CHAPTER XXVII.-King Harald and Earl Hakon are Baptized.

The Emperor Otto turned back with his troops to Slesvik, collected his ships of war, and crossed the fiord 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 Limfiord, 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 Otto and the Danish king met upon Mors Isle. 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 Hakon, while he was in Mors Isle, 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 *The fiord now called Slien runs up to the town of Slesvik.-L. + Marsey is now called Mors, an island in the Limfiord.-L.

German authorities, Widukind, Thietmar, and others, make King Harald's baptism and Bishop Poppo's miracle happen at an earlier time.

people in Norway be baptized. On that they separated; and the earl went out to sea, there to wait for a wind.

CHAPTER XXVIII.-Earl Hakon renounces the Christian Faith, and plunders in Gautland.

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 the sound,* ravaging the land on both sides. He then sailed eastward along Scania, 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

Eyrarsund is the sound betwixt Seeland and Sweden, which is still called Ore Sound by the Scandinavians.—L.

+ The Fagrskinna, chapter 48, says that Ottar took flight, but that many of his men fell.

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."

CHAPTER XXIX.-The Emperor Otto returns home.

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

This was Swend or Svein, afterwards the conqueror of England, and father of Canute the Great. This statement is also found in Knytlinga Saga, chapter 1.

King Burisleif went to Vindland, and his sonin-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."

CHAPTER XXX.-Olaf's Journey from Vindland.

Olaf Trygveson was three years in Vindland [982984] 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 after it. He provided himself, therefore, with war-ships, and went out again a plundering, and plundered first in Frisland, next in Saxland, and then all the way to Flanders.† So says Halfred Vandredaskald :

"Olaf's broad axe of shining steel
For the shy wolf left many a meal.
The ill-shaped Saxon corpses lay

Heaped up, the witch-wife's horses' prey.
She rides by night at pools of blood,
Where Frisland men in daylight stood,
Her horses slake their thirst, and fly
On to the field where Flemings lie.
The raven-friend in Odin's dress §-
Olaf, who foes can well repress,
Left Flemish flesh for many a meal
With his broad axe of shining steel."

This poem must refer to another battle, as Olaf was at this time in Russia.

+ The present Belgium.

Ravens were the witches' horses.-L.

§ Odin's dress is full armour.-L.

CHAPTER XXXI.-King Olaf Trygveson's Forays.

Thereafter Olaf Trygveson sailed to England, and ravaged wide around in the land. He sailed all the way north to Northumberland, where he plundered; and thence to Scotland, where he marauded far and wide. Then he went to the Hebrides, where he fought some battles; and then southwards to Man, where he also fought. He ravaged far around in Ireland, and thence steered to Bretland,* which he laid waste with fire and sword, and also the district called Cumberland.† He sailed westward from thence to Valland, and marauded there. When he left the west, intending to sail to England, he came to the islands called the Scilly Isles, lying westward from England in the ocean. Thus tells Halfred Vandredaskald of these events:

"The brave young king, who ne'er retreats,
The Englishman in England beats.
Death through Northumberland is spread
From battleaxe and broad spear-head.
Through Scotland with his spears he rides;
To Man his glancing ships he guides:
Feeding the wolves where'er he came,
The young king drove a bloody game.
The gallant bowmen in the isles
Slew foemen, who lay heaped in piles.
The Irish fled at Olaf's name-
Fled from a young king seeking fame.
In Bretland, and in Cumberland,
People against him could not stand:

* Bretland, the land of the Britons, or Wales.-L.

+ Kumraland, or Cumberland; but one of the MSS. of Snorre's work appears to have Kauraland, which would rather indicate Cornwall, and would correspond better with Olaf's voyage from Wales to Valland.-L.

Valland is the west coast of France, from the Seine to the Loire.-L.