Norwegian Life | Page 4

against the harrying Northmen. In France the following
formula was inserted in the church prayer: "_A furore Normannorum
libera nos, o Domine_!" (Free us, O Lord, from the fury of the
Northmen!)
Gradually the viking life assumed a nobler form. There appear to have
been three stages or periods in the viking age. In the first one the
vikings make casual visits with single ships to the shores of England,
Ireland, France or Flanders, and when they have plundered a town or a
convent, they return to their ships and sail away. In the second period
their cruises assume a more regular character, and indicate some
definite plan, as they take possession of certain points, where they
winter, and from where they command the surrounding country. During
the third period they no longer confine themselves to seeking booty, but
act as real conquerors, take possession of the conquered territory, and
rule it. As to the influence of the Northmen on the development of the
countries visited in this last period, the eminent English writer, Samuel
Laing, the translator of the Heimskringla, or the Sagas of the Norse
kings, says:
"All that men hope for of good government and future improvement in

their physical and moral condition--all that civilized men enjoy at this
day of civil, religious, and political liberty--the British constitution,
representative legislation, the trial by jury, security of property,
freedom of mind and person, the influence of public opinion over the
conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, the liberty of the press, the
spirit of the age--all that is or has been of value to man in modern times
as a member of society, either in Europe or in the New World, may be
traced to the spark left burning upon our shores by these northern
barbarians."
The authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, who reigned
from the year 821 to 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in the
twelfth century, wrote the Heimskringla, or Sagas of the Norse Kings,
gives a long line of preceding kings of the Yngling race, the royal
family to which Halfdan the Swarthy belonged; but that part of the
Saga belongs to mythology rather than to history.
According to tradition, the Yngling family were descendants of Fiolner,
the son of the god Frey. One of the surnames of the god was Yngve,
from which the family derived the name Ynglings. King Halfdan was a
wise man, a lover of truth and justice. He made good laws, which he
observed himself and compelled others to observe. He fixed certain
penalties for all crimes committed. His code of laws, called the Eidsiva
Law, was adopted at a common Thing at Eidsvol, where about a
thousand years later the present constitution of Norway was adopted.
One day in the spring of 860, when Halfdan the Swarthy was driving
home from a feast across the Randsfjord, he broke through the ice and
was drowned. He was so popular that, when his body was found, the
leading men in each Fylki demanded to have him buried with them,
believing that it would bring prosperity to the district. They at last
agreed to divide the body into four parts, which were buried in four
different districts. The trunk of the body was buried in a mound at Stien,
Ringerike, where a little hill is still called Halfdan's Mound. And this
Halfdan became the ancestor of the royal race of Norway.
Halfdan's son, Harald the Fairhaired, at the age of ten years succeeded
his father on the throne of Norway, or it afterward proved to be the

throne of United Norway. When he became old enough to marry, he
sent his men to a girl named Gyda, a daughter of King Erik of
Hordaland, who was brought up a foster-child in the house of a rich
Bonde in Valders.
Harald had heard of her as a very beautiful though proud girl. When the
men delivered their message, she answered that she would not marry a
king who had no greater kingdom than a few Fylkis (districts), and she
added that she thought it strange that "no king here in Norway will
make the whole country subject to him, in the same way that Gorm the
Old did in Denmark, or Erik at Upsala." When the messengers returned
to the king, they advised him to punish her for her haughty words, but
Harald said she had spoken well, and he made the solemn vow not to
cut or comb his hair until he had subdued the whole of Norway, which
he did, and became sole king of Norway. The decisive battle was a
naval one in the Hafrsfjord, near the present city of Stavanger. After
this battle, which occurred in 872, when he had been declared King of
United Norway, he attended