The accusation against him, of being stingy with his money, was not just, for he was a most generous man towards his friends; but that alone was the cause of the discontent raised against him, that he appeared hard and severe in his retributions.Besides, King Canute offered great sums of money, and the great chiefs were corrupted by this, and by his offering them greater dignities than they had possessed before.The inclinations of the people, also, were all in favour of Earl Hakon, who was much beloved by the country folks when he ruled the country before.
193.OF JOKUL BARDSON.
Earl Hakon had sailed with his fleet from Throndhjem, and gone south to More against King Olaf, as before related.Now when the king bore away, and ran into the fjord, the earl followed him thither; and then Kalf Arnason came to meet him, with many of the men who had deserted King Olaf.Kalf was well received.The earl steered in through Todar fjord to Valdal, where the king had laid up his ships on the strand.He took the ships which belonged to the king, had them put upon the water and rigged, and cast lots, and put commanders in charge of them according to the lots.There was a man called Jokul, who was an Icelander, a son of Bard Jokulson of Vatnsdal; the lot fell upon Jokul to command the Bison, which King Olaf himself had commanded.Jokul made these verses upon it: --"Mine is the lot to take the helm Which Olaf owned, who owned the realm;From Sult King Olaf's ship to steer (Ill luck I dread on his reindeer).
My girl will never hear the tidings, Till o'er the wild wave I come riding In Olaf's ship, who loved his gold, And lost his ships with wealth untold."We may here shortly tell what happened a long time after.-- that this Jokul fell in with King Olaf's men in the island of Gotland, and the king ordered him to be taken out to be beheaded.Awillow twig accordingly was plaited in with his hair, and a man held him fast by it.Jokul sat down upon a bank, and a man swung the axe to execute him; but Jokul hearing the sound, raised his head, and the blow struck him in the head, and made a dreadful wound.As the king saw it would be his death-wound, he ordered them to let him lie with it.Jokul raised himself up, and he sang: --"My hard fate I mourn, --Alas! my wounds burn, My red wounds are gaping, My life-blood escaping.
My wounds burn sore;
But I suffer still more From the king's angry word, Than his sharp-biting sword."194.OF KALF ARNASON.
Kalf Arnason went with Earl Hakon north to Throndhjem, and the earl invited him to enter into his service.Kalf said he would first go home to his farm at Eggja, and afterwards make his determination; and Kalf did so.When he came home he found his wife Sigrid much irritated; and she reckoned up all the sorrow inflicted on her, as she insisted, by King Olaf.First, he had ordered her first husband Olver to be killed."And now since,"says she, "my two sons; and thou thyself, Kalf, wert present when they were cut off, and which I little expected from thee." Kalf says, it was much against his will that Thorer was killed."Ioffered money-penalty for him," says he; "and when Grjotgard was killed I lost my brother Arnbjorn at the same time." She replies, "It is well thou hast suffered this from the king; for thou mayest perhaps avenge him, although thou wilt not avenge my injuries.Thou sawest how thy foster-son Thorer was killed, with all the regard of the king for thee." She frequently brought out such vexatious speeches to Kalf, to which he often answered angrily; but yet he allowed himself to be persuaded by her to enter into the earl's service, on condition of renewing his fiefs to him.Sigrid sent word to the earl how far she had brought the matter with Kalf.As soon as the earl heard of it, he sent a message to Kalf that he should come to the town to him.Kalf did not decline the invitation, but came directly to Nidaros, and waited on the earl, who received him kindly.In their conversation it was fully agreed upon that Kalf should go into the earl's service, and should receive great fiefs.After this Kalf returned home, and had the greater part of the interior of the Throndhjem country under him.As soon as it was spring Kalf rigged out a ship that belonged to him, and when she was ready he put to sea, and sailed west to England; for he had heard that in spring King Canute was to sail from Denmark to England, and that King Canute had given Harald, a son of Thorkel the High, an earldom in Denmark.Kalf Arnason went to King Canute as soon as he arrived in England.Bjarne Gullbrarskald tells of this: --"King Olaf eastward o'er the sea To Russia's monarch had to flee;Our Harald's brother ploughed the main, And furrowed white its dark-blue plain.