HALFDAN THE SWARTHY.
The Yngling race traced its ancestry from the god Frey. Snorre
Sturlasson, in his famous work, "The Sagas of the Kings of Norway,"[A]
mentions a long line of kings who were descended from Fjoelne, a son of
Frey, and reigned in Sweden having their residence in Upsala. Yngve was
one of the god's surnames, and Yngling means a descendant of Yngve. One
of the Ynglings, named Aun the Old, sacrificed every ten years one of
his sons to Odin, having been promised that for every son he sacrificed,
ten years should be added to his life. When he had thus slain seven
sons, and was so old that he had to be fed like an infant, his people
grew weary of him and saved the eighth son, whom he was about to
sacrifice. Ingjald Ill-Ruler, when he took the kingdom on the death of
his father Anund, sixth in descent from Aun the Old, made a great
funeral feast, to which he invited all the neighboring kings. When he
rose to drink the Brage goblet,[B] he vowed that he would increase his
kingdom by one half toward all the four corners of the heavens, or die
in the attempt. As a preliminary step he set fire to the hall, burned
his guests, and took possession of their lands. When he died, about the
middle of the seventh century, he was so detested by his people that
they would not accept his son, nor any of his race, as his successor.
The son, whose name was Olaf, therefore gathered about him as many as
would follow him, and emigrated to the great northern forests, where he
felled the trees, gained much arable lands, and thereby acquired the
nickname The Wood-cutter.[C] He and his people became prosperous, and a
great influx of the discontented from the neighboring lands followed. In
fact, so great was the number of immigrants that the country could not
feed them, and they were threatened with famine. This they attributed,
however, to the fact that Olaf was not in the favor of the gods, and
they sacrificed him to Odin.
[Footnote A: "The Heimskringla, or the Sagas of the Kings of Norway," by
the Icelander Snorre Sturlasson, was written in the twelfth century, and
continued by his nephew Sturla Thordsson, is the principal source of the
history of Norway up to the middle of the thirteenth century.]
[Footnote B: The toast to the god Brage.]
[Footnote C: Tretelgja.]
His son, Halfdan Whiteleg,[A] was a great warrior. He conquered
Raumarike in Norway and the great and fertile district called Vestfold,
west of the fjord called Folden (now the Christiania Fjord). Here he
founded a famous temple in Skiringssal, which soon became a flourishing
trading station and a favorite residence of the Norwegian kings. The
third in descent from him was the great viking Godfrey the Hunter, who
waged war against Charlemagne, and Godfrey's son was Halfdan the
Swarthy.
[Footnote A: Hvitbein.]
Halfdan was but a year old in 810 when his father was killed. At the
age of eighteen, he assumed the government of Agder, which he inherited
from his maternal grandfather. By warfare and by marriage he also
increased the great possessions he had received from his father, and,
was, beyond dispute, the mightiest king in all Norway. It is told of him
that he was a man of great intelligence, who loved justice and truth. He
gave laws which he himself kept and compelled every one else to keep. In
order that no one should with impunity tread the law under foot, he
fixed a scale of fines which offenders should pay in accordance with
their birth and dignity. This code was the so-called Eidsiva-Law, which
had great influence in politically uniting the southern districts of
Norway which Halfdan had gathered under his sway.
About King Halfdan's second marriage a story is told, which, whether
originally true or not, has obviously been the subject of legendary
adornment. It runs as follows:
There was a king in Ringerike whose name was Sigurd Hjort. He was a
large and strong man. He had a daughter named Ragnhild, who was very
beautiful, and a son named Guttorm. While Sigurd Hjort was out hunting
he was attacked by the _berserk_ [A] Hake and thirty men. He fought
desperately, and slew twelve of his assailants, and cut off Hake's hand,
but in the end he had to bite the dust. The berserk then rode to his
house and carried away Ragnhild and Guttorm, besides much valuable
property. He determined to marry Ragnhild and would have done so at
once, if his wound had not grown constantly more painful. At Yule-tide,
when King Halfdan came to feast in Hedemark, he heard of the outrage and
resolved to punish it. He sent one of his trusted warriors, named Haarek
Gand, with a hundred armed men to Hake's house; they arrived in the
early morning before any one was awake. They set sentinels at all the
doors, then broke into the sleeping-rooms and carried off Sigurd Hjort's
children and the stolen goods. Then they set fire to the house and
burned it up. Hake escaped, but seeing Ragnhild drive gayly away over
the ice with King Halfdan's men, he threw himself upon his sword and
perished. Halfdan the Swarthy became enamored of Ragnhild, as soon as he
saw her, and made her his wife.
[Footnote A: Berserks or berserkir were champions of extraordinary
strength, who in battle were possessed with a sanguinary fury which made
them irresistible. Many of them were reputed to be were-wolves, and to
be invulnerable.]
While Queen Ragnhild was with child she dreamed marvellous dreams. Once
she seemed to be standing in the garden, trying to take a thorn out of
her chemise, but the thorn grew in her hand until it was like a long
spindle--the one end of which struck root in the earth, while the other
shot up into the air. Presently it looked like a big tree, and it grew
bigger and bigger and taller and taller, until she stood in its shade
and her eye could scarcely reach to the top of it. The lower part of the
tree was red as blood; further up the trunk was green and fair, and the
branches were radiantly white like snow. They were, however, of very
unequal size, and it seemed to her that they spread out over the whole
kingdom of Norway.
King Halfdan was much puzzled at hearing this dream, and perhaps a
little jealous too. Why was it that his wife had such remarkable dreams,
while he had none? He consulted a wise man as to the cause of this, and
was by him advised to sleep in a pig-sty; then he would be sure to have
remarkable dreams. The king did as he had been told, and dreamed that
his hair was growing very long and beautiful. It fell in bright locks
about his head and shoulders, but the locks were of unequal length and
color; some seemed like little curly knots just sprouting from his
scalp, while others hung down over his back, even unto the waist. But
one lock there was that was brighter and more beautiful than all the
rest.
The king related this dream to his sage friend, who interpreted it to
mean that a mighty race of kings should spring from him, and that his
descendants, though some of them should attain to great glory, should be
unequal in fame. But one of them should be greater and more glorious
than all the rest. The longest and brightest lock, says Snorre, was
supposed to indicate Olaf the Saint.
When her time came, the queen bore a son who was named Harold. He grew
rapidly in stature as in intelligence, and was much liked by all men. He
was fond of manly sports and won admiration by his strength and his
beauty. His mother loved him much, while his father often looked upon
him with disfavor. Of his childhood many tales are told which cannot lay
claim to credibility. Thus, it is said, that once, while King Halfdan
was celebrating Yule-tide on Hadeland, all the dishes and the ale
suddenly disappeared from the table. The guests went home, and the king,
full of wrath, remained sitting. In order to find out who had dared thus
to trifle with his dignity, he seized a Finn, who was a sorcerer, and
tormented him. The Finn appealed to Harold, who, contrary to his
father's command, rescued him and followed him to the mountains. After a
while, they came to a place where a chieftain was having a grand feast
with his men. There they remained until spring, and when Harold was
about to take his leave, his host said to him: "Your father took it much
to heart that I took some meat and beer away from him last winter; but
for what you did to me I will reward you with glad tidings. Your father
is now dead, and you will go home and inherit his kingdom. But some day
you will be king of all Norway."
[Illustration: BUCKLE WITH BYZANTINE ORNAMENTATION, FOUND AT HOEN IN
EKER.]
When Harold returned home, he found that the chieftain had spoken the
truth. His father had been drowned while driving across the ice on the
Randsfjord (860). He was mourned by all his people; for there had been
good crops during his reign, and he had been a wise ruler and much
beloved. When it was rumored that he was to be buried in Ringerike, the
men of Hadeland and of Raumarike came and demanded that the corpse be
given to them for burial. For they believed that the favor of the gods
would rest upon the district where the king's barrow was. At last they
agreed to divide the body into four parts. The men of Ringerike kept the
trunk; the head was buried at Skiringssal in Vestfold; and the rest was
divided between Hadeland and Hedemark. For a long time, sacrifices were
made upon these barrows, and King Halfdan was worshipped as a god.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]