Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of NorwaySnorri Sturluson
History
Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Snorri Sturluson
Iceland -- History; Norway -- History; Sagas -- Translations into English; Scandinavia -- History
"The giver of rings of gold,
The army leader bold,
In vengeance springs
On the Hedemark kings.
Olaf the bold and great,
Repays their foul deceit--
In full repays
Their treacherous ways.
He drives with steel-clad hand
The small kings from the land,--
Greater by far
In deed of war.
The king who dwelt most north
Tongueless must wander forth:
All fly away
In great dismay.
King Olaf now rules o'er
What five kings ruled before.
To Eid's old bound
Extends his ground.
No kings in days of yore
E'er won so much before:
That this is so
All Norsemen know."
King Olaf took possession of the land these five kings had possessed,
and took hostages from the lendermen and bondes in it. He took money
instead of guest-quarters from the country north of the valley district,
and from Hedemark; and then returned to Raumarike, and so west to
Hadaland. This winter (A.D. 1018) his stepfather Sigurd Syr died; and
King Olaf went to Ringerike, where his mother Asta made a great feast
for him. Olaf alone bore the title of king now in Norway.
75. KING OLAF'S HALF-BROTHERS.
It is told that when King Olaf was on his visit to his mother Asta,
she brought out her children, and showed them to him. The king took his
brother Guthorm on the one knee, and his brother Halfdan on the other.
The king looked at Guthorm, made a wry face, and pretended to be angry
at them: at which the boys were afraid. Then Asta brought her youngest
son, called Harald, who was three years old, to him. The king made a wry
face at him also; but he looked the king in the face without regarding
it. The king took the boy by the hair, and plucked it; but the boy
seized the king's whiskers, and gave them a tug. "Then," said the king,
"thou wilt be revengeful, my friend, some day." The following day the
king was walking with his mother about the farm, and they came to
a playground, where Asta's sons, Guthorm and Halfdan, were amusing
themselves. They were building great houses and barns in their play, and
were supposing them full of cattle and sheep; and close beside them, in
a clay pool, Harald was busy with chips of wood, sailing them, in
his sport along the edge. The king asked him what these were; and he
answered, these were his ships of war. The king laughed, and said, "The
time may come, friend, when thou wilt command ships."
Then the king called to him Halfdan and Guthorm; and first he asked
Guthorm, "What wouldst thou like best to have?"
"Corn land," replied he.
"And how great wouldst thou like thy corn land to be?"
"I would have the whole ness that goes out into the lake sown with corn
every summer." On that ness there are ten farms.
The king replies, "There would be a great deal of corn there." And,
turning to Halfdan, he asked, "And what wouldst thou like best to have?"
"Cows," he replied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account