162 APPENDIX NOTE IV. "foundation for a new and better rule of faith and life "among his people."-Carlyle. He bravely repulsed repeated invasions of the Danes. But about the sixteenth year of his pious, valiant and worthy reign, while at a feast with many guests on the Island of Stord, he was surprised by the sudden arrival of a Danish fleet, from which a multitude, afterwards computed as six to one, sprang on shore. But the heroic King and his brave band, fresh from their feast and valiant for the fray, disdained flight to their own ships and gave battle, the King fighting with accustomed valour, as Snorro said, conspicuous with bright gilded helmet, a mark for his enemies. Eyvind Finnson, the Skaldaspillir (annihilator of all other Skalds or Poets,) who wrote a famous Hakon's song, put a hat over his helmet. Skreya and Alf, two Danish champions came boasting to attack the king at whom Skreya swinging his sword made a cut, but Thorald the strong, an Icelander, parried the blow by dashing his shield against Skreya, whom the King with his two-handed sword cleft through helm and head, while Thorald slew Alf. The death of their champions so disheartened the Danes that they wavered and fled to their ships, pursued by the King and his brave band with much slaughter. But this grand fight and victory proved fatal to him, for he received a wound from an arrow under the arm-pit. He was assisted to his ship and had to stop at Hella, the flat-rock, still called Hakon's Hella, faint from bleeding. And there died Hakon the good, like Nelson the brave, in the hour of his greatest victory, and as Snorro said, "lamented both by friends and enemies; and they said that never again would Norway see "such a king." 995-1000. Olaf Tryggevesen was king of Norway about the year Educated in Russia, he left it "for the one profession open to him, that of sea robbery; and did "feats without number in that questionable line in "many seas and scenes, in England latterly and most 'conspicuously of all." At the Scilly Islands he had APPENDIX NOTE IV. 163 much discourse with a venerable hermit, and after serious reflection was baptised, "but did not quit his Viking professi on, indeed what other was there for "him in the world as yet."-Carlyle. He and Svein, King of Denmark, together invaded England, in 994, sailing up the Thames to attack London, but unable to pass the bridge and failing there, they plundered Kent, Hampshire and Sussex, and were bought off by the feeble, timorous Ethelred the Unready, with £16,000. By Elphegus, Bishop of Winchester, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, Olaf was more fully instructed in the truths of the christian religion, and was baptised anew at Andover in the King's presence. Olaf made a promise to the Bishop which he kept faithfully, that he never would plunder again in England. A Dowager English or Irish Princess fell in love with him; they were married, and lived in England or in Dublin for two or three years. From first to last his was a life of wild and strange adventure. The fierce and ambitious Gunhild, widow of King Eric, had murdered his father and compelled his mother, Astrid, to fly through forests until she reached her father's, where she lay concealed with her infant boy. Then she fled to Sweden, and then to Esthonia, where she was sold as a slave and was separated from her child, who was also sold. A relation, high in the Russian service, recognised him, obtained his freedom, and gave him help to use it with wonderful energy and success. The Poet Longfellow in his Saga of King Olaf gives a spirited description of his return to Norway. To avenge his father slain, And re-conquer realm and reign, 164 APPENDIX NOTE IV. To his thoughts the sacred name The strange memories crowded back, Of grim vikings and their rapture How a stranger watched his face Then as Queen Allogia's page, Filling him with strange alarms. Then his cruisings o'er the seas, Christ's great name and rites baptismal, In the ocean's rush and roar. All these thoughts of love and strife Through the red flames o'er him trailing, APPENDIX NOTE IV. Trained for either camp or court, When at sea with all his rowers, On the ship-rails he could stand, Norway never yet had seen When in arms completely furnished, Mantle like a flame of fire. Thus came Olaf to his own, When upon the night wind blown, 165 He not only accepted the challenge but during his life fought the battle against the grim idol and his votaries, entering his temples and destroying his images; after which bishops and preachers were brought out from England to instruct the people in the doctrines and 166 APPENDIX NOTE IV. precepts of the christian religion. In two years open idolatry had thus been suppressed in Norway, which in name at least was a christian kingdom. He also sent Thormod, "a pious, patient, and kindly man," to Iceland where within about the same space of time christianity was by the Thingvalla, or popular assembly of that republic declared to be the religion of the country. "Hardly any King," says Snorro, "was ever so well obeyed, by one class out of zeal and love, by the other "out of dread." He was much more honoured and renowned than either of the Kings of Denmark or Sweden, and being now a widower, married Princess Thyri, sister of King Svein. She urged him to go on an expedition to Wendsland to get some possessions of her own which were withheld from her by King Burislaw. 66 There was a formidable conspiracy between King Svein of Denmark, King Olaf of Sweden, and Jarl Eric, a powerful Swedish Prince or Earl there, stimulated by Queen Sigrid, who had married Svein, and had long been the revengeful enemy of the King of Norway. They employed a base and treacherous Jarl, Sigwald of Jomsburg, to ingratiate himself with the King of Norway and to betray him to his enemies. The Norwegian king sailed to Wendsland, settled his wife's claims, and enjoyed the hospitality of King Burislaw, and was returning with his fine fleet in loose order, when the traitor led him into a bay where the combined fleets, ready for fight and informed of the King's progress, were in ambuscade. Olaf's captains entreated him to hold on his course, and refuse to fight on such unequal terms. "Strike the sails," said the hero, "Never men of mine shall think of flight. I never fled from battle. Let God dispose of my life; but flight I will never take." He beat off the Swedish and Danish fleets, but then Jarl Eric came up, and ever and anon strengthened his crews from those of the Swedes and Danes who were out of range. Olaf stood high on the quarterdeck of his "Long Serpent" and fought all day, throwing |