"The hero who knows well to ride
The sea-horse[1] o'er the foaming tide,—
He who in boyhood wild rode o'er
The seaman's horse to Scania's shore,
And showed the Danes his galley's bow,
Right nobly scours the ocean now.
On Scotland's coast he lights the brand
Of flaming war; with conquering hand
Drives many a Scottish warrior tall
To the bright seats in Odin's hall.
The fire-spark, by the fiend of war
Fanned to a flame, soon spreads afar.
Crowds trembling fly,—the southern foes
Fall thick beneath the hero's blows:
The hero's blade drips red with gore,
Staining the green sward on the shore."
Chapter VI.
Battle in Jutland.
When King Eric had left the country, King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, subdued the whole of Norway. The first winter he visited the western parts, and then went north, and settled in Drontheim. But as no peace could be reasonably looked for so long as King Eric with his forces could come to Norway from the Westsea, he set himself with his men-at-arms in the middle of the country,—in the Fiorde district, or in Sogn, or Hordaland, or Kogaland. Hakon placed Sigurd earl of Lade over the whole Drontheim district, as he and his father had before had it under Harald Haarfager. When King Hakon heard of his brother Eric's death, and also that his sons had no footing in England, he thought there was not much to fear from them, and he went with his troops one summer eastward to Viken. At that time the Danes plundered often in Viken, and wrought much evil there; but when they heard that King Hakon was come with a great army, they got out of the way,—some to Sealand, or to Halland[2];
- ↑ The sea-horse, the ocean steed, &c., are common expressions for a ship,—probably from many having had the figure-head of a horse on the bow.
- ↑ Halland was part of the present Sweden. Denmark extended over the provinces of Scania, Halland, and Bleiking, on the north or Swedish side of the Sound, in the earliest times, and down to a late period.
