King Magnus Barelegs falls in Ireland
Harald Hardrada was not the last King of Norway to visit these
countries. Long after this the Norwegian kings tried at times to assert
their rights over the Orkneys and other parts of Scotland, and came
over to enforce their claim. King Magnus, who reigned after the death
of Olaf Kyrre (1094–1103), made several descents upon Britain and
Ireland; he stayed so long, and grew so fond of the latter country,
that he adopted the kilt, and was called in consequence by his own
people “Magnus Barelegs.” He seized the Earls of the Orkneys, the
brothers Paul and Erlend, and sent them east to Norway as prisoners,
and placed a son of his own over the Orkneys. Then he went south to the
Hebrides (Sudreyar) and conquered the whole of the Western Isles, and
seized the King’s son. After that he sailed to Wales, and fought the
two Hughs, Hugh the Stout, Earl of Chester, and Hugh the Bold, Earl
of Salop, in the battle of Anglesea Sound. He had with him there the
son of Earl Erland, afterwards Magnus “the Saint,” Earl of Orkney, who
sat down on the fore-deck with his psalter open before him and would
not take arms. The King asked him why he had not armed. He said he had
no quarrel with anyone there, and would not fight. Then the King said
angrily: “If you dare not fight, go down below, and do not lie among
other people’s feet, for I do not believe it is from religious motives
that you refuse to fight for us.”
But the lad sat on quietly, taking no shelter, and singing during the
battle, but getting no hurt, though many of the King’s men were sorely
wounded. When Hugh the Bold was killed the others fled, and left the
victory with King Magnus. He never forgave Magnus, the earl’s son, for
refusing to fight at Anglesea Sound, and he made him his serving-man;
but one night the youth slipped away, and after concealing himself in
the woods he made his way to the Court of the Scottish King, and did
not return to the Orkneys until King Magnus was dead.
The King remained all the winter in the Hebrides, though many of his
followers deserted and went home to Norway. The King of Scots offered
him all the islands lying west of Scotland between which and the
mainland he could pass with his rudder shipped. Then Magnus landed in
Cantyre, and had his boat dragged across the neck of the mainland,
himself holding the helm; thus he got Cantyre for himself as well
as the islands. He sent thence to Ireland for a wife for his son,
and married him to a daughter of Murtough, or Myrkiartan, King of
Connaught, though his son was only nine winters old and she only five.
Such early marriages were not uncommon in old times.
When Magnus returned home after this viking cruise, his people were
astonished to see their King going about in a kilt, with bare legs and
over-cloak, like a Scotsman or Irishman; most of his followers being
dressed in the same way as the King. He was taller than most men, and
could everywhere be seen towering above his followers. His people had
many names for him. Magnus the Tall some called him, others Fighting
Magnus; but his usual name was Magnus Barelegs, or Barefoot. He always
said that he cared not when or how he died, so long as he lived with
glory; his motto was: “Kings should live for glory rather than for grey
hairs.” We shall see that he did indeed fall in youth, though rather
ingloriously; but that was through no fault of his own.
When he had been nine years in Norway he began to long for the free
life of the West. In 1102 he equipped a great fleet to go out of the
country, and all the most powerful men in Norway accompanied him. He
spent the winter with the King of Connaught, whose daughter had married
his son, and they went on fighting raids together, conquering Dublin
and a great part of its neighbourhood. Toward the spring both kings
went on an expedition into Ulster, raiding and conquering in every
direction; and after that Murtough returned home to Connaught, bidding
Magnus good-bye, for he thought it was time to go back to his own
country. Magnus sent some of his men to defend the property they had
won about Dublin, and he himself sailed northward, and lay out to sea
with his whole fleet ready to sail. Unfortunately, on inquiry, they
found that they were short of provisions, and had not nearly enough for
the voyage. Magnus sent a message to Murtough, asking him without delay
to send a herd of cattle to him, and telling him that he would wait for
them till St. Bartholomew’s Day. But on the eve of that day the cattle
had not arrived, and Magnus, impatient to be off, said he would go on
shore himself and see if the cattle were coming, or if he could find
other herds for food.
The weather was calm, the sun shone, and the road lay through marsh
and moss, with tracks cut through them and brushwood at the side of the
tracks.
They pushed on till they got to a height whence they could see over
all the surrounding country. They noticed in the distance dust rising
up from the road as though under the feet of many men advancing toward
them. Some said it was the Irish army, others that it was their own
men returning with the cattle. They halted awhile, and one of Magnus’s
earls said: “What, sire, would you have us do? The men think that
we are advancing imprudently, for it is known that the Irish are
treacherous. Advise us what we should do.”
The King commanded them to draw up in line, lest there should be
treachery, he and Eyvind, his earl, going on first in front of the
troop.
The King had a helmet on his head, and a red shield inlaid with a
gilded lion, and his sharp sword, Segbit, in his hand. He wore a little
short cloak over his shoulder above his coat of mail, embroidered
before and behind with a lion in yellow silk, and all men said they had
never seen one handsomer or more active than he. Eyvind had also a red
cloak like the King.
[Illustration: _King Magnus in the Marsh at Downpatrick_]
As the dust-cloud came nearer they saw that it was their own men
driving the cattle. The Irish king had been faithful to his friends
and had sent the kine. Thereupon they all turned to go back to the
ships; but the passage was so miry that they could go but slowly and in
single file over the boggy places. As they were making their way thus,
suddenly from every side up started the Irish and set upon them. Every
mound or bushy point seemed to hold an enemy. Fighting began instantly,
but in the order in which they were going, divided into various
bands and marching singly on a raised passage of ground, they were a
good mark for the Irish, and they kept dropping one by one along the
route.
Eyvind said to the King: “This retreat is going to be unfortunate for
our people; what counsel shall we give them?”
“Blow the war-horn,” said Magnus, “and bid them form themselves as well
as they can into a body with their shields linked closely together, and
so retreat backward under cover of their shields; as soon as we get on
to firm ground out of this treacherous morass we shall clear ourselves
fast enough.”
This was done, but though the Irish fell in crowds under their arrows
and spears, two seemed to appear out of the marsh for every one who
dropped. At one very difficult and swampy piece of ground where there
were few places on which they could stand or pass the Norsemen fell
in great numbers. The King called one of his lords and bade him take
his men out across a ditch to some points of higher ground and shoot
from there, while he and the main body got across the bog. But as soon
as ever these Northmen found themselves safe at the other side of the
ditch, thinking that they had had enough of it, they made off as fast
as they could to the ships, leaving their comrades in the lurch.
“Alas that ever I made thee a great man!” said the King when he saw
this; “thou art deserting thy friends and thy King like a coward!”
At the same moment King Magnus was wounded severely by a spear, which
passed through both his legs above the knees. Laying hold on the
spear-shaft between his legs, the King broke it in two, crying out:
“This is how we break spear-shafts, my lads. On with you all! Nothing
hurts me.”
But it was not long afterward that, as he stumbled along on his wounded
legs, an Irishman came up behind and struck him in the neck with an
Irish axe, and that was his death-wound. He fell, and those around
him fled. But his man, Vidkun Jonson, smote down the Irishman who had
killed his master, and escaped, carrying with him the royal banner, and
the King’s sword, Segbit. But he was thrice wounded as he ran. He was
the last man who got to the ships alive. Many great people fell with
Magnus, but more of the Irish died than of the Norse. Those who got to
the ships sailed away at once, and took refuge in the Orkney Islands.
Magnus was thirty years old when he fell at Downpatrick, in Ulster. He
was beloved by his people, and there was quiet at home in Norway in his
days. But the _bondes_ thought him harsh, and they were oppressed by
the heavy levies he had to raise for his war-expeditions. He was buried
in Ireland. He was so fond of that country that in the last song he
made, when his followers were trying to persuade him to leave Ireland
and return to his capital of Nidaros (now Drontheim) in Norway, he sang:
“Why should we think of faring homeward?
I shall not go back in the autumn to the ladies of Nidaros.
Youth makes me love the Irish girl better than myself!”
But his son, Sigurd Magnusson, called the Jewry-farer, on account of
his visit to Jerusalem, although he had married in Ireland, did not
think as his father. As soon as he heard of his sire’s death he set off
immediately to claim the crown, leaving his Irish wife behind, and he
took with him his whole fleet, and never went back again to the West.
It is said that he ever held Vidkun Jonson in the most affectionate
regard, because he would not fly until he had saved the banner and
killed the man who gave Magnus his mortal wound.
The fame of King Magnus never quite died out of Ireland. In old poems
he appears warring at the head of a band of men for the conquest of
Ireland, and in the “Ballad of King Magnus Barefoot” he is pictured as
a being of gigantic proportions and a mighty warrior. Many legends and
fairy-tales have Magnus for their hero.