The Story of Norway Part 9

King Olaf's men were in a desperate strait, from which no escape was possible. The king flung forth his spears, two at a time, from his station on the p.o.o.p, and many men were transfixed by his keen shafts. He watched at the same time the combat on the forward deck, whither the earl was just directing his attack, and it seemed to him that his men made no headway.

"Do you wield your swords with so little strength," he cried, "since they bite so poorly?"

"No," answered a warrior; "but our swords are dull and broken."

The king then hastened to the forward deck, where there was a large chest of arms. He opened it and took out armfuls of bright, sharp swords, which he flung to his men. As he stooped down, the blood trickled down over his hands from under his armor. His men then knew that he was wounded, but it was no time then for nursing any one's wounds. The earl's men were storming forward, and the tired Nors.e.m.e.n fell in heaps, and could no longer keep them back. The arrows rained thick and fast about the king, and it was obvious he could not hold out much longer. He was visible to all; for he made no attempt to hide or shelter himself. One of his trusted men, Kolbjorn Stallare, who saw his danger, sprang upon the p.o.o.p and placed himself at his side. His resemblance to the king had often been remarked upon; moreover, he was of the same height, and was similarly dressed. The storm of missiles was now directed against both, and, as they raised their shields, they were thickly fringed with arrows. The clash of arms, the groans of the dying, and the whizzing of flying missiles, filled the air. The king let his shield drop and looked out over the ship. There were but eight men alive, besides himself and Kolbjorn. He raised the shield above his head and leaped overboard. Kolbjorn followed his example, but was picked up by the earl's men, who mistook him for the king. That the latter was drowned, there can be no reasonable doubt, although there is a legend, which was fondly cherished, that he swam to the galley which Aastrid, Earl Sigvalde's wife, had sent out for his rescue. According to this story, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and lived long as a hermit in the Holy Land.

King Olaf Tryggvesson was thirty-six years old when he died (1000).

Queen Thyra, who, with good reason, held herself responsible for his death, was inconsolable. When she came up on deck, after the battle, and saw the destruction she had wrought she broke into lamentation. Earl Erik was moved by her sorrow and spoke kindly to her, a.s.suring her that if she would return to Norway she would be accorded the honor which was due to her as the widow of so great a king. She thanked him for his offer, but said that she had no heart to survive her lord. On the ninth day after the battle she died.

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CHAPTER XII.

THE EARLS ERIK AND SWEYN HAAKONSSON (1000-1015). THE DISCOVERY OF VINLAND.

After King Olaf's death at Svolder, the allied princes divided his kingdom between them. To Earl Erik were given all the shires along the western coast from Finmark to Lindesness,[A] with the exception of seven, which were allotted to King Olaf the Swede. All the shires from Lindesness, including Agder, to the Swedish boundary, with the exception of Ranrike, came into the possession of Sweyn Forkbeard. Ranrike (which is now a part of Sweden) was given to the Swedish king, who again gave it, as well as his other possessions in Norway, in fief to his brother-in-law, Earl Sweyn, the brother of Earl Erik, on condition of his paying one half of the royal revenues to his feudal overlord, and placing a specified number of troops at his disposal in case of war. On similar conditions Earl Erik received the eastern shires, Raumarike and Vingulmark, in fief from Sweyn Forkbeard.

[Footnote A: Lindesness is the southernmost point in Norway.]

Though a man of ability and many n.o.ble qualities, Earl Erik never succeeded in a.s.serting his sway over Norway as his father, Earl Haakon, had done; and Earl Sweyn could boast even less authority than his brother. In the Oplands semi-independent kings of the race of Harold the Fairhaired were still living; and in Rogaland Olaf Tryggvesson's brother-in-law, Erling Skjalgsson of Sole, refused to recognize the supremacy of either the earls or the kings whom they represented. He surrounded himself with a court which, in magnificence, equalled that of the earls, if it did not surpa.s.s it. Ninety warriors const.i.tuted his daily household, and when occasion demanded he kept 240 or more. Of thralls he kept thirty for his daily attendance, besides a large number who cultivated his lands. He was a good master, stimulating them to thrift and economy. He demanded of each a certain fixed amount of labor, and gave him a piece of land for cultivation. When the required task was over the thrall's time was his own, and he was at liberty to apply it for his own advantage. The products of his land he sold to his master at the market rates, and was thus enabled to buy his freedom within one, two, or three years. Over his freedmen Erling continued to exercise a supervising care, employing them at wages or on shares in the fisheries, in the reclaiming of land from the forests, or in other branches of industry.

Clinging, as he did, tenaciously to the authority which Olaf Tryggvesson had conferred upon him, Erling could not avoid coming into collision with the authority of the earls. He exacted a land-tax from the peasants of Rogaland, and, as Earl Erik did the same, the poor landowners had to pay a double tax, unless they were prepared to offer resistance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHUTTLES OF IRON AND OF WHALEBONE; AND WEIGHTS FOR THE LOOM.]

But both the earl and Erling were too powerful to make such a course advisable. It is, indeed, strange that Erik, with his great connections abroad, should have tolerated the defiance of this small potentate without in some way trying to break his power. It is true, Erling had a large number of mighty kinsmen and supporters in many of the coast-shires; and he would have been able to make a strong resistance.

But it is scarcely credible that he could have maintained himself against Earl Erik, if the latter had seriously resolved to punish him.

In fact, Earl Erik, although his early life had been pa.s.sed in the tumult of war, was essentially a conciliatory character. A mighty warrior he was when duty or diplomatic necessity forced him to fight; but he hesitated to draw his sword, except on extreme provocation. It was his misfortune, by his birth and the circ.u.mstances which brought him into power, to represent an age and a regime which were destined to pa.s.s away. It was the so-called "heroic" age--that is, the age of turbulent individualism, opposed to the modern conception of the state. It is obvious that Erik had no sympathy with the feudalism inst.i.tuted by the conquests of Harold the Fairhaired; probably he did not comprehend the progressive idea which dignified King Harold's ambition and made him the conscious or unconscious agent of advancing civilization. It is proof enough of this to state, that Erik allowed the dependencies of Norway, the Orkneys, and the Shetland Isles to detach themselves from the motherland, and made no attempt to force them back to their allegiance.

There was no inspiring tradition in his family, as in that of Harold the Fairhaired, demanding a great and united kingdom; but, on the contrary, a local separatistic tradition, identifying him with the greatness and fame of a special locality. To have carried out this tradition completely, the Earls Erik and Sweyn ought to have remained pagans as their father was before them. They seem, indeed, to have been conscious of a certain inconsistency in accepting Christianity, for they made not the faintest attempt to a.s.sert their faith in their relation to the people, or to check the relapse into paganism, which became very prevalent during their reign.

Quite in keeping with the general reactionary character of the earls'

government, was the revival of the viking cruises which, during the reign of Olaf Tryggvesson, had been diminishing in frequency. Earl Erik himself had been a valiant viking in his youth, and probably could see no harm in the careless and predatory life in which the old Germanic paganism found its most characteristic expression. A great impetus must have been given to this mode of life by Sweyn Forkbeard's repeated expeditions to England, in which a large number of Nors.e.m.e.n partic.i.p.ated. It makes little difference if the aggressors were nominally Christians; their actions were an outburst of the old, tribal pagan spirit, which respected no right but that of might.

It was natural that the earls, if they expected to make their dominion permanent, should endeavor to extend their connections beyond Trondelag.

The strength of a government in those days depended largely upon the support which it received among the chieftains or tribal aristocracy, whose sentiments were usually reflected by the peasants. It was therefore necessary in some way to conciliate the late adherents of Olaf Tryggvesson, whose influence upon public opinion could be utilized to advantage. It may have been some such consideration which restrained Earl Erik from attacking Erling Skjalgsson. It is obvious that the overtures which he made to Einar Thambarskelver had the same end in view. We have seen how the young archer came within an inch of ending the earl's days at Svolder, thereby exciting the admiration of Erik for his skill and bravery. After the battle, the earl, with his usual generosity, spared his life, and sought in many ways to secure his friendship. He married him to his sister, the high-minded Bergljot, and gave him large fiefs, so that no chieftain in Trondelag could rival him in power.

Toward his brother, Sweyn, Earl Erik behaved with the same magnanimity that he showed toward all who had claims on him. Sweyn was dissatisfied because of the disparity in their positions; he ruling over one third of the country as the va.s.sal of the Swedish king, while Erik held two thirds as an independent sovereign. These complaints were repeated with growing importunity, until Erik resolved to abandon the government. He called together the chieftains and the mightiest peasants of the country, and abdicated (1015) in favor of his son Haakon and his brother Sweyn, between whom he divided his share of the land in equal portions.

As Haakon was not yet of full age, Einar Thambarskelver was appointed his guardian. In the autumn of the year 1015, Earl Erik set sail for England, and a.s.sisted Knut the Mighty in the subjugation of that country. He was joined later by his son Haakon, who was expelled from Norway by Olaf Haroldsson, and was compelled to swear that he would never renew his claims to the kingdom. Earl Erik died in England, from the effect of a surgical operation, in 1023 or 1024. Before their expulsion, the Earls Sweyn and Haakon made peace with Erling Skjalgsson, confirming him in the possession of the fiefs which he had received from Olaf Tryggvesson, embracing all the coast-shires from the Sogne-fiord to Lindesness. To cement their friendship, Earl Sweyn gave his daughter, Sigrid,[A] in marriage to Erling's son, Aslak.

[Footnote A: Her name is differently given as Sigrid and Gunhild.]

It was during the reign of the earls that the North American continent was first visited by the Nors.e.m.e.n. An Icelander named Bjarne Herjulfsson, during a voyage to Greenland (986), was blown out of his course, and discovered, while sailing northward, an unknown land on his left. He concluded that it could not be Greenland, as there were no glaciers, but only low, wooded heights sloping gently toward the ocean.

On his arrival in Greenland, Bjarne told of the new country he had seen, but was much ridiculed because he had not gone ash.o.r.e and explored it.

His story made a great impression, however, upon the adventurous Leif, son of Erik the Red. He bought Bjarne's ship, and, with a crew of thirty-five men, set sail for the unknown sh.o.r.e in the West (1000). The first land he saw was on his right as he sailed southward. It was full of glaciers and had no gra.s.s. He called it h.e.l.luland, because it seemed, at the foot of the glaciers, to be one flat expanse.[A] This must have been the present Labrador. Continuing his southward course, Leif came to a country which was well wooded, and had long, smooth beaches. He called it Markland (Woodland), and the supposition is that it was Nova Scotia.

With a stiff northeaster, he made considerable headway, and came, after another day's voyage, to an island where a river flowed into the sea. As it was ebb-tide he could not land, but so eager were the men to explore the country, that they jumped overboard and waded ash.o.r.e. The statement that the sun rose in this region, on the shortest day of the year, at half-past seven and set at half-past four, indicates a lat.i.tude of 41 24' 10"; Leif, accordingly, must have landed somewhere in the neighborhood of Cape Cod or Fall River, Ma.s.s. He found the country possessed of many advantages. It was so mild in the winter that cattle would require no stable-feeding. The rivers abounded in salmon and the woods in game. A German, named Tyrker, became so enthusiastic over the discovery of grapes, that he relapsed into his native tongue, and was supposed, by the crew to be intoxicated. Leif and his men put up some booths and spent the winter in the new land, which they called Vinland, but set sail the following spring for Greenland.

[Footnote A: _h.e.l.le_, in Norwegian, means a great flat stone.]

It is evident from the description here given that there is either some mistake in regard to the lat.i.tude, or the climate of New England must have grown severer during the last nine centuries. Cattle could scarcely be left in the open air in the Cape Cod region nowadays. Nor do grapes of any choice variety grow wild in the chill blasts which now gambol about the Ma.s.sachusetts coast; and the tart fox grape, it seems, could scarcely rouse enthusiasm even in the breast of a German.

A second expedition to Vinland was undertaken in 1006 by the Icelander Thorfinn Karlsevne and his wife Gudrid. Among their followers, who numbered 160, were Erik the Red's son Thorwald and his daughter Freydis.

This was the first expedition which was undertaken with a view to colonizing the country. Cattle were therefore taken along, and preparations made for a permanent settlement. Thorfinn found without difficulty the booths abandoned by Leif, and himself added to their number. A strange people, whom the Nors.e.m.e.n called _Skraellings_, came to them in light boats made of skin and offered furs in exchange for cloth, ornaments, and weapons. Karlsevne, however, refused to sell them weapons; and when, during the negotiations, a bull came out of the woods and began to roar, the Skraellings became frightened and hastened away.

From that time forth they became hostile to the settlers and attacked them repeatedly, killing several of their number. This perpetual state of insecurity disheartened the survivors, and after a sojourn of three years in Vinland, they returned to Greenland.

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CHAPTER XIII.

OLAF THE SAINT (1016-1030).

We have seen that Christianity did not advance in Norway during the mild and lax government of the earls. Olaf Tryggvesson, with all his zeal and vigor, could not in the short s.p.a.ce of five years eradicate paganism from the Nors.e.m.e.n's hearts; and after his death a great number of those whom he had compelled to profess the Christian name relapsed into their former practices. It was not until King Olaf Haroldsson by his life, and still more by his death, took the imagination of the Nors.e.m.e.n captive, that Christianity became securely established in the land.

Olaf was the son of Harold Gronske and a grandson of Bjorn the Merchant, who was slain by his brother, Erik Blood-axe. It was accordingly a new branch of the race of Harold the Fairhaired who with him ascended the throne. His father, as we have seen, was burned to death by Sigrid the Haughty, whom he had the presumption to woo, regardless of the fact that he had a wife named Aasta, who was then expecting her confinement. Olaf was born in the house of his maternal grandfather and pa.s.sed his childhood with Sigurd Syr, king in Ringerike, whom his mother married.

Sigurd Syr was a grandson of Sigurd the Giant, a son of Harold the Fairhaired and Snefrid, and had accordingly as much right to the throne as Olaf Tryggvesson, who was then reigning. He was, however, a quiet and unpretentious man, who was contented to raise his crops and superintend his large estates, without troubling himself with ambitious projects.

During the infancy of his step-son, Sigurd Syr entertained Olaf Tryggvesson at his house and was induced by him to accept Christianity.

It is said that King Olaf on this occasion stood sponsor at the baptism of his namesake and kinsman.

When Olaf Haraldsson was ten years old, his step-father begged him, one day, to go and saddle his horse for him. Olaf went to the stable and put the saddle on a large billy-goat, which he led up to the door where Sigurd stood waiting. When questioned as to the meaning of this joke, he replied that the billy-goat was good enough for Sigurd, who resembled other kings about as much as the goat resembled a war-horse.

In his games Olaf was hot-tempered and imperious, proud of his birth, and determined to a.s.sert himself above every one. At the age of twelve he went on viking cruises and distinguished himself greatly by his prowess and daring. He ravaged the coasts of Sweden in order to avenge his father's death, and during a cruise to England helped the sons of Ethelred against the Danes (1008). This wild, roaming life, with its constant vicissitudes, matured his character, giving him a wide experience of men and developing his inborn faculty for leadership. The departure of Earl Erik from Norway in 1015 gave him the desired opportunity to a.s.sert his claim to the throne, and he lost no time in embarking for the land of his birth. He proceeded in this matter, however, with characteristic caution. Knowing that the sentiment of the people toward him would have to determine his action, he did not wish to commit himself without having ascertained beforehand the chances of success. He therefore left his galleys of war behind him in England and sailed across the North Sea with two merchant-ships. As he disembarked, his foot slipped and he fell upon the beach.

"There, I fell," he cried, dreading, probably, the bad omen.

"No," answered one of his men, "thou didst plant thy foot in Norway's soil."

He sailed southward along the coast, no one knowing him or suspecting his errand. One day, as he was sitting in his tent on the beach, whittling a spear handle, a peasant entered and looked hard at him.

"Who art thou?" he asked.

"I am a merchant," said Olaf.

"Likely enough," rejoined the peasant, "art thou a merchant; but I know the eyes of Olaf Tryggvesson, and I believe that thou wilt soon meet Earl Haakon and win a great victory."

"If it be true, as thou sayest," responded the prince, "thou mayst come to me and thou shalt profit by my victory."

The shrewdness of Olaf's plan to avoid all warlike display was demonstrated by the issue. In Saudung Sound he succeeded in capturing the young Earl Haakon, who, without thought of danger, was sailing along with a single ship and a small retinue. When Olaf saw him he marvelled at his beauty. The earl was but seventeen years old, tall, and well shaped. His hair fell in golden curls upon his shoulders and shone like silk. About his head he wore a fillet of gold.

"It is true what is said about you and your race," said Olaf, "you are indeed very beautiful. But now your luck has forsaken you."