Harald was many years in these campaigns, both in Serkland and in Sicily.Then he came back to Constantinople with his troops and stayed there but a little time before he began his expedition to Jerusalem.There he left the pay he had received from the Greek emperor and all the Varings who accompanied him did the same.It is said that on all these expeditions Harald had fought eighteen regular battles.So says Thiodolf: --"Harald the Stern ne'er allowed Peace to his foemen, false and proud;In eighteen battles, fought and won, The valour of the Norseman shone.
The king, before his home return, Oft dyed the bald head of the erne With bloody specks, and o'er the waste The sharp-claw'd wolf his footsteps traced."10.HARALD'S EXPEDITION TO PALESTINE.
Harald went with his men to the land of Jerusalem and then up to the city of Jerusalem, and wheresoever he came in the land all the towns and strongholds were given up to him.So says the skald Stuf, who had heard the king himself relate these tidings:
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"He went, the warrior bold and brave, Jerusalem, the holy grave, And the interior of the land, To bring under the Greeks' command;And by the terror of his name Under his power the country came, Nor needed wasting fire and sword To yield obediance to his word."Here it is told that this land came without fire and sword under Harald's command.He then went out to Jordan and bathed therein, according to the custom of other pilgrims.Harald gave great gifts to our Lord's grave, to the Holy Cross, and other holy relics in the land of Jerusalem.He also cleared the whole road all the way out to Jordan, by killing the robbers and other disturbers of the peace.So says the skald Stuf: --"The Agder king cleared far and wide Jordan's fair banks on either side;The robber-bands before him fled, And his great name was widely spread.
The wicked people of the land Were punished here by his dread hand, And they hereafter will not miss Much worse from Jesus Christ than this."13.HARALD PUT IN PRISON.
Thereafter he went back to Constantinople.When Harald returned to Constantinople from Jerusalem he longed to return to the North to his native land; and when he heard that Magnus Olafson, his brother's son, had become king both of Norway and Denmark, he gave up his command in the Greek service.And when the empress Zoe heard of this she became angry and raised an accusation against Harald that he had misapplied the property of the Greek emperor which he had received in the campaigns in which he was commander of the army.There was a young and beautiful girl called Maria, a brother's daughter of the empress Zoe, and Harald had paid his addresses to her; but the empress had given him a refusal.The Varings, who were then in pay in Constantinople, have told here in the North that there went a report among well-informed people that the empress Zoe herself wanted Harald for her husband, and that she chiefly blamed Harald for his determination to leave Constantinople, although another reason was given out to the public.Constantinus Monomachus was at that time emperor of the Greeks and ruled along with Zoe.On this account the Greek emperor had Harald made prisoner and carried to prison.
14.KING OLAF'S MIRACLE AND BLINDING THE GREEK EMPEROR.
When Harald drew near to the prison King Olaf the Saint stood before him and said he would assist him.On that spot of the street a chapel has since been built and consecrated to Saint Olaf and which chapel has stood there ever since.The prison was so constructed that there was a high tower open above, but a door below to go into it from the street.Through it Harald was thrust in, along with Haldor and Ulf.Next night a lady of distinction with two servants came, by the help of ladders, to the top of the tower, let down a rope into the prison and hauled them up.Saint Olaf had formerly cured this lady of a sickness and he had appeared to her in a vision and told her to deliver his brother.Harald went immediately to the Varings, who all rose from their seats when he came in and received him with joy.
The men armed themselves forthwith and went to where the emperor slept.They took the emperor prisoner and put out both the eyes of him.So says Thorarin Skeggjason in his poem: --"Of glowing gold that decks the hand The king got plenty in this land;But it's great emperor in the strife Was made stone-blind for all his life."So says Thiodolf, the skald, also: --"He who the hungry wolf's wild yell Quiets with prey, the stern, the fell, Midst the uproar of shriek and shout Stung tho Greek emperor's eyes both out:
The Norse king's mark will not adorn, The Norse king's mark gives cause to mourn;His mark the Eastern king must bear, Groping his sightless way in fear."In these two songs, and many others, it is told that Harald himself blinded the Greek emperor; and they would surely have named some duke, count, or other great man, if they had not known this to be the true account; and King Harald himself and other men who were with him spread the account.
15.HARALD'S JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.
The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where Maria slept and carried her away by force.Then they went down to where the galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and rowed out into Sjavid sound.When they came to the place where the iron chain is drawn across the sound, Harald told his men to stretch out at their oars in both galleys; but the men who were not rowing to run all to the stern of the galley, each with his luggage in his hand.The galleys thus ran up and lay on the iron chain.As soon as they stood fast on it, and would advance no farther, Harald ordered all the men to run forward into the bow.