Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/201

SVERRIR AND DESCENDANTS, TO HAKON. 191 him if he would not accept, — which thus at the sword's point, as Sverrir says, he was obliged to do. It was after this that he thought of becoming son of Wry-Mouth and other higher things. His Birkebeins and he had certainly a talent of campaigning which has hardly ever been equalled. They fought like devils against any odds of number ; and before battle they have been known to march six days together without food, except, perhaps, the inner barks of trees, and in such clothing and shoeing as mere birch bark : — at one time, somewhere in the Dovrefjeld, there was serious counsel held among them whether they should not all, as one man, leap down into the frozen gulphs and precipices, or at once massacre one another wholly, and so finish. Of their conduct in battle, fiercer than that of Bare- sarks, where was there ever seen the parallel ? In truth they are a dim strange object to one, in that black time ; wondrously bringing light into it withal ; and proved to be, under such unexpected circum- stances, the beginning of better days I Of Sverrir's public speeches there still exist au- thentic specimens ; wonderful indeed, and much cha-