And Eric too, the bold in fight,
Has broken down the robber-might
Of four great vikings, and has slain
All of the crew—nor spared one Dane.
In Gotland he has seized the town,
In Syssels harried up and down;
And all the people in dismay
Fled to the forests far away.
By land or sea, in field or wave.
What can withstand this earl brave?
All fly before his fiery hand—
God save the earl, and keep the land."
When Eric had been a year in Sweden he went over to Denmark to King Swend the Forked-bearded, the Danish king, and courted his daughter Gyda. The proposal was accepted, and Earl Eric married Gyda; and a year after they had a son, who was called Hakon. Earl Eric was in the winter in Denmark, or sometimes in Sweden; but in summer he went a cruising.
Chapter XCVIII.
King Swend's marriage.
The Danish king, Swend Forked Beard[1], was married
- ↑ Sweinn or Swend Forked Beard (Tiuguskegg) was the conqueror of England,, and father of Canute the Great. We retain the word swein in swain, boatswain, coxswain, and other words, in the same signification as swein and swend have in the northern languages. He was the son of King Harald Gormson, whose father, Gorm the Old, was the first sole king of Denmark. Gorm the Old, Harald Haarfager, and Eric Emundsson of Sweden, were contemporaries, and three remarkable men, who, about the middle of the 9th century, got the supreme power in their respective dominions, and put down the small kings. Eric the Victorious, a grandson of Eric Emundsson, gained a battle at Fyrisvol, near Upsal, in 983, against his brother's son, Styrbiorn the Strong, who was aided by Harald Gormson of Denmark; and in the war which ensued between Sweden and Denmark, Swein, Harald's son, was driven from his kingdom. Eric's first wife was Sigrid the Haughty. He divorced her after she had a son by him called Olaf. This Olaf, called Olaf the Swede, and the Lap-king, from having been king while still in his nurse's lap, w'as the Olaf of whom so much is related in the Saga of Saint Olaf. This Sigrid, the same who burnt Harald Graenske, and whom Olaf Tryggvesson insulted by striking her with his glove, married Swein, who recovered hack his kingdom by this marriage from his stepson, Olaf the Swede. According to the saga, this Sigrid's desire of revenge for the insult she had received from Olaf Tryggvesson occasioned the combination which defeated and slew Olaf. The peace, established by this marriage between Sweden and Denmark, enabled Swein to leave his dominions and make war in England. Olaf the Swede died in 1024, and was the first Christian king of Sweden.
