Heimskringla | Page 8

and

King Halfdan and many with him perished. He was then forty years old.
He had been one of the most fortunate kings in respect of good seasons.
The people thought so much of him, that when his death was known
and his body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people of
most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark came to
meet it. All desired to take the body with them to bury it in their own
district, and they thought that those who got it would have good crops
to expect. At last it was agreed to divide the body into four parts. The
head was laid in a mound at Stein in Ringerike, and each of the others
took his part home and laid it in a mound; and these have since been
called Halfdan's Mounds.

HARALD HARFAGER'S SAGA.
1. HARALD'S STRIFE WITH HAKE AND HIS FATHER
GANDALF.
Harald (1) was but ten years old when he succeeded his father (Halfdan
the Black). He became a stout, strong, and comely man, and withal
prudent and manly. His mother's brother, Guthorm, was leader of the
hird, at the head of the government, and commander (`hertogi') of the
army. After Halfdan the Black's death, many chiefs coveted the
dominions he had left. Among these King Gandalf was the first; then
Hogne and Frode, sons of Eystein, king of Hedemark; and also Hogne
Karuson came from Ringerike. Hake, the son of Gandalf, began with an
expedition of 300 men against Vestfold, marched by the main road
through some valleys, and expected to come suddenly upon King
Harald; while his father Gandalf sat at home with his army, and
prepared to cross over the fiord into Vestfold. When Duke Guthorm
heard of this he gathered an army, and marched up the country with
King Harald against Hake. They met in a valley, in which they fought a
great battle, and King Harald was victorious; and there fell King Hake
and most of his people. The place has since been called Hakadale. Then
King Harald and Duke Guthorm turned back, but they found King
Gandalf had come to Vestfold. The two armies marched against each
other, and met, and had a great battle; and it ended in King Gandalf
flying, after leaving most of his men dead on the spot, and in that state
he came back to his kingdom. Now when the sons of King Eystein in
Hedemark heard the news, they expected the war would come upon

them, and they sent a message to Hogne Karuson and to Herse
Gudbrand, and appointed a meeting with them at Ringsaker in
Hedemark.
ENDNOTES: (1) The first twenty chapters of this saga refer to Harald's
youth and his conquest of Norway. This portion of the saga is of great
importance to the Icelanders, as the settlement of their Isle was a result
of Harald's wars. The second part of the saga (chaps. 21-46) treats of
the disputes between Harald's sons, of the jarls of Orkney, and of the
jarls of More. With this saga we enter the domain of history. -- Ed.

2. KING HARALD OVERCOMES FIVE KINGS.
After the battle King Harald and Guthorm turned back, and went with
all the men they could gather through the forests towards the Uplands.
They found out where the Upland kings had appointed their
meeting-place, and came there about the time of midnight, without the
watchmen observing them until their army was before the door of the
house in which Hogne Karuson was, as well as that in which Gudbrand
slept. They set fire to both houses; but King Eystein's two sons slipped
out with their men, and fought for a while, until both Hogne and Frode
fell. After the fall of these four chiefs, King Harald, by his relation
Guthorm's success and powers, subdued Hedemark, Ringerike,
Gudbrandsdal, Hadeland, Thoten, Raumarike, and the whole northern
part of Vingulmark. King Harald and Guthorm had thereafter war with
King Gandalf, and fought several battles with him; and in the last of
them King Gandalf was slain, and King Harald took the whole of his
kingdom as far south as the river Raum.

3. OF GYDA, DAUGHTER OF EIRIE.
King Harald sent his men to a girl called Gyda, daughter of King Eirik
of Hordaland, who was brought up as foster-child in the house of a
great bonde in Valdres. The king wanted her for his concubine; for she
was a remarkably handsome girl, but of high spirit withal. Now when
the messengers came there, and delivered their errand to the girl, she
answered, that she would not throw herself away even to take a king for
her husband, who had no greater kingdom to rule over than a few
districts. "And methinks," said she,