Harald Is King

Now when Harald was ten years old his father, King Halfdan, died. An old

book that tells about Harald says that then "he was the biggest of all

men, the strongest, and the fairest to look upon." That about a boy ten

years old! But boys grew fast in those days for they were out of doors

all the time, running, swimming, leaping on skees, and hunting in the

forest. All that makes big, manly boys.

So now King Halfdan was dead and buried, and Harald was to be king. But

first he must drink his father's funeral ale.

"Take down the gay tapestries that hang in the feast hall," he said to

the thralls. "Put up black and gray ones. Strew the floor with pine

branches. Brew twenty tubs of fresh ale and mead. Scour every dish until

it shines."

Then Harald sent messengers all over that country to his kinsmen and

friends.

"Bid them come in three months' time to drink my father's funeral ale,"

he said. "Tell them that no one shall go away empty-handed."

So in three months men came riding up at every hour. Some came in boats.

But many had ridden far through mountains, swimming rivers; for there

were few roads or bridges in Norway. On account of that hard ride no

women came to the feast.

At nine o'clock in the night the feast began. The men came walking in at

the west end of the hall. The great bonfires down the middle of the

room were flashing light on everything. The clean smell of this

wood-smoke and of the pine branches on the floor was pleasant to the

guests. Down each side of the hall stretched long, backless benches,

with room for three hundred men. In the middle of each side rose the

high seat, a great carved chair on a platform. All along behind the

benches were the black and gray draperies. Here hung the shields of the

guests; for every man, when he was given his place, turned and hung his

shield behind him and set his tall spear by it. So on each wall there

was a long row of gay shields, red and green and yellow, and all shining

with gold or bronze trimmings. And higher up there was another row of

gleaming spear-points. Above the hall the rafters were carved and gaily

painted, so that dragons seemed to be crawling across, or eagles seemed

to be swooping down.

The guests walked in laughing and talking with their big voices so that

the rafters rang. They made the hall look all the brighter with their

clothes of scarlet and blue and green, with their flashing golden

bracelets and head-bands and sword-scabbards, with their flying hair of

red or yellow.

Across the east end of the hall was a bench. When the men were all in,

the queen, Harald's mother, and the women who lived with her, walked in

through the east door and sat upon this bench.

Then thralls came running in and set up the long tables before the

benches. Other thralls ran in with large steaming kettles of meat. They

put big pieces of this meat into platters of wood and set it before the

men. They had a few dishes of silver. These they put before the guests

at the middle of the tables; for the great people sat here near the high

seats.

When the meat came, the talking stopped; for Norsemen ate only twice a

day, and these men had had long rides and were hungry. Three or four

persons ate from one platter and drank from the same big bowl of milk.

They had no forks, so they ate from their fingers and threw the bones

under the table among the pine branches. Sometimes they took knives from

their belts to cut the meat.

When the guests sat back satisfied, Harald called to the thralls:

"Carry out the tables."

So they did and brought in two great tubs of mead and set one at each

end of the hall. Then the queen stood up and called some of her women.

They went to the mead tubs. They took the horns, when the thralls had

filled them, and carried them to the men with some merry word. Perhaps

one woman said as she handed a man his horn:

"This horn has no feet to be set down upon. You must drink it at one

draught."

Perhaps another said:

"Mead loves a merry face."

The women were beautiful, moving about the hall. The queen wore a

trailing dress of blue velvet with long flowing sleeves. She had a short

apron of striped Arabian silk with gold fringe along the bottom. From

her shoulders hung a long train of scarlet wool embroidered in gold.

White linen covered her head. Her long yellow hair was pulled around at

the sides and over her breast and was fastened under the belt of her

apron. As she walked, her train made a pleasant rustle among the pine

branches. She was tall and straight and strong. Some of her younger

women wore no linen on their heads and had their white arms bare, with

bracelets shining on them. They, too, were tall and strong.

All the time men were calling across the fire to one another asking news

or telling jokes and laughing.

An old man, Harald's uncle, sat in the high seat on the north side. That

was the place of honor. But the high seat on the south side was empty;

for that was the king's seat. Harald sat on the steps before it.

The feast went merrily until long after midnight. Then the thralls took

some of the guests to the guest house to sleep, and some to the beds

around the sides of the feast hall. But some men lay down on the benches

and drew their cloaks over themselves.

On the next night there was another feast. Still Harald sat on the step

before the high seat. But when the tables were gone and the horns were

going around, he stood up and raised high a horn of ale and said loudly:

"This horn of memory I drink in honor of my father, Halfdan, son of

Gudrod, who sits now in Valhalla. And I vow that I will grind my

father's foes under my heel."

Then he drank the ale and sat down in the king's high seat, while all

the men stood up and raised their horns and shouted:

"King Harald!"

And some cried:

"That was a brave vow."

And Harald's uncle called out:

"A health to King Harald!"

And they all drank it.

Then a man stood up and said:

"Hear my song of King Halfdan!" for this man was a skald.

"Yes, the song!" shouted the men, and Harald nodded his head.

So the skald took down his great harp from the wall behind him and went

and stood before Harald. The bottom of the harp rested on the floor, but

the top reached as high as the skald's shoulders. The brass frame shone

in the light. The strings were some of gold and some of silver. The man

struck them with his hand and sang of King Halfdan, of his battles, of

his strong arm and good sword, of his death, and of how men loved him.

When he had finished, King Harald took a bracelet from his arm and gave

it to him, saying:

"Take this as thanks for your good song."

The guests stayed the next day and at night there was another feast.

When the mead horns were going around, King Harald stood up and spoke:

"I said that no man should go away empty-handed from drinking my

father's funeral ale."

He beckoned the thralls, and they brought in a great treasure-chest and

set it down by the high seat. King Harald opened it and took out rich

gifts--capes and sword-belts and beautiful cloth and bracelets and gold

cloak-pins. These he sent about the hall and gave something to every

man. The guests wondered at the richness of his gifts.

"This young king has an open hand," they said, "and deep

treasure-chests."

After breakfast the next morning the guests went out and stood by their

horses ready to go, but before they mounted, thralls brought a horn of

mead to each man. That was called the stirrup-horn, because after they

drank it the men put their feet to the stirrups and sprang upon their

horses and started. King Harald and his people rode a little way with

them.

All men said that that was the richest funeral feast that ever was

held.