SHOWS WHAT SOME OF THE MEN OF OLD COULD DO IN COLD BLOOD, AND TREATS OF
HEATHEN FESTIVITIES AT HARALD'S COURT, MINGLED WITH PLOT AND COUNTER
PLOT.
Winter--with its frost and snow, its long nights and its short days, its
feasts in the great halls, and its tales round the roaring wood fires--
at length began to pass away, and genial spring advanced to gladden the
land of Norway. The white drapery melted in the valleys, leaving
brilliant greens and all the varied hues of rugged rocks to fill the
eyes with harmonious colour. High on the mighty fells the great
glaciers--unchanging, almost, as the "everlasting hills"--gleamed in the
sunlight against the azure sky, and sent floods of water down into the
brimming rivers. The scalds ceased, to some extent, those wild
legendary songs and tales with which they had beguiled the winter
nights, and joined the Norsemen in their operations on the farms and on
the fiords. Men began to grow weary of smoked rafters and frequent
festivities, and to long for the free, fresh air of heaven. Some went
off to drive the cattle to the "saeters" or mountain pastures, others
set out for the fisheries, and not a few sailed forth on viking cruises
over the then almost unknown sea. Our friends of Horlingdal bestirred
themselves, like others, in these varied avocations, and King Harald
Fairhair, uprising from his winter lair in Drontheim like a giant
refreshed, assembled his men, and prepared to carry out his political
plans with a strong hand. But resolute men cannot always drive events
before them as fast as they would wish. Summer was well advanced before
the King was ready to take action.
There was a man of the Drontheim district named Hauskuld, who was noted
for ferocity and wickedness. He was also very strong and courageous, so
that King Harald made him one of his berserks.