Heimskringla

by Snorri Sturluson

  King Sigurth ordered that Harald was to walk on red-hot ploughshares to prove his paternity. But that ordeal was considered rather harsh, because it was to be undergone only to prove his paternity and not his claim to the throne. For that he had before given pledges. However, Harald agreed to it. He fasted in preparation for the ordeal, and then this test was undergone—the sternest ever made in Norway: nine red-hot ploughshares were laid on the ground, and Harald walked over them with bare feet, led by two bishops. And three days later the outcome of the test was looked into, and his feet were found to be unburned.

  Thereafter King Sigurth accepted the kinship of Harald with good grace; but Magnús, his son, took a dislike to Harald, and many chieftains followed him in that. King Sigurth was so assured of his popularity with all the people that he demanded that all should swear that Magnús, his son, was to be king after him; and he received assurances from all the people.

  Chapter 27. Harald Gilli Shows His Prowess as a Runner

  Harald Gilli was a man of tall and slender stature. He had a long neck and rather long face, black eyes, and dark hair. He was alert and swift [in his motions] and most often wore the Irish costume with short and light clothes. The Norwegian speech was hard for him to master, he often hesitated for words, and many ridiculed him for that.

  Once upon a time Harald sat drinking and was talking with another man and told him about matters west in Ireland. Among other things he told him that there were men in Ireland who were so fast on their feet that no horse could overtake them. Magnús, the son of the king overheard that and said, “Now he is lying as usual.”

  Harald answered. “It is the truth,” he said, “that there are men in Ireland whom no horse in Norway could pass in running.”

  They talked about this still further, and both were drunk. Then Magnús said, “That you shall wager, with your head as pledge, unless you run as fast as I ride my horse; and I shall put up my gold ring against that.”

  Harald answered, “I do not say that I can run so fast. I could find those men in Ireland who can run so fast, and I can lay a wager about that.”

  Magnús, the king’s son, replied, “I do not care to journey to Ireland. Here we shall wager, and not there.”

  Then Harald left the company to go to sleep and would have no more to do with him. That was in Ósló. But the following morning, after early mass, Magnús rode up the Street.1 He sent word to Harald to come there. And when he came he was arrayed like this: he was in a shirt and trousers with straps under the feet; he wore a short mantle and had an Irish hat on his head and a spearshaft in his hand. Magnús marked off the extent of the course to be run. Harald said, “You are making it too long.” Magnús straightway made it much longer and said that it was too short nevertheless.

  Many people were present. Then they started the race, and Harald kept up alongside the horse’s shoulder. But when they arrived at the end of the course, Magnús said, “You are holding onto the saddle-strap, and the horse pulled you.” Magnús had a very fast horse from Gautland.

  Then they took another heat back, and this time Harald ran ahead of the horse all the way. When they came to the end of the course Harald asked, “Did I hold onto the saddle-strap this time?”

  Magnús said, “This time you had a head start.”

  Then Magnús let his horse breathe a while, and when he was ready he dug his spurs into the horse and got a fast start. Meanwhile Harald stood still. Then Magnús looked back and called out, “Run now.” Then Harald leapt and ran quickly past the horse, and far ahead, and so to the end of the course. He got there long before Magnús, so that he lay down, and jumped up and greeted Magnús when he arrived.

  Then they returned to the town. King Sigurth had been at mass meanwhile, and knew nothing about this till after the meal that day.

  Then he spoke to Magnús in angry fashion, “You call Harald foolish, but it seems to me you are a fool. You are not acquainted with the ways of other peoples. Did you not know before that people in other parts train themselves in other sports than filling their bellies with drink and rendering themselves senseless and unfit, so they don’t know what they do? Give Harald his ring and make no more sport of him while I am alive.”

  Chapter 28. Sigurth Sigurtharson Saves a Man from Drowning

  One time when King Sigurth was at sea with his ships and they lay to in a harbor they found a merchant vessel from Iceland anchored beside them. Harald had his station in the fore room of the king’s ship, and foreward next to him lay Svein Hrímhildarson, whose mother was Hrímhild and whose father was Knút Sveinsson of Jathar. Sigurth Sigurtharson was a steward [of the king], an excellent man. He steered one of the ships.

  One fine day with hot sunshine, many men went swimming, both those of the warships and of the merchantman. A certain Icelander who was among those swimming took pleasure in ducking those who couldn’t swim as well as he. The men laughed about that. King Sigurth saw and heard that. Then he cast off his clothes, jumped overboard, and swam toward the Icelander. He grabbed him and ducked him and held him under; and as soon as the Icelander came up, the king ducked him, and so time and again.

  Then Sigurth Sigurtharson said, “Are we going to let the king kill that man?” Someone said that no one was particularly eager to go [and prevent that]. Sigurth said, “Someone would if Dag Eilífsson were here.”

  Thereupon Sigurth leapt overboard and swam to the king. He seized him and said, “Don’t kill the man. Everyone now sees that you are much the better swimmer.”

  The king said, “Let go of me, Sigurth. I shall kill him. He wants to duck our men.”

  Sigurth answered, “Let us two now play first; but you, Icelander, swim to the land.” He did so, but the king let go of Sigurth and swam to his ship. So did Sigurth. But the king was heard to say that Sigurth had better not dare to show himself to him again. Sigurth was told that, and [leaving his ship] he went on land.

  Chapter 29. Sigurth Sigurtharson Saves Harald Gilli from Being Hanged

  In the evening, about the time the men were going to bed, some were playing games on land. Harald was among them and bade his page go on board the ship and make his couch ready and wait there for him. The page did so. The king had gone to sleep. But when the page thought it took a long time [for Harald to return] he lay down in Harald’s bed. Svein Hrímhildarson said, “A great shame it is for men of good birth to leave their homes in order to have a valet lie next to them.” The page replied that Harald had told him to wait there for him. Svein Hrímhildarson said, “To me it seems no particular advantage that Harald has his couch here, even if he doesn’t bring here any thralls or beggars”—and he seized a truncheon and hit the page on the head so that the blood ran down his face. The page straightway went on land and told Harald what had happened. Harald at once went on board the ship and back into the forward compartment. He dealt Svein a blow with his hand-axe, inflicting a great wound on his arm. Then he went back to the land at once. Svein ran on land after him. Then Svein’s kinsmen came up, seized Harald, and intended to hang him. But when they were preparing to do that, Sigurth Sigurtharson boarded King Sigurth’s ship and waked him. But when the king opened his eyes and recognized Sigurth he said, “For this you shall die, since you have come before me, because I forbade you to do that”—and sprang up.

  Sigurth said, “That you can do, sir king, whenever you want to, but other matters are more important now: go on land the fastest you can and help your brother Harald. The people of Rogaland are about to hang him.”

  Then the king said, “May God help us now! Sigurth, call the trumpeter and have him sound his trumpet for all to follow me.” The king hurried to the land, and all who recognized him followed him to where the gallows was raised. He took Harald at once under his protection. But all the men, fully armed, at once rushed to the king as soon as they heard the trumpet. Then the king declared that Svein and all his companions were to be outlawed; but on the pleading by all, the king moderated his decree, so that they were permitted to sta
y in the land and to retain their possessions, but that the wound was not to be atoned for.

  Then Sigurth Sigurtharson asked the king whether he was to leave him now. “That I do not wish,” the king said. “Never shall I be able to get along without you.”

  Chapter 30. King Saint Óláf Restores a Man’s Speech

  There was a poor young man, Kolbein by name, whose tongue Thóra, the mother of King Sigurth the Jerusalemfarer, had cut out for the sole reason that this young man had eaten half a piece of a dish intended for the king’s mother, saying that the cook had given it him. But the cook did not dare confess the truth to her. Thereafter this man was deprived of his speech for a long time. Einar Skúlason makes mention of this in his Óláfsdrápa:1

  (203.)

  571. For little cause the lady

  let the tongue be cut out

  of the youthful yeoman

  yearning aye for riches.

  Him I saw then, when at

  Hlíth I was, the breaker-

  of-rings, bereft of speech and

  wretched, few weeks after.

  Later, he betook himself Trondheim and Nitharós and kept vigil in Christ Church. And at the time of the matins, on the latter day of Saint Óláf’s Mass [August 3rd], he fell asleep; and it seemed to him that Holy King Óláf approached him and with his hand took hold of the stump of his tongue and pulled it toward him. And he awaked healed, and with a glad heart thanked our Lord and Holy King Óláf, through whom he had regained his health and obtained grace—having journeyed thither speechless and sought his holy shrine; and now he returned from there whole and of clear speech.

  Chapter 31. Saint Óláf Helps a Man Escape Slavery

  A certain young man, Danish of birth, had been seized by heathen men and brought to Wendish lands and kept there with other captives. There he stayed alone in irons in daytime, but nights the farmer’s son was chained to him so that he could not escape. But this miserable man could never sleep nor be in peace, because of his grief and sorrow, reflecting this way and that what could be of aid to him. He was much afraid of being kept a slave, and feared both hunger and tortures; nor did he expect any release through his kinsmen, because they had twice before ransomed him from heathen lands; for which reason he believed it would seem to them too troublesome and too expensive to do that a third time. Happy the man who does not experience so much evil in this world as he had undergone. Now no other way seemed open to him than to run away and escape, if luck favored him. So at night time he went and killed the farmer’s son, cut off his foot, and headed for the woods with the chains on him. But the morning after, at dawn, they discovered it and went after him with two hounds accustomed to find the tracks of those who escaped, and they discovered him in the woods where he lay trying to hide from them. Then they seized hold of him and beat and pummeled him, mistreating him in all manner of ways.

  Then they dragged him back, maltreating him within an inch of his life and showing him no mercy. They dragged him to be tortured, and straightway penned him in a dungeon in which there were already sixteen men, all Christians, and there fastened him with iron chains and other fetters as tight as they could.

  And then the misery and tortures he had suffered before seemed to him but a shadow against what he underwent now. There was no man in this prison who besought mercy for him. No one took pity on the miserable wretch except the Christians who lay there by him in chains. They bewailed his sufferings and their own misfortunes and ill hap. And one day they counselled him, asking that he dedicate himself to Holy King Óláf, to become his servant in his house of glory if by God’s grace and with his prayers he made his escape out of this prison. To this he assented with a glad heart and at once vowed he would serve in that [holy] place, as they had asked him. The night after, in his sleep, he thought he saw a man of medium height stand close to him and speak to him in this fashion. “Hear, you poor man,” he said. “Why don’t you arise?”

  He replied, “My lord, who are you?”

  “I am King Óláf, on whom you called.”

  “Alas, my good lord,” he said, “I would gladly arise if I could, but I lie bound in chains and also fettered among the men who here sit in irons.”

  Thereupon King Óláf called him and spoke thus to him: “Get up quickly and do not be afraid—for certainly you are unfettered now.”

  Thereupon he awoke and told his fellow prisoners what he had dreamed. Then they told him to try and stand up to see whether it was true. And up he stood and felt that he was free. Now other fellow prisoners spoke and said that this was of no use for him, because the door was locked from without and within. Then an old man who sat there, in pitiful plight, spoke up and prayed him not to misdoubt the mercy of the man from whom he had received his freedom—“and for this reason will he have done this miracle for you that you were to benefit from his mercy and escape from here, but not that you would have to endure more misery and torture. Now be quick,” he said, “and go to the door, and if you can get out, then you are saved.”

  So he did; he at once found the door open, and quickly made his way out and escaped forthwith into the woods. People became aware of that and let loose their dogs and set out after him the fastest they could; but he lay hidden, that wretched man, and saw them search for him. Now the hounds right away lost track of him when they approached him, and all the men became confused, so that no one could find him though he lay right before their feet. Then they returned, sorely vexed and bewailing that they could not catch him.

  King Óláf let nothing harm him, once he had got into the woods. He gave him back his hearing and restored his health though they before had beaten him and bruised his head so that he became deaf.

  Soon after, he managed to reach a ship, together with two other Christians who had been tortured there for a long time, and they all together made use of that ship to betake themselves away.

  Later, he made his way to the saint’s edifice. He had by then become hale and able bodied. Then he repented of his vow and broke his promise to the gracious king, and one day ran away and in the evening came to a farmer who gave him shelter for God’s sake. Afterwards, in the night, when he was asleep, he saw three handsome and fair-dight maidens approach him. They spoke to him forthwith and reproached him sternly for being so bold as to run away from the good king who had shown him such great mercy—first freeing him from his chains and then from all captivity—that he ran away from the kindly lord whom he had served.

  Then he awoke in terror, arose straightway early in the morning and told the husbandman [his dream]; and that good farmer did not let him do anything but return to that holy place.

  He who first wrote down these miracles, himself saw the man and the marks of the chain on him.

  Chapter 32. King Sigurth Builds the Holy Cross Church in Konungahella

  King Sigurth had so many buildings erected in Konungahella that there was no more richly provided market town in Norway, and he resided there a long time in order to defend the land. He had a royal residence built within the fortification. He imposed this duty on all the district in the neighborhood of the market town, as well as on the people in the town, that every twelve months everyone nine years old or older was to carry to the fortification five stones to be used as missiles or else five stakes five ells in length which were to be sharpened on one end. Inside the fortification King Sigurth had a Holy Cross Church built. That was a wooden church, very carefully built both as to material and workmanship. This Holy Cross Church was consecrated when Sigurth had been king for twenty-four years. The king deposited in it the splinter of the Holy Cross and many other relics. It was called the Castle Church. In front of the altar he placed the altar-piece he had had made in Greece. It was of bronze and silver, beautifully gilded, and set with enamel and jewels. There was [also] a shrine which Eirík Eimuni, the king of Denmark, had sent him, and a plenary missal,1 written in golden letters, which the Patriarch had given King Sigurth.

  Chapter 33. King Sigurth Falls Sick and Dies />
  Three years after the Holy Cross Church was consecrated King 1130 Sigurth fell sick while in Ósló. He expired one night after Annunciation [March 25th]. He was buried in Saint Halvarth’s Church and interred inside the stone wall behind the choir on the south side. Magnús, the son of King Sigurth, was in the town at that time. He at once took over all the king’s treasure when Sigurth had died. Sigurth had been king in Norway for twenty-seven years. He was forty years old then. And his reign was blessed for the people of the land with both peace and good harvests.

  The Saga of Magnús the Blind and Harald Gilli

  Chapter 1. Magnús and Harald Gilli Share the Kingdom

  Magnús, the son of King Sigurth, was at Ósló chosen king over all the land, just as all the people had sworn to King Sigurth. Then many men forth with avowed their adherence to him and became his stewards. Magnús was handsomer than any man then living in Norway. He was a man of a haughty disposition, cruel, a great athlete; but it was his father’s popularity that brought him the friendship of the people. He was much given to drinking, greedy for money, unfriendly, and hard to get along with.

  Harald Gilli was an affable man, merry and gay, not haughty; and he was generous, so that he begrudged his friends nothing. He was open to advice, letting others give him counsel in whatever they would. All this made him popular and earned him praise. As a consequence, men of power attached themselves to him not less than to Magnús.

  Harald was in Túnsberg when he learned of the death of King Sigurth, his brother. Then he at once arranged for a meeting with his friends; and they advised him to summon the Haugathing Assembly in that town. At that assembly Harald was chosen as king over half the country. The fact that before he had renounced his paternal inheritance was there declared to have been an oath taken under compulsion. Harald surrounded himself with a bodyguard and appointed stewards. Soon a force joined him no whit smaller than that of King Magnús. Men negotiated between them, and matters continued thus for seven days. But because Magnús could get only considerably smaller forces he had no other choice than to share the kingdom with Harald. The division was made in this fashion that either would have half of the realm King Sigurth had had; but that the ships, the table-service, the jewels, and all movable goods King Sigurth had possessed should go to Magnús. Yet he was ill satisfied with that. Nevertheless they ruled the land in peace for some time, even though they were ill agreed about many things.