The King answered: 'Me he wished to find; wherefore me he shall first
meet.' But when the King came where Eyvind was, he hewed on either side
of him, and then, with Millstone-biter in both hands, hewed at Eyvind's
head, and clove him through helm and head right down to the shoulders.
This battle was not good for men weak in strength, weapons, or courage.
Nor was it long after the fall of Eyvind Skreyja ere the whole Danish
force turned and fled to their ships. Great numbers fell on the side of
Eric's sons; but they themselves escaped.
King Hacon's men followed them far that day, and slew all whom they
might; but the King bade his swift ship be launched, and rowed
northwards along the coast, meaning to seek his house at Alrekstead, for
he had gotten a wound by an arrow that pierced his arm while he drove
before him the flying foe. And he lost so much blood that he swooned
away. And when he came to the place called Hacon's Stone (it was where
he was born), there he stayed for the night, bidding his land tent be
set up and himself be carried ashore.
And as soon as King Hacon knew that his wound was mortal, he called to
him his counsellors, and talked at large with his friends about those
things that had been done in his days. And of this he then repented,
that he had done much against God and Christian men's laws during his
rule.
His friends offered to convey his body westwards to England, and bury it
there in Church ground.
But the King answered: 'Of this I am not worthy; I lived as heathen men
live, so, too, shall ye bury me.'
He bewailed the quarrels of himself and his kin; and having but one
daughter, a child, and no son, he sent a letter to Gunnhilda's sons,
wherein it was written that he gave to his kinsman Harold Grayfell his
guard and his kingdom.
After this King Hacon died: he had ruled Norway for twenty-six years. He
was mourned both by friends and foes. As Eyvind Skald-spoiler says:
'The King is born in blessed day
Such love who gains:
Of his fair age ever and aye
Good fame remains.'
His men carried his body to Soeheim in North Hordaland, and raised a
mound over it.
_PRINCE CHARLIE'S WAR_
I