Early on the next morning the ships were within sight of the high lying
coast of Norway. By Thorir's treacherous advice, Olaf had steered his
course for a part of the country where Earl Hakon's power was greatest,
and where it was expected that Hakon himself might at that time be
staying. Steering in among the skerries Olaf made a landing on the
island of Moster, in the shire of Hordaland. Here he raised his land
tent and planted in front of it the cross, together with his own
standard; and when all the men were ashore he had his priests celebrate
the mass. He met with no opposition, for the people of the place were
then busy on their fields, and there was nothing unusual in the sight
of a few peaceful ships anchoring off their shores.
Thorir had advised a landing on this particular island because, as it
had been arranged, he knew that here he would gain private news of Earl
Hakon, and learn how he might best betray King Olaf into Hakon's
clutches. When Thorir heard, therefore, that the earl was at Trondelag,
he told Olaf that there was nothing for him to do but to keep it well
hidden who he was, and to sail northward with all diligence, so that he
might attack Earl Hakon unawares and slay him. At the same time he sent
secret word to Hakon, bidding him prepare his plans for the slaying of
Olaf Triggvison.
Believing every word that Thorir told him, and trusting in the man's
seeming honesty, Olaf accepted the advice, and fared northward day and
night until he came to Agdaness, at the mouth of the Thrandheim fiord,
and here he made a landing.
Now a great surprise was in store for Thorir Klakka. All this time,
since his setting out west to Ireland in search of Olaf, he had rested
assured that the power of Earl Hakon was unassailable, and that the
bonders, or landholders, were not only well disposed towards him, but
also ready to stand firmly by him through all dangers. He had
intentionally deceived Olaf Triggvison by representing that the earl
might easily be overthrown and his subjects as easily won over to the
side of a new king. To his great dismay he now discovered that, while
telling a wilful untruth, he had all the time been unwittingly
representing the actual condition of the country. During the absence of
Thorir from Norway, Hakon had committed certain acts which had gained
for him the hatred and contempt of the whole nation. The peasants of
Thrandheim were united in open rebellion against him; they had sent a
war summons through the countryside, and had gathered in great numbers,
intending to fall upon the Evil Earl and slay him.
Olaf Triggvison could not, therefore, have chosen a more promising
moment for his arrival in the land. He had only to make himself known
in order to secure the immediate allegiance and homage of the people.
When Olaf entered the mouth of the fiord with his five longships and
anchored off Agdaness, he heard that Earl Hakon was lying with his
ships farther up the firth, and also that he was at strife with the
bonders. So Olaf made no delay, but weighed anchor again and rowed east
into the sunlit fiord. He had not gone very far when, from behind a
rocky headland, three vessels of war appeared upon the blue water,
rowing out to meet him, with their red battle shields displayed. But
suddenly, as they drew nearer to him, they turned about towards the
land and fled in all haste. Olaf made no doubt that they were Hakon's
ships, so he put extra men to the oars and bade them give chase.
Now the retreating ships were commanded, not by Earl Hakon, but by his
favourite son Erland, who had come into the fiord to his father's help
against the bonders. When Erland found that he was being pursued a
great fear came upon him lest he should be driven farther into the
fiord and into the clutches of the bonders, whom he knew to be waiting
to give him battle, so when he saw that Olaf was coming close upon him
he ran his ships aground, leapt overboard, and straightway made for the
shore.
Then Olaf brought his five ships close in upon him and assailed him
with arrows, killing many of his men as they swam to land. Olaf saw a
man swimming past who was exceedingly fair; so he caught up the tiller,
and, taking good aim, flung it at him, striking him on the head. This
man was Erland himself, and so he lost his life.
Olaf and his folk took many of the men prisoners and made them take the
peace. From them he heard the tidings that Earl Hakon had taken flight
and that all his warriors had deserted him.
Now, when this little battle was over, and Erland's ships had been
captured, Olaf Triggvison rowed yet farther into the fiord to
Trondelag, where all the chieftains and peasants were assembled. Here
he went ashore and, dressed in his finest body armour, with his
towering gold helmet and his cloak of crimson silk, walked up into the
midst of the people, attended only by his friend Kolbiorn Stallare and
two guards.
The peasants stared at him amazed, wondering what manner of great man
this was who had so suddenly appeared before them. And two of their
chieftains went forward to meet him, uncovering their heads. One asked
him his name and the reason of his coming.
"Your questions are soon answered," said he; and the clear ring of his
voice was heard even by those who stood far apart. "I am come to offer
myself to the people of this land, to defend them against all wrong,
and to uphold their laws and rights. My name is Olaf. I am the son of
King Triggvi Olafson, who was the grandson of King Harald Fairhair."
At hearing these words the whole crowd of people arose with one accord
and rent the air with their joyous greetings, for it needed no great
proof for them to be assured that he was indeed of the race of the old
kings of Norway. Some of the elder men, seeing him, declared that he
was surely King Hakon the Good come back to earth again, younger and
fairer and nobler than he had been of yore. The young warriors who
stood near were lost in admiration of his tall and handsome figure, of
his giant strength, his large clear eyes and long golden hair, and they
envied him the splendour of his costly armour and beautiful clothing.
To follow such a man into battle, they thought, would be worth all the
glories of Valhalla.
"All hail to King Olaf!" they cried. And the cry was echoed upon every
side.
Many of those present wanted Olaf to be at once formally proclaimed
king of all Norway, but others of the more sober sort objected.
"King he shall surely be," they said. "But let him be made so without
undue haste. Let him first prove his worthiness by some act of prowess."
"I am ready to prove it in whatsoever way you wish," said Olaf. "What
would you have me do?"
One of the chieftains then stepped in front of him and said:
"There is one thing, lord, that we would have you do; and by the doing
of it you would gain the gratitude of every man and woman in
Thrandheim."
"And what thing is that?" asked Olaf.
"It is that you shall follow in pursuit of Earl Hakon and bring him to
his bane."
"Gladly will I pursue him," returned Olaf, "if I may know what
direction he has taken, or in what part of the land I may most surely
find him."
Then the chieftain called one of the young warriors to him and
questioned him closely concerning Hakon.
The young man explained that the earl had escaped from out of Gauldale,
where he had been in hiding, and that he had gone off attended only by
a certain thrall named Kark. Men had given chase to him, and at the
edge of a deep morass they had found the footprints of the earl's
horse. Following the footprints they had come into the middle of the
morass, and there they found the horse itself struggling in the mire,
with Hakon's cloak lying near, seeming to show that the morass had been
his death.
"Earl Hakon is wily enough to have put both horse and cloak in the
morass with intent to deceive his pursuers," said one of the
bystanders. "For my own part I would stake my hopes of Valhalla upon it
that he might even now be found at the farmstead of Thora of Rimul; for
Thora is his dearest friend of all the dale folk."
Thora of Rimul sat spinning at the doorway of her home in a sheltered
dale among the hills. The birch trees were breaking out into fresh
buds, the young lambs gambolled on the flowery knolls, and the air was
musical with the songs of birds. Thora was considered the fairest woman
in all Thrandheim. Her hair was as fair as the flax upon her spindle,
and her eyes were as blue as the clear sky above her head. Her heart
was lightsome, too; for she had won the love of the great Earl
Hakon--Hakon, the conqueror of the vikings of Jomsburg, the proud ruler
of all Norway. It was he who had given her the gold ring that was now
upon her white finger, and he had promised her that he would make her
his queen. She did not believe that what people said of him was
true--that he was black of heart, and cruel and base. His hollow words
had not sounded hollow to her ears nor had she seen anything of
deceitfulness in his eyes.
He had praised her beauty and declared that he loved her, and so she
loved him in return.
As she sat there spinning, there was a sudden commotion among the ewes
and lambs. She looked up and beheld two men standing in the shadow of
the trees. One of them presently left the other and came towards her.
He was a low browed, evil looking man, with a bushy black beard and
long tangled hair. She rose and went to meet him, knowing him for Kark,
Earl Hakon's thrall. He bade her go in among the trees, where the earl
was waiting. So she went on into the wood, wondering why Hakon had not
come forth and greeted her in the open as was his custom.
Now, so soon as she saw him she knew that some great ill had happened,
for his hands trembled and his legs shook under him. His eyes that she
had thought so beautiful were bleared and bloodshot, and there were
deep lines about his face which she had never before seen. It seemed to
her that he had suddenly become a decrepit old man.
"Why do you tremble so?" she asked as she took his hand.
He looked about him in fear.
"Hide me!" he cried. "Hide me! I am in danger. Shame and death are
overtaking me. The young King Olaf is in the land, and he is hunting me
down!"
"And who is the young King Olaf that he has power to fill the heart of
the great Earl Hakon with terror?" asked Thora. "You who have
vanquished the vikings of Jomsburg can surely withstand the enmity of
one weak man."
"Not so," answered Hakon in a trembling voice. "King Olaf is mightier
far than I. And he has the whole of Norway at his back, while I--I have
but this one faithful servant. Saving him alone every man in the land
is against me."
He looked round in renewed fear. Even the rustling of the tree branches
struck terror to his heart.
"Hide me! hide me!" he cried again.
"Little use is there in hiding you in this place," returned Thora.
"King Olaf will be seeking you here before very long, for many men know
that I would fain help you, and they will surely lead him here and
search for you in my household both within and without. Yet, for the
love I bear you, Earl Hakon, I will indeed hide you so that neither
shame nor death shall come near you."
She led him through among the trees to the back of the steadings.
"There is but one place where I deem that King Olaf will not think of
seeking for such a man as you," she said; "and that is in the ditch
under the pig sty."
"The place is not one that I would have chosen," said Hakon. "But we
must take heed to our lives first of all."
Then they went to the sty, which was built with its back against a
large boulder stone. Kark took a spade and cleared away the mire, and
dug deep until by removing many stones and logs he opened up a sort of
cave. When the rubbish had been borne away Thora brought food and
candles and warm rugs. Earl Hakon and the thrall hid themselves in the
hole and then Thora covered them over with boards and mould, and the
pigs were driven over it.
Now, when evening was falling there came along the strath certain
horsemen, and the leader of them was King Olaf Triggvison. Thora of
Rimul saw them coming, with the light of the setting sun glittering on
their armour, and when they halted at her door she greeted them in good
friendship.
King Olaf dismounted and asked her if she knew ought of Earl Hakon of
Lade. At sight of the handsome young king she for a moment hesitated,
thinking to betray the earl. But when Olaf asked her again she shook
her head and said that she was not Earl Hakon's keeper, nor knew where
he might be.
Nevertheless, King Olaf doubted her, and he bade his followers make a
search within and without the farmstead. This they did, but none could
find trace of the man they sought. So Olaf called all his men about him
to speak to them, and he stood up on the same boulder stone that was at
the back of the swine sty. He declared in a loud voice that he would
give a great reward and speedy furtherance to the man who should find
Earl Hakon and bring him to his death.
Now, this speech was plainly heard by both Earl Hakon himself and his
thrall as they crouched together in the cave, and by the light of the
candle that stood on the ground between them each eagerly watched the
other's face.
"Why are you so pale, and now again as black as earth?" asked Earl
Hakon. "Is it not that, tempted by this offer of reward, you intend to
betray me?"
"Nay," answered Kark. "For all King Olaf's gold I will not betray you."
"On one and the same night were we both born," said the earl, "and we
shall not be far apart in our deaths."
For a long time they sat in trembling silence, mistrustful of each
other, and neither daring to sleep. But as the night wore on Kark's
weariness got the better of him, but he tossed about and muttered in
his sleep. The earl waked him and asked what it was that he had been
dreaming.
Kark answered, rubbing his eyes: "I dreamt that we were both on board
the same ship, and that I stood at the helm as her captain."
"That must surely mean that you rule over your own destiny as well as
mine," said Earl Hakon. "Be faithful to me, therefore, and when better
days come you shall be well rewarded."
Again Kark curled himself up to sleep, and again, as it seemed, he was
disturbed by dreams; so Hakon roused him once more and asked him to
tell his dream.
"I thought I was at Lade," answered the thrall, "and there I saw King
Olaf Triggvison. He spoke to me, and I thought that he laid a gold
necklace about my neck."
"The meaning of that must be that Olaf Triggvison will put a blood red
ring about your neck whensoever ye meet," said the earl. "Therefore
beware of him, Kark, and be faithful to me. Then you will enjoy good
things from me always, as you have done before; so betray me not."
Thereafter they both sat wakeful, staring at each other with the
flickering candlelight between them. Neither dared to close his eyes.
But towards morning Earl Hakon leaned back against the rock, with his
head thrown back. Sleep overwhelmed him, yet he was troubled, for he
started and rolled uneasily as though in a nightmare, and at times he
moaned and muttered as if in anguish, so that Kark could not look upon
him but with horror. At last, when the earl was quiet, Kark sprang up,
gripped a big knife from out of his belt and thrust it into his
master's throat.
That was the bane of Earl Hakon.
On the next day Olaf Triggvison was in Lade, and there came to him a
man naming himself Kark, bringing with him the severed head of Earl
Hakon, which he offered to the king. When Olaf had received proof that
the head was indeed that of the earl, he asked Kark how he had come by
it, and the thrall told all that had befallen and claimed his reward.
Now King Olaf hated a traitor beyond all men, so he had Kark led away,
and ordered one of his berserks to smite the head off him, thus
fulfilling the murdered earl's prophecy, for a ring not of gold but of
blood was put about the traitor's neck.
King Olaf then fared with many of the bonders out to Nid holm. This
island, at the mouth of the river Nid, was kept in those days for the
slaying of thieves and evil men, and a gallows stood there upon which
the head of Earl Hakon was now hung, side by side with that of his
thrall. The bonders crowded round the foot of the gallows, throwing
stones and clods of earth at the heads, and crying out that there they
fared meetly together, rascal by rascal.
And now that Earl Hakon was dead the people did not shrink from
speaking their minds concerning him, and giving free vent to their
hatred of his low cunning and his faithlessness, his cruelty and his
profligacy. Even his zeal for blood offering and his strong belief in
the pagan gods were now regarded with wide disfavour, for it could not
be forgotten that he had sacrificed his own son to propitiate the god
of war, and this act, added to the evil deeds that he had more recently
committed had brought upon him such contempt that the whole of Norway
rejoiced at his death.
Olaf Triggvison's claim to the throne of Norway was not for a moment
disputed. In the first place his manly beauty and his resemblance to
King Hakon the Good gained him immediate favour, and his personal
strength and prowess might have been in itself sufficient to warrant
his being chosen as a successor to Earl Hakon. But in addition to this
there was the undoubted fact that he was a direct descendant of Harald
Fairhair, and had therefore the greatest of all claims to the kingdom
in which his fathers had reigned. So, very soon after the death of
Hakon, a general Thing, or gathering of the people, was held in
Trondelag, and Olaf was formally proclaimed the king of all Norway, and
the rule given to him according to ancient laws.
The district of Thrandheim was at that time the most populous and
important in the land, and the Thranders had exercised the right (a
right which they reserve to this day) of proclaiming a new monarch in
the name of the whole nation. Nevertheless it was necessary for King
Olaf to travel throughout the country to lay personal claim to his
dominion, and to receive the allegiance of his subjects remote and
near. The news of his coming into Norway was not long in reaching the
farthest extremities of the realm. Everywhere it was told how, having
by help of his mother's bravery escaped the wrath of the wicked Queen
Gunnhild, he had lived as a slave in Esthonia, how he had been rescued
by Sigurd Erikson and educated at the court of King Valdemar, how he
had roved as a viking on the Baltic, and, after invading England, had
at last come back to his native land to claim his own. So that wherever
he journeyed he found that his fame had gone before him to prepare the
way. He was greeted everywhere with enthusiastic homage. His natural
kindliness, his manly bearing, and his winning manners attracted
everyone with whom he came in contact, and he was recognized as a king
of whom the nation might well be proud. In token of the glory that he
had won in foreign lands the people gave him the name of Olaf the
Glorious.