Earl Haakon And The Jomsvikings


Chief among the nobles of Haakon the Good, of Norway, was Earl Sigurd of

Hlade; and first among those who followed him was Earl Haakon, Sigurd's

son. After the death of Haakon the Good, the sons of Gunhild became the

masters of Norway, where they ruled like tyrants, murdering Sigurd, whom

they most feared. This made the young Earl Haakon their bitter foe.



A young man then, of twenty-five, handsome, able in mind and bo
y, kindly

in disposition, and a daring warrior, he was just the man to contend with

the tyrant murderers. When he was born Haakon the Good had poured water

on his head and named him after himself and he was destined to live to

the level of the honor thus given him.



It is not our purpose to tell how, with the aid of the king of Denmark,

he drove the sons of Gunhild from the realm, and how, as the sagas tell,

the wicked old queen was enticed to Denmark by the king, under promise of

marriage, and by his orders was drowned in a swamp. Her powers of sorcery

did not avail her then, if this story is true.



Haakon ruled Norway as a vassal of Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark, to

whom he agreed to pay tribute. He also consented to be baptized as a

Christian and to introduce the Christian faith into Norway. But a

heathen at heart and a Norseman in spirit, he did not intend to keep this

promise. After a meeting with the Danish king in which his baptism took

place, he sailed for his native land with his ship well laden with

priests. But the heathen in him now broke out. With bold disdain of King

Harald, he put the priests on shore, and sought to counteract the effect

of his baptism by a great feast to the old gods, praying for their favor

and their aid in the war that was sure to follow. He looked for an omen,

and it came in the shape of two ravens, which followed his ships with

loud clucking cries. These were the birds sacred to Odin and he hailed

their coming with delight. The great deity of the Norsemen seemed to

promise him favor and success.



Turning against the king to whom he had promised to act as a vassal, he

savagely ravaged the Danish coast lands. Then he landed on the shores of

Sweden, burnt his ships, and left a track of fire and blood as he marched

through that land. Even Viken, a province of Norway, was devastated by

him, on the plea of its being under a Danish ruler. Then, having done his

utmost to show defiance to Denmark and its king, he marched northward to

Drontheim, where he ruled like a king, though still styling himself Earl

Haakon.



Harald Bluetooth was not the man to be defied with impunity, and though

he was too old to take the field himself, he sought means to punish his

defiant vassal. Men were to be had ready and able to fight, if the prize

offered them was worth the risk, and men of this kind Harald knew where

to seek.





In the town of Jomsborg, on the island of Wollin, near the mouth of the

Oder, dwelt a daring band of piratical warriors known as the Jomsvikings,

who were famed for their indomitable courage. War was their trade, rapine

their means of livelihood, and they were sworn to obey the orders of

their chief, to aid each other to the utmost, to bear pain unflinchingly,

dare the extremity of danger, and face death like heroes. They kept all

women out of their community, lest their devotion to war might be

weakened, and stood ready to sell their swords to the highest bidder.



To this band of plunderers Harald appealed and found them ready for the

task. Their chief, Earl Sigvalde, brought together a great host of

warriors at a funeral feast to his father, and there, while ale and mead

flowed abundantly, he vowed, flagon in hand, that he would drive Earl

Haakon from the Norse realm or perish in the attempt. His viking

followers joined him in the vow. The strong liquor was in their veins and

there was no enterprise they were not ready to undertake. When their

sober senses returned with the next morning, they measured better the

weight of the enterprise; but they had sworn to it and were not the men

to retreat from a vow they had taken.



Erik, an unruly son of Earl Haakon, had fled from his father's court in

disgrace and was now in Viken, and here the rumor of the vikings' oath

reached his ears. At once, forgetting his quarrel with his father, he

hastened north with all the men he could gather to Earl Haakon's aid,

preceding the Jomsvikings, who were sailing slowly up the shores of

Norway, plundering as they went in their usual fashion. They had a fleet

of sixty ships and a force of over seven thousand well-trained warriors.

Haakon, warned by his son, met them with three times their number of

ships, though these were smaller and lighter craft. On board were about

ten thousand men. Such were the forces that met in what the sagas call

the greatest battle that had ever been fought in Norway.



Soon the embattled ships met and the conflict grew fast and furious,

hurtling weapons filling the air and men falling on all sides. Great was

the carnage and blood flowed in streams on the fighting ships. Earl

Haakon stood in the prow of his ship in the heat of the fight, arrows and

spears whirling around him in such numbers that his shirt of mail became

so torn and rent that he threw it off as useless. The high ships of the

vikings gave them an advantage which told heavily against their

antagonists, spears and arrows being poured down from their sides.



In the height of the battle Earl Haakon disappeared. As the legends tell

he went ashore with his youngest son Erling, whom he sacrificed to the

heathen gods to win their aid in the battle. Hardly had he done this deed

of blood when a dense black cloud arose and a violent hail-storm broke

over the ships, the hail-stones weighing each two ounces and beating so

fiercely in the faces of the Jomsvikings as nearly to blind them. Some

say that the Valkyries, the daughters of Odin, were seen in the prow of

the earl's ship, filling the air with their death-dealing arrows.



Despite the storm and the supernatural terrors that they conjured up, the

Jomsvikings continued to fight, though their decks were slippery with

blood and melting hail. Only one coward appeared among them, their chief

Earl Sigvalde, who suddenly turned his ship and fled. When Vagn Aakesson,

the most daring of the Jomsvikings, saw this recreant act he was frantic

with rage.



"You ill-born hound," he cried, "why do you fly and leave your men in the

lurch? Shame on you, and may shame cling to you to your death!"



A spear hurtled from his hand and pierced the man at the helm, where

Sigvalde had stood a moment before. But the ship of the dastard earl kept

on and a general panic succeeded, all the ships in the fleeing earl's

line following his standard. Only Vagn Aakesson and Bue the Big were left

to keep up the fight.



Yet they kept it up in a way to win them fame. When Earl Haakon's ship

drew up beside that of Bue, two of the viking champions, Haavard the

Hewer and Aslak Rock-skull, leaped on deck and made terrible havoc. In

the end an Icelander picked up an anvil that was used to sharpen their

spears and hurled it at Aslak, splitting his skull, while Haavard had

both legs cut off. Yet the indomitable viking fought on, standing on his

knees.



The onset of the Jomsvikings was so terrific in this last fierce fight

that the earl's men gave back, and might have been all slain had not his

son Erik boarded Bue's ship at this crisis and made an irresistible

charge. A terrible cut across the face severed Bue's nose.



"Now," he cried, "the Danish maidens will kiss me no more."



Seeing that all was at an end, he seized two chests of gold to prevent

their capture by the victors, and sprang with them into the sea,

shouting:



"Overboard all Bue's men!"



On Vagn's ship a similar fierce fight was taking place, ending only when

all but thirty of the vikings were slain.



Then a savage scene was enacted, one worthy only of those barbarous

times. The captives were taken ashore and seated on a long log, their

feet bound, their hands free. At the funeral feast in Sigvalde's hall

Vagn had boasted that he would kill Thorkill Laiva, one of Erik's chief

warriors, and this threatened man was now chosen as executioner.



At the captives he rushed, with uplifted axe, and savagely struck off

their heads, one after another. Vagn was to be left to the last, that he

might suffer from fear, but instead of this he sat joking and laughing

with his men. One of them sang and laughed so loudly that Erik asked him

if he would like to live.



"That depends on who it is that asks me."



"He who offers has the power to grant. I am Earl Erik."



"Then I gladly accept."



Another made a pun which so pleased the earl that he, too, was set free.



One of the captives had long, beautiful hair, and as Thorkill came near

him on his bloody errand he twisted his hair into a coil and asked the

executioner not to soil it with his blood. To humor him Thorkill asked

one of the bystanders to hold the coil while he struck. The man did so,

but as the axe came down the captive jerked his head aside so that the

axe fell on the wrists of the coil-holder, both his hands being cut off.



"Some of the Jomsvikings are still alive," laughed the captive.



"Who are you?" asked Erik.



"I am said to be a son of Bue."



"Do you wish to live?"



"What other choice have I?"



At Erik's command he, too, was released.



Angry at being thus robbed of his prey, Thorkill now sprang towards Vagn,

determined that at least his special enemy should fall. As he came near,

however, one of the men on the log threw himself forward in such a way

that Thorkill stumbled over him and dropped his axe. In an instant Vagn

was on his feet, seized the axe, and dealt Thorkill a deadly blow. His

boast was kept; Thorkill had fallen by his hand.



Erik saw the bold feat with such admiration that he ordered Vagn to be

freed, and the prisoners who remained alive were also set free at his

order.



While this was going on Earl Haakon sat apart conversing with his

chieftains. As they did so they heard a bow-string twang, and before a

hand could be raised a keen-pointed arrow pierced the body of Gissur the

White, one of the chiefs, and he fell over dead. The arrow had come from

the ship of Bue the Big, and thither men ran in haste. What they saw was

Haavard the Hewer, still standing on his knees, though his blood flowed

freely.



"Tell me," he cried, "did any one fall at the tree yonder?"



"Yes; Gissur the White."



"Then luck failed me, for that arrow was aimed for Earl Haakon."



And he fell over on the deck, with death at his heart-strings. The viking

had sent a herald on before, to announce his coming at Odin's court.



It was Haakon who had ordered the murder of the captives, and Erik his

son who gave life to so many of them. The time was near at hand when the

earl was to meet the bloody fate which he had dealt out to others. Though

Erik had done so much to help him in the battle, he was furious with his

son for sparing the life of Vagn Aakesson. As a result they parted in

anger, Erik going south again. Here Vagn joined him and from that day

forward the two were warm friends and comrades.



But Haakon fell into ways of vice as he grew older, and at length he did

a deed that led him to a shameful death. He had his men bring by force

to his palace the wife of a rich peasant, and sent them for another, who

was famed for her beauty. Orm, her husband, refused to let her go and

sent news of the outrage to all the peasants in the valley. From farm to

farm flew the tidings, and the peasants, furious at the shameful deeds of

the earl, seized their arms and gathered in a great band, which marched

upon him at Medalhus.



Earl Haakon was taken by surprise. He had not dreamed of a revolt and

only a few men were with him. These he dismissed and fled for safety,

only one man, his old servant Kark, going with him. Reaching the Gaul

River in his flight, he rode his horse into a deep hole and left his

cloak on the ice, so that his pursuers, finding the dead horse and the

cloak, might think he was drowned.



From there he sought the nearby home of Thora of Rimul, a faithful woman

friend, told her of the hot pursuit and begged her to hide him from his

furious enemies. The only hiding place she could provide was a deep ditch

under her pig-sty, and in this filthy hole the great earl was hidden,

with food, candles, and bedding. Then boards were laid over the ditch and

covered with earth and upon this the pigs were driven.



To Rimul the peasants soon came, filled with fury, and with them came a

man of note who had just landed and was seeking to win the throne. This

was Olaf, a great-grandson of Harold the Fair-Haired, whose claim to the

crown of Norway was far better than that of Haakon. Thinking that Thora

had hidden the fleeing earl the pursuers searched the whole place. The

fugitive not being found, Olaf stood on a large stone near the pig-sty

and called the peasants around him, loudly announcing that any man who

should find and slay Earl Haakon would be given a large reward.



His words were plainly heard in the damp and unpleasant underground den

where Haakon sat shivering. He looked at Kark, the thrall, whose face

showed that he, too, had heard the promise of reward.



"What ails you?" asked the earl. "Your face changes from pale to dark and

gloomy. Do you propose to betray me?"



"No," said Kark.



"We were born on the same night, and if one of us dies the other will

soon follow," said the earl warningly.



For a long time they sat, listening to the sounds above. At length all

grew still and they felt that the night had come. Kark fell asleep, but

the earl sat awake, watching him in deep distrust. The slumbering thrall

tossed about as if in pain and the earl wakened him, asking of what he

had dreamt.



"I dreamed that you and I were on shipboard and that I was at the helm."



"That means that you rule over both our lives. Therefore, Kark, you must

be true and faithful to me, as duty bids you. Better days will soon come

to us both and then you shall be richly rewarded."



Again the thrall fell asleep and again he seemed to dream. The earl woke

him again.



"Of what did you dream?" he asked.



"I dreamed that I was at Hlade and that Olaf Tryggvesson put a golden

ring around my neck."



"That means," said the earl, "that if you seek Olaf he will put a red

ring [a ring of blood] around your neck. Beware of him, Kark, and trust

in me. Be faithful to me and you will find in me a faithful friend."



The night dragged slowly on. The earl dared not let himself sleep, but

sat staring at Kark, who stared back at him. When morning was near at

hand weariness lay so heavily on the earl that he could no longer keep

awake. But his sleep was sorely disturbed by the terrors of that dreadful

night. He tossed about and screamed out in distress and at length rose on

his knees with the horrors of nightmare in his face.



Then Kark, who had all night been meditating treachery, killed him with a

thrust of his knife. Cutting off his head, he broke out of the dark den

and sought Olaf, with the grisly trophy in his hand.



Olaf heard his story with lowering face. It was not to traitors like this

that he had offered reward. In the end, burning with indignation at the

base deed, he ordered the thrall's head to be struck off. Thus Kark's

dream, as interpreted by Haakon, came true. The ring put by Olaf around

his neck was not one of gold, but one of blood.



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