Saga of Harald Hardrade

11. OF HARALD.

Harald was many years in these campaigns, both in Serkland and
in Sicily. Then he came back to Constantinople with his troops
and stayed there but a little time before he began his expedition
to Jerusalem. There he left the pay he had received from the
Greek emperor and all the Varings who accompanied him did the
same. It is said that on all these expeditions Harald had fought
eighteen regular battles. So says Thiodolf: --

"Harald the Stern ne'er allowed
Peace to his foemen, false and proud;
In eighteen battles, fought and won,
The valour of the Norseman shone.
The king, before his home return,
Oft dyed the bald head of the erne
With bloody specks, and o'er the waste
The sharp-claw'd wolf his footsteps traced."

10. HARALD'S EXPEDITION TO PALESTINE.

Harald went with his men to the land of Jerusalem and then up to
the city of Jerusalem, and wheresoever he came in the land all
the towns and strongholds were given up to him. So says the
skald Stuf, who had heard the king himself relate these tidings:
--

"He went, the warrior bold and brave,
Jerusalem, the holy grave,
And the interior of the land,
To bring under the Greeks' command;
And by the terror of his name
Under his power the country came,
Nor needed wasting fire and sword
To yield obediance to his word."

Here it is told that this land came without fire and sword under
Harald's command. He then went out to Jordan and bathed therein,
according to the custom of other pilgrims. Harald gave great
gifts to our Lord's grave, to the Holy Cross, and other holy
relics in the land of Jerusalem. He also cleared the whole road
all the way out to Jordan, by killing the robbers and other
disturbers of the peace. So says the skald Stuf: --

"The Agder king cleared far and wide
Jordan's fair banks on either side;
The robber-bands before him fled,
And his great name was widely spread.
The wicked people of the land
Were punished here by his dread hand,
And they hereafter will not miss
Much worse from Jesus Christ than this."

13. HARALD PUT IN PRISON.

Thereafter he went back to Constantinople. When Harald returned
to Constantinople from Jerusalem he longed to return to the North
to his native land; and when he heard that Magnus Olafson, his
brother's son, had become king both of Norway and Denmark, he
gave up his command in the Greek service. And when the empress
Zoe heard of this she became angry and raised an accusation
against Harald that he had misapplied the property of the Greek
emperor which he had received in the campaigns in which he was
commander of the army. There was a young and beautiful girl
called Maria, a brother's daughter of the empress Zoe, and Harald
had paid his addresses to her; but the empress had given him a
refusal. The Varings, who were then in pay in Constantinople,
have told here in the North that there went a report among
well-informed people that the empress Zoe herself wanted Harald
for her husband, and that she chiefly blamed Harald for his
determination to leave Constantinople, although another reason
was given out to the public. Constantinus Monomachus was at
that time emperor of the Greeks and ruled along with Zoe. On
this account the Greek emperor had Harald made prisoner and
carried to prison.

14. KING OLAF'S MIRACLE AND BLINDING THE GREEK EMPEROR.

When Harald drew near to the prison King Olaf the Saint stood
before him and said he would assist him. On that spot of the
street a chapel has since been built and consecrated to Saint
Olaf and which chapel has stood there ever since. The prison was
so constructed that there was a high tower open above, but a door
below to go into it from the street. Through it Harald was
thrust in, along with Haldor and Ulf. Next night a lady of
distinction with two servants came, by the help of ladders, to
the top of the tower, let down a rope into the prison and hauled
them up. Saint Olaf had formerly cured this lady of a sickness
and he had appeared to her in a vision and told her to deliver
his brother. Harald went immediately to the Varings, who all
rose from their seats when he came in and received him with joy.
The men armed themselves forthwith and went to where the emperor
slept. They took the emperor prisoner and put out both the eyes
of him. So says Thorarin Skeggjason in his poem: --

"Of glowing gold that decks the hand
The king got plenty in this land;
But it's great emperor in the strife
Was made stone-blind for all his life."

So says Thiodolf, the skald, also: --

"He who the hungry wolf's wild yell
Quiets with prey, the stern, the fell,
Midst the uproar of shriek and shout
Stung tho Greek emperor's eyes both out:
The Norse king's mark will not adorn,
The Norse king's mark gives cause to mourn;
His mark the Eastern king must bear,
Groping his sightless way in fear."

In these two songs, and many others, it is told that Harald
himself blinded the Greek emperor; and they would surely have
named some duke, count, or other great man, if they had not known
this to be the true account; and King Harald himself and other
men who were with him spread the account.

15. HARALD'S JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.

The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where
Maria slept and carried her away by force. Then they went down
to where the galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and
rowed out into Sjavid sound. When they came to the place where
the iron chain is drawn across the sound, Harald told his men to
stretch out at their oars in both galleys; but the men who were
not rowing to run all to the stern of the galley, each with his
luggage in his hand. The galleys thus ran up and lay on the iron
chain. As soon as they stood fast on it, and would advance no
farther, Harald ordered all the men to run forward into the bow.
Then the galley, in which Harald was, balanced forwards and swung
down over the chain; but the other, which remained fast athwart
the chain, split in two, by which many men were lost; but some
were taken up out of the sound. Thus Harald escaped out of
Constantinople and sailed thence into the Black Sea; but before
he left the land he put the lady ashore and sent her back with a
good escort to Constantinople and bade her tell her relation, the
Empress Zoe, how little power she had over Harald, and how little
the empress could have hindered him from taking the lady. Harald
then sailed northwards in the Ellipalta and then all round the
Eastern empire. On this voyage Harald composed sixteen songs for
amusement and all ending with the same words. This is one of
them: --

"Past Sicily's wide plains we flew,
A dauntless, never-wearied crew;
Our viking steed rushed through the sea,
As viking-like fast, fast sailed we.
Never, I think, along this shore
Did Norsemen ever sail before;
Yet to the Russian queen, I fear,
My gold-adorned, I am not dear."

With this he meant Ellisif, daughter of King Jarisleif in
Novgorod.