The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade) Part 24

And the Earl answered and said that he deemed it might be strife, yet nevertheless it might be that they were some of his kinsmen who were seeking for protection & friends.h.i.+p, & would promise the King their support and fealty in return. Then the King said that they would first of all keep quiet and learn more particulars anent this host. So they did this, & the host waxed greater the nearer it came, and everywhere was it like a sheet of ice to behold, so white was the gleaming of the weapons.

-- Then King Harald Sigurdson spake and said: 'Let us now take goodly & wise counsel together, for it cannot be hidden that this forebodes strife, and most like it is the King himself.' To which the Earl answered: 'Our first course is to turn back and go our swiftest to the s.h.i.+ps that we may fetch folk and weapons, and thereafter offer what resistance we can; or even might we also let the s.h.i.+ps protect us and then no power would the hors.e.m.e.n have over us.' Then said King Harald: 'Another counsel will I choose, namely to send three bold fellows on our swiftest horses and let them ride hotly a'pace and impart to our men what hath befallen; then will they the sooner come to our aid, and a right sharp combat shall the Englishmen fight or ever we suffer defeat.'

The Earl answered and said that the King should decide in this matter as in all else: 'no manner of desire had he either to flee.' Then caused the King his banner 'Land-waster' to be borne aloft, and Fridrek was the man hight who bore the banner.

-- After these things arrayed King Harald his host.

And he let the muster be long and not dense, and then after doing this doubled he both the arms thereof backward so that they reached together and made a wide ring thick and even on all sides without, s.h.i.+eld by s.h.i.+eld, and the same within likewise; and the King's company was without the ring and there too was his banner.

In another spot was Earl Tosti with his company, and another banner had he, and the men to him were all picked men. Now the array was made in this fas.h.i.+on because the King wist that the hors.e.m.e.n-- were wont to ride forward in a ma.s.s & thereupon fall back. Now said the King that his company should advance whithersoever it were most needed, 'but our archers shall also be with us, and those who stand farthest forward will set their spear handles in the earth and point their spears at the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the riders if they should ride us down, and those who stand in the next row will thrust their spears into the chests of the horses.'

-- It was with an exceeding vast host that King Harald G.o.dwinson had come thither, a host of both horse and foot-folk. Around his array rode King Harald Sigurdson having a wary eye to see how it had been ranked, and he bestrode a black piebald horse.

Now the horse fell under him but the King arose in haste & said: 'Falling when faring betokens fortune.' Then said Harald, the King of the English, to those Norwegians who were with him: 'Knowest thou the big man yonder who fell from his horse, the man with the blue kirtle and the fair helme?' 'That is the King,' said they.

'A big man and of masterful appearance, yet belike his luck is over,'

answered the English King.

-- Twenty hors.e.m.e.n rode forward from the Thingmanna host before the battle-array of the Norwegians; and they were wholly clad in chain-mail and their horses like unto them. Then said one horseman: 'Is Earl Tosti in the host?' to which was made answer: 'There is no hiding it, ye can find him there.'

Then said the horseman: 'Harald, thy brother, sent thee a greeting, and word therewith that thou shouldst have grace & the whole of Northumberland; and rather than thou shouldst not go over to him will he give thee a third share of the whole of his kingdom.' Then answered the Earl: 'That is a very different message from the strife and scorn of the winter: had it been offered then many a man would still be alive who is now dead, & more firmly too would the kingdom stand in England. Now if I should accept these terms, what would he offer King Harald Sigurdson for his pains?' 'He hath said something of what he would grant him in England, Seven feet of room or as much longer as he is taller than other men,' made answer that rider. 'Fare thee now to King Harald and bid him make ready for battle,' said the Earl, 'other shall be said among Norwegians than that Earl Tosti quitteth King Harald Sigurdson for the fellows.h.i.+p of his foemen when he hath to fight in England. Nay, let us all rather be of one mind: to die with honour or to win England by conquest.' Then did the horseman ride away, and King Harald Sigurdson asked of the Earl, 'who was that long-tongued man, yonder?' 'That was King Harald G.o.dwinson,' said the Earl. 'Too long was this kept from us,'

said King Harald Sigurdson, 'they were come so nigh unto our host, that nought would this Harald have known how to tell of the death of our men.' 'True it is,' said the Earl, 'that such a chief went right unwarily, and that it might have been as thou sayest; I saw that he wished to offer me grace and much dominion, but that I should be his slayer an I said who he was. Rather would I that he should be my slayer than I his.' Then said King Harald Sigurdson: 'A little man was he, but firm in his stirrups.'

It is said that King Harald chanted this verse:

'Forward go we in folk array Without our mail Under blue blades; The helmets s.h.i.+ne, No mail have I; On the s.h.i.+ps yonder Our garb doth lie.'

-- Now the mail-s.h.i.+rt to Harald was hight 'Emma,' and it was so long that it reached down even unto the midst of his foot, and so strong that no weapon had ever lodged fast in it. Then said King Harald Sigurdson: 'That was ill wrought; I must make another, a better verse in its place,' and then he chanted this:

'Ne'er do we in battle Creep behind our s.h.i.+elds, The clash of weapons fearing (E'en so the word-fast woman bade me).

Of yore the necklet-wearer bade me Carry high my head in battle, Where sword and s.h.i.+eld do meet.'

And Thiodolf likewise sang thus:

'Never, if e'en the prince himself to earth should fall, (As G.o.d wills so goeth it) Will I flee from the heirs of the chief.

The sun s.h.i.+nes not better on these than these twain s.h.i.+ne.

Avengers of Harald are resourceful hawks full grown.'

-- And now they fall to battle, and the English ride onward toward the Norwegians, but the resistance is stubborn, and because of the shots it is not easy for the English to ride against the Norwegians, and so they ride round about them in a ring. At first the battle is altogether even, that is so long as the Norwegians hold their array, but the English charge them & then if they have done no hurt ride aback, and when the Norwegians see this, namely that the English seem to ride on them without spirit, set they themselves upon them and would have pursued them, but behold no sooner is the wall of s.h.i.+elds broken than the English ride towards them from all directions bringing spears and shots to bear on them. And King Harald Sigurdson seeing this goeth forth into the brunt of the battle, even there where the hardest struggle is taking place, and many men falling from both hosts.

King Harald Sigurdson waxeth so fierce that he runneth forward right out from the array, & heweth with both hands, & hath neither helme, nor s.h.i.+eld holden before him.

All those who are nighest to him draw aback, and far are the English from fleeing. Thus saith Arnor Earl's-skald:

'In battle swift the chief's heart ne'er did quake, And the strong King the greatest courage showed 'mid the helmes' thunder, There, where in the hersirs' chief the hosts saw this, That by his b.l.o.o.d.y sword the men to death were wounded.'

-- Now it happened that King Harald Sigurdson was wounded by an arrow in the throat, and this was his death-wound. He fell with the whole of that company which was advancing with him, save those that drew back; and these held stoutly to the banner.

Yet a conflict full as hard was foughten after Tosti the Earl had taken his place under the King's banner. Then both the hosts fell to arraying themselves for the second time, and an exceeding long truce was there in the battle. Thereof sang Thiodolf:

'Mishap hath fallen on us, (in peril is now the host); In vain hath Harald brought us This journey from the east.

The chieftain shrewd's life-pa.s.sage So hath ended that we now (the King bepraised his life lost) Row in peril of our lives.'

-- But ere the combatants again joined issue offered Harald G.o.dwinson his brother Tosti grace, and he likewise offered grace to the other men surviving from the Norwegian host; but the Norwegians shouted out that they would rather fall one above the other, than accept quarter from the English. And thereon shouted they their war-cry, & then the battle began for the second time.

Thus saith Arnor Earl's-skald:

'In an hour of misfortune The King austere gat death; The arrows gold-inwoven Spared not the robbers' foe.

Gentle and bounteous King-- His friends choose all to fall Round their host-wonted chief Rather than quarter seek.'

-- Now it befell that Eystein Blackc.o.c.k came up just at that moment from the s.h.i.+ps with his company, and they were in full armour, and Eystein gat him hold of the King's banner 'Land-waster,' and for the third time the men fell to battle; exceeding sharp was it and the English lost men full heavily and were on the point of fleeing. That fray was called 'Blackc.o.c.k's Brunt.' Eystein's men had hastened so furiously from the s.h.i.+ps that at first, or ever they were come to the combat, they were weary and scarce fit for battle, but afterwards so raging were they that they defended themselves as long as they could stand upright. At the last cast they from off them their mail-s.h.i.+rts, and then was it easy for the English to find a vulnerable spot on them; but some who were unwounded yet died from their haste and fury.

Nearly all the great men among the Norwegians fell at that time.

This befell late in the day.

As was to be looked for not all men fared alike in fortune, many fled & many who thus made their escape met differing fates. Mirk was it in the evening ere the slaughtering was brought to an end.

-- Among those who escaped was Styrkar, the marshal of King Harald Sigurdson, & this befell from his getting him a horse and thereon riding away. Now a wind sprang up in the evening and the weather waxed somewhat cold, and Styrkar had no other apparel than his s.h.i.+rt, a helme on his head, and a naked sword in his hand.

And he waxed cold as his weariness wore off. Then a certain waincarle came driving towards him, and this man had a lined coat. Styrkar said unto him: 'Wilt thou sell thy jacket, peasant?' 'Not to thee,' quoth he, 'thou art a Norwegian, as I wist by thy tongue.'

'An I am a Norwegian what wilt thou do then?' said Styrkar. 'I would slay thee; but alack I have no weapon to do it with,' the peasant replied. 'If thou canst not slay me, peasant, I will make trial if I cannot slay thee,' and therewith Styrkar swung his sword and brought it down on the man's neck so that his head was cut off; and then took he the fur coat and springing on to his horse rode down to the sh.o.r.e.

-- Now tidings were borne to the Rouen Earl, William the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, of the death of King Edward his kinsman, & furthermore was it told how Harald G.o.dwinson had been acclaimed as King of England and had been consecrated thereto. Now William deemed he had a better right to that kingdom than Harald, to wit by reason of the kins.h.i.+p betwixt him & King Edward, and withal furthermore inasmuch as he deemed it but fair to avenge himself on Harald for the slight of that broken betrothal with his own daughter.

For all these self-same reasons, then, a.s.sembled William an host together in Normandy, and a mult.i.tude of men were mustered, with a goodly sufficiency of s.h.i.+ps. And on the day that he rode from the city unto his s.h.i.+ps, when he had mounted up on to his horse, his wife went to him & would have spoken with him, but when he saw this he thrust at her with his heel, setting his spur in her breast so that it penetrated deep therein, and she fell and straightway died.-- But the Earl rode to his s.h.i.+ps and fared with his host over to England. At that time was his brother Otta with him.

When the Earl came to England plundered he there, & brought the land into subjection under him wheresoever he went.

Earl William was bigger and stronger than other men, a good horseman, the greatest of warriors, and very cruel; a very wise man was he withal, but accounted in no wise trustworthy.

-- King Harald G.o.dwinson gave Olaf, the son of King Harald Sigurdson, permission to fare his way, and in like fas.h.i.+on treated he those men of the host who had been with the King and had not fallen. King Harald then turned southward with his host, for he had learned that William b.a.s.t.a.r.d was faring northward through England, & was conquering the country.

There were with Harald G.o.dwinson at that time his brethren Svein,-- Gyrd, and Walthiof. King Harald and Earl William met in the south of England at Hastings and a great battle befell there.

In it were slain King Harald and his brother Earl Gyrd, & a great part of their host. Nineteen nights was it after the fall of King Harald Sigurdson,-- Earl Walthiof, own brother to Harald, made good his escape by flight, and at even fell in with a band of William's men; whereupon Earl Walthiof set fire to the forest and burned them all up. Thus saith Thorkel Skallson in Walthiof's lay: