King Harald heard that the vikings, who were in the West sea in winter, plundered far and wide in the middle part of Norway; and therefore every summer he made an expedition to search the isles and out-skerries (1) on the coast.Wheresoever the vikings heard of him they all took to flight, and most of them out into the open ocean.At last the king grew weary of this work, and therefore one summer he sailed with his fleet right out into the West sea.First he came to Hjaltland (Shetland), and he slew all the vikings who could not save themselves by flight.Then King Harald sailed southwards, to the Orkney Islands, and cleared them all of vikings.Thereafter he proceeded to the Sudreys (Hebrides), plundered there, and slew many vikings who formerly had had men-at-arms under them.Many a battle was fought, and King Harald was always victorious.He then plundered far and wide in Scotland itself, and had a battle there.When he was come westward as far as the Isle of Man, the report of his exploits on the land had gone before him; for all the inhabitants had fled over to Scotland, and the island was left entirely bare both of people and goods, so that King Harald and his men made no booty when they landed.So says Hornklofe: --"The wise, the noble king, great Whose hand so freely scatters gold, Led many a northern shield to war Against the town upon the shore.
The wolves soon gathered on the sand Of that sea-shore; for Harald's hand The Scottish army drove away, And on the coast left wolves a prey."In this war fell Ivar, a son of Ragnvald, Earl of More; and King Harald gave Ragnvald, as a compensation for the loss, the Orkney and Shetland isles, when he sailed from the West; but Ragnvald immediately gave both these countries to his brother Sigurd, who remained behind them; and King Harald, before sailing eastward, gave Sigurd the earldom of them.Thorstein the Red, a son of Olaf the White and of Aud the Wealthy, entered into partnership with him; and after plundering in Scotland, they subdued Caithness and Sutherland, as far as Ekkjalsbakke.Earl Sigurd killed Melbridge Tooth, a Scotch earl, and hung his head to his stirrup-leather; but the calf of his leg were scratched by the teeth, which were sticking out from the head, and the wound caused inflammation in his leg, of which the earl died, and he was laid in a mound at Ekkjalsbakke.His son Guthorm ruled over these countries for about a year thereafter, and died without children.Many vikings, both Danes and Northmen, set themselves down then in those countries.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Skerries are the uninhabited dry or halt-tide rocks of a coast.-- L.
23.HARALD HAS HIS HAIR CLIPPED.
After King Harald had subdued the whole land, he was one day at a feast in More, given by Earl Ragnvald.Then King Harald went into a bath, and had his hair dressed.Earl Ragnvald now cut his hair, which had been uncut and uncombed for ten years; and therefore the king had been called Lufa (i.e., with rough matted hair).But then Earl Ragnvald gave him the distinguishing name -- Harald Harfager (i.e., fair hair); and all who saw him agreed that there was the greatest truth in the surname, for he had the most beautiful and abundant head of hair.
24.ROLF GANGER DRIVEN INTO BANISHMENT.
Earl Ragnvald was King Harald's dearest friend, and the king had the greatest regard for him.He was married to Hild, a daughter of Rolf Nefia, and their sons were Rolf and Thorer.Earl Ragnvald had also three sons by concubines, -- the one called Hallad, the second Einar, the third Hrollaug; and all three were grown men when their brothers born in marriage were still children Rolf became a great viking, and was of so stout a growth that no horse could carry him, and wheresoever he went he must go on foot; and therefore he was called Rolf Ganger.He plundered much in the East sea.One summer, as he was coming from the eastward on a viking's expedition to the coast of Viken, he landed there and made a cattle foray.As King Harald happened, just at that time, to be in Viken, he heard of it, and was in a great rage; for he had forbid, by the greatest punishment, the plundering within the bounds of the country.The king assembled a Thing, and had Rolf declared an outlaw over all Norway.When Rolf's mother, Hild heard of it she hastened to the king, and entreated peace for Rolf; but the king was so enraged that here entreaty was of no avail.Then Hild spake these lines: --"Think'st thou, King Harald, in thy anger, To drive away my brave Rolf Ganger Like a mad wolf, from out the land?
Why, Harald, raise thy mighty hand?
Why banish Nefia's gallant name-son, The brother of brave udal-men?
Why is thy cruelty so fell?
Bethink thee, monarch, it is ill With such a wolf at wolf to play, Who, driven to the wild woods away May make the king's best deer his prey."Rolf Ganger went afterwards over sea to the West to the Hebrides, or Sudreys; and at last farther west to Valland, where he plundered and subdued for himself a great earldom, which he peopled with Northmen, from which that land is called Normandy.
Rolf Ganger's son was William, father to Richard, and grandfather to another Richard, who was the father of Robert Longspear, and grandfather of William the Bastard, from whom all the following English kings are descended.From Rolf Ganger also are descended the earls in Normandy.Queen Ragnhild the Mighty lived three years after she came to Norway; and, after her death, her son and King Harald's was taken to the herse Thorer Hroaldson, and Eirik was fostered by him.
25.OF THE FIN SVASE AND KING HARALD.
