Harald Harfager's Saga

22. KING HARALD'S VOYAGE TO THE WEST.

King Harald heard that the vikings, who were in the West sea in
winter, plundered far and wide in the middle part of Norway; and
therefore every summer he made an expedition to search the isles
and out-skerries (1) on the coast. Wheresoever the vikings heard
of him they all took to flight, and most of them out into the
open ocean. At last the king grew weary of this work, and
therefore one summer he sailed with his fleet right out into the
West sea. First he came to Hjaltland (Shetland), and he slew all
the vikings who could not save themselves by flight. Then King
Harald sailed southwards, to the Orkney Islands, and cleared them
all of vikings. Thereafter he proceeded to the Sudreys
(Hebrides), plundered there, and slew many vikings who formerly
had had men-at-arms under them. Many a battle was fought, and
King Harald was always victorious. He then plundered far and
wide in Scotland itself, and had a battle there. When he was
come westward as far as the Isle of Man, the report of his
exploits on the land had gone before him; for all the inhabitants
had fled over to Scotland, and the island was left entirely bare
both of people and goods, so that King Harald and his men made no
booty when they landed. So says Hornklofe: --

"The wise, the noble king, great
Whose hand so freely scatters gold,
Led many a northern shield to war
Against the town upon the shore.
The wolves soon gathered on the sand
Of that sea-shore; for Harald's hand
The Scottish army drove away,
And on the coast left wolves a prey."

In this war fell Ivar, a son of Ragnvald, Earl of More; and King
Harald gave Ragnvald, as a compensation for the loss, the Orkney
and Shetland isles, when he sailed from the West; but Ragnvald
immediately gave both these countries to his brother Sigurd, who
remained behind them; and King Harald, before sailing eastward,
gave Sigurd the earldom of them. Thorstein the Red, a son of
Olaf the White and of Aud the Wealthy, entered into partnership
with him; and after plundering in Scotland, they subdued
Caithness and Sutherland, as far as Ekkjalsbakke. Earl Sigurd
killed Melbridge Tooth, a Scotch earl, and hung his head to his
stirrup-leather; but the calf of his leg were scratched by the
teeth, which were sticking out from the head, and the wound
caused inflammation in his leg, of which the earl died, and he
was laid in a mound at Ekkjalsbakke. His son Guthorm ruled over
these countries for about a year thereafter, and died without
children. Many vikings, both Danes and Northmen, set themselves
down then in those countries.

23. HARALD HAS HIS HAIR CLIPPED.

After King Harald had subdued the whole land, he was one day at
a feast in More, given by Earl Ragnvald. Then King Harald went
into a bath, and had his hair dressed. Earl Ragnvald now cut his
hair, which had been uncut and uncombed for ten years; and
therefore the king had been called Lufa (i.e., with rough matted
hair). But then Earl Ragnvald gave him the distinguishing name
-- Harald Harfager (i.e., fair hair); and all who saw him agreed
that there was the greatest truth in the surname, for he had the
most beautiful and abundant head of hair.

24. ROLF GANGER DRIVEN INTO BANISHMENT.

Earl Ragnvald was King Harald's dearest friend, and the king had
the greatest regard for him. He was married to Hild, a daughter
of Rolf Nefia, and their sons were Rolf and Thorer. Earl
Ragnvald had also three sons by concubines, -- the one called
Hallad, the second Einar, the third Hrollaug; and all three were
grown men when their brothers born in marriage were still
children Rolf became a great viking, and was of so stout a growth
that no horse could carry him, and wheresoever he went he must go
on foot; and therefore he was called Rolf Ganger. He plundered
much in the East sea. One summer, as he was coming from the
eastward on a viking's expedition to the coast of Viken, he
landed there and made a cattle foray. As King Harald happened,
just at that time, to be in Viken, he heard of it, and was in a
great rage; for he had forbid, by the greatest punishment, the
plundering within the bounds of the country. The king assembled
a Thing, and had Rolf declared an outlaw over all Norway. When
Rolf's mother, Hild heard of it she hastened to the king, and
entreated peace for Rolf; but the king was so enraged that here
entreaty was of no avail. Then Hild spake these lines: --

"Think'st thou, King Harald, in thy anger,
To drive away my brave Rolf Ganger
Like a mad wolf, from out the land?
Why, Harald, raise thy mighty hand?
Why banish Nefia's gallant name-son,
The brother of brave udal-men?
Why is thy cruelty so fell?
Bethink thee, monarch, it is ill
With such a wolf at wolf to play,
Who, driven to the wild woods away
May make the king's best deer his prey."

Rolf Ganger went afterwards over sea to the West to the Hebrides,
or Sudreys; and at last farther west to Valland, where he
plundered and subdued for himself a great earldom, which he
peopled with Northmen, from which that land is called Normandy.
Rolf Ganger's son was William, father to Richard, and grandfather
to another Richard, who was the father of Robert Longspear, and
grandfather of William the Bastard, from whom all the following
English kings are descended. From Rolf Ganger also are descended
the earls in Normandy. Queen Ragnhild the Mighty lived three
years after she came to Norway; and, after her death, her son and
King Harald's was taken to the herse Thorer Hroaldson, and Eirik
was fostered by him.

25. OF THE FIN SVASE AND KING HARALD.

King Harald, one winter, went about in guest-quarters in the
Uplands, and had ordered a Christmas feast to be prepared for him
at the farm Thoptar. On Christmas eve came Svase to the door,
just as the king went to table, and sent a message to the king to
ask if he would go out with him. The king was angry at such a
message, and the man who had brought it in took out with him a
reply of the king's displeasure. But Svase, notwithstanding,
desired that his message should be delivered a second time;
adding to it, that he was the Fin whose hut the king had promised
to visit, and which stood on the other side of the ridge. Now
the king went out, and promised to go with him, and went over the
ridge to his hut, although some of his men dissuaded him. There
stood Snaefrid, the daughter of Svase, a most beautiful girl; and
she filled a cup of mead for the king. But he took hold both of
the cup and of her hand. Immediately it was as if a hot fire
went through his body; and he wanted that very night to take her
to his bed. But Svase said that should not be unless by main
force, if he did not first make her his lawful wife. Now King
Harald made Snaefrid his lawful wife, and loved her so
passionately that he forgot his kingdom, and all that belonged to
his high dignity. They had four sons: the one was Sigurd Hrise;
the others Halfdan Haleg, Gudrod Ljome and Ragnvald Rettilbeine.
Thereafter Snaefrid died; but her corpse never changed, but was
as fresh and red as when she lived. The king sat always beside
her, and thought she would come to life again. And so it went on
for three years that he was sorrowing over her death, and the
people over his delusion. At last Thorleif the Wise succeeded,
by his prudence, in curing him of his delusion by accosting him
thus: -- "It is nowise wonderful, king, that thou grievest over
so beautiful and noble a wife, and bestowest costly coverlets and
beds of down on her corpse, as she desired; but these honours
fall short of what is due, as she still lies in the same clothes.
It would be more suitable to raise her, and change her dress."
As soon as the body was raised in the bed all sorts of corruption
and foul smells came from it, and it was necessary in all haste
to gather a pile of wood and burn it; but before this could be
done the body turned blue, and worms, toads, newts, paddocks, and
all sorts of ugly reptiles came out of it, and it sank into
ashes. Now the king came to his understanding again, threw the
madness out of his mind, and after that day ruled his kingdom as
before. He was strengthened and made joyful by his subjects, and
his subjects by him and the country by both.

26. OF THJODOLF OF HVIN, THE SKALD.

After King Harald had experienced the cunning of the Fin woman,
he was so angry that he drove from him the sons he had with her,
and would not suffer them before his eyes. But one of them,
Gudrod Ljome, went to his foster-father Thjodolf of Hvin, and
asked him to go to the king, who was then in the Uplands; for
Thjodolf was a great friend of the king. And so they went, and
came to the king's house late in the evening, and sat down
together unnoticed near the door. The king walked up and down
the floor casting his eye along the benches; for he had a feast
in the house, and the mead was just mixed. The king then
murmured out these lines: --

"Tell me, ye aged gray-haired heroes,
Who have come here to seek repose,
Wherefore must I so many keep
Of such a set, who, one and all,
Right dearly love their souls to steep,
From morn till night, in the mead-bowl?"

Then Thjodolf replies: --

"A certain wealthy chief, I think,
Would gladly have had more to drink
With him, upon one bloody day,
When crowns were cracked in our sword-play."

Thjodolf then took off his hat, and the king recognised him, and
gave him a friendly reception. Thjodolf then begged the king not
to cast off his sons; "for they would with great pleasure have
taken a better family descent upon the mother's side, if the king
had given it to them." The king assented, and told him to take
Gudrod with him as formerly; and he sent Halfdan and Sigurd to
Ringerike, and Ragnvald to Hadaland, and all was done as the king
ordered. They grew up to be very clever men, very expert in all
exercises. In these times King Harald sat in peace in the land,
and the land enjoyed quietness and good crops.

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