Story of Harald Hairfair, Chapters 21-30

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From The Stories of the Kings of Norway: Called the Round World: (Heimskringla) by Snorri Sturluson, translated by William Morris and Erikr Magnusson, 1893.

Chapter XXI. Of the Children of King Harald, and of His Weddings.

And now when King Harald was gotten to be only Lord of Norway, he called to mind the word that the great-hearted maiden had spoken to him, and sent men after her, and had her to him, and bedded her. These were their children : Alof the eldest, then Roerek, then Sigtrygg, then Frodi and Thorgils.

King Harald had many wives and many children. He wedded her who is called Ragnhild, daughter of Eric, king of Jutland. Ragnhild the Mighty was she called, and their son was Eric Blood-axe. Moreover, he had to wife Swanhild, daughter of King Eystein, and these were their sons: Olaf Geirstead-elf, Biorn, and Ragnar Ryckil; and again had King Harald to wife Ashild, daughter of Ring Dayson down from Ring-realm, and their children were Day and Ring, Gudrod Skiria, and Ingigerd.

So folk say that when King Harald wedded Ragnhild the Mighty he put away from him nine of his wives. Hereof singeth Hornklofi:

The king of high kindred

When his Dane-wife he wedded,

Put from him the Holmfolk,

And Hordaland maidens,

Each woman of Heathmark,

All kindred of Holgi.

King Harald's children were nourished ever whereas their mothers' kin dwelt. Duke Guthorm sprinkled the eldest son of King Harald with water, and gave him his own name. He set the lad on his knee, and became his fosterer, and had him away with him east into the Wick. There he was nourished with Duke Guthorm. Duke Guthorm had all rule of the land about the Wick and the Uplands when King Harald was not nigh.

Chapter XXII. Of King Harald’s Faring to the Westlands.

Now heard King Harald how the vikings harried wide about the midmost of the land, even such as were a-wintertide West-over-sea. So he had out his host every summer, and searched isles and out-skerries; and whenso the vikings were ware of his host they fled away; yea, the more part right out to sea. But when the king grew a-weary of this work, this betid, that on a summer he sailed with his host West-over-sea, and came first to Shetland, and there slew all the vikings who might not flee before him. Then he sailed south to the Orkneys, and cleared them utterly of vikings. And thereafter he fared right away to the South-isles, and harried there, and slew many vikings who were captains of bands there. There had he many battles, and ever gained the day.

Then he harried in Scotland, and had battles there. And when he came west to Man, the folk thereof had heard already what warfare King Harald had done in the land aforetime, and all folk fled into Scotland, so that Man was all waste of men, and all the goods that might be were flitted away. So when King Harald and his folk went a-land they gat no prey there. So sayeth Hornklofi :

Bore the much-wise gold-loader

To the townships shields a-many

The grove of Nith-wolves' land-lace,

In the land prevailed in battle

Ere needs must flee the Scot-host

Before the fight-proud waster

Of the path of the fish that playeth

Around the war-sword's isthmus.

In these battles fell Ivar, son of Rognvald the Mere-Earl. But to boot the loss of him King Harald, when he sailed from the West, gave Earl Rognvald the Orkneys and Shetland. But Rognvald straightway gave both the lands to Sigurd his brother, who abode behind in the West. And the king or ever he fared back east gave the earldom to Sigurd. Then there joined him to Sigurd, Thorstein the Red, son of Olaf the White and Aud the Deeply-wealthy, and they harried in Scotland, and won to them Caithness and Sutherland all down to the Oikel-Bank. Now Earl Sigurd slew Tusk-Melbrigda, a Scottish earl, and bound his head to his crupper; but he smote the thick of his leg against the tooth as it stuck out from the head, and the hurt festered so that he gat his bane therefrom, and he was laid in howe in Oikel-Bank. Then Guthorm his son ruled the lands for one winter, and then died childless, and thereafter many vikings, Danes and Northmen, sat them down in his lands.

Chapter XXIII. The Cutting of King Harald’s Hair.

Now King Harald was a-feasting in Mere at Earl Rognvald's, and had now gotten to him all the land. So King Harald took a bath, and then he let his hair be combed, and then Earl Rognvald sheared it. And heretofore it had been unshorn and uncombed for ten winters. Aforetime he had been called Shock-head, but now Earl Rognvald gave him a by-name, and called him Harald Hairfair, and all said who saw him that that was most soothly named, for he had both plenteous hair and goodly.

Chapter XXIV. Rolf Wend-Afoot Made an Outlaw.

Rognvald the Mere-Earl was a friend most well beloved of King Harald, and the king held him in great honour. Earl Rognvald wedded Hild, daughter of Rolf Nefia, and their sons were Rolf and Thorir. Earl Rognvald had also three children from his bedmates, to wit, Hallad the first, Einar the second, Hrollaug the third; and these were already come to man's estate when their lawfully gotten brethren were but children.

Rolf was a great viking, and a man so great of growth that no horse might bear him, wherefore he went afoot wheresoever he fared, and was called Rolf Wend-afoot.

He would be ever a-harrying in the Eastlands ; and on a summer when he came to the Wick from his Eastland warring he had a strand-slaughtering there. King Harald was in the Wick at that time, and was very wroth when he heard hereof, for he had laid a great ban upon robbing in the land. Wherefore at a Thing he gave out that he made Rolf outlaw from all Norway. But when Hild, the mother of Rolf, heard thereof, she went to the king and prayed him for peace for Rolf; but the king was so wroth that her prayers availed nought. Then sang Hild:

Thou hast cast off Nefia's namesake;

Brave brother of the barons,

As a wolf from the land thou drivest.

Why waxeth, lord, thy raging?

Ill to be wild in quarrel

With a wolf of Odin's war-board.

If he fare wild in the forest

He shall waste thy flock right sorely.

Rolf Wend-afoot fared thereafter west-over-sea to the South-isles. Thence west he went to Valland, and harried there, and won therein a mighty earldom, and peopled all the land with Northmen, and thenceforward has that land been called Normandy.

The son of Rolf Wend-afoot was William, the father of Richard, the father of Richard the second, the father of Robert Long-sword, the father of William the Bastard, king of the English; and from him are come all the English kings thence-forward. From Rolfs kin also are come earls in Normandy.

Queen Ragnhild the Mighty lived three winters after she came to Norway. After her death Eric, the son of her and Harald, went to the Firths to be fostered of Hersir Thorir, the son of Roald, and there was he nourished.

Chapter XXV. Of Swasi the Wizard and King Harald.

On a winter went King Harald a-guesting in the Uplands, and let array his Yule-feast at the Tofts. Yule-eve it is when cometh Swasi to the door, whenas the king is set down to table. He sendeth bidding to the king to come out to him, but the king waxed wroth at the bidding; and the same man bore the king's wrath out that bore the bidding in. No less bade Swasi bear in again his errand, saying that he was that Finn unto whom the king had said yea to set up his cot on the other side the brent.

So went the king out, and needs must say yea to faring home with him, and went across the brent into his cot; with the egging of some men of his, though some letted him. There rose to meet him Snowfair, daughter of Swasi, fairest of women, and gave to the king a cup full of honey-mead. Then took he together the cup and the hand of her, and straightway it was as if hot fire came into his skin, and therewith would he be by her that very night; but Swasi says it may not be, but if need sway him, but if the king betroth him to her, and take her lawfully. So King Harald betrothed him to Snowfair, and wedded her; and with such longing he loved her, that he forgat his kingdom, and all that belonged to his kingly honour. Four sons they had: Sigurd a-Bush, Halfdan High-leg, Gudrod Gleam, and Rognvald Straight-leg.

Then died Snowfair, but nowise changed her hue, and as red and white she was as when she was alive; and the king sat ever by her and thought in his heart that she lived yet. So wore away three winters, while the king sorrowed for her dying, and all the folk of the land sorrowed for his beguilement. But now to the leech-craft of laying this wildness came Thorleif the Sage, and with wisdom vanquished it, first with soft words, saying thus:

"No marvel, O king, although thou mindest so fair a woman and so mighty, and honourest her with the down-pillow and the goodly web, even as she would have of thee; yet is thine honour less than what behoveth both thee and her, whereas overlong in one raiment she lieth; more meet it were that somewhat thou move her, and shift the cloths beneath her."

But, lo! so soon as she was turned out of the bed sprang up ill savour, rose up rottenness, and all manner of stink from the dead corpse. Speedy were they with the bale-fire, and therein was she burned; but first her body waxed all blue, and thence crawled worms and adders, frogs and paddocks, and all the kind of creeping things. So sank she into ashes; but the king strode forth into wisdom, and cast his folly from his heart, and stoutly ruled his realm, and strengthened him of his thanes and waxed glad of them, and his thanes of him, and all the land of them both.

Chapter XXVI. Of Thiodolf of Hvin.

After King Harald had proven the beguiling of the Finn-wife, he was so wroth that he drave from him the sons of him and the Finn-wife, and would not look on them. But Gudrod Gleam went to Thiodolf the Hvindweller, his foster-father, and bade him go with him to the king, because Thiodolf was a well loved friend of King Harald; but the king was as then in the Uplands. So they went whenas they were arrayed, and came to the king late of an evening-tide, and took an outer place, and kept hidden. Now the king went up the hall-floor, and looked on the benches; but some feast or other was toward, and the mead was mixed. So he sang muttering:

My warriors of old seasons

For the mead are much o'er-eager;

Yea, here are come the hoary,

What make ye here so many?

Then answered Thiodolf:

Our heads bore oft in old time

Hard strokes from out the edge-play,

Along with the wise gold-waster;

And were we then o'er-many?

Therewith Thiodolf took the hat from his head, and then the king knew him and gave him fair welcome. Then Thiodolf prayed the king not to set aside his sons: "For fain had they been of a better-born mother hadst thou gotten them one."

So the king said yea thereto, and bade him have Gudrod home with him even as he had had aforetime; but Sigurd and Halfdan he bade fare to Ring-realm, and Rognvald he bade fare to Hadaland; and they did as the king bade. They became full manly men, and well endowed with prowess. So sat King Harald at home in his own land, amid good peace and plenteous seasons.

Chapter XXVII. The Uprising of Earl Turf-Einar in the Orkneys.

Rognvald, the Earl of Mere, heard of the fall of Sigurd his brother, and how the vikings abode in his lands. So he sent his son Hallad west-away, who took the name of earl on him, and had a great company of men; and when he came to the Orkneys he sat him down in the land. But both autumn, winter, and spring fared the vikings about the isles, and lifted on the nesses, and slaughtered beasts on the strand. So Earl Hallad grew a-weary of sitting in the isles and cast aside his earldom, and took a franklin's dignity, and so fared east to Norway; and when Earl Rognvald heard thereof, he was ill content with Hallad's journey, and said that his sons would become all unlike their forefathers.

Then spake Einar: "I have had little honour of thee, and but little love have I to part from. I will fare west to the isles if thou wilt give me some help or other ; and then I will promise thee, what will gladden thee exceedingly, never to come back again to Norway."

Earl Rognvald said he should be well content if he never came back: "For small hope have I that thy kin will have honour of thee, whereas all thy mother's kin is thrall-born." So Earl Rognvald gave Einar a long-ship all manned, and in the autumn-tide Einar sailed West-over-sea; but when he came to the Orkneys there lay before him two ships of the vikings Thorir Wood-beard and Kalf Scurvy. Einar fell to battle with them straightway, and won the victory, and they both fell. Then was this sung:

Tree-beard to the trolls he gave there,

Scurvy there Turf- Einar slaughtered.

For this cause was he called Turf-Einar, because he let cut turf and use it instead of firewood, whereas there were no woods in the Orkneys.

Thereafter Einar became earl over the isles, and was a mighty man there. He was an ugly man, and one-eyed, howbeit the sharpest-sighted of men.

Chapter XXVIII. The Death of King Eric Eymundson.

Duke Guthorm abode for the most part in Tunsberg, and bore sway all over the Wick whenas the king was not thereby; and he was charged with the warding of the land withal. In those days was there great trouble of the vikings, and there was war also up in Gautland while King Eric Eymundson lived. But he died whenas King Harald Hairfair had been king of Norway for ten winters.

Chapter XXIX. Death of Duke Guthorm.

After Eric, Biorn his son was king in Sweden for fifty years. He was father of Eric the Victorious, and Olaf, the father of Styrbiorn.

Duke Guthorm died in his bed in Tunsberg, and King Harald gave the sway over all that land to Guthorm his son, and he set him up for lord thereover.

Chapter XXX. The Burning of Rognvald the Mere-Earl.

When King Harald was forty years old, many of his sons were well waxen up, and men early ripened were they all. And so it befell that they were ill content that the king gave them no rule, but set an earl in every county, which earls they deemed less nobly-born than themselves.

So one spring, Halfdan High-leg and Gudrod Gleam went their ways with a great company of men, and came unwares on Rognvald the Mere-Earl, and took the house over him, and burned him therein with sixty men. Then took Halfdan three long-ships, and sailed West-over-sea; but Gudrod set him down in the lands that Rognvald had aforetime owned. But when King Harald heard hereof he went with a great host against Gudrod, and Gudrod saw that there was nought for it but to give himself up into the power of King Harald. So the king sent him east-away to Agdir. But King Harald made lord over Mere, Thorir, the son of Earl Rognvald, and gave him Alof his daughter, who was called the Years-heal. So Earl Thorir the Silent had the same rule that his father Rognvald had before him.

Sturluson, Snorri. The Stories of the Kings of Norway: Called the Round World: (Heimskringla). Translated by William Morris and Erikr Magnusson, Bernard Quaritch, 1893.

Snorri Sturluson

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