The Vikings of the Baltic. A tale of the North in the tenth century

Front matter

THE VIKINGS OF THE BALTIC a Œalc of the i&ortf) in tfje Cents) Gtwturj). BY G. AV. DASENT, D.C.L, AUTHOR OF "ANNALS OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1875. [All ri'jhls reserved.] LONDON I BRADBURY, AONEW, & CO., PRINTERS VVHITEFRTARS. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. — A MESSAGE FROM KING S1VEYN .... 1 II. — THE VIKINGS' ANSWER TO KING SWETN . . 18 III. — THE VIKINGS MAKE READY .... 34 IV. — THE VIKINGS ARRIVE IN DENMARK . . . 49 A'. — THE LANDING OF THE VIKINGS. ... 64 VI. — THE FUNERAL ALE 79 VII. — THE FUNERAL ALE AND THE A'OWS . . . 92 VIII. — AFTER THE ALE 105 IX. — KING SWEYN AND EARL SIGA'ALD . . .120 X. — OF HACON, THE BAD EARL 13G XI. — THE EARL AND SIGMUND VISIT THE TEMPLE . 152 XII. — THE HUNT AFTER RAPP 105 XIII.— PREPARATIONS OF THE VIKINGS . . . 180 XIV. — THE VIKINGS SET SAIL 191 XV.

THE LANDING OF THE VIKINGS .... 203 XVI. — BEORN AND VAON LOOK THORKELL UP . . CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XVII. — HOW THE NEWS CAME TO EARL HACON . . 248 XVIII.— THE ARROW OF WAR 257 XIX. — SIGMUND THE TEERLESS RETURNS TO NORWAY . 200 XX. — EARL HACON CONSULTS THE GODS . . . THE BALTIC.

Chapter I

A MESSAGE FROM KING SWEYN. Beorn and Vagn had not been at home a week, and the 10th of October was past, when the warder on the arch descried a ship upon the sea, plainly making for the harbour. He sounded his horn, and Sigvald and the captains were soon in the look-out tower. The wind was strong and contrary, and the sea high ; the strange sail, therefore, had to beat up to make the haven, and even as it was, it was doubtful whether she would fetch it. As she ran in nearer on her gaining board, they saw that she was no long-ship, no vessel of war, but a keel or buss, one of those mer chant ships built rather for burden than for speed, one of those in which, in fact, Beorn B VOL. TIIE BALTIC. had wished he could have been when that storm in Calmar Sound overtook him. " A trading ship ! " said Sigvald ; " and making straight for a Viking harbour !

The lamb will next seek shelter in the wolf's den ! " " Nor is it stress of weather that drives her hither," said Bui. "These men are trying to make the harbour at the risk of their lives. If she be driven on the shallows, right or left of the harbour fairway, the mews and fish will have a dainty meal." It was in the afternoon when the ship was thus descried, and after watching her for a while, Sigvald said — " 'Twill be hours yet before she can run in. Sound your horn, warder, if she comes to harm ; and sound it twice, as is your duty, when she is off the port, if she ever gets so far, that the iron gates may be thrown open, and that she may run in in peace. By that time we shall be at supper in the hall. Send the Cap tain thither to me." It was now dark, and the Viking chiefs were gathered as usual in their hall.

Side by side with her husband sat Astrida on a sort of double high seat, while over against him sat Bui, the second in command. You had only to look on that pair to see that they were completely happy, and Astrida seemed not to feel that she was cut off from the rest of her sex, with the exception of her waiting women. There the two sat, convers ing lovingly together ; and though some of the Vikings, like Beorn, thought this was a strange position for their captain to be in, neither Sig vald nor Astrida appeared to be in the least aware of it themselves. In the enjoyment of the feast, few, it is pro bable, remembered the toiling ship which had so long been struggling with the waves ; or if they did, it was with the old Lucretiau feeling of comfort that they were not exposed to the buffets of the waves in such wild weather.

All at once this feeling of forgetfulness and of ease was interrupted by the well-known blast of the warder's horn, which showed that the stranger had either been lost, or had made the port. " Alark the note, dearest," said Sigvald. B THE BALTIC. " It means life or deatli to the men in that ship." Again the warder blew his blast, and then all knew that the ship wras safe, and off tho port ; for two blasts in rapid succession were the signal to the harbour-master to throw open the iron gates. " She is safe," said Sigvald, returning to his conversation with Astrida. " Safe ! safe ! and soon in port ! " ran round the hall, and then the feast went on as before. After a while — it might be half-an-hour, or less — the sentinel at the gate, a tall A7iking, who stalked up and down on guard, broad-axe in hand, ushered in a stranger, who was passed on from thrall to thrall till the butler — for Sigvald now had a butler as well as Burislaf — brought him up before the Captain's high seat.

There the stranger stood, all dripping wdth brine, which had soaked his thick woollen clothes ; ancl, before Sigvald could ask him what his errand was, called out — " I bear a message to thee, 0 Captain." "You are welcome," said Sigvald. "Can it wait, or must we hear it now ? " " Bad news is ever quickest," said he, " and King Sweyn bade me utter it as soon as ever I saw thee." " Bad news, and from King Sweyn ! " said Astrida. "Has aught happened to the Queen, I wonder ? " " Good or bad, man," said Sigvald, " out with it at once. Good news spoils by keeping, and bad gets worse." " Perhaps you may think it both bad and good, Earl," said the man. "Earl!" said Sigvald, "I am no Earl, but only Captain of Jomsburg." " I say again Earl Sigvald," said the messenger, " for these were King Sweyn's very words."

" Go with all speed to Jomsburg, and greet my brother-in-law, Earl Sigvald, in my name, and tell him that his father, Strut-Harold, Earl in Scania, is dead, and that I have granted him the Earldom after him." As he said this he turned, and with a loud voice, called out — " Ye Vikings of Jomsburg, drink to the health of Earl Sigvald, who is now Strut- Harold's lawful heh-." TIIE BALTIC. As one man uprose that great company of captains, and, lifting their horns in air, drained them to the toast. " To the health of Earl Sigvald " ran through the hall. AVhen this homage was over, Sigvald turned to the messenger, ancl said — " You were in such haste to speak your business, that I had not time to ask you your name. AVhat may it be ? " " My name," said the messenger, "is Havard, and I am an Icelander, one of King Sweyn's body-guard."

Then Sigvald turned to the butler, and said — " Lead Havard, the Icelander, to my ward robe, and take off his wet clothes, and give him new ones ; and then bring him back hither that he may eat and drink and be merry." As the two left the hall, Sigvald said to Astrida — " This is great news, even if there be no more behind, as I suspect there is. Aly father, Strut-Harold, was an old man, and has now ended his life happily. AVhat more can any of us desire? I wish, though, that I could have seen him once more alive, and that I had pushed on to see him but a fortnight since." "Regrets are vain, Sigvald," said Astrida. " AA'hy bewail what can never be made good ? Let us not think so much of the dead as of the living. Do you think Havard has more to tell?" " An Icelander," said Sigvald, " is not as other men.

They blurt out all they have to say at once at the very first burst. But an Icelander tells his news by driblets, and ever keeps the best or the worst last." " Alay the best be still to come," said Astrida. " After all, it is no good tidings to hear of a father's death, even though he be old, and in dying makes you an Earl." So the banquet went on, and Havard soon returned, dressed in the best attire which Sigvald's wardrobe could afford. Before, he could scarcely be seen, for his form was hidden in his drenched sea-clothes. Now he strode into the hall, tall ancl lissom, and his face was seen to be very fair, save that he had a wild, almost elfish look about the eyes. " Sit opposite to me, next to Bui the Stout, Havard, the Icelander," said Sigvald. " Eat and drink, and then tell us any further tidings which you may bring."

After the stranger had despatched his food, and drained a horn, and felt the warmth of the fires which blazed in the centre of the hall, Sigvald rose, and said — " These tidings that you have brought, Havard, are grave and weighty, most of all to me, to whom this blow falls so near. They might well be enough, and more than enough for one day. But, for all that, something tells me you have more still behind. Speak out, then, if you have aught left to tell." " A messenger is like a harp," said the Ice lander. " There is always music in it, and there is ever something left for him to tell." " Say on, then," said Sigvald. " Have you aught to add to King Sweyn's message ? " " I have," said Havard ; " but you, Earl, and ye Vikings, may think it little worth, you are said to be so proud. King Sweyn did add something to his message. ' Go and tell Earl Sigvald,' he said, ' that I bid him and his captains to come hither, before the first winter night is past, to drink Strut-Harold's funeral ale.' " " These be great tidings, indeed," said Sig vald.

" But bear you King Sweyn's message aright ? Said he not before three winter nights be passed ? Did he not fix the feast of heir ship within the next three years?" " He gave me the message as I tell it thee," said Havard, " and I am the more sure of it, that he said he would have no more waiting for this ale of heirship, as when he waited for Palnatoki, when his own father, Harold Blue tooth died." "It is but short notice," said Sigvald, "to drink my father's funeral ale. There are but sixteen days left between this ancl the first winter night. How can I go to Den mark, and make ready the feast in that time ? " " For that, too, there is a remedy," said Havard. " King Sweyn has thought of all that. As the lawful heir is out of the land, it falls to the King to prepare the feast in Strut-Harold's hall, and he is now making it ready.

Once more he bids thee come to thy father's funeral ale before the first winter night of this very year, or else — ■" "AVhat else can he add?" said Sigvald, fiercely. " Or else," said the Icelander, with a spiteful look, " be called every man's niddering and dastard, as one who refuses to pay all honour to his own father." Earl Sigvald — for we may now call him Earl — turned, not like King Sweyn, red, but white, at these words. He restrained himself, however, and said — " Your wTords, Havard, are rather those of hate and spite than of friendship and good will. King Sweyn is a mighty man, no doubt, but still there used to be a good rule here in the North, that the man who paid the piper should call the tune. Strut-Harold's property, that is to say mine, will pay the piper ; and now I am not allowed to call the tune, or to fix the day I choose for my father's funeral ale.

And if I come not by a given day, I am to be called a niddering and a dastard. Alen have been before now slain, even for bearing such mes sages as these." " I know they have," said Havard, calmly ; " and that was why I undertook this errand. As soon as King Sweyn heard Strut-Harold was dead, he said in open hall, ' AVhat man is there here wdio is bold enough to fare to Jomsburg, and beard Earl Sigvald, the Cap tain of the Vikings, in his own hall ? ' " "And what then ? " asked Sigvald. " AVhy, as no one offered, and I thought I would like to see your state, and how you took such a message, I came ; and here I am." " Have you a name in Iceland by which men know you besides, Havard?" said Sig vald. " At home, and for that matter, abroad also," said the Icelander, they call me ' Snake tongue.' " " A right good name, and one that fits you thoroughly," said Sigvald.

"I am not careful to answer King Sweyn's message to-night. By to-morrow at mid-day my answer shall be ready. Meanwhile, as you have done your errand, ancl called me dastard and niddering to my face, if 1 do not dance at King Sweyn's TIIE BALTIC. bidding ; and have seen our state, such as it is ; — drink your fill of English mead, and enjoy yourself as much as you can in this poor hall. Before to-morrow evening you shall depart in peace, if the weather breaks. If it is still rough, you must remain a prisoner here for a while ; for, Askings though we are, we would not send our worst foe to sea at such a >> season. "Thanks, generous Sigvald," said Havard Snake-tongue. " You will make my errand a good one, I know. Never fear this tongue of mine, it shall not sting thee." " Thanks, again," said Sigvald.

" I should never think of wreaking on a mere messenger the insult of his master. King Sweyn, too, has some excuse for his haste and heat ; for, as is well known, he parted from Denmark wdien he last came hither, very much against his own will. " I have made a song on that," said Havard, " would you like to hear it, Earl Sigvald ? " " AVhat, art thou a skald as well as a bold messenger?" said Sigvald; "and hast thou already made a song on us ? " " I am a skald," said Havard ; " and if you must know, that was why they called me ' Snake-tongue ' out in Iceland." " By all means let us hear the song," said Sigvald. "AVe are always glad to have a skald in our hall." If there was one thing more than another in which the Northmen delighted, it was in these songs of the Icelandic skalds, confes sedly the first of the age, made for the most part as they wandered from court to court of the North in honour of kings, and earls, and great men.

" A song, a song from the Icelander ! " ran round the hall, and in an instant the whole band of captains listened in breathless attention to " THE CATCHING OF KING S"WEYN. " King Sweyn he sat in Heatherby, Hard by the Baltic shore, When, leaving Jomsburg on the lee, Sigvald came sailing o'er ; And thus his messmates heard him sing, Before the green seas running, ' To catch a king and keep a king We shall need all our cunning.' c tt c King Sweyn he sat in Heatherby, Quaffing the mead so yellow, When through the door right sturdily, Strode in a Troll-like fellow. Out spoke the king, with words that ring, ' Rude fellow, cease thy funning, To beard a king and brave a king Thou wilt need all thy cunning.' Up spoke the stranger speedily, ' My errand, lord, is hasty, Nor snapped I at it greedily, For noisome 'tis and nasty ; Sigvald of Jomsburg lieth sick, The golden daylight shunning ; Unless you speed to see him quick Death will have quenched his cunning.' ' And where lies Sigvald,' quoth the king. ' Hard by in yonder haven ; Life in him scarcely seemed to cling, Aloft croaked Odin's raven.' He said, ' Go, brother, seek the king, This land with glory sunning, To him I must reveal a thing Which will need all my cunning.' Up rose the king, he left his hall, Bed wine and mead like amber, He reached the shore with Thorkell tall, Up the ship's side they clamber ; Behind him staggered thirty men, With shouts the welkin stunning, The king reached Sigvald's ship with ten, The rest had lost their cunning.

" There on his bed lay Sigvald bold, The hand of Death him pressing, His face so pale, his limbs so cold, He looked past all confessing. ' Bow down thy forehead, gracious lord, Fast out life's tide is running, To catch my voice and mark each word Thou wilt need all thy cunning.' " Down bent the king, at his last gasp Seemed Sigvald wan and weary, — But when the Knytling felt his grasp, My ! but his heart grew dreary ! With arm of iron and hands that cling He keeps King Sweyn from running, And loud he sings, ' to catch a king, We needed all our cunning.' " AVhen Havard had finished his song, re peated rounds of applause ran round the hall, followed by a great clapping of hands. " That song of yours, Havard Snake-tongue," said Astrida, " had but one fault- — it was too short." " May be if Earl Sigvald lives and I live," said Havard, " I may make a better one on him.

His doughty deeds are not yet over, something whispers to me." "It was a right good strain," said Sigvald, " ancl well delivered. I would rather have thy tongue with me than against me, Havard, and as a guerdon take this golden ring as a small reward." As he said this he slipped a golden armlet, which weighed an English pound, off his left arm; and putting it on his sword's point, handed it over to the Icelander across the fire. As the Icelander took it he said — " Your bounty, Earl, reminds me of Egil Baldgrim's son at King Athelstane's court. He was a better skald than I shall ever be, and yet you have given me as good a ring." " There be rings and rings, And Earls and Kings," said Sigvald, breaking out himself into rhyme 'Come, a toast for the Skald Who sweetly sings." As he said this, he half drained a horn and handed it over to Havard ; who drained it, and holding it upside down said — " 'Tis stinging mead ; but we Icelanders can drink as well as sing, and so I thank you for your toast."

Then the Vikings all round the hall drank the toast in honour of the Icelander whose errand had begun so darkly. " See how things change," said Sigvald to Astrida. " This Icelander came in to mock at us, ancl we could scarce keep our hands off his throat ; and now he is our skald and best friend, and we would keep him here altogether if we could." " Very true," said the thoughtful Astrida. " So far as the messenger goes he is well enough ; but still the message remains behind, ancl King Sweyn's evil tongue when he turned what might have been a message of joy into one of scorn and insult." " There is enough work for all the clays in the year," said Sigvald, as they left the hall, " and this day's work has been done, and well done. To-morrow will suffice for itself. Meantime let us sleep soundly. All the Vikings of Joms burg are not yet dead, whatever treachery King Sweyn may meditate." 0 VOL.

Chapter II. The Vikings' Answer To King Sweyn

The morrow, as Sigvald had foreseen, was not destined to be an idle day ; indeed, the Vikings were never idle, and they were ever occupied with the care of their ships ancl arms, as no one knew when an evil day might come and they might be called on to use them. This state of readiness was what, in fact, made that free company so formidable. No King in the North or in Western Europe kept up so large a force of sailors and fighting men. It was a standing army, combined for pur poses of mutual co-operation and defence. Compared with their numbers, the bodyguards ancl vassals of the various kings were small and insignificant ; and, though each monarch could call out, if he chose, enormous levies all over his dominions, either for war abroad or defence at home, it was after all a tedious operation to TIIE VIKINGS' ANSWER TO KING SWEYN. 19 send out the " arrow of war," as it was called, at the sight of which every fighting man of a certain age was bound to follow the sovereign in arms for a given period of time.

AVhile the Vikings, therefore, counted their trained warriors and sailors by thousands, the King's bodyguards, which were the germ of a standing army, consisted of hundreds. The Vikings were always ready to strike a blow, but it would have taken King Sweyn in Denmark, or Eric in Sweden, or the great Earl Hacon in Norway, at least a month before he could bring ten thousand men to a given spot. AVe may, therefore, understand Earl Sigvald's boast that the Vikings of Jomsburg were not all dead, however much King Sweyn might threaten them. In a few days he could take the sea with three hundred ships at his back, manned, many of them, by one hundred, and none of them with less than fifty men. Even if he left half his force behind him to hold the burg, he could take the sea with one hundred and fifty ships and more than ten thousand men.

Against such a force every King in the North would be powerless in case of a, sudden c attack ; and it was only in sudden attacks that the Vikings appeared as invaders of the Northern and Western coasts. Jomsburg it self, their stronghold, could hardly have been leaguered, and stormed, and sacked by any other than a combined expedition of all the Northern nations — a thing impossible in an age when almost every King in the North was at daggers drawn with his neighbours. Earl Sigvald might, therefore, well feel that he was impregnable except by treachery ; and, as it was plain, from King Sweyn's message, that the wrongs he had suffered still rankled at his heart, it was against treachery that his policy was now directed. As to the thought of not accepting King Sweyn's bidding to Strut-Harold's funeral ale,, such a notion was not entertained by the proud A'iking for a moment.

In this respect King Sweyn was master of the position, for he had said, with perfect truth, that in the event of the absence in a foreign land of the lawful heir, or in a case of minority, it was the duty of the King to call on the heir to take up his father's rights, and to fulfil the duties discharged to the State by the deceased ; for it should never be forgotten that in that age, at least, property, and most of all property in land, had its duties as well as its rights. Sigvald, therefore, was bound to appear at the feast, and as the King had also the right to fix the time, it would be no excuse to say that it was unusually and unreasonably short. " Nullum tern-pus occurit regi " was a maxim as true in the North then as in England now. King Sweyn chose to take no account of time in this case ; and Sigvald, as his vassal in Den mark, had to obey or be called what no free man in that age could bear to be called, a niddering and a dastard, who refused to dis charge the sacred duties which he owed to his dead relative.

He must go, then, and go almost at once to Denmark ; but how to go, and how many ships to take with him, were the questions wliich now remained to be settled. Much of the early dawn of that day was spent in consultation with Astrida, whose good counsel now stood her husband in good stead. However anxious their deliberation may have been, no trace of trouble clouded the face of either husband or wife when the chiefs and the Icelander met in the hall for their morning meal. After the usual greetings, Sigvald said to Havard — " You are in luck, Icelander, in your voyage — luckier far in your departure than in your coming. The sea is smooth, the wind has gone down, ancl the little there is of it fair for Den mark. Even in that round hull of your trading ship you will not be long in seeing the white cliffs of Aloen, ancl the yellow autumn leaves of the Danish beeches."

" I clare not abuse that round hull," said Havard. " In a long-ship I should have gone to the bottom yesterday, but in my tub I rode out the gale, ancl what is more, came hither and did my errand, which you have made so good when it might have ended in my death." " AVe Askings," said Sigvald, " are not so bad as we seem. The words of a messenger are the words of him that sends him. As well quarrel with the flask that is filled with gall." " The sun is still tliree hours off noon," Si°-- 7 O vald went on, turning to another subject. " By midday, as we have said, you shall have your answer. Mean time amuse yourself while we consult our men." In a little while, as the Icelander was walk ing along the wharves and admiring the ships, the horns sounded to a muster of men, and the Vikings came trooping out of the gates.

As soon as they were assembled Sigvard mounted the cairn and said — " It is known, I suppose, to most of you how King Sweyn has sent me a message to say that my father, Strut-Harold, is dead, ancl that I am his heir ancl Earl in Scania, and now more than ever in Denmark a liege-man of the King. At the same time, the message was mingled with words of hate, from which it is easy to see, as well as from the short time that King Sweyn has fixed for my father's funeral ale, that he still harbours ill-feeling against us in his lieart. Now I wish to make it known to all men that as for me I must go to this funeral ale, as in duty bound both to my father, Strut- Harold, ancl to King Sweyn. AVhatever comes of it, therefore, I will go and must go. It follows, TIIE VIKINGS OF THE BALTIC. then, to ask how soon we shall go, and with how many men.

All that King Sweyn said in his message was that he asked me ancl my captains to Strut-Harold's funeral ale before the first winter night was past." Having said this much, Earl Sigvald stepped clown. Then Bui the Stout rose up ancl said — " It becomes no man better to speak on this matter after the Captain than me. Though there was long feud between me ancl mine and Strut-Harold ancl his sons, all that is past and gone. Sigvald, Harold's son, has no firmer friend alive than Bui, Veseti's son, of Bornholm. Strut-Harold is dead and gone, and Sigvald succeeds him as Earl and as his heir. But this King, who no doubt owes us all a grudge, has sent him a message blended with hate at last, though it begins fairly enough ; from wdiich it is plain that he hopes to persuade Sigvald to come to his father's funeral ale, as is his bounden duty, that after it is over he may get him and such of us as are with him into his hands.

Now we all know King Sweyn's temper, and indeed he showed it while he was here in Jomsburg, in such a way that he ought to think himself fortunate at having left this burg at all. His temper will be worse out of duress than in it ; and, besides, he owed our founder, Palnatoki, a grudge, and now he owes us all another. How say you, then, Vikings, shall we suffer Sigvald and our noblest cap tains to go to this funeral ale alone, or shall we follow them thither in such force that King Sweyn, with all his bodyguard at his back, will not dare to lay a finger on Sigvald's head?" Here Bui the Stout paused, and a murmur of applause ran through the crowd. Then Beorn rose and said — " I know not if you will hear me, Askings, when I have but a few days come back from such a disastrous cruize. Aly excuse is that no man can draw a rope against destiny, and that storm was fated to happen.