CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE TALE RETURNS TO THE SPRINGS--DESCRIBES A GREAT LAND FIGHT, AND TELLSOF A PECULIAR STYLE OF EXTENDING MERCY TO THE VANQUISHED.
In a previous chapter we left Skarpedin discussing with his chiefs thebest mode of attacking the small band of his opponents in the pass ofthe Springs. They had just come to a decision, and were about to act onit, when they suddenly beheld six warships sweeping round the ness.
"Now will we have to change our plans," said Skarpedin.
Thorvold agreed with this, and counselled getting on board their shipsand meeting the enemy on the water; but the other objected, because heknew that while his men were in the act of embarking, Erling would sallyforth and kill many of them before they could get away.
"Methinks," said he, "I will take forty of my best men, and try toentice that fox out of his hole, before he has time to see the ships."
"Grief only will come of that," says Thorvold.
Skarpedin did not reply, but choosing forty of his stoutest carles hewent to the pass and defied Erling to come out and fight.
"Now here am I, Erling, with forty men. Wilt thou come forth? or is thytitle of Bold ill bestowed, seeing thou hast more men than I?"
"Ill should I deserve the title," replies Erling, "if I were to meetthee with superior force."
With that he chose thirty men, and, running down to the plain, gave theassault so fiercely that men fell fast on every side, and the Danes gaveback a little. When they saw this, and that Erling and Thorer hewed mendown wherever they went, the Danes made a shield circle round Skarpedin,as was the custom when kings went into battle; because they knew that ifhe fell there would be no one so worthy to guide them in the fight withthe approaching longships. Thus they retreated, fighting. When Erlingand his men had gone far enough, they returned to the pass, and cheeredloudly as they went, both because of the joy of victory, and becausethey saw the warships of their friends coming into the bay.
King Haldor and his companions at once ran their ships on the beach nearthe mouth of the river, and, landing, drew them up, intending to fighton shore. Skarpedin did not try to prevent this, for he was a bold man,and thought that with so large a force he could well manage to beat theNorthmen, if they would fight on level ground. He therefore drew up hismen in order of battle at one end of the plain, and Haldor the Fierce,to whom was assigned the chief command, drew up the Northmen at theother end. Erling joined them with his band, and then it was seen thatthe two armies were not equal--that of the Northmen being a littlesmaller than the other.
Then Haldor said, "Let us draw up in a long line that they may not turnour flanks, as they have most men."
This was done, and Haldor advanced into the plain and set up his banner.The Danes in like manner advanced and planted their banner, and botharmies rushed to the attack, which was very sharp and bloody. Whereverthe battle raged most fiercely there King Haldor and Erling were seen,for they were taller by half a head than most other men. Being clothedalike in almost every respect, they looked more like brothers thanfather and son. Each wore a gilt helmet, and carried a long shield, thecentre of which was painted white, but round the edge was a rim ofburnished steel. Each had a sword by his side, and carried a javelin tothrow, but both depended chiefly on their favourite weapon, thebattle-axe, for, being unusually strong, they knew that few men couldwithstand the weight of a blow from that. The defensive armour offather and son was also the same--a shirt of leather, sewed all overwith small steel rings. Their legs were clothed in armour of the samekind, and a mantle of cloth hung from the shoulders of each.
Most of the chief men on both sides were armed in a similar way, thoughnot quite so richly, and with various modifications; for instance, thehelmet of Thorvold was of plain steel, and for ornament had the tail ofthe ptarmigan as its crest. Skarpedin's, on the other hand, was quiteplain, but partly gilded; his armour was of pieces of steel like fishscales sewed on a leathern shirt, and over his shoulders he wore as amantle the skin of a wolf. His chief weapon was a bill--a sort of hookor short scythe fixed to a pole, and it was very deadly in his hands.Most of the carles and thralls were content to wear thick shirts of wolfand other skins, which were found to offer good resistance to asword-cut, and some of them had portions of armour of various kinds.Their arms were spears, bows, arrows with stone heads, javelins, swords,bills, and battle-axes and shields.
When both lines met there was a hard fight. The combatants first threwtheir spears and javelins, and then drew their swords and went at eachother in the greatest fury. In the centre Haldor and Erling wenttogether in advance of their banner, cutting down on both sides of them.Old Guttorm Stoutheart went in advance of the right wing, also hewingdown right and left. With him went Kettle Flatnose, for that ambitiousthrall could not be made to remember his position, and was alwaysputting himself in front of his betters in war; yet it is due to him tosay that he kept modestly in the background in time of peace. To thesewas opposed Thorvold, with many of the stoutest men among the Danes.
Now, old Guttorm and Kettle pressed on so hard that they were almostseparated from their men; and while Guttorm was engaged with a very talland strong man, whom he had wounded severely more than once, anotherstout fellow came between him and Kettle, and made a cut at him with hissword. Guttorm did not observe him, and it seemed as if the oldStoutheart should get his death-wound there; but the thrall chanced tosee what was going on. He fought with a sort of hook, like areaping-hook, fixed at the end of a spear handle, with the cutting edgeinside. The men of Horlingdal used to laugh at Kettle because of hisfondness for this weapon, which was one of his own contriving; but whenthey did so, he was wont to reply that it was better than most otherweapons, because it could not only make his friends laugh, but hisenemies cry!
With this hook the thrall made a quick blow at the Dane; the point of itwent down through his helmet into his brain, and that was his deathblow.
"Well done, Kettle!" cried old Guttorm, who had just cleft the skull ofhis opponent with his sword.
At this Thorvold ran forward and said:
"Well done it may be, but well had it been for the doer had it not beendone. Come on, thou flatnose!"
"Now, thou must be a remarkably clever man," retorted Kettle, with muchof that rich tone of voice which, many centuries later, came to be knownas "the Irish brogue", "for it is plain ye know my name without beingtold it!"
So saying, with a sudden quick movement he got his hook round Thorvold'sneck.
"That is an ugly grip," said Thorvold, making a fierce cut at the haftwith his sword; but Kettle pulled the hook to him, and with it came thehead, and that was Thorvold's end.
While this was going on at the right wing, the left wing was led by Ulfof Romsdal and Glumm the Gruff; but Ulf's men were not so good asHaldor's men, for he was not so wise a man as Haldor, and did not managehis house so well.
It was a common saying among the people of Horlingdal that Haldor hadunder him the most valiant men in Norway--and as the master was, so werethe men. Haldor never went to sea with less than a fully-manned ship ofthirty benches of rowers, and had other large vessels and men to manthem as well. One of his ships had thirty-two benches of rowers, andcould carry at least two hundred men. He had always at home on his farmthirty slaves or thralls, besides other serving people, and about twohundred house-carles. He used to give his thralls a certain day's work;but after it was done he gave them leave and leisure to work in thetwilight and at night for themselves. He gave them arable land to sowcorn in, and let them apply their crops to their own use. He fixed acertain quantity of work, by the doing of which his slaves might workthemselves free; and this put so much heart into them that many of themworked themselves free in one year, and all who had any luck or pluckcould work themselves free in three years. Ulf did this too, but he wasnot so wise nor yet so kind in his way of doing it. With the money thusprocured Haldor bought other slaves. Some of his freed people he taughtto work in the herring fishery; to others he ta
ught some handicraft; inshort, he helped all of them to prosperity; so that many of the best ofthem remained fast by their old master, although free to take servicewhere they chose. Thus it was that his men were better than those ofhis neighbour.
Ulf's men were, nevertheless, good stout fellows, and they foughtvaliantly; but it so happened that the wing of the enemy to which theywere opposed was commanded by Skarpedin, of whom it was said that he wasequal to any six men. In spite, therefore, of the courage and thestrength of Ulf and Glumm, the Northmen in that part of the field beganslowly to give back. Ulf and Glumm were so maddened at this that theycalled their men cowards, and resolved to go forward till they shouldfall. Uttering their war-cry, they made a desperate charge, hewing downmen like stalks of corn; but although this caused the Danes to give waya little, they could not advance, not being well backed, but stoodfighting, and merely kept their ground.
Now it had chanced shortly before this, that Haldor stayed his hand anddrew back with Erling. They went out from the front of the fight, andobserved the left wing giving way.
"Come, let us aid them," cried Haldor.
Saying this he ran to the left wing, with Erling by his side. They twouttered a war-cry that rose high above the din of battle like a roar ofthunder, and, rushing to the front, fell upon the foe. Their gilthelmets rose above the crowd, and their ponderous axes went swinginground their heads, continually crashing down on the skulls of the Danes.With four such men as Haldor, Erling, Ulf and Glumm in front, the leftwing soon regained its lost ground and drove back the Danes. Nothingcould withstand the shock. Skarpedin saw what had occurred, andimmediately hastened to the spot where Haldor stood, sweeping down allwho stood in his way.
"I have been searching for thee, Erling," he cried, going up to Haldor,and launching a javelin.
Haldor caught it on his shield, which it pierced through, but did him nohurt.
"Mistaken thou art, but thou hast found me now," cried Erling, thrustinghis father aside and leaping upon the Dane.
Skarpedin changed his bill to his left hand, drew his sword, and madesuch a blow at his adversary, that the point cut right through hisshield. With a quick turn of the shield, Erling broke the sword shortoff at the hilt. Skarpedin seized his bill and thrust so fiercely thatit also went through the shield and stuck fast. Erling forced the lowerend or point of his shield down into the earth, and so held it fast,dropped his axe, drew his sword, and made it flash so quick round hishead that no one could see the blade. It fell upon Skarpedin's neck andgave him a grievous wound, cutting right through his armour and deepinto his shoulder blade.
A great cry arose at this. The Danes made a rush towards their chief,and succeeded in dragging him out of the fight. They put him on hisshield and bore him off to his ship, which was launched immediately.This was the turning-point in the day. Everywhere the Danes fled totheir ships pursued by the victors. Some managed to launch theirvessels, others were not so fortunate, and many fell fighting, while afew were taken prisoners.
Foreseeing that this would be the result, Haldor and Erling called offtheir men, hastened on board their ships, and gave chase, while the restof the force looked after the prisoners and the booty, and dressed theirown and their comrades' wounds.
"A bloody day this," said Ulf to Guttorm, as the latter came up, wipingthe blade of his sword.
"I have seen worse," observed the old warrior, carefully returning hisweapon to its scabbard.
"The Danes will long remember it," observed Glumm. "The ravens willhave a good feast to-night."
"And Odin's halls a few more tenants," said Guttorm:
"The Danes came here all filled with greed, And left their flesh the crows to feed.
"But what is to be done with these?" he added, pointing to theprisoners, about twenty of whom were seated on a log with their feettied together by a long rope, while their hands were loose.
"Kill them, I suppose," said Ulf.
There were thirty men seated there, and although they heard the words,they did not show by a single glance that they feared to meet theirdoom.
Just then Swart of the Springs came up. He had a great axe in hishands, and was very furious.
"Thou hast killed and burned my wife, children, and homestede," he saidfiercely, addressing the prisoner who sat at the end of the log, "butthou shalt never return to Denmark to tell it."
He cut at him with the axe as he spoke, and the man fell dead. Oneafter another Swart killed them. There was one who looked up and said--
"I will stick this fish bone that I have in my hand into the earth, ifit be so that I know anything after my head is cut off."
His head was immediately cut off, but the fish bone fell from his hand.
Beside him there sat a very handsome young man with long hair, whotwisted his hair over his head, stretched out his neck, and said, "Don'tmake my hair bloody."
A man took the hair in his hands and held it fast. Then Swart hewedwith his axe, but the Dane twitched his head back so strongly, that hewho was holding his hair fell forward; the axe cut off both his hands,and stuck fast in the earth.
"Who is that handsome man?" asked Ulf.
The man replied with look of scorn, "I am Einar, the son of King Thorkelof Denmark; and know thou for a certainty that many shall fall to avengemy death."
Ulf said, "Art thou certainly Thorkel's son? Wilt thou now take thylife and peace?"
"That depends," replied the Dane, "upon who it is that offers it."
"He offers who has the power to give it--Ulf of Romsdal."
"I will take it," says he, "from Ulf's hands."
Upon that the rope was loosed from his feet, but Swart, whose vengeancewas still unsatisfied, exclaimed--
"Although thou shouldst give all these men life and peace, King Ulf, yetwill I not suffer Einar to depart from this place with life."
So saying he ran at him with uplifted axe, but one of the vikingprisoners threw himself before Swart's feet, so that he tumbled overhim, and the axe fell at the feet of a viking named Gills. Gills caughtthe axe and gave Swart his death-wound.
Then said Ulf, "Gills, wilt thou accept life?"
"That will I," said he, "if thou wilt give it to all of us."
"Loose them from the rope," said Ulf.
This was done, and the men were set free.
Eighteen of the Danish vikings were killed, and twelve got their livesupon that occasion.