They met; and in the battle storm
Of clashing shields, full many a form
Of goodly warrior on the plain,
Full many a corpse by Hakon slain,
Glutted the ravens, who from far,
Scenting the banquet-feast of war,
Came in black flocks to Jutland's plains
To drink the blood-wine from the veins."

CHAPTER VII.-Battle in the Sound.

Then Hakon steered southwards with his fleet to seek the vikings, and so on to Seeland. He rowed with two cutters into the Sound, where he found eleven viking ships, and instantly attacked them. It ended in his gaining the victory, and clearing the viking ships of all their men. So says Guthorm

Sindre :

"Hakon the Brave, whose skill all know

To bend in battle storm the bow,
Rushed o'er the waves to Seeland's tongue,
His two war-ships with gilt shields hung,
And cleared the decks with his blue sword
That rules the fate of war, on board
Eleven ships of the Vindland men,-
Famous is Hakon's name since then."

CHAPTER VIII.-King Hakon's Expedition in Denmark.

Thereafter King Hakon carried war far and wide in Seeland; plundering some, slaying others, taking some prisoners of war, taking ransom from others, and all without opposition. Then Hakon proceeded along the coast of Scania, pillaging everywhere, levying taxes and ransoms from the country, and killing all

vikings, both Danish and Vindish.* He then went eastwards to the district of Gautland, marauded there, and took great ransom from the country. So says Guthorm Sindre :

"Hakon, who midst the battle shock
Stands like a firmly-rooted oak,
Subdued all Seeland with the sword;
From Vindland vikings the sea-bord
Of Scania swept; and, with the shield
Of Odin clad, made Gautland yield
A ransom of the ruddy gold,
Which Hakon to his war-men bold

Gave with free hand, who in his feud
Against the arrow-storm had stood."

King Hakon returned back in autumn with his army and an immense booty; and remained all the winter [946] in Viken to defend it against the Danes and Gautlanders, if they should attack it.

CHAPTER IX.-Of King Trygve.

In the same winter King Trygve Olafson returned from a viking cruise in the West sea, having before ravaged in Scotland and Ireland. In spring King Hakon went north, and set his brother's son, King Trygve, over Vikent to defend that country against enemies. He gave him also in property all that he could reconquer of the country in Denmark, which

* Vindland and Vinder mean the country and people along the Baltic coast from Saxland and Holstein eastwards; and seems to have included Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Prussia on the Baltic.-L.

+ Viken, the country north of the Gota river, forming the great bight of the coast of Norway.-L.

Scania, on the Swedish side of the Sound, was called Denmark, as well as the islands and Jutland.-L.

the summer before King Hakon had subjected to payment of scat to him. So says Guthorm:

“King Hakon, whose sharp sword dyes red

The bright steel cap on many a head,
Has set a warrior brave and stout
The foreign foeman to keep out,—
To keep that green land safe from war
Which black Night bore to dwarf Annar.*
For many a carle whose trade's to wield
The battle-axe, and swing the shield,
On the swan's ocean-skates † has come,
In white-winged ships, across the foam,—
Across the sea, from far Ireland,

To war against the Norseman's land.”

CHAPTER X.-Of Gunhild's Sons.

King Harald Gormson ‡ ruled over Denmark at that time. He took it much amiss that King Hakon had made war in his dominions, and the report went that he would take revenge; but this did not take place so soon. When Gunhild and her sons heard there was enmity between Denmark and Norway, they began to turn their course from the West. They married King Eirik's daughter, Ragnhild, to Arnfin,§ a son of Thorfin Hausakliufer; and as soon as Eirik's sons went away, Thorfin took the earldom again over the Orkney Islands. Gamle Eirikson was somewhat older than the other brothers, but still he was not a grown man. When Gunhild and her sons came

* The dwarf Annar was the husband of Night, and Earth was their daughter.-L.

+ Figurative expressions for ships.-L.

Harald Gormson was king in Denmark from 935-985.

§ According to Egla, chap. 62, and Fagrskinna, chap. 27, Eirik himself gave Ragnhild to Arnfin.

from the westward to Denmark, they were well received by King Harald. He gave them great fiefs in his kingdom, so that they could maintain themselves and their men very well. He also took Harald Eirikson to be his foster-son, set him on his knee,* and thereafter he was brought up at the Danish king's court. Some of Eirik's sons went out on viking expeditions as soon as they were old enough, and gathered property, ravaging all around in the East sea. They grew up quickly to be handsome men, and far beyond their years in strength and perfection. Glum Geirason tells of one of them in the Grafeld song:"I've heard that, on the Eastland coast, Great victories were won and lost. The king, whose hand is ever graced With gift to skald, his banner placed

On, and still on; while, midst the play

Of swords, sung sharp his good sword's sway,

As strong in arm as free of gold,

He thinn'd the ranks of warriors bold."

Then Eirik's sons turned northwards with their troops to Viken; but King Trygve kept troops on foot with which he met them, and they had many a battle, in which the victory was sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other. Sometimes Eirik's sons plundered in Viken, and sometimes Trygve in Seeland and Halland.

CHAPTER XI.-King Hakon's Disposition and Government.

As long as Hakon was king in Norway, there was good peace between the bondes and merchants; so

Setting the child on the knee of the foster-father appears to have been the symbol of adoption.-L.

that none did harm either to the life or goods of the other. Good seasons also there were, both by sea and land. King Hakon was of a remarkably cheerful disposition, clever in words, and very condescending. He was a man of great understanding also, and bestowed attention on law-giving. He gave out the Gula-thing's laws on the advice of Thorleif the Wise; also the Frosta-thing's laws on the advice of Earl Sigurd, and of other Throndhjem men of wisdom. Eidsiva-thing laws were first established in the country by Halfdan the Black, the father of Harald Harfager, as has before been written.

CHAPTER XII.-The Birth of Earl Hakon the Great. King Hakon kept Yule at Throndhjem, and Earl Sigurd had made a feast for him at Lade. The night of the first day of Yule the earl's wife, Bergliot, was brought to bed of a boy-child, which afterwards King Hakon poured water over, and gave him his own name. The boy grew up, and became in his day a mighty and able man, and was earl after his father, who was King Hakon's dearest friend.

CHAPTER XIII.—Of Eystein the Bad.

Eystein, a king of the Uplands, whom some called the Great, and some the Bad, once on a time made

Owing to the different means of subsistence in so vast an extent of country, each of the five great Law Things appears to have had laws suitable for its own locality; and the District Things, with their lagman, to have administered these laws.-L.