第196章

24.SVEIN ULFSON CREATED AN EARL.

One day, as King Magnus sat in his high-seat and many people were around him, Svein Ulfson sat upon a footstool before the king.

The king then made a speech: "Be it known to you, chiefs, and the people in general, that I have taken the following resolution.

Here is a distinguished man, both for family and for his own merits, Svein Ulfson, who has entered into my service, and given me promise of fidelity.Now, as ye know, the Danes have this summer become my men, so that when I am absent from the country it is without a head; and it is not unknown to you how it is ravaged by the people of Vindland, Kurland, and others from the Baltic, as well as by Saxons.Therefore I promised them a chief who could defend and rule their land; and I know no man better fitted, in all respects, for this than Svein Ulfson, who is of birth to be chief of the country.I will therefore make him my earl, and give him the government of my Danish dominions while Iam in Norway; just as King Canute the Great set his father, Earl Ulf, over Denmark while he was in England."Then Einar Tambaskelfer said, "Too great an earl -- too great an earl, my foster-son!"The king replied in a passion, "Ye have a poor opinion of my judgment, I think.Some consider that ye are too great earls, and others that ye are fit for nothing."Then the king stood up, took a sword, and girt it on the earl's loins, and took a shield and fastened it on his shoulders, put a helmet upon his head, and gave him the title of earl, with the same fiefs in Denmark which his father Earl Ulf had formerly held.Afterwards a shrine was brought forth containing holy relics, and Svein laid his hand hereon, and swore the oath of fidelity to King Magnus; upon which the king led the earl to the highseat by his side.So says Thiodolf: --"Twas at the Gaut river's shore, With hand on shrine Svein Ulfson swore.

King Magnus first said o'er the oath, With which Svein Ulfson pledged his troth.

The vows by Svein solemnly given, On holy bones of saints in heaven, To Magnus seemed both fair and fast;He found they were too fair to last."Earl Svein went thereafter to Denmark, and the whole nation received him well.He established a court about him, and soon became a great man.In winter (A.D.1043), he went much about the country, and made friends among the powerful chiefs; and, indeed, he was beloved by all the people of the land.

25.KING MAGNUS'S FORAY.

King Magnus proceeded northward to Norway with his fleet, and wintered there; but when the spring set in (A.D.1048) he gathered a large force, with which he sailed south to Demnark, having heard the news from Vindland that the Vindland people in Jomsborg had withdrawn from their submission to him.The Danish kings had formerly had a very large earldom there, and they first founded Jomsborg; and now the place was become a very strong fortress.When King Magnus heard of this, he ordered a large fleet and army to be levied in Denmark, and sailed in summer to Vindland with all his forces, which made a very large army altogether.Arnor, the earls' skald, tells of it thus: --"Now in this strophe, royal youth!

I tell no more than the plain truth.

Thy armed outfit from the strand Left many a keel-trace on the sand, And never did a king before SO many ships to any shore Lead on, as thou to Vindland's isle:

The Vindland men in fright recoil."

Now when King Magnus came to Vindland he attacked Jomsborg, and soon took the fortress, killing' many people, burning and destroying both in the town and in the courttry all around, and making the greatest havoc.So says Arnor, the earl's skald: --"The robbers, hemmed 'twixt death and fire, Knew not how to escape thy ire;O'er Jomsborg castle's highest towers Thy wrath the whirlwind-fire pours.

The heathen on his false gods calls, And trembles even in their halls;And by the light from its own flame The king this viking-hold o'ercame."Many people in Vindland submitted to King Magnus, but many more got out of the way and fled.King Magnus returned to Denmark, and prepared to take his winter abode there, and sent away the Danish, and also a great many of the Norwegian people he had brought with him.

26.SVEIN RECEIVES THE TITLE OF KING.

The same winter (A.D.1043), in which Svein Ulfson was raised to the government of the whole Danish dominions, and had made friends of a great number of the principal chiefs in Denmark, and obtained the affections of the people, he assumed by the advice of many of the chiefs the title of king.But when in the spring thereafter he heard that King Magnus had come from the north with a great army, Svein went over to Scania, from thence up to Gautland, and so on to Svithjod to his relation, King Emund, where he remained all summer, and sent spies out to Denmark, to inquire about the king's proceedings and the number of his men.

Now when Svein heard that King Magnus had let a great part of his army go away, and also that he was south in Jutland, he rode from Svithjod with a great body of peopie which the Swedish king had given him.When Svein came to Scania the people of that country received him well, treated him as their king, and men joined him in crowds.He then went on to Seeland, where he was also well received, and the whole country joined him.He then went to Fyen, and laid all the islands under his power; and as the people also joined him, he collected a great army and many ships of war.

27.OF KING MAGNUS'S MILITARY FORCE.