and the weather was severe and stormy. Now when Dixin came to the place he soon saw that the leader was a distinguished man, both from family and personal appearance, and he told Olaf the queen's invitation with the most kindly message. Olaf willingly accepted the invitation, and went in harvest [982] to Queen Geira. They liked each other exceedingly, and Olaf courted Queen Geira; and it was so settled that Olaf married her the same winter, and was ruler, along with Queen Geira, over her dominions. Halfred Vandredaskald tells of these matters in the lay he composed about King Olaf :"Why should the deeds the hero did In Bornholm and the East be hid? His deadly weapon Olaf bold Dyed red why should not this be told?"* CHAPTER XXIII.-Earl Hakon pays no Scat. Earl Hakon ruled over Norway, and paid no scat; because the Danish king gave him all the scat revenue that belonged to the king in Norway, for the expense and trouble he had in defending the country against Gunhild's sons. CHAPTER XXIV.-King Harald's levy to oppose the Emperor Otto's demand to introduce Christianity in his Kingdom. + The Emperor Otto was at that time in the Saxon country, and sent a message to King Harald, the * These verses evidently belong to the end of chapter 21. 66 Danish king, that he must take on the true faith and be baptized, he and all his people whom he ruled ; otherwise," says the emperor, "we will march against him with an army." The Danish king ordered the land defence to be fitted out, Danavirke * (the Danish wall) to be well fortified, and his ships of war rigged out. He sent a message also to Earl Hakon in Norway to come to him early in spring [975], and with as many men as he could possibly raise. In spring Earl Hakon levied an army over the whole country which was very numerous, and with it he sailed to meet the Danish king. The king received him in the most honourable manner. Many other chiefs also joined the Danish king with their men, so that he had gathered a very large army. CHAPTER XXV.-Olaf Trygveson's War Expedition. Olaf Trygveson had been all winter [982] in Vindland,† as before related, and went the same winter to the baronies in Vindland which had formerly been under Queen Geira, but had withdrawn themselves from obedience and payment of taxes. There Olaf made war, killed many people, burnt out others, took much property, and laid all of them under subjection * Danavirke. The Danish work was a wall of earth, stones, and wood, with a deep ditch in front, and a castle at every hundred fathoms, between the rivers Eider and Slien, constructed by Harald Blatand (Bluetooth) to oppose the progress of Charlemagne. Some traces of it still exist.-L. + Snorre means to say that Olaf's first winter in Vindland preceded the emperor's expedition and conflict at Danavirke; but perfectly authentic German documents show that the emperor's expedition took place in the year 975, while Olaf was still in Russia. (See chapter 7.) to him, and then went back to his castle. Early in spring Olaf rigged out his ships and set off to sea. He sailed to Scania* and made a landing. The people of the country assembled, and gave him battle: but King Olaf conquered, and made a great booty. He then sailed eastward to the island of Gotland, where he captured a merchant vessel belonging to the people of Jemtaland. They made a brave defence; but the end of it was that Olaf cleared the deck, killed many of the men, and took all the goods. He had a third battle in Gotland, in which he also gained the victory, and made a great booty. So says Halfred Vandredaskald :— "The king, so fierce in battle-fray, : First made the Vindland men give way: The Gotlanders must tremble next; And Scania's shores are sorely vexed By the sharp pelting arrow shower The hero and his warriors pour ; And then the Jemtaland men must fly, CHAPTER XXVI.-The Emperor Otto and Earl Hakon have a Battle at the Danish Dyke in Slesvik. The Emperor Otto assembled a great army from Saxland, Frakland §, Frisland |, and Vindland. T *The large part of Sweden, or of the country on the Swedish side of the Sound, called Scania, belonged in the earliest times to the kingdom of Denmark. Now called Skane.-L. + Jemtaland is the province still so called on the Swedish side of a ridge of hills or keel of the peninsula, at the head of the Bothnian Gulf.-L. Saxonland, or Germany.-L. § Frakkland, or Frankland, is France.-L. Friesland, the low countries about the Ems.-L. ¶ Vindland is the present Pomerania and Mecklenburg down to the Gulf of Lubeck.-L. King Burisleif followed him with a large army, and in it was his son-in-law, Olaf Trygveson. The emperor had a great body of horsemen, and still greater of foot people, and a great army from Holstein. Harald, the Danish king, sent Earl Hakon with the army of Northmen that followed him southwards to Danavirke, to defend his kingdom on that side. So it is told in the "Vellekla: " "Over the foaming salt sea spray The Norse sea-horses took their way, Was hastening from the Jutes' wild land, With toil and pain through the thick wood. The Emperor Otto 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 fiords run into the land, one on each side; and in the farthest bight of these fiords the Danes had made a great wall of stone, turf, and timber, and dug a deep and *Holstein is called by Snorre Holsetaland. + Earl Hakon. Hordaland is often used for Norway by the skald.-L. 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 '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 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 Limfiord. |