King Olaf Trygvason's Saga

91. THANGBRAND RETURNS FROM ICELAND.

The same harvest (A.D. 999) Thangbrand the priest came back from
Iceland to King Olaf, and told the ill success of his journey;
namely, that the Icelanders had made lampoons about him; and that
some even sought to kill him, and there was little hope of that
country ever being made Christian. King Olaf was so enraged at
this, that he ordered all the Icelanders to be assembled by sound
of horn, and was going to kill all who were in the town, but
Kjartan, Gissur, and Hjalte, with the other Icelanders who had
become Christians, went to him, and said, "King, thou must not
fail from thy word -- that however much any man may irritate
thee, thou wilt forgive him if he turn from heathenism and become
Christian. All the Icelanders here are willing to be baptized;
and through them we may find means to bring Christianity into
Iceland: for there are many amongst them, sons of considerable
people in Iceland, whose friends can advance the cause; but the
priest Thangbrand proceeded there as he did here in the court,
with violence and manslaughter, and such conduct the people there
would not submit to." The king harkened to those remonstrances;
and all the Iceland men who were there were baptized.

92. OF KING OLAF'S FEATS.

King Olaf was more expert in all exercises than any man in Norway
whose memory is preserved to us in sagas; and he was stronger and
more agile than most men, and many stories are written down about
it. One is that he ascended the Smalsarhorn, and fixed his
shield upon the very peak. Another is, that one of his followers
had climbed up the peak after him, until he came to where he
could neither get up nor down; but the king came to his help,
climbed up to him, took him under his arm, and bore him to the
flat ground. King Olaf could run across the oars outside of the
vessel while his men were rowing the Serpent. He could play with
three daggers, so that one was always in the air, and he took the
one falling by the handle. He could walk all round upon the
ship's rails, could strike and cut equally well with both hands,
and could cast two spears at once. King Olaf was a very merry
frolicsome man; gay and social; was very violent in all respects;
was very generous; was very finical in his dress, but in battle
he exceeded all in bravery. He was distinguished for cruelty
when he was enraged, and tortured many of his enemies. Some he
burnt in fire; some he had torn in pieces by mad dogs; some he
had mutilated, or cast down from high precipices. On this
account his friends were attached to him warmly, and his enemies
feared him greatly; and thus he made such a fortunate advance in
his undertakings, for some obeyed his will out of the friendliest
zeal, and others out of dread.

93. BAPTISM OF LEIF EIRIKSON.

Leif, a son of Eirik the Red, who first settled in Greenland,
came this summer (A.D. 999) from Greenland to Norway; and as he
met King Olaf he adopted Christianity, and passed the winter
(A.D. 1000) with the king.

94. FALL OF KING GUDROD.

Gudrod, a son of Eirik Bloodaxe and Gunhild, had been ravaging in
the west countries ever since he fled from Norway before the Earl
Hakon. But the summer before mentioned (A.D. 999), where King
Olaf Trygvason had ruled four years over Norway, Gudrod came to
the country, and had many ships of war with him. He had sailed
from England; and when he thought himself near to the Norway
coast, he steered south along the land, to the quarter where it
was least likely King Olaf would be. Gudrod sailed in this way
south to Viken; and as soon as he came to the land he began to
plunder, to subject the people to him, and to demand that they
should accept of him as king. Now as the country people saw that
a great army was come upon them, they desired peace and terms.
They offered King Gudrod to send a Thing-message over all the
country, and to accept of him at the Thing as king, rather than
suffer from his army; but they desired delay until a fixed day,
while the token of the Thing's assembling was going round through
the land. The king demanded maintenance during the time this
delay lasted. The bondes preferred entertaining the king as a
guest, by turns, as long as he required it; and the king accepted
of the proposal to go about with some of his men as a guest from
place to place in the land, while others of his men remained to
guard the ships. When King Olaf's relations, Hyrning and
Thorgeir, heard of this, they gathered men, fitted out ships, and
went northwards to Viken. They came in the night with their men
to a place at which King Gudrod was living as a guest, and
attacked him with fire and weapons; and there King Gudrod fell,
and most of his followers. Of those who were with his ships some
were killed, some slipped away and fled to great distances; and
now were all the sons of Eirik and Gunhild dead.

95. BUILDING OF THE SHIP LONG SERPENT.

The winter after, King Olaf came from Halogaland (A.D. 1000), he
had a great vessel built at Hladhamrar, which was larger than any
ship in the country, and of which the beam-knees are still to be
seen. The length of keel that rested upon the grass was seventy-
four ells. Thorberg Skafhog was the man's name who was the
master-builder of the ship; but there were many others besides,
-- some to fell wood, some to shape it, some to make nails, some
to carry timber; and all that was used was of the best. The ship
was both long and broad and high-sided, and strongly timbered.

While they were planking the ship, it happened that Thorberg had
to go home to his farm upon some urgent business; and as he
remained there a long time, the ship was planked up on both sides
when he came back. In the evening the king went out, and
Thorberg with him, to see how the vessel looked, and everybody
said that never was seen so large and so beautiful a ship of
war. Then the king returned to the town. Early next morning the
king returns again to the ship, and Thorberg with him. The
carpenters were there before them, but all were standing idle
with their arms across. The king asked, "what was the matter?"
They said the ship was destroyed; for somebody had gone from,
stem to stern, and cut one deep notch after the other down the
one side of the planking. When the king came nearer he saw it
was so, and said, with an oath, "The man shall die who has thus
destroyed the vessel out of envy, if he can be discovered, and I
shall bestow a great reward on whoever finds him out."

"I can tell you, king," said Thorberg, "who has done this piece
of work." --

"I don't think," replies the king, "that any one is so likely to
find it out as thou art."

Thorberg says, "I will tell you, king, who did it. I did it
myself."

The king says, "Thou must restore it all to the same condition as
before, or thy life shall pay for it."

Then Thorberg went and chipped the planks until the deep notches
were all smoothed and made even with the rest; and the king and
all present declared that the ship was much handsomer on the side
of the hull which Thorberg, had chipped, and bade him shape the
other side in the same way; and gave him great thanks for the
improvement. Afterwards Thorberg was the master builder of the
ship until she was entirely finished. The ship was a dragon,
built after the one the king had captured in Halogaland; but this
ship was far larger, and more carefully put together in all her
parts. The king called this ship Serpent the Long, and the
other Serpent the Short. The long Serpent had thirty-four
benches for rowers. The head and the arched tail were both gilt,
and the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships. This ship
was the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway.

96. EARL EIRIK, THE SON OF HAKON.

Earl Eirik, the son of Earl Hakon, and his brothers, with many
other valiant men their relations, had left the country after
Earl Hakon's fall. Earl Eirik went eastwards to Svithjod, to
Olaf, the Swedish king, and he and his people were well received.
King Olaf gave the earl peace and freedom in the land, and great
fiefs; so that he could support himself and his men well. Thord
Kolbeinson speaks of this in the verses before given. Many
people who fled from the country on account of King Olaf
Trygvason came out of Norway to Earl Eirik; and the earl resolved
to fit out ships and go a-cruising, in order to get property for
himself and his people. First he steered to Gotland, and lay
there long in summer watching for merchant vessels sailing
towards the land, or for vikings. Sometimes he landed and
ravaged all round upon the sea-coasts. So it is told in the
"Banda-drapa": --

"Eirik, as we have lately heard,
Has waked the song of shield and sword --
Has waked the slumbering storm of shields
Upon the vikings' water-fields:
From Gotland's lonely shore has gone
Far up the land, and battles won:
And o'er the sea his name is spread,
To friends a shield, to foes a dread."

Afterwards Earl Eirik sailed south to Vindland, and at Stauren
found some viking ships, and gave them battle. Eirik gained the
victory, and slew the vikings. So it is told in the "Banda-
drapa": --

"Earl Eirik, he who stoutly wields
The battle-axe in storm of shields,
With his long ships surprised the foe
At Stauren, and their strength laid low
Many a corpse floats round the shore;
The strand with dead is studded o'er:
The raven tears their sea-bleached skins --
The land thrives well when Eirik wins."

97. EIRIK'S FORAY ON THE BALTIC COASTS.

Earl Eirik sailed back to Sweden in autumn, and staid there all
winter (A.D. 997); but in the spring fitted out his war force
again, and sailed up the Baltic. When he came to Valdemar's
dominions he began to plunder and kill the inhabitants, and burn
the dwellings everywhere as he came along, and to lay waste the
country. He came to Aldeigiuburg, and besieged it until he took
the castle; and he killed many people, broke down and burned the
castle, and then carried destruction all around far and wide in
Gardarike. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa": --

"The generous earl, brave and bold,
Who scatters his bright shining gold,
Eirik with fire-scattering hand,
Wasted the Russian monarch's land, --
With arrow-shower, and storm of war,
Wasted the land of Valdemar.
Aldeiga burns, and Eirik's might
Scours through all Russia by its light."

Earl Eirik was five years in all on this foray; and when he
returned from Gardarike he ravaged all Adalsysla and Eysysla, and
took there four viking ships from the Danes and killed every man
on board. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa": --

"Among the isles flies round the word,
That Eirik's blood-devouring sword
Has flashed like fire in the sound,
And wasted all the land around.
And Eirik too, the bold in fight,
Has broken down the robber-might
Of four great vikings, and has slain
All of the crew -- nor spared one Dane.
In Gautland he has seized the town,
In Syssels harried up and down;
And all the people in dismay
Fled to the forests far away.
By land or sea, in field or wave,
What can withstand this earl brave?
All fly before his fiery hand --
God save the earl, and keep the land."

When Eirik had been a year in Sweden he went over to Denmark
(A.D. 996) to King Svein Tjuguskeg, the Danish king, and courted
his daughter Gyda. The proposal was accepted, and Earl Eirik
married Gyda; and a year after (A.D. 997) they had a son, who was
called Hakon. Earl Eirik was in the winter in Denmark, or
sometimes in Sweden; but in summer he went a-cruising.