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

When he saw Hakon's galley's prow.

       The monarch straightway gave command

       To Hakon, with a steel-clad band,

       To man the Dane-work's rampart stout,

       And keep the foreign foemen out."

      The Emperor Otta came with his army from the south to Danavirke, but Earl Hakon defended the rampart with his men. The Dane-work (Danavirke) was constructed in this way:—Two fjords run into the land, one on each side; and in the farthest bight of these fjords the Danes had made a great wall of stone, turf, and timber, and dug a deep and broad ditch in front of it, and had also built a castle over each gate of it. There was a hard battle there, of which the "Vellekla" speaks:—

      "Thick the storm of arrows flew,

       Loud was the din, black was the view

       Of close array of shield and spear

       Of Vind, and Frank, and Saxon there.

       But little recked our gallant men;

       And loud the cry might be heard then

       Of Norway's brave sea-roving son—

       'On 'gainst the foe! On! Lead us on!"

      Earl Hakon drew up his people in ranks upon all the gate-towers of the wall, but the greater part of them he kept marching along the wall to make a defence wheresoever an attack was threatened. Many of the emperor's people fell without making any impression on the fortification, so the emperor turned back without farther attempt at an assault on it. So it is said in the "Vellekla":—

      "They who the eagle's feast provide

       In ranked line fought side by side,

       'Gainst lines of war-men under shields\

       Close packed together on the fields,

       Earl Hakon drive by daring deeds

       The Saxons to their ocean-steeds;

       And the young hero saves from fall

       The Danavirke—the people's wall."

      After this battle Earl Hakon went back to his ships, and intended to sail home to Norway; but he did not get a favourable wind, and lay for some time outside at Limafjord.

27. HARALD AND HAKON ARE BAPTIZED.

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      The Emperor Otta turned back with his troops to Slesvik, collected his ships of war, and crossed the fjord of Sle into Jutland. As soon as the Danish king heard of this he marched his army against him, and there was a battle, in which the emperor at last got the victory. The Danish king fled to Limafjord and took refuge in the island Marsey. By the help of mediators who went between the king and the emperor, a truce and a meeting between them were agreed on. The Emperor Otta and the Danish king met upon Marsey. There Bishop Poppo instructed King Harald in the holy faith; he bore red hot irons in his hands, and exhibited his unscorched hands to the king. Thereafter King Harald allowed himself to be baptized, and also the whole Danish army. King Harald, while he was in Marsey, had sent a message to Hakon that he should come to his succour; and the earl had just reached the island when the king had received baptism. The king sends word to the earl to come to him, and when they met the king forced the earl to allow himself also to be baptized. So Earl Hakon and all the men who were with him were baptized; and the king gave them priests and other learned men with them, and ordered that the earl should make all the people in Norway be baptized. On that they separated; and the earl went out to sea, there to wait for a wind.

28. HAKON RENOUNCES CHRISTIANITY.

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      When a wind came with which he thought he could get clear out to sea, he put all the learned men on shore again, and set off to the ocean; but as the wind came round to the south-west, and at last to west, he sailed eastward, out through Eyrarsund, ravaging the land on both sides. He then sailed eastward along Skane, plundering the country wherever he came. When he got east to the skerries of East Gautland, he ran in and landed, and made a great blood-sacrifice. There came two ravens flying which croaked loudly; and now, thought the earl, the blood-offering has been accepted by Odin, and he thought good luck would be with him any day he liked to go to battle. Then he set fire to his ships, landed his men, and went over all the country with armed hand. Earl Ottar, who ruled over Gautland, came against him, and they held a great battle with each other; but Earl Hakon gained the day, and Earl Ottar and a great part of his men were killed. Earl Hakon now drove with fire and sword over both the Gautlands, until he came into Norway; and then he proceeded by land all the way north to Throndhjem. The "Vellekla" tells about this:—

      "On the silent battle-field,

       In viking garb, with axe and shield,

       The warrior, striding o'er the slain,

       Asks of the gods 'What days will gain?'

       Two ravens, flying from the east,

       Come croaking to the bloody feast:

       The warrior knows what they foreshow—

       The days when Gautland blood will flow.

       A viking-feast Earl Hakon kept,

       The land with viking fury swept,

       Harrying the land far from the shore

       Where foray ne'er was known before.

       Leaving the barren cold coast side,

       He raged through Gautland far and wide—

       Led many a gold-decked viking shield

       O'er many a peaceful inland field.

       Bodies on bodies Odin found

       Heaped high upon each battle ground:

       The moor, as if by witchcraft's power,

       Grows green, enriched by bloody shower.

       No wonder that the gods delight

       To give such luck in every fight

       To Hakon's men—for he restores

       Their temples on our Norway shores."

29. THE EMPEROR OTTA RETURNS HOME.

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      The Emperor Otta went back to his kingdom in the Saxon land, and parted in friendship with the Danish king. It is said that the Emperor Otta stood godfather to Svein, King Harald's son, and gave him his name; so that he was baptized Otta Svein. King Harald held fast by his Christianity to his dying day.

      King Burizleif went to Vindland, and his son-in-law King Olaf went with him. This battle is related also by Halfred Vandredaskald in his song on Olaf:—

      "He who through the foaming surges

       His white-winged ocean-coursers urges,

       Hewed from the Danes, in armour dressed,

       The iron bark off mail-clad breast."

30. OLAF'S JOURNEY FROM VINDLAND.

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      Olaf Trygvason was three years in Vindland (A.D. 982–984) when Geira his queen fell sick, and she died of her illness. Olaf felt his loss so great that he had no pleasure in Vindland