Saga of Harald Hardrade

96. FALL OF KING HARALD.

King Harald Sigurdson was hit by an arrow in the windpipe, and
that was his death-wound. He fell, and all who had advanced with
him, except those who retired with the banner. There was
afterwards the warmest conflict, and Earl Toste had taken charge
of the king's banner. They began on both sides to form their
array again, and for a long time there was a pause in fighting.
Then Thiodolf sang these verses: --

"The army stands in hushed dismay;
Stilled is the clamour of the fray.
Harald is dead, and with him goes
The spirit to withstand our foes.
A bloody scat the folk must pay
For their king's folly on this day.
He fell; and now, without disguise,
We say this business was not wise."

But before the battle began again Harald Godwinson offered his
brother, Earl Toste, peace, and also quarter to the Northmen who
were still alive; but the Northmen called out, all of them
together, that they would rather fall, one across the other, than
accept of quarter from the Englishmen. Then each side set up a
war-shout, and the battle began again. So says Arnor, the earls'
skald: --

"The king, whose name would ill-doers scare,
The gold-tipped arrow would not spare.
Unhelmed, unpanzered, without shield,
He fell among us in the field.
The gallant men who saw him fall
Would take no quarter; one and all
Resolved to die with their loved king,
Around his corpse in a corpse-ring."

97. SKIRMISH OF ORRE.

Eystein Orre came up at this moment from the ships with the men
who followed him, and all were clad in armour. Then Eystein got
King Harald's banner Land-ravager; and now was, for the third
time, one of the sharpest of conflicts, in which many Englishmen
fell, and they were near to taking flight. This conflict is
called Orre's storm. Eystein and his men had hastened so fast
from the ships that they were quite exhausted, and scarcely fit
to fight before they came into the battle; but afterwards they
became so furious, that they did not guard themselves with their
shields as long as they could stand upright. At last they threw
off their coats of ringmail, and then the Englishmen could easily
lay their blows at them; and many fell from weariness, and died
without a wound. Thus almost all the chief men fell among the
Norway people. This happened towards evening; and then it went,
as one might expect, that all had not the same fate, for many
fled, and were lucky enough to escape in various ways; and
darkness fell before the slaughter was altogether ended.

98. OF STYRKAR THE MARSHAL.

Styrkar, King Harald Sigurdson's marshal, a gallant man, escaped
upon a horse, on which he rode away in the evening. It was
blowing a cold wind, and Styrkar had not much other clothing upon
him but his shirt, and had a helmet on his head, and a drawn
sword in his hand. As soon as his weariness was over, he began
to feel cold. A waggoner met him in a lined skin-coat. Styrkar
asks him, "Wilt thou sell thy coat, friend?"

"Not to thee," says the peasant: "thou art a Northman; that I
can hear by thy tongue."

Styrkar replies, "If I were a Northman, what wouldst thou do?"

"I would kill thee," replied the peasant; "but as ill luck would
have it, I have no weapon just now by me that would do it."

Then Styrkar says, "As you can't kill me, friend, I shall try if
I can't kill you." And with that he swung his sword, and struck
him on the neck, so that his head came off. He then took the
skin-coat, sprang on his horse, and rode down to the strand.

Olaf Haraldson had not gone on land with the others, and when he
heard of his father's fall he made ready to sail away with the
men who remained.

99. OF WILLIAM THE BASTARD.

When the Earl of Rouen, William the Bastard, heard of his
relation, King Edward's, death, and also that Harald Godwinson
was chosen, crowned, and consecrated king of England, it appeared
to him that he had a better right to the kingdom of England than
Harald, by reason of the relationship between him and King
Edward. He thought, also, that he had grounds for avenging the
affront that Harald had put upon him with respect to his
daughter. From all these grounds William gathered together a
great army in Normandy, and had many men, and sufficient
transport-shipping. The day that he rode out of the castle to
his ships, and had mounted his horse, his wife came to him, and
wanted to speak with him; but when he saw her he struck at her
with his heel, and set his spurs so deep into her breast that she
fell down dead; and the earl rode on to his ships, and went with
his ships over to England. His brother, Archbishop Otto, was
with him; and when the earl came to England he began to plunder,
and take possession of the land as he came along. Earl William
was stouter and stronger than other men; a great horseman and
warrior, but somewhat stern; and a very sensible man, but not
considered a man to be relied on.

100. FALL OF KING HARALD GODWINSON.

King Harald Godwinson gave King Harald Sigurdson's son Olaf leave
to go away, with the men who had followed him and had not fallen
in battle; but he himself turned round with his army to go south,
for he had heard that William the Bastard was overwhelming the
south of England with a vast army, and was subduing the country
for himself. With King Harald went his brothers Svein and Gyrd,
and Earl Valthiof. King Harald and Earl William met each other
south in England at Helsingja-port (Hastings). There was a great
battle in which King Harald and his brother Earl Gyrd and a great
part of his men fell. This was the nineteenth day after the fall
of King Harald Sigurdson. Harald's brother, Earl Valthiof,
escaped by flight, and towards evening fell in with a division of
William's people, consisting of 100 men; and when they saw Earl
Valthiof's troop they fled to a wood. Earl Valthiof set fire to
the wood, and they were all burnt. So says Thorkel Skallason in
Valthiof's ballad: --

"Earl Valthiof the brave
His foes a warming gave:
Within the blazing grove
A hundred men he drove.
The wolf will soon return,
And the witch's horse will burn
Her sharp claws in the ash,
To taste the Frenchman's flesh."

101. EARL VALTHIOF'S DEATH.

William was proclaimed king of England. He sent a message to
Earl Valthiof that they should be reconciled, and gave him
assurance of safety to come to the place of meeting. The earl
set out with a few men; but when he came to a heath north of
Kastala-bryggia, there met him two officers of King William, with
many followers, who took him prisoner, put him in fetters, and
afterwards he was beheaded; and the English call him a saint.
Thorkel tells of this: --

"William came o'er the sea,
With bloody sword came he:
Cold heart and bloody hand
Now rule the English land.
Earl Valthiof he slew, --
Valthiof the brave and true.
Cold heart and bloody hand
Now rule the English land."

William was after this king of England for twenty-one years, and
his descendants have been so ever since.

102. OF OLAF HARALDSON'S EXPEDITION TO NORWAY.

Olaf, the son of King Harald Sigurdson, sailed with his fleet
from England from Hrafnseyr, and came in autumn to the Orkney
Isles, where the event had happened that Maria, a daughter of
Harald Sigurdson, died a sudden death the very day and hour her
father, King Harald, fell. Olaf remained there all winter; but
the summer after he proceeded east to Norway, where he was
proclaimed king along with his brother Magnus. Queen Ellisif
came from the West, along with her stepson Olaf and her daughter
Ingegerd. There came also with Olaf over the West sea Skule, a
son of Earl Toste, and who since has been called the king's
foster-son, and his brother Ketil Krok. Both were gallant men,
of high family in England, and both were very intelligent; and
the brothers were much beloved by King Olaf. Ketil Krok went
north to Halogaland, where King Olaf procured him a good
marriage, and from him are descended many great people. Skule,
the king's foster-son, was a very clever man, and the handsomest
man that could be seen. He was the commander of King Olaf's
court-men, spoke at the Things (1) and took part in all the
country affairs with the king. The king offered to give Skule
whatever district in Norway he liked, with all the income and
duties that belonged to the king in it. Skule thanked him very
much for the offer, but said he would rather have something else
from him. "For if there came a shift of kings," said he, "the
gift might come to nothing. I would rather take some properties
lying near to the merchant towns, where you, sire, usually take
up your abode, and then I would enjoy your Yule-feasts." The
king agreed to this, and conferred on him lands eastward at
Konungahella, Oslo, Tunsberg, Sarpsborg, Bergen, and north at
Nidaros. These were nearly the best properties at each place,
and have since descended to the family branches which came from
Skule. King Olaf gave Skule his female relative, Gudrun, the
daughter of Nefstein, in marriage. Her mother was Ingerid, a
daughter of Sigurd Syr and Asta, King Olaf the Saint's mother.
Ingerid was a sister of King Olaf the Saint and of King Harald.
Skule and Gudrun's son was Asolf of Reine, who married Thora, a
daughter of Skopte Ogmundson; Asolf's and Thora's son was Guthorm
of Reine, father of Bard, and grandfather of King Inge and of
Duke Skule.

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