Saga of Magnus the Blind and of Harald Gille

10. THE RISE OF WAR IN KONUNGAHELLA.

Thirteen loaded merchant ships made ready to leave the town,
intending to proceed to Bergen; but eleven of them were lost, men
and goods, and all that was in them; the twelfth was lost also,
but the people were saved, although the cargo went to the bottom.
At that time the priest Lopt went north to Bergen, with all that
belonged to him, and arrived safely. The merchant vessels were
lost on Saint Lawrence eve (August 10). The Danish king Eirik
and the Archbishop Assur, both sent notice to Konungahella to
keep watch on their town; and said the Vindland people had a
great force on foot with which they made war far around on
Christian people, and usually gained the victory. But the
townspeople attended very little to this warning, were
indifferent, and forgot more and more the dreadful omens the
longer it was since they happened. On the holy Saint Lawrence
day, while the words of high mass were spoken, came to the
Vindland king Rettibur to Konungahella with 550 Vindland cutters,
and in each cutter were forty-four men and two horses. The
king's sister's son Dunimiz, and Unibur, a chief who ruled over
many people, were with him. These two chiefs rowed at once, with
a part of their troops, up the east arm of the Gaut river past
Hising Isle, and thus came down to the town; but a part of the
fleet lay in the western arm, and came so to the town. They made
fast their ships at the piles, and landed their horses, and rode
over the height of Bratsas, and from thence up around the town.
Einar, a relation of priest Andres, brought these tidings up to
the Castle church; for there the whole inhabitants of the town
were gathered to hear high mass. Einar came just as the priest
Andres was holding his discourse; and he told the people that an
army was sailing up against the town with a great number of ships
of war, and that some people were riding over Bratsas. Many said
it must be the Danish king Eirik, and from him they might expect
peace. The people ran down into the town to their properties,
armed themselves, and went down upon the piers, whence they
immediately saw there was an enemy and an immense army. Nine
East-country trading vessels belonging to the merchants were
afloat in the river at the piers. The Vindland people first
directed their course toward these and fought with the merchants,
who armed themselves, and defended themselves long, well, and
manfully. There was a hard battle, and resistance, before the
merchant vessels were cleared of their men; and in this conflict
the Vindland people lost 150 of their ships, with all the men on
board. When the battle was sharpest the townsmen stood upon the
piers, and shot at the heathens. But when the fight slackened
the burgesses fled up to the town, and from thence into the
castle; and the men took with them all their valuable articles,
and such goods as they could carry. Solveig and her daughters,
with two other women, went on shore when the Vindlanders took
possession of the merchant vessels. Now the Vindlanders landed,
and mustered their men, and discovered their loss. Some of them
went up into the town, some on board the merchant ships, and took
all the goods they pleased; and then they set fire to the town,
and burnt it and the ships. They hastened then with all their
army to assault the castle.

11. THE SECOND BATTLE.

King Rettibur made an offer to those who were in the castle that
they should go out, and he would give them their lives, weapons,
clothes, silver, and gold; but all exclaimed against it, and went
out on the fortification; some shot, some threw stones, some
sharp stakes. It was a great battle, in which many fell on both
sides, but by far the most of the Vindlanders. Solveig came up
to a large farm called Solbjorg, and brought the news. A message
war-token was there split, and sent out to Skurbagar, where there
happened to be a joint ale-drinking feast, and many men were
assembled. A bonde called Olver Miklimun (Mickle Mouth) was
there, who immediately sprang up, took helmet and shield, and a
great axe in his hand, and said, "Stand up, brave lads, and take
your weapons. Let us go help the townspeople; for it would
appear shameful to every man who heard of it, if we sit here
sipping our ale, while good men in the town are losing their
lives by our neglect."

Many made an objection, and said they would only be losing their
own lives, without being of any assistance to the townspeople.

Then said Olver, "Although all of you should hold back, I will go
alone; and one or two heathens, at any rate, shall fall before I
fall."

He ran down to the town, and a few men after him to see what he
would do, and also whether they could assist him in any way.
When he came near the castle, and the heathens saw him, they sent
out eight men fully armed against him; and when they met, the
heathen men ran and surrounded him on all sides. Olver lifted
his axe, and struck behind him with the extreme point of it,
hitting the neck of the man who was coming up behind him, so that
his throat and jawbone were cut through, and he fell dead
backwards. Then he heaved his axe forwards, and struck the next
man in the head, and clove him down to the shoulders. He then
fought with the others, and killed two of them; but was much
wounded himself. The four who remained took to flight, but Olver
ran after them. There was a ditch before them, and two of the
heathens jumped into it, and Olver killed them both; but he stuck
fast himself in the ditch, so that two of the eight heathens
escaped. The men who had followed Olver took him up, and brought
him back to Skurbagar, where his wounds were bound and healed;
and it was the talk of the people, that no single man had ever
made such a bloody onset. Two lendermen, Sigurd Gyrdson, a
brother of Philip, and Sigard, came with 600 men to Skurbagar; on
which Sigurd turned back with 400 men. He was but little
respected afterwards, and soon died. Sigard, on the other hand,
proceeded with 200 men towards the town; and they gave battle to
the heathens, and were all slain. While the Vindlanders were
storming the castle, their king and his chiefs were out of the
battle. At one place there was a man among the Vindlanders
shooting with a bow, and killing a man for every arrow; and two
men stood before him, and covered him with their shields. Then
Saemund Husfreyja said to his son Asmund, that they should both
shoot together at this bowman. "But I will shoot at the man who
holds the shield before him." He did so, and he knocked the
shield down a little before the man; and in the same instant
Asmund shot between the shields, and the arrow hit the bowman in
the forehead, so that it came out at his neck, and he fell down
dead. When the Vindlanders saw it they howled like dogs, or like
wolves. Then King Rettibur called to them that he would give
them safety and life, but they refused terms. The heathens again
made a hard assault. One of the heathens in particular fought so
bravely, and ventured so near, that he came quite up to the
castle-gate, and pierced the man who stood outside the gate with
his sword; and although they used both arrows and stones against
him, and he had neither shield nor helmet, nothing could touch
him, for he was so skilled in witchcraft that weapon could not
wound him. Then priest Andres took consecrated fire; blew upon
it; cut tinder in pieces, and laid it on the fire; and then laid
the tinder on the arrow-point, and gave it to Asmund. He shot
this arrow at the warlock; and the shaft hit so well that it did
its business, and the man of witchcraft fell dead. Then the
heathens crowded together as before, howling and whining
dreadfully; and all gathered about their king, on which the
Christians believed that they were holding a council about
retreating. The interpreters, who understood the Vindland
tongue, heard the chief Unibur make the following speech: "These
people are brave, and it is difficult to make anything of them;
and even if we took all the goods in their town, we might
willingly give as much more that we had never come here, so great
has been our loss of men and chiefs. Early in the day, when we
began to assault the castle, they defended themselves first with
arrows and spears; then they fought against us with stones; and
now with sticks and staves, as against dogs. I see from this
that they are in want of weapons and means of defense; so we
shall make one more hard assault, and try their strength." It
was as he said, that they now fought with stakes; because, in the
first assault, they had imprudently used up all their missile
weapons and stones; and now when the Christians saw the number of
their stakes diminishing, they clave each stake in two. The
heathens now made a very hot attack, and rested themselves
between whiles, and on both sides they were exhausted. During a
rest the Vindland king Rettibur again offered terms, and that
they should retain the weapons, clothes, and silver they could
carry out of the castle. Saemund Husfreyja had fallen, and the
men who remained gave the counsel to deliver up the castle and
themselves into the power of the heathens; but it was a foolish
counsel; for the heathens did not keep their promises, but took
all people, men, women, and children, and killed all of them who
were wounded or young, or could not easily be carried with them.
They took all the goods that were in the castle; went into the
Cross church, and plundered it of all its ornaments. The priest
Andres gave King Rettibur a silver-mounted gilt sceptre, and to
his sister's son Dunimiz he gave a gold ring. They supposed from
this that he was a man of great importance in the town, and held
him in higher respect than the others. They took away with them
the holy cross, and also the tables which stood before the altar,
which Sigurd had got made in the Greek country, and had brought
home himself. These they took, and laid flat down on the steps
before the altar. Then the heathens went out of the church.
Rettibur said, "This house has been adorned with great zeal for
the God to whom it is dedicated; but, methinks, He has shown
little regard for the town or house: so I see their God has been
angry at those who defended them." King Rettibur gave the priest
Andres the church, the shrine, the holy cross, the Bible, the
altar-book, and four clerks (prisoners); but the heathens burnt
the Castle church, and all the houses that were in the castle.
As the fire they had set to the church went out twice, they hewed
the church down, and then it burnt like other houses. Then the
heathens went to their ships with the booty; but when they
mustered their people and saw their loss, they made prisoners of
all the people, and divided them among the vessels. Now priest
Andres went on board the king's ship with the holy cross, and
there came a great terror over the heathens on account of the
portentous circumstance which took place in the king's ship;
namely, it became so hot that all thought they were to be burnt
up. The king ordered the interpreter to ask the priest why this
happened. He replied, that the Almighty God on whom the
Christians believed, sent them a proof of His anger, that they
who would not believe in their Creator presumed to lay hands on
the emblem of His suffering; and that there lay so much power in
the cross, that such, and even clearer miracles, happened to
heathen men who had taken the cross in their hands. The king had
the priest put into the ship's boat, and the priest Andres
carried the holy cross in his grasp. They led the boat along
past the ship's bow, and then along the side of the next ship,
and then shoved it with a boat-hook in beside the pier. Then
Andres went with the cross by night to Solbjorg, in rain and
dreadful weather; but brought it in good preservation. King
Rettibur, and the men he had remaining, went home to Vindland,
and many of the people who were taken at Konungahella were long
afterwards in slavery in Vindland; and those who were ransomed
and came back to Norway to their udal lands and properties,
throve worse than before their capture. The merchant town of
Konungahella has never since risen to the importance it was of
before this event.