{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24811/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24811","id":"gutenberg_24811","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24811","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Historical Novels","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Children's Myths, Fairy Tales, etc.","Folklore","Sagas -- Adaptations","Short stories","Vikings -- Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Bryan Ness, Stephen Blundell and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nVIKING TALES\n\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n[Illustration: _A map showing the journeys of the Vikings_]\n\n\n\n\n          VIKING TALES\n              _by_\n          JENNIE HALL\n _The Francis W. Parker School_\n          _Chicago_\n\n\n         [Illustration]\n\n\n          ILLUSTRATED\n              _by_\n           VICTOR R.\n            LAMBDIN\n\n\n       RAND McNALLY & CO\n\n      _Chicago_ _New York_\n            _London_\n\n\n\n\n _Copyright, 1902,_\n   By JENNIE HALL\n\n      [Device]\n   Made in U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\n    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.\n    Diacritical marks, found in the _Pronouncing Index_, are represented\n    as follows:\n\n      [=x] any character with upper macron\n      [)x] ... with upper breve\n      [.x] ... with upper dot\n      [x:] ... with lower diaeresis\n      [~x] ... with upper tilde\n      [+x] ... with upper up tack\n\n\n\n\n_The_ Table _of_ Contents\n\n\n                                     PAGE\n _A List of the Illustrations_          8\n _What the Sagas Were_                  9\n\n\nPART I.\n\n_IN NORWAY_\n\n The Baby                              15\n The Tooth Thrall                      19\n Olaf's Farm                           27\n Olaf's Fight with Havard              40\n Foes'-fear                            47\n Harald is King                        53\n Harald's Battle                       62\n Gyda's Saucy Message                  71\n The Sea Fight                         81\n King Harald's Wedding                 89\n King Harald Goes West-Over-Seas       95\n\n\nPART II.\n\n_WEST-OVER-SEAS_\n\n Homes in Iceland                     103\n Eric the Red                         143\n Leif and His New Land                161\n Wineland the Good                    174\n\n _Descriptive Notes_                  194\n _Suggestions to Teachers_            200\n _A Reading List_                     204\n _A Pronouncing Index_                207\n\n\n\n\nA List of the Illustrations\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n _A map showing the journeys of the Vikings_                Frontispiece\n\n \"_I own this baby for my son. He shall be called Harald_\"            17\n\n \"_He threw back his cape and drew a little dagger from his\n     belt_\"                                                           22\n\n \"_I struck my shield against the door so that it made a\n     great clanging_\"                                                 31\n\n \"_Then he turned to the shore and sang out loudly_\"                  45\n\n \"_He drove it into the wolf's neck_\"                                 51\n\n \"_I vow that I will grind my father's foes under my heel_\"           59\n\n \"_King Haki fell dead under 'Foes'-fear'_\"                           68\n\n \"_I will not be his wife unless he puts all of Norway\n     under him for my sake_\"                                          73\n\n \"_Then he leaped into King Arnvid's boat_\"                           87\n\n \"_I, Harald, King of Norway, take you, Gyda, for my wife_\"           91\n\n \"_In Norway they left burning houses and weeping women_\"             97\n\n \"_Then he saw that Leif's ship was being driven afar off_\"          125\n\n \"_Those Icelanders clapped them on the shoulders_\"                  137\n\n \"_He looked straight ahead of him and scowled_\"                     145\n\n \"_More than half the men in the hall jumped to their feet_\"         147\n\n \"_It is a bigger boat than I ever saw before_\"                      153\n\n \"_He pointed to the woods and laughed and rolled his eyes_\"         167\n\n \"_The chief held them out to Thorfinn and hugged the cloak\n     to him_\"                                                        187\n\n\n\n\nWhat _the_ Sagas Were\n\n\nIceland is a little country far north in the cold sea. Men found it and\nwent there to live more than a thousand years ago. During the warm\nseason they used to fish and make fish-oil and hunt sea-birds and gather\nfeathers and tend their sheep and make hay. But the winters were long\nand dark and cold. Men and women and children stayed in the house and\ncarded and spun and wove and knit. A whole family sat for hours around\nthe fire in the middle of the room. That fire gave the only light.\nShadows flitted in the dark corners. Smoke curled along the high beams\nin the ceiling. The children sat on the dirt floor close by the fire.\nThe grown people were on a long narrow bench that they had pulled up to\nthe light and warmth. Everybody's hands were busy with wool. The work\nleft their minds free to think and their lips to talk. What was there to\ntalk about? The summer's fishing, the killing of a fox, a voyage to\nNorway. But the people grew tired of this little gossip. Fathers looked\nat their children and thought:\n\n\"They are not learning much. What will make them brave and wise? What\nwill teach them to love their country and old Norway? Will not the\nstories of battles, of brave deeds, of mighty men, do this?\"\n\nSo, as the family worked in the red fire-light, the father told of the\nkings of Norway, of long voyages to strange lands, of good fights. And\nin farmhouses all through Iceland these old tales were told over and\nover until everybody knew them and loved them. Some men could sing and\nplay the harp. This made the stories all the more interesting. People\ncalled such men \"skalds,\" and they called their songs \"sagas.\"\n\nEvery midsummer there was a great meeting. Men from all over Iceland\ncame to it and made laws. During the day there were rest times, when no\nbusiness was going on. Then some skald would take his harp and walk to a\nlarge stone or a knoll and stand on it and begin a song of some brave\ndeed of an old Norse hero. At the first sound of the harp and the\nvoice, men came running from all directions, crying out:\n\n\"The skald! The skald! A saga!\"\n\nThey stood about for hours and listened. They shouted applause. When the\nskald was tired, some other man would come up from the crowd and sing or\ntell a story. As the skald stepped down from his high position, some\nrich man would rush up to him and say:\n\n\"Come and spend next winter at my house. Our ears are thirsty for song.\"\n\nSo the best skalds traveled much and visited many people. Their songs\nmade them welcome everywhere. They were always honored with good seats\nat a feast. They were given many rich gifts. Even the King of Norway\nwould sometimes send across the water to Iceland, saying to some famous\nskald:\n\n\"Come and visit me. You shall not go away empty-handed. Men say that the\nsweetest songs are in Iceland. I wish to hear them.\"\n\nThese tales were not written. Few men wrote or read in those days.\nSkalds learned songs from hearing them sung. At last people began to\nwrite more easily. Then they said:\n\n\"These stories are very precious. We must write them down to save them\nfrom being forgotten.\"\n\nAfter that many men in Iceland spent their winters in writing books.\nThey wrote on sheepskin; vellum, we call it. Many of these old vellum\nbooks have been saved for hundreds of years, and are now in museums in\nNorway. Some leaves are lost, some are torn, all are yellow and\ncrumpled. But they are precious. They tell us all that we know about\nthat olden time. There are the very words that the men of Iceland wrote\nso long ago--stories of kings and of battles and of ship-sailing. Some\nof those old stories I have told in this book.\n\n\n\n\n_PART I_\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_IN_ NORWAY\n\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Baby\n\n\nKing Halfdan lived in Norway long ago. One morning his queen said to\nhim:\n\n\"I had a strange dream last night. I thought that I stood in the grass\nbefore my bower.[1] I pulled a thorn from my dress. As I held it in my\nfingers, it grew into a tall tree. The trunk was thick and red as blood,\nbut the lower limbs were fair and green, and the highest ones were\nwhite. I thought that the branches of this great tree spread so far that\nthey covered all Norway and even more.\"\n\n\"A strange dream,\" said King Halfdan. \"Dreams are the messengers of the\ngods. I wonder what they would tell us,\" and he stroked his beard in\nthought.\n\nSome time after that a serving-woman came into the feast hall where King\nHalfdan was. She carried a little white bundle in her arms.\n\n\"My lord,\" she said, \"a little son is just born to you.\"\n\n\"Ha!\" cried the king, and he jumped up from the high seat and hastened\nforward until he stood before the woman.\n\n\"Show him to me!\" he shouted, and there was joy in his voice.\n\nThe serving-woman put down her bundle on the ground and turned back the\ncloth. There was a little naked baby. The king looked at it carefully.\n\n\"It is a goodly youngster,\" he said, and smiled. \"Bring Ivar and\nThorstein.\"[2]\n\nThey were captains of the king's soldiers. Soon they came.\n\n\"Stand as witnesses,\" Halfdan said.\n\nThen he lifted the baby in his arms, while the old serving-woman brought\na silver bowl of water. The king dipped his hand into it and sprinkled\nthe baby, saying:\n\n\"I own this baby for my son. He shall be called Harald. My naming gift\nto him is ten pounds of gold.\"\n\nThen the woman carried the baby back to the queen's room.\n\n[Illustration: \"_I own this baby for my son. He shall be called\nHarald_\"]\n\n\"My lord owns him for his son,\" she said. \"And no wonder! He is perfect\nin every limb.\"\n\nThe queen looked at him and smiled and remembered her dream and thought:\n\n\"That great tree! Can it be this little baby of mine?\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] See note about house on page 194.\n\n[2] See note about names on page 194.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Tooth Thrall\n\n\nWhen Harald was seven months old he cut his first tooth. Then his father\nsaid:\n\n\"All the young of my herds, lambs and calves and colts, that have been\nborn since this baby was born I this day give to him. I also give to him\nthis thrall, Olaf. These are my tooth-gifts to my son.\"\n\nThe boy grew fast, for as soon as he could walk about he was out of\ndoors most of the time. He ran in the woods and climbed the hills and\nwaded in the creek. He was much with his tooth thrall, for the king had\nsaid to Olaf:\n\n\"Be ever at his call.\"\n\nNow this Olaf was full of stories, and Harald liked to hear them.\n\n\"Come out to Aegir's Rock, Olaf, and tell me stories,\" he said almost\nevery day.\n\nSo they started off across the hills. The man wore a long, loose coat of\nwhite wool, belted at the waist with a strap. He had on coarse shoes\nand leather leggings. Around his neck was an iron collar welded together\nso that it could not come off. On it were strange marks, called runes,\nthat said:\n\n\"Olaf, thrall of Halfdan.\"\n\nBut Harald's clothes were gay. A cape of gray velvet hung from his\nshoulders. It was fastened over his breast with great gold buckles. When\nit waved in the wind, a scarlet lining flashed out, and the bottom of a\nlittle scarlet jacket showed. His feet and legs were covered with gray\nwoolen tights. Gold lacings wound around his legs from his shoes to his\nknees. A band of gold held down his long, yellow hair.\n\nIt was a wild country that these two were walking over. They were\nclimbing steep, rough hills. Some of them seemed made all of rock, with\na little earth lying in spots. Great rocks hung out from them, with\ntrees growing in their cracks. Some big pieces had broken off and rolled\ndown the hill.\n\n\"Thor broke them,\" Olaf said. \"He rides through the sky and hurls his\nhammer at clouds and at mountains. That makes the thunder and the\nlightning and cracks the hills. His hammer never misses its aim, and it\nalways comes back to his hand and is eager to go again.\"\n\nWhen they reached the top of the hill they looked back. Far below was a\nsoft, green valley. In front of it the sea came up into the land and\nmade a fiord. On each side of the fiord high walls of rock stood up and\nmade the water black with shadow. All around the valley were high hills\nwith dark pines on them. Far off were the mountains. In the valley were\nHalfdan's houses around their square yard.\n\n\"How little our houses look down there!\" Harald said. \"But I can\nalmost--yes, I can see the red dragon on the roof of the feast hall. Do\nyou remember when I climbed up and sat on his head, Olaf?\"\n\nHe laughed and kicked his heels and ran on.\n\n[Illustration: \"_He threw back his cape and drew a little dagger from\nhis belt_\"]\n\nAt last they came to Aegir's Rock and walked up on its flat top. Harald\nwent to the edge and looked over. A ragged wall of rock reached down,\nand two hundred feet below was the black water of the fiord. Olaf\nwatched him for a while, then he said:\n\n\"No whitening of your cheek, Harald? Good! A boy that can face the fall\nof Aegir's Rock will not be afraid to face the war flash when he is a\nman.\"\n\n\"Ho, I am not afraid of the war flash now,\" cried Harald.\n\nHe threw back his cape and drew a little dagger from his belt.\n\n\"See!\" he cried; \"does this not flash like a sword? And I am not afraid.\nBut after all, this is a baby thing! When I am eight years old I will\nhave a sword, a sharp tooth of war.\"\n\nHe swung his dagger as though it were a long sword. Then he ran and sat\non a rock by Olaf.\n\n\"Why is this Aegir's Rock?\" he asked.\n\n\"You know that Asgard is up in the sky,\" Olaf said. \"It is a wonderful\ncity where the golden houses of the gods are in the golden grove. A\nhigh wall runs all around it. In the house of Odin, the All-father,\nthere is a great feast hall larger than the whole earth. Its name is\nValhalla. It has five hundred doors. The rafters are spears. The roof is\nthatched with shields. Armor lies on the benches. In the high seat sits\nOdin, a golden helmet on his head, a spear in his hand. Two wolves lie\nat his feet. At his right hand and his left sit all the gods and\ngoddesses, and around the hall sit thousands and thousands of men, all\nthe brave ones that have ever died.\n\n\"Now it is good to be in Valhalla; for there is mead there better than\nmen can brew, and it never runs out. And there are skalds that sing\nwonderful songs that men never heard. And before the doors of Valhalla\nis a great meadow where the warriors fight every day and get glorious\nand sweet wounds and give many. And all night they feast, and their\nwounds heal. But none may go to Valhalla except warriors that have died\nbravely in battle. Men who die from sickness go with women and children\nand cowards to Niflheim. There Hela, who is queen, always sneers at\nthem, and a terrible cold takes hold of their bones, and they sit down\nand freeze.\n\n\"Years ago Aegir was a great warrior. Aegir the Big-handed, they called\nhim. In many a battle his sword had sung, and he had sent many warriors\nto Valhalla. Many swords had bit into his flesh and left marks there,\nbut never a one had struck him to death. So his hair grew white and his\narms thin. There was peace in that country then, and Aegir sorrowed,\nsaying:\n\n\"'I am old. Battles are still. Must I die in bed like a woman? Shall I\nnot see Valhalla?'\n\n\"Now thus did Odin say long ago:\n\n\"'If a man is old and is come near death and cannot die in fight, let\nhim find death in some brave way and he shall feast with me in\nValhalla.'\n\n\"So one day Aegir came to this rock.\n\n\"'A deed to win Valhalla!' he cried.\n\n\"Then he drew his sword and flashed it over his head and held his shield\nhigh above him, and leaped out into the air and died in the water of\nthe fiord.\"\n\n\"Ho!\" cried Harald, jumping to his feet. \"I think that Odin stood up\nbefore his high seat and welcomed that man gladly when he walked through\nthe door of Valhalla.\"\n\n\"So the songs say,\" replied Olaf, \"for skalds still sing of that deed\nall over Norway.\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nOlaf's Farm\n\n\nAt another time Harald asked:\n\n\"What is your country, Olaf? Have you always been a thrall?\"\n\nThe thrall's eyes flashed.\n\n\"When you are a man,\" he said, \"and go a-viking to Denmark, ask men\nwhether they ever heard of Olaf the Crafty. There, far off, is my\ncountry, across the water. My father was Gudbrand the Big. Two hundred\nwarriors feasted in his hall and followed him to battle. Ten sons sat at\nmeat with him, and I was the youngest. One day he said:\n\n\"'You are all grown to be men. There is not elbow-room here for so many\nchiefs. The eldest of you shall have my farm when I die. The rest of\nyou, off a-viking!'\n\n\"He had three ships. These he gave to three of my brothers. But I stayed\nthat spring and built me a boat. I made her for only twenty oars because\nI thought few men would follow me; for I was young, fifteen years old.\nI made her in the likeness of a dragon. At the prow I carved the head\nwith open mouth and forked tongue thrust out. I painted the eyes red for\nanger.\n\n\"'There, stand so!' I said, 'and glare and hiss at my foes.'\n\n\"In the stern I curved the tail up almost as high as the head. There I\nput the pilot's seat and a strong tiller for the rudder. On the breast\nand sides I carved the dragon's scales. Then I painted it all black and\non the tip of every scale I put gold. I called her 'Waverunner.' There\nshe sat on the rollers, as fair a ship as I ever saw.\n\n\"The night that it was finished I went to my father's feast. After the\nmeats were eaten and the mead-horns came round, I stood up from my bench\nand raised my drinking-horn[3] high and spoke with a great voice:\n\n\"'This is my vow: I will sail to Norway and I will harry the coast and\nfill my boat with riches. Then I will get me a farm and will winter in\nthat land. Now who will follow me?'\n\n\"'He is but a boy,' the men said. 'He has opened his mouth wider than he\ncan do.'\n\n\"But others jumped to their feet with their mead-horns in their hands.\nThirty men, one after another, raised their horns and said:\n\n\"'I will follow this lad, and I will not turn back so long as he and I\nlive!'\n\n\"On the next morning we got into my dragon and started. I sat high in\nthe pilot's seat. As our boat flashed down the rollers into the water I\nmade this song and sang it:\n\n    \"'The dragon runs.\n    Where will she steer?\n    Where swords will sing,\n    Where spears will bite,\n    Where I shall laugh.'\n\n\"So we harried the coast of Norway. We ate at many men's tables\nuninvited. Many men we found overburdened with gold. Then I said:\n\n\"'My dragon's belly is never full,' and on board went the gold.\n\n\"Oh! it is better to live on the sea and let other men raise your crops\nand cook your meals. A house smells of smoke, a ship smells of frolic.\nFrom a house you see a sooty roof, from a ship you see Valhalla.\n\n\"Up and down the water we went to get much wealth and much frolic. After\na while my men said:\n\n\"'What of the farm, Olaf?'\n\n\"'Not yet,' I answered. 'Viking is better for summer. When the ice\ncomes, and our dragon cannot play, then we will get our farm and sit\ndown.'\n\n\"At last the winter came, and I said to my men:\n\n\"'Now for the farm. I have my eye on one up the coast a way in King\nHalfdan's country.'\n\n\"So we set off for it. We landed late at night and pulled our boat up on\nshore and walked quietly to the house. It was rather a wealthy farm, for\nthere were stables and a storehouse and a smithy at the sides of the\nhouse. There was but one door to the house. We went to it, and I struck\nit with my spear.\n\n[Illustration: \"_I struck my shield against the door so that it made a\ngreat clanging_\"]\n\n\"'Hello! Ho! Hello!' I shouted, and my men made a great din.\n\n\"At last some one from inside said:\n\n\"'Who calls?'\n\n\"'I call,' I answered. 'Open! or you will think it Thor who calls,' and\nI struck my shield against the door so that it made a great clanging.\n\n\"The door opened only a little, but I pushed it wide and leaped into the\nroom. It was so dark that I could see nothing but a few sparks on the\nhearth. I stood with my back to the wall; for I wanted no sword reaching\nout of the dark for me.\n\n\"'Now start up the fire,' I said.\n\n\"'Come, come!' I called, when no one obeyed. 'A fire! This is cold\nwelcome for your guests.'\n\n\"My men laughed.\n\n\"'Yes, a stingy host! He acts as though he had not expected us.'\n\n\"But now the farmer was blowing on the coals and putting on fresh wood.\nSoon it blazed up, and we could see about us. We were in a little feast\nhall,[4] with its fire down the middle of it. There were benches for\ntwenty men along each side. The farmer crouched by the fire, afraid to\nmove. On a bench in a far corner were a dozen people huddled together.\n\n\"'Ho, thralls!' I called to them. 'Bring in the table. We are hungry.'\n\n\"Off they ran through a door at the back of the hall. My men came in and\nlay down by the fire and warmed themselves, but I set two of them as\nguards at the door.\n\n\"'Well, friend farmer,' laughed one, 'why such a long face? Do you not\nthink we shall be merry company?'\n\n\"'We came only to cheer you,' said another. 'What man wants to spend the\nwinter with no guests?'\n\n\"'Ah!' another then cried out, sitting up. 'Here comes something that\nwill be a welcome guest to my stomach.'\n\n\"The thralls were bringing in a great pot of meat. They set up a crane\nover the fire and hung the pot upon it, and we sat and watched it boil\nwhile we joked. At last the supper began. The farmer sat gloomily on the\nbench and would not eat, and you cannot wonder; for he saw us putting\npotfuls of his good beef and basket-loads of bread into our big mouths.\nWhen the tables were taken out and the mead-horns came round, I stood up\nand raised my horn and said to the farmer:\n\n\"'You would not eat with us. You cannot say no to half of my ale. I\ndrink this to your health.'\n\n\"Then I drank half of the hornful and sent the rest across the fire to\nthe farmer. He took it and smiled, saying:\n\n\"'Since it is to my health, I will drink it. I thought that all this\nnight's work would be my death.'\n\n\"'Oh, do not fear that!' I laughed, 'for a dead man sets no tables.'\n\n\"So we drank and all grew merrier. At last I stood up and said:\n\n\"'I like this little taste of your hospitality, friend farmer. I have\ndecided to accept more of it.'\n\n\"My men roared with laughter.\n\n\"'Come,' they cried, 'thank him for that, farmer. Did you ever have such\na lordly guest before?'\n\n\"I went on:\n\n\"'Now there is no fun in having guests unless they keep you company and\nmake you merry. So I will give out this law: that my men shall never\nleave you alone. Hakon there shall be your constant companion, friend\nfarmer. He shall not leave you day or night, whether you are working or\nplaying or sleeping. Leif and Grim shall be the same kind of friends to\nyour two sons.'\n\n\"I named nine others and said:\n\n\"'And these shall follow your thralls in the same way. Now, am I not\ncareful to make your time go merrily?'\n\n\"So I set guards over every one in that house. Not once all that winter\ndid they stir out of sight of some of us. So no tales got out to the\nneighbors. Besides, it was a lonely place, and by good luck no one came\nthat way. Oh! that was fat and easy living.\n\n\"Well, after we had been there for a long time, Hakon came in to the\nfeast one night and said:\n\n\"'I heard a cuckoo to-day!'\n\n\"'It is the call to go a-viking,' I said.\n\n\"All my men put their hands to their mouths and shouted. Their eyes\ndanced. Big Thorleif stood up and stretched himself.\n\n\"'I am stiff with long sitting,' he said. 'I itch for a fight.'\n\n\"I turned to the farmer.\n\n\"'This is our last feast with you,' I said.\n\n\"'Well,' he laughed, 'this has been the busiest winter I ever spent, and\nthe merriest. May good luck go with you!'\n\n\"'By the beard of Odin!' I cried; 'you have taken our joke like a man.'\n\n\"My men pounded the table with their fists.\n\n\"'By the hammer of Thor!' shouted Grim. 'Here is no stingy coward. He is\na man fit to carry my drinking-horn, the horn of a sea-rover and a\nsword-swinger. Here, friend, take it,' and he thrust it into the\nfarmer's hand. 'May you drink heart's-ease from it for many years. And\nwith it I leave you a name, Sif the Friendly. I shall hope to drink with\nyou sometime in Valhalla.'\n\n\"Then all my men poured around that farmer and clapped him on the\nshoulder and piled things upon him, saying:\n\n\"'Here is a ring for Sif the Friendly.'\n\n\"'And here is a bracelet.'\n\n\"'A sword would not be ashamed to hang at your side.'\n\n\"I took five great bracelets of gold from our treasure chest and gave\nthem to him.\n\n\"The old man's eyes opened wide at all these things, and at the same\ntime he laughed.\n\n\"'May Odin send me such guests every winter!' he said.\n\n\"Early next morning we shook hands with our host and boarded the\n'Waverunner' and sailed off.\n\n\"'Where shall we go?' my men asked.\n\n\"'Let the gods decide,' I said, and tossed up my spear.\n\n\"When it fell on the deck it pointed up-shore, so I steered in that\ndirection. That is the best way to decide, for the spear will always\npoint somewhere, and one thing is as good as another. That time it\npointed us into your father's ships. They closed in battle with us and\nkilled my men and sunk my ship and dragged me off a prisoner. They were\nthree against one, or they might have tasted something more bitter at\nour hands. They took me before King Halfdan.\n\n\"'Here,' they said, 'is a rascal who has been harrying our coasts. We\nsunk his ship and men, but him we brought to you.'\n\n\"'A robber viking?' said the king, and scowled at me.\n\n\"I threw back my head and laughed.\n\n\"'Yes. And with all your fingers it took you a year to catch me.'\n\n\"The king frowned more angrily.\n\n\"'Saucy, too?' he said. 'Well, thieves must die. Take him out, Thorkel,\nand let him taste your sword.'\n\n\"Your mother, the queen, was standing by. Now she put her hand on his\narm and smiled and said:\n\n\"'He is only a lad. Let him live. And would he not be a good gift for\nour baby?'\n\n\"Your father thought a moment, then looked at your mother and smiled.\n\n\"'Soft heart!' he said gently to her; then to Thorkel, 'Well, let him\ngo, Thorkel!'\n\n\"Then he turned to me again, frowning.\n\n\"'But, young sharp-tongue, now that we have caught you we will put you\ninto a trap that you cannot get out of. Weld an iron collar on his\nneck.'\n\n\"So I lived and now am your tooth thrall. Well, it is the luck of war.\nBut by the chair of Odin, I kept my vow!\"\n\n\"Yes!\" cried Harald, jumping to his feet. \"And had a joke into the\nbargain. Ah! sometime I will make a brave vow like that.\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] See note about drinking-horns on page 195.\n\n[4] See note about feast hall on page 196.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nOlaf's Fight With Havard\n\n\nAt another time Harald said:\n\n\"Tell me of a fight, Olaf. I want to hear about the music of swords.\"\n\nOlaf's eyes blazed.\n\n\"I will tell you of our fight with King Havard,\" he said.\n\n\"One dark night we had landed at a farm. We left our 'Waverunner' in the\nwater with three men to guard her. The rest of us went into the house.\nThe farmer met us at the door, but he died by Thorkel's sword. The\nothers we shut into their beds.[5] The door at each end of the hall we\nhad barred on the inside so that nobody could surprise us. We were busy\ngoing through the cupboards and shouting at our good luck. But suddenly\nwe heard a shout outside:\n\n\"'Thor and Havard!'\n\n\"Then there was a great beating at the doors.\n\n\"'He has two hundred fighters with him,' said Grim; 'for we saw his\nships last night. Thirty against two hundred! We shall all drink in\nValhalla to-night.'\n\n\"'Well,' I cried, 'Odin shall have no unwilling guest in me.'\n\n\"'Nor in me,' cried Hakon.\n\n\"'Nor in me,' shouted Thorkel.\n\n\"And that shout went all around, and we drew out our swords and caught\nup our shields.\n\n\"'Hot work is ahead of us,' said Hakon. 'Besides, we must leave none of\nthis mead for Havard. Lend a hand, some one.'\n\n\"Then he and another pulled out a great tub that sat on the floor of the\ncupboard.\n\n\"'I drink to Valhalla to-night,' cried Thorkel the Thirsty, and he\nplunged his horn deep into the tub.\n\n\"When he brought it up, his sleeve was dripping and the sweet mead was\nrunning over from the horn.\n\n\"'Sloven!' cried Hakon, and he struck Thorkel with his fist and knocked\nhim over into the cupboard.\n\n\"He fell against the wooden wall at the back, and a carved panel swung\nopen behind him. He dropped down head first. In a minute he put his head\nout of the hole again. We all stood staring.\n\n\"'I think it is a secret passage,' he said.\n\n\"'We will try it,' I answered in a whisper. 'Throw dirt on the fire. It\nmust be dark.'\n\n\"So we dug up dirt from the earth floor and smothered the fire. All this\ntime there was a terrible shouting and hammering at the doors, but they\nwere of heavy logs and stood.\n\n\"'I with four more will guard this door,' I said, pointing to the east\nend.\n\n\"Immediately four men stepped to my side.\n\n\"'And I will guard the other,' Hakon said, and four went with him.\n\n\"'The rest of you, down the hole!' I said. 'Close the door after you. If\nluck is with us we will meet at the ships. Now Thor and our good swords\nhelp us! Quick! The doors are giving way.'\n\n\"So we ten men stood at the doors and held back the king's soldiers. It\nwas dark in the room, and the people out of doors could not tell how\nmany were inside. Few were eager to be the first in.\n\n\"'Thirty swords are waiting in there to eat up the first man,' we heard\nsome one say.\n\n\"We chuckled at that.\n\n\"But the king stood in the very doorway and fought. Our five swords held\nhim back for a long time, but at last he pushed in, and his men poured\nafter him. We ran back and hid behind some tubs in a dark corner. The\nking's men went groping about and calling, but they did not find us. The\nroom was full of shouting and running and sword-clashing; for in the\ndark and the noise the men could not tell their own soldiers. More than\none fell by his friend's sword. When it was less crowded about the\ndoorway, I whispered:\n\n\"'Follow me in double line. We will make for the ships. Keep close\ntogether.'\n\n\"So that double line of men, with swords swinging from both sides, ran\nout through the dark. Swords struck out at us, and we struck back. Men\nran after us shouting, but our legs were as good as theirs. But I and\nHakon and one other were all that reached the ship. There we saw our\n'Waverunner' with sail up and bow pointing to open sea. We swam out to\nher and climbed aboard. Then the men swung the sail to the wind, and we\nmoved off. Even as we went, a spear whizzed through the air, and Hakon\nfell dead; for the king and all his men were running to the shore.\n\n\"'After them!' they were shouting.\n\n\"Then we heard the king call to the men in his boats lying out in the\nwater:\n\n\"'Row to shore and take us in.'\n\n\"Thorkel was standing by my side. At that he laughed and said:\n\n\"'They do not answer. He left but a handful to guard his ships. They\ntasted our swords. And we went aboard and broke the oars and threw the\nsails into the water. It will be slow going for Havard to-night.'\n\n[Illustration: \"_Then he turned to the shore and sang out loudly_\"]\n\n\"Then he turned to the shore and sang out loudly:\n\n    \"'King Havard's ships are dead:\n    Olaf's dragon flies.\n    King Havard stamps the shore:\n    Olaf skims the waves.\n    King Havard shakes his fist.\n    Olaf turns and laughs.'\n\n\"That was the end of our meeting with King Havard.\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[5] See note about beds on page 196.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFoes'-fear\n\n\nEvery day the boy Harald heard some such story of war or of the gods,\nuntil he could see Thor riding among the storm-clouds and throwing his\nhammer, until he knew that a brave man has many wounds, but never a one\non his back. Many nights he dreamed that he himself walked into\nValhalla, and that all the heroes stood up and shouted:\n\n\"Welcome! Harald Halfdanson!\"\n\n\"Ah! the bite of the sword is sweeter than the kiss of your mother,\" he\nsaid to Olaf one day. \"When shall I stand in the prow of a dragon and\nfeast on the fight? I am hungry to see the world. Ivar the Far-goer\ntells me of the strange countries he has seen. Ah! we vikings are great\nfolk. There is no water that has not licked our boats' sides. This cape\nof mine came in a viking boat from France. These cloak-pins came from a\nfar country called Greece. In my father's house are golden cups from\nRome, away on the southern sea. Every land pours rich things into our\ntreasure-chest. Ivar has been to a strange country where it is all sand\nand is very hot. The people call their country Arabia. They have never\nheard of Thor or Odin. Ivar brought beautiful striped cloth from there,\nand wonderful, sweet-smelling waters. Oh! when shall the white horses of\nthe sea lead me out to strange lands and glorious battles?\"\n\nBut Harald did something besides listen to stories. Every morning he was\nup at sunrise and went with a thrall to feed the hunting dogs. Thorstein\ntaught him to swim in the rough waters of the fiord. Often he went with\nthe men a-hunting in the woods and learned to ride a horse and pull a\nbow and throw a lance. Ivar taught him to play the harp and to make up\nsongs. He went much to the smithy, where the warriors mended their\nhelmets and made their spears and swords of iron and bronze. At first he\nonly watched the men or worked the bellows, but soon he could handle the\ntongs and hold the red-hot iron, and after a long time he learned to\nuse the hammer and to shape metal. One day he made himself a spear-head.\nIt was two feet long and sharp on both edges. While the iron was hot he\nbeat into it some runes. When the men in the smithy saw the runes they\nopened their eyes wide and looked at the boy, for few Norsemen could\nread.\n\n\"What does it say?\" they asked.\n\n\"It is the name of my spear-point, and it says, 'Foes'-fear,'\" Harald\nsaid. \"But now for a handle.\"\n\nIt was winter and the snow was very deep. So Harald put on his skees and\nstarted for a wood that was back from shore. Down the mountains he went,\ntwenty, thirty feet at a slide, leaping over chasms a hundred feet\nacross. In his scarlet cloak he looked like a flash of fire. The wind\nshot past him howling. His eyes danced at the fun.\n\n\"It is like flying,\" he thought and laughed. \"I am an eagle. Now I\nsoar,\" as he leaped over a frozen river.\n\nHe saw a slender ash growing on top of a high rock.\n\n\"That is the handle for 'Foes'-fear,'\" he said.\n\nThe rock stood up like a ragged tower, but he did not stop because of\nthe steep climb. He threw off his skees and thrust his hands and feet\ninto holes of the rock and drew himself up. He tore his jacket and cut\nhis leather leggings and scratched his face and bruised his hands, but\nat last he was on the top. Soon he had chopped down the tree and had cut\na straight pole ten feet long and as big around as his arm. He went\ndown, sliding and jumping and tearing himself on the sharp stones. With\na last leap he landed near his skees. As he did so a lean wolf jumped\nand snapped at him, snarling. Harald shouted and swung his pole. The\nwolf dodged, but quickly jumped again and caught the boy's arm between\nhis sharp teeth. Harald thought of the spear-point in his belt. In a\nwink he had it out and was striking with it. He drove it into the wolf's\nneck and threw him back on the snow, dead.\n\n\"You are the first to feel the tooth of 'Foes'-fear,'\" he said, \"but I\nthink you will not be the last.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_He drove it into the wolf's neck_\"]\n\nThen without thinking of his torn arm he put on his skees and went\nleaping home. He went straight to the smithy and smoothed his pole and\ndrove it into the haft of the spear-point. He hammered out a gold band\nand put it around the joining place. He made nails with beautiful heads\nand drove them into the pole in different places.\n\n\"If it is heavy it will strike hard,\" he said.\n\nThen he weighed the spear in his hand and found the balancing point and\nput another gold band there to mark it.\n\nThorstein came in while he was working.\n\n\"A good spear,\" he said.\n\nThen he saw the torn sleeve and the red wound beneath.\n\n\"Hello!\" he cried. \"Your first wound?\"\n\n\"Oh, it is only a wolf-scratch,\" Harald answered.\n\n\"By Thor!\" cried Thorstein, \"I see that you are ready for better wounds.\nYou bear this like a warrior.\"\n\n\"I think it will not be my last,\" Harald said.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHarald is King\n\n\nNow when Harald was ten years old his father, King Halfdan, died. An old\nbook that tells about Harald says that then \"he was the biggest of all\nmen, the strongest, and the fairest to look upon.\" That about a boy ten\nyears old! But boys grew fast in those days for they were out of doors\nall the time, running, swimming, leaping on skees, and hunting in the\nforest. All that makes big, manly boys.\n\nSo now King Halfdan was dead and buried, and Harald was to be king. But\nfirst he must drink his father's funeral ale.\n\n\"Take down the gay tapestries that hang in the feast hall,\" he said to\nthe thralls. \"Put up black and gray ones. Strew the floor with pine\nbranches. Brew twenty tubs of fresh ale and mead. Scour every dish until\nit shines.\"\n\nThen Harald sent messengers all over that country to his kinsmen and\nfriends.\n\n\"Bid them come in three months' time to drink my father's funeral ale,\"\nhe said. \"Tell them that no one shall go away empty-handed.\"\n\nSo in three months men came riding up at every hour. Some came in boats.\nBut many had ridden far through mountains, swimming rivers; for there\nwere few roads or bridges in Norway. On account of that hard ride no\nwomen came to the feast.\n\nAt nine o'clock in the night the feast began. The men came walking in at\nthe west end of the hall.[6] The great bonfires down the middle of the\nroom were flashing light on everything. The clean smell of this\nwood-smoke and of the pine branches on the floor was pleasant to the\nguests. Down each side of the hall stretched long, backless benches,\nwith room for three hundred men. In the middle of each side rose the\nhigh seat, a great carved chair on a platform. All along behind the\nbenches were the black and gray draperies. Here hung the shields of the\nguests; for every man, when he was given his place, turned and hung his\nshield behind him and set his tall spear by it. So on each wall there\nwas a long row of gay shields, red and green and yellow, and all shining\nwith gold or bronze trimmings. And higher up there was another row of\ngleaming spear-points. Above the hall the rafters were carved and gaily\npainted, so that dragons seemed to be crawling across, or eagles seemed\nto be swooping down.\n\nThe guests walked in laughing and talking with their big voices so that\nthe rafters rang. They made the hall look all the brighter with their\nclothes of scarlet and blue and green, with their flashing golden\nbracelets and head-bands and sword-scabbards, with their flying hair of\nred or yellow.\n\nAcross the east end of the hall was a bench. When the men were all in,\nthe queen, Harald's mother, and the women who lived with her, walked in\nthrough the east door and sat upon this bench.\n\nThen thralls came running in and set up the long tables[7] before the\nbenches. Other thralls ran in with large steaming kettles of meat. They\nput big pieces of this meat into platters of wood and set it before the\nmen. They had a few dishes of silver. These they put before the guests\nat the middle of the tables; for the great people sat here near the high\nseats.\n\nWhen the meat came, the talking stopped; for Norsemen ate only twice a\nday, and these men had had long rides and were hungry. Three or four\npersons ate from one platter and drank from the same big bowl of milk.\nThey had no forks, so they ate from their fingers and threw the bones\nunder the table among the pine branches. Sometimes they took knives from\ntheir belts to cut the meat.\n\nWhen the guests sat back satisfied, Harald called to the thralls:\n\n\"Carry out the tables.\"\n\nSo they did and brought in two great tubs of mead and set one at each\nend of the hall. Then the queen stood up and called some of her women.\nThey went to the mead tubs. They took the horns, when the thralls had\nfilled them, and carried them to the men with some merry word. Perhaps\none woman said as she handed a man his horn:\n\n\"This horn has no feet to be set down upon. You must drink it at one\ndraught.\"\n\nPerhaps another said:\n\n\"Mead loves a merry face.\"\n\nThe women were beautiful, moving about the hall. The queen wore a\ntrailing dress of blue velvet with long flowing sleeves. She had a short\napron of striped Arabian silk with gold fringe along the bottom. From\nher shoulders hung a long train of scarlet wool embroidered in gold.\nWhite linen covered her head. Her long yellow hair was pulled around at\nthe sides and over her breast and was fastened under the belt of her\napron. As she walked, her train made a pleasant rustle among the pine\nbranches. She was tall and straight and strong. Some of her younger\nwomen wore no linen on their heads and had their white arms bare, with\nbracelets shining on them. They, too, were tall and strong.\n\nAll the time men were calling across the fire to one another asking news\nor telling jokes and laughing.\n\nAn old man, Harald's uncle, sat in the high seat on the north side. That\nwas the place of honor. But the high seat on the south side was empty;\nfor that was the king's seat. Harald sat on the steps before it.\n\nThe feast went merrily until long after midnight. Then the thralls took\nsome of the guests to the guest house to sleep, and some to the beds\naround the sides of the feast hall. But some men lay down on the benches\nand drew their cloaks over themselves.\n\nOn the next night there was another feast. Still Harald sat on the step\nbefore the high seat. But when the tables were gone and the horns were\ngoing around, he stood up and raised high a horn of ale and said loudly:\n\n\"This horn of memory I drink in honor of my father, Halfdan, son of\nGudrod, who sits now in Valhalla. And I vow that I will grind my\nfather's foes under my heel.\"\n\nThen he drank the ale and sat down in the king's high seat, while all\nthe men stood up and raised their horns and shouted:\n\n\"King Harald!\"\n\nAnd some cried:\n\n\"That was a brave vow.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_I vow that I will grind my father's foes under my\nheel_\"]\n\nAnd Harald's uncle called out:\n\n\"A health to King Harald!\"\n\nAnd they all drank it.\n\nThen a man stood up and said:\n\n\"Hear my song of King Halfdan!\" for this man was a skald.\n\n\"Yes, the song!\" shouted the men, and Harald nodded his head.\n\nSo the skald took down his great harp from the wall behind him and went\nand stood before Harald. The bottom of the harp rested on the floor, but\nthe top reached as high as the skald's shoulders. The brass frame shone\nin the light. The strings were some of gold and some of silver. The man\nstruck them with his hand and sang of King Halfdan, of his battles, of\nhis strong arm and good sword, of his death, and of how men loved him.\n\nWhen he had finished, King Harald took a bracelet from his arm and gave\nit to him, saying:\n\n\"Take this as thanks for your good song.\"\n\nThe guests stayed the next day and at night there was another feast.\nWhen the mead horns were going around, King Harald stood up and spoke:\n\n\"I said that no man should go away empty-handed from drinking my\nfather's funeral ale.\"\n\nHe beckoned the thralls, and they brought in a great treasure-chest and\nset it down by the high seat. King Harald opened it and took out rich\ngifts--capes and sword-belts and beautiful cloth and bracelets and gold\ncloak-pins. These he sent about the hall and gave something to every\nman. The guests wondered at the richness of his gifts.\n\n\"This young king has an open hand,\" they said, \"and deep\ntreasure-chests.\"\n\nAfter breakfast the next morning the guests went out and stood by their\nhorses ready to go, but before they mounted, thralls brought a horn of\nmead to each man. That was called the stirrup-horn, because after they\ndrank it the men put their feet to the stirrups and sprang upon their\nhorses and started. King Harald and his people rode a little way with\nthem.\n\nAll men said that that was the richest funeral feast that ever was\nheld.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[6] See note about feast hall on page 196.\n\n[7] See note about tables on page 196.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHarald's Battle\n\n\nNow King Halfdan had many foes. When he was alive they were afraid to\nmake war upon him, for he was a mighty warrior. But when Harald became\nking, they said:\n\n\"He is but a lad. We will fight with him and take his land.\"\n\nSo they began to make ready. King Harald heard of this and he laughed\nand said:\n\n\"Good! 'Foes'-fear' is thirsty, and my legs are stiff with much\nsitting.\"\n\nHe called three men to him. To one he gave an arrow, saying:\n\n\"Run and carry this arrow north. Give it into the hands of the master of\nthe next farm, and say that all men are to meet here within two weeks\nfrom this day. They must come ready for war and mounted on horses. Say\nalso that if a man does not obey this call, or if he receives this arrow\nand does not carry it on to his next neighbor, he shall be outlawed\nfrom this country, and his land shall be taken from him.\"\n\nHe gave arrows to the other two men and told them to run south and east\nwith the same message.\n\nSo all through King Harald's country men were soon busy mending helmets\nand polishing swords and making shields. There was blazing of forges and\nclanging of anvils all through the land.\n\nOn the day set, the fields about King Harald's house were full of men\nand horses. After breakfast a horn blew. Every man snatched his weapons\nand jumped upon his horse. Men of the same neighborhood stood together,\nand their chief led them. They waited for the starting horn. This did\nnot look like our army. There were no uniforms. Some men wore helmets,\nsome did not. Some wore coats of mail, but others wore only their\njackets and tights of bright-colored wool. But at each man's left side\nhung a great shield. Over his right shoulder went his sword-belt and\nheld his long sword under his left hand. Above most men's heads shone\nthe points of their tall spears. Some men carried axes in their belts.\nSome carried bows and arrows. Many had ram's horns hanging from their\nnecks.\n\nKing Harald rode at the front of his army with his standard-bearer\nbeside him. Chain-armor covered the king's body. A red cloak was thrown\nover his shoulders. On his head was a gold helmet with a dragon standing\nup from it. He carried a round shield on his left arm. The king had made\nthat shield himself. It was of brass. The rivets were of silver, with\nstrangely shaped heads. On the back of Harald's horse was a red cloth\ntrimmed with the fur of ermine.\n\nKing Harald looked up at his standard and laughed aloud.\n\n\"Oh, War-lover,\" he cried, \"you and I ride out on a gay journey.\"\n\nA horn blew again and the army started. The men shouted as they went,\nand blew their ram's horns.\n\n\"Now we shall taste something better than even King Harald's ale,\"\nshouted one.\n\nAnother rose in his stirrups and sniffed the air.\n\n\"Ah! I smell a battle,\" he cried. \"It is sweeter than those strange\nwaters of Arabia.\"\n\nSo the army went merrily through the land. They carried no tents, they\nhad no provision wagons.\n\n\"The sky is a good enough tent for a soldier,\" said the Norsemen. \"Why\ncarry provisions when they lie in the farms beside you?\"\n\nAfter two days King Harald saw another army on the hills.\n\n\"Thorstein,\" he shouted, \"up with the white shield and go tell King Haki\nto choose his battle-field. We will wait but an hour. I am eager for the\nfrolic.\"\n\nSo Thorstein raised a white shield on his spear as a sign that he came\non an errand of peace. He rode near King Haki, but he could not wait\nuntil he came close before he shouted out his message and then turned\nand rode back.\n\n\"Tell your boy king that we will not hang back,\" Haki called after\nThorstein.\n\nKing Harald's men waited on the hillside and watched the other army\nacross the valley. They saw King Haki point and saw twenty men ride off\nas he pointed. They stopped in a patch of hazel and hewed with their\naxes.\n\n\"They are getting the hazels,\" said Thorstein.\n\n\"Audun,\" said King Harald to a man near him, \"stay close to my standard\nall day. You must see the best of the fight. I want to hear a song about\nit after it is over.\"\n\nThis Audun was the skald who sang at the drinking of King Halfdan's\nfuneral ale.\n\nKing Haki's men rode down into the valley. They drove down stakes all\nabout a great field. They tied the hazel twigs to the stakes in a\nstring. But they left an open space toward King Harald's army and one\ntoward King Haki's. Then a man raised a white shield and galloped toward\nKing Harald.\n\n\"We are ready!\" he shouted.\n\nAt the same time King Haki raised a red shield. King Harald's men put\ntheir shields before their mouths and shouted into them. It made a great\nroaring war-cry.\n\n\"Up with the war shield!\" shouted King Harald. \"Horns blow!\"\n\nThere was a blowing of horns on both sides. The two armies galloped down\ninto the field and ran together. The fight had begun.\n\nAll that day long swords were flashing, spears flying, men shouting, men\nfalling from their horses, swords clashing against shields.\n\n\"Victory flashes from that dragon,\" Harald's men said, pointing to the\nking's helmet. \"No one stands before it.\"\n\nAnd, surely, before night came, King Haki fell dead under \"Foes'-fear.\"\nWhen he fell, a great shout went up from his warriors, and they turned\nand fled. King Harald's men chased them far, but during the night came\nback to camp. Many brought swords and helmets and bracelets or\nsilver-trimmed saddles and bridles with them.\n\n\"Here is what we got from the foe,\" they said.\n\nThe next morning King Harald spoke to his men:\n\n\"Let us go about and find our dead.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_King Haki fell dead under 'Foes'-fear'_\"]\n\nSo they went over all the battle-field. They put every man on his shield\nand carried him and laid him on a hill-top. They hung his sword over his\nshoulder and laid his spear by his side. So they laid all the dead\ntogether there on the hill-top. Then King Harald said, looking about:\n\n\"This is a good place to lie. It looks far over the country. The sound\nof the sea reaches it. The wind sweeps here. It is a good grave for\nNorsemen and Vikings. But it is a long road and a rough road to Valhalla\nthat these men must travel. Let the nearest kinsman of each man come and\ntie on his hell-shoes. Tie them fast, for they will need them much on\nthat hard road.\"\n\nSo friends tied shoes on the dead men's feet. Then King Harald said:\n\n\"Now let us make the mound.\"\n\nEvery man set to work with what tools he had and heaped earth over the\ndead until a great mound stood up. They piled stones on the top. On one\nof these stones King Harald made runes telling how these men had died.\n\nAfter that was done King Harald said:\n\n\"Now set up the pole, Thorstein. Let every man bring to that pole all\nthat he took from the foe.\"\n\nSo they did, and there was a great hill of things around it. Harald\ndivided it into piles.\n\n\"This pile we will give to Thor in thanks for the victory,\" he said.\n\"This pile is mine because I am king. Here are the piles for the chiefs,\nand these things go to the other men of the army.\"\n\nSo every man went away from that battle richer than he was before, and\nThor looked down from Valhalla upon his full temple and was pleased.\n\nThe next morning King Harald led his army back. But on the way he met\nother foes and had many battles and did not lose one. The kings either\ndied in battle or ran away, and Harald had their lands.\n\n\"He has kept his vow,\" men said, \"and ground his father's foes under his\nheel.\"\n\nSo King Harald sat in peace for a while.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nGyda's Saucy Message\n\n\nNow Harald heard men talk of Gyda, the daughter of King Eric.\n\n\"She is very beautiful,\" they said, \"but she is very proud, too. She can\nboth read and make runes. No other woman in the world knows so much\nabout herbs as she does. She can cure any sickness. And she is proud of\nall this!\"\n\nNow when King Harald heard that, he thought to himself:\n\n\"Fair and proud. I like them both. I will have her for my wife.\"\n\nSo he called his uncle, Guthorm, and said:\n\n\"Take rich gifts and go to Gyda's foster-father[8] and tell him that I\nwill marry Gyda.\"\n\nSo Guthorm and his men came to that house and they told the king's\nmessage to the foster-father. Gyda was standing near, weaving a rich\ncloak. She heard the speech. She came up and said, holding her head\nhigh and curling her lip:\n\n\"I will not waste myself on a king of so few people. Norway is a strange\ncountry. There is a little king here and a little king there--hundreds\nof them scattered about. Now in Denmark there is but one great king over\nthe whole land. And it is so in Sweden. Is no one brave enough to make\nall of Norway his own?\"\n\nShe laughed a scornful laugh and walked away. The men stood with open\nmouths and stared after her. Could it be that she had sent that saucy\nmessage to King Harald? They looked at her foster-father. He was\nchuckling in his beard and said nothing to them. They started out of the\nhouse in anger. When they were at the door, Gyda came up to them again\nand said:\n\n\"Give this message to your King Harald for me: I will not be his wife\nunless he puts all of Norway under him for my sake.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_I will not be his wife unless he puts all of Norway\nunder him for my sake_\"]\n\nSo Guthorm and his men rode homeward across the country. They did not\ntalk. They were all thinking. At last one said:\n\n\"How shall we give this message to the king?\"\n\n\"I have been thinking of that,\" Guthorm said; \"his anger is no little\nthing.\"\n\nIt was late when they rode into the king's yard; for they had ridden\nslowly, trying to make some plan for softening the message, but they had\nthought of none.\n\n\"I see light through the wind's-eyes of the feast hall,\" one said.\n\n\"Yes, the king keeps feast,\" Guthorm said. \"We must give our message\nbefore all his guests.\"\n\nSo they went in with very heavy hearts. There sat King Harald in the\nhigh seat. The benches on both sides were full of men. The tables had\nbeen taken out, and the mead-horns were going round.\n\n\"Oh, ho!\" cried King Harald. \"Our messengers! What news?\"\n\nThen Guthorm said:\n\n\"This Gyda is a bold and saucy girl, King Harald. My tongue refuses to\ngive her message.\"\n\nThe king stamped his foot.\n\n\"Out with it!\" he cried. \"What does she say?\"\n\n\"She says that she will not marry so little a king,\" Guthorm answered.\n\nHarald jumped to his feet. His face flushed red. Guthorm stretched out\nhis hand.\n\n\"They are not my words, O King; they are the words of a silly girl.\"\n\n\"Is there any more?\" the king shouted. \"Go on!\"\n\n\"She said: 'There is one king in Denmark and one king in Sweden. Is\nthere no man brave enough to make himself king of all Norway? Tell King\nHarald that I will not marry him unless he puts all of Norway under him\nfor my sake.'\"\n\nThe guests sat speechless, staring at Guthorm. All at once the king\nbroke into a roar of laughter.\n\n\"By the hammer of Thor!\" he cried, \"that is a good message. I thank you,\nGyda. Did you hear it, friends? King of all Norway! Why, we are all\nstupids. Why did we not think of that?\"\n\nThen he raised his horn high.\n\n\"Now hear my vow. I say that I will not cut my hair or comb it until I\nam king of all Norway. That I will be or I will die.\"\n\nThen he drank off the horn of mead, and while he drank it, all the men\nin the hall stood up and waved their swords and shouted and shouted.\nThat old hall in all its two hundred years of feasts had not heard such\na noise before.\n\n\"Ah, Harald!\" Guthorm cried, \"surely Thor in Valhalla smiled when he\nheard that vow.\"\n\nThe men sat all night talking of that wonderful vow.\n\nOn the very next day King Harald sent out his war-arrows. Soon a great\narmy was gathered. They marched through the country north and south and\neast and west, burning houses and fighting battles as they went. People\nfled before them, some to their own kings, some inland to the deep woods\nand hid there. But some went to King Harald and said:\n\n\"We will be your men.\"\n\n\"Then take the oath, and I will be friends with you,\" he said.\n\nThe men took off their swords and laid them down and came one by one and\nknelt before the king. They put their heads between his knees and said:\n\n\"From this day, Harald Halfdanson, I am your man. I will serve you in\nwar. For my land I will pay you taxes. I will be faithful to you as my\nking.\"\n\nThen Harald said:\n\n\"I am your king, and I will be faithful to you.\"\n\nMany kings took that oath and thousands of common men. Of all the\nbattles that Harald fought, he did not lose one.\n\nNow for a long time the king's hair and beard had not been combed or\ncut. They stood out around his head in a great bushy mat of yellow. At a\nfeast one day when the jokes were going round, Harald's uncle said:\n\n\"Harald, I will give you a new name. After this you shall be called\nHarald Shockhead. As my naming gift I give you this drinking-horn.\"\n\n\"It is a good name,\" laughed all the men.\n\nAfter that all people called him Harald Shockhead.\n\nDuring these wars, whenever King Harald got a country for his own, this\nis what he did. He said:\n\n\"All the marshland and the woodland where no people live is mine. For\nhis farm every man shall pay me taxes.\"\n\nOver every country he put some brave, wise man and called him Earl. He\nsaid to the earls:\n\n\"You shall collect the taxes and pay them to me. But some you shall keep\nfor yourselves. You shall punish any man who steals or murders or does\nany wicked thing. When your people are in trouble they shall come to\nyou, and you shall set the thing right. You must keep peace in the land.\nI will not have my people troubled with robber vikings.\"\n\nThe earls did all these things as best they could; for they were good\nstrong men. The farmers were happy. They said:\n\n\"We can work on our farms with peace now. Before King Harald came,\nsomething was always wrong. The vikings would come and steal our gold\nand our grain and burn our houses, or the king would call us to war.\nThose little kings are always fighting. It is better under King Harald.\"\n\nBut the chiefs, who liked to fight and go a-viking, hated King Harald\nand his new ways. One of these chiefs was Solfi. He was a king's son.\nHarald had killed his father in battle. Solfi had been in that battle.\nAt the end of it he fled away with two hundred men and got into ships.\n\n\"We will make that Shockhead smart,\" he said.\n\nSo they harried the coast of King Harald's country. They filled their\nships with gold. They ate other men's meals. They burned farmhouses\nbehind them. The people cried out to the earls for help. So the earls\nhad out their ships all the time trying to catch Solfi, but he was too\nclever for them.\n\nIn the spring he went to a certain king, Audbiorn, and said to him:\n\n\"Now, there are two things that we can do. We can become this Shockhead\nHarald's thralls, we can kneel before him and put our heads between his\nknees. Or else we can fight. My father thought it better to die in\nbattle than to be any man's thrall. How is it? Will you join with my\ncousin Arnvid and me against this young Shockhead?\"\n\n\"Yes, I will do it,\" said the king.\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[8] See note about foster-father on page 197.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Sea Fight\n\n\nMany men felt as Solfi did. So when King Audbiorn and King Arnvid sent\nout their war arrows, a great host gathered. All men came by sea. Two\nhundred ships lay at anchor in the fiord, looking like strange swimming\nanimals because of their high carved prows and bright paint. There were\nred and gold dragons with long necks and curved tails. Sea-horses reared\nout of the water. Green and gold snakes coiled up. Sea-hawks sat with\nspread wings ready to fly. And among all these curved necks stood up the\ntall, straight masts with the long yardarms swinging across them holding\nthe looped-up sails.\n\nWhen the starting horn blew, and their sails were let down, it was like\nthe spreading of hundreds of curious flags. Some were striped black and\nyellow or blue and gold. Some were white with a black raven or a brown\nbear embroidered on them, or blue with a white sea-hawk, or black with\na gold sun. Some were edged with fur. As the wind filled the gaudy\nsails, and the ships moved off, the men waved their hands to the women\non shore and sang:\n\n    \"To the sea! To the sea!\n    The wind in our sail,\n    The sea in our face,\n    And the smell of the fight.\n    After ship meets ship,\n    In the quarrel of swords\n    King Harald shall lie\n    In the caves under sea\n    And Norsemen shall laugh.\"\n\nIn the prow stood men leaning forward and sniffing the salt air with\njoy. Some were talking of King Harald.\n\n\"Yesterday he had a hard fight,\" they said. \"To-day he will be lying\nstill, dressing his wounds and mending his ships. We shall take him by\nsurprise.\"\n\nThey sailed near the coast. Solfi in his \"Sea-hawk\" was ahead leading\nthe way. Suddenly men saw his sail veer and his oars flash out. He had\nquickly turned his boat and was rowing back. He came close to King\nArnvid and called:\n\n\"He is there, ahead. His boats are ready in line of battle. The fox has\nnot been asleep.\"\n\nKing Arnvid blew his horn. Slowly his boats came into line with his\n\"Sea-stag\" in the middle. Again he blew his horn. Cables were thrown\nacross from one prow to the next, and all the ships were tied together\nso that their sides touched. Then the men set their sails again and they\nwent past a tongue of land into a broad fiord. There lay the long line\nof King Harald's ships with their fierce heads grinning and mocking at\nthe newcomers. Back of those prows was what looked like a long wall with\nspots of green and red and blue and yellow and shining gold. It was the\nlocked shields of the men in the bows, and over every shield looked\nfierce blue eyes. Higher up and farther back was another wall of\nshields; for on the half deck in the stern of every ship stood the\ncaptain with his shield-guard of a dozen men.\n\nArnvid's people had furled their sails and were taking down the masts,\nbut the ships were still drifting on with the wind. The horn blew, and\nquickly every man sprang to his place in bow and stern. All were leaning\nforward with clenched teeth and widespread nostrils. They were clutching\ntheir naked swords in their hands. Their flashing eyes looked over their\nshields.\n\nSoon King Arnvid's ships crashed into Harald's line, and immediately the\nmen in the bows began to swing their swords at one another. The soldiers\nof the shield-guard on the high decks began to throw darts and stones\nand to shoot arrows into the ships opposite them.\n\nSo in every ship showers of stones and arrows were falling, and many men\ndied under them or got broken arms or legs. Spears were hurled from deck\nto deck and many of them bit deep into men's bodies. In every bow men\nslashed with their swords at the foes in the opposite ship. Some jumped\nupon the gunwale to get nearer or hung from the prow-head. Some even\nleaped into the enemy's boat.\n\nKing Harald's ship lay prow to prow with King Arnvid's. The battle had\nbeen going on for an hour. King Harald was still in the stern on the\ndeck. There was a dent in his helmet where a great stone had struck.\nThere was a gash in his shoulder where a spear had cut. But he was still\nfighting and laughed as he worked.\n\n\"Wolf meets wolf to-day,\" he said. \"But things are going badly in the\nprow,\" he cried. \"Ivar fallen, Thorstein wounded, a dozen men lying in\nthe bottom of the boat!\"\n\nHe leaped down from the deck and ran along the gunwale, shouting as he\nwent:\n\n\"Harald and victory!\"\n\nSo he came to the bow and stood swinging his sword as fast as he\nbreathed. Every time it hit a man of Arnvid's men. Harald's own warriors\ncheered, seeing him.\n\n\"Harald and victory!\" they shouted, and went to work again with good\nheart.\n\nSlowly King Arnvid's men fell back before Harald's biting sword. Then\nHarald's men threw a great hook into that boat and pulled it alongside\nand still pushed King Arnvid's people back.\n\n\"Come on! Follow me!\" cried Harald.\n\nThen he leaped into King Arnvid's boat, and his warriors followed him.\n\n\"He comes like a mad wolf,\" King Arnvid's men said, and they turned and\nran back below the deck.\n\nThen Arnvid himself leaped down and stood with his sword raised.\n\n\"Can this young Shockhead make cowards of you all?\" he cried.\n\nBut Harald's sword struck him, and he fell dead. Then a big, bloody\nviking of King Arnvid leaped upon the edge of the ship and stood there.\nHe held his drinking-horn and his sword high in his hands.\n\n\"Ran[9] and not you, Shockhead, shall have them and me!\" he cried, and\nleaped laughing into the water and was drowned.\n\nMany other warriors chose the same death on that terrible day.\n\n[Illustration: \"_Then he leaped into King Arnvid's boat_\"]\n\nAll along the line of boats men fought for hours. In some places the\ncables had been cut, and the boats had drifted apart. Ships lay\nscattered about two by two, fighting. May boats sank, many men died,\nsome fled away in their ships, and at the end King Harald had won the\nbattle. So he had King Arnvid's country and King Audbiorn's country.\nMany men took the oath and became his friends. All people were talking\nof his wonderful battles.\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[9] See note about Ran on page 198.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nKing Harald's Wedding\n\n\nIt had taken King Harald ten years to fight so many battles. And all\nthat time he had not cut his hair or combed it. Now he was feasting one\nday at an earl's house. Many people were there.\n\n\"How is it, friends?\" Harald said. \"Have I kept my vow?\"\n\nHis friends answered:\n\n\"You have kept your vow. There is no king but you in all Norway.\"\n\n\"Then I think I will cut my hair,\" the king laughed.\n\nSo he went and bathed and put on fresh clothes. Then the earl cut his\nhair and beard and combed them and put a gold band about his head. Then\nhe looked at him and said:\n\n\"It is beautiful, smooth, and yellow.\"\n\nAnd all people wondered at the beauty of the king's hair.\n\n\"I will give you a new name,\" the earl said. \"You shall no longer be\ncalled Shockhead. You shall be called Harald Hairfair.\"\n\n\"It is a good name,\" everybody cried.\n\nThen Harald said:\n\n\"But I have another thing to do now. Guthorm, you shall take the same\nmessage to Gyda that you gave ten years ago.\"\n\nSo Guthorm went and brought back this answer from Gyda:\n\n\"I will marry the king of all Norway.\"\n\nSo when the wedding time came, Harald rode across the country to the\nhome of Gyda's father, Eric. Many men followed him. They were all richly\ndressed in velvet and gold.\n\nFor three nights they feasted at Eric's house. On the next night Gyda\nsat on the cross-bench with her women. A long veil of white linen\ncovered her face and head and hung down to the ground. After the\nmead-horns had been brought in, Eric stood up from his high seat and\nwent down and stood before King Harald.\n\n\"Will you marry Gyda now?\" he asked.\n\n[Illustration: \"_I, Harald, King of Norway, take you Gyda, for my\nwife_\"]\n\nHarald jumped to his feet and laughed.\n\n\"Yes,\" he said. \"I have waited long enough.\"\n\nThen he stepped down from his high seat and stood by Eric. They walked\nabout the hall. Before them walked thralls carrying candles. Behind them\nwalked many of King Harald's great earls. Three times they walked around\nthe hall. The third time they stopped before the cross-bench. King\nHarald and Eric stepped upon the platform, where the cross-bench was.\n\nEric gave a holy hammer to Harald, and it was like the hammer of Thor.\nHarald put it upon Gyda's lap, saying:\n\n\"With this holy hammer of Thor's, I, Harald, King of Norway, take you,\nGyda, for my wife.\"\n\nThen he took a bunch of keys and tied it to Gyda's girdle, saying:\n\n\"This is the sign that you are mistress of my house.\"\n\nAfter that, Eric called out loudly:\n\n\"Now, are Harald, King of Norway, and Gyda, daughter of Eric, man and\nwife.\"\n\nThen thralls brought meat and drink in golden dishes. They were about to\nserve it to Gyda for the bride's feast, but Harald took the dish from\nthem and said:\n\n\"No, I will serve my bride.\"\n\nSo he knelt and held the platter. When he did that his men shouted. Then\nthey talked among themselves, saying:\n\n\"Surely Harald never knelt before. It is always other people who kneel\nto him.\"\n\nWhen the bride had tasted the food and touched the mead-horn to her lips\nshe stood up and walked from the hall. All her women followed her, but\nthe men stayed and feasted long.\n\nOn the next morning at breakfast Gyda sat by Harald's side. Soon the\nking rose and said:\n\n\"Father-in-law, our horses stand ready in the yard. Work is waiting for\nme at home and on the sea. Lead out the bride.\"\n\nSo Eric took Gyda by the hand and led her out of the hall. Harald\nfollowed close. When they passed through the door Eric said:\n\n\"With this hand I lead my daughter out of my house and give her to you,\nHarald, son of Halfdan, to be your wife. May all the gods make you\nhappy!\"\n\nHarald led his bride to the horse and lifted her up and set her behind\nhis saddle and said:\n\n\"Now this Gyda is my wife.\"\n\nThen they drank the stirrup-horn and rode off.\n\n\"Everything comes to King Harald,\" his men said; \"wife and land and\ncrown and victory in battle. He is a lucky man.\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nKing Harald Goes West-Over-Seas\n\n\nNow many men hated King Harald. Many a man said:\n\n\"Why should he put himself up for king of all of us? He is no better\nthan I am. Am I not a king's son as well as he? And are not many of us\nkings' sons? I will not kneel before him and promise to be his man. I\nwill not pay him taxes. I will not have his earl sitting over me. The\ngood old days have gone. This Norway has become a prison. I will go away\nand find some other place.\"\n\nSo hundreds of men sailed away. Some went to France and got land and\nlived there. Big Rolf-go-afoot and all his men sailed up the great\nFrench River and won a battle against the French king himself. There was\nno way to stop the flashing of his battle-axes but to give him what he\nwanted. So the king made Rolf a duke, gave him broad lands and gave him\nthe king's own daughter for wife. Rolf called his country Normandy, for\nold Norway. He ruled it well and was a great lord, and his sons' sons\nafter him were kings of England.\n\nOther Norsemen went to Ireland and England and Scotland. They drew up\ntheir boats on the river banks. The people ran away before them and\ngathered into great armies that marched back to meet the vikings in\nbattle. Sometimes the Norsemen lost, but oftener they won, so that they\ngot land and lived in those countries. Their houses sat in these strange\nlands like warriors' camps, and the Norsemen went among their new\nneighbors with hanging swords and spears in hand, ever ready for fight.\n\nThere are many islands north of Scotland. They are called the Orkneys\nand the Shetlands. They have many good harbors for ships. They are\nlittle and rocky and bare of trees. Wild sea-birds scream around them.\nOn some of them a man can stand in the middle and see the ocean all\nabout him. Now the vikings sailed to these islands and were pleased.\n\n[Illustration: \"_In Norway they left burning houses and weeping\nwomen_\"]\n\n\"It is like being always in a boat,\" they said. \"This shall be our\nhome.\"\n\nSo it went until all the lands round about were covered with vikings.\nNorse carved and painted houses brightened the hillsides. Viking ships\nsailed all the seas and made harbor in every river. Norsemen's thralls\nplowed the soil and planted crops and herded cattle, and gold flowed\ninto their masters' treasure-chests. Norse warriors walked up and down\nthe land, and no man dared to say them nay.\n\nThese men did not forget Norway. In the summers they sailed back there\nand harried the coast. They took gold and grain and beautiful cloth back\nto their homes. In Norway they left burning houses and weeping women.\n\nEvery summer King Harald had out his ships and men and hunted these\nvikings. There are many little islands about Norway. They have crags and\ncaves and deep woods. Here the vikings hid when they saw King Harald's\nships coming. But Harald ran his boat into every creek and fiord and\nhunted in every cave and through all the woods and among the crags. He\ncaught many men, but most of them got away and went home laughing at\nHarald. Then they came back the next summer and did the same deeds over\nagain. At last King Harald said:\n\n\"There is but one thing to do. I must sail to these western islands and\nwhip these robbers in their own homes.\"\n\nSo he went with a great number of ships. He found as brave men as he had\nbrought from Norway. These vikings had brought their old courage to\ntheir new homes. King Harald's fine ships were scarred by viking stones\nand scorched by viking fire. The shields of Harald's warriors had dents\nfrom viking blows. Many of those men carried viking scars all their\nlives. And many of King Harald's warriors walked the long, hard road to\nValhalla, and feasted there with some of these very vikings that had\ndied in King Harald's battles. But after many hard fights on land and\nsea, after many men had died and many had fled away to other lands, King\nHarald won, and he made the men that were yet in the islands take the\noath, and he left his earls to rule over them. Then he went back to\nNorway.\n\n\"He has done more than he vowed to do,\" people said. \"He has not only\nwhipped the vikings, but he has got a new kingdom west-over-seas.\"\n\nThen they talked of that dream that his mother had.\n\n\"King Harald was that great tree,\" they said. \"The trunk was red with\nthe blood of his many battles, but higher up the limbs were fair and\ngreen like this good time of peace. The topmost branches were white\nbecause Harald will live to be an old man. Just as that tree spread out\nuntil all of Norway was in its shade, and even more lands, so Harald is\nking of all this country and of the western islands. The many branches\nof that tree are the many sons of Harald, who shall be earls and kings\nin Norway, and their sons after them, for hundreds of years.\"\n\n\n\n\n_PART II_\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWEST-OVER-SEAS\n\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHomes in Iceland\n\n\nMen had been feasting in Ingolf's house. But there was no laughing and\nno shouting of jokes. Ingolf sat in his high seat frowning and gloomy.\nHis head hung on his breast. He was staring into the fire. Now he raised\nhis head and looked about the hall.\n\n\"Comrades,\" he said, \"what shall we do? Herstein and Holmstein died by\nour swords. Their kinsmen hunger to kill us. Besides, when Harald hears\nof our deed, there will not be a safe place in Norway for us. He will\nnever let a man fight out an honest quarrel. Where shall we go?\"\n\nA man stood up from the bench.\n\n\"We have friends in the Shetlands,\" he said. \"Let us find homes there.\"\n\nThen Leif, in the high seat opposite Ingolf, stood up.\n\n\"No, not the Shetlands, my foster-brother.[10] They are crowded\nalready. Besides, Harald will not long keep his hands off them. Then\nthey will be no better than Norway. England and Ireland and Scotland are\nold. My eyes ache for something new. What of that far island that Floki\nfound? It is empty. We could choose our land from the whole country.\nThere is good fishing. There are green valleys. And Butter Thorolf says\nthat butter drops from every weed. There are mountains and deserts where\nwe may find adventure. I say, let us steer for Iceland!\"\n\nWhen he stopped, many of the men shouted:\n\n\"Yes! Iceland!\"\n\nBut an old man stood up.\n\n\"We have all laughed at that tale of Butter Thorolf's,\" he said. \"But\nFloki himself said that the sea about the island is full of ice that\npushes upon the land, that no ship can live in that water in the winter,\nthat great mountains of ice cover the island. Did not all his cattle die\nthere of hunger and cold, and did he not come back to Norway cursing\nIceland?\"\n\n\"Oh, Sighvat, you are old and fearful,\" called out Leif, and he laughed.\n\nThen he stretched himself up and threw back his head.\n\n\"Are we afraid of ice? Have we not seen angry water before? I have been\nhungry, but I have never died of it. Surely if there are fish in the sea\nand grass in the valleys, we can live there. I should like to stand on a\nhill and look around on a wide land and think, 'This is all ours,' and\nout upon a rough sea and think, 'Far off there are our foes and they\ndare not come over to us.' Besides, we shall have no Shockhead Harald to\nlord it over us. We can come and go and feast and fight as we please. We\nshall be our own kings. And our ships will be always waiting to take us\naway, when we are weary of it. And we shall see things that other men\nhave never seen. I am tired of the old things. Perhaps in after days men\nwill make songs about 'those foster-brothers, Ingolf and Leif, who made\na new country in a wonderful land, and whose sons and grandsons are\nmighty men in Iceland!'\"\n\nIngolf leaped up from his chair.\n\n\"By the strong arm of Thor!\" he cried, \"I like the sound of it. Now I\nmake my vow.\"\n\nHe raised his drinking-horn.\n\n\"I vow that I will find this Iceland and pass the winter there, and that\nif man can live upon it I will go back there and set up my home.\"\n\n\"And I vow that I will follow my foster-brother,\" cried Leif.\n\nAnd many men vowed to go.\n\nSo on the next day they began to make ready a boat. They looked her over\ncarefully and recalked every seam and freshly painted her and put into\nher their strongest oars and made her a new sail.\n\n\"This will be the longest voyage that she ever made,\" Ingolf said.\n\nWhen the work was done, they put into her great stores, axes, hammers,\nfish-nets, cooking-kettles, kegs of ale, chests of hard bread, chests of\nsmoked meat, brass kettles full of flour, skin bottles of water. They\nstowed these things away in the ends of the ship. When they were ready\nthey put in four head of cattle.\n\n\"We shall need the milk and perhaps the meat,\" Ingolf said.\n\nMany men wished to go, but Ingolf had said:\n\n\"There is little room to spare and little food and drink. I have planned\nfor half a year. But perhaps we must be sailing longer than that. Our\nfood may run short. We must not have extra mouths to feed. There are\nthirty oars in our boat. I will take only one man for every oar, and\nLeif and I will steer.\"\n\nSo they started off. Leif stood in the prow leaning forward and looking\nfar ahead, and he sang:\n\n    \"What does the swimming dragon smell?\n    A stormy sea, an empty land,\n    Hunger, darkness, giants, fire.\n    Leif and his sword do laugh at that.\"\n\nThey sailed for days and saw no land. Sometimes they passed ships and\nalways made sure to sail close enough to hail them.\n\n\"Where are you going?\" Ingolf would call.\n\n\"To Norway,\" would come back the answer.\n\n\"For trade or fight?\" Leif would shout.\n\nThen would ring out a great laugh from that boat and this answer:\n\n\"A shut mouth is a good friend.\"\n\nSo the two ships sailed on, and the men were glad to have heard a\ngreeting and to have called one.\n\nBut at last there were the Shetlands.\n\n\"We will go in here and rest,\" Ingolf said.\n\nWhen they rowed to shore a certain Shetland man stood there. He watched\nthem land and looked them all over. Then he walked up to Ingolf and\nsaid:\n\n\"You look like brave men. Welcome to Shetland. You shall come to my\nhouse and rest your legs from ship-going and fill your stomachs. I\nhunger for news of Norway.\"\n\nSo they went to his house and stayed there for three days. And good it\nseemed to be near a fire and in a quiet bed and before a steaming\nplatter. When they went to the shore to start off again, the Shetland\nman had his thralls carry a keg of ale and a great kettle of cooked meat\nand put them into the ship.\n\n\"Think of me when you eat this,\" he said.\n\nThen the Norsemen put to sea again and sailed for a long time.\n\nOne day a terrible storm came up; the sky was black; the wind howled\nthrough the ship. Great waves leaped in the sea.\n\n\"Down with the sail and out with the oars!\" Ingolf shouted.\n\nSo the men furled the sail and took down the mast and laid it along the\nbottom of the boat. As they worked, one man was washed overboard and\ndrowned. The men sat down to row, but the tumbling waves tossed the boat\nabout and poured over her and broke three of the oars. But still the men\nheld on. They were wet to the skin and were cold, and their arms and\nlegs ached with the hard work, and they were hungry from the long\nwaiting, but not one face was white with fear.\n\n\"Ran, in her caves under sea, wants us for company to-night,\" Ingolf\nlaughed.\n\nSo they tossed about all night, but in the morning the wind died down.\nGreat waves still rolled, and for days the sea was rough, but they\ncould put up the sail. Then one day Leif, as he sat in the pilot's seat,\njumped to his feet and sang:\n\n    \"To eyes grown tired with looking far,\n    All at once appeared an island,\n    A stretching-place for sea-legs,\n    A quiet bed for backs grown stiff\n    On rowing-bench on rolling sea.\n    A place to build a red fire\n    And thaw the blood that sea-winds froze.\"\n\nBut when they came near they saw no place to land. The island was like a\nmountain of rock standing out of the water. The sides were steep and\nsmooth. They sailed around it, but found no place to climb up.\n\n\"There are many other islands here,\" said Leif. \"We will try another.\"\n\nSo he steered to another. It, too, was a steep rock, but one side sloped\ndown to the water and was green with grass.\n\n\"Oh, I have not seen anything so good as that green grass since I looked\ninto my mother's face,\" one man said.\n\nThere was a little harbor there. The men rowed in and quickly jumped out\nand put the rollers under the ship and pulled her upon shore. Then they\nthrew themselves down on the grass and rolled and stretched their arms\nand shouted for joy. After that they built a fire and warmed themselves\nand cooked a meal and ate like wolves. They slept there that night.\n\nIn the morning before Ingolf's men started away they were standing high\nup on the hillside, looking about. They saw no houses on any of the\nislands, but they saw smoke rise from one hillside.\n\n\"Some other men, like us, weary of the sea and stopping to rest,\" said\nIngolf.\n\nThey saw the island that they had sailed around the night before.\n\n\"There can surely be nothing but birds' nests on top of that,\" Sighvat\nsaid.\n\n\"Look!\" cried another, pointing.\n\nMen were standing on the flat top of that island. They were letting a\nboat down the steep side with ropes. When it struck the water, they made\na rope fast to the rock and slid down it into the ship and sailed off.\n\n\"Some robber vikings from Scotland or Ireland,\" laughed Leif. \"It is a\ngood hiding place for treasure.\"\n\nSoon Ingolf and his men got into their ship and were off. Old Sighvat\ngrumbled.\n\n\"Is this land not new enough and empty enough and far enough? I am tired\nof sea, sea, sea, and nothing else.\"\n\n\"We started for Iceland,\" said Ingolf, \"and I will not stop before I\ncome there. I have a vow. Did you make none, Sighvat?\"\n\nThen they were on the water again for weeks with no sight of land.\n\n\"Oh! I would give my right hand to see a dragon pawing the water off\nthere and to fling a word to its men,\" Sighvat said.\n\n\"No hope of that,\" replied Ingolf. \"Only three dragons before ours have\never swept this water, and men are not sailing this way for pleasure or\nriches.\"\n\nSo only the desolate sea stretched around them. Sometimes it was smooth\nand shining under the sun. Often it was torn by winds, and a gray sky\nhung over it, and the men were drenched with rain. Once they ran into a\nfog. For three days and nights they could not see sun or stars to steer\nby. They forgot which way was north. When after three days the fog\nlifted, they found that they had been going in the wrong direction, and\nthey had to turn around and sail all that weary way over again. But at\nlast one afternoon they saw a white cloud resting on the water far off.\nAs they sailed toward it, it grew into long stretches of black, hilly\nshore with a blue ice mountain rising from it. The sun was going down\nbehind that mountain, and long lines of pink and of shining green, and\ngreat purple shadows streaked the blue.\n\n\"It is Iceland!\" shouted the men.\n\n\"It is like Asgard the Shining,\" Ingolf said.\n\nBut it was still far off. Men can see a long way there because the air\nis so clear. So Ingolf and his people sailed on for hours and at last\ncame into a harbor. A little green valley sloped up from it. On one side\nwas the bright ice mountain. Back of it were bare black and red hills.\nIn that valley Ingolf and his men drew up their boat and camped. At\nsupper that night one of the men said:\n\n\"I almost think I never felt a fire before or had warm food in my\nmouth.\"\n\nThe men laughed.\n\n\"It is four months since we left Norway,\" Ingolf said. \"Few men have\never been on the sea so long.\"\n\nThat night they put up the awning in the boat and slept under it.\n\nAfter that some men went fishing every day in the rowboat that they had.\nAnd Ingolf took others, and they sailed along the shore, seeing what\nkind of a land this was. But winter began to come on. Then Ingolf said:\n\n\"Remember what Floki said of the ice and the rough sea in winter. Soon\nwe cannot sail any longer. Let us choose a place to stay and build a hut\nthere and cut hay for our cattle.\"\n\nSo they did. Their hut was a little mean thing of stones and turf. They\nkept the cattle and the hay in it. Sometimes they slept there, when it\nwas very cold. But most of the time they ate and slept by a great\nbonfire out of doors where it was clean. Leif said:\n\n\"I like the cold air of the sea better than the bad-smelling air of a\nhouse, even though it is warm.\"\n\nNow every day Ingolf and Leif and some of the men walked about the\nisland. At night they all sat around the campfire and talked of what\nthey had seen during the day.\n\n\"This is surely a wonderful land,\" Ingolf said once. \"It is at the same\ntime like Niflheim and like Asgard. Here is a spot green and soft, a\nsweet cradle for men. Next it is a mountain of ice where men would\nfreeze to death. And next to that is a hill of rock that seems to have\ncome out of some great fire. Yesterday I saw a cave on the seashore. The\ndoor of it was big enough for a giant. The waves broke at the doorstep.\nA terrible roaring came from the cave. I think it is the home of a\ngiant. I think that giants of fire and giants of frost made this island.\nI have seen great basins in the rocks filled with warm water. They\nlooked like giants' bath-tubs. I have seen boiling water shoot up out of\nthe ground. I have walked, and have felt and heard a great rumbling\nunder me as though some giant were sleeping there and turning over in\nhis sleep. One day I stood on a mountain and looked inland. There was a\nwide desert of sand and black and red rock with nothing growing on it.\nThe fierce wind blew dirt into my eyes, and the cold of it froze the\nmarrow in my bones. When I have seen these things I have cursed the\ncountry, and have said: 'The gods hate Iceland. I will not stay here.'\nBut then I have walked through beautiful warm valleys where the winds\ndid not come. I saw in my mind the flowers that we found last summer. I\nsaw our cattle feeding on the sweet grass. I thought of the sea full of\ngood fish. I saw my house built among green fields, and my wife sitting\nin her home, and my children playing among the flowers and making up\ntales about the bright ice mountains. I saw the wide, rough seas between\nme and Harald and our foes. Then I thought to myself, 'It is the\nsweetest home on earth.' As for me, I am coming here to live. What do\nyou say, comrades?\"\n\n\"Have I not vowed to follow you, foster-brother?\" said Leif. \"And indeed\nI never saw a land that I liked better. I don't believe in your giants.\nMy sword is my god, and my ship is my temple, and I like this land to\nset them up in.\"\n\nThey sat about the fire long that night making plans.\n\n\"You shall go home and get our women and our things, Ingolf,\" said Leif.\n\"I will off to Ireland and have a frolic. There will be little play of\nswords in this empty land, and I want to have one last game before I\nhang up my battle-knife. Besides, I will come to you with a ship full of\ngold and clothes and house-hangings such as we cannot get here, and they\nwill cost me nothing but the swing of a sword.\"\n\nAs they talked, Ingolf looked up at the sky. The northern lights were\nquivering there. They were like great flames of yellow and green and\nred.\n\n\"See,\" he said, and pointed. \"We are not so far that the gods will\nforget us. There is the flash of the armor of the Valkyrias.[11] A\nbattle is on somewhere, and Odin has sent his maidens to choose the\nheroes for Valhalla.\"\n\nLeif only laughed and lay down to sleep.\n\nSo in the spring they all went back to Norway. Leif got ready the boat\nagain and merrily sailed for Ireland.\n\n\"Here I go to get riches for our new land,\" he said.\n\nIngolf set his men to cutting down pines in the forest and some to\nbuilding a new ship. He had his thralls plant large crops of grain and\ngrind flour and make new kegs and chests of wood. He himself worked much\nat the forge, making all kinds of tools--spades, axes, hammers,\nhunting-knives, cooking kettles. The women were busy weaving and sewing\nnew clothes. Ingolf sold his house and land and everything that he could\nnot take with him.\n\nAfter about two years Leif came back. He had ten thralls that he had got\nin Ireland. He took Ingolf aboard his ship and raised the covers of\ngreat chests. Gold helmets, silver-trimmed drinking-horns, embroidered\nrobes, and swords flashed out.\n\n\"Did I not say that I would come back with a full ship?\" he laughed.\n\nAt last all things were ready for starting.\n\n\"To-day I will sacrifice to Thor and Odin,\" Ingolf said. \"If the omens\nare good we will start to-morrow.\"\n\n\"Well, go, foster-brother,\" laughed Leif. \"But I have better things to\ndo. I will be putting the cattle into the ship and will have all ready.\"\n\nSo Ingolf and his men went into the forests a little way. There in a\ncleared space stood a large building. In front of this temple the men\nkilled two horses for Odin. Ingolf caught some of the blood in a brass\nbowl. He raised it and looked up at the sky and said:\n\n\"All-wise and all-father Odin, and Thor who loves the thunder, I give\nthese horses to you. Tell me whether it is your will that we go to\nIceland.\"\n\nAs he said that, a raven flew over his head. Ingolf watched it.\n\n\"It is Odin's will that we go,\" he said. \"He sent his raven[12] to tell\nus. It is flying straight toward Iceland.\"\n\nThe men shouted with joy at that.\n\nNow they hung some of the meat of the horses on a tree near the temple.\n\n\"For the ravens of Odin,\" they said.\n\nIngolf carried the bowl of blood into the temple. He went through the\nfeast hall in front to a little room at the back. Here stood wooden\nstatues of the gods in a semicircle. Before them was a stone altar.\nIngolf took a little brush of twigs that lay on it and dipped it into\nthe blood and sprinkled the statues.\n\n\"You shall taste of our sacrifice,\" he said. \"Look kindly on us from\nyour happy seats in Asgard.\"\n\nThen they went into the feast hall. There thralls were boiling the\nhorseflesh in pots over the fire. The tables were standing ready before\nthe benches. Ingolf walked to the high seat. All the others took their\nplaces at the benches. When the horns came round, Ingolf made this vow:\n\n\"I vow that I will build my house wherever these pillars lead me.\"\n\nHe put his hand upon a tall post that stood beside the high seat. There\nwas one at each side. They were the front posts of the chair. But they\nstood up high, almost to the roof. They were wonderfully carved and\npainted with men and dragons. On the top of each one was a little\nstatue of Thor with his hammer.\n\nAt the end of the feast Ingolf had his thralls dig these pillars up. He\nhad a little bronze chest filled with the earth that was under the\naltar.\n\n\"I will take the pillars of my high seat to Iceland,\" he said, \"and I\nwill set up my altar there upon the soil of Norway, the soil that all my\nancestors have trod, the soil that Thor loves.\"\n\nSo they carried the pillars and the chest of earth and the statues of\nthe gods, and put them into Ingolf's boat.\n\n\"It is a well-packed ship,\" the men said. \"There is no spot to spare.\"\n\nTools, and chests of food, and tubs of drink, and chests of clothes, and\nfishing nets were stowed in the bows of both boats. In the bottom were\nlaid some long, heavy, hewn logs.\n\n\"The trees in Iceland are little,\" Ingolf said. \"We must take the great\nbeams for our homes with us.\"\n\nStanding on these logs were a few cattle and sheep and horses and pigs.\nThe rowers' benches were along the sides. In the stern of each boat was\na little cabin. Here the women and children were to sleep. But the men\nwould sleep on the timbers in the middle of the boat and perhaps they\nwould put up the awning sometimes.\n\nAt last everyone was aboard. Men loosed the rope that held the boats.\nThe ships flashed down the rollers into the water, and Ingolf and Leif\nwere off for Iceland. As they sailed away everyone looked back at the\nshore of old Norway. There were tears in the women's eyes. Helga, Leif's\nwife, sang:\n\n    \"There was I born. There was I wed.\n    There are my father's bones.\n    There are the hills and fields,\n    The streams and rocks that I love.\n    There are houses and temples,\n    Women and warriors and feasts,\n    Ships and songs and fights--\n    A crowded, joyous land.\n    I go to an empty land.\"\n\nThere was the same long voyage with storm and fog. But at last the\npeople saw again the white cloud and saw it growing into land and\nmountains. Then Ingolf took the pillars of his high seat and threw them\noverboard.\n\n\"Guide them to a good place, O Thor!\" he cried.\n\nThe waves caught them up and rolled them about. Ingolf followed them\nwith his ship. But soon a storm came up. The men had to take down the\nsails and masts, and they could do nothing with their oars. The two\nships tossed about in the sea wherever the waves sent them. The pillars\ndrifted away, and Ingolf could not see them.\n\n\"Remember your pillars, O Thor!\" he cried.\n\nThen he saw that Leif's ship was being driven far off.\n\n\"Ah, my foster-brother,\" he thought, \"shall I not have you to cheer me\nin this empty land? O Thor, let him not go down to the caves of Ran! He\nis too good a man for that.\"\n\nOn the next day the storm was not so hard, and Ingolf put in at a good\nharbor. A high rocky point stuck out into the sea. A broad bay with\nislands in the mouth was at the side. Behind the rocky point was a\nlevel green place with ice-mountains shining far back.\n\nAfter a day or two Ingolf said:\n\n\"I will go look for my pillars.\"\n\nSo he and a few men got into the rowboat and went along the shore and\ninto all the fiords, but they could not find the pillars. After a week\nthey came back, and Ingolf said:\n\n\"I will build a house here to live in while I look for the posts. This\nway is uncomfortable for the women.\"\n\nSo he did. Then he set out again to look for the pillars, but he had no\nbetter luck and came back.\n\n\"I must stay at home and see to the making of hay and the drying of\nfish,\" he said. \"Winter is coming on, and we must not be caught with\nnothing to eat.\"\n\nSo he stayed and worked and sent two of his thralls to look for the holy\nposts. They came back every week or two and always had to say that they\nhad not found them. Midwinter was coming on.\n\n[Illustration: \"_Then he saw that Leif's ship was being driven afar\noff_\"]\n\n\"Ah!\" said Ingolf's wife one day, \"do you remember the gay feast that we\nhad at Yule-time? All our friends were there. The house rang with song\nand laughter. Our tables bent with good things to eat. Walls were hung\nwith gay draperies. The floor was clean with sweet-smelling\npine-branches. Now look at this mean house; its dirt floor, its bare\nstone walls, its littleness, its darkness! Look at our long faces. No\none here could make a song if he tried. Oh! I am sick for dear old\nNorway.\"\n\n\"It is Thor's fault,\" Ingolf cried. \"He will not let me find his posts.\"\n\nHe strode out of the house and stood scowling at the gray sea.\n\n\"Ah, foster-brother!\" he said. \"It was never so gloomy when you were by\nmy side. Where are you now? Shall I never hear your merry laugh again?\nThat spot in my palm burns, and my heart aches to see you. That arch of\nsod keeps rising before my eyes. Our vows keep ringing in my ears.\"\n\nAt last the long, gloomy winter passed and spring came.\n\n\"Cheer up, good wife,\" Ingolf said. \"Better days are coming now.\"\n\nBut that same day the thralls came back from looking for the posts.\n\n\"We have bad news,\" they said. \"As we walked along the shore looking for\nthe pillars we saw a man lying on the shore. We went up to him. He was\ndead. It was Leif. Two well-built houses stood near. We went to them. We\nknew from the carving on the door-posts that they were Leif's. We went\nin. The rooms were empty. Along the shore and in the wood back of the\nhouse we found all of his men, dead. There was no living thing about.\"\n\nIngolf said no word, but his face was white, and his mouth was set. He\nwent into the house and got his spears and his shield and said to his\nmen:\n\n\"Follow me.\"\n\nThey put provisions into the boat and pushed off and sailed until they\nsaw Leif's houses on the shore of the harbor. There they saw Leif and\nthe men who were his friends, dead. Their swords and spears were gone.\nIngolf walked through the houses calling on Helga and on the thralls,\nbut no one answered. The storehouse was empty. The rich hangings were\ngone from the walls of the houses. There was nothing in the stables. The\nboat was gone.\n\nIngolf went out and stood on a high point of land that jutted out into\nthe water. Far along the coast he saw some little islands. He turned to\nhis men and said:\n\n\"The thralls have done it. I think we shall find them on those islands.\"\n\nThen he went back to Leif and stood looking at him.\n\n\"What a shame for so brave a man to fall by the hands of thralls! But I\nhave found that such things always happen to men who do not sacrifice to\nthe gods. Ah, Leif! I did not think when we made those vows of\nfoster-brotherhood that this would ever happen. But do not fear. I\nremember my promise. I had thought that a man's blood is precious in\nthis empty land, but my vow is more precious.\"\n\nNow they laid all those men together and tied on their hell-shoes.\n\n\"I need my sword for your sake, foster-brother. I cannot give you that.\nBut you shall have my spears and my drinking-horn,\" said Ingolf. \"For\nsurely Odin has chosen you for Valhalla, even though you did not\nsacrifice. You are too good a man to go to Niflheim. You would make\ntimes merry in Valhalla.\"\n\nSo Ingolf put his spears and his drinking-horn by Leif. Then the men\nraised a great mound over all the dead. After that they went aboard\ntheir boat and sailed for the islands that Ingolf had seen. It was\nevening when they reached them.\n\n\"I see smoke rising from that one,\" Ingolf said, pointing.\n\nHe steered for it. It was a steep rock like that one in the Faroes, but\nthey found a harbor and landed and climbed the steep hill and came out\non top. They saw the ten thralls sitting about a bonfire eating. Helga\nand the other women from Leif's house sat near, huddled together, white\nand frightened. One of the thralls gave a great laugh and shouted:\n\n\"This is better than pulling Leif's plow. To-morrow we will sail for\nIreland with all his wealth.\"\n\n\"To-morrow you will be freezing in Niflheim,\" cried Ingolf, and he\nleaped among them swinging his sword, and all his men followed him, and\nthey killed those thralls.\n\nThen Ingolf turned to Helga. She threw herself into his arms and wept.\nBut after a while she told him this story:\n\n\"When springtime came, Leif thought that he would sow wheat. He had but\none ox. The others had died during the winter. So he set the thralls to\nhelp pull the plow. I saw their sour looks and was afraid, but Leif only\nlaughed:\n\n\"'What else can thralls expect?' he said. 'Never fear them, good wife.'\n\n\"Now one day soon after that the thralls came running to the house\ncalling out:\n\n\"'The ox is dead! The ox is dead!'\n\n\"Leif asked them about it. They said that a bear had come out of the\nwoods and killed it, and that they had scared the beast away. They\npointed out where it had gone. Then Leif called his men and said:\n\n\"'A hunt! I had not hoped for such great sport here. Ah, we will have a\nfeast off that bear!'\n\n\"So they took their spears and went out into the woods. As soon as they\nwere gone, the thralls came running into the house and took down all the\nswords and shields from the wall and ran out. In some way they met my\nlord and his men in the woods and killed them. Then they came back and\ntook everything in the house and dragged us to the boat and sailed\nhere.\"\n\n\"O my brother!\" said Ingolf, \"where is that song about 'those two\nfoster-brothers, Ingolf and Leif, who made a new country in a wonderful\nland, and whose sons and grandsons are mighty men in Iceland'? But come\nhome with me, Helga.\"\n\nSo they took the women and Leif's things and Leif's boat and sailed\nhome. The next day after they came to Ingolf's house, Helga said:\n\n\"We have made your family larger, brother Ingolf. Will you not take\nLeif's two houses and live in them? He does not need them now. He would\nlike you to have them.\"\n\n\"It would be pleasant to live there,\" Ingolf said. \"I thank you.\"\n\nSo the next day they loaded everything aboard the two ships and sailed\nfor Leif's house. There they stayed for a year. Ingolf still sent his\nthralls out to look for the pillars. He was careful always to have hay,\nso his cattle prospered. That spring he planted wheat, but it did not\ngrow well.\n\n\"This is sickly stuff,\" Ingolf said. \"It takes too much time and work.\nIt is better to save the land for hay. Perhaps we can sometime go back\nto Norway for flour.\"\n\nAt last one day the thralls came home and said:\n\n\"We have found the pillars.\"\n\nIngolf jumped to his feet. He cried out:\n\n\"You have kept me waiting three years, Thor. But as soon as my house and\ntemple are built, I will sacrifice to you three horses as a\nthank-offering.\"\n\n\"It is a long way off, master,\" the thralls said, \"and we have found\nmuch better places in our walks about the island.\"\n\n\"Thor knows best,\" Ingolf answered. \"I will settle where he leads me.\"\n\nSo that summer they loaded everything into the ships again and sailed\nwest along the coast until they came to the place where the pillars\nwere. The land there was low and green. On both sides were low hills. A\nlittle lake glistened back from shore. In the valley were hot springs,\nwith steam rising from them.\n\n\"It looks like smoke,\" the men said. \"It is very strange to see hot\nwater and smoke come out of the ground.\"\n\nIn front of this green land was a good harbor with islands in it. Far\nover the sea toward the north shone a great ice-mountain.\n\n\"I like the place,\" Ingolf said. \"I will make this land mine.\"\n\nSo he built fires at the mouth of the river near there, and stood by\nthem and called out loudly:\n\n\"I have put my fire at the mouth of these rivers. All the land that they\ndrain is mine, and no man shall claim it but me. I will call this place\nReykjavik.\"[13]\n\nThen Ingolf built his feast hall. He himself carved the beams and the\ndoor-posts. Gaily painted dragons leaned out from the doors and stood up\nfrom the gables. Men and animals fought on the door-posts. For the doors\nhe made at the forge great iron hinges. Their ends curved and spread all\nover the door. Near his feast hall he built a storehouse and a kitchen\nand a smithy and a stable and a bower for the women.\n\n\"We do not need a sleeping-house for guests,\" he said. \"Who would be our\nguests?\"\n\nHe roofed all his buildings with turf. It made them look like green\nmounds with gay carved and painted walls under them. He built also a\ntemple, and on that was beautiful carving. In this he set up those\nstatues that had been in his old temple. He put up, too, those pillars\nof his high seat that had been drifting about so long. Under them he\nlaid the soil of Norway that he had brought in the little bronze chest.\n\n\"I have kept my vow, O Thor!\" he cried.\n\nThen he sacrificed three horses that he had promised to Thor. After that\nwas over, he said:\n\n\"Here is a good field for sport. Let us have some of the old games that\nwe used to play at home. Who will wrestle with me?\"\n\nSo they wrestled there and ran races and swam in the water. The women\nsat and looked on.\n\n\"Oh, this is good to see!\" Helga cried. \"We are as gay as we used to be\nin old Norway.\"\n\nBut it was not many weeks before Ingolf said:\n\n\"I wish that I might sometime see sails in that harbor. I wish that I\nmight think, 'Around this point of land is another farm, and across the\nbay is another. I can go there when I am very lonely.' I wish that I\nmight sometime be invited to a feast. I wish that I might sometimes hear\nthe good, clanging music of weapons at play. It is a good land, but we\nhave lived alone for four years. I am hungry for new faces and for\ntidings of Norway.\"\n\nOne night as he and his men sat about the long fire in the feast hall, a\nservant threw a great piece of wood upon the fire. It was streaked with\nfaded paint and it showed bits of carving.\n\n\"See,\" said Ingolf, pointing to it, \"see what is left of a good ship's\nprow! What lands have you seen, O dragon's head? What battles have you\nfought? What was your master's name? Where did the storm meet you?\nPerhaps he was coming to Iceland, comrades. Would it not have been\npleasant to see his sail and to shake his hand and to welcome him to\nIceland? But instead he is in Ran's caves, and only his broken prow has\ndrifted here.\"\n\nNow it was not many months after that when one of the men came running\ninto the feast hall, shouting:\n\n\"A sail! a sail in the harbor!\"\n\nAll those men gave a shout with no word in it, as though their hearts\nhad leaped into their throats. They jumped up and ran to the shore and\nstood there with hungry eyes. When the men landed, those Icelanders\nclapped them on the shoulders, and tears ran down their faces. For a\nlong time they could say nothing but \"Welcome! Welcome!\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_Those Icelanders clapped them on the shoulders_\"]\n\nBut after a while Ingolf led them to the feast hall and had a feast\nspread at once. While the thralls were at work, the men stood together\nand talked. Such a noise had never been in that hall before.\n\n\"We have already built our fires and claimed our land up the shore a\nway,\" the leader said. \"Men in Norway talk much of Ingolf and Leif, and\nwonder what has happened to them.\"\n\nThen Ingolf told them of all that had come to pass in Iceland; and then\nhe asked of Norway.\n\n\"Ah! things are going from bad to worse,\" the newcomers said. \"Harald\ngrows mightier every day. A man dare not swing a sword now except for\nthe king. We came here to get away from him. Many men are talking of\nIceland. Soon the sea-road between here and Norway will be swarming with\ndragons.\"\n\nAnd so it was. Ships also came from Ireland and from the Shetlands and\nthe Orkneys.\n\n\"Harald has come west-over-seas,\" the men of these ships said, \"and has\nlaid his heavy hand upon the islands and put his earls over them. They\nare no place now for free men.\"\n\nSo by the time Ingolf was an old man, Iceland was no longer an empty\nland. Every valley was spotted with bright feast halls and temples.\nHorses and cattle pastured on the hillsides. Smoke curled up from\nkitchens and smithies. Gay ships sailed the waters, taking Iceland cloth\nand wool and Iceland fish and oil and the soft feathers of Iceland birds\nto Norway to sell, and bringing back wood and flour and grain.\n\nWhen Ingolf died, his men drew up on the shore the boat in which he had\ncome to Iceland. They painted it freshly and put new gold on it, so that\nit stood there a glittering dragon with head raised high, looking over\nthe water. Old Sighvat lifted a huge stone and carried it to the ship's\nside. With all his strength he threw it into the bottom. The timbers\ncracked.\n\n\"If this ship moves from here,\" he said, \"then I do not know how to moor\na ship. It is Ingolf's grave.\"\n\nThen men laid Ingolf upon his shield and carried him and placed him on\nthe high deck in the stern near the pilot's seat where he had sat to\nsteer to Iceland. They hung his sword over his shoulder. They laid his\nspear by his side. In his hand they put his mead-horn. Into the ship\nthey set a great treasure-chest filled with beautiful clothes and\nbracelets and head-bands. Beside the treasure-chest they piled up many\nswords and spears and shields. They put gold-trimmed saddles and bridles\nupon three horses. Then they killed the horses and dragged them into the\nship. They killed hunting-dogs and put them by the horses; for they\nsaid:\n\n\"All these things Ingolf will need in Valhalla. When he walks through\nthe door of that feast hall, Odin must know that a rich and brave man\ncomes. When he fights with those heroes during the day, he must have\nweapons worthy of him. He must have dogs for the hunt. When he feasts\nwith those heroes at night he must wear rich clothes, so that those\nfeasters shall know that he was a wealthy man and generous, and that his\nfriends loved him.\"\n\nIngolf's son tied on his hell-shoes for the long journey.\n\n\"If these shoes come untied,\" he said, \"I do not know how to fasten\nhell-shoes.\"\n\nThen he went out of the ship and stood on the ground with his family.\nAll the men of Iceland were there.\n\n\"This is a glorious sight,\" they said. \"Surely no ship ever carried a\nricher load. Inside and out the boat blazes with gold and bronze, and,\nhigh over his riches, lies the great Ingolf, ready to take the tiller\nand guide to Valhalla, where all the heroes will rise up and shout him\nwelcome.\"\n\nThen the thralls heaped a mound of earth over the ship. This hill stood\nup against the sky and seemed to say: \"Here lies a great man.\" Sighvat\nput a stone on the top, with runes on it telling whose grave it was.\nAll this time a skald stood by and played on his harp and sang a song\nabout that time when Ingolf came to Iceland. He called him the father of\nIceland. People of that country still read an old story that the men of\nthat long ago time wrote about Ingolf, and they love him because he was\na brave man and \"the first of men to come to Iceland.\"\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[10] See note about foster-brothers on page 197.\n\n[11] See note about Valkyrias on page 198.\n\n[12] See note about Odin's ravens on page 198.\n\n[13] See note about Reykjavik on page 199.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nEric the Red\n\n\nIt was a spring day many years after Ingolf died. All the freemen in the\nwest of Iceland had come to a meeting. Here they made laws and punished\nmen for having done wrong. The meeting was over now. Men were walking\nabout the plain and talking. Everybody seemed much excited. Voices were\nloud, arms were swinging.\n\n\"It was an unjust decision,\" some one cried. \"Eric killed the men in\nfair fight. The judges outlawed him because they were afraid. His foe\nThorgest has many rich and powerful men to back him.\"\n\n\"No, no!\" said another. \"Eric is a bloody man. I am glad he is out of\nIceland.\"\n\nJust then a big man with bushy red hair and beard stalked through the\ncrowd. He looked straight ahead and scowled.\n\n\"There he goes,\" people said, and turned to look after him.\n\n\"His hands are as red as his beard,\" some said, and frowned.\n\nBut others looked at him and smiled, saying:\n\n\"He walks like Thor the Fearless.\"\n\n\"His story would make a fine song,\" one said. \"As strong and as brave\nand as red as Thor! Always in a quarrel. A man of many places--Norway,\nthe north of Iceland, the west of Iceland, those little islands off the\nshore of Iceland. Outlawed from all of them on account of his quarrels.\nWhere will he go now, I wonder?\"\n\nThis Eric strode down to the shore with his men following.\n\n\"He is in a black temper,\" they said. \"We should best not talk to him.\"\n\nSo they made ready the boat in silence. Eric got into the pilot's seat\nand they sailed off. Soon they pulled the ship up on their own shore.\nEric strolled into his house and called for supper. When the\ndrinking-horns had been filled and emptied, Eric pulled himself up and\nsmiled and shouted out so that the great room was full of his big\nvoice:\n\n\"There is no friend like mead. It always cheers a man's heart.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_He looked straight ahead of him and scowled_\"]\n\nThen laughter and talking began in the hall because Eric's good temper\nhad come back. After a while Eric said:\n\n\"Well, I must off somewhere. I have been driven about from place to\nplace, like a seabird in a storm. And there is always a storm about me.\nIt is my sword's fault. She is ever itching to break her peace-bands[14]\nand be out and at the play. She has shut Norway to me and now Iceland.\nWhere will you go next, old comrade?\" and he pulled out his sword and\nlooked at it and smiled as the fire flashed on it.\n\n\"There are some of us who will follow you wherever you go, Eric,\" called\na man from across the fire.\n\n\"Is it so?\" Eric cried, leaping up. \"Oh! then we shall have some merry\ntimes yet. Who will go with me?\"\n\nMore than half the men in the hall jumped to their feet and waved their\ndrinking-horns and shouted:\n\n\"I! I!\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_More than half the men in the hall jumped to their\nfeet_\"]\n\nEric sat down in his chair and laughed.\n\n\"O you bloody birds of battle!\" he cried. \"Ever hungry for new frolic!\nOur swords are sisters in blood, and we are brothers in adventure. Do\nyou know what is in my heart to do?\"\n\nHe jumped to his feet, and his face glowed. Then he laughed as he looked\nat his men.\n\n\"I see the answer flashing from your eyes,\" he said, \"that you will do\nit even if it is to go down to Niflheim and drag up Hela, the pale queen\nof the stiff dead.\"\n\nHis men pounded on the tables and shouted:\n\n\"Yes! Yes! Anywhere behind Eric!\"\n\n\"But it is not to Niflheim,\" Eric laughed. \"Did you ever hear that story\nthat Gunnbiorn told? He was sailing for Iceland, but the fog came down,\nand then the wind caught him and blew him far off. While he drifted\nabout he saw a strange land that rose up white and shining out of a blue\nsea. Huge ships of ice sailed out from it and met him. I mean to sail to\nthat land.\"\n\nA great shout went up that shook the rafters. Then the men sat and\ntalked over plans. While they sat, a stranger came into the hall.\n\n\"I have no time to drink,\" he said. \"I have a message from your friend\nEyjolf. He says that Thorgest with all his men means to come here and\ncatch you to-night. Eyjolf bids you come to him, and he will hide you\nuntil you are ready to start; for he loves you.\"\n\n\"Hunted like a wolf from corner to corner of the world!\" Eric cried\nangrily. \"Will they not even let me finish one feast?\"\n\nThen he laughed.\n\n\"But if I take my sport like a wolf, I must be hunted like one. So we\nshall sleep to-night in the woods about Eyjolf's house, comrades,\ninstead of in these good beds. Well, we have done it before.\"\n\n\"And it is no bad place,\" cried some of the men.\n\n\"I always liked the stars better than a smoky house fire,\" said one.\n\n\"Can no bad fortune spoil your good nature?\" laughed Eric. \"But now we\nare off. Let every man carry what he can.\"\n\nSo they quickly loaded themselves with clothes and gold and swords and\nspears and kettles of food. Eric led his wife Thorhild and his two young\nsons, Thorstein and Leif. All together they got into the boat and went\nto Eyjolf's farm. For a week or more they stayed in his woods, sometimes\nin a secret cave of his when they knew that Thorgest was about. And\nsometimes Eyjolf sent and said:\n\n\"Thorgest is off. Come to my house for a feast.\"\n\nAll this time they were making ready for the voyage, repairing the ship\nand filling it with stores. Word of what Eric meant to do got out, and\nmen laughed and said:\n\n\"Is that not like Eric? What will he not do?\"\n\nSome men liked the sound of it, and they came to Eric and said:\n\n\"We will go with you to this strange land.\"\n\nSo all were ready and they pushed off with Eric's family aboard and\nthose friends who had joined him. They took horses and cattle with them,\nand all kinds of tools and food.\n\n\"I do not well know where this land is,\" Eric said. \"Gunnbiorn said only\nthat he sailed east when he came home to Iceland. So I will steer\nstraight west. We shall surely find something. I do not know, either,\nhow long we must go.\"\n\nSo they sailed that strange ocean, never dreaming what might be ahead of\nthem. They found no islands to rest on. They met heavy fogs.\n\nOne day as Eric sat in the pilot's seat, he said:\n\n\"I think that I see one of Gunnbiorn's ships of ice. Shall we sail up to\nher and see what kind of a craft she is?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" shouted his men.\n\nSo they went on toward it.\n\n\"It sends out a cold breath,\" said one of the men.\n\nThey all wrapped their cloaks about them.\n\n\"It is a bigger boat than I ever saw before,\" said Eric. \"The white\nmast stands as high as a hill.\"\n\n\"It must be giants that sail in it, frost giants,\" said another of the\nmen.\n\nBut as they came nearer, Eric all at once laughed loudly and called out:\n\n\"By Thor, that Gunnbiorn was a foolish fellow. Why, look! It is only a\npiece of floating ice such as we sometimes see from Iceland. It is no\nship, and there is no one on it.\"\n\nHis men laughed and one called to another and said:\n\n\"And you thought of frost giants!\"\n\nThen they sailed on for days and days. They met many of these icebergs.\nOn one of them was a white bear.\n\n\"Yonder is a strange pilot,\" Eric laughed.\n\n\"I have seen bears come floating so to the north shore of Iceland,\" an\nold man said. \"Perhaps they come from the land that we are going to\nfind.\"\n\nOne day Eric said:\n\n\"I see afar off an iceberg larger than any one yet. Perhaps that is our\nwhite land.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"_It is a bigger boat than I ever saw before_\"]\n\nBut even as he said it he felt his boat swing under his hand as he held\nthe tiller. He bore hard on the rudder, but he could not turn the ship.\n\n\"What is this?\" he cried. \"A strong river is running here. It is\ncarrying our ship away from this land. I cannot make head against it.\nOut with the oars!\"\n\nSo with oars and sail and rudder they fought against the current, but it\ntook the boat along like a chip, and after a while they put up their\noars and drifted.\n\n\"Luck has taken us into its own hands,\" Eric laughed. \"But this is as\ngood a way as another.\"\n\nSometimes they were near enough to see the land, then they were carried\nout into the sea and thought that they should never see any land again.\n\n\"Perhaps this river will carry us to a whirlpool and suck us under,\" the\nmen said.\n\nBut at last Eric felt the current less strong under his hand.\n\n\"To the oars again!\" he called.\n\nSo they fought with the current and sailed out of it and went on toward\nland. But when they reached the shore they found no place to go in.\nSteep black walls shot up from the sea. Nothing grew on them. When the\nmen looked above the cliffs they saw a long line of white cutting the\nsky.\n\n\"It is a land of ice,\" they said.\n\nThey sailed on south, all the time looking for a place to go ashore.\n\n\"I am sick of this endless sea,\" Thorhild complained, \"but this land is\nworse.\"\n\nAfter a while they began to see small bays cut into the shore with\nlittle flat patches of green at their sides. They landed in these places\nand stretched and warmed themselves and ate.\n\n\"But these spots are only big enough for graves,\" the men said. \"We can\nnot live here.\"\n\nSo they went on again. All the time the weather was growing colder.\nEric's people kept themselves wrapped in their cloaks and put scarfs\naround their heads.\n\n\"And it is still summer!\" Thorhild said. \"What will it be in winter?\"\n\n\"We must find a place to build a house now before the winter comes on,\"\nsaid Eric. \"We must not freeze here.\"\n\nSo they chose a little spot with hills about it to keep off the wind.\nThey made a house out of stones; for there were many in that place. They\nlived there that winter. The sea for a long way out from shore froze so\nthat it looked like white land. The men went out upon it to hunt white\nbear and seal. They ate the meat and wore the skins to keep them warm.\nThe hardest thing was to get fuel for the fire. No trees grew there. The\nmen found a little driftwood along the shore, but it was not enough. So\nthey burned the bones and the fat of the animals they killed.\n\n\"It is a sickening smell,\" Thorhild said. \"I have not been out of this\nmean house for weeks. I am tired of the darkness and the smoke and the\ncattle. And all the time I hear great noises, as though some giant were\nbreaking this land into pieces.\"\n\n\"Ah, cheer up, good wife!\" Eric laughed. \"I smell better luck ahead.\"\n\nOnce Eric and his men climbed the cliffs and went back into the middle\nof the land. When they came home they had this to tell:\n\n\"It is a country of ice, shining white. Nothing grows on it but a few\nmosses. Far off it looks flat, but when you walk upon it, there are\ngreat holes and cracks. We could see nothing beyond. There seems to be\nonly a fringe of land around the edge of an island of ice.\"\n\nThe winter nights were very long. Sometimes the sun showed for an hour,\nsometimes for only a few minutes, sometimes it did not show at all for a\nweek. The men hunted by the bright shining of the moon or by the\nnorthern lights.\n\nAs it grew warmer the ice in the sea began to crack and move and melt\nand float away. Eric waited only until there was a clear passage in the\nwater. Then he launched his boat, and they sailed southward again. At\nlast they found a place that Eric liked.\n\n\"Here I will build my house,\" he said.\n\nSo they did and lived there that summer and pastured their cattle and\ncut hay for the winter and fished and hunted.\n\nThe next spring Eric said:\n\n\"The land stretches far north. I am hungry to know what is there.\"\n\nThen they all got into the boat again and sailed north.\n\n\"We can leave no one here,\" Eric had said. \"We cannot tell what might\ncome between us. Perhaps giants or dragons or strange men might come out\nof this inland ice and kill our people. We must stay together.\"\n\nFarther north they found only the same bare, frozen country. So after a\nwhile they sailed back to their home and lived there.\n\nOne spring after they had been in that land for four years, Eric said:\n\n\"My eyes are hungry for the sight of men and green fields again. My\nstomach is sick of seal and whale and bear. My throat is dry for mead.\nThis is a bare and cold and hungry land. I will visit my friends in\nIceland.\"\n\n\"And our swords are rusty with long resting,\" said his men. \"Perhaps we\ncan find play for them in Iceland.\"\n\n\"Now I have a plan,\" Eric suddenly said. \"Would it not be pleasant to\nsee other feast halls as we sail along the coast?\"\n\n\"Oh! it would be a beautiful sight,\" his men said.\n\n\"Well,\" said Eric, \"I am going to try to bring back some neighbors from\nIceland. Now we must have a name for our land. How does Greenland\nsound?\"\n\nHis men laughed and said:\n\n\"It is a very white Greenland, but men will like the sound of it. It is\nbetter than Iceland.\"\n\nSo Eric and all his people sailed back and spent the winter with his\nfriends.\n\n\"Ah! Eric, it is good to hear your laugh again,\" they said.\n\nEric was at many feasts and saw many men, and he talked much of his\nGreenland.\n\n\"The sea is full of whale and seals and great fish,\" he said. \"The land\nhas bear and reindeer. There are no men there. Come back with me and\nchoose your land.\"\n\nMany men said that they would do it. Some men went because they thought\nit would be a great frolic to go to a new country. Some went because\nthey were poor in Iceland and thought:\n\n\"I can be no worse off in Greenland, and perhaps I shall grow rich\nthere.\"\n\nAnd some went because they loved Eric and wanted to be his neighbors.\n\nSo the next summer thirty-five ships full of men and women and goods\nfollowed Eric for Greenland. But they met heavy storms, and some ships\nwere wrecked, and the men drowned. Other men grew heartsick at the\nterrible storm and the long voyage and no sight of land, and they turned\nback to Iceland. So of those thirty-five ships only fifteen got to\nGreenland.\n\n\"Only the bravest and the luckiest men come here,\" Eric said. \"We shall\nhave good neighbors.\"\n\nSoon other houses were built along the fiords.\n\n\"It is pleasant to sail along the coast now,\" said Eric. \"I see smoke\nrising from houses and ships standing on the shore and friendly hands\nwaving.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[14] See note about peace-bands on page 199.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nLeif and His New Land\n\n\nNow Eric had lived in Greenland for fifteen years. His sons Thorstein\nand Leif had grown up to be big, strong men. One spring Leif said to his\nfather:\n\n\"I have never seen Norway, our mother land. I long to go there and meet\nthe great men and see the places that skalds sing about.\"\n\nEric answered:\n\n\"It is right that you should go. No man has really lived until he has\nseen Norway.\"\n\nSo he helped Leif fit out a boat and sent him off. Leif sailed for\nmonths. He passed Iceland and the Faroes and the Shetlands. He stopped\nat all of these places and feasted his mind on the new things. And\neverywhere men received him gladly; for he was handsome and wise. But at\nlast he came near Norway. Then he stood up before the pilot's seat and\nsang loudly:\n\n    \"My eyes can see her at last,\n    The mother of mighty men,\n    The field of famous fights.\n    In the sky above I see\n    Fair Asgard's shining roofs,\n    The flying hair of Thor,\n    The wings of Odin's birds,\n    The road that heroes tread.\n    I am here in the land of the gods,\n    The land of mighty men.\"\n\nFor a while he walked the land as though he were in a dream. He looked\nat this and that and everything and loved them all because it was\nNorway.\n\n\"I will go to the king,\" he said.\n\nHe had never seen a king. There were no kings in Iceland or in\nGreenland. So he went to the city where the king had his fine house. The\nking's name was Olaf. He was a great-grandson of Harald Hairfair; for\nHarald had been dead a hundred years.\n\nNow the king was going to hold a feast at night, and Leif put on his\nmost beautiful clothes to go to it. He put on long tights of blue wool\nand a short jacket of blue velvet. He belted his jacket with a gold\ngirdle. He had shoes of scarlet with golden clasps. He threw around\nhimself a cape of scarlet velvet lined with seal fur. His long sword\nstuck out from under his cloak. On his head he put a knitted cap of\nbright colors. Then he walked to the king's feast hall and went through\nthe door. It was a great hall, and it was full of richly-dressed men.\nThe fires shone on so many golden head-bands and bracelets and so many\nglittering swords and spears on the wall, and there was so much noise of\ntalking and laughing, that at first Leif did not know what to do. But at\nlast he went and sat on the very end seat of the bench near him.\n\nAs the feast went on, King Olaf sat in his high seat and looked about\nthe hall and noticed this one and that one and spoke across the fire to\nmany. He was keen-eyed and soon saw Leif in his far seat.\n\n\"Yonder is some man of mark,\" he said to himself. \"He is surely worth\nknowing. His face is not the face of a fool. He carries his head like a\nlord of men.\"\n\nHe sent a thrall and asked Leif to come to him. So Leif walked down the\nlong hall and stood before the king.\n\n\"I am glad to have you for a guest,\" the king said. \"What are your name\nand country?\"\n\n\"I am Leif Ericsson, and I have come all the way from Greenland to see\nyou and old Norway.\"\n\n\"From Greenland!\" said the king. \"It is not often that I see a\nGreenlander. Many come to Norway to trade, but they seldom come to the\nking's hall. I shall be glad to hear about your land. Come up and speak\nwith me.\"\n\nSo Leif went up the steps of the high seat and sat down by the king and\ntalked with him. When the feast was over the king said:\n\n\"You shall live at my court this winter, Leif Ericsson. You are a\nwelcome guest.\"\n\nSo Leif stayed there that winter. When he started back in the spring,\nthe king gave him two thralls as a parting gift.\n\n\"Let this gift show my love, Leif Ericsson,\" he said. \"For your sake I\nshall not forget Greenland.\"\n\nLeif sailed back again and had good luck until he was past Iceland. Then\ngreat winds came out of the north and tossed his ship about so that the\nmen could do nothing. They were blown south for days and days. They did\nnot know where they were. Then they saw land, and Leif said:\n\n\"Surely luck has brought us also to a new country. We will go in and see\nwhat kind of a place it is.\"\n\nSo he steered for it. As they came near, the men said:\n\n\"See the great trees and the soft, green shore. Surely this is a better\ncountry than Greenland or than Iceland either.\"\n\nWhen they landed they threw themselves upon the ground.\n\n\"I never lay on a bed so soft as this grass,\" one said.\n\n\"Taller trees do not grow in Norway,\" said another.\n\n\"There is no stone here as in Norway, but only good black dirt,\" Leif\nsaid. \"I never saw so fertile a land before.\"\n\nThe men were hungry and set about building a fire.\n\n\"There is no lack of fuel here,\" they said.\n\nThey stayed many days in this country and walked about to see what was\nthere. A German, named Tyrker, was with Leif. He was a little man with a\nhigh forehead and a short nose. His eyes were big and rolling. He had\nlived with Eric for many years, and had taken care of Leif when he was a\nlittle boy. So Leif loved him.\n\nNow one day they had been wandering about and all came back to camp at\nnight except Tyrker. When Leif looked around on his comrades, he said:\n\n\"Where is Tyrker?\"\n\nNo one knew. Then Leif was angry.\n\n\"Is a man of so little value in this empty land that you would lose\none?\" he said. \"Why did you not keep together? Did you not see that he\nwas gone? Why did you not set out to look for him? Who knows what\nterrible thing may have happened to him in these great forests?\"\n\nThen he turned and started out to hunt for him. His men followed,\nsilent and ashamed. They had not gone far when they saw Tyrker running\ntoward them. He was laughing and talking to himself. Leif ran to him and\nput his arms about him with gladness at seeing him.\n\n[Illustration: \"_He pointed to the woods and laughed and rolled his\neyes_\"]\n\n\"Why are you so late?\" he asked. \"Where have you been?\"\n\nBut Tyrker, still smiling and nodding his head, answered in German. He\npointed to the woods and laughed and rolled his eyes. Again Leif asked\nhis question and put his hand on Tyrker's shoulder as though he would\nshake him. Then Tyrker answered in the language of Iceland:\n\n\"I have not been so very far, but I have found something wonderful.\"\n\n\"What is it?\" cried the men.\n\n\"I have found grapes growing wild,\" answered Tyrker, and he laughed, and\nhis eyes shone.\n\n\"It cannot be,\" Leif said.\n\nGrapes do not grow in Greenland nor in Iceland nor even in Norway. So it\nseemed a wonderful thing to these Norsemen.\n\n\"Can I not tell grapes when I see them?\" cried Tyrker. \"Did I not grow\nup in Germany, where every hillside is covered with grapevines? Ah! it\nseems like my old home.\"\n\n\"It is wonderful,\" Leif said. \"I have heard travelers tell of seeing\ngrapes growing, but I myself never saw it. You shall take us to them\nearly in the morning, Tyrker.\"\n\nSo in the morning they went back into the woods and saw the grapes. They\nate of them.\n\n\"They are like food and drink,\" they cried.\n\nThat day Leif said:\n\n\"We spent most of the summer on the ocean. Winter will soon be coming on\nand the sea about Greenland will be frozen. We must start back. I mean\nto take some of the things of this land to show to our people at home.\nWe will fill the rowboat with grapes and tow it behind us. The ship we\nwill load with logs from these great trees. That will be a welcome\nshipload in Greenland, where we have neither trees nor vines. Now half\nof you shall gather grapes for the next few days, and the other half\nshall cut timber.\"\n\nSo they did, and after a week sailed off. The ship was full of lumber,\nand they towed the rowboat loaded with grapes. As they looked back at\nthe shore, Leif said:\n\n\"I will call this country Wineland for the grapes that grow there.\"\n\nOne of the men leaped upon the gunwale and leaned out, clinging to the\nsail, and sang:\n\n    \"Wineland the good, Wineland the warm,\n    Wineland the green, the great, the fat.\n    Our dragon fed and crawls away\n    With belly stuffed and lazy feet.\n    How long her purple, trailing tail!\n    She fed and grew to twice her size.\"\n\nThen all the men waved their hands to the shore and gave a great shout\nfor that good land.\n\nFor all that voyage they had fair weather and sailed into Eric's harbor\nbefore the winter came. Eric saw the ship and ran down to the shore. He\ntook Leif into his arms and said:\n\n\"Oh, my son, my old eyes ached to see you. I hunger to hear of all that\nyou have seen and done.\"\n\n\"Luck has followed me all the way,\" said Leif. \"See what I have brought\nhome.\"\n\nThe Greenlanders looked.\n\n\"Lumber! lumber!\" they cried. \"Oh! it is better stuff than gold.\"\n\nThen they saw the grapes and tasted them.\n\n\"Surely you must have plundered Asgard,\" they said, smacking their lips.\n\nAt the feast that night Eric said:\n\n\"Leif shall sit in the place of honor.\"\n\nSo Leif sat in the high seat opposite Eric. All men thought him a\nhandsome and wise man. He told them of the storm and of Wineland.\n\n\"No man would ever need a cloak there. The soil is richer than the soil\nof Norway. Grain grows wild, and you yourselves saw the grapes that we\ngot from there. The forests are without end. The sea is full of fish.\"\n\nThe Greenlanders listened with open mouths to all this. They turned and\ntalked to Leif's ship-comrades who were scattered among them.\n\nLeif noticed two strangers, an old man who sat at Eric's side and a\nyoung woman on the cross-bench. He turned to his brother Thorstein who\nsat next to him.\n\n\"Who are these strangers?\" he asked.\n\n\"Thorbiorn and his daughter Gudrid,\" Thorstein answered. \"They landed\nhere this spring. I never saw our father more glad of anything than to\nsee this Thorbiorn. They were friends before we left Iceland. When they\nsaw each other again they could not talk enough of old times. In the\nspring Eric means to give him a farm up the fiord a way. It seems that\nthis Thorbiorn comes of a good family that has been rich and great in\nIceland for years. And Thorbiorn himself was rich when our father knew\nhim, and was much honored by all men. But ill luck came, and he grew\npoor. This hurt his pride. 'I will not stay in Iceland and be a beggar,'\nhe said to himself. 'I will not have men look at me and say, \"He is not\nwhat his father was.\" I will go to my friend Eric the Red in\nGreenland.'\n\n\"Then he got ready a great feast and invited all his friends. It was\nsuch a feast as had not been in Iceland for years. Thorbiorn spent on it\nall the wealth that he had left. For he said to himself, 'I will not\nleave in shame. Men shall remember my last feast.' After that he set out\nand came to Greenland.\n\n\"Is not Gudrid beautiful? And she is wise. I mean to marry her, if her\nfather will permit it.\"\n\nNow Leif settled down in Greenland and became a great man there. He was\nso busy and he grew so rich that he did not think of going to Wineland\nagain. But people could not forget his story. Many nights as men sat\nabout the long fires they talked of that wonderful land and wished to\nsee it.\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWineland the Good\n\n\nOn an autumn, a year or two after Leif came home, Eric and his men saw\ntwo large ships come to land not far down the shore from the house.\n\n\"They look like trading ships,\" Eric said. \"Let us go down to see them.\"\n\n\"I will go, too,\" Gudrid said. \"Perhaps they will have rich cloth and\njewelry. It is long since I had my eyes on a new dress.\"\n\nSo they all went down and found two large trading ships lying in the\nwater. A great many men were on the shore making a fire.\n\n\"Welcome to Greenland!\" called Eric. \"What are your names and your\ncountry?\"\n\nThen a fine, big man walked out from among the men and went up to Eric.\n\n\"I am Thorfinn,\" he said, \"a trader. I sailed this summer from Iceland\nwith forty men and a shipload of goods. On the sea I met this other\nship from Iceland. The master is Biarni. Come and look at my goods.\"\n\nSo he rowed Eric and Gudrid out and they went aboard his boat. Thorfinn\nopened his chests and showed Eric gleaming swords and bracelets and axes\nand farm tools. But before Gudrid he spread beautiful cloth and gold\nembroidery and golden necklaces. As they looked, he told of doings in\nIceland and asked of Greenland.\n\n\"We never see such things as these in this bare land,\" Gudrid said, as\nshe smoothed a beautiful dress of purple velvet. \"I envy the women of\nIceland their fair clothes.\"\n\n\"There is no need of that,\" Thorfinn said, \"for this dress is yours and\nanything else from my chests that you like. Here is a necklace that I\nbeg you to take. It did not have a fairer mistress in Greece where I got\nit.\"\n\n\"You are a very generous trader,\" Gudrid said.\n\nThen Thorfinn gave Eric a great sword with a gold-studded scabbard.\nAfter a while he took them to Biarni's ship. He also gave them gifts.\nThey all talked and laughed much while they were together.\n\n\"You are merry comrades,\" Eric said. \"I ask you both and all your men to\nspend the winter at my house. You can put your goods into my\nstorehouses.\"\n\n\"By my sword! a generous offer,\" said Thorfinn. \"As for me, I am happy\nto come.\"\n\nBiarni and all the rest said the same thing. Thorfinn walked to the\nhouse with Eric and Gudrid, while the other men sailed to the ship-sheds\nand pulled their boats under them.\n\nThen Thorfinn saw to the unloading and storing of his goods.\n\n\"Is this Gudrid your daughter?\" he asked of Eric one day.\n\n\"She is the widow of my son Thorstein,\" Eric said. \"He died the same\nwinter that they were married. Her father, too, died not long ago. So\nGudrid lives with me.\"\n\nNow all that winter until Yule-time Eric spread a good feast every\nnight. There was laughter through his house all the time. Often at the\nfeasts the men cast lots to see whether they might sit on the\ncross-bench with the women. Sometimes it was Thorfinn's luck to sit by\nGudrid. Then they talked gaily and drank together.\n\nAt last Yule was coming near. Eric went about the house gloomy then. One\nday Thorfinn put his hand on Eric's shoulder and said:\n\n\"Something is troubling you, Eric. We have all noticed that you are not\ngay as you used to be. Tell me what is the matter.\"\n\n\"You have carried yourselves like noble men in my house,\" Eric answered.\n\"I am proud to have you for guests. Now I am ashamed that you should not\nfind a house worthy of you. I am ashamed that when you leave me you will\nhave to say that you never spent a worse Yule than you did with Eric the\nRed in Greenland. For my cupboards are empty.\"\n\n\"Oh, that is easily mended,\" Thorfinn said. \"No house could feed eighty\nmen so long and not feel it. I never knew so generous a host before.\nBut I have flour and grain and mead in my boat. You are welcome to all\nof it. You have only to open the doors of your own storehouses. It is a\nlittle gift.\"\n\nSo Eric used those things, and there was never a merrier Yule feast than\nin his house that winter.\n\nWhen Yule was over, Thorfinn said to Eric:\n\n\"Gudrid is a beautiful and wise woman. I wish to have her for my wife.\"\n\n\"You seem to be a man worthy of her,\" Eric said.\n\nSo that winter Gudrid and Thorfinn were married and lived at Eric's\nhouse.\n\nOne day Thorfinn said to Eric:\n\n\"I have heard much of this wonderful Wineland since I have been here. It\nseems to me that it is worth while to go and see more of it.\"\n\n\"My son Thorstein and I tried it once,\" said Eric. \"It was the year\nafter Leif came back. We set out with a fair ship and with glad hearts,\nbut we tossed about all summer on the sea and got nowhere. We were wet\nwith storm, lean with hunger and illness, and heartsick at our bad\nluck.\"\n\n\"And yet,\" Thorfinn said, \"another time we might have better weather. I\nhave never seen so fair a land as this seems to be.\"\n\nThen he went to Leif and talked long with him. Leif told him in what\ndirection he had sailed to come home, and how the shores looked that he\nhad passed.\n\n\"I think I could find my way,\" Thorfinn said. \"My heart moves me to try\nthis frolic.\"\n\nHe spoke to Gudrid about it.\n\n\"Oh, yes!\" she cried. \"Let us go. It is long since I felt a boat leaping\nunder me. I am tired of sitting still. I want to feel the warm days and\nsee the soft grass and the high trees and taste the grapes of this\nWineland the Good.\"\n\nThen he talked with his men and with Biarni.\n\n\"We are ready,\" they all said. \"We are only waiting for a leader.\"\n\n\"Then let us go!\" cried Thorfinn.\n\nSo in the spring they fitted up their two ships and put into them\nprovisions and a few cattle. Some of Eric's men also got ready a boat,\nso that three ships set sail from Eric's harbor carrying one hundred and\nsixty men to Wineland. As they started, Gudrid stood on the deck and\nsang:\n\n    \"I will feast my eyes on new things--\n    On mighty trees and purple grapes,\n    On beds of flowers and soft grass.\n    I will sun myself in a warm land.\"\n\nThey sailed on and past those shores that Leif had spoken of. Whenever\nthey saw any interesting place they sailed in and looked about and\nrested there.\n\nThey had gone far south, past many fair shores with woods on them, when\nGudrid said one day:\n\n\"This is a beautiful bay with a smooth, green field by it, and the great\nmountains far back. I should like to stay there for a little while.\"\n\nSo they sailed in and drew their ships up on shore. They put up the\nawnings in them.\n\n\"These shall be our houses,\" Thorfinn said.\n\nThey were strange-looking houses--shining dragons with gay backs lying\non the yellow sand. Near them the Norsemen lighted fires and cooked\ntheir supper. That night they slept in the ships. In the morning Gudrid\nsaid:\n\n\"I long to see what is back of that mountain.\"\n\nSo they all climbed it. When they stood on the top they could see far\nover the country.\n\n\"There is a lake that we must see,\" Thorfinn said.\n\n\"I should like to sail around that bay,\" said Biarni, pointing.\n\n\"I am going to walk up that valley yonder,\" one of the men said.\n\nAnd everyone saw some place where he would like to go. So for all that\nsummer they camped in that spot and went about the country seeing new\nthings. They hunted in the woods and caught rabbits and birds and\nsometimes bears and deer. Every day some men rowed out to sea and\nfished. There was an island in the bay where thousands of birds had\ntheir nests. The men gathered eggs here.\n\n\"We have more to eat than we had in Greenland or Iceland,\" Thorfinn\nsaid, \"and need not work at all. It is all play.\"\n\nNear the end of summer Thorfinn spoke to his comrades.\n\n\"Have we not seen everything here? Let us go to a new place. We have not\nyet found grapes.\"\n\nThorfinn and Biarni and all their men sailed south again. But some of\nEric's men went off in their boat another way. Years afterward the\nGreenlanders heard that they were shipwrecked and made slaves in\nIreland.\n\nAfter Thorfinn and Biarni had sailed for many days they landed on a low,\ngreen place. There were hills around it. A little lake was there.\n\n\"What is growing on those hillsides?\" Thorfinn said, shading his eyes\nwith his hand.\n\nHe and some others ran up there. The people on shore heard them shout.\nSoon they came running back with their hands full of something.\n\n\"Grapes! Grapes!\" they were shouting.\n\nAll those people sat down and ate the grapes and then went to the\nhillside and picked more.\n\n\"Now we are indeed in Wineland,\" they said. \"It is as wonderful as\nLeif's stories. Surely we must stay here for a long time.\"\n\nThe very next day they went into the woods and began to cut out lumber.\nThe huts that they built were little things. They had no windows, and in\nthe doorways the men hung their cloaks instead of doors.\n\n\"We can be out in the air so much in this warm country,\" said Gudrid,\n\"that we do not need fine houses.\"\n\nThe huts were scattered all about, some on the side of the lake, some at\nthe shore of the harbor, some on the hillside. Gudrid had said:\n\n\"I want to live by the lake where I can look into the green woods and\nhear sweet bird-noises.\"\n\nSo Thorfinn built his hut there.\n\nAs they sat about the campfire one night, Biarni said:\n\n\"It is strange that so good a land should be empty. I suppose that\nthese are the first houses that were ever built in Wineland. It is\nwonderful to think that we are alone here in this great land.\"\n\nAll that winter no snow fell. The cattle pastured on the grass.\n\n\"To think of the cold, frozen winters in Greenland!\" Gudrid said. \"Oh!\nthis is the sun's own land.\"\n\nIn the beginning of that winter a little son was born to Gudrid and\nThorfinn.\n\n\"A health to the first Winelander!\" the men shouted and drank down their\nwine; for they had made some from Wineland grapes.\n\n\"Will he be the father of a great country, as Ingolf was?\" Biarni mused.\n\nGudrid looked at her baby and smiled.\n\n\"You will be as sunny as this good land, I hope,\" she said.\n\nThey named him Snorri. He grew fast and soon crept along the yellow\nsand, and toddled among the grapevines, and climbed into the boats and\nlearned to talk. The men called him the \"Wineland king.\"\n\n\"I never knew a baby before,\" one of the men said.\n\n\"No,\" said another. \"Swords are jealous. But when they are in their\nscabbards, we can do other things, even play with babies.\"\n\n\"I wonder whether I have forgotten how to swing my sword in this quiet\nland,\" another man said.\n\nOne spring morning when the men got up and went out from their huts to\nthe fires to cook they saw a great many canoes in the harbor. Men were\nin them paddling toward shore.\n\n\"What is this?\" cried the Norsemen to one another. \"Where did they come\nfrom? Are they foes? Who ever saw such boats before? The men's faces are\nbrown.\"\n\n\"Let every man have his sword ready,\" cried Thorfinn. \"But do not draw\nuntil I command. Let us go to meet them.\"\n\nSo they went and stood on the shore. Soon the men from the canoes landed\nand stood looking at the Norsemen. The strangers' skin was brown. Their\nfaces were broad. Their hair was black. Their bodies were short. They\nwore leather clothes. One man among them seemed to be chief. He spread\nout his open hands to the Norsemen.\n\n\"He is showing us that he has no weapons,\" Biarni said. \"He comes in\npeace.\"\n\nThen Thorfinn showed his empty hands and asked:\n\n\"What do you want?\"\n\nThe stranger said something, but the Norsemen could not understand. It\nwas some new language. Then the chief pointed to one of the huts and\nwalked toward it. He and his men walked all around it and felt of the\ntimber and went into it and looked at all the things there--spades and\ncloaks and drinking-horns. As they looked they talked together. They\nwent to all the other huts and looked at everything there. One of them\nfound a red cloak. He spread it out and showed it to the others. They\nall stood about it and looked at it and felt of it and talked fast.\n\n\"They seem to like my cloak,\" Biarni said.\n\nOne of the strangers went down to their canoes and soon came back with\nan armload of furs--fox-skins, otter-skins, beaver-skins. The chief took\nsome and held them out to Thorfinn and hugged the cloak to him.\n\n[Illustration: \"_The chief held them out to Thorfinn and hugged the\ncloak to him_\"]\n\n\"He wants to trade,\" Thorfinn said. \"Will you do it, Biarni?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Biarni answered, and took the furs.\n\n\"If they want red stuff, I have a whole roll of red cloth that I will\ntrade,\" one of the other men said.\n\nHe went and got it. When the strangers saw it they quickly held out more\nfurs and seemed eager to trade. So Thorfinn cut the cloth into pieces\nand sold every scrap. When the strangers got it they tied it about their\nheads and seemed much pleased.\n\nWhile this trading was going on and everybody was good-natured, a bull\nof Thorfinn's ran out of the woods bellowing and came towards the crowd.\nWhen the strangers heard it and saw it they threw down whatever was in\ntheir hands and ran to their canoes and paddled off as fast as they\ncould.\n\nThe Norsemen laughed.\n\n\"We have lost our customers,\" Biarni said.\n\n\"Did they never see a bull before?\" laughed one of the men.\n\nNow after three weeks the Norsemen saw canoes in the bay again. This\ntime it was black with them, there were so many. The people in them were\nall making a horrible shout.\n\n\"It is a war-cry,\" Thorfinn said, and he raised a red shield. \"They are\nsurely twenty to our one, but we must fight. Stand in close line and\ngive them a taste of your swords.\"\n\nEven as he spoke a great shower of stones fell upon them. Some of the\nNorsemen were hit on the head and knocked down. Biarni got a broken arm.\nStill the storm came fast. The strangers had landed and were running\ntoward the Norsemen. They threw their stones with sling-shots, and they\nyelled all the time.\n\n\"Oh, this is no kind of fighting for brave men!\" Thorfinn cried angrily.\n\nThe Norsemen's swords swung fast, and many of the strangers died under\nthem, but still others came on, throwing stones and swinging stone axes.\nThe horrible yelling and the strange things that the savages did\nfrightened the Norsemen.\n\n\"These are not men,\" some one cried.\n\nThen those Norsemen who had never been afraid of anything turned and\nran. But when they came to the top of a rough hill Thorfinn cried:\n\n\"What are we doing? Shall we die here in this empty land with no one to\nbury us? We are leaving our women.\"\n\nThen one of the women ran out of the hut where they were hiding.\n\n\"Give me a sword!\" she cried. \"I can drive them back. Are Norsemen not\nbetter than these savages?\"\n\nThen those warriors stopped, ashamed, and stood up before the wild men\nand fought so fiercely that the strangers turned and fled down to their\ncanoes and paddled away.\n\n\"Oh, I am glad they are gone!\" Thorfinn said. \"It was an ugly fight.\"\n\n\"Thor would not have loved that battle,\" one said.\n\n\"It was no battle,\" another replied. \"It was like fighting against an\narmy of poisonous flies.\"\n\nThe Norsemen were all worn and bleeding and sore. They went to their\nhuts and dressed their wounds, and the women helped them. At supper that\nnight they talked about the fight for a long time.\n\n\"I will not stay here,\" Gudrid said. \"Perhaps these wild men have gone\naway to get more people and will come back and kill us. Oh! they are\nugly.\"\n\n\"Perhaps brown faces are looking at us now from behind the trees in the\nwoods back there,\" said Biarni.\n\nIt was the wish of all to go home. So after a few days they sailed back\nto Greenland with good weather all the way. The people at Eric's house\nwere very glad to see them.\n\n\"We were afraid you had died,\" they said.\n\n\"And I thought once that we should never leave Wineland alive,\" Thorfinn\nanswered.\n\nThen they told all the story.\n\n\"I wonder why I had no such bad luck,\" Leif said. \"But you have a better\nshipload than I got.\"\n\nHe was looking at the bundles of furs and the kegs of wine.\n\n\"Yes,\" said Thorfinn, \"we have come back richer than when we left. But I\nwill never go again for all the skins in the woods.\"\n\nThe next summer Thorfinn took Gudrid and Snorri and all his people and\nsailed back to Iceland, his home. There he lived until he died. People\nlooked at him in wonder.\n\n\"That is the man who went to Wineland and fought with wild men,\" they\nsaid. \"Snorri is his son. He is the first and last Winelander, for no\none will ever go there again. It will be an empty and forgotten land.\"\n\nAnd so it was for a long time. Some wise men wrote down the story of\nthose voyages and of that land, and people read the tale and liked it,\nbut no one remembered where the place was. It all seemed like a fairy\ntale. Long afterwards, however, men began to read those stories with\nwide-open eyes and to wonder. They guessed and talked together, and\nstudied this and that land, and read the story over and over. At last\nthey have learned that Wineland was in America, on the eastern shore of\nthe United States, and they have called Snorri the first American, and\nhave put up statues of Leif Ericsson, the first comer to America.[15]\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[15] See note about Eskimos on page 199.\n\n\n\n\nDescriptive Notes\n\n\n_House._ In a rich Norseman's home were many buildings. The finest and\nlargest was the great feast hall. Next were the bower, where the women\nworked, and the guest house, where visitors slept. Besides these were\nstorehouses, stables, work-shops, a kitchen, a sleeping-house for\nthralls. All these buildings were made of heavy, hewn logs, covered with\ntar to fill the cracks and to keep the wood from rotting. The ends of\nthe logs, the door-posts, the peaks of gables, were carved into shapes\nof men and animals and were painted with bright colors. These gay\nbuildings were close together, often set around the four sides of a\nsquare yard. That yard was a busy and pleasant place, with men and women\nrunning across from one bright building to another. Sometimes a high\nfence with one gate went around all this, and only the tall, carved\npeaks of roofs showed from the outside.\n\n_Names._ An old Norse story says: \"Most men had two names in one, and\nthought it likeliest to lead to long life and good luck to have double\nnames.\" To be called after a god was very lucky. Here are some of those\ndouble names with their meanings: \"Thorstein\" means Thor's stone;\n\"Thorkel\" means Thor's fire; \"Thorbiorn\" means Thor's bear; \"Gudbrand\"\nmeans Gunnr's sword (Gunnr was one of the Valkyrias[16]); \"Gunnbiorn\"\nmeans Gunnr's bear; \"Gudrid\" means Gunnr's rider; \"Gudrod\" means\nGunnr's land-clearer. (Most of the land in old Norway was covered with\nforests. When a man got new land he had to clear off the trees.) In\nthose olden days a man did not have a surname that belonged to everyone\nin his family. Sometimes there were two or three men of the same name in\na neighborhood. That caused trouble. People thought of two ways of\nmaking it easy to tell which man was being spoken of. Each was given a\nnickname. Suppose the name of each was Haki. One would be called Haki\nthe Black because he had black hair. The other would be called Haki the\nShip-chested because his chest was broad and strong. These nicknames\nwere often given only for the fun of it. Most men had them,--Eric the\nRed, Leif the Lucky, Harald Hairfair, Rolf Go-afoot. The other way of\nknowing one Haki from the other was to tell his father's name. One was\nHaki, Eric's son. The other was Haki, Halfdan's son. If you speak these\nnames quickly, they sound like Haki Ericsson and Haki Halfdansson. After\na while they were written like that, and men handed them on to their\nsons and daughters. Some names that we have nowadays have come down to\nus in just that way--Swanson, Anderson, Peterson, Jansen. There was\nanother reason for these last names: a man was proud to have people know\nwho his father was.\n\n_Drinking-horns._ The Norsemen had few cups or goblets. They used\ninstead the horns of cattle, polished and trimmed with gold or silver or\nbronze. They were often very beautiful, and a man was almost as proud\nof his drinking-horn as of his sword.\n\n_Tables._ Before a meal thralls brought trestles into the feast hall and\nset them before the benches. Then they laid long boards across from\ntrestle to trestle. These narrow tables stretched all along both sides\nof the hall. People sat at the outside edge only. So the thralls served\nfrom the middle of the room. They put baskets of bread and wooden\nplatters of meat upon these bare boards. At the end of the meal they\ncarried out tables and all, and the drinking-horns went round in a clean\nroom.\n\n_Beds._ Around the sides of the feast hall were shut-beds. They were\nlike big boxes with doors opening into the hall. On the floor of this\nbox was straw with blankets thrown over it. The people got into these\nbeds and closed the doors and so shut themselves in. Olaf's men could\nhave set heavy things against these doors or have put props against\nthem. Then the people could not have got out; for on the other side of\nthe bed was the thick outside wall of the feast hall, and there were no\nwindows in it.\n\n_Feast Hall._ The feast hall was long and narrow, with a door at each\nend. Down the middle of the room were flat stones in the dirt floor.\nHere the fires burned. In the roof above these fires were holes for the\nsmoke to go out, but some of it blew about the hall, and the walls and\nrafters were stained with it. But it was pleasant wood smoke, and the\nNorsemen did not dislike it. There were no large windows in a feast hall\nor in any other Norse building. High up under the eaves or in the roof\nitself were narrow slits that were called wind's-eyes. There was no\nglass in them, for the Norsemen did not know how to make it; but there\nwere, instead, covers made of thin, oiled skin. These were put into the\nwind's-eyes in stormy weather. There were covers, too, for the\nsmoke-holes. The only light came through these narrow holes, so on dark\ndays the people needed the fire as much for light as for warmth.\n\n_Foster-father._ A Norse father sent his children away from home to grow\nup. They went when they were three or four years old and stayed until\nthey were grown. The father thought: \"They will be better so. If they\nstayed at home, their mother would spoil them with much petting.\"\n\n_Foster-brothers._ When two men loved each other very much they said,\n\"Let us become foster-brothers.\"\n\nThen they went and cut three long pieces of turf and put a spear into\nthe ground so that it held up the strips of turf like an arch. Runes\nwere cut on the handle of the spear, telling the duties of\nfoster-brothers. The two men walked under this arch, and each made a\nlittle cut in his palm. They knelt and clasped hands, so that the blood\nof the two flowed together, and they said, \"Now we are of one blood.\"\n\nThen each made this vow: \"I will fight for my foster-brother whenever he\nshall need me. If he is killed before I am, I will punish the man who\ndid it. Whatever things I own are as much my foster-brother's as mine. I\nwill love this man until I die. I call Odin and Thor and all the gods to\nhear my vow. May they hate me if I break it!\"\n\n_Ran._ Ran was the wife of Aegir, who was god of the sea. They lived in\na cave at the bottom of the ocean. Ran had a great net, and she caught\nin it all men who were shipwrecked and took them to her cave. She also\ncaught all the gold and rich treasures that went down in ships. So her\ncave was filled with shining things.\n\n_Valkyrias._ These were the maidens of Odin. They waited on the table in\nValhalla. But whenever a battle was being fought they rode through the\nair on their horses and watched to see what warriors were brave enough\nto go to Valhalla. Sometimes during the fight a man would think that he\nsaw the Valkyrias. Then he was glad; for he knew that he would go to\nValhalla.\n\nAn old Norse story says this about the Valkyrias: \"With lightning around\nthem, with bloody shirts of mail, and with shining spears they ride\nthrough the air and the ocean. When their horses shake their manes, dew\nfalls on the deep valleys and hail on the high forests.\"\n\n_Odin's Ravens._ Odin had a great throne in his palace in Asgard. When\nhe sat in it he could look all over the world. But it was so far to see\nthat he could not tell all of the things that were happening. So he had\ntwo ravens to help him. An old Norse story tells this about them: \"Two\nravens sit on Odin's shoulders and whisper in his ears all that they\nhave heard and seen. He sends them out at dawn of day to see over the\nwhole world. They return at evening near meal time. This is why Odin\nknows so many things.\"\n\n_Reykjavik._ Reykjavik means \"smoky sea.\" Ingolf called it that because\nof the steaming hot-springs by the sea. The place is still called\nReykjavik. A little city has grown up there, the only city in Iceland.\nIt is the capital of the country.\n\n_Peace-bands._ A Norseman always carried his sword, even at a feast; for\nhe did not know when he might need it. But when he went somewhere on an\nerrand of peace and had no quarrel he tied his sword into its scabbard\nwith white bands that he called peace-bands. If all at once something\nhappened to make him need his sword, he broke the peace-bands and drew\nit out.\n\n_Eskimos._ Now, the Eskimos live in Greenland and Alaska and on the very\nnorthern shores of Canada. But once they lived farther south in\npleasanter lands. After a while the other Indian tribes began to grow\nstrong. Then they wanted the pleasant land of the Eskimos and the\nseashore that the Eskimos had. So they fought again and again with those\npeople and won and drove them farther north and farther north. At last\nthe Eskimos were on the very shores of the cold sea, with the Indians\nstill pushing them on. So some of them got into their boats and rowed\nacross the narrow water and came to Greenland and lived there. Some\npeople think that these things happened before Eric found Greenland. In\nthat case he found Eskimos there; and Thorfinn saw red Indians in\nWineland. Other people think that this happened after Eric went to\nGreenland. If that is true, he found an empty land, and it was Eskimos\nthat Thorfinn saw in Wineland.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[16] See note about Valkyrias on page 198.\n\n\n\n\nSuggestions _to_ Teachers\n\n\nPossibly this book seems made up of four or five disconnected stories.\nThey are, however, strung upon one thread,--the westward emigration from\nNorway. The story of Harald is intended to serve in two ways towards the\nworking out of this plot. It gives the general setting that continues\nthroughout the book in costume, houses, ideals, habits. It explains the\ncause of the emigration from the mother country. It is really an\nintroductory chapter. As for the other stories, they are distinctly\nsteps in the progress of the plot. A chain of islands loosely connects\nNorway with America,--Orkneys and Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, Greenland.\nIt was from link to link of this chain that the Norsemen sailed in\nsearch of home and adventure. Discoveries were made by accident. Ships\nwere driven by the wind from known island to unknown. These two\npoints,--the island connection that made possible the long voyage from\nNorway to America, and the contribution of storm to discovery,--I have\nstated in the book only dramatically. I emphasize them here, hoping that\nthe teacher will make sure that the children see them, and possibly that\nthey state them abstractly.\n\nLet me speak as to the proper imaging of the stories. I have not often\ninterrupted incident with special description, not because I do not\nconsider the getting of vivid and detailed images most necessary to full\nenjoyment and to proper intellectual habits, but because I trusted to\nthe pictures of this book and to the teacher to do what seemed to me\ninartistic to do in the story. Some of these descriptions and\nexplanations I have introduced into the book in the form of notes,\nhoping that the children in turning to them might form a habit of\ninsisting upon full understanding of a point, and might possibly, with\nthe teacher's encouragement, begin the habit of reference reading.\n\nThe landscape of Norway, Iceland, and Greenland is wonderful and will\ngreatly assist in giving reality and definiteness to the stories.\nMaterials for this study are not difficult of access. Foreign colored\nphotographs of Norwegian landscape are becoming common in our art\nstores. There are good illustrations in the geographical works referred\nto in the book list. These could be copied upon the blackboard. There\nare three books beautifully illustrated in color that it will be\npossible to find only in large libraries,--\"Coast of Norway,\" by Walton;\n\"Travels in the Island of Iceland,\" by Mackenzie; \"Voyage en Islande et\nau Greenland,\" by J. P. Gaimard. If the landscape is studied from the\npoint of view of formation, the images will be more accurate and more\neasily gained, and the study will have a general value that will\ncontinue past the reading of these stories into all work in geography.\n\nTrustworthy pictures of Norse houses and costumes are difficult to\nobtain. In \"Viking Age\" and \"Story of Norway,\" by Boyesen (G. P.\nPutnam's Sons, New York), are many copies of Norse antiquities in the\nfashion of weapons, shield-bosses, coins, jewelry, wood-carving. These\nare, of course, accurate, but of little interest to children. Their\nchief value lies in helping the teacher to piece together a picture that\nshe can finally give to her pupils.\n\nMetal-working and wood-carving were the most important arts of the\nNorse. If children study products of these arts and actually do some of\nthe work, they will gain a quickened sympathy with the people and an\nappreciation of their power. They may, perhaps, make something to merely\nillustrate Norse work; for instance, a carved ship's-head, or a copper\nshield, or a wrought door-nail. But, better, they may apply Norse ideas\nof form and decoration and Norse processes in making some modern thing\nthat they can actually use; for instance, a carved wood pin-tray or a\ncopper match holder. This work should lead out into a study of these\nsame industries among ourselves with visits to wood-working shops and\nmetal foundries.\n\nFrequent drawn or painted illustration by the children of costumes,\nlandscapes, houses, feast halls, and ships will help to make these\nimages clear. But dramatization will do more than anything else for the\ninterpreting of the stories and the characters. It would be an excellent\nthing if at last, through the dramatization and the handwork, the\nchildren should come into sufficient understanding and enthusiasm to\nturn skalds and compose songs in the Norse manner. This requires only a\nsmall vocabulary and a rough feeling for simple rhythm, but an intensity\nof emotion and a great vividness of image.\n\nThese Norse stories have, to my thinking, three values. The men, with\nthe crude courage and the strange adventures that make a man interesting\nto children, have at the same time the love of truth, the hardy\nendurance, the faithfulness to plighted word, that make them a child's\nfit companions. Again, in form and in matter old Norse literature is\nwell worth our reading. I should deem it a great thing accomplished if\nthe children who read these stories should so be tempted after a while\nto read those fine old books, to enjoy the tales, to appreciate\nstraightforwardness and simplicity of style. The historical value of the\nstory of Leif Ericsson and the others seems to me to be not to learn the\nfact that Norsemen discovered America before Columbus did, but to gain a\nconception of the conditions of early navigation, of the length of the\nvoyage, of the dangers of the sea, and a consequent realization of the\nreason for the fact that America was unknown to mediaeval Europe, of why\nthe Norsemen did not travel, of what was necessary to be done before men\nshould strike out across the ocean. Norse story is only one chapter in\nthat tale of American discovery. I give below an outline of a year's\nwork on the subject that was once followed by the fourth grade of the\nChicago Normal School. The idea in it is to give importance, sequence,\nreasonableness, broad connections, to the discovery of America.\n\nThe head of the history department who planned this course says it is\n\"in a sense a dramatization of the development of geographical\nknowledge.\"\n\nFollowing is a bare topical outline of the work:\n\n    Evolution of the forms of boats.\n    Viking tales.\n    A crusade as a tale of travel and discovery.\n    Monasteries as centers of work.\n    Printing.\n    Story of Marco Polo.\n    Columbus' discovery.\n    Story of Vasco da Gama.\n    Story of Magellan.\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\nA Reading List\n\n\nGEOGRAPHY\n\nNORWAY: \"The Earth and Its Inhabitants,\" Reclus. _D. Appleton & Co., New\nYork._\n\nICELAND: \"The Earth and Its Inhabitants,\" \"Iceland,\" Baring-Gould.\n_Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1863._\n\n    \"Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes.\" _Harper Bros., New York._\n\n    \"An American in Iceland,\" Kneeland. _Lockwood, Brooke & Co., Boston,\n    1876._\n\nGREENLAND: \"The Earth and Its Inhabitants,\" Reclus. _D. Appleton & Co.,\nNew York._\n\n    \"Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes.\" _Harper Bros., New York._\n\n\nCUSTOMS\n\n\"Viking Age,\" Du Chaillu. _Charles Scribner's Sons, 1889._\n\n\"Private Life of the Old Northmen,\" Keyser; translated by Barnard.\n_Chapman & Hall, London, 1868._\n\n\"Saga Time,\" Vicary. _Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co., London._\n\n\"Story of Burnt Njal\" (Introduction), Dasent. _Edmonston & Douglas,\nEdinburgh, 1861._\n\n\"Vikings of the Baltic, a romance;\" Dasent. _Edmonston & Douglas,\nEdinburgh._\n\n\"Ivar the Viking, a romance;\" Du Chaillu. _Charles Scribner's Sons, New\nYork._\n\n\"Viking Path, a romance;\" Haldane Burgess. _Wm. Blackwood & Sons,\nEdinburgh, 1894._\n\n\"Northern Antiquities,\" Percy, edited by Blackwell. _Bohn, London,\n1859._\n\nAlso the Sagas named on page 206.\n\n\nMYTHOLOGY\n\nThe Prose Edda, \"Northern Antiquities,\" Percy, edited by Blackwell.\n_Bohn, London, 1859._\n\n\"Norse Mythology,\" Anderson. _Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago, 1876._\n\n\"Norse Stories,\" Mabie. _Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1902._\n\n\"Northern Mythology,\" Thorpe. _Lumley, London, 1851._\n\n\"Classic Myths,\" Judd. _Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1902._\n\n\nINCIDENTS\n\nHARALD: Saga of Harald Hairfair, in \"Saga Library,\" Magnusson and\nMorris, Vol. I. _Bernard Quaritch, London; Charles Scribner's Sons, New\nYork, 1892._\n\nINGOLF: \"Norsemen in Iceland,\" Dasent in Oxford Essays, Vol. IV. _Parker\n& Son, London, 1858._\n\n    \"Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes.\" _Harper Bros., New York._\n\n    \"A Winter in Iceland and Lapland,\" Dillon. _Henry Colburn, London,\n    1840._\n\nERIC, LEIF, AND THORFINN: \"The Finding of Wineland the Good,\" Reeves.\n_Henry Froude, 1890._\n\n    \"America Not Discovered by Columbus.\" Anderson. _Scott, Foresman &\n    Co., Chicago, 1891._\n\n\nCREDIBILITY OF STORY\n\nWinsor's \"Narrative and Critical History of America,\" Vol. I. _C. A.\nNichols Co., Springfield, Mass., 1895._\n\n\"Discovery of America,\" Fiske, Vol. I. _Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston,\n1892._\n\n\nOTHER SAGAS EASILY ACCESSIBLE\n\n\"Saga Library,\" 5 vols.; Morris and Magnusson. _Bernard Quaritch,\nLondon; Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1892._ As follows:\n\n    \"The Story of Howard the Halt,\" \"The Story of the Banded Men,\" \"The\n    Story of Hen Thorir.\" Done into English out of Icelandic by William\n    Morris and Eirikr Magnusson.\n\n    \"The Story of the Ere-dwellers,\" with \"The Story of the\n    Heath-slayings\" as Appendix. Done into English out of the Icelandic\n    by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson.\n\n    \"The Stories of the Kings of Norway, called the Round World\"\n    (Heimskringla). By Snorri Sturluson. Done into English by William\n    Morris and Eirikr Magnusson. With a large map of Norway. In three\n    volumes.\n\n\"Gisli the Outlaw,\" Dasent. _Edmonston & Douglas, Edinburgh._\n\n\"Orkneyinga Saga,\" Anderson. _Edmonston & Douglas, Edinburgh._\n\n\"Volsunga Saga,\" Morris and Magnusson. _Walter Scott, London._\n\n\"The Younger Edda,\" Anderson. _Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago, 1880._\n\n(A full bibliography of the Sagas may be found in \"Volsunga Saga.\")\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\nA Pronouncing Index\n\n\n(_This index and guide to pronunciation which are given to indicate the\npronunciation of the more difficult words, are based upon the 1918\nedition of Webster's New International Dictionary._)\n\n Aegir ([=e]' j[)i]r)\n _[.A]_r[=a]' b[)i] _[.a]_\n Aern' v[)i]d\n [)A]s' gaerd\n [A:]ud' b[)i] orn\n [A:]u' d[)u]n\n\n B[)i] aer' n[)i]\n\n Eric ([=e]' r[)i]k)\n Ericsson ([)e]r' [)i]k s_[)u]_n)\n Eyjolf ([=i]' y[+o]lf)\n\n Faroes (f[=a]' r[=o]z)\n fiord (fyord)\n Fl[=o]' k[)i]\n\n Gr[)i]m\n G[)u]d' braend\n G[)u]d' r[)i]d\n G[)u]d' r[=o]d\n G[)u]n_n_' b[)i] orn\n G[u:]' t_h_orm\n Gyda (g[=e]' d[+a])\n\n Hae' k[)i]\n Hae' k[+o]n\n Haelf' d[)a]n\n H[)a]r' [)a]ld\n Hae' vaerd\n H[)e]l' ae\n H[)e]l' g[+a]\n H[~e]r' st_e_[=i]n\n Holmstein (h[=o]lm' st[=i]n)\n\n [)I]n' golf\n [=I]' vaer\n\n Leif (l[+i]f)\n\n Niflheim (n[+e]v' 'l h[=a]m)\n\n [=O]' d[)i]n\n [=O]' laef\n Orkneys (ork' n[)i]z)\n\n Raen\n Reykjavik (r[=a]' ky_[.a]_ v[=e]k')\n Rolf\n\n Sh[)e]t' l_[)a]_nds\n Sif (s[=e]f)\n Sighvat (s[)i]g' v[)a]t)\n Snorri (sn[)o]r' r[+e])\n Sol' f[)i]\n\n Thor (thor)\n T_h_or' b[)i] orn\n T_h_or' f[)i]nn\n T_h_or' g[)e]st\n T_h_or' h[)i]ld\n T_h_or' k[)e]l\n T_h_or' l_e_[=i]f\n T_h_or' olf\n T_h_or' st_e_[=i]n\n Tyrker (t[~e]r' k[~e]r)\n\n V[)a]l h[)a]l' _l[.a]_\n Valkyria (v[)a]l k[)i]r' y_[.a]_)\n V[=i]' k[)i]ng\n\n\nA GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION\n\n [=a] as in [=a]le\n [)a] as in [)a]dd\n _[)a]_ as in fin_[)a]_l\n [.a] as in [.a]sk\n _[.a]_ as in sof_[.a]_\n ae as in aerm\n [a:] as in [a:]ll\n\n [=e] as in [=e]ve\n [+e] as in [+e]vent'\n [)e] as in [)e]nd\n [~e] as in h[~e]r\n\n [=i] as in [=i]ce\n [)i] as in [)i]t\n\n [=o] as in [=o]ld\n [+o] as in [+o]bey'\n [)o] as in [)o]dd\n o as in lord\n\n [)u] as in [)u]p\n _[)u]_ as in circ_[)u]_s\n [u:] as in r[u:]de\n\n [=y] as in fl[=y]\n\nSilent letters are italicized.","title":"Viking Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":32027}