Vandrad replies, "I may yet come so far forward in the world as to be able to dry myself with the middle of the towel."Thereupon Karl set a table before them and Vandrad sat down between them.They ate for a while and then went out.The horse was saddled and Karl's son ready to follow him with another horse.They rode away to the forest; and the earl's men returned to the boat, rowed to the earl's ship and told the success of their expedition.
67.OF KING HARALD.
King Harald and his men followed the fugitives only a short way, and rowed back to the place where the deserted ships lay.Then the battle-place was ransacked, and in King Svein's ship was found a heap of dead men; but the king's body was not found, although people believed for certain that he had fallen.Then King Harald had the greatest attention paid to the dead of his men, and had the wounds of the living bound up.The dead bodies of Svein's men were brought to the land, and he sent a message to the peasants to come and bury them.Then he let the booty be divided, and this took up some time.The news came now that King Svein had come to Seeland, and that all who had escaped from the battle had joined him, along with many more, and that he had a great force.
68.FIN ARNASON GETS QUARTER.
Earl Fin Arnason was taken prisoner in the battle, as before related; and when he was led before King Harald the king was very merry, and said, "Fin, we meet here now, and we met last in Norway.The Danish court has not stood very firmly by thee; and it will be a troublesome business for Northmen to drag thee, a blind old man, with them, and preserve thy life."The earl replies, "The Northmen find it very difficult now to conquer, and it is all the worse that thou hast the command of them."Then said King Harald, "Wilt thou accept of life and safety, although thou hast not deserved it?"The earl replies, "Not from thee, thou dog."The king: "Wilt thou, then, if thy relation Magnus gives thee quarter?"Magnus, King Harald's son, was then steering the ship.
The earl replies, "Can the whelp rule over life and quarter?"The king laughed, as if he found amusement in vexing him.--"Wilt thou accept thy life, then, from thy she-relation Thorer?"The earl: "Is she here?""She is here," said the king.
Then Earl Fin broke out with the ugly expressions which since have been preserved, as a proof that he was so mad with rage that he could not govern his tongue: --"No wonder thou hast bit so strongly, if the mare was with thee."Earl Fin got life and quarter and the king kept him a while about him.But Fin was rather melancholy and obstinate in conversation; and King Harald said, "I see, Fin, that thou dost not live willingly in company with me and thy relations; now Iwill give thee leave to go to thy friend King Svein."The earl said, "I accept of the offer willingly, and the more gratefully the sooner I get away from hence."The king afterwards let Earl Fin be landed and the traders going to Halland received him well.King Harald sailed from thence to Norway with his fleet; and went first to Oslo, where he gave all his people leave to go home who wished to do so.
69.OF KING SVEIN.
King Svein, it is told, sat in Denmark all that winter, and had his kingdom as formerly.In winter he sent men north to Halland for Karl the bonde and his wife.When Karl came the king called him to him and asked him if he knew him, or thought he had ever seen him before.
Karl replies, "I know thee, sire, and knew thee before, the moment I saw thee; and God be praised if the small help I could give was of any use to thee."The king replies, "I have to reward thee for all the days I have to live.And now, in the first place, I will give thee any farm in Seeland thou wouldst desire to have; and, in the next place, will make thee a great man, if thou knowest how to conduct thyself."Karl thanked the king for his promise, and said he had now but one thing to ask.
The king asked what that was.
Karl said that he would ask to take his wife with him.
The king said, "I will not let thee do that; but I will provide thee a far better and more sensible wife.But thy wife can keep the bonde-farm ye had before and she will have her living from it."The king gave Karl a great and valuable farm, and provided him a good marriage; and he became a considerable man.This was reported far and wide and much praised; and thus it came to be told in Norway.
70.OF THE TALK OF THE COURT-MEN.
King Harald stayed in Oslo the winter after the battle at Nis-river (A.D.1063).In autumn, when the men came from the south, there was much talk and many stories about the battle which they had fought at Nis-river, and every one who had been there thought he could tell something about it.Once some of them sat in a cellar and drank, and were very merry and talkative.They talked about the Nis-river battle, and who had earne'd the greatest praise and renown.They all agreed that no man there had been at all equal to Earl Hakon.He was the boldest in arms, the quickest, and the most lucky; what he did was of the greatest help, and he won the battle.King Harald, in the meantime, was out in the yard, and spoke with some people.He went then to the room-door, and said, "Every one here would willingly be called Hakon;" and then went his way.
71.OF THE ATTEMPT TO TAKE EARL HAKON.
Earl Hakon went in winter to the Uplands, and was all winter in his domains.He was much beloved by all the Uplanders.It happened, towards spring, that some men were sitting drinking in the town, and the conversation turned, as usual, on the Nis-river battle; and some praised Earl Hakon, and some thought others as deserving of praise as he.When they had thus disputed a while, one of them said, "It is possible that others fought as bravely as the earl at Nis-river; but none, I think, has had such luck with him as he."The others replied, that his best luck was his driving so many Danes to flight along with other men.