their own master's submission. In the Vita.
Ludovisi (Pertz, ii. 621, 622), these messages are
described as simulatu^ i e., dishonest and they
were therefore rejected. Dahlmann suggests that
the negotiations with the Slavs had reached
Louis' ears (Gesch. von Dan, i. 2). It was deemed
politic to neglect the news but further assistance
was offered to Harald. About the same time, i.e.,
in 817, Sclaomir, who, on the murder of Thrasco,
had been made chief of the Obotriti, was ordered to
share his realm with Ceadrig, the son of his pre-
decessor. Tl^is he resented, swore he would
neither cross the Elbe again, nor attend the
Imperial palace. He also sent envoys to God-
fred's sons and invited them to invade Saxony
beyond the Elbe (which had been granted to
his people by Charlemagne). The Obotriti had
hitherto been most faithful allies of the Franks,
who styled them Slavi nostri qui dicu7itur Obotriti,
(Chron. Moiss., sub an. 798, etc., etc., ; see Simson,
i. 110-111, note-i.) They accordingly set out with
their fleet, mounted the Elbe to Esesfeld, now
called Itzehoe, and ravaged the borders of the
river Stur. At the same time Gluomi, the
custodian of the Norman frontier — (" Custos Nord-
mannici limitis^'' as he is called in the annals
of Eginhardt Pertz, i. 203, 204), advanced over-
land to the same place, but retired before the

92 Saga- Book of the Viking Society

deterpiined attitude of the Franks. This was the
first time, so far as we know, in which the North-
men openly dared to attack an imperial outpost,
Friesia being only an appanage at the most, and
almost independent.

We now read of a revolution in Denmark,
which is not quite explicable. * This was in 819,
and therefore two years after the previous mention
of the Danes. Doubtless, as Simson savs, Harald
had meanwhile kept up his attacks, assidua in-
festatio Heinoldi says Eginhardt. In 817, we are
told that Harald, having led his ships by the
Emperor's orders through the land of the Obo-
triti,^ returned to his own country, where he
was well received by two of Godfred's sons, who
agreed to share the kingdom with him. Other two
sons, however, were expelled from the kingdom,
Eginhardt adds, " sed hoc dolo factum putatur'^'
that is by fraud (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 208 ; Kruse,
78, 819). The meaning of this revolution, I
presume, is that Harald, backed by the influence
of the Frank Emperor, succeeded in planting his
foot once more in his native land, not as a
welcome guest, but as a traitor, whose presence
w^as a daily insult to his neighbours. The question
arises, who were these sons of Godfred ? About
one of them there is no difficulty, the one who
probably supplanted the rest, Eric, known as Eric
the First. The other brother who shared hi^
realm with him was doubtless Reginfred. The
brothers, who were excluded from Jutland,

* It is not actually said that Harald led his ships, as the words have
been translated, but rather that he conducted them through the land of
the Obotriti, " reductus ad naves " is the phrase used. — Eginhardt Ann.,
Pertz, i. 208. How could he lead them overland ? Messrs. Warn,.
Koenig & Gerard say he was conducted to his ships and then went by
sea towairds his own country (op. cit., ii. 214). '

'* Harald Fatrhair'^ and his Ancestors. 93

who had probably remained behind in Norway,
and who shared the kingdom of Westfold, were
not improbably Olaf and Halfdane, kings who
were certainly sons of Giidrod.

In 820, thirteen piratical ships made a descent
upon the coast of Flanders (Eginhardt, .s'?/Z>. rf?^//.).
They committed some damage and captured
some cattle, when they were driven away by the
coastguards ; aliquot casae viies inrensae, et par-
vus pecoris nuynerus abactus est. They then
repaired to the open low-banked estuary of the
Seine. There they were attacked, and lost five
of their number. Sailing on again, they once more
landed on the coast of Aquitaine, at a place called
Bundium by Eginhardt, and Buin in the Vita
Ludovici, Ch. 33. Bonin, say Messrs. Warn &
Ger, ii. 214, was on the island of the same
name. Where this island really was is doubtful.
Valesius & Leibnitz suggest St. Paul de Born,
south of the Garonne, but this is contested
by Pertz. Noirmontier or some island close
by is perhaps meant. There they plundered
effectively {vieo quodam qui Vyocatur Bundium ad
integrum, depopulato^ Eginhardt Annales, Pertz, i.
207), and returned home laden with an im-
mense booty (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 207 ; Kruse, 79),
and with abundant temptation to their hardy,
poor, and adventurous countrymen to try the trade
of buccaneering. As Kruse suggests, it is exceed-
ingly probable that this expedition was led by the
two sons of Godfred, who were driven away from
home in the preceeding year (Kruse, op. 80).
Simson (Ludwig der Frommen, 161, note 4), seems
to suggest that it was on this occasion the
Brotherhood of St. Filibert of Noirmoutier, which
had often suffered from the pirates, built themselves
a new monastry on the mainland, whither they

94 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

returned in the summer when the sea was free
from the pirates. But this was surely later ?
Prevost (Ord. Vit. Vol., i. 158, note) says the
monks passed the good season in the monastery of
Dee, 10 miles from Nantes.

During 821 the empire was not molested by the
Danes, and Harald, we are told, lived peaceably with
the sons of Godfred. H. Martin, Hist, de France,
suggests they hgi,d ceded him a part of Jutland (op.
cit. ii. 381, ed. of 1861 Warn & Ger., ii. 214).
They were, however, only considered to be fair-
weather friends to the empire, and Ceadrag, the
chief of the Obotriti, was suspected of holding secret
intercourse with them. Sclaomir, who had been de-
tained at the Frankish court, was allowed to return
home, probably with the intention of displacing
him ; but on his arrival in Saxony he fell ill, and
having been baptized, died (Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 207;
Kruse, 80). In this year a Capitulary was issued,
which provided in several clauses for the uniting
of the slaves or villeins into Guilds for mutual
protection against the Norman pirates, especially
on the coast of Flanders ; See Sickel, 170.

It was the custom of the Emperor to spend
several months of each year in a tour of inspection
of his dominions. As Palgrave well observes, the
Carlovingian sovereigns knew their country well
from constantly traversing it. " Travel and tramp
are good teachers both of statistics and geography."
In the Ghron. Moissense, 814, we have a notable
entry about the Emperor Louis at this time. We
read, that he planted garrisons on the seaboard
where they were required — prcesidia ponit in
litore maris ubi necesse fuit (see also Nigellus
II., V. 157). On returning from his tour the
Kaiser generally settled down at one of his palaces —

'* Harnld Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 95

Aachen or Niinvegen, Compiegne, Ingelheim, or
Frankfort. There he received envoys from the
dependent nations, and controlled the adminis-
tration of his vast dominions. At the council held
at Frankfort, in November, 822, envoys bringing
gifts came from all the Eastern Slavs — from the
Obotriti, Sorabi, Wiltzi, Bohemians, Marvani, {i.e.,
the Moravians), the Praedenecenti (i.e., the Obodriti,
who lived near the Danube, close to the Bul-
garians— Kruse, 83, note), and from the Avars,
(Eginhardt, Pertz, ii. 209 ; Kruse, 83). The monk
of St. Gallen adds that they took gold and
silver as proofs of devotion, and their masters'
swords as symbols of subjection ; but this is
probably a rhetorical flourish. Among the rest
we are told that Harald and the sons of Godfred
also sent envoys to this conventum (Einhardt,
op. cit.). Simson suggests that the peace between
them was then at an end.

We now arrive at a period when the Franks
were seriously preparing to evangelize the country
beyond the Elbe, a policy which, perhaps, more than
any other brought upon them those flights of gad-
flies, the Danish rovers, in the next age. We are told
in Rembert's " Life of St. Anscarius " that about
the years 817—819, Ebbo, the Archbishop of
Rheims, fourth brother of the Emperor Louis,
burned to call the heathen, and especially the
Danes, whom he had frequently seen at the palace,
within the Christian fold (vit. St. Ansch., Pertz, IL,
2,699; Kruse, 79). His first efforts in this
direction apparently took place in 822, when we
read in the Fuldensian annals that he evan-
gelized the race of the Norsemen (Pertz, i. 357 ;
Kruse, 81) — that is, he probably had the gospel
preached to such of Harald's people as had come

96 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

within or near the Frankish frontier, or were living
in Harald's part of. Jutland.^

The next year Harald attended in person at
Compiegne, and complained that Godfred's sons
threatened to expel him from the country.
The Emperor determined to send the Counts
Theothar and Hruodmund as envoys to them,
to make inquiries on the spot^ and report to
him. With them went Ebbo, Archbishop of
Rheims, who on his return claimed to have baptized
many (Enhardus, Fuldensian Annals, Pertz. i. 211 ;
Kruse, 84). According to the monk Ermoldus
Nigellus, - he also converted King Harald, and
persuaded him to become a Christian. This is,
doubtless, an exaggeration,, but he probably urged
upon him the good policy of doing so. The Emperor
seems to have been satisfied with his inquiries, for
in 825 the envoys of Godfred's sons went and
renewed their pact with the Empire, at a conventum
held at Aachen. We are told that peace was rati-
fied with them in October of 825, and that it was
signed 'S'?i viarca eorum'' {i.e., on their march or
frontier). It ^was this march or mark w^hich
probably gave its name to Denmark, which
merely means the march or mark of the Danes.
The absence of perpetual attacks at this time shews,
as Messrs. Warnkoenig & Gerard say, that these
acts had really been acts of war (op. cit., ii. 296).
Ebbo seems to have renewed his mission (see Rem-

• Ebbo had gone to Rome in 822 and obtained a commission for this
work from Pope Paschal. He was accompanied on his journey by Wilde-
rich/ Bishop of Bremen. Halfgar of Kammerich, whom the Pope had
designed as his companion, did not apparently go with bim.
Dummler, op. cit., i. 259, notes 37 and 38. For his support while
he stayed in Denmark the Emperor gave Ebbo the "Cell" of
Welanao, the modern Munsterburg on the Stur, near Itzeoe (id.). He
used it as a base of operations and a recruiting place, and we are told
he often went there and prosecuted his labours in the Northern parts
successfully (vit.AnsiJj, 13, 14, p. 697).

*' Harald Fair hair'' and his Ancestors. 97

bert, ch. 13 ; Dummler, Ost Franken, i. 259, note
47). Up to this point Harald and Godfred's sons
seem to have lived on fair terms. The next year the
annual " conventum " was held in Charlemagne's
palace at Ingelheim, where envoys went from the
Obotriti and from Godfred's sons (Eginhardt, Pertz,
i. 214 ; Kruse. 88). It was, however, famous for a
much more important event. Harald, who had been
driven out again by the latter, and was now
a fugitive, deemed it prudent to adopt a new
policy. He determined to be baptized, and to
become a dependent of the empire. The story of
the ceremony has been told in detail by the
panegyrist of Louis, the monk Ermoldus, who
was doubtless an eye-witness ; and a very graphic
picture it is of the Imperial court of the early part
of the ninth century.
«

Eginhardt tells us how Charlemagne had built
himself a palace at Ingelheim, a suburb of Mainz,
close by the church of St. Alban, then outside the
city walls. The palace overlooked the grand old
river, the Rhine. The poet Saxo speaks of its
hundred pillars — doubtless such as can still be seen
in Charlemagne's Dom at Aachen; some were
spoils of old Rome, and some of home-got granite.
These shafts still survive (scattered however) at
Ingelheim, Mainz, the monastery of Eberbach
and at Heidelberg (Simson, Yit. Lud. 257), while
some of the capitals of the pillars are in the
museum at Mainz. Ermoldus describes the palace
as ornamented with has-reliefs^ or paintings. He
speaks in one place of the B>egia domus late per
sculpfa ; in another, however, he uses the word
pingitur as if they were painted, which is more pro-
bable, Simson so understands it. In these paintings,
or reliefs, the deeds of the great conquerors and
legislators of old were represented — of Alexander

98 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

and Hannibal, Constantine and Theodosius, etc.
They were apparently based on Orosius, and in-
cluded on one side Ninus ; Cyrus, whose head the
Scythian queen was putting in a bowl of blood ;
Hannibal, as he lost an eye in the marshes of
Etruria, Alexander's great deeds and the foundation
of Rome. On the other side were scenes from
later history; the founding of Constantinople.
Theodosius the Great, Charles Martel receiving
the submission of the Friesians ; and Pepin of the
Aquitanians : while on other slabs were represented
the dealings of the mighty Karl himself (Karl with
the sage front, as he is styled) and his conflict with
the Saxons, — all rude enough, no doubt ; copies of
crude works of the later days of the Western
Empire, but (when hung about with the florid
tapestries and hangings that came from the
Saracen looms) impressive enough to the warriors
of the Slavic and Northern marches (Simson^257.)
Many small temporary dwellings were erected to
accomniodate the visitors. There in his Aula
Louis received the many-tongued and variedly
dressed deputations of his friends and satellites.
It was there also that in 826 Harald went with
his wife and his son (one late writer, Hermann
von Reichenau says sons, and Harald had certainly
two sons, Godfred and Rodulf). He also took his
nephew, or brother Rurik (probably his nephew)
and a large body of retainers. The monk describes
how when the fleet appoached, the Kaiser, who
watched it from the battlements, sent Matfred,
Count of Orleans, with a body of young courtiers to
meet the Danes ; and with them some richly capari-
soned horses. Haraldapproached the hall of audience
mounted on a Frank horse. The poet also gives
at length what he claims to be Harald's address to
the great Emperor, inter alia., stating how he had
been converted by the Archbishop Ebbo, and now

** Harald Fatrhair'' and his Aticeslurs. 99

wished to be baptized. The ceremony was per-
formed in St. Alban's Chapel (Simson, i. 258,
note). Louis was god-father to Harald, and decked
him with his white chrism al robe; the Empress
Judith did the same for the great Dane's consort ;
while the young Lothaire, the Emperor's heir, was
sponsor to Harald's son. With them were baptised
four hundred Northmen of both sexes — ^romiscui
nexus (" Annales Xantenses," sub anno 826). The
Monk of St. Gallen does not directly refer to this
ceremony in his notice. He says that not a year
passed without some of the Danes being baptised,
and declaring themselves vassals. On one occasion
50 came, and there not being sufficient white robes
for them, they had to be made quickly and rudely ;
and our author reports how one of the northern
warriors rejected his robe, saying. '' Keep your
dress for women ; this is the twentieth time I have
been baptized, and never before had I such a
costume. If I were not ashamed to go naked I
would leave your Christ and your garment to-
gether" (Simson). This, as Dapping says, was
probably a tale invented to amuse the courtiers
at Ingelheim. After the ceremony the Emperor
gave his ^protege some lordly presents, a purple
robe fringed with gold, the sword that hung by
his side, a golden girdle, golden bracelets for
his arms, and a jewelled sash for his sword, a
coronal for his head, his own socks of golden tissue
and his white gloves. His wife was also duly
decked by the Empress Judith with a tunic stiff
with gold and jewels, a golden band to entwine her
flaxen curls, a twisted golden collar about her
neck, bracelets on her arms, a gold jewelled sash,
about her waist, and a cape of golden tissue
upon her shoulders ; while Lothaire presented his
godson with garments of golden material. Their
four hundred followers were also rewarded with pre-

loo Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

sents of Frank robes (see line 397). When thus
decked out they proceeded to the Dom, where
priests and attendants were assembled, a picture of"
glorious colour. We are told that among the
grandees present were Clement, the head of the
school; Theuto, the precentor, who ordered the
singing of the choir of clerics ; while Adhalewi
acted as Chamberlain and arranged the throng
with his ferule in his hand, as they raised the
alleluia. First came the young Prince Charles, and
then amidst stirring strains the great Kaiser and
his company paced up the church to the apse,
the Abbot and Arch-Chaplain Hilduinon his right,
the Imperial Chancellor, the Abbott Helisachar,
on his left. Then came Gerung the chief door-
keeper, with a staff in his hand and a golden
crown on his head, then prince Lothaire, then
the Danish king in chrismal robes, and the
Empress Judith, conducted by Matfred, Count of
Orleans and Hugo, of Tours, also wearing crowns
and gold embroidered garments, then followed
Harald's wife, and the Chancellor Fridugis, with a
crowd of his scholars in white garments, lastly
the rest of the people including the Danes,
followed by the great nobles of the Empire clad in
their state robes.

Most imposing must such pageantry have been
to ordinary eyes, but how much more to the
homely experience of the Danish exiles ! We
are told how the preacher raised his voice, and
bade Harald convert the Danish swords and
spears into ploughs and reaping-hooks — surely
a cynical address in the presence of the war-
loving Franks. It must have been a solemn
sight when, placing his hands in those of the Em-
peror, Harald commended himself and the realms
over which he had such a shadowy hold into the

** Harald Fairhatr'" and his Ancesiors. 10 1

hands of his suzerain. South Jutland was
formally at least added to the appanages of the
empire. Once more the Frankish sovereign might
claim the much honoured style of Mehrer cies
Beichs, increaser of the empire (Palgrave, i. 258).

After the state ceremonial came the feast, over
which Petrus, the chief baker, andGunto, the chief
cook, and Otho, the chief butler (no doubt honorary
officers), presided, spreading out the napkins with
their snowy fringes, and laying the victuals on the
marble discs. Golden cups were used for drinking.
By Louis' side sat his wife JuditH, the hated step-
mother of his sons.

After the feast the Danes were entertained at a
royal hunt on one of the w^ooded islands of the
Khine, and the spoil of bears, stags, wild boars,
and roes was afterwards borne in, in state and
divided among the courtiers and others, the clergy,
as the old poet remarks, getting their due share.
The Emperor, Empress, Lothaire, and Charles,
Count Wido, and others were all there, and thus
did the first Scandinavian chieftain of high rank
formally forsake the faith of his forefathers
and become a Christian.

When Harald had declared himself *' the man "
of the Kaiser, we read that after the manner of
the Franks he was presented with a steed and a
set of arms. He also received more valuable gifts,
for we are told that the Emperor granted him the
district of Eustri, a rich and extensive gau or
Pagus, in Friesia, still called Rustringen or Butya-
dingerland, in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburgh, at
the mouths of the Weser and the Yahde (Vogel,
Die Normannen, op. cit., 60). To this was
added a vine-growing district, (" loca vinifera,'* as
Ermoldus calls it), probably the district near
Coblenz, Andernach, and Sinzig, which was after-

loi Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

wards (namely in 885), claimed by Harald's son
Godfred (Kruse, 95). Palgrave has a note on
Charlemagne's cultivation of the vine in the Khine
Valley. These grants probably had attached to
them the condition that attached to other mar-
graviates, namely, that of defending the borders
of the empire against the Danes. At length
Harald departed, accompanied by the monk
Anscharius, with appropriate store of sacred vessels,
vestments, and priests' books to convert the Danes
to Christianity, and to subservience to the Empire
(Palgrave, 1,257 ; see also a long note in Langebek's
life of St. Anscharius, Langebek, Rer. Dan. Scrip.,
1,439). Ermoldus says that Harald's son and
nephew remained behind as hostages (v. 629, 630).

On Harald's return he was accompanied as I
have said, by the monk Anscliar, the famous
apostle of the North, and his companion Autbert.
Their venture and that of Archbishop Ebbo, to
which I have referred, were not the first missionary
efforts in this direction. As far back as the year 699
the English bishop St. Willibrord had made an
ineffectual attempt to introduce Christianity into
Jutland, but was repelled by the then king of the
country, who was called Augandeo (Dahlmann, i. 30,
note). He baptized thirty Danish boys, who he
hoped would form the nucleus of a Christian
community. Among these, tradition makes out
was St. Sebald, who in the legend is called a son
of a Danish king (Dahlmann, i. 30, note).
These earlier efforts, however, seem to have left
no fruit behind them, and Anschar may claim
the honour of having been the proto-apostle
of Scandinavia. He was born on the 9th of
September, 801. Having lost his mother when
he was five years old he became an inmate of the
school attached to the Abbey of Corbey, on the

" Harald Fairhair'^ aud his Ancestors. 103

Soiiime, in Picardy, and was there ten years ; later
he adopted the monkish habit, and when he was
twenty was at the head of the school. In 823 he
set out with other monks from the same abbey to
work in Westphalia, where on the river Weser the
Emperor Louis had built several churches and
monasteries, and there he founded a " New
Corbey " as a focus of missionary light. He had
worked in Westphalia for three years, when he re-
ceived orders from the mother monastery at Corbey
to accompany Harald homewards. He declared
his willingness to go, and was introduced to the
Emperor, and supplied with the necessary articles —
vessels, vestments, and books, together with tents
and other necessaries, but with no servants, as none
volunteered, and he did not wish to constrain
any ; another monk named Autbert (as I have
said), was his only companion (see for all this
Simson, i. 256, 266). They were commissioned
to take care the converted king did not relapse
into his old ways, to instruct him further in the
Christian faith, and also to preach to the
heathen in Denmark. They had a wretched
journey down the Ehine, past the lovely Rheingau
and the Drachenfels, and suffered a good deal from
the coarse, rude manners of Harald and his com-
panions. Their condition was improved, when
they were supplied with a separate vessel in
which they could stow away their goods, by
Hadebald, the Archbishop of Cologne. It con-
tained two small cabins, a luxury unknown to the
Danes. These took the king's fancy, and he
transported himself into the Frankish ship, and
took possession of one cabin ; but considerately
left the other to the two monks. They afterwards
gained his confidence and the respect of his people.
They went by way of Dorestadt, i.e.^ W^k te
Doorestede, which was an appanage of Harald

I04 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

(Fulda Annals, suh ami, 850), and then by
the Lech and the Maas into the North Sea.
Coasting along the Friesic shore they arrived at
the mouth of the Weser, where Harald's newly
granted appanage of Rustringen lay, and then
onwards to Harald's frontiers in the south of
Schlesvig (Dahlmann, i. 38, 39). There Anschar
began his evangelistic work.

Let us now turn from the gorgeous ceremonial
at Ingelheim, and its sequel (in which the exile
Harald had so freely laid himself and his country at
the feet of the Frank Kaiser), to Jutland and
its then rulers. Jutland was a rugged, dreary
land. Adam of Bremen describes it in the
eleventh century as a huge waste of marsh and
sterile land (" Porro cum omnes tr actus GermanicB
Jiorreant saltibtis, sola est Jutland ceteris liorridior^^).
Cultivation was confined to the river banks, and its
farms were wide asunder ; the population were a
rough, hardy and persevering folk, such as the
Danes are still — fishermen and sailors, much
attached to their old creed and customs, and ruled
over in great part at this time, as we have seen,
by the sons of Godfred. On its borders Anschar
now started a school of about twelve boys,
partially consisting of those redeemed from
Slavery, and partly of those handed over to him
by Harald to be educated (Dummler i. 261). One
can well believe how unwelcome Harald and his
Christian proteges would be to this free folk, for he
was coming to tie their necks, impatient of
restraint, to the triumphal car of the great
Emperor, whose renown had reached their ears
but whose yoke they had not felt about their
necks. Nor can we wonder that Christianity
coming under Imperial auspices — coming, in fact,
as the pendent to the chains of subservience to

^^ Ha aid Fair hair'' and his Anctstors. 105

the Frank throne — should have been received with
scorn by the bulk of the people, and that their old
faith, which thus became a symbol of their
freedom, should have been clung to with the long-
enduring affection which it was by their neighbours
the Saxons.

In 827 we read that the Emperor held two
general assemblies, one at Nimw^egen, the grand
fortress whose fragments still remain and command
the course of the Lower Rhine, and the other at
Compiegne. The former was held to meet the
washes of Eric the son of Godfred, w^ho had
promised to attend i.t in person (Eginhardt, Pertz,
i. 216 ; Kruse, 104). These promises are styled
'^ falsas pollicitationes,'' which show that he did
not go. The sons of Godfred (no doubt including
Eric), in fact, expelled Harald once more from
their borders ; (" de consortio regni " is the phrase
in Eginhardt meaning, no doubt, from the
joint kingship), so that he must have gone back
to Friesia. This doubtless stopped evangelistic
work in Denmark itself, but Anschar continued
to teach at his school ; two years later he w^as
abandoned by Autbert, who, no doubt, grew weary
of his wretched life of suspense, and returned to
Corbey, where he died after a long illness, appar-
ently at Easter, 830 {id). We are told that in 828
negotiations had been opened for mutual peace
between the Danes and Franks and to arrange the
affairs of Harald. A more likely story is told in the
Vita. Ludovici, namely, that the Emperor wished to
help Harald, and to make a treaty of peace with
Godf red's sons, and sent the Saxon counts with him
to open negotiations for the return of the latter to
South Jutland (Pertz., ii. 621, 632). At this confer-
ence nearly all the Saxon counts and the marquises
or march guardians w^ere present. But while the

io6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

Saxon and Danish lords were treating, Harald, who
was doubtless jealous of the peacemaking (which it
was apparently arranged should involve the giving
of hostages — Eginhardt, i. 217), went into and burnt
some Danish hamlets. Godfred's sons thereupon
naturally collected an army, crossed the Eider
and attacked the camp planted on the other
side, plundered it and drove the garrison away
(Eginhardt, ih,, Kruse, 106). This was in 828.
Such was the treacherous dealing which sharpened
the spears of the Danes when they revenged
themselves upon the cities of the Frankish
empire some years later. They behaved meekly
enough on this occasion, however, for we are told
by Eginhardt that they sent envoys to the Emperor
to explain how^ they had been driven to the course
they took, and were now ready to make amends.
The Emperor was satisfied and peace was renewed
with them. This account of the transactions, for
which we depend entirely on the Frank Chronicles,
seems to point to a rebuff and a distinct blow to
the prestige of the Empire, and so Simson reads it.
A good proof of this is the panic which followed the
rumour which was spread in June the next year,
i.e. 829, that the Danes were about to invade Saxony
and were approaching the frontier. Louis sum-
moned the Franks from all parts to a general
levy, and announced that he intended crossing
the Khine at Neus in the middle of July. It was
however, a false report. No envoys, came from
the Danes to the conventum this year. (See
Eginhardt, Pertz, i. 218). This is the last notice
of the Norsemen by the great chronicler and
biographer, Eginhardt. Their invasions at this
time were clearly not piratical but legitimate
warfare, and meant to create terror in the Empire
and prevent its extending northward. They after-
wards degenerated into piracy in consequence of

''^ Harald Fairhair*' and his Ancestors. 107

the successes of the Norsemen. Depping asserts
that they agreed to admit Harald into their land,
probably to share its govertiment, but I have not
traced his authority, nor does this seem probable
from other considerations. It is singular that
in 829 and 830 there should be no mention of
trouble with the Danes by the Frankish writers ;
Hars^jld apparently continued at peace in his
holding, and there is no hostile mention in the
Frank annals till 834. They may have been raiding
elsewhere, for we read that in 830 — the island
of Herio in Brittany was placed under the special
protection of Louis and Lothaire on account of the
invasions of the Northmen (Kruse, 122).

We now come to an incident which shows how
Anschar's mission was more suspected politically
than otherwise. While he had to do his missionary
work from outside Denmark, envoys came to the
Emperor from the Swedes, begging him to send
some missionaries to their country. Sweden
probably felt itself out of reach of the grasping
Frankish empire, and could afford to trust the
missionaries. Anschar volunteered to go. On his
return thence in 831 it was determined to found
a See on the pagan marches by the Elbe, whence
the North might be evangelized; and he w^as
accordingly appointed Archbishop of Hamburgh.
He journeyed to Rome to receive the pallium, and
was duly invested with the commission of apos-
tolical legate to the Swedes, Danes, and Slavs.
He busied himself with his work, and we are told
how he redeemed boys from slavery among the
Danes and Slavs, and educated them for the
service of God — native presbyters such as our
missionaries still find so useful in Africa and
elsewhere. It is probable that few of the Danes,
save exiles and their like, were much influenced by

io8 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

his teaching. The converts were no doubt looked
upon as political traitors and renegades, and their
new faith was treated as a badge of their disloyalty
as well as their apostasy. This nest of Christians
on the borders of the Eider was a constant menace
to the independence of the Danes, a mere imperial
outpost at their very threshold. It was doubtless
the feeling nursed by these circumstances, that
caused Christianity and its professors to be so
bitterly hated by the corsairs of a few years later,
and made so many ruins of monasteries and
churches. In our own day the same feeling led to
similar cruel persecutions in Japan and China,
where indifferentism and toleration in religious
matters are tempered by a fierce jealousy of
political propagandism.

In 831 the Emperor held his third general
placitum at Thionville (Theodonis mlla, called
Diedenhofen by the Germans). Envoys went
there to him from Persia (which seems a long
way off), seeking peace. There also went others
from the Danes (no doubt from Eric's subjects), who,
having renewed their pact with the empire, returned
home (Annales Bert. Pertz, i, 424 ; Kruse, 113).
I have already remarked how the early Danish
attacks upon the coasts of the empire were
far from being mere individual acts of piracy,
and were deliberate acts of war, differing from
the contemporary wars of the Franks only in
being sea fights and not land fights. This is clear
when we consider that whenever there was peace
between the Imperial ruler and the Danish king ;
and envoys were exchanged, w^e read of no attacks
on the coasts, but these only occur when there
was a feud between the two powers. In England
and Ireland matters were very different, as we
shall presently show. The view here urged is

''^ Harald Fauhair'^ and his Ancestors. 109

supported by the further fact that the assaults
upon the coasts of the mainland of Europe, when
they recommenced, were directed not against the
empire itself, but against the fief granted to
Harald and his family. They continued, in fact,
the long strife between the sons of Godfred and
their rivals which we have traced out.

There is good reason for believing that besides
the gau of Kustringen, the greater part of Friesia
and of modern Holland were under the immediate
authority of Harald and his relatives {Theganus
vita Hludovic Imp, Pertz, ii, 597 ; Kruse, 89) ; and
we accordingly read that in the year 834 the
Danes, {i.e., the Danes of Jutland), devasted
a portion of Friesia* and having doubtless
mounted the old course of the Rhine, now called
the '' Oude Rhyn," they reached Vetus Trajectum,
i.e., Utrecht, and then passed on to the great mart
of those parts, which gave its name to the district
— namely, Dorestadt. This was a famous trading
centre where the Carlovingians had a mint, of
which many coins are extant, and, according to
the life of Anscharius, there were fifty-five churches
and a crowd of clergy there. So. famous was it as
a religious centre that pilgrims visited it like they
did the most holy places elsewhere, and a church
was placed as its emblem on its coins (Depping,

* Friesland says Vogel, especially that part of it extending from
the Vlie to Sinkfal near Sluis, in regard to trade and industry, was cer-
tainly one of the most prosperous and progressive parts of the Empire,
as well as one of the most fertile. With the exception of the Jews, the
Friesians were the principal traders in Europe. We are told that the
fairest portion of Mainz, then the great Mart where the trade routes
from the Danube and Italy met, was inhabited by Friesians (A. Fuld,
887). There were Friesian traders at St. Denis (Bouquet, v. 699 and
vi. 466) ; Muhlbach 75 ; also at York (Altfridus Vit. Luidgeri i. 11 ;
S. S. ii. 40). Friesic fabrics were well known as far as the East.
Thence there came too weapons and other kinds of smiths' work from
the Rhine and the Belgian towns, so especially did wine, not only
for drinking but for the ritual of the church. Thither also came wool
from England, furs from the far north, and spices from the Levant
(Vogel. 66).

I lo Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

81, 82). It was situated at the point where the
Lech and the old Rhine diverge, and is now
represented by the village of Wyk te Doorestede,
the Vicus Batavorum of Tacitus (Depping, /oc. cz7.).
It was doubtless the metropolis of Harald's
dominions, and the great focus of light, learning,
and wealth for all Friesia.f Here the Danes now
committed great ravages, pillaging the town and
slaughtering its inhabitants. They then passed to
Kynemarca, i,e., the Dutch province of Kennemer-
land, where they destroyed the church of St.
Adelbert the Confessor ; cut off the head, as it is
said, of the holy Jero at Niortich, i,e,, Noortwyk
op Zee, and ruined the very strong castle of
Aurundel, near Varenburg, i.e., the rude old castle
at Voorburg, formerly called Hadriani Forum,
near Leyden. They slaughtered a great number
of the inhabitants, including Theobald and Gerald
(doubtless two of the chief inhabitants), and

t Its fame as a trading mart was wide spread. The annals of
Xanten, under the year 834, call it Nominatissitnum Vtcum, Liudger,
Vita. Gregorii abb Traject, C 5, S. S., xv. 71 speaks of it as vicum
famosum Dorstad, see Urk., Karls d Gr. 8 June, 777, Muhlbach 21.
Three great trade routes met at Dorstadt : — First that along the Rhine
which connected Mainz with the outer world, and which also tapped the
valley of the Danube and that which traversed Mont Cenis into Italy ;
secondly, the English trade by way of the Maas and the Lech ;
thirdly, the Scandinavian and Baltic trade which went along the Krum-
man Rhine by Utrecht, through the Vecht, the Zuyder Sea and between
the Friesian Islands and the mainland to Schleswig. It is unlikely
there was in old times an opening from the Rhine for ships at Katwyk.
The traders went to the North by the Vecht (See Berg. Geogr. Ned., 62,
63) Dorstadt was one of the important stations where the excise dues
were collected. In a document of the Emperor Louis dated June 831 ;
(MuhlbaCh, 890) — relating to the City of Strasburg it is stated that its
goods were toll-free except at Quentovic Dorestadt and Sclusae. Sclusae
says Vogel does not mean Sluys but a place on the Mont Cenis route.
This is a proof that the people of Strasburgh at that time traded
between Lombardy, England, and Denmark (Op. cit., 66 and 67; for
other references (see especially Passio. S. Frederici Episc. Tree, c. 19,
A. SS., XV. 354).

See also acts of St. Frederick, bishop of Utrecht and martyr (Dom
Bouq., i, 339). These annals call them Danes ; the Annals of Xanten
pagans ; while the Fuldea Annals call them Normanni.

'^ Harald Fatrhair'' and hts Ancestors. iii

carried off many of the women and children into
captivity (Magnum Chron. Belgicum, ap. Fist. 65 ;
Kriise, 119). Kruse says he does not know
whence these details were derived, but does not
doubt they are trustworthy.

This attack was doubtless directed against what
Eric and his people must have deemed the
traitorous colony on his frontier, the pestilent pre-
tenders to his throne, and the servile creatures of
the Empire. It was repeated the next year when
they again ravaged Dorestadt, whereupon the
Emperor Louis, who held a council at Cremica on
the Rhone, {in Stremiaco Kruse, 121, and note 3 ;
Vogel, 69 says at Dramades) ; and was no doubt
beginning to fear for his own borders, repaired
to Aachen, and set the maritime or coast guards
in order (Prudent. Trecen., Pertz., i. 429 ; Annales
Xantenses, Pertz, ii. 226 , Kruse, 121).

Prevost. (Ord. Vit. i. 158, note), says that in 830
Louis and Lothairs authorised the construction of
a fortified wall about St. Filibert's monastery —
contra piratarum incursiones. Wala of Corbey
was exiled to Noirmoutiers in 830, and released
thence in 834, showing it was intact at the latter
date.

In 834 the monks of Noirmoutiers are said,
in consequence of the invaders, to have left their
island and monastery, taking with them the relics
of St. Filibert, which had been seen there by Wala
of Corbey when an outcast (Ann. Engol, 834 ;
Ann. Aquit. 830; Pertz., ii. 252; xvi. 485;
Dummler, i. 188 ; Simson ii. 129.

On the 20th xlugust, 835. — Count Rainald of
Herbauge {Arbatilicensis comes) ^ inflicted a severe
defeat on the invaders Ann. Engol. 835 ; Chron.
Aquit. 835, 836 ; Ademar, iii. c. 16 ; Tran. St.

112 ^aga-Book of the Viking Society.

Filibert, Mabillon, iva. 536. The Abbot Ermen-
tarius in his account of the translation of the saint
says the battle began at nine and went on to
vespers, and the pirates lost nine ships, 484 of
them were killed, and only one of the Franks.
Some knights were wounded and many horses killed.
He adds that Rainald himself was defeated in a
fight in 843 against Lambert. It is not clear, says
Simson, whether the count was victorious or
not. The Ann. Engol. simply speak of the fight.
Ademar says the Count was beaten, which is
confirmed by the fact that Abbot Hilbod the
year following sought protection for the island
from Pepin, in Aquitaine.

We are told that in 836 Hilbod repaired
to Pepin, in Aquitaine, to ask for aid against
repeated attacks of the Northmen. With the
consent of the bishops, abbots, counts, and other
faithful ones, it was decided that the bones of St.
Filibert should be transferred to a safer place. On
the 7tli June they were disinterred and taken to
the Monastery of Deas on the mainland, whence
they were moved to Burgundy in 875 (Simson,
143, note 5).

In the same year (836) the Danes (one account
says, in conjunction with the Saxons, probably the
Nordalbingians — Kruse, 125), once more ravaged
Dorestadt and Friesia. On this occasion they burnt
the town of Antwerp and a trading mart at the
mouth of the Maas, which the chronicler calls
Witla, and which Kruse identities, with some
probability, with Briel (op. cit., 125) and imposed
tribute on the Friesians. Then mounting the
Scheldt, they reached the town of Doorne(Turinum),
where was situated the monastery of St. Frede-
gand. There they burnt and destroyed the

'* Harald Fiiirhair^' and his Ancestors. 113

monastery, killed part of its inmates, and. carried
off the rest; l)iit the relics of the saint had
meanwhile, been transferred to a place of safety.
They then went to Mechlin, laid waste the
church of St. Rumold, and devastated the
town with fire and sword If we are to believe
the life of St. Gommar, when the Danes came to
that monastery and set fire to the roof, it was
miraculously put out. This only increased the
anger of the pirates, who broke into the church
and killed the priest Fredegar at the altar. The
same work goes on to say that as they bore off the
booty to their ships, two of their chiefs, named
Reolfus and Reginarius, came to an untimely end.
lieolfus bui'st his stomach, and his l)Owels fell out ;
and Reginaiius, being deprived of his sight,
perished miserably.

This story is derived from the life of St. Gom-
mar, abstracted by F. Hara^us (Ann. Brabant,
i. 67 ; see Langebok, i. 519 ; Krnse, 125). It is
singularly interesting, and although we crave per-
mission entirely to doubt the tale of the death
of the two chiefs as related in it, there can be
small doubt ts is an otherwise truthful record ; and
the names, especially, I believe to be most
authentic. I shall revert to them on another
occasion. I would remark that in this invasion the
Danes clearly overstepped the limits of the fief
which had been granted to Harald, and crossed the
imperial borders. In September, 836, Eric sent
envoys to the 'placiturii which Louis held at
Worms to tell the Emperor that it was contrary
to his wish that his borders had been attacked
and that he had had nothing to do with it, which
as I beleive was true. Eric in fact complained
that some of his own men had been put to

114 Sagn-Book o^ ihe Vikivg Sociefy.

death near Cologne. These envoys secured the
punishment of the offenders (Prud. Tr. Pertz.,
i. 430 ; Depping, 83). Later in the year envoys
again came from Eric asking for the " wehrgeld,"
or blood money, for the murdered Danes (Pru.
of Tr. Pertz., i. 430; Simson, i. 430); Dumm-
ler, i. 266, note. Prudentius thus reports the
event. — i^cd ei Horih reoc Davorurn. per legator
suoif in eodem placAto amicitiw aique, ohedieMtme cov-
ditiones mandans, se nullatenus eonim import uni-
tafihus assenswn praebuisse tes-tatus, de suorum ad
imperatorem missoriwi intefectione coiiqueMu^ est,
qui dudum circa Coloiiiam Agrippinam quoriivdaw
P'wuwmptio'iie neenti faeraiit ; quorum jierem etiaw
inrperator^ n/is'sia ad hoc solum legatis justissime
vJtns est (Prud. Pertz. i. 430).

In 837 we find the sea rovers again attacking
the fief of the exiled Danish princes, and making a
descent on the island of Walichra (i.e., Walicheren),
where, on the 17th June, they killed Eggihard or
Eckhart, the count of the district, and Hemming
the son of Halfdane, who was, as I believe, the
brother of Harald, " a Dane and a most Christian
chief " as he is called by Thegan, {Ex stirpe
Danonun dux Ghristianissimus). Thegan says
an innumberable number of Christians with many
grandees then fell, while others were captured
and afterwards ransomed. The invaders also
carried off many women and large numbers of
different kinds {diversi generis) of cattle (Ann.
Xantenses Simson, ii. 168, notes 1 and 2). They
afterward again ravaged Dorestadt, and having
collected black-mail, or tribute, from the Friesians
they retired (Thegani vita Ludovici, Pertz, ii. 604;
Fuldensian Annals, Pertz, i. 361 ; Prud. Tree,
Pertz, i. 430; Kruse, 126, 127). Dorestadt had

^^ Hiirald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 115

been a rare mine for the invaders, and many
coins struck there have been found in Scandi-
navia (Depping, 83). On the news of this last
invasion, the Emperor Louis, who had determined
upon spending the winter in Italy, altered his
plans and went to his palace at Nimvegen, not
far from Dorestadt. There he held an inquiry
into the conduct of those who had had charge
of the coasts, and who explained that their
forces had been too weak and had also been thwarted
by their subordinates. He appointed certain counts
and abbots to repress this insubordination, and to
prepare a fleet to cruise on the coasts of Friesia
(Pmd. Tree, Pertz, i. 430; Kruse, 127). The
Fries ians had proved very lax in making prepara-
tions and some officials were specially sent to press
them to do their duty (see Prud. Tr.) But the
weakness of the Empire was at its very heart. It
was the quarrels and dissensions of Louis' sons
which really gave rise to it. The old man, in his
various schemes of dividing the empire so as to
find a portion for the child of his old age, Charles,
and of his second wife, Judith, aroused the jealousy
and hatred of his other sons.

In 838 the Eiuperor remained at Nimvegen,
where he held his so called " May-meeting" in June,
so as to overawe the invaders, and to repair the
damage they had done in previous years. They did
not make an attack this year; but, according to
Prudentius, it was because their fleet was dispersed
and destroyed by a storm — ortoque suhito maritim-
oruni fluctuum turbine, vixpaucissiinis evadeiitihus,
suhmersi sunt (Prudentius Tree, Pertz. i. 431, 432).
While Louis was at Attigny, envoys went to him
from Eric, saying that out of devotion to the Em-
peror he had imprisoned the authors of the recent
raids and had ordered them to be put to death {captos

1 16 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

et interfici jussos) and asking that he would make
over to hnn the country of the Friesians and the
Obotriti. The former, as M. Kruse says, seems to
hove been treated by the Northern kings as a depend-
ence of their empire, and was so held especially
by Godfred, the contemporary of Charlemagne ;
while a section of the Obotriti were colonists
settled at the instance of the great Emperor in
the country of the Nordalbingian Saxons, who
were also more or less dependent on the Danish
sovereigns. This claim of Eric's proves that he
was becoming a much more important personage in
European affairs, and also that the Empire was
rapidly weakening. It was treated, however, by the
imperial authorities with contempt and disdain
(Prud. Tree, Simson, op, cit., iii. 189). This
year ships were built against the Northmen (see
An. Fulden. ; also Ann. Bertin.) At a diet held at
Nimvegen at the same time a great "relief" was
distributed to the niaritime districts, which had
suffered through the invasion of the Danes
(Ann. Bertin.). Simson suggests that the de-
mand was made to provide the wehrgeld for the
murdered envoys and suggests a lacuna in the
MS. ii. 189, note.

The following year, i.e., in 839, Friesia was
visited by its usual scourge (Prud. 839 : Quidum
etiavi 'piratcE in qiiaiidcun Frisiae partem imienteH
non partem incommodi nostris finihus intulerunt).
As usual distinction seems to have been niade
between this outlier of the empire and the empire
itself, for the same year envoys went to the
emperor from Eric, who were accompanied by the
latter's nephew, doubtless Roric. They were gladly
{Jiilariter) received and rewarded, and complained
of the Friesians, (see Prudentius, Tr., ad. an., ajid
Simson, ii. 217, 218). The emperor then sent

** Harald Fatrhatr" and his Ancestors. 1 17

envoys to Eric who secured, as was hoped by
the Franks, a lasting peace ratified by oaths
(iVi.— Prud. Tree, Pertz, i. 484—436; Kruse,
183, 184). The Annales Ehion. Pertz., v. 12.
say that in May, 839. Normanni in Walachria
interfaerunt FrancoH — Dunimler, 188, note 19.
This invasion is probably that dated wrongly in 840
in the Chron. Norm. (Kruse. 140) ; and which ought
to be under 839. Dahlmann argues that at this
time Harald was driven away from Rustringen, and
with his brother (? nephew) Rorik retained only
Dorestadt (i. 48).

It was about a year before his death, i.e.^ 839,
that Louis le Debonnaire made the tenth of his
dispositions of the empire among his sons, the
tenth of those arrangements which were being con-
stantly altered, and which became the seeds of so
much bitter contention in later days. The portion
of Lothaire the eldest, included, according to Prud-
entius of Troyes, the kingdom of Saxony, with its
marches, the duchy of Friesland as far as the Maas,
and the counties of Hamarlant, Batavia, Testerbant,
and Dorestadt (Kruse, 183). That is, it included
the districts which had been granted to Harald and
Roric as appanges. The old emperor spent the
few^ months which remained to him in suppressing
the revolts of his sons Pepin and Louis the German.
He afterw^ards summoned a Diet at Worms, on the
Feast of St. Rumbold, the first day of July, 840.
" But," to quote the picturesque sentences of Pal-
grave, "the end was nigh. Jjouis le Debonnaire
never saw any of his children again. At Frankfort
on the Maine he stayed his progress ; it was
springtime, past Whitsuntide. The season had
been rendered awful ; on the eve of the Ascension
the sun was totally eclipsed, and the stars shone
with nocturnal brightness. His stomach refused

1 1 8 Saga- Book oj the Viking Society.

nourishment, weakness and languor gained upon
him ; uneasy and seeking rest the sick man fancied
that he would pass the approaching summer upon the
island which, dividing the heavily-gushing Ehine,
is now covered by the picturesque towers of the
Pfaltz ; and he desired that a thatched lodge, or
leafy hut, should be there prepared, such as had
served for him when hunting in the forest, or as a
soldier in the field. Lying on his couch, he longed
for the soothing music of the gurgling waters and
the freshness of the waving wind. Thither he was
conveyed, his bark floating down from stream to
stream. Many of the clergy were in attendance ;
amongst others, his brother. Archbishop Drogo,
who at this time held the office of Arcliicapellanus ;
and it was he who received the last injunctions
which the son of Charlemagne had to impart. His
imperial orown and sword he gave to Lothaire,
with the earnest request that he would be kind and
true to Judith, the widowed empress, and keep
his word and promise to his brother Charles.
Dying of inanition the bed of the humble and
contrite sinner was surrounded by the priests,
who continued in prayer with him and for him till
he expired. Louis the Emperor died on the third
Sunday in June, and his corpse was removed to
Metz and buried in the basilica of St. Arnolph,
without the walls" (Palgrave, i. 309). The weak
and foolish old man, as he had now become,
who was laid under the ground in the year 840,
was the last sovereign who ruled over the
entire heritage of Charlemagne. Its incongruous
elements now fell asunder, and fell very naturally
into fragments coincident largely with peculiarities
of language, &c. It was perhaps well that the
mere pretence which bound together Frenchmen
and Germans, Italians and Aquitanians, under one
government should cease. It led however to

''^ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. iig

disastrous results in the internecine struggle of
those who divided to the Empire and the opening
of the gaping wounds which the Northern pirates
utilised without stint presently.

For some years the Dane Harald does not
appear in the Annals, and it would seem from the
narrative of Prudentius of Troyes, confirmed by
Saxo (Kruse, 142), that he had relapsed to paganism,
perhaps with the sanction, or even by the advice,
of Lothaire (Prud. Tr., Pertz, i. 437, 438) ; at all
events Count Nithard the Royal historian (probably
a grandson of Charlemagne), tells us Lothaire
subsidized the Norsemen, and incited them to
plunder the Christians. To Lothaire he remained
faithful to the end, and the last time he is men-
tioneti is when, after the terrible defeat of the
Emperor by his brothers at Fontenoy, Lothaire
planted guards at Coblenz to defend the passage
of the Moselle against the victors. Among whom
were Otgar, Bishop of Mainz, Count Hatto, and
Harald. They were not strong enough to offer
real resistance and withdrew (Nithard, Pertz. ii.
667) ; Harald the exile, the godson of the Emperor
Louis at Mainz, the rival of the Jutish King
Eric, now disappears from history. He seems to
have died about this time), probably, like others,
a victim of the disaster at Fontenoy.

We are told that after living on good terms with
the Franks for many years, he was put to death by
the Marchiones or Marquises, the custodians of the
frontier, from a suspicion that he was having
treacherous connnunications with his countrymen
(Euod. Fuld. Pertz, i. 367, see Huh an. 850;
Kruse, 206).

He had lived a curiously romantic life and is a
prominent figure in the history of the ninth
century. He was doubtless the Harald Klak of

l^o ^aga-Book of the Viking Society.

the Saga writers. Vogel says, whether his brother
(? nephew) Rorik succeeded to his dominions is
doubtful. Later he is found in conflict with
Lothaire (op. cit. 86).

We are now told that Lothaire granted the
isle of Walcheren {Gualaci\is) and other neigh-
bouring districts to Korik (Prudentius v. 4i ;
Nithard, iv. ch. 2), and thus added the mouth of
the Scheldt to his other possessions in Rustringen
and Dorestadt."^ He in fact now probably domi--
nated over the whole country inhabited by
Frieslanders, from the Elbe to the Scheldt.

In this narrative it has not been possible to
separate the doings of the special rulers of West-
fold from those of their brothers ; the annals
group them together in the phrase " the sons of
Grodfred,'' nor yet has it been possible to separate
the doings of the rival clans who followed the
standards of the sons of Halfdane and Godfred
{i.e., Gudrod), respectively representing the rival
houses of the Scioldungs and the Ynglings.
I have deemed it best in this monograph to report
all the doings I could meet with about both of
them, and to unite them together by their inter-
course with the Empire. I must now return to
Westfold and its special rulers.

Two other brothers of Hemming, called Hanc-
win {i.e., Hakon) and Angandeo (Angantyr) • by
Eginhardt, are mentioned among the envoys sent
by him to the Frank emperor in 811. These three
brothers were probably the sons of Eystein,

* Perhaps the most notable feature of these cruel raids was the fate
which now overtook Dorestede, which went down from the position of a
great mart to a mere obscure trading place. In 1842, 1845 and 1846
excavations were made there and a large number of coins were found.
Some dated from Merovingian times, but the great bulk were coins of
Pepin, Charles the Great, Louis the Pious, and Lothaire. The
excavations also proved that the place had been destroyed by fire and
doubtless at some date during the years 834 — 837.

" Harald Futrhair'* and his Ancestors. 121

Gudrod's predecessor. A fourth brother was doubt-
less the Sigurd who fought against Harald and
Kaginfred in 812. In that battle, where, according
to the Frank historians, more than 10,000 men
perished, it would seem that Gudrod's nephews
who fought for the heritage of Hemming were all
killed, for they are not again named in history.

Especially is it notable that Olaf, the reigning
ruler of Westfold at this time, is not mentioned by
name by the Franks.

The victors in the great fight were Harald and
Raginfred, the sons of Halfdane, and the meaning
of the struggle is that for a short time the Sciol-
dungs resumed their supremacy in Denmark and
the Ynglings were thrust out. Having secured the
throne, the two victors sent to ask the emperor
for the release of their brother Hemming, who was
allowed to go back with their envoys. On his
arrival they were absent, having gone to Wester-
fold., which lay, we are told, beyond their kingdom,
between the north and west, and looking towards
Britain. There is no doubt they had gone to
Westfold to complete their victory over the family
of Godfred (Gudrod) by an attack upon its special
heritage. We are told they reduced the chiefs
and people of Westfold to obedience.

This very year, however, namely in 813,
Godfred's sons, together with not a few .of the
Danes who had sought refuge among the Sueones
or Swedes, collected their forces from all sides, and
were joined by a great crowd of people from all
the land of the Danes. Having fought a battle
with Harald and Raginfred, they drove them out
of the kingdom with little trouble (Eginhardt,
Pertz, i. 200). Here, then, we have the Yngling
dynasty once more reinstated — reinstated in the
persons of Godfred's sons. Who, then, were these

1 2 2 Saga- Book of the Viking Society

sons ? The Frank annalists mention one only by
name, namely Eric, although they tell lis he had
in fact five sons. One of them is stated to have
been killed in 814 in a struggle with Harald Klak.
In 819 four others are mentioned, two of whom
are said to have shared the kingdom of Denmark
with Harald, while the other two were driven out
from the kingdom (Eginhardt, Annales Pertz, i.
208). Of the two who stayed, Eric was no doubt
one ; the name of the other is not forthcoming in
any of the annals.

The Ynglinga Saga says Olaf was twenty years
old when Gudrod died, and that he divided the king-
dom with his young brother Halfdane. He lived
at Geirstad, which is supposed to have been on the
site of a farm now called Gierrestad, in the parish
of Tiolling, where Skiringsal is also situated
(Aal's Heimskringla, liv. note).

A curious legend is reported of Olaf, namely,
that he once dreamt that a great black and vicious
ox came into the land from the east, whose poison-
ous breath killed a number of men, and eventually
his whole court. He thereupon summoned a
great Thing-assembly at Gierstad, before which he
interpreted the dream as meaning that a terrible
pestilence would arrive from the east which would
first destroy a great number of people, then the
court, and lastly himself. They decided that the
whole assembly should set to work and erect a vast
mound on a neighbouring tongue of land, and plant
a hedge round it so that no cattle could traverse it.
In this mound all the dead were to be buried, and
every illustrious man was to have half an ore of
silver buried with him. Olaf ordered that he him-
self should also be put in the mound, and that no
blood offering or sacrifice should be made after his
death. The dream was duly fulfilled, and he was

^^ Harald Fairhair^' and his Ancestors. 123

buried, as he had ordered, in the mound. The
king's men were the last to die and were taken unto
the mound, and he himself was then quickly laid
beside them with much treasure and *' the house,"
^.6;., the tomb, was closed. His injunction about the
sacrifice was, however, disobeyed, and a sacrifice was
offered to him as the guardian of the frontier and
the tutelary spirit of the district, whence he was
afterwards called Geirstad Alf (Aal's Heimskringla,
liv. note). Munch quotes this Saga from the
account of Olaf in the ' Flatey-bok,' and from
Olaf the Saint's Saga. He adds that the story of
the dream and the pestilence was not very old, or
Thiodwolf, who dedicates his Ynglingatal to
Rognvald, Olaf's son, would have menioned it ;
while he tells us, on the contrary, that he died
from a disease in his foot (? the gout), and that he
was buried in a mound at Geirstad. We must
remember, however, that we only have fragments
of Thiodwolf 's original poems. Munch urges
that the Saga was probably manufactured out of
the fact that he w^as generally looked upon as a
protector of the frontier, or else made up merely
to suit his great mound at Geirstad. Another
Saga, reports how the sword Baesing, which was
afterwards called Hneitir, was dug up out of Olaf
Geirstad Alf's mound and presented to another Olaf
(Munch, ii. 162, 163). Saxo, w^ho habitually trans-
fers the stories about other foreign princes to
Denmark, states that this Olaf was buried at Lethra
in a mound called after him. ' The mound referred
to was known as Olshoi, and doubtless belonged to
some other Olaf. Thiodwolf's verses about King
Olaf read thus in Vigfusson's translation. " And
the shoot of the tree of Woden's son Treythrone
in Norway, Anlaf, (i.<5., Olaf), once ruled Upsa, Vithi
(Wood), Groen and Westmare. He reigned till gout
was fated to destroy ' the war dealer ' at the land's

1 24 Saga-Book of the Vtking Society.

thrum (i.e., the shore). Now the doughty king of
hosts is lying with a barrow over him at Geirstad.
He was succeeded by his brother Halfdane, called
the Black from the colour of his hair " (Ynglingatal
Corp. Poet., i. 251). Westmare is familiar enough,
Groen is no doubt Gronland, the land of the
Grens, or Graeini, the Granii of Jornandes, Upsi,
is not named elsewhere.

Olaf's son and successor in Westfold, and perhaps
Groenland (Ibid., 163), was Eognvald who was
called " Higher than the hills." Of him we know
nothing more than what is reported in the last verse
of Thiodwolf's poem, which has been explained
entirely afresh by Vigfusson, namely, as a glori-
fication of his suzerain. King Harald. It reads
thus : — " The best surname that I know any king
under the blue sky has borne, is that when Eeagnaldr
the Lord of ruin called thee Fair Hair Corpuscle,"
i.e.. King Harald Fairhair, 251.

With Halfdane the Black we enter upon a new
phase of Norwegian history. We no longer have
the poem of Thiodwolf of Hwin upon which to
thread the story ; but on the other hand, the
number of details shows that we are getting nearer
to a period when traditions of a trusty character
abounded. Let us first examine what materials
are available for a history of Halfdane, and what
authority they possess. The only contemporary
ones that we could expect to meet with would
be songs or productions of the skalds, and geneal-
ogies, for prose history had not yet begun to be
composed in the North. We have no poems
relating to Halfdane, although we know^ the name
of at least one Skald, namely, Audun Illskaelda,
who lived at his court, and doubtless wrote about
his famous doings (G. Storm, Snorre Sturlason's
Historieskriving, 112). We can only recover such

*' Harald Bairhnir'' and hts Ancestors, 125

legends and traditions as were incorporated in
their histories by the prose-writeis. Of these
the first in date and importance, was Aii Frothi,
in whose " Landnania-bok," as well as the
supplement called "Mantissa," we have three
interesting references to Halfdane. Ari also wrote
a " Konungatal," contained in the " Islendinga-
bok," now lost, and of which an epitonje, generally
quoted as Ari's " Libellus," is alone available.
Ari's " Konungatal " is referred to in his preface by
Snorri. It was probably the basis of Ari's ow^n
Saga of Halfdane the Black in the Heimskringla.
We next have a notice of Halfdane in the " Konun-
gatal," or collection of Lives of the Kings, cited in
modern times as " Aagrip," of which Dr. Vigfusson
says it comprises short lives of the kings of Norway
from Harald Fairhair to King Sverri, 1180 ; adding
that it is a very early work and closely connected
with Saemund and Ari, from whose "Konungatal,"
in the lost " Liber Islandorum " it may have been
copied (Sturlunga Proleg., Ixxxvii) ; Storm has
given a critical notice of the work (Historieskriv-
ning, 25 — 28). It was probably composed in
Iceland about the year 1190. Another book which
dates from an early period is the so-called " Fagr-
skinna," or Fair Skin — " the modern name," says
Vigfusson, for " Aettartal Noregs Konunga " (so it
is inscribed in Codex A), or Noregs Konungatel (as
inscribed in Codex B), an independent compendium
of the kings' lives from Halfdane the Black to
Sverri, who reigned 1135 — 1177, to w^hich later
Saga it was apparently intended to serve as an
introduction. It was preserved only in Norse
vellums (destroyed in 1728), and must have been
compiled by Norwegians from Icelandic sources.
The style in many places resembles that of the
Northern version of the story of Barlaam and
Josaphat dating from the days of Hakon the Old.

1 26 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

Moreover, we can identify it with the work read to
King Sverri as he lay dying (Hakon's Saga). This
follows both from the place of its beginning, and also
the time it took to read through, which correspond
exactly with " Fagrskinna." (Sturlunga Proleg.,
Ixxxvii and Ixxxviiij. Lastly, we have the story of
Halfdane as told by Snorri. This occurs in two recen-
sions : one is contained in the well-known ''Flatey-
bok," which is so called from having been discovered
in the Isle of Flato in Breidafiord, in Iceland, in 1651 :
It is an Icelandic manuscript, written for Jon Hakor-
isson in the years 1379 — 80, and contains the lives
of at all events the later kings more fully than in
the epitome (which is known as the " Heims-
kringla"), and with which the name of Snorri is
alone legitimately connected.

Let us proceed with our story. Halfdane the
Black, as we have seen, was the son of G-udrod
by his second wife Asa, the daughter of Harald
Kodskeg (Kedlip), king in Agder (Ynglinga, liii).
In the "Mantissa" or appendix to the " Land-
nama," he is referred to "as Halfdane the
Black, king of the Uplands, son of Gudrod
Leoma" (Op. cit., 385). He was only a year
old when his father died, and his mother took him
to Agder and there he occupied the kingdom which
belonged to her father (Heimskringla, Harald the
Black's Saga, i.). Munch says, very truly, that as
we meet with independent kings of Agder in the
reign of Halfdane's son and successor Harald
Fairhair, it seems to follow that Halfdane did not
rule over the whole of that district. It is even
probable that he merely reigned as a dependent
or subordinate ruler to his older brother Olaf.
We are told he grew up as a stout, strong
man, and was called Black from the colour of
his hair. When he was eighteen years old he

** Harnld Fair hair"' and his Ancestors. 127

took his heritage (whatever it might be) in Agder
on his own shoulders, and also claimed his own
share of his father's dominions, which, we
read, his elder brother Olaf divided with him.
According to the Heimskringla, Olaf took the
eastern (? northern) part, and he the southern.
This seems a mistake : the southern part of
Westfold was the kernel of the kingdom where
Skiringsal was situated, the residence and burying-
place of the kings. It is hardly likely that
Olaf would surrender this to his younger brother,
and it is much more probable that Halfdane's
portion lay in the north of Westfold, near
to Vingulmark, whither he first turned his arms.
The mistake is a very pardonable one in an author
writing in Iceland. This is my view. Munch
accepts the statement in the Saga, and says that
Olaf probably chose for himself the part of West-
fold w^hich was the nearest to the district of
Gronland, over w^hich he inherited a special claim.
He suggests that he received G-ronland with
a daughter of larl Nerid, whom he may have
married, or perhaps his father Gudrod had a
daughter of the iarl for one of his wives (Munch,
op. cit., ii. 161 — 2). This view involves two
unverified postulates. We know little of what
happened during Halfdane's reign.

The same autumn that he acquired his share
of Westfold ho took his men to fight against King
Gandalf of Vingulmark, who had, as we have seen,
recovered that province from Halfdane's brother Olaf.
After fighting several battles, with varying success,
it was at length agreed that he should retain that
portion of Vingulmark w^hich had belonged to his
father Gudrod. The district of Raumariki had been
subdued by Sigtryg, the son of King Eystein, who
was then living in Hedemark, (by whom Eystein,

128 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Hogne's son, King of the Uplands, is doubtless
meant). A battle was fought with him, which
Halfdane won, and we are told Sigtryg was killed
by an arrow which struck him under the arm as
his troops were trying to fly. Halfdane thus
secured Raurnariki ; but no sooner had he re-
turned from this expedition than Eystein Sigtryg's
father, who was then king in Hedemark, marched
to Baumariki and reconquered the greater portion
of it. Halfdane once more set out northwards,
drove out Eystein, and compelled him to fly to
Hedemark, where he pursued and again defeated
him. Eystein now fled onwards to the herse
Gudbrand (Id. 171, and note 2), in Gudbrandsdal,
(to which he may have given his name), and
who was probably one of his most important
subjects. There he received reinforcements, re-
turned to Hedemark in the winter, and fought
with Halfdane on a large island in the midst of the
Miosa, or Miosen lake, which is known as Helge
Oen, or Holy Island. Guttorm, son of Gudbrand
above named, one of the finest men in the Uplands,
fell in this struggle. Eystein once more fled to Gud-
brandsbal, and sent his relative Halvard Skalk to
Halfdane to beg for peace. Halfdane surrendered
half of Hedemark to him, which he and his relatives
had held before, but retained for himself Thoten and
Hadaland and Land, a district lying between
Hadaland and Yaldres, and bordering the upper
part of the Randsfiord and its tributaries. We
are further told he plundered far and wide and
became a mighty king. Eystein was probably
reduced to the position of an under-king. By
these victories Halfdane recovered the greater part
of what had been ruled over by his ancestor and
namesake, Halfdane Huitbein.

A curious Saga reports that it was at this
time that Hereydal was first settled by Halfdane's

^^ Harald Fatrhair'' and his Ancestors. i2q

frontier comnitander, a border guardian or mar-
quis {merkesmand). Having incurred Halfdane's
displeasure, he had fled to the Swedish king
Anund, by whom he was received in a friendly
manner, and with whom he stayed for some time,
until he was obliged to fly again for having seduced
a kinswoman of the king named Helga. With
Helga he returned to Norway, and settled in an
uninhabited valley which was afterwards called
Heryedal (Heryardalr). From this pair there
sprang, in the eighth generation, one called Liot
Dagson, who built the first church in Heryedal
(Munch, ii. 170 — 1). The Saga seems to be
very old, and a Heriulf Hornbriot, whose
grandson Thrase settled in Iceland, is mentioned
in the " Landnama-bok." Peter Clausen has
published an account which seems to be an inde-
pendent witness that the cause of Heriulf 's quarrel
with Halfdane was his having killed one of the
courtiers with a drinking horn, whence his sobriquet
of Hornbriot (/fl?., 170, note 2). The story seems
credible enough. On the other hand, we must
remember that the name of the dale where Heriulf
settled is nowhere given as Heriulfsdal, but Hery-
edal, and that it is more probably derived from the
river Herya, or Heryaa, which flows through it
(Munch, ii. 171, and note 2).

Sogn is a remote district of Western Norway,
whose name some have derived from a mythical
king Sokni. In the old speech, however, it meant
a deep or secluded dale, which was doubtless what
really gave it its name. It included the district
threaded by the famous Sogn fiord, which, with
its various ramifications, is much the largest fiord
in NorwMy. It was bounded on the east by the
Dovrefell, on the west by the sea, on the north
by Firda fylki, and on the south by Horda

130 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

fylki. In the early times it had a wide reputation.
Aal has a considerable note on its topography.
At the time we are writing about, we are told
that Harald Gullskeggr, i.e.^ Goldbeard, ruled in
Sogn. Halfdane married a daughter of this
Harald. In the '' Landnama-bok," she is called
Thora ; in the King's Lives and the Heimskringla —
Ragnhild (which is probably a mistake), the latter
tells us further that her mother was called Salvor,
and was the daughter of iarl Hundolf and sister
of iarl Atli Miove (i.e., the Thin), and of Thurida,
who married Ketil Helloflag (Landnama-bok V.,
chap. xi. ) Hundolf and his son Atli were iarls
of Gaular, upon which name Aal has again a
very long note. Some would explain it as
referring to the famous Gulathing-sted in North
Hordaland, w^here the Gulathing's law, to be
referred to presently, was enacted ; others again,
as referring to an important district in the Fiala
fylki, which lay immediately north of Sogn, and
which was so important that the whole fylki was
sometimes called by the name. To this latter
conclusion, which seems the most reasonable, Aal
himself inclines (Aal's Heimskringla, pp. 43 — 45,
note). The *' Mantissa," I must add, calls Hun-
dolf, Hunolf Iarl or Fiordom, thus connecting him
with Fiorda fylki, which lies north of Fiala fylki
(Op. cit., V. 2). By Thora Halfdane had a son, who
was called after his maternal grandfather and
brought up at his house. When Harald Goldbeard
became very weak and old, having no sons, he
gave his dominions to his grandson Harald, who
was then but ten years old. Shortly after, he
died and his death was followed by that of his
daughter, Halfdane's wife, and a year later by that
of her son, who was then ten years old, a fact which
has a sinister look. Halfdane went to Sogn and

** Haiald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors. 131

claimed the district as liis son's heir, and, no
opposition bein^ made, he appropriated the whole
kingdom (Halfdane the Black's Saga, chap. 1 — 3 ;
Landnama-bok V., xi. 1 ).

.When Halfdane had secured Sogn, he did not
incorporate it with his dominions, but appointed
his brother-in-law Atli as its iarl. The acquisition
of Sogn was an important success, for it was the
first portion of Norway on this side of the Dovre-
fell over which the kings of Westfold gained
authority. We are told iarl Atli proved a good
friend to Halfdane, that he judged the country
according to the country's law (i.e., no doubt,
according to the Gulathing's law, which had
authority in all this district), and collected scatt, or
tribute there, on the king's account (Halfdane
the Black's Saga, chap, iii.; Munch, ii. 165). These
Scandinavian iarls answered closely to the 'comes,'
or counts, of the Carlovingian polity. They were
administrative officials, who acted as viceroys in
their special governments, and collected the taxes
there. They differed from the earlier counts at
this time in their office being apparently hereditary,
and not merely held during life.

Having appointed Atli as his deputy in Sogn,
King Halfdane returned again to Westfold. The
same spring he happened to be in Vingulmark,
when a man who had been on guard there came up
on horseback and reported that a large army was
coming up. It proved to be a considerable force
under Hysing and Helsing, the sons of Gandalf.
(In the ' Flatey-bok ' the names are given, appar-
ently in error, as Hysing and Hake, see Munch,
op.cit.II.166,notel). They were doubtless bent on
recovering their former supremacy in Vingulmark.
In the fight which ensued, Halfdane was over-
powered by numbers, and fled to the forest, leaving

132 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

many of his men behind. There he was joined by
numbers of people, and he again marched against
his assailants and a battle ensued at Eyde Sker, or
Eidi. The river Glommen, some distance above its
outlet, opens out into a long lake called Oieren, also
known as Eyyirde vatn, which perhaps preserves
the older form of the name ; while Eid and
Eidsberg are names marked on Aal's map, a little
south of this lake, which, with the Glommen,
separated Yingulmark from Alfheim, and there
can be small doubt the battle was fought there.
Hysing and Helsing both fell in the struggle, while
a third brother fled to Alfheim, and Halfdane
occupied all Yingulmark. In the Heimskringla we
are told that among the victims of the first fight
in' which Halfdane was defeated was his foster-
father, Oelver the Wise. In the ' Flatey-bok,' on
the contrary, Oelver is made to bring him rein-
forcements (Munch, ii. 166, note 2; Aal, 45 note).

As we have seen Halfdane had consoHdated a
considerable Kingdom and was virtually master
of all Norway, east of^' the Keel^' as Dovrefell, the
Backbone of that country, has been picturesquely
called. The two - or three semi-independent
communities which remained there under their
own rulers were insignificant and reduced to
impotence.

By a lucky marriage, assisted by a strong will,
Halfdane had also, as we have seen, secured a
foothold on the West of the Mountains and
appropriated his father-in-law's realm which was
situated round the Sogn fiord. Halfdane thus
ruled a very wide district with powerful frontiers.
On the east he was protected from Sweden (where
King Eric then reigned) by huge forests, on the
west by the Dovrefell range and on the north by
a stretch of almost unpeopled wild forest land.

'* Harald Fairhair^^ and his Ancestors. 133

He had consolidated his realm by wise measures
and had especially ^iven to it a famous code of
laws known as the Heidssaevis or Eidsiva-lag, and
also the Sleps-lag.

On the death of his first wife and son Halfdane
married again. In regard to his second wife there
are two legends. One of them is contained in
the Fagrskinna,^ which Munch accepts as the
more probable ; a conclusion in which I cannot
follow him. It tells us he married Helga, the
beautiful-haired daughter of the great Herse Dag
Frothi, who lived at Thengilstad in Hadaland, and
who beside her had a son named Guthoim Ilaad-
spake {i.e. , wise in counsel, Munch, op. cit. II. 17 1 ). In
the ' Landnama-bok ' and Heimskringla we are told
a different story, and one which is certainly vitiated
by anachronisms. They make him marry Ragn-
hild, a daughter of Sigurd Hiort {i.e., Sigurd, the
hart or deer), king in Ringariki, who was, accoi'd-
ing to the Heimskringla, the son of Helge the
Sharp and Aslaug, a daughter of Sigurd the Worm-
tongued, son of Ragnar Lodbrog. Sigurd Hiort's
mother is also called Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd
the Worm-tongued, in the so-called ' Mantissa,' an
appendix to the Landnama-bok. This statement
is most improbable : Sigurd the Worm-tongued,
son of Ragnar Lodbrog could hardly have been a
grandfather at this time. About Sigurd Hiort we
are told that many a long Saga was extant : inter
alia, we read of him that when only twelve years
old he killed the Bareserk Hildebrand in single
combat with eleven of his companions. He had
two children, Ragnhild, already mentioned, and
Guthorm, who was younger. Perhaps the latter

* This is an independent rescension of the King's lives composed
in Norway from Icelandic sources and containing materials not found
elsewhere. The original MSB. were burnt in the great fire of 1728,
but good copies remain (see Corp. Poet. Bor., introduction p. 2).

134 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

was baseborn, as he did not succeed to his father's
realm. Ragnhild's mother, we are again told, was
Thyrni, daughter of Harald Klak, sister of Thyra
Dannebod, the wife of the Danish king Gorm the
Old, which is again most improbable, for Thyra is
elsewhere said to have had no sister, nor does the
chronology allow of such a solution. The motive
of the sophistication, as well as of the introduction
of Sigurd the Worm-tongued into the story, is pro-
bably due, as Munch says, to the wish of the
Northern genealogists to connect the Norwegian
kings with the famous stock of K-agnar Lodbrog,
and also with that of the Danish Royal family.

It was related of Sigurd Hiort that he
performed many heroic feats, and was fond of
hunting great beasts. In one of these excursions
he rode into the forest as usual, and after riding a
long way he presently came out on a piece of
cleared land near to Hadaland. There he met the
Bareserk Hake, who had thirty men with him.
They fought, and Sigurd himself fell, after killing
twelve of Hake's men. Hake, the champion, lost
one hand and had three other wounds. After the
fight he went to Sigurd's house, whence he carried
off Ragnhild and her brother Guthorm, and took
them, with much booty, to Hadaland, where he had
many great farms. Eagnhild was then fifteen years
old, and Guthorm fourteen (i6.). The Heimskringla
says she was twenty years old, and her brother a
youth. Hake wished to be married to her, and
ordered a feast to be prepared ; but his wounds
healed very slowly, and he had to keep his bed.
At this time King Halfdane was in Hedemark at
the Yule feast, and one morning he ordered Haarek
Gand or the Wolf to take a hundred men, and to
cross the Miosa lake to Hake's house at *^ otten" (i.e.,
break of day — the Icelanders call the interval be-

^^ Harald Fairhair^' arid his Anceslors 135

tween three and six in the morning *'otten" — Aal,
op. cit., 46, note), and to bring Sigurd Hiort's
daughter to him. He went about this task so quickly
that he had crossed the lake by dawn, and came to
Hake's house. They surrounded it, and occupied
the doors and stairs, so that his housecarls could
not come to the rescue. They then entered his
bedroom, and carried off Ragnhild and her brother,
and all the goods that were there ; and they set
fire to the housecarls' dwelling, and burnt all the
people in it. They then covered over a magnificent
waggon, put Ragnhild and Guthorm into it, and
drove down upon the ice. Presently Hake woke
up, and pursued them ; but when he reached the
ice he turned his sword hilt to the ground, and let
himself fall upon its point, and thus killed himself.
He was buried there under a mound. When
Halfdane, who was quicksighted, saw the party
coming back over the ice with the waggon, he
knew their errand had been successful. He
summoned the most distinguished men in the
neighbourhood to a feast, and the same day united
himself with Ragnhild (Heimskringla, Halfdane
the Black's Saga, chap, v., Munch, op. cit. ii.
171 — 73). This story, with the exception oi" the
genealogical phrases, which seem to be interpola-
tion, reads as if it were a genuine one, and I don't
know on what ground Munch prefers that in the
''Fagrskinna." It accounts, as Munch himself
says, for the manner in which Ringariki, with its
capital Stein, was added to the patrimony of the
chiefs of Westfold, and for Halfdane's head having
been buried at Stein, as we shall see.

Munch draws attention to the mention of a
waggon instead of a sledge having been used for the
conveyance of Ragnhild as a suspicious circum-
stance ; he also says, truly enough, that unless by

1 36 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Hadaland in the above notice we are to understand
the district of Thoten attached to the Hada
fylki, it is incomprehensible how Ragnhild could
be taken across the lake from Hadaland to
Hedemark. He further suggests that it is not
probable that Halfdane's position in Hedemark
was sufficiently assured for him to have had the
adventure there, and urges that in the oldest form
of the Saga the residence of Halfdane was placed,
as is natural, in Hadaland, and that he sent across,
not the Miosa lake, but the Rands fiord, which
traverses Hada fylki, and across which he could see.
Hake's residence, being in that part of the Hada
fylki west of the Rands fiord and nearest to Ring-
ariki (Op. cit. ii, 173 note). To continue our
story.

Ragnhild was accustomed to dream great
dreams. On one occasion she dreamt she was in
her herb-garden, when she took a thorn out of her
shift. While she was holding this thorn in her
hand it grew to the size of a great tree, one end
of which stuck in the ground and became firmly
rooted, while the other end raised itself so high in
the air that she could scarcely see over it, and
the trunk also became very large. The under
part of the tree was blood-red, the stem beautifully
green, and the branches snow-white. The tree
had many great limbs, which spread all over
Norway, and even further. Soon after this her
son Harald Haarfagre was born.

Halfdane himself never had dreams. Thinking
it strange, he consulted Thorleif Spake, i.e , the
Wise, who replied that he himself when he wanted
to have a revelation in a dream used to go to sleep
in a swine's sty, which never failed to bring him
dreams. The king followed his advice, and he

*' Harald Fair hair ^' and his Ancestors. 137

dreamt that he had the most beautiful hair that
ever was seen, which was so thick that it grew in
locks, some of which reached to the ground, some to
his calves, others to his knees, others to his hips,
some to his neck, others again in small knots
clung to his head. These locks were of different
shades ; but one of them surpassed all the rest in
size, beauty and lustre. Halfdane having asked
Thorlief to explain the dream, the latter said it
meant that he would have a numerous posterity, and
that his descendants would be great people, but not
all equally great. As to the exceptionally long and
and beautiful lock, it was explained as be-
tokening king Olaf the Saint (Halfdane's Saga,
ch. vii; Munch, ii. 175 — 176). It is notable that
Halfdane's counsellor was on this occasion called
Thorleif Spake and Munch says the name occurs in
several generations among the chief advisers of the
kings. Thus King Hakon the Good is said to have
issued the Gulathing laws on the advice of Thorleif
Spake. A Thorleif Spake again is named in the
reign of Olaf Trygvesson as the ancestor of the
famous stock, to which Kagnald the Saint, iarl
of the Orkneys belonged (Munch ii. 176 note).

Halfdane's death is thus reported. '* In the
spring, when the ice began to be unsafe, he was
one day returning from a feast at Biandabu, in
Hadaland, and had to cross the Eands fiord.
There were many people with him, but most of
them were drunk. As they drove across the bight
called Rekensvik (a small inlet half-way down on
the eastern side of the Rands fiord, taking its
name from a farm called Reken which is situated
there Aal, op. cit., 48 note) — they came to a place
where the ice had broken in and a hole had been
made for the cattle to drink at, and where the dung
having fallen upon the ice the thaw had eaten into

138 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

it. As the party drove over, the ice broke,
and Halfdane with his father-in-law, Dag Frothe,
and twenty-one men were drowned (Fagrskinna,
ch. iv. ; Heimskringla, Halfdane the Black's Saga,
chap. ix. ; Munch, ii. 178). A Saga still extant in
Hadaland makes out that Halfdane was drowned
while returning from paying a visit to a noble lady
at Hermansrud, west of the E-ands-fiord (Munch,
ii. 178, note 2) . He had been a very fortunate king,
and good seasons had characterised his reign, and
he was so highly thought of, that when his body was
floated to Kingariki to be buried, the people of most
repute from Westfold, Raumariki, and Hedemark,
who came to meet it, all wished it to be buried
among themselves, hoping thus to secure good
seasons and crops. It was at last agreed to divide
the body into four parts. Ari says the head was laid
in a mound at Stein in Ringariki, while those from
each of the other districts took home a portion.
They were laid under mounds which were after-
wards called Halfdane's Mounds, and sacrifices were
long after offered there. The " Flatey-bok " agrees
with this notice, only replacing Hedemark by
Vingulmark ; while the " Fagrskinna," which has
been followed by Munch tells us the head was laid
at Skiringsal in Westfold, the entrails at Thengil-
stad in Hadaland (there was a royal residence there
from early times — as its very name implies,
" Thengil," meaning a king or overlord (Aal, 48
note) ; and the body at Stein in Ringariki, where
Sigurd Hiort probably had his residence. Nothing
is said of the fate of the fourth portion, and
Munch suggests that Hedemark was its probable
bourne (Munch, op. cit., ii. 179—80).

We must now say a word or two to fix, as well
as we can, the chronology of Halfdane's reign, or,
at all events, of its beginning and end. We are told

'•'' Harald Fatrhatr " and his Ancestors. 139

that he was a year old when his father Giidrod died.
If Gudiod was the same person as Godfred the
Danish king wlio fought against the Franks and who
was killed in 810 a.d., then Halfdane was born in
809. Ari says he took possession of his share of
Agder when he was eighteen years old, that is in
827. A Saga which I have above quoted brings
him into contact, as we have seen, with the
Swedish king Anund This Anund is in every
probability the Anund, King of the Swedes, men-
tioned by E/embert, in his ^' Life of St. Anscharius,"
whom I mentioned in my paper 011 the Early
History of Sweden, and who flourished about the
year 845. The best authorities agree that Harald
Fairhair, Halfdane's son, died about the year 933.
Ari says he was then eighty-three years old.
This puts his birth in the year 850, and as we are
told he was ten years old when his father died, we
may approximately date this event in the year 860.
So that, roughly, Halfdane reigned from 827 — 860,
that is, thirty-three years.

All these dates hang together, and seem very
reasonable. There is only one difficulty — namely,
that Ari says Halfdane was but forty years old
when he died, while this calculation makes him
fifty ; and we have no other resource than to
suggest that Ari, in fact, made a mistake of ten
years in the life of the king — a very small postu-
late, considering what a remote period his narra-
tive refers to.

Halfdane is described by Ari as a wise man,
a man of truth and uprightness, who made laws
and observed them himself, and obliged others to
observe them ; and, in order that violence should
not take the place of laws, he fixed the number of
criminal acts recognised by the law, and the wehr-
gelds or compensations, fines and penalties for each

140 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

case according to every one's birth and dignity
(Heimskringla, Halfdane the Black's Saga, chap,
vii). In a later Saga Ari tells us expressly that the
Heidsaevis laws were first established by Halfdane
the Black (Hakon the Good's Saga, chap. xi).
These laws made up the so-called Selfs Lag and
Heidsaevis or Eidsiva Lag.

Munch derives Self tentatively from " Sef,"
meaning blood relationship, and *'Sefi" a relative —
so that Selfs lag would mean la^v^ of the relatives
or of the companions, and Eidsiva the union of
Eid. This view is also that of the editors of the
Olaf's Saga, Messrs Keyser and linger and of
Munch (op. cit., 167 note). The explanation needs
a further one as to the meaning of Eid, which will
lead us into a somewhat wide digression. Munch
has shewn that it was a very early feature of the
fylkis in Scandinavia (i.e.^ the divisions corres-
ponding to the '' gaus," or counties, in Germany
and England, traces of which remain in the North
folk and South folk of East Anglia) to be united in
Unions of two or three for religious purposes, and
for holding a common Thing, or legislative and
judicial assembly ; while on the other hand there
is evidence that certain districts, as, for instance,
that of the Upper Dales, did not originally
constitute separate fylkis at all, but attached
themselves to some neighbour for these special
purposes, still retaining their independence as
communities. Thus, Vors and Haddingyadal were
apparently united in this way to Hordaland,
Waldres to Sogn, Osterdal to Raumariki, Southern
Thelemark to Westfold, North Western Thelemark
and Robygdelag to Ryfylki. It would seem that
in early times Fiarda and Sogn fylki were thus
united to Hordaland, Agder to Rogaland, and
Hada fylki to Raumariki or Hedemark. These

** Harald Fairhair^^ and his Ancestors. 141

unions seem to point to an early relationship and
close kinship among the people who formed them.
The so-called Gulathings-law, i.e., code of the
Guhx Thing, had authority in all the district from
Rygyarbit as far as the frontiers between Sond-
more and Raumsdal. In the form in which
it has reached us it dates from the end of the
twelfth century. It was passed at a common Thing
at Gulen, in the northern part of North Hordaland.
From the so-called Eigla, which was composed
at the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth
century, we learn, on the other hand, that at
that time the Thing at Gulen had authority
only in Horda fylki, Sogn, and Firda fylki. The old
Frostathingslaw had authority in Kaumsdal and
Finmark ; while the eight fylkis in Throndheim
had a similar joint code, and formed a close union.

From the remains of the old laws of Viken
which are extant in a recension of the twelfth
century, it would seem that three fylkis were there
united and had a common Thing — namely, Kanriki,
Vingulmark, and Westfold ; while Westmare and
Gronland either did not belong to the union, or
were merely attached to it without forming
essential parts of it (Munch, i. 131 — 132).

Munch considers it probable that the inner
Upland fylkis formed a close union from the
earliest times. At first, this probably comprised
only Raumsdal, Gudbrandsdal, and Hedemark ;
but later, as the people of Rauma obtained
control of Raumariki, and even further towards
the south-west, while Raumsdal extended its
influence beyond the mountains, it came to include
the focus and kernel of the Uplands, i.e.., the fylkis
round the Miosen lake, namely, Heina, Hada, and
Rauma. Munch further holds that the general

142 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

gathering-place for this union of fylkis was the Eid-
Harde (the modern diocese of Eidsvold), South of
Lake Miosen. Here we find from very early times a
place called Eidsvellir used as the general gathering-
place of the Upland fylkis. It is marked on the
map attached to Aal's edition of " Snorri." The
Thing held there was called Eidsivathing, and the
code of laws enforced there was called the Eidsiva
law.

It is more than probable that the old union of
gaus, which had its meeting-place at Eidsvellir,
had a law from early times, and it would seem that
Halfdane's work was that of a codifier. We have
no extant remains of his original code, nor of any of
the original codes of Southern Norway, and only
such parts as were incorporated in the later
Christian laws. He also probably extended the
authority of the Eidsiva lag over a wider area than
it had previously embraced — namely, over his
whole kingdom. In early Norwegian history we
meet with three great codes — the Frostathing's lag
in Nordmore, Raumsdal, and the northern fylkis ;
Gulathing's lag, for the district of the Thrond
people, i.e., the fylkis from Sondmore as far
as Rygiarbit ; and, lastly, Eidsivathing*s law,
for what is known as Eastland. The former
two were, according to Snorri, the work of
Hakon the Good, and the last of Halfdane
the Black. This last had authority, as we have
said, in the districts immediately subject to Half-
dane, that is to say, Rauma fylki, the greater
part of Heina f^dki. Sand, Hadaland, Westfold,
and Vingulmark, and also probably, on the death
of his nephew Rognvald, Gronland, Westmare, and
the southern part of Westfold, and, in addition,
the northern part of far-off Wermeland. In

*^ Harald Fairhair'' and his Ancestors.

43

Harald Fairhair's Saga, chapter xv., it is expressly
said that the bonder Aake, who was the greatest of
the bonders of Wermeland, had formerly been
Halfdane the Black's man. In later times the
Eidsiva code also had authority in Gudbrandsdal,
Osterdal, Thelemark, and Alfheim, and eventually
included the district of Viken, which was origin-
ally subject to a Thing of its own, known as the
Borgar Thing ; for we are told that the remains of
the old Borgarthing law and the Eidsivathing law,
which are preserved in the later Christian editions
of these codes, approximate to each other more
closely than either of them ^oes to the Gulathing
or Frostathing laws.

To revert to Halfdane's kingdom. It must be
remembered that Eaumariki at this time only
extended as far as the river Glommen. East of
that river was Alfheim, subject to King Gandalf.
Nor did Halfdane reign directly over distant Sogn,
which, as we have seen, he made over to Earl Atli
to rule for him, taking scatt, or tribute from it.
The part of Agder which Halfdane possessed
at the beginning of his reign was apparently not
included in the jurisdiction of the Eidsivathing,
and it is indeed very doubtful whether he retained
possession of it or not.

Halfdane's kingdom was bounded on the north
by Gudbrandsdal and Osterdal, on the east by the
the Glommen and the forests of Wermeland, on
the west by Valdres, Haddingdal, Thelemark, and
Agder, and on the south by the sea ; and he was
undoubtedly the most powerful ruler of Norway if
not of Scandinavia at this time (Munch ii.).

We have now traced the history of the Yngling
occupation of Norway, from the time when the

144 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

fugitive Olaf the Treefeller first occupied a part of
Wermeland to that when his descendant had
secured the most valuable part of the fertile land
in the heart of the Christiania Gulf, and had there
consolidated a power such as had not up to this
time been known in Norway.

Ingiald

Illradi = Gauthild

1 /

1
Olaf Tretelia = Solva
1 1

1

1
Ingiald

Asa = Halfdane Huitbeir

1 1

1

Hilda

1

1 1
=f Eystein Alfhild = Gudrod MikiUati. &c.

1 ,

i ill!

Halfdane Mildi Ragniald Hemming Hakon Angantyr

1 1 1
Olaf Geirstad Alf Halfdane the Black Eric, king of
1 1 Jutland.
Rognvald

1 1

HARALD FAIRHAIR.

The '' Flatey-bok " and Srioiri preserve some
ftibulous tales of Harald's youth, which, as Munch
says, so far as they are reliable, point to there
having been but little harmony between him and
his father. Thus we read that when Halfdane and
his companions were having a feast one Yule-tide
evening, the meat and drink suddenly disappeared
from the table. The guests went home frightened,
but the King sat on alone in his place much
confused. He presently had a Finn {vide ivfra)
who was skilled in sorcery, seized and tortured in
order to extract from him some explanation of what
had happened. He would not give any explanation,
however, and begged Harald to assist him. The
latter interceded, for him, but in vain. Presently,
however, he allowed him to escape, against his
father's will, and himself followed him to where
his chief was holding a feast, and where he was
well received. There Harald remained till the
spring, when the Finn said to him " Your father
took it amiss that I robbed him of his Yule- feast.
I will repay what he did in a friendly manner. If
you will follow my counsel you will go home again.
There is some one there who needs your help and
who will be of great assistance to you, for it is
your destiny to become master of all Norway."
This is the story as told in the Heimskringla.
In the " Flatey-bok " we have another 8aga in
which a great Yotun, named Dovre, is introduced,
(The Yotuns of Norse legend were the primitive
people of Scandinavia, who occupied it before the
advent of the Norse-folk, and were represented
as giants and sorcerers). Dovre had repeatedly
plundered the king's gold coffer, but had eventually
been caught in a skilfully constructed trap, and

146 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

had been bound with leaden coils in a steel box.
He had his home in the mountains which bore
his name. The king had doomed him to the
most disgraceful death, and had forbidden anyone
to help him or to give him anything to eat.
Harald (who, we are gravely told in the story, was
not yet five years old), had pity on him, and cut his
leaden bands with an excellent knife which had
been given him by the Finn chief, Dovre thanked
him and sped away as fast as he could. He
was soon missed, and the king learnt that
Harald had loosed him. He was greatly enraged,
and forbade him ever to enter his presence
aojain, and told him to betake himself to his
friend Dovre. Harald went away into the forest,
and after he had spent four or five days and
nights there he met Dovre, who took him into his
cavern. He lived with him for five years, and was
taught by him all kinds of bodily exercises. When
the five years had elapsed Dovre said one day to
him, '' I have not forgotten to requite thee for
having helped me to escape. Thy father is dead,
and not altogether without my assistance. Thou
must now return home to thy kingdom, and mind
not to cut thy hair nor thy nails till thou art master
of all Norway. I will continually support thee."
When Harald returned home he found his father
dead, and was nominated king in his stead. From
his residence with Dovre he received the name of
Dovre -Fostre, i.e.^ Dovre's foster-child (Munch ii.
176 — 7). The latter part of the story referring to
Dovre is not told by Snorri, who, perhaps, thought
it too incredible, and tried to rationalise the leo^end.
It is contained in chapters iv. to vi. of Haltdane
the Black's Saga in the " Flatey-bok." Munch
and others have tried to rationalise it in another
way by assuming that Halfdane did not care for

" Harald Fairhair " 147

Harald, and that the latter, when a child, was, in
fact, fostered by one of his chieftains ; others,
again, have argued that Dovre was the name of
some illustrious chief who did Harald some
service (Munch, op. cit. 177—8). Without any
rationalising, the story as it stands is very in-
teresting as a graphic folk- tale showing the real
beliefs of people in times when men's days were
largely spent in lonely mountains and forests far
from their neighbours and were prone to see visions
and to translate the forces of Nature into acts of
very uncanny supermen. This accounts for the
potency which the men of the North then attributed
to Wizardy.

Harald according to Ari was ten years old
when his father died.' He had a great physique
and is naturally described in the Heimskringla as
the biggest, strongest and fairest of men, a wise
man and high minded. His mother's brother
Guthorm was nominated as his guardian and held
the appointment of Captain of his body-guard,
the leader of his host, and the controller of his
lands.

From his mother he inherited the province of
Ringariki, which was situated round the borders
of the Tyrifiord in south-eastern Norway and
was one of the most fertile districts in the land.

His father had left many enemies behind him,
for he had laid hands on several small kingdoms,
and their rulers naturally deemed a "minority" of
so marked a kind, a fair opportunity foi* reprisals.
The first of these to try his chance was Gandalf,
(formerly, as we have seen in an earlier page, King
of all Vingulmark) who had been deprived of half
his territory by King Halfdane. He gathered his
forces and determined to cross "the Firth," now
called the Christiania fiord, and thus to invade

148 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Westfold. Meanwhile his son Haki, who had
escaped to Alfheim after a defeat by Halfdane,
went with three hundred men by the inland roads
and tried to surprise Harald and his uncle Guthorm
unawares, but the latter, having heard of the plan,
collected an army and, taking Harald with him, he
marched against him up the country, where a
battle was fought, and Haki was killed with
a great part of his men. He was buried, says our
author, in a place called Hakadalr, now Hakedale,
a valley dividing Hadaland from Raumariki
(Magnussen, op. cit. iv. 253).

Guthorm, with the young king, returned to
Westfold, which had meanwhile been invaded by
King Gandalf, Haki's father. The two armies
fought a hard fight, but Gandalf was beaten and
lost most of his men, and returned in a sad plight
to his home in Vingulmark.

While these events were happening Hogni and
Frothi, the sons of King Eystein of Heathmark,
who had been deprived of half that kingdom by
Harald's father (Saga of Halfdane the Black, ch. 2),
associated themselves with Hogni Karason, who
had been raiding far and wide in Ringariki, or
Ring realm and had appointed a rendezvous at
Ringsacre in Heathmark^ with the liersir Gud-
brandt from the Dales.

To meet this attack Guthorm and Harald, with
all the host they could collect, went towards the
Uplands, keeping by the way through the forest
in order to surprise their enemies, and arrived at
midnight where they had appointed their muster.

* The place is still called Ringsaker, it is a manor on the eastern
side of the Western arm of Lake Miosen, which runs north towards
Gudbrandsdale, by the west of Heathmark (see Magnusson's Note —
Heimskringla, vol. iv, 273).

t Who probably gave his name to Gudbrandsdal.

' Harald Fairhair "

149

They surprised those on guard and surrounded the
house where Gudbrand and Hogni Karason were
sleeping. They set fire to it and burned them both
in it ; Eystein's sons, Hogni and Frothi, managed
to get out for a while and made a fight, but both
were killed. The result of the fight was that
King Harald. by the help of his uncle, secured a
great accession to his kingdom, namely, Heath-
mark, Gudbrandsdal and Hadaland, Thotn and
Eaumariki, and all the northern parts of Vingul-
mark. After this Harald and Guthorm fought
again with King Gandalf, who had escaped, as
we have seen. They had several struggles, in
the last of which the latter was killed, and Harald
annexed all his realm as far as the river
Glommen*. The next event mentioned in the
Heimskringla is the negotiation for Harald's
wedding with Gyda, the daughter of King Eric
of Hordaland.t

The fact of this proposal points to Harald's
having been more than ten years old at his father's
death. The lady was at this time being fostered
in the house of a rich bonder, or farmer, at
Valdres.J

Like most royal brides, she is described as very
fair and high-minded, and we are told Harald
would fain have her for a bedmate. When his
messengers arrived she is reported to have said
haughtily that it was not her intention to wed one
who was merely the master of a few fylkies, or

• It is the largest river in Norway, running from north to south into
the eastern side of the Skagarak.

t This was a great district in Western Norway, now called " Sondre
Bergenhusamt " which was bounded on the east and south-east by
Haddingdal, Numdale, and Thelemark, and on the south by Rogaland
(Magnussen, op. cit. 257). Its people were known as Hords.

\ A district east of Sogn fylki, bounded on the north by Gud-
brandsdale, on the east by Land and Ringariki, and on the south by
Haddingdale.

150 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

counties, and she marvelled there was no king who
was minded to make Norway his own, and be its
lord and master in the way that King Gorm had
done in Denmark and King Eric at Upsala.
Harald's messengers were taken aback by this
reply and asured her that Harald was such a
mighty king that he was quite worthy to be her
partner, but if she was unwilling, there was
nothing left for them but to take their departure,
and they put on their travelling clothes to depart.
Thereupon she spoke again and said she would
only consent to be his wife if he would make
himself master of all Norway and rule that king-
dom as freely as Eric of Sweden and Gorm of
Denmark did theirs.

When the messengers returned to King Harald
and reported her answer, which they deemed
impertinent and witless, they said it would not be
wrong (if the king were so minded) to send a body of
his men and forcibly ravish her. He took another
view, and replied that she had done no ill in the
matter, but had in fact won his gratitude, for she
had only brought to his mind a matter which he
now thought it wondrous had not occurred to him
before, and he proceeded to take a solemn oath
that he would neither cut his hair again, nor comb
it, until he had conquered all Norway and had
taken dues and taxes from it. For this oath he
was thanked by his uncle and tutor Guthorm, who
pronounced it the resolve of a King (Saga of
Harald Fairhair IV.).

Harald by his rapid stnd well planned campaign
had now made himself virtually master of all
Norway, east of the Great Mountains, which had
been largely dominated by his father, and which he
now completely subdued. A much more difficult
task awaited him, namely, the conquest of

* * Harald Fairhair " 151

the communities living in Western and South-
western Norways, from Halogaland round the
whole of the coast as far as W^estfold, and which
was broken up into a number of separate and
independent fylkies, with the sea before them and
the great mountain barrier behind. They seemed
safe against attack, and had for the most part been
independent for many generations. There had
never been a time before, as far as we know, when
these maritime fylkies had all obeyed one master.
They were no doubt, however, grouped into larger
communities, united by racial ties and similar
customs and laws. They may have had tribal
chiefs who, as was the habit, divided their heritage
among their sons, each one being styled a king.
This meant no more in Norway than that they
paid no tax or dues to any superior. Harald's
object was to weld them all into one State, as his
contemporaries in Sweden and Denmark had
done theirs.

The whole proceeding looks at first sight like a
purely ruthless buccaneering expedition, unpro-
voked and inspired by mere lust of conquest and
plunder, the innate prompting of a piratical race
and of its ambitious ruler. Although probably
thus prompted it must be added that its ulti-
mate result was that of putting an end to
piracy in the North, and this fact no doubt
greatly strengthened Harald's hands, for it meant
protecting the peaceable bonders or farmers
from the assaults of a cruel and untamed race,
and the substitution of law and order for the
capricious justice of a most insolent and undaunted
caste of fighting men.

He determined to begin by attacking the richest
but the least powerful of these confederacies of
fylkies, namely, that which occupied the fertile

152 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

valleys grouped round the great Throndheim fiord,
which was more open to attack than any other on
the West coast, and which (having formed a part of
the realm of Eystein the Great, King of the
Uplands, the eastern part of which latter Harold
had in such large measure subdued), he might well
deem he had some rights to, and he made prepara-
tions accordingly.

" Thereupon," says the Heimskringla, '' the
kinsmen " gathered much folk together and armed
themselves to invade the Uplands. Thus did
Harald set out for his great venture, which
eventually led him far afield and was to take him
four years to accomplish. Of the two ways to his
goal, the one which led by the sea no doubt was
too risky, nor is it likely that at this time he
commanded a sufficient fleet for such an under-
taking. It would certainly arouse the animosity of
the most powerful and dangerous of the Yiking
communities, whose strongholds he would have
had to pass on the way. He, therefore, chose the
overland route, which must then have been diffi-
cult, for the forests were still largely uncleared and
the population was sparse, and it no doubt involved
great obstacles in provisioning his men, hardy and
enduring as they were, with food and necessaries.
These difficulties did not daunt him, however, and
we are told he went up into the Uplands, and so
northwards through the Dales, and thence again
north over the Dovre-Fell, the great Scandinavian
backbone.

When he and his men first reached a peopled
country they began to ravage and kill. Those who
would not submit fled down the valleys, some to
Orkdale, some to Gauldale, and some into the
forests. The invaders found nothing to resist them
till they came to Orkdale itself, where the people

'■'' Harald Fair hair''' 153

had assembled under a petty king called Gr^jting.
There is still a small town called Orkedalseren at
the influx of the river Orka into the Orkdale
fiord.

In the fight which followed, (Harald won the
battle) Gryting was captured and many of his
people were slain. Their king was humble and
swore fealty to the conqueror, whereupon all the
people of Orkdale also submitted and became
Harald's men (Harald the Fair's Saga, ch. 5).

After this Harald went " to Gauldale," and
fought there, and killed two kings and annexed the
fylkies of Gauldale and Strinde in Throndheim,
and he gave larl Hakon, the iarl of Halogaland,
who had submitted to him, charge of the
conquered country.* Harald went on to Stior-
dale and received the submission of that fylki also.
After these victories the up-country people of
Throndheim gathered together under four kings
to oppose Harald, one of them was the ruler
of Verdale, another of Skaun, the third of the fylki
of the Sparbiders, and the fourth of the Isles fylki.
In the battle which followed the victory was again
with him, and in it two of the kings were killed,
while two escaped. Altogether, we are told, he had
fought eight battles and destroyed eight of the
kings, and all Throndheim had become subject to
him (Saga of Harald Fairhair,v.). These eight rulers
had been united in a common League governed by
a common code, called the Thronderlag, and
had a common Legislative Assembly. It met at
Nidaros, which was so called from the river Nid,
where it was planted. The people of Thronheim
as I have said, were very different from those of

• As we saw in an earlier page, he was the descendant of the old
Kings of Halogaland, and had a long pedigree and no doubt rejoiced at
the overthrow of the descendants of Eystein in Throndheim.

154 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

other parts of West Norway, from whom they were
cut off by mountains and forests. Their country
was more fertile and temperate in climate owing to
the Gulf Stream. They were prosperous farmers,
traders and fishermen, and being well-to-do had no
occasion to join the piratical expedition of their
countrymen further south. The Vikings found few
recruits among them, nor did many of them settle
in Iceland or the Western colonies. On the other
hand, as we shall see, they colonized the upper
country of North Norway and Sweden, in large
numbers.

Having thus conquered the several inland
fylkies of Throndheim, Harald compelled the
bonders or farmers to pay dues to him, both rich
and poor, and he set up a iarl in each fylki to
collect the skatt or taxes, of which one-third was
to go to himself for his board and the costs of
administration. Each iarl was to have under him
four hersirs or more, each of whom was to have
20 marks for his maintenance. For this each iarl
was to supply 60 men, for the King's army at his own
cost and each hersir 20. So much were the revenues
of the land increased by these measures that the
iarls had a bigger income than the Kings had before
and when the news spread throughout Throndheim
many rich men came to King Harald and took
service under him (Saga of Harald, 6).

Ainong these by far the most important was
Hakon, son of Griotgard above-mentioned, iarl of
Halogaland, who presently became Harald's right
hand man. The submission of Hakon meant that
of the province over which he. had ruled, namely,
Halogaland, which thus became part of Harald's
realm without a struggle. The fact of Hakon
having offered no resistance is notable, and
supports the view above urged that his interests

** Harald Fairhair

55

and sympathies were not those of the foreign
princes who ruled the rest of the land. North-
east of Halogaland was the fylki of Naumdal with
which it had close ties of race. It was ahnost
certainly once ruled by princes of the same,
stock (namely, that of the Saemings). Its rulers,
when Harald arrived, were styled Kings, while
those of Halogaland were styled iarls. It is also
noteworthy that when Harald divided his kingdom
into sections among his sons, Halogaland, Naumdal,
and Nordmere were given to one son, while the
inner fiords of Throndheim were given to another.

Harald's next step was the conquest of
Naumdale, which was then ruled over by two kings
who were brothers. They were named Herlang and
Hrollaug. They had been three summers making
a howe or burial mound doubtless for their own
burial. It was built of stone and lime and roofed
with timber. It was doubtless also covered in with
earth, although the fact is not mentioned. This
was just finished when news arrived of Harald's
approach with his army. It was clearly impossible
for the brothers to resist. Herlaug, with the
Spartan instincts of his race, determined to put an
end to his own life rather than become another
man's deputy, and to do it in an original way.
He placed a store of victuals and drink in the howe
and then went in himself with eleven men and
had the entrance closed.

His brother, Hrollaug, we are told, went to the
top of another howe near by, whereon the Kings
were wont to sit in state. He decked out the royal
seat and then sat upon it ; he then placed pillows on
the seat below, where the iarls had been wont to sit,
and came down from the high seat to the humbler
one and gave himself the style of iarl, that is to
say, he divested himself of his kingly status and

1 56 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

accepted that of a iarl under Harald. He then
went to meet the latter and surrendered his reahn,
and asked to become his man, and told him what he
had done. Then, we are told, King Harald took a
sword and fastened it to his girdle, and hung a
shield about his neck and made him his iarl,
and led him to a high seat and proclaimed him
iarl of the Naumdale fylki (op. cit., ch. 8). The
mode of investiture thus described is very in-
teresting and early. Naumdale, like Halogaland,
afterwards supplied a large number of emigrants to
Iceland, to which it was nearer than any other
part of Norway.

After this Harald retu]:-ned to Throndheim and
spent the winter there, and called it his home ever
after, and there he built the finest house in the
country, which was called Ladir, whence the later
iarls of Ladir, took their title. The same winter
he married Asa, the daughter of iarl Hakon, who
had freely submitted to him as we saw, and whom,
we are told, he held in highest honour among
all men (Saga of Harald Haarfagr, ch. ix).

Having subdued those of the Northern fylkies
which he could approach overland, he now turned
his thoughts to those further south which could
only be approached by the sea, and which were
sheltered from attack from the land-side by the
great mountains. He had, therefore, to prepare a
fleet, and we are told that during the winter he
built himself a great galley shaped like a dragon
and arrayed in noble fashion. This he manned
with his Court guards and his hareserks^ or
indomitable champions."^ The best tried men,
called the stem-men, with the King's banner were

* It is doubtful what the word means ; Snorri gives the name to
Odin's warriors, who fought without byrnies or coats of mail and in
bare shirts (Serks or Sarks). Hornklofi the poet, however, groups them
with Wolf Coats as if the name meant Bearskins (Magnussen iv. 298).

** Harnld Fairhair" 157

in front. Aft of the stern as far as the baling
place was the forecastle, which was specially
manned by bareserks, the very pick of the crew for
strength, good heart, and prowess. Besides this
Royal vessel, which was then no doubt of pheno-
menal size and splendour in the North, Harald
had with him a large number of big ships, and
many mighty men followed him.

The poet Hornklofi, in his famous Glymdrapa,
apostrophized him and his doings in this venture,
but the verses are, as Vigfusson shows, utterly
corrupt (see Harald's Saga, ch. ix).

In the spring Harald set out with his fleet from
Throndheim southwards towards Mere (really
North-Mere), which was doubtless peopled by the
same stock and perhaps ruled by the same family
as its southern neighbour Raumsdale. The King
of North-Mere was Hunthiof, who was the father
of Solvi, styled Klofi. Raumsdale was ruled by
Nockvi. He was Hunthiof's father-in-law, and
they w^ent together against Harald and met his
forces at Solskel, now Solskelo in Aedo parish, off
the coast of the southern part of North-Mere
(Magnussen Heimskringla, iv. 279). As usual
Harald won the fight, and both the kings who
opposed him (^.6., Hunthiof and Knockwi) fell, but
Solvi escaped. Ari has preserved another verse of
Hornklofi referring to this fight, which is very
corrupt. Harald appropriated the two fylkies
dwelt there a greater part of the summer,
and proceeded to set up law and justice, and
established rulers over them and took their
fealty. Harald appointed Rognwald, (the son of
Eystein Glumra), iarl of North-Mere and Raunjs-
dale (w^hence he was afterwards known as the
Mere iarl), and assigned him lords and franklins,
or freemen, and also ships wath which he

158 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

might protect the country. He was known as
Kognwald the Mighty or Keen-counselled, and it
was said he deserved both titles equally well. He
was the ancestor of the Dukes of Normandy and
and of our Norman Kings. Harald spent the next
winter at Throndheim.

Meanwhile Solvi, the son of Hunthiof, had
remained with his ships all the winter, had
harried in North-Mere and had slain many of
King Harald's men, robbed others, and burnt the
houses of others. Part of the time he stayed
with Arnvid, his kinsman, the King of South-
Mere, which lay south of Kaumsdale '^ the latter
fylki, in fact, divided the two Meres from one
another, forming an important race frontier as
well, since it divided the Thronds, of whom we
have said so much, from the Hords, of whom we
shall say more presently.

When Harald heard of their doings he got his
fleet together and in the spring set out for South-
Mere, where Solvi gathered a considerable number
of those who were discontented with Harald. He
also paid a visit to King Audbiorn who ruled in
Firda fylki, or Firdir (the Firths, a maritime
kingdom of south-west Norway) now Nord-og
Sondfiord in the Stift of Bergen (Magnussen iv.
249) It was the very focus of Yiking activity, the
Lochlannoch of the Irish writers, which merely
translates the name. He asked him to aid him and
urged that there were only two courses for them to
follow, either to rise up against the aggressive King
or to become his slaves, which was a thing not to
be thought of in the case of a person like Harald,
who was not more nobly born than themselves.

* It is possible in fact that all three fylkies N. and S. Mere and
Raumsdale, which formed a wedge between the Thronds and Hords,
were peopled by the Raum Stock which had come down to the seaboard
by way of Raumsdal.

♦* Harald Fatrhair

»59

'' My father," he said, " deemed it a better choice
to fall in battle as a real king than to be one of
Harald's underlings." Audbiorn was talked over
by this rhetoric and set out to join his forces to
those of Solvi and of King Arnvid. At this point
we get an important sidelight from a responsible
and trustworthy Saga, which was written down
about 1160 — 1200, but preserves a good tradition
and is generally trusted, namely, Egil's Saga.

It begins with the story of a certain Ulf, who
lived in Firda fylki, and whose father was a notable
person and one of King Audbion's feudatories.
He was famous for his height and strength and had
been a noted Viking. He had a partner named
Kari of Berdla, already named, also a strong and
daring pirate and a bareserk. The two had a
common purse and had acquired great wealth, had
both given up piracy and were living on their
estates, and were great friends. Kari had two sons,
Eyvind Lambi and Aulvir Knuf, and a daughter
Salbgory, whom Ulf had married. Ulf, we are told,
took the title of liegeman, as his father had done.
He was a very considerable personage and looked
carefully after his affairs. He rose early and then
went round among his labourers and smiths, over-
looked his stock and fields, and would talk with
those who needed good counsel, but in the evening
he became duller, and we read that he was "an
evening sleeper." He was surnamed Kueld Ulf. He
had two sons, Thorolf and Grim, fashioned largely
on their father's pattern. The former was comely
and cheery, like his mother while Grim was swarthy
and ill-favoured like his father, and like him a good
man of business, and skilled in working wood and
iron. In the winter he often went to the herring
fishing with his father's men. . When Thorold
was 20 years old his father gave him a long ship

i6o Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

with which to pursue the profitable profession of
piracy and his uncles Eyvind and Aulvir, the sons
of Kari, his grandfather, joined in the venture
in another long ship. For several summers they
engaged in buccaneering, and spent their winters
at home with their fathers and mothers ; to whom,
we are told, Thorolf took many costly things.

At this time Harald was engaged in his great
campaign again, the kings of the Western fylkies
among them, as we have seen, was Audbiorn, King
of the Firthfolk, who summoned his feudatory
Ulf to go to the help of himself and his con-
federates against Harald. Kueldulf replied that
' he would consider it his duty to fight alongside
of him in defence of the Firths, but it was
no part of his duty to defend Mere from attack,
and he further thought that Harald had a
load of good fortune, while Audbiorn had but
a handful. He accordingly remained on his property
and took no part in the fight (where his suzerain,
Audbion, was killed), and about which Ari preserves
another verse from Hornklofi's sadly corrupt poem.
It was then the custom, says Harald's Saga when
men fought on ship-board, to bind the ships
together and to fight from the forecastle, and this
happened now. King Harald laid his ship alongside
that of King Arnvid of South Mere, and many men
fell in the melee which followed ; Harald fought in
the midst of his men and with such e:ffect
that some of the crew of Arnvid's ship were
pressed back to the mast and others fell, and
presently the rest took to flight. The two allied
Kings fell fighting. The struggle must, however,
have been a desperate one, for among those who
were killed on Harald's side were Asgaut and
Asbiorn, who were doubtless well known champions,
and two of his iaicls, Griotgard and Herlaug (one of
his wives' brothers, and sons of iarl Hakon of Ladir).

'' Harald Fairhair'' > i6i.

Sol vi again escaped and became a Viking. He greatly
ravaged ' Harald's kingdom, and afterwards killed
one of his sons, Guthorm, who governed "The
Wik," or " Vik," comprising the fylkies border'ing
on the Bay of Fold (now Christiania fiord, viz.:
Grenland, Westfold, Vingulmark, and Alfheim
(Mag., op. cit., iv. 291). This, was in a battle at
the mouth of the Elf or Gotha river (Heinjskringla,.
c*h. 33).

Harald now completely appropriated South-Mere,"
but Vemund, the son of Audbiorn, still retained
the throne of the Firth people. He would have
gone against him but the autumn was much
advanced and he was persuaded by his followers
that it was dangerous to sail round the Stad,
{i.e.^ Stadtlandet, or Cape Stadt, the westermost
peninsula and promontory of South-Mere — Mag-
nussen, op. cit., iv. 280). Harald therefore added
South-Mere to Hakon's iarldom and returned to
Throiidheiin (Saga of Harald Fairhair, ch. 12).

Meanwhile Harald's friend, iarl Eognwald, set
out to take possession of the Firths where Vemund
still held out. He went by the inner course
through Eid, or Inner Eid, now called Mandseid,"^
and then southward past the Firths and surprised
King Vemund in his house called Naustdale,t
where he was feasting. He set fire to it and
burnt him to death with 90 of his men, a
ruthless fate which was often dealt out by the
Northmen and which he himself had to meet at a
later day. After this Eognwald was joined by
Kari of, Berdla.j Ari says he was a mighty

• That is through the upper part of the isthmus which connects
Stadt with the mainland on the North side of North fiord in Firth fylki
(Mag.. 246).

t Now called Naustdal in the parish of Eid in Nord fiord in the
northern part of Firth fylki (Mag. iv. 266).

\ This place, now called Berle, was an ancient manor house on the
south-eastern coast of the large island of Brimangrsland, now Bremanger,
in' the mouth of the North fiord (Mag., 241). '-^

1 62 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

bareserk. With a long ship they returned together
to North-Mere. Rognwald took the ships belonging
to Vemund and also his goods.

After this in the spring King Harald him-
self went from Throndheim to Firda fylki and
subdued all the people there and according
to the Heimskringla he left them in charge
of Hakon, the iarl of Ladir. In Egil's Saga
(which is probably right, since Hakon's own iarl-
dom in the North was far away) we are told that
he gave it to Hroald, who had been a iarl under
King Audbiorn (Op. cit., 2). The same Saga says
that King Harald was very careful when he had
got new people under his power to keep watch on
the liegemen and such land owners and others who
might raise a rebellion. He insisted either on their
becoming his own liegemen, or going abroad, or else
imposed harder conditions, and even the loss of
life or limb, and treated as his own freeholds all their
patrimonies, and all lands, tilled or untilled, and all
sea and fresh water lakes. All the landowners must
become his tenants, with all who worked in the forest,
salt burners and hunters, and fishers on land or sea.
They all now owed him duty (I^., iv). He then went
eastward and northward till he arrived at Yik.
When the King was gone iarl Hakon bade Atli
the Slender to get him gone from Sogn and to
become again the iarl in Gaular as he had
been beforetime, for he said that King Harald
had given him Sogn. Atli, as we have seen,
had been given his iarldom of Sogn by Harald's
father Halfdane. He now replied that he in-
tended to hold both Sogn and Gaular till he
had seen Harald. Thereupon the two iarls col-
lected their forces for a mortal struggle. This
took place in the fylki of Fialir in Stafanessvagr,
now Stang fiord. There they fought a great fight

' ♦ Harald Fairhair " 1 63

in which iarl Hakoii was killed. This must have
been a serious loss to Harald for he was a faithful
and skilled friend of his. Iarl Atli was himself
mortally wounded and his men carried him to
'' Atli's Isles," now Atleo, on the north side of the
mouth of Dalsfiord in the fylki of Fialir. There
he died.

After the late battle Harald, as we have seen,
went down himself with his fleet to the Firths. He
then sent messengers to invite Ulf [i.e.^ Kueldulf) to
go and see him, no doubt to secure his homage. The
latter replied that he was too old and unfit for war.
They then suggested that one of his sons should go,
for they were tall men and likely warriors, and they
told Grim, who was the only one at home, that
Harald would make him a lord if he went. He replied
that he would be a liegeman under none as long as
his father lived ; " while he lives he shall be my liege
lord." The old man replied that he would be
Harald' s friend that he would persuade others
to be so, and that he would be prepared to hold the
same authority from his hand that he had held
from his former King Audbiorn, but he would not
go to him. Thorolf, his elder son, he added, was
not at home, but engaged on an expedition, but
on his return he might go to Harald if he pleased
and become his man. With this answer the king
was apparently content.

It would seem that Ulf's father-in-law, Kari of
Berdla above named, and his sons, had followed the
example of his partner and had not taken part
in the late fight. After the battle the sons of iarl
Atli of Gaula attacked Aulvir Knuf, Kari's son,
at his home, intending to kill him, but he escaped
and fled to King Harald and submitted to him, and
went to Throndheim with him and became one of
his scalds. Aulvir had married Solveig the Fair,

i64 Saga-Book of the ViMyig Society.

daughter of iarl Atli, whom he had met at a
great gathering for a sacrificial feast at Gaular,
and for whom he composed many love songs,
and left off freehooting, while his brother
Eyvind kept it on (JZ)., 11). After King Yemund
had been killed by iarl Rognwald, Kari himself,
who was no doubt an old man, went to the
latter with a fully-manned long ship, and after-
wards went to King Harald at Throndheim and
also became his man (Op. cit., ch. iv.).

^Meati while Thorolf, Ulf's son, who had been on
a Viking cruise with his uncle (Kari^s son Eyvind
Lambi) returned home and heard of what had
happened. His father Ulf told him that he himself
had in fact declined to become Harald's man and
foresaw only trouble in doing so, but that he might
please himself, althousjh he counselled him to follow
his own example. Thorolf decided differently, for
he thought he should get much advancement froni
Harald if he became his man. He had heard that
he had only valiant men in his guard whom he
treated generously and well, and he told his father
that if he had had prophetic foresight of what would
happen, why had he not gone to help his own king
Audbiorn in the late battle. It was not reasonable
to be neither his friend nor his enemy. The old man
replied that he must choose his own path. If he
chose to join Harald's guard he was sure that he
would be equal to the foremost among them in
feats of manhood. He counselled him to keep
within bounds and not to try and rival his betters,
nor yet yield to others overmuch, and when Thorolf
set out for the North he accompanied him to
the ship, and embraced him and gave him his
good wishes (J&., vi.).

y At this time Harald also secured another
champion, namely Bard, whose story is worth

■■ ** Harald Fair hair'' 165

telling. His grandfather, named Biorgalf, was a
powerful and wealthy land owner who lived at Tor-
gar, in Halogaland, and who had grown old and lost
his wife. - One autumn there was a banquet at Leka,
at which Biorgalf and his son were the most honour-
able guests present. In the evening the guests were
paired off by lots to drink together, as was the old
custom. There was present a man of great wealth,
handsome and shrewd, but of no family. He had a
beautiful daughter called Hildirida, and the lot fell
upon her to sit by Biorgalf. The old man was
captivated by her. The next autunm he went in
a ship of his own, holding 30 men, and went
with 20 of his crew, to call on Hildirida's
father Hogni, who went to meet him and
offered him welcome for himself and party which
was accepted. When they had taken of! their
travelling clothes and put their mantles on, Hogni
gave orders to bring in a great bowl of beer, and
Hildirida helped the guests to it. The old man
then told his host that he had come to fetch his
daughter and proposed to marry ber then and
there, and having received an ounce of gold from
his guest, the marriage followed. Hildirida went
home with her old husband by whom she had
two sons, soon after which he died.

Thereupon Biorgalf's eldest son Bryngalf, to
whom he had some time before made over all his
affairs, drove away Hildirida and her sons, nor would
he let her share in his father's fortune. This was
the beginning of a long tragedy. She thereupon
returned home to her father, whose fortune she and
her boys inherited. Bryngalf had a son Bard, who
presently married Sigridi, the daughter of Sigurd,
who was deemed the richest man thereabouts, and
his daughter was the best match in Halogaland. He
went to woo her on a ship manned by 30 men

i66 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

His offer was accepted and he proposed to return
next summer to wed her and take her home.

Meanwhile King Harald summoned all the
principal men in Halogaland to go to him, and Bryn-
galf and his son duly went southward to Thrond-
heim and there they met the king who received
them gladly, made Bryngalf a liegeman and gave
him large grants, besides what he had before, and
notably the office of collecting the skatt or tribute
from the Finns, the right of travelling among
them, the control of the king's business on the fells,
and the Finn traffic. A similar position had been
held by his father. Bryngalf returned home and
Bard became one of the king's bodyguards. Of
all these guards, says Egil's Saga, Harald most
prized his scalds, and of them Audun Ill-Skald,
the oldest, sat innermost. He had been his
father's poet. Next sat Thorbiorn Kaven, then
Aulvir Knuf already named, and next to him was
placed Bard who was named Bard the White, or the
Strong. He was held in high honour by all, but
especially by Aulvir Knuf. The same autumn
Thorolf, Kueldulf's son, and Eyvind Lambi, Kari of
Berdla's son, arrived at Throndheim in a swift
twenty-benched long ship, well manned, which they
had previously used in their Viking voyages. They
were introduced to Harald by Kari of Berdla and
Aulvir Knuf. The king said he would do well by
Thorolf if he should prove himself as accomplished
in deed as he was brave in looks. Thereupon
the latter joined the king's household and became
one of his guard. Meanwhile Kari of Berdla and
his son Eyvind returned to their own estate in the
same ship which had brought Thorolf. The king
gave Thorolf a seat between Aulvir Knuf and Bard
and the three became close friends. In the autumn
Bard asked leave to go and fetch his bride,

♦* Harald Fairhair " 167

which was given him, and he asked Thorolf
to go with him saying he would meet many of his
kinsmen of renown whom he had not seen or known
in Halogahxnd. At the wedding there was a great
gathering and, as Bard had said, Thorolf met many
of his relations he had not seen before. The
wedding was held at the house of the bride's father
Sigurd, who gave a splendid feast, after which Bard
and his wife went to his own home and Thorolf
with him, and in the autumn returned to the king
and was with him during the winter. At this time
Bryngalf, Bard's father died; Bard asked Harald
to let him go home to take up his inheritance, and
the king made him one of his liegeman as his
father had been, and he held of him all the
offices which Bryngalf had held, and became a
great chief (76., x.).

King Harald had meanwhile taken his host
eastward into the Wik and, according to Ari, laid
up his ships at Tunsberg or Tonsberg, which was a
famous cheaping place or market. The name had,
as we have seen, replaced one of wider fame, namely,
Skiringsal, which was a very notable trading mart
in earlier times. It was situated in Harald's own
fatherland of Westfold.

Harald had now been engaged for four years
in conquering and settling his north-western
dominions, and it was quite time he should return
to look after those in the east, where things were
not going on so well. At Tonsberg he heard of
the ambitious schemes of Eric Eymundson
the king of Sweden, who had invaded 1)he frontier
province of Wermeland and claimed taxes from
its woodland people (Harald Fairhair's Saga,
xiv.) He also claimed to extend the western
borders of West Gothland, beyond the river
Gotha, and as far as Swinesund, thus encroaching

*i 68 Saga-Book of the Viliin^ ' Society. '

Oil a recognised old frontier of Norway. He
not only levied dues there, but also appointed
the Gothlander Kani to rule the district as his
deputy or iarl, between Swinesund and the Gaut
Elf, or Gotha. His pretensions were still greater for
he claimed that he intended to appropriate all the
lands in " The Wik " which he alleged had been
ruled over by his great ancestor Sigurd Eing and his
son Ragnar Lodbrog. This included Raumariki and
Westfold as far as Grenmar (now LangBsunds-
fjorden), with Vingulmark and the country to the
South, that is to say, the very kernel of Harald's
dominions. Probably as the result of the latter's
absence in the the West many chiefs in these
frontier lands had turned their eyes to the great
King of Upsala. Harald was naturally much dis-
tressed at the news, and summoned a gathering,
or mote, of his bonders, or farmers, in the district of
Westfold and charged them with treason to himself.
Some denied it, some paid money as a fine, and
others were punished. Thus he spent the summer,
and in the autumn he went to Raumariki, upon
which he also laid a heavy hand.

• Meanwhile he heard that the Swedish King was
going to and fro in Wermeland and claiming quarters
and forcible entertainment there. He accordingly
crossed the great Eid Forest and entered Werme-
land, where he in turn claimed entertainment.
There lived there a very rich old bonder,
the mightiest man in the place, who was called
Aki. He sent his son and bade Harald to a
feast on a certain day, on which he also in-
vited the Swedish King. Aki's great guest-hall
had grown old so he built a second one, quite as
big and well appointed as the older one. He
furnished it with new furniture, while he kept the
old for the older building.

" Harald Fairhatr"" i6q

!" In the old hall he entertained the Swedish King,
while Harald was his guest in the new one. The
fopner drank from the old beakers and horns well
decked with gold, but Harald's, which were new,
were, probajbly more showy. In either case the
drinl^ was of the best. The reason for the dis-
tinction shown by Aki to Harald was that he had
once been the liegeman of Halfdane the Black,
Harald's father.

The feast having ended, the kings put on their
travelling dress. Aki sent his son Ubbi, who was
twelve years old, to Harald and begged him, if
he approved of his goodwill, to reward the boy by
making him his page or attendant ; Harald duly
acknow^ledged the hospitality which had been
shewn him, and Aki produced many lordly gifts,
while he and the king greeted each other with
a kiss.

After this Aki went to say goodbye to the
Swedish King, whom he found clad for his depar-
ture, and, as might have been expected, in a by no
means amiable mood. Aki offered his presents, but
the king answered little and leaped on horseback
while Aki accompanied him. The road passed
through a wood near the house and when they
came to it the king asked him why he had treated
him so differently to the way he had treated
Harald, although he knew that he was his man.

"I deem it Lord," said Aki, "that neither
Harald nor thyself has lacked aught at the feast.
If thfe appointments in the hall were pld so was
the king himself, whereas Harald being in the flower
of his age had the newer things. As to his being
the king's man, Aki held that Eric was just as much
his own man, whereupon Eric clove him down with
his sword and killed his host ; assuredly a brutal

i^o' Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

act, even if the old man Aki had been exception-
ally tactless in steering through a difficult position.

When Harald was ready to mount, he summoned
Aki. His men went to look for him and found him
dead on the road. He called on them to avenge
their host. They thereupon rode together in
pursuit of King Eric until they reached the forest
that separates Gothland from Wermeland. There
Harald turned back into Wermeland, which he
subdued, and slew King Eric's men wherever he
found them. After which he returned to Kau-
mariki and dwelt there awhile. Thence he went
to visit his fleet at Tonsberg. Having put the
ships in trim he crossed over the Firth with them
to Yingulmark, and through the winter he harried
much in Ranriki, i.e.^ the district between Swine-
sund and the Gotha, administered by iarl Rani,
who had probably given it his name, for the
Swedish King.

Meanwhile the Gothlanders began to get
together from the country side, and when the
spring came they staked the river Gotha so that
Harald might not bring his ships up into the land,
but the latter took them up as far as the stakes
and then harried the land on either side and burnt
the homesteads. Thereupon the Gothlanders
came down with a mighty host and a great fight
and slaughter took place, but Harald prevailed.
After his victory he went to and fro about Goth-
land, and many fights took place on the river
Gotha. In one of them fell Rani, the Gothland
iarl. Then Harald subdued the land north of
the river Gotha and west of Lake Wener, together
with all Wermeland; and he set his uncle Guthorm to
rule over them; he thus largely increased the latter's
government. Harald then turned to the Uplands and
dwelt there awhile, whence he crossed the Dovrefell

' ' Harald Fairhair " » 7 1

once more to Throndheiiii, where he abode a long
time, and had many children.

It was hardly possible that after he had con-
quered so much, Harald should not wish to
complete his work and bring all Norway under his
sway. On the other hand, his ambition and his
unqualified successes hitherto, made him a per-
petual danger to the few States which were still
free, and we are told that they confederated
together against him with many ships and men.
Their chiefs were Eric, King of Hordaland,
who was Harald's father-in-law ; Sulki, king
of Eogaland and larl Soti, his brother ; Kiotvi*
the Wealthy, king of Agdir, who in Hornklofi's
poem seems to be treated as head of the Con-
federacy ; and Thorir Longchin. From Thelemarkf
there came Ronald and Rig, and with them Hadd
the Hardy.

When Harald heard of their doings he in turn
collected his forces : it was a mighty array from
every folk land that counted him as its master.
He presently came South and arrived near the
Stad, now t^tadt-landet^ or Cape Stadt, the most
westerly peninsula and promontory of Southmere
(Mag., iv. 280). King Eric of Hordaland, heard
of it, so he in turn went South to meet his
friends who were coming from the East, and
they all met north of Yadaren, {i.e.^ on the western
coast of Rogaland, south of the Boknfirth archi-
pelago), and then went on to Hafursfiord, (now

* Vigfussen thinks that Kiotvi is a Norse corruption of Kiotvan.
which he suggests was a Gaelic name like other names in the Land-
namabok ending in n., i.e., Beslan, Trostan, Kiaran ; Haklangr
sounds as if translated from Gaelic, like Svarthodfdi, Hunding, and so
many more. These chiefs, he says, were of half Gaelic blood, like so
many of the Icelandic settlers, C.P.B.. i. 73.

t An inland fylki surrounded by Hordaland on the N.W. ; Numdale
on the S.W. ; E. Grenland on the E. ; and Agdir on the S. and W.

172 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

Hafrsfiord in Yadaren), where Harald was awaiting
them. A great and long fight ensued. Harald
won the battle. He in fact probably had an
overwhelming force. King Eric was killed, so
were King Sulki and larl Thorir with the long
chin, who was a great bareserk. He had laid his
ship alongside of King Harald's, and it was a fierce
fight before he was killed, after which, in the
grim words of the Saga, " his ship, was utterly
cleared."

King Kiotyi fled away to a certain holm
where there was a good fighting position and the
rest of the survivors also fled, some by ship and
others escaped up the country, and so to the South
about Yadar.

The poet Hornklofi has some picturesque
touches in regard to this fateful fight, which became
a byword for many a day. He speaks of the ships,
with their grim gaping heads and "fair-graven '' prow
plates, and of the white shields that hung around
their sides, of spears from the Westland, and Welsh
wrought swords (probably from Flanders or Britain),
of the roaring of the bareserks, and the howling of
the wolfcoats. He speaks also of " the bold Lord of
the Eastmen, the bider at Utsteinn or Outstone,"*
(i.e.^ iarl Thorir), and again of the brawny-necked
king who waxed weary with protecting his country
from Shockhead (meaning Harald) and found shelter
at the holm, (^.e., Kiotvi). " Down 'neath the decks
dived the wounded warriors, their buttocks uphoven
and their heads laid by the keel " (Op. cit., ch. 19).

Gustav Storm, who was a friend of mine, and
was a distinguished scholar of Munch and the
editor of his works, wrote a short memoir on the

* This was a manor of Harald*s situated on the west of an island
of the same name, now called Utsteno, or Klostero, off Rogaland. It
is now, says Magnusson, called Utsten or Utstens Kloster from the
Augiistinian monastery which existed there in later times (Op. cit., 270).

^^ Har aid Fair hair " 173

battle of Hafrsiiord, entitled, *' Slaget i Havrs-
fiord," in which he reached some conclusions about
the fight which are very reasonable, and to
which I must refer. He points out that Olaf the
White, the Norwegian king of Dublin, who had
filled that office since the year 853, disappears
from the chief Irish Annalfe about the year 871.
There is no notice of his death, which is singular,
since the obits of the foreign princes are very
regularly entered in these Annals. The last entry
about him in the Annals of Ulster — a most
reputable work — is in the year 870, where we read
that he and Ivar his brother returned to Athcliath,
{i.e.^ Dublin), from Alba, or Scotland, with 200 ships
and a great multitude of men ; English, Britons,
and Picts who were taken back as captives to
Ireland. In 872, Ivar who is mentioned in the
same annals as King of all Norsemen of Ireland
and Britain, finished his life.

There is one important work, which strongly
supports Storm's conclusion, but of which we only
have fragments. They are preserved at Brussels and
were published by J. 0 'Donovan under the name of
" Three Irish Fragments." In this work, after
reporting the return of Olaf from Scotland, which
it puts in 871, the author says : In that year Olaf
went from Ireland to Lochlann, i.e., Norway, (for
at that time there was war among the Lochlannag,
i.e., Northmen), to help his father Godfred or
Gudrod, who had sent to ask his son to go and
help him. This war can only have been the
one we have described between King Harald and
the rulers, of South-Western Norway, which ended
in the battle of Hafrsfiord, and which the Northern
writers, including Ari, put in the year 871 or 872.
Storm further suggests that Kiotvi (who was
King of Agdir and a distinguished leader of

174 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

the rebellious Vikings) was a foreign name, and
that he also had a Norwegian name, and was really
perhaps called Godfred, and that '' Kiotvi " or
Ceotvi was his descriptive name, or cognomen." If
so, then Kiotvi was the father of Olaf the White.
Storm further suggests that Haklang (named as a
hero of the fight by Hornklofi) was a cognomen
of Olaf. This would fit in very well with the fact
that Haklang, as we know, was killed in the battle of
Hafrsfiord, while on the other hand, Olaf is men-
tioned no more after the date of that fight. That
Kiotvi and Haklang were both used as cognomnia
is shewn by Storm, who quotes the name of an
Asbiorn Kiotvi from the Vatnisdla Saga, while Hak-
lang is used as the cognomen of Thore in Hornklofi's
poem. Against all these coincidences I know of only
one fact for which I have no explanation, namely,
that Haklang is made in the poem the cognomen,
not of an Olaf but of a Thore. Whatever ex-
planation there may be of this it seems to me
clear that that single fact cannot outweigh the
large number of others which Storm has brought
together in his paper. I may add that his con-
tention coiripletely agrees with the date of the great
fight 871 or 872, as fixed by the old Norse writers
against that of Vigfusson who puts it in 885.

The defeat of the Vikings at Hafrsfiord led
to a large migration to Iceland. Among others
who thus went was Geirmund, called Hell Skin. He
had a principality in Eogaland and is called a " host
King" in the Landnama-bok, but he had long left
off his Viking life. When Harald's victory drove
out so many men from their possessions, he thought
there was no room for him in Norway, so he set out
for Iceland and took Ulf the Sqinter, his cousin, and
Stanulf son of Hrolf the Herse of Agd with him.
Each one of the three went in his own ship.

' Harald Fairhair

75

Another emigrant to Iceland from Agd (or
Ogdhom, as it was called) who went with
Geirmund, was Throndr Slimleg. Geirmund must
have been a considerable person for we are told
he had 80 freemen (Landnama-bok, ii. 17 — 3).
Men said that he was more nobly born than any
other person in Iceland, but had little feud or war
with other men there because he was old when he
went to Iceland. There he was buried in a " ship-
how," (z.6., in a ship buried under a mound), in a wood
near his house. " Erne was the son of a noblenjan
and a kinsman of Geirirmnd. He came from
Rogaland to Iceland because of the oppression of
King Harald" {Ih., 22—1).

Ann Eedcloak, son of Grim, we are told, fell
out with King Harald, who had harried in Ireland.
He had there married Greliath, the daughter of
iarl Beartmar, i.e. Great deed, and then went to
Iceland and settled down where his wife thought
she could smell the honey {Ih. ii. 22). Another of
the settlers was Thiord, who professed to be the
son of a Viking, but most men declared that he
was the son of King Harald. He himself left many
distinguished descendants (7^., ii. 23 — 2). Hall-
ward Sougher fought in the battle of Hafrsfiord
against King Harald. He came from Shielings,
in Hordaland, and settled in Iceland {Ih., ii.24 — 3).
Aurlyg, the son of Bead-were, was another fugitive
from the oppression of Harald (76., 27 — 1).
Slate Biorn was a great Viking and a foe of
King Harald. He went to Iceland and when
he entered Biorns-firth his ship was all set
with shields. He was afterwards called Biorn of
the Shields ; the foundations of his house were
still to be seen when Ari wrote [Ih.^ 28 — 1). Of
Hererod (Hwic timber, i.e.. White Sky), we are told
that he was a man of birth, who was slain by the

176 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

contrivance of King Harald, and his three' sons
went to settle in Iceland (J6., ii. 28^4). Balce,
son of Clong, was also against Harald. He fled to
Iceland after the battle (16., ii. 30^ — 1). Throndr
the Far-sailer, son of Biorn, was also against
Harald at Hafrsfiord and was afterwards banished
the, land and settled in Iceland (76., v. 12 — 5).
Orm the Old, who went to Iceland, was the son
of iarl Eywind, who was with Kiotvi the Wealthy
against King Harald at Hafrsfiord (ZZ)., v. 16 — 4).

A more interesting story is told of Ingimund,
styled the Old, a great Viking, who harried in the
West in joint cruises with Saemund who was his
partner. They came back from a raid at the time
when Harald was coming to the land and setting
out for Hafrsfiord. Ingimund wished to help the
King, but Saemund did not, and the two parted.
After the battle Harald gave Wigdis, the daughter
of iarl Thore the Silent in marriage to Ingimund,
who, says our author, could find no peace in Norway,
whereupon Harald urged him to try his fate in
Iceland. He said he had never been minded to
do so. He had apparently been before, for we
read of him that he was the son of iarl Ingimund,
iarl of Gautland, and Wigdis, and was brought up
in the isle of Hefne with Thori, the father of Grim
and Hiodmund. Heid volvu,2i.e. the Sybil prophesied
of all three that they would settle in a land that
was still undiscovered, West over the sea. Ingi-
mund said he would not do that. She replied that
he would not be able to help it, and as a token she
said that the teraph or lot, i.e. the mascot, would
disappear out of his purse, saying he • would find it
when he dug a hole to plant his porch pillars in.
However, he sent two Finns thither, to get back his
sacred image or family teraph, or penate. It was a
figure of Frey made in silver, which must have been

''^ Harald Fairhair'' 177

concealed by him. On their return the Finns re-
ported that they had found where the teraph was, but
could not obtain it, and that it was in a certain dale
between two woods, and described how the land
lay. He then set out for Iceland with his
brother-in-law, his friends, and his thralls or slaves.
They stayed the winter with Grim, his sworn
brother. He got a large estate there and duly
found his teraph buried in the ground as he was
digging the foundation for his porch pillars.
Presently he fell upon a white she-
bear with two cubs on a mere near his home,
and afterwards went to Norway and gave the bears
to King Harald. We are told that white bears had
never before been seen in Norway. Thereupon the
king gave him the ship Stiganda (Stepper) with a
cargo of wood, a most welcome and precious gift
for an Icelander. He returned to the island with
his two ships and on his return voyage he was the
first to round the Skaw in Iceland. After this Kaven
the Eastman stayed with him. He had a good
sword, which he took into the Temple, whereupon
Ingimund took it from him ; apparently it was
deemed wrong to enter a Temple with a weapon
(76., iii. 5 — 2, 3, and 9). Two incidental notices in
the story have a special interest of another kind.
The present treeless character of Iceland makes it
interesting to read in one sentence of a willow-dale
at Ingimund's liolt or wood ; another note tells us
that Ingimund lost ten swine and they were found
the next harvest time in Swinedale, and there were
there a hundred swine. " The boar was called
Beigad " and leapt into Swine mere and swam till
his hoofs fell off and he died ! ! ! (16., ii. 10). There
are no swine now in Iceland, and I remember
Vigfussen telling me that he had never seen one
when he first read the story of Circe and her
swine in Homer.

178 Saga- Book of the Vikiitg Society.

Let us now return to Egil's Saga. It says that
when the roll of King Harald's men was called after
the great fight there were many who had fallen and
many who were sore wounded. Among the latter
was Thorolf above named, who was badly hurt, and
Bard who was worse, nor was there a single man
unwounded before the mast, except those whom iron
would not bite, i.e.^ the bareserks. The king had the
wounds of his men bound up, and he thanked them
for their valour and gave them gifts. Some he n amed
steers-men, others forcastle-men, others bow-
setters. He also saw to the burial of the dead.

Thorolf 's wounds presently healed, but Bard was
mortally hit, and he sent for the king and asked
him to be allowed to name his heir, and on the
king assenting, he named his friend and kinsman
Thorolf as successor both to his lands and chattels,
and left him his wife and the bringing up of his
son, and then died.

In the autumn Thorolf, who had won such great
honour in the great fight asked leave from the king
to go to Halogaland to take up his heritage from
Bard. Harald gave his leave and made Thorolf a
liegeman or landman, and transferred to him all
the rights he had given Bard in the Finn laud,
and also gave him a good long ship with all its
tackling. When he reached Torgar he was well
received, and Sigridr (Bard's widow) consented
to the match and was duly betrothed to him, and he
took over the management of the property and
also the king's business. He now went in his
ship with 40 men to Sandness and Alost to get
the consent of Sigurd to his daughter's marriage.
He was well received and described to his host the
details of the fight and how his son-in-law had
fallen, how he had left him his wife, and how
the king had consented to the arrangement.

' * Harald Fairhair " 1 79

Sigurd duly consented and the marriage was fixed
for the autumn at Torgar. The wedding was held
on a great scale. The same winter Sigurd died and
Thorolf succeeded to all his property. There-
upon the sons of Hildirida (half-brothers of
Bard) went to him and put in a claim to some
of the property which had belonged to their
father Bjorgalf. This claim he repudiated and
said it had been also repudiated by Bard, who
spoke of them as illegitimate. They declared on the
contrary that they were honourably born and that
their mother (as they could prove by witnesses),
had been bought with payment, i.e.^ her father had
received a wedding gift for her, which was apparently
necessary to constitute a regular marriage. It was
true they said that they had not pressed their claim
against their kinsman but now that the property
had passed to a stranger they could no longer remain
silent. Thorolf denied the statement about the
wedding gift and declared that the mother of the
claimants had been really carried of! by force and
taken home as a captive (op. cit., ch. ix). This
refusal was the cause of Thorolf's eventual undoing.

To that we will now turn and describe the
dramatic close of his career. We have seen how
he became one of Harald's chief champions.
How he fought at Hafrsfiord and afterwards
inherited two great estates, and was also given
the very lucrative post of collector of the skatt
or tribute paid by the Finns. The mention of
Finns introduces an interesting issue. Who were
the Finns referred to in the early Norwegian
Sagas ? The natural reply would be that they
were the Lapps, as has sometimes been suggested,
but this seems to me to be very improbable ; the
Lapps are not mentioned (at all events by that
name) for a considerable time after this, and their

,l8o Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

tradition is that they were late intruders into the
land which they now occupy, which is called
Finmark. They brought with them a strain of
reindeer differing considerably from those of early
times in Scandinavia and in all probability they came
from Russian Lappland, which is known as Lapp-
mark. The Finns it will be remembered were
treated very largely as equals by the Norwegians who
inter-married with them. King Harald himself had
a Finn wife, and their women are described as comely
and their men as able artificers in metal and sword
makers. They were also fighting men. In all
respects therefore, except their language, they
differed from the small ill-favoured, dark skinned
dwarf Lapps. They were also found wandering
far to the south of the habitat of the Lapps and
especially in the northern provinces of Sweden,
and in the forests and fells of the Uplands of
Norway, and were doubtless close akin to the true
Finns of Finland ; tall, flaxen-haired men who
were hunters and fishermen, and also betimes
cultivators of the soil, and whose focus was the
two sides of the Bothnian Gulf, but who travelled
far and wide in their occupation and left their
name in many places in the unenclosed forests and
mountain lands of the great peninsula. They
were also known as Quens, and were at feud with
another Finnic race, the " Carelians," who had a
higher culture than their own, who came from
the country surrounding the great Russian lakes,
and whose national epic was the Kalevala.
It seems to me plain that it was from these
true Finns who were living, not in the remote and
barren district of the North Cape, but on the
eastern frontiers of the Thrond people and in the
northern parts of Sweden, that the Norwegians
took tribute.

♦ • Harald Pair hair " 1 8 1

Let us now turn to Thorolf's intercourse with
them. We are told in Egil's Saga that in the
winter Thorolf took his way up to the fells with a
force of not less than 90 men, whereas it had been
usual for the king's stewards to have only 30 men
with them, and sometimes fewer. He also took
with him plenty of goods for trading and ap-
pointed a meeting with the Finns, where he took
tribute and held a fair. They were all friendly,
and he went far and wide about Finmark,
but when he reached the fells towards the East he
heard that the Carelians were come from the East
to trade with the Finns and also to plunder.

Thorolf set Finns to spy out the movements of
the invaders, and followed after in search of them.
He came upon 30 of. them in one encampment, all
of whom he slew. Presently he did the same to
15 or 20 others. He killed in all nearly a hundred,
and having taken a large booty, went home in the
spring. This shows that winter was the season for
travelling and fighting in those parts.

Thorolf then returned home to Sandness. He
had a long ship built, which was large and had a
dragon's head, and it was well appointed. He
gathered great stores in Halogaland, and employed
his men in herring and other fishing, also in seal
hunting and Qgg gathering, and he never had
fewer than a hundred men about him.

That summer King Harald went to Halogaland
and banquets were made ready for his coming, both
on his estates and those of the liegemen and great
landowners. Thorolf's banquet was an especially
costly one, and he asked a great company of the
best men to meet the king. Altogether he had
500 men there, while the king had only 300, which
was a dangerous contrast in the presence of one so
jealous as Harald was.

1 82 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Thorolf caused a large granary, where the
drinking was to take place, to be prepared, for
there was no hall large enough to hold them.
The building was hung round with shields. The
king sat in the high seat, and when the high
table was filled with Thorolf's men he looked
round and turned red, and men thought he was
angry. The banquet was splendid and everything
was of the best but Harald looked gloomy, and he
remained for three days and three nights, which
was the usual length of these Royal entertainments.
On the third day, when the king was to leave,
Thorolf offered to go down to the strand with him,
and there was moored off the land the great dragon
ship that he had had built, with its awning and
tackling complete. He gave the ship to the king,
like Wolsey gave his palace to Henry the Eighth,
and assured him he had gathered all these men not
as a rival but to show him honour. The king was
pleased and cheerful and merry, and they parted
good friends. Harald then went northward through
Halogaland, and then south as the summer went on
with banquets all the way.

Among his hosts were the sons of Hildirida, who
as we have seen had a grievance against Thorolf
because they considered he had robbed them of
their patrimony. They gave the king a three
nights banquet, and took the opportunity to poison
his mind against his late host, whom they charged
with being very ambitious ; of keeping a great
guard round him, like a king, and further, that he
w^as very wealthy. It was even said that he
proposed to make himself king of Halogaland and
Naumdale, and that the force he had got together
was meant to fight the king, and that, in fact, he
had intended to kill him at the banquet by setting
fire to the dining hall, and the only reason that

''^ Harald Fair hair'' 183

he had for entertaining him in the granary was
that he did not like to destroy his beautiful hall.
Thus did the two brothers arouse the king's
jealousy and anger, and he was inclined to believe
what he had been told.

Meanwhile Thorolf ordered Thorgils, his house-'
steward, who had been his forecastle man and
standard bearer, and had fought with him in the
great battle of Hafrsfiord, to get together all the
king's tribute which he had collected from the
Finns, to put it on board a large ship of burden
with 20 men on board and to go and meet
the king. It was clear that Harald was angry, but
he went to the ship where Thorgils had set out the
furs. The show was much larger and better than
was expected and Harald became more pacified and
was especially pleased with the bear skins and other
valuables which Thorolf had sent him. He never-
theless remarked that it was a great pity that
the latter should have been unfaithful to him and
plotted his death. The people round merely re-
marked that it was a slander of wicked men who
had misled the king in this matter.

That winter Thorolf went again to the Finn land.
He held a fair with the Finns and travelled far and
wide over the country, and when he reached the
far East there came to him some Quens saying
they were sent by Faravid, king of Quenland, be-
cause the Carelians were harrying his land, and
asked Thorolf for help, and saying he should have
a share of the booty equal to the king's share, and
each of his men as much as two Quens. Among
the Finns the law was, that the king should take
one-third, as well as all the bearskins and sables,
and his men the rest.

" Finmark," says our author, ^' is a wide track.
It is bounded westward by the sea, from which large

184 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

firths run up into the land ; the sea also bounds
it, going northward and round to the east ; south-
ward lies Norway, while Finmark stretches along
nearly all the inland region, bounded on the west
by Halogaland." This shows that by Finmark was
t)ien meant a great deal more than the modern
Finmark now inhabited by the Lapps.

"Eastward from Naumland," continues our
author, "is Jemteland, then Helsingjaland and
Kwenland, then Finland, then Kirialand, i.e.^
Carelia. Bounding all these lands on the north
lies Finmark, and there are wide inhabited fell
districts, some in dales and some by lakes."

When Thorolf came to Quenland and met
King Faravid they prepared to march. There
were 300 Quens and 100 Norsemen, and they went
by the upper way over Finmark and came to where
the Carelians, who had been harrying the Quens,
were camped in the fen. In the battle that
followed the Norsemen charged furiously, carrying
shields stronger than those of the Quens. There
was great slaughter among the Carelians. Many
fell and some fled, and the two allies took an
immense booty and returned to Quenland, whence
Thorolf went home by way of the fell to Yefsnir
and then to his farm at Sandness, and in the
spring went with his men north to Torgar.

Meanwhile the sons of Hildirida had been
living with the king and continued to slander
Thorolf, assuring Harald that he had kept back a
larger portion of the booty than he had sent. Thus,
he had sent only three bear skins, but his traducers
declared they knew for certain he had kept back
30 skins. All this made the king very angry.
In the summer Thorolf went south to Throndheim,
taking with him all the tribute and much wealth,

** Harald Fairhair^' 185

and 90 men besides. They were entertained magni-
ficently in the guest hall. There his friend Aulvir
told him what had happened, and what his enemies
had reported to the king. He asked Aulvir to
plead with Harald for him, for said he, " I shall be
short spoken if he chooses to believe the lies of
wicked men rather than the truth and honesty he
will find in me." Aulvir returned and told Thorolf
he had spoken to the king, but knew not what was
in his mind. The latter then determined to go
himself. He accordingly went, and arrived when
Harald was having his meal, and when he went into
the hall he saluted the king, who accepted his
greeting and bade them serve him with drink.
Thorolf then told him he had brought him not only
the tribute, but part of the booty his own men had
captured in Finmark. The king said he expected
nothing but good from him, for he had deserved
nothing else from the generous way he himself had
treated Thorolf. But men, he added, told two tales
as to his intention towards himself. Thorolf said
that the men who spoke thus were his bitterest
enemies and would pay dearly some time for their
slanders. Next day he brought in the tribute and
counted it in the king's presence, adding some bear
skins and sable skins. Still the king was un-
satisfied, and said that Thorolf had not been faithful
to him, to which he replied with dignity, pointing
to what he had done and suffered in his cause.

Hildirida's sons, when attacking Thorolf, had
suggested that Harald, in order to secure his
loyalty, should keep him more close to himself, and
at his Court. There he would be removed from
possible temptations, as he was very powerful in the
North, where he had many retainers. Harald
accordingly suggested to Thorolf that he should join
his guard and bear his banner. The latter, we read,

1 86 Saga-Book of the Viking Society

looked on either hand where stood his housecarls
and replied that, in regard to the titles and grants
he had made him, Harald must have his own way,
but he could not desert his faithful followers as
long as he had means to keep them, and he invited
the king to visit him again at his home and
inquire for himself, from those who knew him,
what they thought of his loyalty. Harald replied
that he would not again accept entertainment from
him, and he accordingly left.

When he had gone, Harald gave Hildirida's sons
the Koyal Stewardship Thorolf had had in Haloga-
land, and also his office of tax-gatherer in Finland.
He also deprived him of Torgar, and all the
property Brigjolf had had, and he sent messengers
to tell Thorolf what he had done. Thereupon the
latter got together the ships that belonged to him,
and put on board all the chattels he could carry
and with all his people, both freemen and thralls,
sailed northward to his farm at Sandness, where he
kept up no fewer men, and no less state than before.

The two sons of Hildirida now proceeded to
Fimnark to collect the tribute, taking 30 men with
them. The same winter Thorolf went up on the
fell again with a hundred men, and went straight
to Quenland and took counsel with King Faravid,
and again made a joint expedition against the land
of the Carelians with 400 men, and they attacked
such districts as they deemed they could overmatch.
In the spring he went home to his farm and
employed his men at the fishing at Vagar (now
Yaagen, in the south of the island called Ostvango,
in Halogaland), probably the cod fishing, and also
in herring fishing, and had the catch taken to
his farm.

We now come to a particularly interesting
paragraph in the Saga. Thorolf we are told had

** Harald Fairhair " 187

a large ship which was waiting to put to sea.
It was well appointed in every way, beautifully
painted down to the sea line, the sails were
striped with blue and red, and the tackling
was as good as the ship. He had it made
ready and put on board some of his donjestics
(housecarls) as a crew and freighted it with dried
fish, hides, ermine, and grey furs in abundance, and
other skins he had got from the fell, and it was
commanded by Thorgils Teller. The ship set sail
westward for England to buy him clothes and other
supplies. It first steered southwards along the
coast and then westward along the North Sea to
England, where they found a good market and
loaded the ship with wheat, honey, wine, and
clothes, and sailing in the autumn, returned with a
fair wind and came to Hordaland.

There were at this time two brothers, named
Hallvard the Hardfarer and Sigtry gg the Swift-
farer, sons of a wealthy man who had an estate in
Hising. They were employed as his agents by the
king, and had been sent by him on many
dangerous errands, either for getting rid of his
enemies or in confiscating their goods. They had
a large following, but their occupation did not
make them popular, although the king prized them
highly. They were valiant and very wary, and were
famous walkers, either on foot or with snow shoes.

Meanwhile the king was present at a banquet
in Hordaland, and ordered the two brothers, to
waylay the ship. They accordingly pursued it
northwards, whither they were told it had gone,
on two vessels. They found it in Fir Sound and
knew it at once, and laid one of their own vessels
on the seaward side of it.

Some of the men then -landed and climbed on
the ship bj the gangways. Thorgils and his men

1 88 ' Saga-Book of the Vikivg Society,

were taken completely by surprise, and had no time
to seize their weapons, and were put on shore without
arms, and with nothing but the clothes they wore.
Hallvard's men now pulled up the gangways, loosed
the cables, and towed out the ship, then turned
about and sailed southward along the coast till
they met the king, to whom they brought the ship
and all its cargo.

Thorgils and his crew managed to get transport,
and went to Kueldulf, Thorolf s father, and told
him of the mishap which had occurred. The old
man said things had only happened as he had
foretold, namely, that his son's friendship with
Harald would never bring him good luck. " I don't
mind his money-loss, but I fear he will underrate
the power of his enemies." He told Thorgils to
tell this to Thorolf. He then counselled Thorgils
himself to leave Norway and take service with
the King of England, of Denmark, or of Sweden,
and he gav-e him a rowing cutter with tackling
complete, with an awning and provisions, and all
things necessary for their journey.

Thorgils then set out and did not stop till he
had rejoined Thorolf and told him what had
happened. The latter took his loss philosophically,
and said he " should not be short of money, for 'twas
good to be in partnership with a king." He then
bought meal and what was needed to maintain his
people, but he said that his housecarls must be
for a time less smartly attired than they had been.
In order to maintain his position he now sold
some of his lands and mortgaged other parts, but
spent as much, and had quite as many men with
him as before, and also continued his feasts and
hospitality as lavishly as ever.

When the spring came and the snow and ice
were loosened Thorolf launched a large warship,

*' Harald Fatrhair'' 189

had it made ready, and manned it with a hundred
men, all well armed, and when a fair wind came
he steered south for Byrda, along the coast, and
then continued an outer course outside the islands,
and at times along the channels between fell slopes,
and thus they sailed southwards and then east-
wards, and met with no one till they came to the
Vik. There they heard that King Harald was in
the Vik, and that he proposed in the summer to go
into the Uplands. The people there knew nothing
of Thorolfs voyage. He held on to Denmark, ancl
thence into the Baltic, where he harried, but only
got an indifferent booty, and in the autumn re-
turned to Denmark. At that time the fleet at
Eyrar was breaking up, and there had been many
Norse ships there as usual. Thorolf let them
all sail past without disclosing his presence: One
day he sailed into Mostrar Sound and saw a large
trading ship which had come from Eyrar. The
steersman was named Thorir Thrum, he was the
steward of Harald's great farm at Thruma, where
the king used to make a long stay when he was
in the Vik ; it required much provisioning, and
Thorir had gone to Eyrar to buy a cargo of malt,
wheat, and honey for Harald, for which the king
had supplied iiim with ample means. Thorolf
challenged Thorir to fight, but the latter had not
sufficient force to resist, so he yielded. Thorolf
thereupon carried off the ship, and put Thorir on
shore on an island. He then sailed inwards along
the coast until he came to the mouth of the Elf,
where he waited for the night, and when it was
dark he steered up the river and made for the farm
buildings belonging to Hallvard and Sigtrygg, who
had recently robbed him of his own ship and had
taken it for a voyage to England. He and his
men formed a ring round the buildings, then raised

IQO Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

a war shout which awoke those inside, who seized
their weapons. Thorgeir fled from his bed chamber.
The farm was surrounded with high wooden palings.
Grasping the stakes he swung himself over,
Thorgils Yeller, Thorolf s benchman, was close by
^d struck him with his sword, cutting off* his
hand, but he escaped to the wood. His brother
Thord, however, was slain with 20 of his men.
The farm was plundered and burnt, and Thorolf
and his men then withdrew again, and went down
to the river. They sailed north to the Vik, where
they met with another merchant vessel, belonging
to the men of Vik, laden with malt and meal.
It was defenceless and also surrendered and its
crew were disarmed and put on shore. Thorolf
and his men again proceeded on their way with
their three ships. We are told they took the
high way of the sea to Lidandisness. They
moved quickly, raiding cattle on their way on
headland and shore. They then held a course
further out, but pillaged wherever they touched
land. When he came near the Firths Thorolf
turned inwards in order to go and see his father,
to whom he described his summer voyage. The
latter told him he had once warned him that he
would get no good by entering Harald's service.
He now warned him again of the consequences of
trying to put his forces against those of the king.
He told him plainly that he was not strong enough
to do this successfully and that all who had
hitherto tried had failed. He said further, as they
parted, that he foresaw that they would never meet
again. Thorolf now proceeded onward, but no
tidings of him were heard, says our author (who
was evidently writing from the narratives of con-
temporary witnesses) until, he reached his home at
Sandness, where he stored all the cargoes he had

'' Hnrald Fairhair''

191

brought with him, and there was no lack of
provisions through the winter i^Ih. chap, xix.).-

It was not to be expected that Thorolfs recent
action would be tolerated by the king whose hold
on his unruly subjects would not bear the strain
of such a rebuff if it went unpunished, nor was it
likely that the two brothers Hallvard and Sigtrygg
would quietly tolerate the burning and plundering
of their home. The king himself had been in Viken
during Thorolfs buccaneering tour, he now went to
the Uplands, where he stayed through the autumn
with a large force, and the two brothers just
named were with him. They asked his leave to
take their usual following with which to attack
Thorolf in his home. The king warned them of
the dangers they would incur, for Thorolf was a
brave and powerful opponent. They replied that
they had been accustomed to meet risks when the
odds were against them and had been hitherto
successful. They made preparations accordingly,
and in the spring received the king's consent to go.
Although many prophesied ill luck Harald hoped
they would return with Thorolfs head, and much
rich plunder. They took two ships and 200 men
with them and sailed out of the Firth with a
north-east wind, which was a head wind for those
going northwards.

The king was at Ladir when the brothers set
out, and he seems to have distrusted their power
to compass what they had in hand, and himself
hastily got ready four ships in which he put a large
force, and they rowed up the Firth by Beitis-8ea
inwards to the isthmus of Eida.

There he left his ships and crossed the isthmus
to Naumdale, where he took others belonging to
the great landowners, with his guard, which was

192 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

400 men strong, with him. He had six well
manned and equipped ships. They had to face a
head wind so had to row night and day, for the
night was then light enough to travel by. They
arrived at Sandness, Thorolf s home, at sunset, and
saw lying there, with its awning spread, a long ship
which they knew to be Thorolf s. He had prepared
to escape, and had ordered the ale for the parting
carousal. The king bade his men to disembark
and to raise his standard. It was a short distance
only to the farm buildings. Thorolf s watchmen,
who clearly did not know what was coming, were
all drinking instead of being at their posts. The
hall was surrounded. A war blast was sounded
on the king's trumpet, and a war whoop came from
his men. Thereupon Thorolf s dependents sprang to
their weapons, for each man's weapon hung over his
seat. The king caused a proclamation to be
issued, bidding women, children, old men, thi'alls,
and bondmen, to come out. Sigridr, Thorolf s wife,
and her maids, then came out. She asked if the
sons of Kari of Berdla were there. They both came
forward and she asked them to take her to the
king. She then asked him if anything would
reconcile him to Thorolf. He replied that if he
asked for mercy his life and limb should be spared,
but as to his men, they must be punished for their
misdeeds as the law provided. Thereupon Aulvir,
son of Kari, who was an old friend of Thorolf s,
went out to interview him. He reported what the
king had said. The reply was a haughty and
characteristic refusal to accept any compulsory
terms from Harald. He asked that they
might have their freedom, adding ambiguously,
that things should then go their course, that is, he
challenged him to fight it out. The king replied
that he would not waste the lives of his men in

Harald Fairhair**

193

this way, and ordered them to fire the hall. The
wood was dry, the timbers were tarred, and the
roof covered with birchbark, so the fire soon
caught. Thorolf ordered his men to break U() the
wainscoatingand to take the gable beams, and with
them to burst through into the hall. When they
got a beam, as many men as could hold on, seized
it, and they rammed at the corner so effectively
that the clamps flew out, and the walls started
asundei'. and there was a wide opening. Through
this Thorolf led the way, followed by Thorgils the
Yelier, and then the rest. There was a desperate
fight, and for a while it was uncertain which side
would win, for the wall of the building protected
the rear of Thorolf's forces.

Many men were lost on the king's side before
the hall began to burn, then the fire attacked
Thorolf's side, and many of them fell. Thorolf
rushed forward and hewed about him on either
side. "There was small need to bind the wounds
of those who encountered him," says the graphic
Saga writer.

He made for the king's standard, and at this time
his henchman Thorgils the Yelier fell. When he
himself reached the shield-wall he struck down the
royal standard-bearer saying, " Now am I but three
feet short of my aim," meaning doubtless the king.
There they all set on him with sword and spear.

The king gave him his death blow, and he fell
forward at his feet. Harald then called out to
them to cease fighting, which they did, and his
men returned to their ships.

He then turned to Aulvir Knuf, and bade him
take his kinsman Thorolf and give him honourable
burial, and also to bury the rest of the dead, and
to see to the wounded who had hopes of life, nor

194 Saga-Book of the Vikmg Society,

should any be allowed to plunder, seeing the place
was now his property. This showed unusual
magnanimity in one who had, in the latter days at
all events, been sorely tried by the splendid
warrior Thorolf. When the king reached his ships
he went round to superintend the care of the
wounded, and confessed he had lost many of his
men in the fight.

It was only on his return voyage southwards
that he realized what a serious danger he had run,
for as the day wore on they came upon many
rowing vessels in all the sounds between the islands,
carrying men who were replying to Thorolfs
summons to go to his help against the men of
Hallvard and Sigtrygg, who said they had been
delayed by the north wind and took no part in the
fight. On their return home, we are told, the
latter were much mocked at.

The king and his men went on their ships to
Naumdale. There the}^ left them and travelled
overland to Throndheim and on to Ladir.

The two brothers Aulvir and Eyvind remained
behind awhile at Sandness to bury the dead.
Thorolf was buried with all customary honours in
the case of a man of wealth and renown, and they
set a memorial stone over him, and also looked
after the wounded. They also arranged with
Sigridr about the house, but most of the house-
furniture, table service, and clothing were burnt.

On their return to the king they were sad and
down-spirited, and spoke little with others, for they
had been very close friends with Thorolf, and they
asked Harald to be allowed to go home to their
farms, for they had no heart to share drink and
seat with tho^e who had fought against their
kinsman Thorolf. The king refused this and

^^ Harold Fairhair

'95

presently had the brothers summoned to him in
his audience hall. He said they had been long
with him and had borne themselves like men, and
satisfied him in everything. He then told Eyvind
to go north to Halogaland, and gave him Thorolf's
widow, Sigridr, in marriage, with all the wealth
that had belonged to him, and said he should have
his friendship as long as he could keep it. Aulvir, he
said, he could not spare, on account of his skill as
a skald, and he must remain with him. The
brothers were very grateful to the king for the
honours he had given them and gladly accepted his
offer. Eyvind, having got a good and suitable
ship, went north to Alost and Sandness, where he
was welcomed by Sigridr, the widow of two great
Norsemen. He shewed her the consent to their
marriage which the king had given, and they were
married. He thus became the owner of Sand-
ness and all Thorolf's property, and was now a
wealthy man. One of his sons, Fid, surnamed
the Squinter, married Gunhilda, the daughter of
iarl Hakon, and of Ingibiorg, daughter of King
Harald, and was the father of the famous skald,
Eyvind Skald-spiller (76., xxii.).

After Thorolf's death. Kettle Haening, his kins-
man and close friend, who had intended fighting by
his side, but was prevented by the king's rapid
journey, did not wait long to revenge him. He
took a ship and 60 men, and went to Torgar, where
Hildirida's sons lived. Their slanders had been, as
we have seen, the cause of the king's turning
against him. They only had a few people with
them. Haening killed them both and appropriated
all their wealth that he could lay his hands upon,
including their two largest ships of burden. In
one of them he shipped his booty and cattle, and
also took his wife and children. His foster-brother,

196 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Bang, a man of good family, and wealthy, steered
the ship, as well as his late ship-mates, and
they made for Iceland and settled at Hofi, near
East River. His son Hrafn became the first law-
man in Iceland (76., ch. xxiii).

When the old and wise Viking, Kueldulf, heard
of the death of his famous son Thorolf, he took to
his bed from sorrow and age. He was cheered by
his other son Skallagrim, who reminded him that
anything was better than to become useless and
bedridden ; " it were better they should determine
to revenge Thorolf's death." Kueldulf, we are told,
wrote a song. This is preserved in Egil's Saga,
and I follow Mr. Green's translation : —

Thorolf in Northern isle
(O cruel Norns ! ) is dead.
Too soon the Thunder God
Hath ta'en my warrior son.
Thor's heavy wrestler, age,
Holds my weak limbs from fray ;
Though keen my spirit spurs,
No speedy vengeance mine.

(Op. cit., XX. iv.).

That summer the king went to the Uplands,
and in the autumn, westward to Yaldres, and as
far as Vors. Aulvir, we are told, asked him if he
would pay wehrgeld or blood atonement to Thorolf's
father and brother, for having slain him. The king
consented to do so if they would go and see him.
Aulvir at once set off for the Firths to meet them,
and he remained for some time with his old friends.
He told Kueldulf the details of his son's death,
and that it was the king who had given him his
death wound, and said that Thorolf fell forward
when he died. Upon which the fierce old man
replied that there was a saying " that he would be
avenged who fell forward, and that vengeance
would reach him who stood before him."

' * Harald Fairhatr " 1 97

Aulvir told his friends that if they would go to
the king and crave atonement it would be a journey
to their honour, and he pressed them to do so.
Kueldulf said he was too old to travel and he meant
to sit at home. Grim said he had no errand thither.
He declared the king would find him too fluent of
speech, and he would not long pray for atonement.
Aulvir said he would have no need to speak as
he himself would be their spokesman. Presently
he consented to go, and fixed a time to do so. He
accordingly prepared for the journey, and selected
the strongest and bravest men from his household,
twelve in all. Among them, one was a wealthy
landowner, some were his housecarles, one of them
" a coal biter," i.e.^ one who could bite live coals,
and two others, sons of Thororna, who was skilled
in magic.

They set sail in one of his ships and w^ent
along the coast southward to Ostra Firth, then by
land up to the lake of Vors. They arrived when the
king was being entertained at table there. When
Grim reached the door he sent for Aulvir and his
men to come out. Having greeted them, he invited
them in. Grim told his followers that it was custom-
ary for men to enter the king's presence weaponless.
Six therefore took off their w^eapons and went
in, while the other six remained outside w^ith their
arms on. Aulvir then approached the king, with
Grim behind him. The former w^as the spokesman
and begged that Harald would confer some fitting
honour upon Grim, who deserved it better than
many who had been so treated, and that it would
please his people, and especially himself, if he did
so. Several others present supported Aulvir's
words.

The king then turned to Grim, who was called
Skallagrim from being bald, and was taller than the

19S Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

others by a head. He asked him to become his
liegeman and to join his guard, and he would honour
him and make him atonement for his brother's
death if he should deserve it, but he must know
better how to keep troth than he had done. This
was not a conciliatory speech to make to a proud,
brave man. Grim said his brother was far superior
to himself, and yet he got no luck with the king.
Nor would he accept his offer, for he could see no
chance of faring better than his brother in return
for honest and worthy service.

The king was silent and became blood-red with
fury. Aulvir now bade Grim and his men secure their
weapons and begone with all haste. He and many
others escorted Grim to the waterside. Aulvir
expressed his disappointment that his efforts had
failed, and bade them haste homewards and keep
well out of the way of the king and his men.
They accordingly set off, while Aulvir and his men
dismantled the boats which were lying on the shores
of the lake, so that they could not be used in
pursuit. Meanwhile a large body of armed men
were seen advancing rapidly towards them. When
Grim and his men withdrew from the audience
Harald regained his speech. He was very angry,
and declared " the bald-head" to be full of wolfish-
ness, and a dangerous person, and ordered his men
to pursue and kill him. They found no boats, how-
ever, fit to travel in, and had to return. Grim
went back to his father, who was pleased that he
had refused to join the king's service. Father and
son now discussed what they should do, since it was
clear that Norway had become a very dangerous
place for them, and they determined to emigrate to
Iceland, for good reports had reached them about
the land to be had there, where men could take
land free of cost, aad choose their households

' ' Ha ra Id Fa irha ir'' 1 9<>

where they willed, while several of their relations
had gone there, notably Ingolf Arnarson, and his
companions.

In the spring Kueldulf and his son made ready
their ships. We are told they had plenty to choose
from. They selected tw^o large ships of burden,
and put 30 strong men in each, beside women and
children, and all the moveable goods they could
carry, but no one dared buy their lands for fear of
the king, and when ready they sailed aw^ay, first to
the Solundir islands, off the mouth of Sogne-firth,
which were many and large and so cut into by bays
that few men knew all their havens.

From this vantage the emigrants kept a look-
out for the return of a ship laden with merchandise,
and which had been sent by Harald under the
command of Hallvard and Sigtrygg (who had been
the mortal enemies of Thorolf), to bring home the
family of his uncle Guthrom, the iarl of Viken,
who had died. Presently the ship was espied by
Grim, who was on the look-out. He had a
good sight, and knew the vessel which had once
belonged to Thorgils. He watched them lay to in
the haven in the evening and reported w hat he had
seen to his father. They accordingly set their
boats in order and put 20 men in each. Kueldulf
steered one and Grim the other, and they row^ed
for their enemy's ship, but when they came near
where it lay they put into land.

Hallvard's men had put an awning over their
ship and laid down to sleep. When Kueldulf's
force came upon them, the watchman who sat at
the gangway leapt up and called to his shipmates,
and bade the men rise, for an enemy was upon
them. Upon which they took to their weapons,
but the two gangways were blocked by the two

ioo ^aga-^ook of the Viking Society.

assailants, father and son. Kueldulf and some of
his men were now seized with the fervour and war
madness which sometimes seized the Norsemen ;
this was incited, doubtless, by the memory of his
son's death. He now rushed on board his enemy's
ship and ordered iiis men to go along the outer way
of the gun W' ale and cut down the awning from its
forks, while he himself rushed aft to the stern-
castle, and he and his men slew all they came
across. Grim did the same at his end of the ship,
nor did they stay their hands till it was "cleared."
When Kueldulf came aft to the stern-castle he
brandished high his axe. and smote Hallvard with
it and cut him through helm and head, so that
the axe sank in up to the shaft. He snatched
it back so forcibly that it carried Hallvard's body
aloft, and he flung him overboard. Grim cleared
the fore-castle and slew Sigtrygg. Many of the
victims had plunged into the sea, but Grim took
one of the boats and rowed after them, and slew all
that were swimming. The two brothers lost
50 men in the struggle. Their ship became the
prey of the victors, who only gave their lives to two
or three of the crew whom they deemed of least
count. From them they heard what had been the
motive of their voyage. Thereupon they looked
over the slain on board and found that more had
perished by drowning than those who had fallen
in the ship. Among those who had thus perished
were two boys of 12 and 10 ; sons of Guthorm,
Harald's uncle, who had recently died.

Grim now released the men who had been
spared, and bade them go to their master Harald,
and tell him what they had seen and heard, and he
also sent the king a verse in which he referred to
what he had done as revenging the death of a
noble warrior (Op. cit., ch. xxviii.).

^^ Ham Id Fuirluiif'' 201

Grim and his luen took possession of the cap-
tured ship and cargo, and they made an exchange,
loading the ship they had taken with the contents
of one of their own, which was smaller, and which
they sank by boring holes and putting stones in it.
When the wind was favourable they set out for sea.

It was reported of the bareserks, and other
men possessed with the bareserk fury, that they
w^ere so strong that no one could resist them,
but when it abated they were weaker than their
wont. It w^as so now with the old man Kueldulf,
who felt so exhausted from the onset he had made
that he was utterly weak, and lay in his bed. In
their voyage to Iceland, Kueldulf commanded the
captured ship and his son the other. For a while
the two ships kept together, and were long in sight
of each other. Meanwhile Kueldulf's sickness in-
creased, and as he felt death coming near, he
summoned his shipmates and told them he had
never been an ailing man, but if so be that he died
they were to make a coffin and put him overboard,
and he thought it likely that he would be drifted to
Iceland. They were further to bear his greeting to
his son Grim, and to tell him that if he reached
Iceland, and (as might be the case) he himself
should reach it first, that Grim should choose a
homestead as near as possible to the spot where the
coffin landed. He soon after died, and his ship-
mates did as he had bidden them, and they shot
his coffin into the sea. An old friend of Kueldulf
and his son, also called Grim, son of Thorir
Kettleson, who was travelling with them, now took
charge of the ship. When he reached Iceland, he
took it up a narrow river, called the Gufer river,
and there unshipped the cargo and remained over
the first winter. When they explored the land
along the sea shore, inwards and outwards, they

202 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

had not gone far when they found Kueldulf's coffin
cast up in a creek. They took it to the ness close
by, ^nd raised a pile of stones over it.

^Harald, not unnaturally, confiscated all the
lands which Kueldulf and his son had possessed in
Norway, as well as their other property, and sought
out all those who had supported them and had
been in their confidence. He laid a heavy hand on
all their relatives and friends. Some he punished,
and many fled away and sought refuge either in
the land or outside it. Among them was Yngvar,
Grim's father-in-law. He turned all the property
he could dispose of into chattels that could be
moved, and having secured a good sea-going ship,
set off for Iceland, where he heard that Grim had
settled. He and his men were welcomed by him,
and spent the winter with, and accepted a farm
from him on Swan Ness (/&.,• ch. xxx.).

There is another story in Egil's Saga which
illustrates graphically the rough life of men in
King Harald's time, and the way in which he
pursued wrong-doers and breakers of the public
peace. The hero, if such he should be called, was
named Biorn. He was the son of Brynjolf, the
son of another Biorn, who was a great personage
in Sogn.

The younger Biorn was a famous traveller,
both as a freebooter and trader, and a tough man
withal. On one occasion he was at a banquet
where there was present a good-looking maiden
called Thora, styled Lacehand, the sister of
Thorir Hroaldsson previously mentioned. Biorn
sought her in marriage, but Thorir refused
his consent. The same autumn the former took
a well-equipped long ship to the Firths, and
went to Thorir's house when he was not at
home and carried her off to his father's house

* Harald Fairhair "

203

at Aurland, and there they spent the winter
together. He wished to marry her, but Brynjolf
refused to allow such a thing in his house, for
he was a great friend of Thorir's, and sent to
the latter to offer him redress for what his son had
done. Thorir replied that the only atonement
possible was to send his sister home again. This
Biorn would not consent to, and so matters re-
mained awhile. Next spring he asked his father
for a long ship and a crew, that he might go
freebooting. I3rynjolf replied, saying he would
doubtless, if he got the ship, use it against his
wishes, and that he had already had enough
trouble with him, but he offered him a trading
vessel laden with goods for trafficking, and bade
him go south to Dublin, which he said was well
spoken of as a mart, and he also provided him
with a crew. To this Biorn consented, and got
a ship ready, which was manned with 12 men,
which he took to his father's house at Aurland.
He found his mother there, sitting in her bower
or parlour with several maidens, among whom
was Thora. Biorn told them that he was deter-
mined Thora should go with him. His mother, as
is the usual way of mothers, took his part and helped
him, and Thora's clothes and trinkets were duly
put together ready. That night they went out
together to Biorn's ship. They had a bad, stormy
passage, and presently reached the east coast of
Shetland during a gale, and the ship was finally
wrecked in making land at Hrossey, now
Mainland, in Orkney. They took shelter in
the borg or Pictish tower there, into which they
moved their goods, and then proceeded to repair
their ship, and there he married Thora (I^., xxxii).
A little before winter news reached them that a
long ship had come to the Orkneys with messages
from King Harald, ordering larl Sigurd to kill

204 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Biorn wherever he was found. The same orders
were sent to the Sudereys and also to Dubhn.
Biorn also heard that he had been outlawed in
Norway., and realised the danger of his position, and
in the spring, as soon as the weather was settled, he
got a good wind and sailed for Iceland, where he
was welcomed by Grim, who did not know what
had happened. Biorn was a close friend and
foster-brother of Thorolf, who was also a friend of
Biorn's father, Brynjolf, and so Biorn and Thora
took up their abode with Grim. In the autumn,
however, ships came from Norway with full tidings
of what had really occurred, and that Biorn had
actually married Thora without the consent of her
family and had been outlawed by King Harald.
When he heard this Grim was furious, for he was
a great friend of Thorir. Grim's son Thorolf, how-
ever, pleaded for him, as did others, and he was
presently appeased and bade them do what they
liked in the matter. Thora had meanwhile had a
daughter, who had been sprinkled with water and
was called Asgerd, while Thorolf became a close
friend of Biorn. He asked his father what he
counselled should be done, for Biorn had a great
wish to return to Norway, and he further begged
him to send men thither to make atonement for
him, for he thought Thorir would greatly honour
his counsel. He accordingly sent deputies to
Norway, and when they arrived they were joined
by Brynjolf, who also offered to make atonement
for his son. Thorir on his side agreed to accept
this, and he put up the messengers from Iceland in
his house for the winter, when they went back
with their message. Biorn stayed a third winter
in Norway, and then returned for his wife. At her
own request they left their child Asgerd with
Grim's wife Bera, the daughter and heiress of
Yngvar, who had been its foster-mother, and she

•• Harald Fairhair " 205

was brought up in Grim's family. Thorolf, Grim's
son, went to Norway with Biorn. The voyage was
a successful one, and they duly reached Sogn, and
thence went to Biorn's father, where the atonement
was duly ratified. One condition was that Thorir
paid such of his property in his house as belonged
to his sister to Thora, and afterwards, we are told,
the two remained good brothers-in-law and friends.

(/^., XXXV.).

V I have deemed it right to give at length these
most valuable and illuminating extracts from the
Egil Saga as a very notable and instructive picture
of the inner life of the Norsemen in the time of
King Harald. What would not we give for a
similar picture, with equal authority (and there are
others), ilkistrating the parallel condition of the
English race at the same time ? I have given the
story in the great Saga writer's own words, and
have taken it from Mr. W. C. Green's racy trans-
lation, upon which I could not improve. Let us
now return to the King.

After the battle of Hafrsfiord, says the Heims-
kringla. King Harald found nothing to withstand
him in all Norway, for all his greatest foemen
were fallen. Certain of them had migrated to
other lands, and thus were the waste lands peopled
far and wide. Jamtaland and Helsingland were
then occupied, though both of them had already
got./some settlers (Op. cit., ch. 20).

/ Harald's conquest of the Western coasts of
Norway, and his making their proud and free
landowners pay taxes was a hard blow for many of
them. And among other consequence (as told in his
life) were that the Oiitlands were discovered and
peopled, namely, the Faroes and Iceland. Many
again went to Shetland and many others adopted
a Viking's life and went warring and buccaneering

2o6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

in the West. They abode largely, in the winter, in
the Orkneys and the Sudereys, or Hebrides (as
they are now called), but in the summer they
greatly ravaged Norway and caused much trouble
there. There were many, however, who sided with
Harald and became his men. Probably the bonders
or farmers, who had suffered much from their
piratical countrymen, were the latter's chief recruits.
When he heard how the fugitives who had fled
westward had turned their weapons on their old
home of Norway, he determined on a vigorous
campaign against them. He on several occasions
made summer trips with his fleet across the North
Sea, and searched the islands and skerries and
drove them from their haunts out to sea. Growing
tired of this privateering warfare, he determined on
a greater effort, and collected a large fleet and
made straight for Shetland and there slew all the
Vikings who did not flee.

He then went to the Orkneys, which he
entirely cleared of their Vikings, and then to the
Sudereys or South islands, where he also harried
and slew many Vikings "who were captains of
bands " there. He had many fights, but always
won the day. Then he harried in Scotland.
When he arrived in the Isle of Man all the people,
having heard of his previous doings, fled to
Scotland, and that island was depopulated, and
all the property in it was removed away, and thus
when he and his men landed they secured no
booty.

In these battles Ivar, son of Rognwald, iarl of
Mere was killed, and as a recompense King Harald
offered his father the iarldom of the Orkneys and
the Shetlands, but Rognwald declined the gift.
He probably did not relish ruling a depopulated
and devastated land and he gave it over to his

'* Harald Faithait *' 207

brother Sigurd, who stayed behind when the King
and his host returned to Norway. Harald con-
firmed his appointment.

Rognwald left two sons Rolf and Thorir, by
Hilda, daughter of Kolf Regia, and also left three
other sons, whose mothers were not high born, and
who were called Halladr, Einar, and Hrollaug.
They were a good deal older than the two sons
just named and had reached manhood when the
latter were still children. Rolf adopted the career
of a Viking. He was so big that no horse could
carry him, so that he used to march afoot and was
hence known as the Ganger. He was continually
harrying in the East lands {i.e.^ East of the Baltic).
On one occasion w^hen he was returning thence he
w^as apparently short of provisions and ran into
the Yik, and there seized a number of cattle on
the shore. This form of plundering was known
as strand-slaughtering. Harald happened to be
then in Viken and was very angry since he had
forbidden all such piratical acts in his own
dominions. He therefore summoned a Thing and
there proclaimed Rolf an outlaw^ nor did the
appeals of his mother Hilda avail to save the
culprit. She then sang a song in which she
warned the King that it was rather a rash thing to
quarrel with a wolf of Odin's lineage and that if
he w^ithdrew to the forest he would grievously
harry his flock. Rolf thereupon went westward
to the Sudereys and thence to Valland, i.e.^ the
Frankish kingdom, where, as Ari says, he founded
a mighty iarldom, which he peopled with North-
men, and which was afterwards called Normandy
(Harald Fairhair's Saga, ch. xxiv.). In Olaf Tryg-
visson's Saga we read that Harald, having found
that on his return home the Scotch and Irish
Vikings had descended on the Sudereys (^.6., the
Hebrides), sent Ketil Flatnose, son of Biorn.

2o8 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

the ungarfcered, into the West to win them back.
Ketil left his son Biorn to look after his estates
in Norway, and went West with his wife and
other children. Having reduced the Sudereys, he
made himself chief of them, and refused to pay
taxes to Harald, who thereupon seized all his
estates in Norway and drove away his son Biorn
(Op. cit., ch. 121).

The widespread conquests of Harald, which
involved the subjugation or suppression of such a
number of previously independent communities
under their own rulers and owners, and the extirpa-
tion or disappearance by emigration of the latter,
necessitated a revision of the administrative
machinery of the Country on an equivalent scale.
Harald proceeded to divide it afresh. At first he
put the larger areas under the control of his most
trusted dependents, giving each of them the title
of iarl. He deputed to each of them a virtu-
ally supreme jurisdiction within his province
subject only to his own dominant authority in
the last instance. Each iarl he appointed was
also subject to his paying over to him a con-
siderable portion of the scatt or taxes which were
collected in the province and which had not been
used in paying the expenses of Government there.
These iarldoms were in effect great hereditary
administrative posts.

Harald having put down all his enemies, was,
we are told, feasting with his friend iarl Kognvald
when he remembered the oath which he had made
that he would neither be shorn nor bathe until
he had conquered Norway, and he accordingly,
after ten years, took his first bath and had his
hair sheared and combed. Aforetime, says Ari,
he had been called Shockhead, but men now called
him Harald Fairhair, and they all said he was well

'* Hat aid Fatrhair*' 209

named for he had both abun(hint and beautiful
hair (Op. cit , 28).

Harald, like many other liand.some warriors
(in the old days l)efore Christianity had intervened
with its restriction on the numbers of a man's
wives) had a large and well-born harem. He first
married Asa. the daughter of iarl Hnkon, who was
his most trusted and powerful .subject (Saga of
Harald Fairhair, ch. 9). By her he had four sons,
(xuthorm (doubtless named after his own uncle and
foster father) ; two twin sons called Halfdane,
distinguished as Halfdane the White and Halfdane
the Black, and fourthly Sigfrod (?Sigfrodr). They
were apparently born dui inghis four years' residence
at Throndheim and, we are told, weie brought up
there in great honour [lb., ch. 18). Secondly, he
married Gyda, the daughter of King Eric of
Hoidaland (///., ch. 3 and 21). We have already
referred to this proud lady who refused to marry
him till he had conquered all Norway. By her he
had four sons, Roerik, Sigtryg, Froth i, and Thorgils,
and a daughter Alof, called Arbot, i.e., the Years-
heal, who was the oldest of the family and whom
he married to Thorir the Silent, iarl of Mere (Saga
of Harald Fairhair, ch. 30).

Another of his wives was Swanhild, daughter
of King Ey stein of Heath mark. By her he had
three sons, Olaf Geirstad-Elf, Biorn, and Eagnar
Ryckil (lb., ch. 21); another of his wives was
Ashild, daughter of Ring Dayson from Ringariki,
and their sons were Day, Ring, and Gudi'od Skiria,
and a daughter Ingigiord.

In regard to one of his wives we have a curious
Saga. We are told that on one occasion he
went a guesting into the Uplands and spent his

210 Saga-Book of the Viking Scciely.

Yuletide at Nord Tofti, in the parish of Dovre, in
North Gudbrandsdal. When he had sat down at
table a Finn, who was a Shaman or Wizard, named
Swazi, came to the door and sent a message to the
King bidding him go to his cot. Although Harald
was wroth he felt constrained to go, but some
of his company were not pleased. When he
entered, there met him Swazi's daughter, who was
very fair to look at, and who offered him a bowl of
houeymead. He took both the mead and the hand
that offered it, says our author, and straightway it
was as hot as if hot fire had pierced her skin, and he
felt overcome with passion. All this, he suggests,
was the effort of her witchery. Swazi insisted
that if the matter was to go any further the King
must be duly betrothed and lawfully wedded. He
became so engrossed with her that he forgot his
duties to his kingdom and they had four sons,
Sigurd a-Bush, Halfdane Longlegs, Gudrod Gleam,
and Rognvald Straightlegs.

Snowfair presently died, but her skin remained
as red and white as she was when alive, and the
King sat beside her and thought in his heart she
was still living. For three winters he thus
sorrowed, and his people did so too, that he should
be so beguiled. Presently came Thorleif the Sage,
learned in medicine (or leechcraft, as it was known
in those times) ; he approached him soothingly and
said he did not wonder he was so devoted to so fair
a woman, but that it was necessary she should
be moved so that her clothes might be changed.
But as soon as she was taken out of bed a dreadful
smell came from the dead body and they brought
holy fire, i.e., incense, and burnt it. It first turned
thin and then nauseous, uncanny beasts came from
it, worms and adders, frogs and paddocks, and
other creeping things, and she thus fell into ashes.

** Harald Fairhair " 211

Thereupon the King recovered his good sense and
cast out his folly, and ruled the realm stoutly
with the help of his councillors (Saga of Harald
Fairhair, ch. 25).

Ari tells us that after Snovvfair's death
Harald realized that she had bewitched him into
an alliance with her, and he drove her four sons
away and would not look at them. Thereupon
one of them, Gudrod, repaired to Harald's famous
bard Thiodolf, who had been his foster-father and
who was a great favourite of the king's, and asked
him to intercede for him. Harald was then staying
in the Uplands, whither Gudrod and his brother
made their way, but as they arrived in the evening
and were still in their travelling dress, they sat down
in an outer place and kept hidden. As the King
went up the hall-floor and looked over the benches
he sang a verse in which he spoke of his old
warriors as being over eager for the feast and added
that they were many and hoary. Thiodolf, who
had disguised himself, and was hurt by the
remark, thereupon improvised a reply, in which
he recalled that in their fights together, the
heads of his warriors had borne hard blows in
his company, and he asked if they had been too
many then. He now removed his head covering and
the King recognised and welcomed him. The old
poet then begged him not to cast out his sons and
uttered a memorable phrase, saying that they would
gladly have had a better-born mother if he had
only given them one. The King took the rebuke
kindly and asked him to take Gudrod to himself
again and let him live with him as he had done
before. Sigurd and Halfdane he sent to Kingariki,
while Rognvald he sent to Hadaland. Ari adds
that they became hfianly men and well endowed
with prowess (Ih., ch. 26).

2 1 2 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Keturniiig to Harald's wives, the one he
cherished most, and who was most high-born, was
Kagnhild the Mighty, daughter of Eric, King of
Jutland, no doubt the son of Gudrod, King of
Westfold, who has occupied us so greatly. Eric
was therefore Harald's uncle, and Eagnhild was his
cousin. By her he had one son, namely, Eric, styled
Bloody Axe, who presently succeeded him as King
of Norway. People said that when Harald married
her he put away from him nine wives.

Hornklofi refers to this in one of his caustic
verses in the Raven Song. He tells us that when
Harald married his Danish wife he scorned the
Holmfolk {i.e., the women belonging to the
typical Norwegian district of the islj?nds on the
coast of Itogaland) and the maidens of the Hords
and Raums (or of Horda land and Raum realm)
and of Halgoland.

He adds the cryptic sentence that the bond-
maids of Ragnhild, the proud woman, would now
have something more pleasant to talk about than
that they had been treated with short commons by
Harald (Vigfusson, Corpus Poet, Bor. i. 259).

When Harald grew old he had a son by a
woman of good, but not noble family, named
Thoi'a Mostrstong, i.e,, Most-staff. Her family
name was taken from the place called Most^^
and the foet Horde Kari was one of her
relatives. She was very tall and fair and was one
of the King's bond-women, for in those days there
were many of good blood, both men and women,
w^ho were in the King's employment. It was then
the custom, when a child of high birth was born,

* Now Mostero, on the Western side of the Sound called Bommelen
in South Hordaland, the main inlet into the Hardanger fiord from the
South (Magnussen iv. 265).

'• Harald Fairhair" 213

to select someone who would sprinkle water on
bini and give him a name. When the child we
are dealing with was about to be born, his mother
lliora, who was living at Most, sought out
Harald, who was then in residence at ISaeheimr,*
whither she travelled in a ship of Sigurd,
iarl of Ladir, who had undertaken the task of
godfather. One night, when they lay off the
land, Thora brought forth a child at the cliflfs
side by the gangway-head leading to the ship, and
it proved to be a boy. 80 iarl Sigurd sprinkled
him with water and called him Hakon, after his
own father. He grew up to be handsome and tall
and was the very image of his father Harald. He
was brought up with his mother and was about the
king's manors while he was young.

While still a boy Hakon was the hero of an
incident which has been by some suspected as an
invention, as I think with very poor reason.
y\l though coloured with some obviously fanciful
incidents, it seems to me to be substantially true.

At this time Athelstane had recently become
King of England. An says he was called the
Victorious or the P'aithful, and adds that he sent
men to Norway to King Harald with his greeting.
This was in itself a very likely matter since the
Norwegian king was the mightiest man in the
North and had ties with the Scottish islands that
would make him well known to the English king.
Athelstane's envoy took with him a lordly gift in
the shape of a sword, the hilt of which was
decorated with gold as was the grip, while its
airay or scabbard was also wrought with gold and
silver. So far the story seems perfectly natural.

* This was one of Harald's manors and is now called Saem. It is
on the N. side of the Osterfirth (North of Berpen), almost opposite
Hammer on the isle of Ostero (Magnussen iv. 275;

2 1 4 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Then comes a passage which is in itself hard to be-
lieve. Ari says that when the king took the grip,
Athelstane's messenger immediately said : ''Since
thou hast taken the sword as our king would, now
thou hast become his man." That the messenger on
an occasion where courtesy was everything should
have thrown such an insult at the aged king, who
was very much more powerful than Athelstane
and over whom he could have no pretence of
claiming homage, seems incredible and seems
rather an addition to the story to meet the tastes
of the Icelandic vikings for whom Ari wrote, than
a reality. He goes on to say that Harald deemed
that the affront was meant to mock him and de-
clared that he would be no man's feudatory, but he
recollected that it was his practice to " sleep upon
his wrath " and not to take a hasty decision, and
he also consulted his friends, who agreed that it
would be better to let the messenger return in
peace rather than to do him ill. This again was
hardly the way these proud Norwegian Junkers
were wont to behave when flouted.

The next summer we are told Harald sent a
ship to England under the command of Hawk
Habrok, i.e.. High- breech, who was a great
champion and much liked by the king. He sent
him to visit Athelstane and put Hakon in his
charge, which in itself is not an improbable
thing, but most improbable if he had previously
been treated with indignity by him. Hawk
found the King in London, where he was well
received and feasted. To carry out the dramatic
part of the story Ari reports that at this feast
Hawk instructed his men that he should go out
first who came in last, and that all should stand
abreast before the Royal board, each man with his
sword at his left side but with their cloaks so

1

1 lav aid Fair hair "

21:;

arranged that their swords should not t>e seen and
so they entered the hall, a company of 30 men.
Hawk then appoached Athelstane and greeted him
and the king bade him welcome. Then Hawk
took the lad Hakon and placed him on Athel-
stane's knee. Athelstane having asked why he
did so. Hawk replied: "King Harald biddeth
thee foster the child of his bondwoman." Here
again is an incident which is incredible. That
Hawk should have thus described the pet child of
Harald's old age, the special foster-child of the great
iarl of Ladir, and have invited a very cruel treat-
ment, not only for the lad but for the whole party,
by insulting the English king, seems ridiculous,
and may be explained as a dramatist's clumsy
form of tit for tat, but does not represent the con-
duct of a sane man. Ari says that Athelstane was
exceedingly wrath and took up his sword to kill
the boy, upon which Hawk replied : "Thou hast
set him on thy knee and may est murder him if
thou wilt, but thou will not thus put an end to all
the sons of King Harald." Thereupon Hawk and
his men all withdrew to their ship and put to sea
and returned to Norway. Ari goes on to say
that King Harald was well pleased that his
son had remained to be fostered by Athelstane,
for men ever account the fosterer less noble than
him whose child he fostereth. Then he adds a
moral which rather spoils the effectiveness of his
way of telling the story. He says : " By such
like dealings of the kings may it be seen how
either would fain be greater than the other, yet
not a whit, for by all this was not any honour of
either spilt, and either was sovereign lord of his
realm till his death day."

What follows shows that the incident of the
mutual insults of the two kings is almost certainly

2i6 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

an imaginative addition to the real story, for after
Hawk's challenge and before his whole Court,
Athelstane certainly did the very reverse of treating
the boy as the son of a bondwoman.

We are told that he had him christened and
taught the right truth and good manners and all
kinds of prowess and that he loved him more than
all his kin, and so did all other men who knew
him. Hence he was called " Hakon, Athelstane's
fosterling." He became a man of great strength
and size and of fair speech, and eventually rose to
be King of Norway. We are told that King
Athelstane gave him a swotd, the hilt and grip of
which were all decorated with gold, while the
blade was still choicer, and that with it Hakon was
reputed to have split " a quern-stone to the eye,"
whence the weapon was called Quern biter. It was
the best sword that ever came to Norway and
Hakon kept it until his death day [lb., ch. xlii.
and xliii.).

After reporting how well filled his quiver was
with children and speaking of his later days, Ari
says that King Harald sat at home in his own
land enjoying good peace and plenteous seasons
(Op. cit., ch. 26).

This does not mean that he had no troubles.
The great king had had a successful career and
was the most notable ruler in Europe of his time.
He had conquered and consolidated a great king-
dom and beaten or driven away all his enemies,
but like other great conquerors, troubles accumu-
lated in his own family whio^ were harder to face.
His quiver no doubt was full, and he w^as proud
of it, but the weapons it contained began to be
menacing. The fact is that for the most part his
various wives continued to live among their own

1

Harald Fairhair "

217

people and brought up their own sons there. This
was the only feasible plan when a king had many
wives who could not be tr.eated like the shive-wives
among the Mohammedans, where they occupy one
harem and are kept under strict discipline by
truculent eunuchs or an exacting mother-in-law.
Higli-born and high-spirited Scandinavian dames
could not be thus treated.

As is still the fashion among the rich Arabs
each wife had a separate house. The difference
being that in the North these several houses were
not in one place but in the different parts of the
country, each among her own people. For the
most part such marriages were political and
diplomatic and meant to secure the allegiance and
loyalty of powerful families. It was perhaps only
in this way that a country so broken by physical
obstacles into separate counties could be tied
together.

This hadj however, its inconveniences, for
having no common home, the king's sons hardly
knew each other and hardly recognized the ties
which bind brothers together who have been
playmates and companions from their nursery.
Jealousies and rivalries and quarrels naturally
arose and each one became the centre of intrigues.
Being of Royal blood, and great personages, they
naturally had expensive households, and often
found that their incomes, which were at first mere
doles and allowances from their father, were not
sufficient for their needs and ambitions.

. Ari says that some of them had become riotous,
and in some cases hr ^ driven out the iarls, and in
others killed them. As I have said, the great king
was baffled when he tried to rule his own household
in which the children of several mothers had to be
satisfied. They struggled with each other for their

2 1 8 Saga-Book of the Viking Society,

father's inhericance, which he had parcelled out
among them in the fashion recognized in the North,
without taking care to. make any one of them
absolutely supreme over the rest. Some of them,
too, whose portions were too scanty for their
ambitions, viewed with great jealousy the domi-
nating position assigned by Harald' to some of his
own administrative officers, the great iarls. They
treated them as not having [)retensions like them-
selves who claimed descent from a long race of
lordly kings.

Thus it came about that his most devoted
counsellor and friend, and the most powerful of
his iarls, the ancestor of the Dukes of Normandy,
namely, Rognwald, iarl of Mere came by his end.
One spring we read that Halfdane Longlegs and
Gudrod Gleam, two of Harald's sons by the
Finnish woman Snowfair, went with a company of
men and surprised the great iarl in his house and
burnt him there with 60 of his men. It will be
remembered that Rognwald had committed a
similar crime on another iarl years before. Gud-
rod thereupon appropriated the possessions of the
iarl while his brother Halfdane took three of his
big ships and sailed into the Western sea.

Kognwald left several sons, more than one of
whom became distinguished. One of them was
named HroUaug. He lived with King Harald for
some time, made a good marriage, and eventu-
ally settled in Iceland. He remained a powerful
person there and continued his friendship for the
King, and he never left Iceland. The king sent
him a good sword, an ale horn, and a gold bracelet
weighing five ounces. The sword became the
property of Kol, son of Hall O'Side, and the horn
was seen by Kolskegg the historian (see the long-
Saga of Olaf Trygvisson, ch. 214).

' ' Hnrald Fairhair " 219

When King Harakl heard what had happened
he was naturally enraged with his sons and went
with a great force against Gudrod, who had
appropriated the dead iarl's reahii and who at once
submitted. His father sent him eastward into
Agder, and he made over the iarldom of Mere to
Thorir, called the Silent, son of Kognwald, and
gave him his own daughter Alof in marriage.

Meanwhile Halfdane, as we have seen, went
westward to the Orkneys, where he was murdered.

We must now revert for a few paragraphs to
the story of those islands. We have seen how
Harald had made Sigurd, son of Rognwald,
iarl. He there associated himself with Thorstein
the Red, the son of Olaf the White, of whose
probable death at Hafrsfiord 1 have already
spoken. The two harried in Scotland and con-
quered Sutherland and ('aithness, as far as the
Eikkjel which separates Ross from Sutherland. (In
the Orkney Saga, Moray and Ross are also named,
but these were apparently later conquests). In this
war they fought against the Scotch iarl, Melbricta
or Melbriga. The account in the Flatey-bok and
the Orkneyinga Saga, says that they had agreed
to meet at a certain place, with 40 men on
horseback on each side, in order to settle their
difference. Sigurd, who suspected some treachery
on the part of the Scots, mounted 80 men on his
40 horses. Melbricta noticed this and said to his
men : "I see two legs on each side of each horse ''
and he at once determined to fight. Sigurd told
half of his men to dismount and attack them from
behind, while those who were mounted were
to charge them in front. Presently Melbricta fell,
and with him all his men. Sigurd fastened the
head of the Scotch iarl to his saddle bow and thus

220 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

rode home. Meanwhile, when spurring his horse,
lie struck his leg against a projecting tooth of
Melbricta (whence his soubriquet of Tonn or the
Toothed). The wound proved serious and he died
of it and, says the Saga, he was buried in a mound
at Ekkjalsbakki. Anderson, in his edition of the
Orkneyinga Saga, identifies it with a mound on
the Dornoch firth. Skene argues against this and
would identify the place as near Forres, and would
even equate the famous sculptured pillar there and
known as '' Sweno's Stone " with Sigurd's monu-
ment. On one side are two figures engaged in
friendly conversation, and above, a cross with the
usual network ornamentation ; on the other side is
a representation, difficult to make out, of a number
of men engaged in Council and behind is a building
or fortification, above which is a party of men
at full gallop followed by foot soldiers with bows
and arrows. Above again is a leader with a man's
head hanging to his girdle followed by three
trumpeters sounding for victory and surrounded
by decapitated bodies and human heads ; above
again is a party seizing a man in a Scotch dress,
and below another party, one of whom is cutting
off another man's head ; above all is a leader
followed by seven men. The correspondence of
these sculptures with the incidents in the tale is
striking (Skene's Celtic Scotland, i. 337 — 8, and
notes).

Sigurd was succeeded as iarl by his son
Guthorm "who ruled the land for one winter and
then died childless," whereupon his patrimony as
iarl was seized by several Danes and Northmen
Harald Fairhair's Saga, xxii.). When Kognwald the
iarl of Mere heard of the death of his brother and
nephew, and what had become of their lands, he
sent his son Hallad. who received the title of iarl,

''^ Har aid Fair hair ^' 221

and took a large number of men with him and
settled them at Hrossey, but the Vikings in the
islands landed on different nesses or headlands,
and ravaged the land, killing the cattle, until Hallad
grew weaiy, relinquished his title as iarl, and again
became a franklin, much to the chagrin of his
father [lb., ch. xxvii.). In the Orkneyinga Saga
the names of two of the Vikings are mentioned
who then occupied the late iarl's lands, namely,
Thorir Woodbeard and Kalf Scurvy.

Rognwald then summoned his three elder sons,
who were base born : To Thorir, he said he could
not spare him, his career must be at home ; to
Hrollaug, that his future would be in Iceland,
where he prophesied he would become famous.
The third and youngest son, Einar, is then reported
to have spoken to his father and said : '' Wilt thou
that I go ? I will promise thee in that case that
which will be most welcome to thee, that I will
never again come into thy eyesight, nor have I
much here to live upon." The grim iarl replied :
" Thou art not a very fitting person to become a
chief, for thou art thrall-born on all sides, but it
is true I w^ould gladly see thee go, and hope thou
wilt not return." liognwald gave him a ship, with
20 benches, fully manned, and King Harald gave
him the title of iarl.

He sailed West to Shetland, where he was
joined by a number of people, and then went on to
the Orkneys, and proceeded to attack Kalf and his
companion. A battle followed, in which both the
Vikings fell. Einar was a tall man and ugly, and
one-eyed, and yet very sharp sighted (Orkneyinga
Saga, ch. vi.).

It was reported that he was called Turf Einar,
because he was apparently the first Norwegian to

222 Saga- Book of the Viking Society,

use turf for fires in Torf Ness, there being no wood
in the Orkneys. We shall return to him presently.

I described on an earlier page the murder of
the greut iarl Kognwald by Harald's two sons, and
how thereupon one of them, Hnlfdane Longlegs,
went westward to the Orkneys — a daring journey,
since those islands were then in the hands of the
son of the murdered chief On his arrival some of
the settlers there joined him and became his liege-
men, but Einar fled into Scotland. Halfdane sub-
dued the islands and made himself King of them.
The same year Einar returned and a great battle was
fought, in which the latter gained the victory and
Halfdane jumped overboard. Thereupon Einar
sang a song, in which he reproached his brothers
for not having taken vengeance on their father's
murderers, and specially attacks Thorir for sitting
mute over his mead cups in Mere.

Next morning they went to look for runaway
men among the islands and all they caught were at
once slain. Looking towards feinansey, Einar
said he saw something that stood up and then
laid down, and it must be either a bird or a man.
They went to see and there they found Halfdane
Longlegs. Einar made them carve an eagle on
his back with a sword and cut the ribs through
from the backbone, and drew the lungs through
the cuts, and made an offering of the whole to
Odin for the victory he had won. Vigfusson and
Powell seem to throw some doubts on this.
I think with little reason. The particular penalty
of making a spread eagle on an enemy's back was
common in Viking times, and we must remember
that Einar was revenging the very ruthless murder
of his own father. Several of the latter's verses on
his victory are reported in the Orkneyinga Saga.
Some of the lines are vigorous. In them, inter alia^

"■ Harald Fair hair''

223

I

he claimed to have hewn a hole in Plarald's shield,
which no one could gainsay. He gloated over his
victory, and the feast he had given the falcons and
carrion birds. '' Cast the stones," he says, ** over
Longlegs," i.e., pile them on his grave, *'for we have
got the victory. It was with hard money I paid
him taxes. I know that a good many men are
seeking my life, but they cannot know until I am
dead whether it will be I or they who will feed the
eagles" (see V. & P., Corp., Poet Bor., i. 371 and
372).

On the news of Halfdane's murder reaching
Harald, in Norw^ay, he called out his men and set
out for the West to revenge him. As soon as he
heard of the king's approach iarl Einar fled to
Caithness. Harald doubted the policy, or perhaps
the possibility of waylaying him, and it was
arranged that they should come to a parley, at
which Einar and the people of the Orkneys agreed
to pay 60 marks of gold as a blood penalty for the
outrage they had committed. The bonders or
farmers deemed the fine altogether excessive, so
Einer agreed to pay it himself on condition that all
the odal or tax-free lands in the islands were made
over (or perhaps rather became taxable) to him.
This they consented to do, for the poor people had
but little land while the rich hoped to redeem their
property again. After this Harald returned to
Norway.

Meanwhile another tragedy happened to
another of Harald's sons. We have seen how
much he was helped in his earlier days by his
uncle and foster father Guthorm, and how the
latter w^as well rewarded by him. He lived at
Tonsberg, in Westfold, which he administered
as he did the Uplands in Harald's absence (/ft., 21).
We are told he had a good deal of worry in

224 Saga-Book of the Viktug Society,

protecting his charge against the piratical attacks
of the Vikings and the men of Eric Eymundson,
King of Sweden. The latter, we read, died
when Harald had been King of Norway ten years,
and was succeeded as King of Sweden by his son
Biorn (Saga of Harald Fairhair, ch. 29).

It was apparently a few months after this that
Guthorm, ^Iso died " in His bed,"iis it is said in the
Heimskringla, a rare occurrence in those days. We
have seen how his two young sons were drowned
when on their way to join Harald ivide ante).
Guthorm had undertaken the tutelage of Harald's
eldest son, Eric, and had sprinkled water over him
and given him his name. Ari says " he set the lad
on his knee and became his fosterer and had him
away with him into the Vik " {lb., 21). When
the old man died without a male heir Harald
appointed his own son, '' the godson and namesake
of the elder Guthorm," to succeed him as governor
of Westfold and the Uplands {lb., 29). He had
to «:aard the former a^rainst the foravs of the
pirates and used to patrol the skerries round the
coast with his ships. On one occasion, when he lay
in the mouth of the river Elf, Solfi Klofi, of whom
we have heard before, and who had been formerly
severely defeated by King Harald, attacked and
killed him. He was apparently succeeded as ruler
of Viken by his brother Biorn {lb., 38).

Another of Harald's sons, Halfdane the White,
was also killed at this time in a desperate battle
fought between himself and his twin brother
Halfdane the Black in the Eastlands, i.e., in the
lands to the east of the Baltic (op. cit., 33).

Of one of Harald's sons by the Finn woman
Snowfair, named Rognwald Spindleshanks, Ari
has a grim story. He had been given a share of

'* Harald Fatrhair'' 225

Hadaland as an appanage by his fiither and took
to wizardy or magic and working spells, which had
been practised by his Finn mother, and to which
black art Harald was greatly opposed. The
king having heard of a wizard living in Hadaland
called Vitgeir, sent to bid him leave off his
wizardy. He replied in a verse in which he rebuked
the king for restraining him who was only carl-
born by either parent, while his own son Rognwald
was practising the same art in Hadaland. On
hearing this Harald sent his eldest son Eric with a
force to Hadaland where he burnt his brother and
with him 80 wizards {lb., 36).

Wizardy continued to be practised in the
lamily by the son of Rognwald Spindleshanks,
grandson of King Harald, named Eyvind Kelda,
who is described as wealthy, and who was a
wizard. He afterwards came by a tragical end in
the reign of King Olaf Trygvisson (see Saga of
(). T., ch. 195).

Still another of Harald's sons also had a tragical
end at this time, namely, Gudrod Gleam the foster
son of the poet Thiodwolf He was determined to
go in an ill-manned ship northward to Kogaland
when the weather was very rough, nor would he
listen to Thiodwolfs advice to put off his journey
till there was better weather, but set out most
rashly. When he came off Yaderen the ship
foundered and all who were in it perished (Harald
Fairhair's Saga, 37).

Meanwhile Harald in order to stop the struggles
and jealousies of his sons, had to make fresh
provision for them and to give them a higher
status. Hoping to satisfy their ambitions, he
called together a great Thing or Assembly of tlie
South Country, to which he also invited the
Uplanders. At this he gave appanages to several

2 26 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

of them wiili the title of kings and established
that in each case the father should be succeeded
by his son in his kingdom. This title was reserved
for his sons and their descendants, while according
to Harald those who were related to him on the
spindle side (by whom the descendants of his
daughters are probably meant) were to have oidy
the status and name of iarls.

In dividing the kingdom he had assigned Vin-
gulmark, Raumariki, Westfold and Thelemark to
Olaf, Biorn, Sigtrygg, Frothi and Thorgils. Heath-
mark and Gudbrandsdale he gave to Dag, King,
and Kagnar. Ringariki, Had aland, Thoten, and
all that pertained to them he gave to the sons of
Snowfair, Sigurd Brushwood and Halfdane Long-
legs. The latter was afterwards killed, in the West,
as we have seen, by Torf Einar, iarl of Orkney, but
Sigurd retained his kingdom in Ringariki. There
he was succeeded by his son Halfdane, and he by
his son Sigurd, who married the widow of King
Harald the Grenlander, named Asta. They were
both baptized at the instance of King Olaf Tryg-
visson, as was their boy Olaf, who was named after
the great King Olaf himself (see the long Saga
of King O. T., ch. 194) To Guthorm Harald gave
Ranriki that is, all the countrv from the river Gotha
Elf to Swinesund, and doubtless called after iarl
Rani the Gothlander, who had governed it for the
Swedish king.

Harald chiefly made his home in the middle of
the land, namely, Rogaland and Hordaland. His
sons Rorek and Gudrod always lived with their
father but held great bailiwicks or appanages in
Hordaland and Sogn. The far-north province of
Throndheim Harald gave to his sons Halfdane the
Black, Halfdane the White, and Sigrod. To Eric,
his favourite son (whose mother was the Jutish

'•'' Hat aid Fair hair'" 227

princess, Ragnhild the Mighty, who he meant
to succeed him as Overlord of the whole State,
and who also lived continually with him), he gave
as a special appanage Halogaland, Northmere and
Kaumsdale.

The dues in each of these petty kingdoms
were divided between himself and his sons in
equal parts, while they had a place on the high seat
higher than the iarls, but lower than his own. Ari
remarks, in regard to HarakVs own high seat, that
each one of his sons hoped some day " to sit in the
seat which Harald had selected for Eric." On the
other hand the Throndheim people, probably the
most wealthy in the realm and whose country was
planted in the very midst of that which was given
as a special appanage to Eric, were determined
that their special king, Halfdane the Black, should
presently sit on the high throne.

In regard to this Halfdane, who, as we
have seen, had destroyed his twin brother in
a fight, we read elsewhere that when his other
brother. King Eric, was ''guesting" (z*.^., being
entertained) at Solvi, inside of Agdaness, Half-
dane hastened thither with "a host" and cap-
tured and burnt the house he was living in, with
all its inmates, but Eric was luckily sleeping in
an outbuilding with four of his men and escaped.
He went to his father and gave him an account
of the outrage. The old man was very wroth
and led a fleet against the Throndheimers. He
lay with his men by Reinsletta, in the parish
of Rissen, on the northern side of the outer
Throndheim fiord. Halfdane on his side summoned
his men and ships and put out to Stadr, inside of
ThorsclifF; Magnussen says of it, '*now Stadshyg-
den, in the district of Fosen, in North Throndheim."
The position was no doubt very serious, and we are

2 28 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

told that certain people intervened between father
and son. Among them was one called Guthorm,
named Cinder, a skald or poet. He was now w^ith
Halfdane, and had formerly written for them
both, and had been offered a reward by them. He
had refused the gifts, but said he might sometime
ask them a boon instead. This he now claimed,
and it was that the two chiefs should make
peace with one another, while other noblemen
also intervened. Father and son consented to do
so. Halfdane remained king in Throndheim and
undertook not to molest his brother. Jorun, the
female skald, made a poem on this quarrel, of
which a stanza is preserved in the Heimskringla
(Harald Fairhair's Saga, ch. xxxix : see also
V. and P., Corp. Poet. Bor., ii. 29).

To two of his sons Harald did not give lands,
but ships, namely, Thorgils and Fiothi, and they
w^ent harrying out to the West, to Scotland, Wales,
and Ireland. It was reported that Frothi was
poisoned there, while Thorgils i-eigned for a long
time over the Dublin people and eventually died
there^ (Harald's Saga, ch. 35).

Turning to the troubles caused by the local
jealousies of the different sections of the realm, we
are told, the people of Vik and the Uplands also
had different views to the Throndheimers in regard
to their choice of their future rulers. " Whence,"
says Ari, '' there waxed dissension anew amidst
the brethren." The fact is that apart from the am-
bitions of various princes there underlay a strong
element of disruption in the position itself The
local differences of custom, descent and dialect,
with the different loyalties and prejudices of the

* In the Heimskringla it is said that he was the first Viking who
possessed Dublin, but this is a mistake, Its founder was Olaf the White
in 852.

** Ha raid Fair hair

229

various communites caused a great cleavage ainon^
them. They liad been separated by natural
bari'iers from early days. A strong and powerful
personality like Harald had succeeded in uniting
them for a while by artificial ties into a whole, but
it took a long time and many struggles to weld
I hem into a leal union. The history of early
England, of France, Germany, and Italy, afford
abundant examples to illustrate the problem as it
occurred in Early Norway.

While Harald gave a number of his sons ap-
panages with the distinction of • being entitled
kings, and of receiving a royal income, he reserved
a large part of the administration of the country
in his own hands, and it continued to be conti'olled
by his iarls or deputies. Ke appointed that there
should be a iarl over each folkland or county and
gave him the control of justice and the right to
collect fines and land taxes in his special govern-
ment. Each iarl was also to have a third of the
''skatt" or royal revenue and of the dues, for his
board and other costs of living. He was to have
under him four or more officials called hersirs, each
of whom was to have 20 marks for his main-
tenance. Each iarl was to bring 60 men-at-arms to
the king's host at his own cost, and each hersir
w^as to bring 20. Harald had so managed the
finances (no doubt by increasing the taxes and
dues) that his iarls had more wealth and weight
than the kings formerly had (/^., ch. vi). We are
told by Ari that the regulation just described
endured for a long time (Long Saga of Olaf Tryg-
visson, ch. 1.).

The hersirs were set over the administrative
districts called herads or hundreds, whence their
name. Each originally probably consisted of a
hundred families. Their position was apparently

230 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

heriditary, thus the hersir Erling on being offered
a iarldom by his brother-in-law King Olaf Tryg-
visson replied : " Hersirs have all my kindred
been, nor will I have a higher name than they,
but this I will take of thee, King, that thou
make me the highest of that title here in the land."
To this the king consented and gave him control
of the dominion south away, between Sognfirth and
East Lidandisness, the most northern part of North
Agder, in such wise as Harald Fairhair had given it
to his sons (Heimskringla, Saga of Olaf Trygvisson,
ch. Ixiv). The hersir seems to have combined the
offices of war commander and chief priest of his
district. Of one of these hersirs^ called Gudbrand
of the Dales, Ari says he was as a king in the
Dales though he only bore the title of Hersir
(Saga of Olaf the Saint, ch. cxviii.) The mode of
investiture for iarls and hersirs adopted by Harald
was followed ,by his successor (see Magnusson,
iv., p. 94). We have described it in the case of iarl
Hrollaug of Naumdale. The order of precedence
of sub-kings and iarls was determined by the
position each one occupied on state occasions, when
the king sat on his throne, the under kings or folk
kings on the second step and the iarls on the third
one. One of Harald's most important regulations
was the compelling all franklins or free men to pay
him dues. This was a very unpopular regulation
but it lasted until the days of Hakon the Good
who gave back to the freeborn bonders the odal
rights w^hich King Harald had taken from them
(Saga of Hakon the Good, 1).

The great king was now an old man in strength
and vigour as well as in years, for he had spent
himself without stint all his life, and his feet, we
are told, were heavy so that he could not travel to
and fro as he was once wont, nor could he look

'^ Harald Fair hair'' 231

after State affairs witli the same skill, so lie [)ut his
son Ei'ic on his high seat and gave him dominion
over the land (Saga of Harald Fairhair, ch. 44).
How uneasy that seat proved, we shall see presently.

^_Harald lived for three years after he had given
over the realm to Eric, and eventually died in his
bed in Kogaland and was buried in the howe, by
Kormtsound, that is the waterway separating the
island of Kormt fiom the Mainland and there a
memorial monument of granite was erected to him
in 1872.

" In Howe Sound," says Ari, " a church standeth
to this day and just to the north-west of the church-
yard lies the howe of King Harald Haarfagre, but
west of the church lies the stone wdiich lay over
the king's grave in the Mound, and the stone was
thirteen feet and a half long and nearly two ells
broad. In the middle of the howe was the grave
of King Harald, and one stone was set at the head
and the other at the feet, and on the top was laid a
flat stone^ while a wall of stones was built below
it on either side, but these stones, which were once
in the howe, are now in the churchyard." This
shows how very soon the grave of the. Mighty
King was dismantled.

All men agreed, says Ari, that King Harald was
the handsomest man recorded, the biggest and
strongest, the most bounteous of his wealth, and
the friendliest to his men. The common report
went that the great tree which his mother saw in
her dream foreshadowed his life and his deeds, for
the lower half was red as with blood, and thence
upwards for a span it was fair and green, which
pictured the flourishing of his realm, while the top
was white, betokening the great age and hoary
hairs he would see. The boughs and branches
represented his widespread descendants (16., ch. 45).

2^2 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

The internecine struggles of Harald's sons no
doubt (as civil strife inevitably does) caused a great
spread of lawlessness, cruelty and utter disregard
for life, and I am tempted to again refer to that
excellent storehouse of accredited facts, the Egil's
Saga, for two striking examples of the anarchy that
ensued. They also throw considerable light on the
common law relating to property and its succession
at this time. The first one is not quite so ruthless
as the other. They are .both reported in the
Landnama-bok. The first one refers to a certain
Ketilbiorn, a nobleman in Naumdale, son of Ketil
and of Asa the daughter of iarl Hakon, Griotgard's
son, who married Helga the daughter of Thord
Skeggie. He went to Iceland, when its maritime
part was widely settled, in a ship called Eilida, and
stayed the first winter with his father-in-law. In
the spring he set out to find a suitable place to
settle in. They had a sleeping place and built
a Hall, says Tait, at a place called Hallbrink in
Blue shaw. His children were Tait and Thormod
(Diarnjaed), Thorleit and Ketil, Thorkatla and
Ordleif, Thorgedr and Thordr. Five of them, it
will be noted, had names compounded with the
name Thor. He was so rich in money, says Ari,
that he bade his sons cast a crossbeam of silver for
the temple that they were about to build. This they
would not do. He then drove with the silver up
onto the fell with the aid of two oxon, and went with
Hake, his thrall, and Bot, his bondwoman. They
buried the treasure there " so that it has never been
found since." No doubt to secure the secret being
kept, Ketilbiorn killed Hake at Hake-pass and
Bot at Bot-pass. Many great men, we are told,
were descended from Ketilbiorn. The names are
recorded of two of his great grandsons, and a great
great grandson, who became bishops (16., v. 14,
.1-4).

^* Marald P'airhair^' 233

The second story, also from the great Domes-
day book of the North, illustrates the savage
and cruel methods which justice pursued in
King Harald's days. Biorn was the name of a
nobleman in Gothland, the son of Hrodwolf-a-
River. His wife was Hlifa,' daughter of Hrodwolf,
the son of Ingiald, the son of Frothi. Starcad the
Old was poet to the two last-named personages.
Their son was Eyvind. Biorn had a quarrel with
Sigfast, father-in-law of Solwar, a iarl of the
Goths, by whose help he kept possession of all
Biorn's lands by force. Biorn then settled all his
lands and goods in Gothland upon his wife Hilda,
and his son Eywind. He then burnt Sigfast in his
house and set out westward for Norway with
12 men, and 12 horses laden with silver, and went
to Grim the herse, who lived at Agd in Hwin,
now Kvinesdalen, through which the river Hwin in
Agder Hows (Magnusson, iv., 258). Biorn and his
companions were well received, and stayed with
Grim during the winter, but presently, tempted by
his wealth, the latter hired a man to assassinate him,
who failed. Biorn then left and went to stay with
Ondott Crow, the son of Erling Knit, who lived at
Hwin-firth in Agd, with whom he stayed when not
engaged in a Viking's life. At that time Biorn's
wife Hlifa died in Gothland, and he then married
Helga, Ondott's sister, by whom he had a son
called Thrond the Far Sailer. Presently Eyvind,
his elder son by Hlifa, came from Gothland and
took over his father's warship, and continued the
latter's pursuit as a Viking. He was known as "the
Eastman " because he had come from Gothland.
Soon after Biorn died in Ondott's house. Thereupon
Grim claimed that he ought to take charge of all
his property, since he was a foreigner (he was, of
course, a Goth), while his son was away in the

^^34 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

West, but Ondott kept the inheritance on behalf of
Biorn's younger son Thrond, his own nephew (//>.,
iii. 13, 1 and 2). Meanwhile Thrond, who had
been raiding in the Sudereys, returned home and
took over the moveable assets of his father Biorn,
and sailed with them fox Iceland.

Ondott's homestead stood near the sea near
Ingialdsby. Grim lived close by. One night as
Ondott was cutting wood in the copse, for the
brewing preparatory to the Yule feast, Orim came
upon him and killed him in the king's name, and
four men with him. Thereupon Ondott's widow
put all his goods and chattels on a long ship and
set out, with her two young sons, Asmund and
Asgrim, and all her housecarls. She herself went to
her father, Sigh vat, while her sons were sent to take
shelter with her foster-son, Hedin, in Sokendale, who
hid them. Grim pursued, and came upon her ship,
which he ransacked, but could not find the boys,
who reached Hedin's house in safety. Grim and
his men went after them. He met one of Hedin's
sons in the wood, and inquired about the boys, but
he pretended to be witless. Presently he met
another son, and offered him half-a-hundred pieces
of silver money to say where the boys were. He
gave his father the money and told him all about
it, but did not return to Grim. The latter suspected
that the man who had got his money would betray
him so he went home again. The two boys lived
hidden in an underground house with Hedin till the
harvest came. They then set out to go to their
grandfather, Sighvat. The ground was frozen hard,
and they were shoeless, and lost their way, and
they presently reached a homestead which they did
not recognize at first, but presently realised that it
was a house their father Ondott had built. They
thought they would not be safe there, so went to

" Harald Pairhair " ^35

that of one called Ingiald near by, and were con-
cealed by him and his wife, and remained there for
the winter, meanwhile passing by other names.

Next summer Grim was entertaining King
Harald's iarl, called Eadwine. After the feast the
two sons of Ondott just named set fire to Grim's house
and burnt him in it, and taking Ingiald's boat, rowed
away to the islands in the fiord of Hwin. When
they landed they heard men talking in the house
who had been with Eadwine on his cruise. They
returned to the mainland, where they saw the iarl's
smack lying afloat under awnings. They went to
the hall, where they learnt he was sleeping, with
two men on guard. Asgrim, one of the boys,
seized the men and held them while his brother
entered the hall and put the point of his spear to
Eadwine's breast and demanded the wehrgeld, or
blood money, for his father's murder. Thereupon
the iarl gave him three golden bracelets and a
finely woven mantle. He was dubbed a goat (i.e., a
coward) by Asgrim for thus surrendering. The two
brothers then rushed down to the sea, where they
spread the mantle on the water to make believe they
were dead, and thus misled their pursuers. Presently
they got separated. Asgrim went on to Surn-
dale, and northwards round Stimr, a promontory
between Naumdale and Northmere, where dwelt a
landowner or thane called Eric Aulfus and
another thane called Hallstan Stred, who were
keeping Yuletide, and who bade them welcome,
but Hallstan struck Asgrim with a drinking
horn, probably in a drunken revel. Asgrim in
turn wounded his assailant (who presently died
of the injury), and then fied to the woods, and
was pursued by Hallstan's men, and was wounded
sorely as he was crossing a river in the frost. He
presently found shelter and was hidden away by an

236 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

old woman. Ari tells us she killed an animal and
took out its entrails, and laid them on Asgrim's
body, to make believe he was dead, and so deceived
the pursuers. Fancying he was no more, they
went home again, while the old woman kept him in
hiding in an underground house till she had cured
him. His brother, also thinking him dead, went to
Iceland. Presently Eric Aulfus, above named,
gave Asgrim a long ship with 30 benches, and he
took to buccaneering for some summers.

Meanwhile King Harald put a price on his
head, and sent Thorgir, Grim's sister's son, with
two warships to secure his head. He failed to
catch him, and then w^ent to Iceland to seize his
brother. Both eventually settled in Iceland (Ih.,
iii. 15, "pasdm).

We can hardly realise what a drain upon the
thinly-peopled Norwegian land must have been
caused by the reckless slaughtering of so many of
its people in the fashion here described, in which
the victims suffered mainly as the result of firing
the great halls, when everybody inside, men, women
and children, guests and slaves, perished together.
This was largely matched by the toll of the sea
caused by the losses in the predatory raids in the
wild weather round the North Sea and the Irish
Channel.

The ruthlessness of the incidents of the story
proves how necessary a strong hand was in such
times, and Harald had no scruples whatever, in
fact, in having any person who deliberately dis-
obeyed him killed, nor were his victims always
cowed. We read of one of them who himself killed
three of Harald's reeves and then fied to Iceland.

In a later page we have a notice shewing that
it was Harald's intention to subdue Iceland. We

** Harnld Fairhair " 237

are told his agent in the work was a certain
Une the Unborn {i.e., say the editors, the
posthumous, or Caesarian) ; he was the son of Gard-
here, who had first discovered Iceland. He went
there with the intention of conquering it, under
Haral-d's patronage, and the king promised to make
him its iarl if he did so. After several unlucky
attempts to secure support, he was killed in a
quarrel (Landnama-bok, iv. 6, 7).

^•-^he imposition of taxes was resisted by the old
Norwegian freeholders, or odallers, with great
pertinacity. Thus we read that King Harald sent
Thororm, his kinsman out of Thrum, in Agd, to
get in scatt or tax which he had demanded from
Asgrim, son of a mighty hersir, in Thelemark.
Asgrim would not pay, though he had shortly
before sent the king a present of a Gothic horse
and much silver, saying it was a gift, but not a tax,
for he had never paid skatt before. The king sent
the money back and would not receive it. Presently
Thororm came again to gather the tax, whereupon
Asgrim summoned a moot and asked the franklins
or free men if they wished to pay the impost.
They, of course, said they did not wish to pay.
The moot was held near a wood, and a slave of
Thororm rushed out and killed Asgrim, whereupon
the murderer was at once slain b}' the freemen.
When Thorstan, Asgrim's son, heard of this he
was away " warring," and on his return he
sold his lands for silver and made ready to go to
Iceland, but before he set out he burnt Thororm in
his house in Thrum, and thus revenged his father.
The climax of these tragedies is made more grim
by the fact that Asgrim, when his son Thorstan
was born, had ordered him to be exposed, i.e, to be
put out to die. The thrall who was to dig the grave
was sharpening his spade, and the boy was already

V

238 Saga-Book of the Viking Sccteiy.

laid out on the floor, when they all heard him recite
these lines : —

Give me to my mother, the floor is cold for me,

Where should a child be better, than by his mother's

hearth ?
No need to put an edge on the iron, nor to shear the

strips of turf.
Let the wicked work cease ; for I shall yet live among men.

When the boy was sprinkled with water they called
him Thorstan (/^., i. 8, 2). After he had settled
in Iceland, a ship came to the mouth of the
Bang river, in which was a great sickness,
and no man would take the travellers in, but
Thorstan went and fetched them, and pitched
tents for them at the place afterwards called the
Tialda-stader (Tilt booths), and ministered to them
himself as long as they lived, but they all eventually
died (76. , v. 8, 5). This incident marks an amiable
side of- the old Norwegian life at this time, of which
samples are seldom recorded.

About the home life of King Harald we know
little and should like to know more. We are told
by Ari that, in his latter days, he often abode in his
great manors.*

A few picturesque details about him are pre-
served in a unique, but cruelly mutilated poem,
written by a contemporary of the king who was a
close friend of his, Hornklofi, which enable us just
to peep into his home doings. It is in the form
of a dialogue between a Eaven and a Walkyrie, or
perhaps a Finnish wise woman. A Walkyrie was
a kind of compound of Minerva and a witch who

* In Hordland was Alrek-stead, now called Aarstad, a short distance
south-east of Bergen (Magnussen, op. cit., iv., 240). On the western or
Boknfirth end of an island of the same name, now called Utensteno or
Utsten (76., 270) was another of these houses. Another was at Seaham
(now called Seim, on the north side of the Ostero (76., 275) and another
at Ogvaldsness on the N.E. side of the large island of Kormt, the south
ei^d of which is watered by the mouth of the Boknfirth,

* ' Harald Fairhair " 239

could ride through the air on a super-natural horse,
who selected those entitled to enjoy the rewards of
heroism in another world, and apparently directed
and shaped the fortunes of men. The Kaven
represents the poet himself, whose surname was
Hornkloii, or Hardbeaked. The poem is worth
quoting at length, and I have adopted Vigfusson
and Powell's translation : —

" Listen ye warriors while I tell the feats of arms of
Harald the fortunate. I will tell of a parley I heard between
a fair and bright-eyed maiden and a raven. She seemed a
wise walkyrie that despised wedlock, a keen Finnish maid
that knew the tongue of birds. The white- throated lady
spoke to the rover of the sky with the quick eyelids, as he sat
on a peak of Wincrag.

'"How is it with you ravens, whence have ye come with
gory beak at the dawning of the day ? There is flesh cleaving
to your talons and a carrion's stench comes from your mouth.
You lodged last night I ween, where the corpses are lying.

" Thereupon the poll-feathered sworn-brother of the eagle
shook himself and wiped his beak, and thought of an answer.
We have followed the young Yngling Harald, the son of
Halfdane, ever since we left the egg. I thought thou must
know the king that dwells at Kwinnom,* the lord of the North-
men. He has many a deep keel, with reddened targets and
red shields, tarred oars and snow-white awnings. The eager
prince would drink his Yule at sea and play Frey's game
\i.e.^ war) if he had his will. From his youth up he loathed
sitting indoors beside the hearth, in the warm bower on the
bolster full of down.

" Quoth the Walkyrie : How does the generous prince
deal with the brave men who guard his land ?

'' Quoth the Raven : They are well cared for, the
warriors who throw dice in Harald's court, they are endowed
with wealth and fair swords, with the ore of the Huns (i.e.,
gold), and with maids from the East. They are glad when
there is a hope of a battle. They will leap up in hot haste

* On this name Vigfusson has a note. He says "Kvinnom," no
doubt the present Quind-herred, Hardanger (Rosendal). Ahhough never
named in the King's Lives, which always speak of Alrekstad near
Bergen it must have been a favourite residence of the kings, being a
central place in the Viking time — C.P.B-. i- 5^9.

240 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

and ply the oars with hot haste, snapping the oar thongs and
cracking the tholes. Fiercely I ween do they churn the water
with their oars at the king's bidding.

Quoth the Walkyrie : About the poets, how fare they.
Thou must know well how the minstrels fare who live with
Harald ?

Quoth the Raven : Their good cheer and their gold
bracelets show well that they are among the king's friends.
They have red cloaks, gaily fringed, silver mounted swords
and ring-woven coats of mail, gilt trappings, graven helmets,
and wrist-fitting rings, the gift of Harald.

" Quoth the Walkyrie : I will next ask thee, thou blood-
drinker, how live the Bareserks.* How are the men, daring
in war, who rush into the fight treated ?

" Quoth the Raven : Wolfcoats they call them, and carry
bloody targets in battle. They redden their spear heads when
they rush into the fight, where they work together. The wise
king only enrols men of high renown among those who smite
upon the shield.

" Quoth the Walkyrie : What of the tumblers and
players.! What is the treatment of Andad and his company
in Harald's house ?

'* Quoth the Raven : Andad dandles his crop-eared dog
and plays the fool, making the king laugh. There are others
who carry burning wooden chips across the fire, tucking their
flaming shock-locks under their belts.

Quoth the Walkyrie : Didst thou hear how, at Hafrs-
fiord, the high-horn king fought with Kiotvan the Wealthy ?

Quoth the Raven : Ships came from the West, ready for
war, with grinning heads and carved beaks. They were laden
with warriors, with white shields, with Western spears and
Welsh {i.e., Western) swords. They tried their strength

* Vigfusson in his note says that while Baresarks is the generic
name, Wolfcoats refers specifically to Harald's own bodyguard. In each
case derived from the skins of the wild beasts which they wore. He
aptly quotes the fact that the Aquilifer or eagle-bearer of a Roman
legion — answering to the drum-major in a modern regiment — wore a
wolfs skin (lb. 257).

t Vigfusson & Powell suggest that this Court buffoonery and
juggling was probably brought back by Harald from his Western
journey. In the Irish story of Cuchullin and in the Senchus Mor, quoit
hurling and keeping balls and knives in the air together are mentioned,
find the whole has the air of the Irish Couit life [lb., 530).

'' Harald Fairhair'' 241

against the eager king, the Lord of the Eastman, who dwells
at Outstone, and he taught them how to flee. The king
launched his ship where he spied the battle. The Bare-
sarks roared in the midst of the fight, the Wolfcoats howled
and shook the iron, i.e., their spears. There was a hammering
on bucklers ere Haklang fell. The thick-necked king
(Haklang) could not keep his land against Shockhead Harald.
He put the island between them as a shield. The wounded
threw themselves down beneath the bench. They turned
their backs up and jammed their heads down to the keel. The
cunning ones let their shields shine on their backs as they
were pelted with stones. The Eastern fellowship, i.e., the
allies of the confederated Vikings, ran along the shore of
Yader, away from Hafrsfiord, thinking of their mead at
home, corpses lay on the sand there, a present for the one-
eyed husband of Frigga {i.e., Odin). We [i.e., the Ravens)
rejoiced at such a deed of fame (C.P.B., i. 255 — 259).

Quoth the Raven (when the Walkyrie asked him of
Harald's wife) : He scorned the Holm-rygians and the
maidens of the Hords, of the Heins and the race of Halgo-
land. The high-born king took a Danish wife. Ye
bondmaids of Ragnhild (the Queen), that proud woman, shall
have other things to gossip over at their cups than that ye be
slavewomen that Harald has starved "

Thus ends a broken line and a cryptic sentence.
This splendid poem is unmatched in Northern
poetry, in its fresh, unconventional imagery, and
condensed strength. The sharp cut words read
like flashes from a flint when struck by steel, and
have a biting grip, which is the character oi the
dialogues in Northern stories.

Returning to Harald and his later days. It was
a tragical conclusion to a great career when the
old king having spent his life in integrating the
broken fragments of Norway into a compact whole
in his own firm grip, should in his latter days have
undone so much of his work by once more dividing
it into fragments at deadly feud with each other, and
that his blood should have run out and his heritage
have passed into another stock, notwithstanding the
numerous progeny he had left. It might otherwise

242 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

have initiated a new era in Norwegian history. It
would require the pathos and splendid diction of a
Greek tragedian like Aeschylus to do adequate
justice to such a theme. To his people he became
a type of the highest kind of leader. Ari reports
the opinion of an old warrior called Egil Woolserk,
who had once been bigger and stronger than any of
his men, and had long borne King Harald's banner.
He thus apostrophises his master's masculine
virtues. Addressing his son Hakon, who had
become King of Norway, he says :— '' I have been
in battles with thy father. While at times he
fought with great foes and at other times with
lesser ones, he had always the victory. Nor did
I ever hear him seek counsel of his friends to teach
him how to flee (Saga of Hakon the Good,
ch. xxiii.).

Thus again spake the proud and boastful
Swedish King Olaf of him : — " In Norway are but
little dwellings and far sundered, and there have
been but kinglets. But Harald Fairhair was the
great king in the land, and he had to do with kings
of the folk-lands and broke them down under him ;
yet he knew what was well for him, and did not
covet the Swede King's realm, and for that reason
the Swede Kings let him rest in peace, and there
was kinship between them."

I will conclude with a few words from my
old friend, who died too early, and was such a
picturesque and gifted person, York Powell, which
may well close my paper : — " The impression
left upon one's mind," he says, " by reading the
Book of Settlement and Fairhair's Battles, is
that before his day Norway was a land of loosely
organized folk-kingdoms, an anarchy rather than
a heptarchy, save in the South, where, as Ari
tells us, under Halfdane the Black and perhaps

^^ Harald Fairhair'' 243

earlier, there was a well-organised nucleus, strong,
compact, and orderly, a small league, we take it, of
folk tribes round Heaths*vi-Moot by the Vik.
Harald Fairhair, in fact, starts as head of the best
organised state in Norway — the only compound
state — which was ruled by one king, and he wins
folk-kingdom after folk-kingdom, and governs them
by his sons, as other conquerors have done,
but ever keeping a strict eye to their good rule and
peace-keeping. The only time that Harald is in
danger, through all his task of conquest, is when
he meets the war leagues of Kings and Western
Vikings he beat at Hafrsfiord, after a struggle of
the most desperate kind. But this victory was the
keystone of his power. His kingdom was never
after in jeopardy and he was able, by his expedition
to the West, to force the great part of the Con-
federation that had fought against him at Hafrs-
fiord to leave the western islands for the Northern
colony " (Corp. Poet., ii. 498).

Harald Fairhair had eight wives, respectively
named : —

Asa, daughter of iarl Hakon, by whom he had four sons —

Guthorm, Halfdane the Black, Halfdane the White,

and Sigfrod (or Sigrod).
Gyda, daughter of King Eric of Hordaland, by whom be

had a daughter and four sons — Alof, Rorek, Sigtrygg,

Frodi, and Thorgils.
Ragnhild, daughter of King Eric of Jutland, by whom

he had one son — Eric Bloody Axe.
Snowfair, daughter of Swazi the Fair, by whom he had

four sons —Halfdane, Gudrod, Sigurd, Rognwald.
SWANHILD, daughter of King Eystein of Heathmark, by
whom he had four sons — Ragnor,Biorn,01af,Ingigird.
ASHILD, daughter of King Dayson of Ringariki, by whom

he had three sons — Day or Dag, Ring, Gudrod.
Thora Most-Staff, by whom he had one son — Hakon

the Good.
Besides these children, Harald had a daughter, Ingibiorg,

whose mother is unknown.

244 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

NOTE I.

The earliest historical records of Scandinavia, as in other
countries, were doubtless the poems and prose tales in which the
pedigrees of the chiefs and other notable events were enshrined, and
which the bards and court poets and professed storytellers composed and
committed to memory when prose writing was unknown. Besides these
were lapidary records, which were naturally very short The lack of
more important literature was largely due to the corresponding lack of
materials for writing. It was upon such oral sagas and poems, as we
have seen, that the earliest prose writers of any moment in Norway —
namely, Saemund and Ari — relied.

After the introduction of prose writings these poems were largely
corrupted and forgotten for lack of the trained class of skalds whose
duty it was to preserve them, and they have only reached us in many cases
in a fragmentary way. It was Vigfusson who first carefully analysed the
character and quality of these poems in his great work written jointly
with Yorke Powell, the Corpus Poeticutn Boreale.

Of these poets or bards we have no mention of the actual names
before the reign of Halfdane the Black, one of whose bards,
namely. Andun lUskald. is mentioned in the Egil's Saga. In the
reign of his son Harald we have the names of a galaxy of such
poets recorded. This outburst was coincident with the beginning
of the intercourse of the Norsemen with the Irish, who had a much
older culture, and among whom the composing of epical and other
poems was greatly developed, as was that of composing historic tales.
In regard to the Norse tales Magnusson has given a graphic picture of the
Saga teller's art which I shall not scruple to copy. He says : "The
chief settlers in Iceland were men of high birth who had seen better
days. They left behind lands, homes, kindred, environment ; they took
with them family traditions, family pride, martial mettle, uncurbed
ambition. A dreadful solitude prevailed throughout the land for a long
time while the process of colonization was going on, which lasted for
two-thirds of a century. In the widely-scattered homes the family circle
became the centre of orally-rehearsed family stories during the evenings
of the long winter. These stories were easily learnt by heart by nimble-
minded listeners. They were the first nuclei of the Sagas of Iceland.
They were recited at religious festivals, which were presided over and
conducted by the Temple Godi or priest, at wedding feasts and Thing-
motes, and other popular gatherings. In course of time the nucleus
expanded into a complete Saga recording the acts of the settlers them-
selves and their dealings, hostile or friendly, with one another.
Ultimately the Althing at Thingvellir, where the elite of the little nation
congregated yearly, became the great centre for the display of the story-
teller's art, and from there the Saga travelled into every part of the
country, more or less faithfully remembered, and recited to curious
listeners. The interesting part of the business was that the teller of the
story was in most cases placed face to face with critical audiences. The
chiefs themselves, their children and relatives would in most cases be
numbered among the crowd of interested visitors, and would be certain
if necessary to interrupt and correct the reciter whenever his delivery
failed in veracity as to facts or offended against fairness. In this way,
to tell a story fairly {i.e., truthfully) was a moral duty and the highest
matter of honour, while telling a leaning story {halla sogn) was regarded
as the meanest of actions, and more than once cost the perpetrator his

' Harald Fair hair "

245

life (Nial's Saga, 1875, ch. 155, s. 23; Olaf the Good's Saga, Hcims-
kringla, ii. 222, pp. 14-29)."

As an illustration of this lucid account, Magnusson quotes a really
remarkable story from the Morkinskinna, pp. 72-73, in regard to Marald
Hardrada and an Icelandic Saga-teller : — " It happened that one summer
a young and lively Icelander approached the King and asked for his
favour. The King asked if he knew any lore, and he said he knew
some sagas. The King said that in that case he would patronize
him, but he must be prepared at all times to offer entertainment
whenever asked, whereupon the courtier presented him with suitable
clothes and the King with weapons, and he fulfilled his task appar-
ently satisfactorily. But at the approach of Yuletide he looked
sad, and the King suggested it was because he had exhausted his
Sagas, which was unfortunate as Yuletide was approaching. He
replied that it was partly true, since he had only one Saga remaining
untold, but he dared not tell it for it related to his journey abroad
The King replied that this was of all Sagas the one he desired most
to hear, and he forbade him telling any more stories till the Yuletide
came, and the loss would not be felt since his men had much on
hand, and he must recommence it on Yuleday {i.e., Christmas) and
make it last out till the end of the feast. This could be done, for the
season was chiefly devoted to hard drinking, when there was not too
much time for listening to stories. The Icelander duly began the Saga,
and continued it till the King told him to stop, and thus the story went
on till Yuletide was gone. The listeners, who did not know that the
matter bad been arranged by the King, deemed it an impertinence on
the part of the Icelander to recite it, but were conciliated by the fact
that he had told it so well. On Twelfth Night, the Saga having been
ended while it was still daylight, the King asked the story-teller if
he wished to know his own opinion of it. ' I fear to hear it,' he said.
'I like it right well,' said the King; 'it is in no way worse than the
deeds warrant. Who taught thee the Saga ? ' 'It was.' said the story-
teller, ' my custom every summer to attend the great Althing or annual
gathering in Iceland, and learn by heart each summer a part of the Saga
from Halldor Snorrisson.' ' It is no wonder that thou knowest it well.'
he replied. The King duly rewarded him with a store of goods and kept
him by him. and he became a man of substance" (Magnusson. op. cit.
iv., Iv -Ivii.). This Halldor, son of Snorri, had in fact served under
Harald when he commanded the Varangian mercenaries at Constanti-
nople (ib. 82).

Presently when writing was introduced into Iceland these oral
recitals were written down, and no doubt their artistic qualities were
duly improved by skilled writers like Snorri and others. The art itself
had been originally largely borrowed, as I have said, from the Irish.
Before that a skilled class of bards or poets had put the main facts into
verse and thus greatly assisted the memory and perpetuated the poem,
and every considerable court had its poets, who were highly rewarded and
very privileged persons and. like the mediaeval clowns, were permitted to
indulge in covert gibes at their employers, which formed a very useful
and necessary antidote at times to the unbounded eulogy they employed
at others. I have quoted two notable instances when Thiodolf rebuked
his master Harald at a feast when he had complained that his veterans
unduly flocked to his feasts and when he repudiated his sons by Snowfair.
and in both cases very effectively ; while Guthorm Cinder interfered
equally effectively to make peace between Harald and his ruthless son.
Halfdane the Black.

246 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

NOTE II.

The rival schools of history in the North which have championed
the respective claims of the Norwegians and the Danes as the real heroes
of the heroic time of* Scandinavian history have misled a large number
of Western writers of the last generation. The fact is that the Danes,
under the leadership of Steenstrup, a very industrious, ingenious and
persistent champion, have largely befogged the position in regard to the
earlier history of Denmark. Danish history really begins with the
conversion of Denmark to Christianity, which took place much earlier
in Denmark than among the Norsemen. For the pagan period we have
no records of the least value except those shreds which have been pre-
served by the Icelandic writers and by the Prankish chroniclers. There
are neither native poems nor prose writings of any value extant dealing
with the pre-Christian period with the exception of Beowulf and the
Gleeman's tale, which deal with an earlier period and mainly with
Germanic and not Norse traditions. Christianity apparently swept away
all the trustworthy memorials of the pagan period of the Danish annals.
Nothing shews this better than the great and romantic Danish prose epic
of Saxo Grammaticus. The latter part of his work, especially that
dealing with the reigns of the three Waldemars, is excellent history. The
earlier books form an entirely fabulous compilation, in which the author
has appropriated tales and Sagas from other people and deliberately
invented a large number of royal names and attached to them incidents
which have been deliberately transferred from the traditions of other
nations, and in doing so has entirely mixed up and sophisticated the
chronology as well as the facts, and constructed a romance as remote
from real history as Baron Munchausen's adventure. The romance has
been excellently told in excellent and fluent Latin, but has no kind of
basis of truth. The real history of Denmark begins with Gorm, the
father of Harald Blartand, grandfather of Swegen, and great-grand-
father of Knut, or Canute, the famous Emperor of the North, whose
career first brought the Danes into a conspicuous position in history and
gave Denmark a notable place in the European polity.

Gorm was a real person, and his gravestone still remains where it
was erected by his son Harald, but for what we know of both father and
son we have to turn elsewhere than to Saxo, who has made an astound-
ing " muddle " of their chronology, and gives us no new facts which
have any value whatever about them.

On another occasion I may enlarge on Gorm and his son at
greater length. At present I wish to speak of Godfred, whose
relations with the Empire I have described. Saxo makes him the
son of a Gormo or Gorm, and in order to give his view a semblance
of consistency he has had to triplicate the only Gorm known to real
history, who lived in the early part of the 10th century. One of these
he makes the father of Godfred, who in that case must have lived
in the second half of the 8th, since Godfred was the contemporary
of Charlemagne. The Gorm whom he makes the father of the
latter is preceded in his list by a series of names and events which
take us back to the 6th and earlier centuries to Jarmeric and Bikko
heroes of the Volsunga Saga, and to Aggo and Ebbo, the heroes of the
Lombards, as reported by Paul the Deacon, who was himself a writer of
the 8th century. This is not all. These latter names are again preceded
by those of Harald and his nephew Sigurd Ring, the latter of whom
lived in the end of the 8th century, but who Saxo plants in the earlier

* * Harald Fairhair

247

centuries after Christ. To intensify the confusion this second Harald and
a second Sigurd occur in Saxo as successors of Hemming, who is
definitely mentioned in the Prankish Chronicles of the 9th century, so
that the same two rulers are in this case made to repeat their reigns after
an interval of several centuries. Saxo's account of this Gormo is full of
anachronisms. Thus he makes him have intercourse with Thule, or
Iceland, which was not discovered till long after, and also be converted
to Christianity in Germany and to introduce it into Denmark. As Godfred
died in 910, if his father Gorm was a Christian, the latter must have
been converted in the 8th century. The first Danish ruler to be con-
verted was. however, Harald Klak in 826, and Denmark's conversion
was long after this. The whole story is a huge tangle of confusion, and
can only be explained by the fact that Saxo had no materials except his
own fancy for reconstructing the lost annals of Denmark, except what he
got from the Icelanders and the Prankish annals, and finding the name
of Godfred mentioned very prominently by the latter authorities as an
opponent of the Empire in Jutland, he concluded he was a Danish king,
and proceeded to find him quite a mythical father and quite a mythical
pedigree.

The Prankish annalists nowhere tell us who his father was. They
call him a Norseman and they call him a Dane indifferently. His
having come from Jutland to some extent justified the latter name, as it
justified the Northern writers in sometimes calling the speech of Norway
Danskattunga. The fact is the name Godfred or Gudrod does not occur
in the best accredited list of Danish names or in the undisputed references
to early Danish affairs in the Chronicles, while it is a very common
name among the Norwegians.

The Danish writers who have claimed Godfred as a ruler of Denmark,
not only in older uncritical times, but in our own day, and notably Steen-
strup and Jesson, have based their conclusion on the flimsiest evidence.
They could produce no early witness in its favour, either native or
foreign, and merely relied on the two facts that Godfred is sometimes
called King of the Danes, by which was meant no doubt that he ruled at
the time over at least that part of Denmark called Jutland, and, secondly,
that the utterly descredited narrative of Saxo makes him a King of
Denmark.

On the other side, the evidence is very strong indeed, if not, as I
believe it, to be conclusive.

First, he is made King of Westfold in Norway by the Icelanders,
and designated as a very potent king in that part of Norway, with
abundant details of his reign and of his ancestry given by
Ari, the Icelandic historian, who wrote two centuries before Saxo,
and whose writings, as we have seen, were not only remarkable
for their proved reliability and critical faculty, but who had a
large mass of excellent materials to support him. Godfred's sons are
expressly referred to in the Prankish Chronicles more than once as rulers
of Westfold, and they tell us in fact that it was when they were driven out
of Jutland that they returned to their home in Westfold. Godfred occurs
in the well-known Landfedgatal, the oldest list of the Northern Kings.
His name is a very well known Norwegian name, and, what is very im-
portant, the approved chronology of the Northern rulers of the Ynglings
places him just at the period when Godfred is named by the Pranks.
He occurs in the latter as the commander of a very large fleet, and his
sudden appearance in the Prankish annals after a lapse of several years
of silence points to his having been an intruder in Denmark, as does the
fact of one of his sons being called " Eric the Usurper" by them. This

248 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

view has been adopted by such excellent authorities as Kruse, Munch,
G. Storm, Vigfusson, and Yorke-Powell. I arrived at the conclusion
myself independently forty years ago {vide Translations of the Royal
Historical Society for 1877), and it seems to me to be the only view
consistent with the facts and with the history of the period.

Steenstrup's attempt to identify Westfold with quite an obscure place
in Jutland has not, so far as I know, had any support, and is quite incon-
sistent with the great role played by Gudrod. Kruse, Pertz and Simson
all agree that the Westfold here named was the Norwegian Westfold
{vide ante p. 86). It is clear to me that, in addition to Westfold in
Norway, he and his sons ruled over a large part of Jutland, and perhaps
of Denmark proper, in the interval between the reign of Sigurd Ring and
that of Gorm the Old, the real founder of the Danish Monarchy.

It is curious that Steenstrup and his followers, who accept the state-
ments in the Scioldunga (which was almost certainly composed by Ari
Frothi) in regard to the earlier history of Denmark, should have treated
with such scant regard Ari's other and more famous work, viz., his
History of the Norwegian Kings.

Gudrod, or Godfred, was not the only great Norwegian who has
been appropriated by Steenstrup and his followers, as it was by
most of the older writers, including our own Palgrave and Freeman,
and made into a Dane. A second one was Rolf, the founder of the
Dukedom of Normandy. In this case they also base their con-
clusion upon an authority whose veracity has been greatly discredited
of late years, namely, Dudo de St. Quentin, who in the 12th century
wrote a panegyric of the rulers of Normandy. It is many years ago
since I subjected this work to an elaborate analysis in a paper in
the " Archaeologia," and showed that the French writer in question
apparently knew nothing of the Norse speech or Norse literature. He
was, like Saxo, in large part a mere romancer and, except in the latter
part of his story, quite untrustworthy. He speaks of Rolf as a son of a
King of Denmark, and quite ignores the details given by the Icelanders
about him. I must refer my readers to my analysis of the work just
mentioned for proofs of its worthlessness. I may say that it has
been accepted by Vigfusson and by the most recent French critical
writers on the period. The most notable circumstance in this case, apart
from the direct evidence we possess, is the fact that Saxo, who raked
together from every side all the materials, fantastic and otherwise, he
could find to exalt the glory of Denmark, does not make any claim what-
ever in favour of the founder of the great Norman Dukedom having been a
Dane. In this case, as in that of Gudrod, the only satisfactory authorities
are in fact the Icelanders, and especially Ari Frothi and Snorri, and their
witness is the stronger because Rolf lived within quite a reasonable
traditional memory of Ari and in a period about which much detailed
information exists. It must also be noted that whilst Rolf is a common
name in Norway, it is virtully unknown in Denmark.

Ari's story about Rolf is plain and consistent, and his pedigree of him
quite free from ambiguity. As we should expect from what we know of the
potency of blue blood among the Normans, he had a very distinguished
descent, and as we have seen he is described by Ari as a descendant of the
early rulers of the Uplands. His ancestors for several generations are
recorded by him. He makes him the son of Rognwald, the son of
Eystein Glum, or the Noisy, the son of Ivar the Uplander, the son
of Halfdane the Old, the son of Sweethi, the son of Hesti, the son
of Gor. The three last names are mythical, but the others were doubt-

" Harald Fairhair

249

less Kings of the Upland. Halfdane the Old is mentioned in another
pedigree in the Landnama-bok. Ari does not inform us, however, from
which of the primitive Northern stocks they sprang, but it is clear that
when the Ynglings settled in Norway these Upland Kings were the most
powerful of its rulers. The recurrence of the names of Eystein and Ivar
among them very possibly point to the solution of the question, and I
may return to it on another occasion. Like Saxo, Dudo has transferred
the deeds of other Northern freebooters who plundered in France to
him, and confused the chronology. I ventured in my memoirs on him
to give the first certain date of his appearance in France as the year 910,
and the date has been adopted by Vigfusson and Yorke-Powell and the
more recent French writers.

NOTE III.

In regard to the chronology of Harald's reign, I do not find it
possible to accept Vigfusson's dates or his arguments, and it is the only
substantial difference I have with my master. They are based partly on
the date he fixed upon as that of the original settlement of Iceland, and
partly on the equating of the generations of a number of Icelandic
families, an uncertain guide, since it depends on the ages of the several
individuals tabulated, when they married, etc. He puts these calcula-
tions in opposition with the dates reached by Ari, and claims to correct
the latter by them. If this had merely involved a correction of two or
three years it would have been reasonable, but to suppose that a very
critical and trustworthy authority like Ari would have been mistaken to
the extent of 15 to 30 years in his calculation of the length of the reign
of the great Harald and the date of the original settlement in Iceland
seems to me quite incredible and impossible. The family records and
genealogies in Iceland were very carefully kept, and Ari makes a masterly
use of them in his works, and in regard to questions of chronology be
had a predecessor who had made a special study of chronology, namely,
Saemund Sigfusson, Priest of Oddi in Iceland, styled the Learned, who
the Kristna Saga tells us was the best Clerk in Iceland, who was born in
1056, the year Christianity was introduced in Iceland and twelve years
before Ari, and died in 1133, fifteen years before him. Saemund went
abroad when quite young, and in 1076 was studying in Paris under a
great master of astronomy, as reported in Jon's Saga (see Magnusson,
iv., Ivii.) ; and we learn from the preface to the Islendinga-bok and in
chapter 7 of the same work that Ari submitted its first edition to him and
relied upon him for the date of Olaf Trygvisson's reign. Saemund's own
grandson, the poet Jon Loptson, in enumerating the kings of Norway
with their regnal years, tells us that for those of the ten reigns from
Harald Fairhair to Magnus the Good, both inclusive, he depended on
the authority of Saemund (76., Iviii.). Magnusson argues plausibly that
Saemund's work was written in Latin.

It must further be remembered that Christianity was introduced
into Norway by King Olaf Trygvisson, who reigned from 995 — 1000, and
that from that date educated priests and the use of writing would be
known there, and that the obits of the different Norwegian kings would
doubtless be duly recorded there. The most important fact, however, to me
is that the recognised dates of the Kings of Norway as generally accepted
tallies with such events as we can approximately date ; a good e.xample
of which is that of the battle of Hafrsfiord, which, if Storm's arguments
about the end of Olaf the White that I have accepted is right, must have
taken place in 871 or 872, as Ari says, and not in 885, as Vigfusson
argues, while Harald's death would similarly fall in 933.

250 Saga- Book of the Viking Society.

NOTE IV.

One of the things about Harald which we should Uke to know
something more about is his attitude towards the Christian reHgion
which was facing him in all the realms around him, except those of
Sweden and the Baltic lands. There are evidences that although he
was probably a devotee of the worship of Thor, he was strongly opposed
to the wizardry and magic which prevailed in so many of the Norwegian
valleys, for he pursued its adherents, who were very numerous, with
bitterness and asperity.

It is also remarkable that, as we have seen, he should have sent
his youngest and favourite son Hakon to be brought up at the court of
the Christian King of England, Athelstan, and allowed him to be
baptized there. A form of baptism was indeed preached at this time
among the pagan inhabitants of Norway, among whom when a child
"/as born his godfather, whose name he generally took, sprinkled him
with water. This was possibly of Christiaa origin.

We must remember also that at this time a great change had taken
place in Odinism, involving an amalgamation of various Christian tradi-
tions with it. This has been shewn to have been the case by the elder
Bugge, Vigfusson and others. The latter has also given some excellent
reasons for believing that this change of faith took its rise among the
Vikings of the Western islands of Scotland, where the Eddaic poems
were probably composed.

"' Harald Fairhair'' 251

COKKECTIONS.

•

There is one difficulty always attending a writer when
he deals with Scandinavian history which is almost insuperable,
namely, the variation of orthography of personal ard geographi-
cal names, due to the fact that it is enshrined in three separ-
ate languages, requiring three different dictionaries to explore
them and adopting a varying alphabet and phonology, especially
in the vowels,while the names themr.elves have also considerably
varied in their spelling in their long history. I am conscious of
having failed too frequently in maintaining a uniform spelling,
but hope I have not seriously misled my readers by the fact,
although I may have irritated some by these small fiies that
have crept into my pot of ointment, the majority of which
consist in one letter being substituted for another. My bad
eyesight and the difficulties of having proofs properly read
under recent conditions have also caused lapses for which the
author can only crave patience and tolerance from those who
care to consult his work. I hope that they will not fail to
remember that as far back as Adam it is possible to affirm of
our race that error is human and patience divine.

Page 2, line 16 and elsewhere. For " Dofrefelds" read " Dovrefells."
3, ,, 30. For "ib. 90" read " Munch, op. cit. 1, 96."
7, ,, 15. Insert a second " it " before the comma.
13, ,, 11. Erase the words " to which we will now turn " and
insert "cited in the previous pages."

15, ,, 8. For " Landnamadel " read " Landnamabok."

16, ,, 16. For " op. cit." put " Die Vikingr."

,, 16, ,, 25. Erase the " 's " in " Dronthemen's."
,, 17, ,, 35. For "Thrond" read "Thronds."

Pages 19, line 2, and 28, line 6. For " Hallingsyadal " and " Had-
dingadal " read " Hallingyadal."

Page 19, line 34. For " Morumentum " read " Monumentum."
,, 22, ,, 10. For " Arochirani " read " Arochis Rani."
,, 29, ,, 34. For " Geiger" read " Geijer."
,, 31, ,, 5. Delete "with."
,, 32, ,, 22. For " Ring " read " King."
,, 30, ,, ZZ. For " rica" read " rige."

Pages 34, line 31, and 36, line 20. For " Asirs " read " Aesir."

Page 38, line 11. For " Vigfussion " read " Vigfusson."
,, 38, ,, 21. After " history " read " in the vernacular."
,, 41, ,, 3. I am not as sure as I was that Ari did not write the
first 16 chapters of the Ynglinga Saga. It is
quite possible that he did so.
,, 45, ,, 11, and elsewhere. For " Tretelia " read " Tretelgia."
,, 51, ,, 36. Transpose " told " and " as.''
,, 54, ,, 7. Transpose " Haldane " and " Eystein."
., 55, ,, 6. For " he " substitute " the latter."
., 57, lines 29 and 32. For " Freya " read " Frey."
,, 58, line 26. Erase " ga " from " Siavagarista."
,, 58, ,, 36. For " Heinskringla" read " Heimskringla.*"

252 Saga-Book of the Viking Society.

Page 61, line 24. For " Sigifrodus " read " Sigifroidus."

62, „ , 11. For " larl soy " read " larlsoy."

63, ,, 25. For "Hottar" read " Holtar, now Holtan (Magn.
iv. 157)."

65, ,, 28. For " partilus " read " partibus."

66, ,, 13. For " Willchad " read "Willehad."

71, ,, 23. For " Trygvason " read " Trygvisson."

72, ,, 25. For " Icelandic" read " Icelandise."
74, ,, 3. For " Fresians " read " Friesians."
83, ,, 28. Insert " between " after " struggle."

83, ,, 35. Substitute " is " for " e " in Trygveson."

84, lines 17 and 32. For " Haldane " read " Halfdane."
91, line 11. For " Ludovisi " read " Ludovici."
94, ,, 4. Erase " good."
94, ,, 5. For " Dee " read " Deas " (see supra 112).

113, ,, 24. For "is" read "it."

113, ,, 35. For " beleive" read " believe."

116, ,, 4. For " hove " read " have."

116, ,, 34. Cancel the words " doubtless Roric."

119, ,, 2. Cancel "to."

151, ,, 2. For " Norways " read " Norway."

153, ,, 6. There is a homestead in Orkedale called Grytingr or

Griting, perhaps named from this chief.
155, ,, 15. For " Herlang " read " Herlaug."
157, ,, 26. For " Knock wi " read " Nockvi."
159, ,, 15. Cancel the words " already named."
159, ,, 29. Kueld Ulf means the Night Wolf."
163, ,, 5. For "Atleo" read "Atleo."
173, ,, 33. Omit the comma after " rulers."
, 176, ., 20. This was probably because his neighbours resented
his fighting on Harald's side and not their's in
the great battle.
,177, ,, 32. For "there " put "then."
, 180, ,, 29. Put " originally " after "came."
, 182, ,, 9. Erase the comma and the words "and he" and

insert " He."
, 197, ,, 15. Eating a piece of live coal was one of the tricks
played by the wizards and bareserks and is
practised by modern conjurors.
,219, ,, 23. The name is a corruption of the Gaelic Mselbrighde,
and he was no doubt a Gaelic Maormar or iarl
subordinate to the Scottish king.
, 222, ,, 21. Now North Ronaldsay in the Orkneys.

Printed by H. Williams & Son, 222, Gray's Inn Road, London, W.C.

IJihing ^ocictn for |Tortlicvn Ilcsenrch.

'T'HE SOCIETY s founded for all interested in the North and its literature
and antiquities.

Subscription : — Annual 20s. ; Life /20 for the Saga-B.>ok (Proceedings),
Vear Bjok, and Old-Lore Series of Miscellany and Records;
or Annual 10s. 6d., Life ;^10 10s. for (1) Saga-Book and Year Book, or

(2) Old-Lore Series and Year Book.

The Council, which is elected annually by the Members, has the sole
management of the income and all other affairs of the Society. No liabilities
are incurred besond the funds in hand.

The composiiion of Life Members is permanently invested in an Endowment
Fund, which now amounts to ;^439.

Country and Foreign Members.— The whole funds are, in effect,
devoted to the Publications. Very little expense is incurred by Meetings,
which are indispensable for procuring, reading and discussing Papers, so that
Country Members really participate in the full benefits of the Society.

Enlisting New Members. — The working expenses of the Society remain
practically the same for any number of Members, so that all new Subscriptions
gained go to enlarge the Publications. Members and others interested in
Northern Studies are therefore earnestly requested to introduce new Members
and to forward the names and addresses of others interested in the work of the
Society to the Honorary Secretary.

The means by uhich the Society seeks to promote its objects are,
briefly, by : —

(1) Meetings for the discussion of Papers on Northern hi«;tory, literature, music, art.

archaeology, language, folk-lore, and •nthropology.

(2) Publication of the Satja-Book (Proceeditigs), Year Book, and the Old-Ltre Series

of Miscellany and Records.

t3) Encouraging the transcription and publication of original documents relating
to Northern history, etc., and the translation of Sagas and other works on
Northern subjects.

(4) Formation of a Library of Books, MSS.. Maps, etc., relating to Northern hi tory

and antiquities.

(5) Exhibition of Northern antiquities.

(6) Social Gatherings, etc.

Meetings are held from November to May, in the University of London
S.W. 7. The Annual Dinner takes place in June or July, and occasional
summer visits are made to places of Northern interest.

PRIVATELY PRINTED WORKS OF THE VIKING SOCIETY.

SAQA=BOOK.

Objects. — The Saga- Book contains the Proceedings and Reports
of the transactions of Meetings held in the University of
London, S.W. 7; upon subjects connected with Noithern
history, hterature, music, art, archaeology, language, folk-lore,
anthropology, philology, and other matters of Northern or
other antiquarian interest concerning the Viking Period ; and
contributions relating to the Sagas.

Illustrations and Maps are used when possible.

YEAR BOOK.

The Year Book is published annually and contains

The Annual Report.

Reports of Hon. District Secretaries.

List of Members.

Additions to the Library.

Donations to the Funds.

Notes and Queries.

Reviews of Books.

Obituary, etc.

RESEARCH FUND.— Donations are invited for special rest
and the survey of place-names in Orkney, Shetland, Ca
of local records, etc. A capital sum of ^5,000 is wai .

rsity of Toronto

DO NOT

REMOVE

THE

CARD

FROM

THIS

POCKET

Acme Library Card Pocket
Uader Pat "Rel. liidcz FUe"

Made by LIBRARY BUREAU