Magnus Barefoot's Saga

9. KING MAGNUS MAKES WAR ON THE SOUTHERN HEBUDES.

King Magnus undertook an expedition out of the country, with many
fine men and a good assortment of shipping. With this armament
he sailed out into the West sea, and first came to the Orkney
Islands. There he took the two earls, Paul and Erlend,
prisoners, and sent them east to Norway, and placed his son
Sigurd as chief over the islands, leaving some counsellors to
assist him. From thence King Magnus, with his followers,
proceeded to the Southern Hebudes, and when he came there began
to burn and lay waste the inhabited places, killing the people
and plundering wherever he came with his men; and the country
people fled in all directions, some into Scotland-fjord, others
south to Cantire, or out to Ireland; some obtained life and
safety by entering into his service. So says Bjorn Krephende: --

"In Lewis Isle with fearful blaze
The house-destroying fire plays;
To hills and rocks the people fly,
Fearing all shelter but the sky.
In Uist the king deep crimson made
The lightning of his glancing blade;
The peasant lost his land and life
Who dared to bide the Norseman's strife.
The hunger battle-birds were filled
In Skye with blood of foemen killed,
And wolves on Tyree's lonely shore
Dyed red their hairy jaws in gore.
The men of Mull were tired of flight;
The Scottish foemen would not fight,
And many an island-girl's wail
Was heard as through the isles we strife sail."

10. OF LAGMAN, KING GUDROD'S SON.

King Magnus came with his forces to the Holy Island (Iona), and
gave peace and safety to all men there. It is told that the king
opened the door of the little Columb's Kirk there, but did not go
in, but instantly locked the door again, and said that no man
should be so bold as to go into that church hereafter; which has
been the case ever since. From thence King Magnus sailed to
Islay, where he plundered and burnt; and when he had taken that
country he proceeded south around Cantire, marauding on both
sides in Scotland and Ireland, and advanced with his foray to
Man, where he plundered. So says Bjorn Krephende: --

"On Sandey's plain our shield they spy:
From Isla smoke rose heaven-high,
Whirling up from the flashing blaze
The king's men o'er the island raise.
South of Cantire the people fled,
Scared by our swords in blood dyed red,
And our brave champion onward goes
To meet in Man the Norseman's foes."

Lagman (Lawman) was the name of the son of Gudrod, king of the
Hebudes. Lawman was sent to defend the most northerly islands;
but when King Magnus and his army came to the Hebudes, Lawman
fled here and there about the isles, and at last King Magnus's
men took him and his ship's crew as he was flying over to
Ireland. The king put him in irons to secure him. So says Bjorn
Krephende: --

"To Gudrod's son no rock or cave,
Shore-side or hill, a refuge gave;
Hunted around from isle to isle,
This Lawman found no safe asyle.
From isle to isle, o'er firth and sound,
Close on his track his foe he found.
At Ness the Agder chief at length
Seized him, and iron-chained his strength."

11. OF THE FALL OF EARL HUGE THE BRAVE.

Afterwards King Magnus sailed to Wales; and when he came to the
sound of Anglesey there came against him an army from Wales,
which was led by two earls -- Hugo the brave, and Hugo the Stout.
They began immediately to give battle, and there was a severe
conflict. King Magnus shot with the bow; but Huge the Brave was
all over in armour, so that nothing was bare about him excepting
one eye. King Magnus let fly an arrow at him, as also did a
Halogaland man who was beside the king. They both shot at once.
The one shaft hit the nose-screen of the helmet, which was bent
by it to one side, and the other arrow hit the earl's eye, and
went through his head; and that was found to be the king's. Earl
Huge fell, and the Britons fled with the loss of many people. So
says Bjorn Krephende: --

"The swinger of the sword
Stood by Anglesey's ford;
His quick shaft flew,
And Huge slew.
His sword gleamed a while
O'er Anglesey Isle,
And his Norsemen's band
Scoured the Anglesey land."

There was also sung the following verse about it: --

"On the panzers arrows rattle,
Where our Norse king stands in battle;
From the helmets blood-streams flow,
Where our Norse king draws his bow:
His bowstring twangs, -- its biting hail
Rattles against the ring-linked mail.
Up in the land in deadly strife
Our Norse king took Earl Huge's life."

King Magnus gained the victory in this battle, and then took
Anglesey Isle, which was the farthest south the Norway kings of
former days had ever extended their rule. Anglesey is a third
part of Wales. After this battle King Magnus turned back with
his fleet, and came first to Scotland. Then men went between the
Scottish king, Melkolm and King Magnus, and a peace was made
between them; so that all the islands lying west of Scotland,
between which and the mainland he could pass in a vessel with her
rudder shipped, should be held to belong to the king of Norway.
Now when King Magnus came north to Cantire, he had a skiff drawn
over the strand at Cantire, and shipped the rudder of it. The
king himself sat in the stern-sheets, and held the tiller; and
thus he appropriated to himself the land that lay on the farboard
side. Cantire is a great district, better than the best of the
southern isles of the Hebudes, excepting Man; and there is a
small neck of land between it and the mainland of Scotland, over
which longships are often drawn.

12. DEATH OF THE EARLS OF ORKNEY.

King Magnus was all the winter in the southern isles, and his men
went over all the fjords of Scotland, rowing within all the
inhabited and uninhabited isles, and took possession for the king
of Norway of all the islands west of Scotland. King Magnus
contracted in marriage his son Sigurd to Biadmynia, King
Myrkjartan's daughter. Myrkjartan was a son of the Irish king
Thialfe, and ruled over Connaught. The summer after, King
Magnus, with his fleet, returned east to Norway. Earl Erland
died of sickness at Nidaros, and is buried there; and Earl Paul
died in Bergen.

Skopte Ogmundson, a grandson of Thorberg, was a gallant
lenderman, who dwelt at Giske in Sunmore, and was married to
Gudrun, a daughter of Thord Folason. Their children were Ogmund,
Fin, Thord, and Thora, who was married to Asolf Skulason.
Skopte's and Gudrun's sons were the most promising and popular
men in their youth.

13. QUARRELS OF KING MAGNUS AND KING INGE.

Steinkel, the Swedish king, died about the same time (A.D. 1066)
as the two Haralds fell, and the king who came after him in
Svithjod was called Hakon. Afterwards Inge, a son of Steinkel,
was king, and was a good and powerful king, strong and stout
beyond most men; and he was king of Svithjod when King Magnus was
king of Norway. King Magnus insisted that the boundaries of the
countries in old times had been so, that the Gaut river divided
the kingdoms of the Swedish and Norwegian kings, but afterwards
the Vener lake up to Vermaland. Thus King Magnus insisted that
he was owner of all the places lying west of the Vener lake up to
Vermaland, which are the districts of Sundal, Nordal, Vear, and
Vardyniar, with all the woods belonging thereto. But these had
for a long time been under the Swedish dominion, and with respect
to scat were joined to West Gautland; and, besides, the forest-
settlers preferred being under the Swedish king. King Magnus
rode from Viken up to Gautland with a great and fine army, and
when he came to the forest-settlements he plundered and burnt all
round; on which the people submitted, and took the oath of
fidelity to him. When he came to the Vener lake, autumn was
advanced and he went out to the island Kvaldinsey, and made a
stronghold of turf and wood, and dug a ditch around it. When the
work was finished, provisions and other necessaries that might be
required were brought to it. The king left in it 300 men, who
were the chosen of his forces, and Fin Skoptason and Sigurd
Ulstreng as their commanders. The king himself returned to
Viken.