The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade) | Page 9

pressed Beneath the
claws of the carrion bird By the host of the warrior chief: O'er the heads
of the sea-dwellers, Thence could the conquering chief stride-- Aye,
and the deed was glorious.'
¶ After this battle did King Ragnfrod hie him away from Norway and
Earl Hakon brought peace to the land; he gave licence that the great
host which had been with him in the summer should fare back
northward, but he himself abode hard by there where he gained the
victory, not whiles only that autumn but also throughout the winter that
came after.
¶ Earl Hakon took to wife a woman named Thora, who was exceeding
fair. The daughter was she of Skagi Skoptison, a man possessed of
much wealth.
Their sons were Svein and Heming, & their daughter was Bergliot, who
thereafter was wedded to Einar Tamberskelfir. Earl Hakon was over
much given to women, and by them had many children. One of his
daughters was called Ragnhild, and he gave her in marriage to Skopti
Skagason, the brother of Thora. The Earl so loved Thora that her
kinsmen became dearer to him than all other men, and Skopti his
son-in-law had more influence with him than any other of his kindred.
To him gave the Earl large fiefs in More; & it was covenanted betwixt
them that whensoever the fleet of the Earl was at sea Skopti was to
bring his ship alongside the Earl's, and for none other was it to be
lawful to lay his ship between their ships.
¶ Now it happened one summer when Earl Hakon was with his ships on
the main that Thorleif the Meek was master of one of them, & Eirik,

the son of the Earl, he being then some ten or eleven winters old, was
aboard. Of an evening when they were come into haven, Eirik would
not have it otherwise save that the ship whereon he was must be closest
to the ship pertaining to the person of the Earl.
Now when they made sail south to More there came likewise Skopti, he
that was son-in-law to the Earl, with his long-ship well manned. Skopti,
as his men were rowing towards the fleet, called out to Thorleif to leave
the haven and let him lie-to there, but Eirik sprang up & answered back
bidding Skopti hie him to another berth. Now Earl Hakon hearing that
his son deemed himself too mighty to make way for Skopti,
straightway called out to Thorleif bidding him leave the berth, or he
would make it the worse for them, to wit, that he would have them
beaten. So Thorleif when he heard this shouted to his men to slip their
cables, and this they did according to his word; then did Skopti lie-to in
the berth he was wont to have, nearest the Earl's ship. Now Skopti was
called Tidings Skopti, & this had come about seeing that it had been
agreed that when they were together he was to make known to the Earl
all the tidings, or if it so happened that the Earl had heard them first
then it was he that would tell the tidings to Skopti. Now in the winter
that was after all that hath been before but now related, was Eirik with
his foster-father Thorleif, but even so soon as the earlier spring-tide
was he given a company of men.
Thorleif moreover gave him a fifteen-benched ship with all the gear,
tilts, and victuals that were needful. Eirik thence sailed from the fjord,
and so south to More. Now it befell that Tidings Skopti was also at sea
between his homesteads, & he too in a fifteen-benched craft; Eirik
forthwith bore straight down on him and offered battle, and in the issue
thereof fell Skopti, but Eirik gave quarter to such of his men who were
not slain. Thus saith Eyolf Dadaskald, in the Banda lay:
'Late in the day, On the ski of the sea-king, With combatants equal,
Fared the youth 'gainst the "hersir," Him the stout-hearted. There 'neath
the hand That a bloody blade wielded Fell Tidings Skopti. (The feeder
of wolves Was food for the ravens.)'
¶ With that sailed Eirik south along the coast to Denmark, and

adventured to King Harald Gormson, abiding with him the winter; but
the spring thereafter the Danish King sent Eirik north, & bestowed on
him the title Earl & therewith Vingulmark§ and Raumariki, to be
beneath his sway even under the self-same tenure as had tribute-paying
kings aforetime been in fief and tribute.
¶ In the days that were to come after waxed Earl Eirik, and men knew
him as a mighty chieftain. All this while abode Olaf Tryggvason in
Garda, at the court of King Valdamar, where he had much honour &