HAAKON THE GOOD (935-961).
Haakon, though he was outwardly his father's image, did not resemble him
in spirit. He was of a conciliatory nature, amiable, and endowed with a
charm of manner which won him all hearts. It is said that his
foster-father had given him the counsel at parting never to sit glum at
the festal board, and it is obvious that he took the lesson to heart.
When he landed in Troendelag, people flocked about him, and he won the
chieftains for his cause by friendliness and promises which he
afterwards conscientiously kept. He took part in the games of the young,
and in the serious discussions of the old, excelled in all manly sports,
and won admiration no less by his beauty than by his intelligence and
generous disposition. The rumor of his arrival spread like fire in
withered grass, and people said that old King Harold had come back once
more to his people, gentler and more generous than before, but no less
mighty and beautiful.
The first chieftain whose influence Haakon sought to enlist in his
behalf was the powerful Sigurd, Earl of Hlade, who had been the friend
and protector of his mother, and the guardian of his infancy. The earl
received him well, and promised to support his claims to the kingdom.
With this view he called, in Haakon's name, a great meeting of the
peasants in Troendelag, and made a speech in which he denounced the
cruelty of Erik Blood-Axe and declared his allegiance to Haakon. When
the earl had finished, Haakon arose and offered, in case the peasants
would make him their king, to restore to them their allodium, of which
his father had deprived them. This announcement was received with great
rejoicing; and from all parts of the plain came cries of homage and
approval. Amid joyful tumult Haakon was made king, and immediately
started southward with a large train of warriors. Wherever he went, the
people flocked about him and offered him allegiance. The Oplands [A]
followed the example of Troendelag, and in Viken both chieftains and
peasants eagerly espoused his cause. As already related, Erik made a
desperate attempt to gather an army, and, failing in this, fled with his
family and a few faithful followers to the Orkneys, and thence to
England.
[Footnote A: See map.]
It was consistent with Haakon's conciliatory disposition that he did not
molest or depose his nephews, Gudroed Bjoernsson and Tryggve Olafsson, but
confirmed them as kings in Viken. It appears, however, that, nominally
at least, they recognized his overlordship. Other sons and grandsons of
Harold the Fairhaired he met with the same friendliness, giving to each
what he considered to be his due. As soon as peace was thus established,
and there was no one left to dispute his power, Haakon devoted himself
energetically to the improvement of the internal administration of his
kingdom. He divided the country into _Thing-Unions_, or judicial
districts, and by the aid of wise and experienced men greatly improved
the laws. One famous code, called the Gulathings-law, has particularly
shed lustre upon his name, and the enlargement and improvement of the
Frostathings-law is also, by some of the sagas, attributed to him. The
only radical change which he introduced was the breaking up of his
father's feudal state, by the restoration of the allodium to the
peasants. But this one change necessitated many others. When the king
relinquished his right to tax the land, he thereby deprived himself of
the ability to keep an army, and had to consign, in part, to the
peasants themselves the defence of their respective districts. It was
naturally the sea-coast which was most exposed to attack; and in the
absence of all but the most primitive means of communication it became
possible for an enemy to ravage long stretches of land, before the
intelligence of his presence reached the king. In order to remedy this,
Haakon ordered _varder_ or signal-fires to be lighted, at fixed
intervals, all along the coast at the approach of an enemy; but he
partly counteracted the good effect of the reform by the severe
punishment with which he threatened those who, without adequate cause,
lighted the _varder_. In order to obtain the means to defend the coast,
he divided it into marine districts, each of which was bound, on demand,
to place a fully manned and equipped ship of war at the disposal of the
king. This was, of course, but another form of taxation, but was less
distasteful to the peasants, because its purpose and necessity were
obvious, and no degrading dependence was implied, since the people had
again become the free possessors of the soil. Nevertheless there are
indications that the personal tax, derisively called the nose-tax, which
had been introduced by Harold, was continued, at least for a while, by
Haakon; as it is expressly stated that his first ships of war were built
by the income of the nose-tax.
[Illustration: FRYING PAN OF BRONZE WITH IRON HANDLE. FROM THE VIKING
AGE.]
Having arranged the military and judicial affairs of his kingdom, Haakon
turned his attention to a matter which he had long had at heart. He had
been christened in his childhood in England, and was an earnest votary
of the Christian religion. But, coming, as he did, to the kingdom of his
father, not as a conqueror, but as a candidate for the people's favor,
he did not venture at once to attack the national faith. His friend,
Earl Sigurd of Hlade, was a fanatical adherent of the Asa-faith, and
Haakon might have counted on his enmity rather than his support, if he
had exhibited an ill-considered zeal for the displacement of the old by
a new religion. Haakon, therefore, temporized, and it was not until the
fifteenth or sixteenth year of his reign (950-951), when his unbonded
popularity seemed to warrant any venture, that he took a decisive step
in behalf of Christianity. He sent to England for a bishop and a number
of priests, and published a decree, forbidding the people to sacrifice
to the old gods, and demanding of them that they should accept the faith
in Christ. He called upon the peasants to meet him at Drontheim, where
he repeated his demand. But the peasants refused to declare themselves;
and begged the king to have the matter legally settled at the
_Frosta-thing_. Here there was a great concourse of people; and when the
assembly had been called to order, Haakon rose and in an earnest and
dignified speech begged the peasants to forsake the old heathen gods who
were but wood and stone, and to believe in the one living God and be
baptized in His name. An ominous murmur ran through the crowd at these
words, and the peasant Aasbjoern of Medalhus arose and answered in these
words:
[Illustration: BREAST-PIN OF BRONZE. FOUND AT BY IN LOITEN.]
"When thou, King Haakon, didst call thy first assembly here in
Drontheim, and we took thee for our king, we believed that heaven itself
had descended upon us; but now we do not know whether it was liberty we
gained, or whether thou wishest to make us thralls once more, by thy
strange demand that we shall forsake the faith which our fathers and all
their forefathers have had before us. * * * They were sturdier men than
we are; and yet their faith has done well enough for us. We have learned
to love thee well, and we have allowed thee to share with us the
administration of law and justice. Now, we peasants have firmly
determined and unanimously agreed to keep the laws which thou didst
propose here at the _Frosta-thing_, and to which we gave our assent. We
all wish to follow thee, and to have thee for our king, as long as a
single one of us peasants is alive--if only thou, king, wilt show
moderation, and not demand of us things in which we cannot follow thee,
and which it would be unseemly for us to do. But if thou hast this
matter so deeply at heart that thou wilt try thy might and strength
against ours, then we have resolved to part from thee and take another
chieftain who will aid us in freely exercising the religion which
pleases us. Choose now, O king, between these two conditions, before the
assembly has dispersed."
[Illustration: OVAL BRONZE BUCKLE.]
Loud shouts of approval greeted this speech; and it was, for a while,
impossible for any one to make himself heard. At last, when the tempest
had subsided, Earl Sigurd of Hlade, probably after consultation with
Haakon, rose and said that the king would yield to the wishes of the
peasants and would not part with their friendship. Encouraged by this
first concession, the peasants now demanded that the king should
participate in their sacrifices and preside at the sacrificial feast.
Much against his will, Haakon was again induced to yield, but tried to
pacify his conscience by making the sign of the cross over the horn
consecrated to Odin. During the following year he was also compelled to
eat horse-flesh at the Yule-tide sacrifice, and to omit the sign of the
cross when drinking the toasts of the heathen gods. Full of wrath he
departed, intimating that he would soon come back with an army large
enough to punish the Troenders for the humiliation they had put upon him.
There is little doubt that he would have carried out this threat, if
external enemies had not directed his energies in another direction.
The sons of Erik Blood-Axe had, after their father's death, sought
refuge with King Harold Bluetooth in Denmark. The two elder, Gamle and
Guttorm, had roamed about as vikings, ravaged the coasts of Norway and
the lands about the Baltic, while the third son, Harold, was adopted by
his namesake, the Danish king, and received his education at his court.
They were all valiant warriors, but were much governed by their shrewd
and cruel mother, Gunhild. They naturally cherished no good-will toward
their uncle Haakon, who had dispossessed them of their kingdom; and
while they were not yet strong enough to wage regular war, they seized
every opportunity to annoy and harass him. They fought many battles with
Tryggve Olafsson, who, as king in Viken, was charged with the defence of
the southern coast, and were sometimes victorious and sometimes
vanquished. In the year 952, when Tryggve was absent, Haakon took
occasion to deliver an effective blow at the Danish vikings who were
infesting this part of the country (though the sons of Erik were not
this time among them), pursued them southward, and harassed the coasts
of Jutland and the Danish isles. It appears, however, that this mode of
retaliation did not permanently discourage the vikings, and as long as
Harold Bluetooth showed open hostility against Norway, by espousing the
cause of Gunhild and her sons, it is quite natural that the warlike zeal
and rapacity of the Danes should be directed against the neighboring
kingdom. It is obvious, too, that Haakon, by his attack upon Danish
soil, gave a more personal character to the animosity which the Danish
king entertained toward him, and Gunhild lost no time in profiting by
this change of feeling. From this time forth her sons appear no longer
as warlike adventurers, bent upon private vengeance, but as commanders
of fleets and armies, and formidable pretenders to the Norwegian throne.
In 953 they defeated Tryggve Olafsson at Sotoness, and compelled him to
abandon his ships and save himself by flight. When the news of this
disaster reached Haakon, he hastily made peace with the Troenders who had
forced him to sacrifice, and called upon Earl Sigurd to aid him with all
the ships and men at his command. Earl Sigurd promptly obeyed and sailed
southward to meet the king. At Agvaldsness they overtook the sons of
Gunhild and vanquished them in a hotly contested battle. Haakon slew
with his own hand his nephew Guttorm Eriksson, and cut down his
standard. The surviving brothers fled with the remnants of their army to
Denmark, and kept the peace for two years. But in 955 they returned once
more with a largely increased force and surprised King Haakon at Fraedoe
in Nordmoere. The signal fires had not been lighted, and no intelligence
of the presence of the enemy had reached the king until it was too late.
He asked his men whether they preferred to stay and fight or avoid
battle, until they had gathered a sufficient force. To this an old
peasant named Egil Uldsaerk (Woolsark) made answer: "I have been in many
battles with thy father, King Harold. Sometimes he fought with a
stronger and sometimes with a weaker foe. But he was always victorious.
Never have I heard him ask counsel of his friends as to whether he
should run; nor will we give thee such counsel. For we think that we
have in thee a brave chieftain, and trusty aid shalt thou receive from
us."
[Illustration: EGIL WOOLSARK'S MONUMENT OR BAUTASTONE AT FREINESS.]
When the king praised these words and declared himself ready to fight,
Egil cried out joyously: "In this long season of peace I have been
afraid that I should die of old age on the straw of my bed--I who never
asked any thing better than to follow my chieftain and die in battle!
Now, at last, I shall have my wish fulfilled."
[Illustration: ORNAMENTAL BRONZE MOUNTING.]
As soon as the sons of Erik had landed, the battle commenced. They had
six men for every one of King Haakon's. Seeing that the odds were so
heavily against his lord, Egil Woolsark took ten standard-bearers aside
and stole up a slope of land in the rear of Gamle Eriksson's
battle-array. He made them march with long intervals, so that only the
tops of their standards could be seen above the slope, and not the men
themselves. The Danes, spying the waving banners, supposed that a fresh
force was coming to cut them off from their ships, and they raised a
great cry and fled. It was in vain that Gamle, who had discovered the
stratagem, shouted with a loud voice commanding them to stay. Panic had
seized them, and their commander himself was swept away with the
hurrying mass, until he reached the beach, where he made a final stand.
Here Egil Woolsark attacked him and received his death-wound after a
desperate conflict. Haakon too rushed in upon Gamle, who defended
himself bravely, but having received terrible wounds, threw himself into
the ocean and was drowned. The other brothers swam to their ships and
returned to Denmark.
This victory secured peace to Norway for six years. Haakon had thus an
opportunity to resume his efforts to Christianize the country. But his
experience of the peasants' temper had apparently discouraged him.
Personally he remained a Christian, and induced many of his friends to
forsake the heathen faith. He lacked, however, the uncompromising vigor
and the burning zeal of a martyr and propagandist. He preferred gentle
to harsh measures, and shrank from antagonizing those who had been
faithful to him in time of need. It is probable, too, that the counsel
of his friend, Earl Sigurd, tended to cool his ardor, by emphasizing the
political phase of the religious question. The result of this
conciliatory policy, in connection with the good crops which prevailed
during his reign, was to make King Haakon universally beloved. It is
doubtful if a king has ever sat upon the throne of Norway who has been
closer to the hearts of the people. Therefore, as an expression of their
affection for him, they named him Haakon the Good.
In the twenty-sixth year of his reign (961) Haakon was summering with
his men-at-arms on his estate Fitje in Hoerdaland. A large number of
guests were with him, among whom the scald Eyvind Skaldespilder
(Scald-Spoiler),[A] who was on his mother's side a great-grandson of
Harold the Fairhaired. The king was seated at the breakfast-table, when
the sentinels saw a large fleet of ships sailing in through the fjord.
They called the scald Eyvind aside, and begged him to decide whether
those were not hostile ships. Eyvind sprang into the hall where the king
was sitting, and sang a verse, announcing the approach of the sons of
Erik. Haakon arose and looked at the ships. Then he turned to his men
and said: "Here many ships are coming against us, and our force is but
small. It is plainly to be seen that we shall have to fight against
heavier odds than ever before; for the sons of Gunhild come with a
larger force to-day than on previous occasions. Loath I am to bring my
best men into too great a danger; and loath I am, too, to flee, unless
wise men decide that it would be foolhardy to await the foe."
[Footnote A: Skaldespilder means waster or spoiler of scalds, because no
other scald could bear comparison with him.]
Eyvind Scald-Spoiler replied in verse that it would ill befit a man like
King Haakon to flee from the sons of Gunhild. "Manly speech is that, and
in accordance with my mind," answered the king; and when the other
warriors with one accord clamored for battle, he put on his armor,
buckled his sword about his loins, and seized spear and shield. On his
head he wore a golden helmet which flashed in the sun. Beautiful he was
to behold, with his mild and noble countenance, and his bright hair
streaming down over his shoulders. Upon the fields without he arranged
his men in battle array, and raised his standards. The sons of Erik
disembarked with a large army, commanded by the third of the brothers,
Harold, and his two uncles, Eyvind Skreyja and Alf Askman. The battle
which now commenced was wild and bloody. The army of the sons of Gunhild
was six times as numerous as that of King Haakon. But Haakon, knowing
his Norsemen well, did not lose heart. Wherever the fight was hottest,
there flashed his golden helmet. He joked with Eyvind, the scald, when
he passed him, and improvised a verse in reply to the one with which he
was greeted. The fiercer the conflict grew, the higher rose the king's
spirits. At last, when the heat oppressed him, he flung away his armor
and stormed forward at the head of his men. The supply of spears and
arrows soon ran short, and the hostile ranks clashed together and
fought, hand to hand, with their swords. The shining helmet made the
king very conspicuous, and Eyvind Scald-Spoiler noticed that it served
as a target for the Danish spears. He therefore took a hood and pulled
it over the helmet. Eyvind Skreyja, who was just rushing forward to meet
the king, thereby lost sight of him, and he cried out: "What has become
of the king of the Norsemen? Does he hide himself, or is he afraid? No
more do I see the golden helmet?" "Keep on as thou art steering, if thou
wishest to find the king of the Norsemen," shouted Haakon, and throwing
away his shield, seized his sword with both hands, and sprang forward
where all could see him. Eyvind Skreyja bounded forward with uplifted
sword, but one of the king's men caught the blow upon his shield, and in
the same instant Haakor, cleft Eyvind's head and neck down to the
shoulders. The example of their king fired the Norsemen's courage,
while the fall of their greatest champion brought confusion to the
Danes. The former charged with renewed fury, while the latter were
pressed down to the beach, and leaped into the ocean; many were killed
or drowned, but a few, including Harold Eriksson, saved themselves by
swimming, and were picked up by the ships. While pursuing the fleeing
foe, Haakon was hit in his right arm by a peculiarly shaped arrow, and
all efforts to staunch the blood proved in vain. It was said that
Gunhild had bewitched this arrow and given it to her chamberlain, with
the charge that he should shoot it off against King Haakon. As night
approached, the king grew weaker and weaker, and fainted repeatedly. One
of his friends offered to take his body over to England, when he was
dead, so that he might be buried in Christian soil. But Haakon replied:
"I am not worthy of it. I have lived like a heathen, and therefore it is
meet that I should be buried like a heathen."
Thus died Haakon the Good and, as the saga says, was mourned alike by
friends and foes. His last act before dying was to send a ship after the
sons of Gunhild, and beg them to come back and take the kingdom; for he
had himself no sons, and his only daughter, Thora, could not, according
to the law, succeed to the throne.
Eyvind Scald-Spoiler made a song in King Haakon's honor, called
_Haakonarmaal_, in which he praised his virtues and described his
reception in Valhalla.
[Illustration]