The painted shield, and steel-plate mail, Before thy fierce attack soon fail, To Magnus who belongs to heaven,Was no such fame in battle given."Magnus fled eastward to Gautland, and then to Denmark.At that time there was in Gautland an earl, Karl Sonason, who was a great and ambitious man.Magnus the Blind and his men said, wherever they happened to meet with chiefs, that Norway lay quite open to any great chieftain who would attack it; for it might well be said there was no king in the country, and the kingdom was only ruled by lendermen, and, among those who had most sway, there was, from mutual jealousy, most discord.Now Karl, being ambitious of power, listens willingly to such speeches; collects men, and rides west to Viken, where many people, out of fear, submit to him.When Thjostolf Alason and Amunde heard of this, they went with the men they could get together, and took King Inge with them.They met Earl Karl and the Gautland army eastward in Krokaskog, where there was a great battle and a great defeat, King Inge gaining the victory.Munan Ogmundson, Earl Karl's mother's brother, fell there.Ogmund, the father of Munan, was a son of Earl Orm Eilifson, and Sigrid, a daughter of Earl Fin Arnason.Astrid, Ogrnund's daughter, was the mother of Earl Karl.Many others of the Gautland people fell at Krokaskog;and the earl fled eastward through the forest.King Inge pursued them all the way out of the kingdom; and this expedition turned out a great disgrace to them.So says Kolle: --"I must proclaim how our great lord Coloured deep red his ice-cold sword;And ravens played with Gautland bones, And wolves heard Gautlanders' last groans.
Their silly jests were well repaid, --
In Krokaskog their laugh was laid:
Thy battle power was then well tried, And they who won may now deride."3.KING EIRIK'S EXPEDITION TO NORWAY.
Magnus the Blind then went to Denmark to King Eirik Eimune, where he was well received.He offered the king to follow him if he would invade Norway with a Danish army, and subdue the country;saying, that if he came to Norway with his army, no man in Norway would venture to throw a spear against him.The king allowed himself to be moved by Magnus's persuasions, ordered a levy, and went north to Norway with 200 ships; and Magnus and his men were with him on this expedition.When they came to Viken, they proceeded peacefully and gently on the east side of the fjord;but when the fleet came westward to Tunsberg, a great number of King Inge's lendermen came against them.Their leader was Vatnorm Dagson, a brother of Gregorius.The Danes could not land to get water without many of them being killed; and therefore they went in through the fjord to Oslo, where Thjostolf Alason opposed them.It is told that some people wanted to carry the holy Halvard's coffin out of the town in the evening when the fleet was first observed, and as many as could took hold of it;but the coffin became so heavy that they could not carry it over the church floor.The morning after, however, when they saw the fleet sailing in past the Hofud Isle, four men carried the coffin out of the town, and Thjostolf and all the townspeople followed it.
4.THE TOWN OF OSLO BURNT.
King Eirik and his army advanced against the town; and some of his men hastened after Thjostolf and his troop.Thjostolf threw a spear at a man named Askel, which hit him under the throat, so that the spear point went through his neck; and Thjostolf thought he had never made a better spear-cast, for, except the place he hit, there was nothing bare to be seen.The shrine of St.
Halvard, was taken up to Raumarike, where it remained for three months.Thjostolf went up to Raumarike, and collected men during the night, with whom he returned towards the town in the morning.
In the meantime King Eirik set fire to Halvard's church, and to the town, which was entirely burnt.Thjostolf came soon after to the town with the men he had assembled, and Eirik sailed off with his fleet; but could not land anywhere on that side of the fjord, on account of the troops of the lendermen who came down against them; and wherever they attempted a landing, they left five or six men or more upon the strand.King Inge lay with a great number of people into Hornborusund, but when he learned this, he turned about southwards to Denmark again.King Inge pursued him, and took from him all the ships he could get hold of; and it was a common observation among people, that never was so poor an expedition made with so great an armament in another king's dominions.King Eirik was ill pleased at it, and thought King Magnus and his men had been making a fool of him by encouraging him to undertake this expedition, and he declared he would never again besuch friends with them as before.
5.OF SIGURD SLEMBIDJAKN.
Sigurd Slembidjakn came that summer from the West sea to Norway, where he heard of his relation King Magnus's unlucky expedition;so he expected no welcome in Norway, but sailed south, outside the rocks, past the land, and set over to Denmark, and went into the Sound.He fell in with some Vindland cutters south of the islands, gave them battle, and gained the victory.He cleared eight ships, killing many of the men, and he hanged the others.
He also had a battle off the Island Mon with the Vindland men, and gained a victory.He then sailed from the south and came to the eastern arm of the Gaut river, and took three ships of the fleet of Thorer Hvinantorde, and Olaf, the son of Harald Kesia, who was Sigurd's own sister's son; for Ragnhild, the mother of Olaf, was a daughter of King Magnus Barefoot.He drove Olaf up the country.
Thjostolf was at this time in Konungahella, and had collected people to defend the country, and Sigurd steered thither with his fleet.They shot at each other, but he could not effect a landing; and, on both sides, many were killed and many wounded.
Ulfhedin Saxolfson, Sigurd's forecastle man, fell there.He was an Icelander, from the north quarter.Sigurd continued his course northwards to Viken and plundered far and wide around.
