Sigvat the skald had gone to Rome, where he was at the time of the
battle of Stiklestad.
He was on his way back from the South when he heard tidings of King
Olaf's fall, which gave him great grief. He then sang these lines:--
"One morning early on a hill,
The misty town asleep and still,
Wandering I thought upon the fields.
Strewed o'er with broken mail and shields,
Where our king fell,--our kind good king,
Where now his happy youthful spring?
My father too!--for Thord was then
One of the good king's chosen men."
One day Sigvat went through a village, and heard a husband lamenting
grievously over the loss of his wife, striking his breast, tearing his
clothes, weeping bitterly, and saying he wanted to die; and Sigvat sang
these lines:--
"This poor man mourns a much-loved wife,
Gladly would he be quit of life.
Must love be paid for by our grief?
The price seems great for joy so brief.
But the brave man who knows no fear
Drops for his king a silent tear,
And feels, perhaps, his loss as deep
As those who clamour when they weep."
Sigvat came home to Norway to the Throndhjem country, where he had a
farm and children. He came from the South along the coast in a merchant
vessel, and as they lay in Hillarsund they saw a great many ravens
flying about. Then Sigvat said:--
"I see here many a croaking raven
Flying about the well-known haven:
When Olaf's ship was floating here,
They knew that food for them was near;
When Olaf's ship lay here wind-bound,
Oft screamed the erne o'er Hillar sound,
Impatient for the expected prey,
And wont to follow to the fray."
When Sigvat came north to the town of Throndhjem King Svein was there
before him. He invited Sigvat to stay with him, as Sigvat had formerly
been with his father King Canute the Great; but Sigvat said he would
first go home to his farm. One day, as Sigvat was walking in the street,
he saw the king's men at play, and he sang:--
"One day before I passed this way,
When the king's guards were at their play,
Something there was--I need not tell--
That made me pale, and feel unwell.
Perhaps it was I thought, just then,
How noble Olaf with his men,
In former days, I oft have seen
In manly games upon this green."
Sigvat then went to his farm; and as he heard that many men upbraided
him with having deserted King Olaf, he made these verses:--
"May Christ condemn me still to burn
In quenchless fire, if I did turn,
And leave King Olaf in his need,--
My soul is free from such base deed.
I was at Rome, as men know well
Who saw me there, and who can tell
That there in danger I was then:
The truth I need not hide from men."