"I can tell you, king," says Thorberg, "who has done this piece of work." "I don't think," replies the king, "that any one is so likely to find it out as thou art." Thorberg says, "I will tell you, king, who did it. I did it myself." The king says, "Thou must restore it all to the same condition as before, or thy life shall pay for it." Then Thorberg went and chipped the planks until the deep notches were all smoothed and made even with the rest; and the king and all present declared that the ship was much handsomer on the side of the hull which Thorberg had chipped, and bade him shape the other side in the same way, and gave him great thanks for the improvement. Afterwards Thorberg was the master-builder of the ship until she was entirely finished. The ship was a dragon, built after the one the king had captured in Halogaland; but this ship was far larger, and more carefully put together in all her parts. The king called this ship Serpent the Long, and the other Serpent the Short. The long Serpent had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and the arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships. This ship was the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway.* The chronology is as follows. Earl Eirik takes flight in the autumn 995, spends the winter 996 with King Olaf in Sweden. During the summer he makes depredations on Gotland and in Vindland. The winter 997 he is again in Svithiod. The following winters, 998 and 999, he was either in Svithiod or in Denmark. In the five summers are included the year 1000, when Earl Eirik takes an active part in the death of Olaf Trygveson. CHAPTER XCVI.—Of Earl Eirik, the Son of Hakon. Earl Eirik, the son of Earl Hakon, and his brother, with many other valiant men their relations, had left the country after Earl Hakon's fall. Earl Eirik went eastwards to Svithiod, to Olaf, the Swedish king, and he and his people were well received. King Olaf gave the earl peace and freedom in the land, and great fiefs; so that he could support himself and his men well. Thord Kolbeinson speaks of this in the verses before given. Many people who fled from the country on account of King Olaf Trygveson came out of Norway to Earl Eirik; and the earl resolved to fit out ships and go a-cruising, in order to get property for himself and his people. First he steered to Gotland, and lay there long in summer watching for merchant vessels sailing towards the land, or for vikings. Sometimes he landed and ravaged all round upon the sea-coasts. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa: " "Eirik, as we have lately heard, Has waked the song of shield and sword,- Upon the vikings' water-fields: From Gotland's lonely shore has gone Far up the land, and battles won; And o'er the sea his name is spread. To friends a shield, to foes a dread." Afterwards Earl Eirik sailed south to Vindland, and at Staurrin found some viking ships, and gave * In the verses given in chapter 57 of this saga.-L. VOL. II. N them battle. Eirik gained the victory, and slew the vikings. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa: "— "Earl Eirik, he who stoutly wields CHAPTER XCVII.-Earl Eirik's Foray on the Baltic Coasts. Earl Eirik sailed back to Sweden in autumn, and stayed there all winter [997]; but in spring he fitted out his war force again, and sailed up the Baltic. When he came to Valdemar's dominions he began to plunder and kill the inhabitants, and burn the dwellings everywhere as he came along, and to lay waste the country. He came to Aldeigiuborg,* and besieged it until he took the castle; and he killed many people, broke down and burned the castle, and then carried destruction all around far and wide in Russia. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa:" "The generous earl, brave and bold, Aldeiga burns, and Eirik's might Scours through all Russia by its light." Earl Eirik was five years in all on this foray; and when he returned from Russia he ravaged all AdalAldeigiuborg is the town at Aldeiga or the Ladoga lake, and is supposed to be the present town of Notaburg, on an island in this lake.-L. syssel and Eysyssel,* and took there four viking ships from the Danes, and killed every man on board. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa:— Among the isles flies round the word, By land or sea, in field or wave, What can withstand this earl brave? All fly before his fiery hand God save the earl, and keep the land." When Eirik had been a year in Sweden he went over to Denmark [996] to King Svein the Forkedbearded, the Danish king, and courted his daughter Gyda. The proposal was accepted, and Earl Eirik married Gyda; and a year after [997] they had a son, who was called Hakon. Earl Eirik was in the winter in Denmark, or sometimes in Sweden; but in summer he went a-cruising. CHAPTER XCVIII.-King Svein's Marriage. The Danish king, Svein Forked Beard, was married to Gunhild, a daughter of Burisleif, king Eistland was the country along the Gulf of Finland, as far west as the Vistula; and Eysyssel was the district of the islands of Osel and others along this coast. Adalsyssel was the district on the main land opposite to Eysyssel.-L. + Svein or Svend Forked Beard (Tiuguskegg) was the conqueror of England, and father of Canute the Great. We retain the word of the Vinds. But in the times we have just been speaking of it happened that Queen Gunhild fell sick, and died. Soon after King Svein married Sigrid the Haughty, a daughter of Skoglar Toste, and mother of the Swedish king Olaf; and by means of this relationship there was great friendship between the kings and Earl Eirik, Hakon's son. CHAPTER XCIX.-King Burisleif's Marriage. Burisleif, the king of the Vinds, complained to his relation Earl Sigvalde, that the agreement was broken which Sigvalde had made between King Svein and King Burisleif, by which Burisleif was to get in marriage Thyre, Harald's daughter, a sister of King Svein: but that marriage had not svein in swain, boatswain, coxswain, and other words, in the same signification as svein and svend have in the northern languages. He was the son of King Harald Gormson, whose father, Gorm the Old, was the first sole king of Denmark. Gorm the Old, Harald Harfager, and Eirik Eymundson of Sweden, were contemporaries, and three remarkable men, who, about the middle of the ninth century, got the supreme power in their respective dominions, and put down the small kings. Eirik the Victorious, a grandson of Eirik Eymundson, gained a battle at Fyrisvols, near Upsala, in 983, against his brother's son, Styrbiorn the Strong, who was aided by Harald Gormson of Denmark; and in the war which ensued between Sweden and Denmark, Svein, Harald's son, was driven from his kingdom. Eirik's first wife was Sigrid the Haughty. He divorced her after she had a son by him called Olaf. This Olaf, called Olaf the Swede, and the Lap-king, from having been king while still in his nurse's lap, was the Olaf of whom so much is related in the Saga of Saint Olaf. This Sigrid, the same who burnt Harald Grenske, and whom Olaf Trygveson insulted by striking her with his glove, married Svein, who recovered back his kingdom by this marriage from his stepson, Olaf the Swede. According to the saga, this Sigrid's desire of revenge for the insult she had received from Olaf Trygveson occasioned the combination which defeated and slew Olaf. The peace, established by this marriage between Sweden and Denmark, enabled Svein to leave his dominions and make war in England. Olaf the Swede died in 1024, and was the first Christian king of Sweden.-L. |