Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway. Snorri Sturluson

this, all his Northmen stood, and turned with him, but the Danes fled to the ships; and when King Hakon and his men came thither, there was again sharp conflict; but now Hakon had most people. At last the Eirik's sons' force fled, and took the road south about the hill; but a part of their army retreated upon the hill southwards, followed by King Hakon. There is a flat field east of the ridge which runs westward along the range of hills, and is bounded on its west side by a steep ridge. Gamle's men retreated towards this ground; but Hakon followed so closely that he killed some, and others ran west over the ridge, and were killed on that side of it. King Hakon did not part with them till the last man of them was killed.

26. KING GAMLE AND ULSERK FALL.

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      Gamle Eirikson fled from the ridge down upon the plain to the south of the hill. There he turned himself again, and waited until more people gathered to him. All his brothers, and many troops of their men, assembled there. Egil Ulserk was in front, and in advance of Hakon's men, and made a stout attack. He and King Gamle exchanged blows with each other, and King Gamle got a grievous wound; but Egil fell, and many people with him. Then came Hakon the king with the troops which had followed him, and a new battle began. King Hakon pushed on, cutting down men on both sides of him, and killing the one upon the top of the other. So sings Guthorm Sindre:—

      "Scared by the sharp sword's singing sound,

       Brandished in air, the foe gave ground.

       The boldest warrior cannot stand

       Before King Hakon's conquering hand;

       And the king's banner ever dies

       Where the spear-forests thickest rise.

       Altho' the king had gained of old

       Enough of Freyja's tears of gold (1),

       He spared himself no more than tho'

       He'd had no well-filled purse to show."

      When Eirik's sons saw their men falling all round, they turned and fled to their ships; but those who had sought the ships before had pushed off some of them from the land, while some of them were still hauled up and on the strand. Now the sons of Eirik and their men plunged into the sea, and betook themselves to swimming. Gamle Eirikson was drowned; but the other sons of Eirik reached their ships, and set sail with what men remained. They steered southwards to Denmark, where they stopped a while, very ill satisfied with their expedition.

      ENDNOTES: (1) Freyja's husband was Od; and her tears, when she wept at

       the long absence of her husband, were tears of gold. Od's

       wife's tears is the skald's expression here for gold—

       understood, no doubt, as readily as any allusion to Plutus

       would convey the equivalent meaning in modern poetry.—L.

27. EGIL ULSERK'S BURIAL-GROUND.

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      King Hakon took all the ships of the sons of Eirik that had been left upon the strand, and had them drawn quite up, and brought on the land. Then he ordered that Egil Ulserk, and all the men of his army who had fallen, should be laid in the ships, and covered entirely over with earth and stones. King Hakon made many of the ships to be drawn up to the field of battle, and the hillocks over them are to be seen to the present day a little to the south of Fredarberg. At the time when King Hakon was killed, when Glum Geirason, in his song, boasted of King Hakon's fall, Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed these verses on this battle:—

      "Our dauntless king with Gamle's gore

       Sprinkled his bright sword o'er and o'er:

       Sprinkled the gag that holds the mouth

       Of the fell demon Fenriswolf (1).

       Proud swelled our warriors' hearts when he

       Drove Eirik's sons out to the sea,

       With all their Guatland host: but now

       Our warriors weep—Hakon lies low!"

      High standing stones mark Egil Uslerk s grave.

      ENDNOTES: (1) The Fenriswolf, one of the children of Loke, begotten with

       a giantess, was chained to a rock, and gagged by a sword

       placed in his mouth, to prevent him devouring mankind.

       Fenriswolf's gag is a skaldic expression for a sword.—L.

28. NEWS OF WAR COMES TO KING HAKON.

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      When King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, had been king for twenty-six years after his brother Eirik had left the country, it happened (A.D. 960) that he was at a feast in Hordaland in the house at Fitjar on the island Stord, and he had with him at the feast his court and many of the peasants. And just as the king was seated at the supper-table, his watchmen who were outside observed many ships coming sailing along from the south, and not very far from the island. Now, said the one to the other, they should inform the king that they thought an armed force was coming against them; but none thought it advisable to be the bearer of an alarm of war to the king, as he had set heavy penalties on those who raised such alarms falsely, yet they thought it unsuitable that the king should remain in ignorance of what they saw. Then one of them went into the room and asked Eyvind Finson to come out as fast as possible, for it was very needful. Eyvind immediately came out and went to where he could see the ships, and saw directly that a great army was on the way; and he returned in all haste into the room, and, placing himself before the kind, said, "Short is the hour for acting, and long the hour for feasting." The king cast his eyes upon him, and said, "What now is in the way?" Eyvind said—

      "Up king! the avengers are at hand!

       Eirik's bold sons approach the land!

       The Judgment of the sword they crave

       Against their foe. Thy wrath I brave;

       Tho' well I know 'tis no light thing

       To bring war-tidings to the king

       And tell him 'tis no time to rest.

       Up! gird your armour to your breast:

       Thy honour's dearer than my life;

       Therefore I say, up to the strife!"

      Then said the king, "Thou art too brave a fellow, Eyvind, to bring us any false alarm of war." The others all said it was a true report. The king ordered the tables to be removed, and then he went out to look at the ships; and when it could be clearly seen that these were ships of war, the king asked his men what resolution they should take—whether to give battle with the men they had, or go on board ship and sail away northwards along the land. "For it is easy to see," said he, "that we must now fight against a much greater force than we ever had against us before; although we thought just the same the last time we fought against Gunhild's sons." No one was in a hurry to give an answer to the king; but at last Eyvind replied to the king's speech:—

      "Thou who in the battle-plain

       Hast often poured the sharp spear-rain!

       Ill it beseems our warriors brave

       To fly upon the ocean wave:

       To fly upon the blue wave north,

       When Harald from the south comes forth,

       With many a ship riding in pride

       Upon the foaming ocean-tide;