and in the north parts of England, wherever he could land. Athelstan, the king of England, sent a message to Eirik, offering him dominions under him in England; saying that King Harald his father was a good friend of King Athelstan, and therefore he would do kindly towards his sons. Messengers passed between the two kings; and it came to an agreement that King Eirik should take Northumberland as a fief from King Athelstan, and which land he should defend against the Danes or other vikings. Eirik should let himself be baptized, together with his wife and children, and all the people who had followed him. Eirik accepted this offer, and was baptized, and adopted the right faith. Northumberland is called a fifth part of England. Eirik had his residence at York, where Lodbrok's sons, it was said, had formerly been, and Northumberland was principally inhabited by Northmen. Since Lodbrok's sons had taken the country, Danes and Northmen often plundered there, when the power of the land was out of their hands. Many names of places in the country are Norwegian; as Grimsby,† Haukfliot, and many others.

*

CHAPTER IV.-Eirik's Death.

King Eirik had many people about him, for he kept many Northmen who had come with him from the East; and also many of his friends had joined

*There Egil Skallagrimson met him in 936. See Egla, chaps. 62, 63. + Grimsbær is no doubt Grimsby. Haukfliot is not now the name of any place known generally.-L.

him from Norway. But as he had little land, he went on a cruise every summer, and plundered in Scotland, the Hebrides, Ireland, and Bretland, by which he gathered property. King Athelstan died on a sick bed, after a reign of fourteen years, eight weeks, and three days.* After him his brother Jatmund was king of England, and he was no friend to the Northmen. King Eirik, also, was in no great favour with him; and the word went about that King Jatmund would set another chief over Northumberland. Now when King Eirik heard this, he set off on a viking cruise to the westward; and from the Orkneys took with him the Earls Arnkel and Erlend, the sons of Earl Torf-Einar. Then he sailed to the Hebrides, where there were many vikings and troop-kings, who joined their men to his. With all this force he steered to Ireland first, where he took with him all the men he could, and then to Bretland, and plundered; and sailed thereafter south to England, and marauded there as elsewhere. The people fled before him wherever he appeared. As King Eirik was a bold warrior, and had a great force, he trusted so much to his people that he penetrated far inland in the country, following and plundering the fugitives. King Jatmund

According to the Saxon Chronicle, Athelstan died in the year 941, after a reign of fourteen years and ten weeks. Florence of Whitehorn, who lived about the year 1110, places his death in 940, after a reign of sixteen years.-L.

+ Jatmund, Edmund, Eadmund, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,-a difference in pronunciation of the same name. Ruled from 941 to 946.-L.

England is applied to the parts occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, and Bretland to the parts occupied by the Welsh and ancient Britons.-L.

had set a king, who was called Olaf, to defend the land; and he gathered an innumerable mass of people, with whom he marched against King Eirik. A dreadful battle ensued,* in which many Englishmen fell; but for one who fell came three in his place out of the country behind, and when evening came on the loss of men turned on the side of the Northmen, and many people fell. Towards the end. of the day, King Eirik and five kings with him fell. Three of them were Guthorm and his two sons, Ivar and Harek there fell, also, Sigurd and Ragnvald; and with them Torf-Einar's two sons, Arnkel and Erlend. Besides these, there was a great slaughter of Northmen; and those who escaped went to Northumberland, and brought the news to Gunhild and her sons.

CHAPTER V.-Gunhild and her Sons.

When Gunhild and her sons knew for certain that King Eirik had fallen, after having plundered the land of the King of England, they thought there was no peace to be expected for them; and they made themselves ready to depart from Northumberland, with all the ships King Eirik had left, and all the men who would follow them. They took also all the loose property, and goods which they had gathered partly as taxes in England, partly as booty on their expeditions. With their army they first steered

*This battle, according to the Saxon Chronicle, took place 944. It mentions the fall of a Regenald-Ragnvald—and an Aulaf.—L.

northward to Orkney, where Thorfin Hausakliufer was earl, a son of Torf-Einar, and took up their station there for a time. Eirik's sons subdued these islands and Shetland, took scat for themselves, and stayed there all the winter; but went on viking cruises in summer to the West, and plundered in Scotland and Ireland. About this Glum Geirason * sings:

"The hero who knows well to ride

The sea-horse † o'er the foaming tide,-
He who in boyhood wild rode o'er
The seaman's horse to Scania's shore,
And showed the Danes his galley's bow,
Right nobly scours the ocean now.
On Scotland's coast he lights the brand
Of flaming war; with conquering hand
Drives many a Scottish warrior tall
To the bright seats in Odin's hall.
The fire-spark, by the fiend of war
Fanned to a flame, soon spreads afar.
Crowds trembling fly,-the southern foes
Fall thick beneath the hero's blows:
The hero's blade drips red with gore,
Staining the green sward on the shore."

CHAPTER VI.-Battle in Jutland.

When King Eirik had left the country, King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, subdued the whole of Norway. The first winter [936] he visited the western parts, and then went north, and settled in Throndhjem. But as no peace could be reasonably looked for so long as King Eirik with his forces could come

* Glum Geirason was an Icelander, and the skald of Harald Gray-fell. The sea-horse, the ocean steed, &c., are common expressions for a ship,-probably from many having had the figure-head of a horse on the bow.-L.

to Norway from the West sea, he set himself with his men-at-arms in the middle of the country,-in the Fiord district, or in Sogn, or Hordaland, or Rogaland. Hakon placed Sigurd earl of Lade over the whole Throndhjem district, as he and his father had before had it under Harald Harfager. When King Hakon heard of his brother Eirik's death, and also that his sons had no footing in England, he thought there was not much to fear from them, and he went with his troops one summer eastward to Viken. At that time the Danes plundered often in Viken, and wrought much evil there; but when they heard that King Hakon was come with a great army, they got out of the way, to Halland; and those who were nearest to King Hakon went out to sea, and over to Jutland. When the king heard of this, he sailed after them with all his army. On arriving in Jutland he plundered all round; and when the country people heard of it, they assembled in a great body, and determined to defend their land, and fight. There was a great battle; and King Hakon fought so boldly, that he went forward before his banner without helmet or coat of mail. King Hakon won the victory, and drove the fugitives far up the country. So says Guthorm Sindre, in his song of Hakon:

"Furrowing the deep-blue sea with oars,

The king pursues to Jutland's shores.

* Halland is a part of the present Sweden. Denmark extended over the provinces of Scania, Halland, and Bleking, on the north or Swedish side of the Sound, in the earliest times, and down to a late period.-L.