Saga of Harald Hardrade

Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, was born in the year A.D. 1015, and left Norway A.D. 1030. He was called Hardrade, that is, the severe counsellor, the tyrant, though the Icelanders never applied this epithet to him. Harald helped the Icelanders in the famine of A.D. 1056, and sent them timber for a church at Thingvol. It was the Norwegians who gave him the name tyrant in contrast to the "debonairete" of Magnus. He came to Norway in A.D. 1046, and became sole king in A.D. 1047. He died in A.D. 1066, and his son and successor Magnus died in A.D. 1069.

His saga is to be compared with "Agrip", "Fagrskinna", and "Morkinskinna".

The skalds quoted are: Thiodolf, Bolverk, Illuge Bryndalaskald, Stuf the skald, Thorarin Skeggjason, Valgard o' Val, Od Kikinaskald, Grane Skald, Thorleik the Fair, Stein Herdison, Ulf the Marshal, Arnor the earls' skald, Thorkel Skallason, and King Harald Hardrade himself.

1. HARALD ESCAPES FROM THE BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD.

Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, brother of Olaf the Saint, by the same
mother, was at the battle of Stiklestad, and was fifteen years
old when King Olaf the Saint fell, as was before related. Harald
was wounded, and escaped with other fugitives. So says Thiodolf:
--

"At Haug the fire-sparks from his shield
Flew round the king's head on the field,
As blow for blow, for Olaf's sake,
His sword and shield would give and take.
Bulgaria's conqueror, I ween,
Had scarcely fifteen winters seen,
When from his murdered brother's side
His unhelmed head he had to hide."

Ragnvald Brusason led Harald from the battle, and the night after
the fray took him to a bonde who dwelt in a forest far from other
people. The peasant received Harald, and kept him concealed; and
Harald was waited upon until he was quite cured of his wounds.
Then the bonde's son attended him on the way east over the ridge
of the land, and they went by all the forest paths they could,
avoiding the common road. The bonde's son did not know who it
was he was attending; and as they were riding together between
two uninhabited forests, Harald made these verses:

"My wounds were bleeding as I rode;
And down below the bondes strode,
Killing the wounded with the sword,
The followers of their rightful lord.
From wood to wood I crept along,
Unnoticed by the bonde-throng;
`Who knows,' I thought, `a day may come
My name will yet be great at home.'"

He went eastward over the ridge through Jamtaland and
Helsingjaland, and came to Svithjod, where he found Ragnvald
Brusason, and many others of King Olaf's men who had fled from
the battle at Stiklestad, and they remained there till winter was
over.

2. HARALD'S JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

The spring after (A.D. 1031) Harald and Ragnvald got ships, and
went east in summer to Russia to King Jarisleif, and were with
him all the following winter. So says the skald Bolverk: --

"The king's sharp sword lies clean and bright,
Prepared in foreign lands to fight:
Our ravens croak to have their fill,
The wolf howls from the distant hill.
Our brave king is to Russia gone, --
Braver than he on earth there's none;
His sharp sword will carve many feast
To wolf and raven in the East."

King Jarisleif gave Harald and Ragnvald a kind reception, and
made Harald and Ellif, the son of Earl Ragnvald, chiefs over the
land-defence men of the king. So says Thiodolf: --

"Where Ellif was, one heart and hand
The two chiefs had in their command;
In wedge or line their battle order
Was ranged by both without disorder.
The eastern Vindland men they drove
Into a corner; and they move
The Lesians, although ill at ease,
To take the laws their conquerors please."

Harald remained several years in Russia, and travelled far and
wide in the Eastern land. Then he began his expedition out to
Greece, and had a great suite of men with him; and on he went to
Constantinople. So says Bolverk: --

"Before the cold sea-curling blast
The cutter from the land flew past,
Her black yards swinging to and fro,
Her shield-hung gunwale dipping low.
The king saw glancing o'er the bow
Constantinople's metal glow
From tower and roof, and painted sails
Gliding past towns and wooded vales."

3. OF HARALD.

At that time the Greek empire was ruled by the Empress Zoe the
Great, and with her Michael Catalactus. Now when Harald came to
Constantinople he presented himself to the empress, and went into
her pay; and immediately, in autumn, went on board the galleys
manned with troops which went out to the Greek sea. Harald had
his own men along with him. Now Harald had been but a short time
in the army before all the Varings flocked to him, and they all
joined together when there was a battle. It thus came to pass
that Harald was made chief of the Varings. There was a chief
over all the troops who was called Gyrger, and who was a relation
of the empress. Gyrger and Harald went round among all the Greek
islands, and fought much against the corsairs.

4. OF HARALD AND GYRGER CASTING LOTS.

It happened once that Gyrger and the Varings were going through
the country, and they resolved to take their night quarters in a
wood; and as the Varings came first to the ground, they chose the
place which was best for pitching their tents upon, which was the
highest ground; for it is the nature of the land there to be soft
when rain falls, and therefore it is bad to choose a low
situation for your tents. Now when Gyrger, the chief of the
army, came up, and saw where the Varings had set up their tents,
he told them to remove, and pitch their tents elsewhere, saying
he would himself pitch his tents on their ground. Harald
replies, "If ye come first to the night quarter, ye take up your
ground, and we must go pitch our tents at some other place where
we best can. Now do ye so, in the same way, and find a place
where ye will. It is, I think, the privilege of us Varings here
in the dominions of the Greek emperor to be free, and independent
of all but their own commanders, and bound only to serve the
emperor and empress." They disputed long and hotly about this,
and both sides armed themselves, and were on the way to fight for
it; but men of understanding came between and separated them.
They said it would be better to come to an agreement about such
questions, so that in future no dispute could arise. It came
thus to an arbitration between them, at which the best and most
sagacious men should give their judgment in the case. At this
arbitration it was determined, with the consent of all parties,
that lots should be thrown into a box, and the Greeks and Varings
should draw which was first to ride, or to row, or to take place
in a harbour, or to choose tent ground; and each side should be
satisfied with what the drawing of the lots gave them.
Accordingly the lots were made and marked. Harald said to
Gyrger, "Let me see what mark thou hast put upon thy lot, that
we may not both mark our lots in the same way." He did so. Then
Harald marked his lot, and put it into the box along with the
other. The man who was to draw out the lots then took up one of
the lots between his fingers, held it up in the air, and said,
"This lot shall be the first to ride, and to row, and to take
place in harbour and on the tent field." Harald seized his band,
snatched the die, and threw it into the sea, and called out,
"That was our lot!" Gyrger said, "Why did you not let other
people see it?" Harald replies, "Look at the one remaining in
the box, -- there you see your own mark upon it." Accordingly
the lot which was left behind was examined, and all men saw that
Gyrger's mark was upon it, and accordingly the judgment was given
that the Varings had gained the first choice in all they had been
quarrelling about. There were many things they quarrelled about,
but the end always was that Harald got his own way.

5. HARALD'S EXPEDITION IN THE LAND OF THE SARACENS (SERKLAND).

They went out all on a campaign in summer. When the whole army
was thus assembled Harald kept his men out of the battle, or
wherever he saw the least danger, under pretext of saving his
men; but where he was alone with his own men only, he fought so
desperately that they must either come off victorious or die. It
thus happened often that when he commanded the army he gained
victories, while Gyrger could do nothing. The troops observed
this, and insisted they would be more successful if Harald alone
was chief of the whole army, and upbraided the general with never
effecting anything, neither himself, nor his people. Gyrger
again said that the Varings would give him no assistance, and
ordered Harald to go with his men somewhere else, and he, with
the rest of his army, would win what they could. Harald
accordingly left the army with the Varings and the Latin men, and
Gyrger on his side went off with the Greek troops. Then it was
seen what each could do. Harald always gained victories and
booty; but the Greeks went home to Constantinople with their
army, all except a few brave men, who, to gain booty and money,
joined themselves to Harald, and took him for their leader. He
then went with his troops westward to Africa, which the Varings
call Serkland, where he was strengthened with many men. In
Serkland he took eighty castles, some of which surrendered, and
others were stormed. He then went to Sicily. So says Thiodolf:
--

"The serpent's bed of glowing gold
He hates -- the generous king, the bold!
He who four score towers laid low,
Ta'en from the Saracenic foe.
Before upon Sicilian plains,
Shield joined to shield, the fight he gains,
The victory at Hild's war game;
And now the heathens dread his name."

So says also Illuge Bryndala-skald: --

"For Michael's empire Harald fought,
And southern lands to Michael brought;
So Budle's son his friendship showed
When he brought friends to his abode."

Here it is said that Michael was king of the Greeks at that time.
Harald remained many years in Africa, where he gathered great
wealth in gold, jewels, and all sorts of precious things; and all
the wealth he gathered there which he did not need for his
expenses, he sent with trusty men of his own north to Novgorod to
King Jarisleif's care and keeping. He gathered together there
extraordinary treasure, as is reasonable to suppose; for he had
the plundering of the part of the world richest in gold and
valuable things, and he had done such great deeds as with truth
are related, such as taking eighty strongholds by his valour.