King Harald came to Konungahella with the men who had followed him from
Denmark. The lendermen and town's burgesses collected a force against
him, which they drew up in a thick array above the town. King Harald
landed from his ships, and sent a message to the bondes, desiring that
they would not deny him his land, as he wanted no more than what of
right belonged to him. Then mediators went between them; and it came
to this, that the bondes dismissed their troops, and submitted to him.
Thereupon he bestowed fiefs and property on the lendermen, that they
might stand by him, and paid the bondes who joined him the lawful
mulcts for what they had lost. A great body of men attached themselves,
therefore, to King Harald; and he proceeded westwards to Viken, where he
gave peace to all men, except to King Magnus's people, whom he plundered
and killed wherever he found them. And when he came west to Sarpsborg he
took prisoners two of King Magnus s lendermen, Asbjorn and his brother
Nereid; and gave them the choice that one should be hanged, and the
other thrown into the Sarpsborg waterfall, and they might choose as they
pleased. Asbjorn chose to be thrown into the cataract, for he was the
elder of the two, and this death appeared the most dreadful; and so it
was done. Halder Skvaldre tells of this:--
"Asbjorn, who opposed the king,
O'er the wild cataract they fling:
Nereid, who opposed the king,
Must on Hagbard's high tree swing.
The king given food in many a way
To foul-mouthed beasts and birds of prey:
The generous men who dare oppose
Are treated as the worst of foes."
Thereafter King Harald proceeded north to Tunsberg, where he was well
received, and a large force gathered to him.