Gyda's Saucy Message

Now Harald heard men talk of Gyda, the daughter of King Eric.

"She is very beautiful," they said, "but she is very proud, too. She can

both read and make runes. No other woman in the world knows so much

about herbs as she does. She can cure any sickness. And she is proud of

all this!"

Now when King Harald heard that, he thought to himself:

"Fair and proud. I like them both. I will have her for my wife."

So he called his uncle, Guthorm, and said:

"Take rich gifts and go to Gyda's foster-father and tell him that I

will marry Gyda."

So Guthorm and his men came to that house and they told the king's

message to the foster-father. Gyda was standing near, weaving a rich

cloak. She heard the speech. She came up and said, holding her head

high and curling her lip:

"I will not waste myself on a king of so few people. Norway is a strange

country. There is a little king here and a little king there--hundreds

of them scattered about. Now in Denmark there is but one great king over

the whole land. And it is so in Sweden. Is no one brave enough to make

all of Norway his own?"

She laughed a scornful laugh and walked away. The men stood with open

mouths and stared after her. Could it be that she had sent that saucy

message to King Harald? They looked at her foster-father. He was

chuckling in his beard and said nothing to them. They started out of the

house in anger. When they were at the door, Gyda came up to them again

and said:

"Give this message to your King Harald for me: I will not be his wife

unless he puts all of Norway under him for my sake."

So Guthorm and his men rode homeward across the country. They did not

talk. They were all thinking. At last one said:

"How shall we give this message to the king?"

"I have been thinking of that," Guthorm said; "his anger is no little

thing."

It was late when they rode into the king's yard; for they had ridden

slowly, trying to make some plan for softening the message, but they had

thought of none.

"I see light through the wind's-eyes of the feast hall," one said.

"Yes, the king keeps feast," Guthorm said. "We must give our message

before all his guests."

So they went in with very heavy hearts. There sat King Harald in the

high seat. The benches on both sides were full of men. The tables had

been taken out, and the mead-horns were going round.

"Oh, ho!" cried King Harald. "Our messengers! What news?"

Then Guthorm said:

"This Gyda is a bold and saucy girl, King Harald. My tongue refuses to

give her message."

The king stamped his foot.

"Out with it!" he cried. "What does she say?"

"She says that she will not marry so little a king," Guthorm answered.

Harald jumped to his feet. His face flushed red. Guthorm stretched out

his hand.

"They are not my words, O King; they are the words of a silly girl."

"Is there any more?" the king shouted. "Go on!"

"She said: 'There is one king in Denmark and one king in Sweden. Is

there no man brave enough to make himself king of all Norway? Tell King

Harald that I will not marry him unless he puts all of Norway under him

for my sake.'"

The guests sat speechless, staring at Guthorm. All at once the king

broke into a roar of laughter.

"By the hammer of Thor!" he cried, "that is a good message. I thank you,

Gyda. Did you hear it, friends? King of all Norway! Why, we are all

stupids. Why did we not think of that?"

Then he raised his horn high.

"Now hear my vow. I say that I will not cut my hair or comb it until I

am king of all Norway. That I will be or I will die."

Then he drank off the horn of mead, and while he drank it, all the men

in the hall stood up and waved their swords and shouted and shouted.

That old hall in all its two hundred years of feasts had not heard such

a noise before.

"Ah, Harald!" Guthorm cried, "surely Thor in Valhalla smiled when he

heard that vow."

The men sat all night talking of that wonderful vow.

On the very next day King Harald sent out his war-arrows. Soon a great

army was gathered. They marched through the country north and south and

east and west, burning houses and fighting battles as they went. People

fled before them, some to their own kings, some inland to the deep woods

and hid there. But some went to King Harald and said:

"We will be your men."

"Then take the oath, and I will be friends with you," he said.

The men took off their swords and laid them down and came one by one and

knelt before the king. They put their heads between his knees and said:

"From this day, Harald Halfdanson, I am your man. I will serve you in

war. For my land I will pay you taxes. I will be faithful to you as my

king."

Then Harald said:

"I am your king, and I will be faithful to you."

Many kings took that oath and thousands of common men. Of all the

battles that Harald fought, he did not lose one.

Now for a long time the king's hair and beard had not been combed or

cut. They stood out around his head in a great bushy mat of yellow. At a

feast one day when the jokes were going round, Harald's uncle said:

"Harald, I will give you a new name. After this you shall be called

Harald Shockhead. As my naming gift I give you this drinking-horn."

"It is a good name," laughed all the men.

After that all people called him Harald Shockhead.

During these wars, whenever King Harald got a country for his own, this

is what he did. He said:

"All the marshland and the woodland where no people live is mine. For

his farm every man shall pay me taxes."

Over every country he put some brave, wise man and called him Earl. He

said to the earls:

"You shall collect the taxes and pay them to me. But some you shall keep

for yourselves. You shall punish any man who steals or murders or does

any wicked thing. When your people are in trouble they shall come to

you, and you shall set the thing right. You must keep peace in the land.

I will not have my people troubled with robber vikings."

The earls did all these things as best they could; for they were good

strong men. The farmers were happy. They said:

"We can work on our farms with peace now. Before King Harald came,

something was always wrong. The vikings would come and steal our gold

and our grain and burn our houses, or the king would call us to war.

Those little kings are always fighting. It is better under King Harald."

But the chiefs, who liked to fight and go a-viking, hated King Harald

and his new ways. One of these chiefs was Solfi. He was a king's son.

Harald had killed his father in battle. Solfi had been in that battle.

At the end of it he fled away with two hundred men and got into ships.

"We will make that Shockhead smart," he said.

So they harried the coast of King Harald's country. They filled their

ships with gold. They ate other men's meals. They burned farmhouses

behind them. The people cried out to the earls for help. So the earls

had out their ships all the time trying to catch Solfi, but he was too

clever for them.

In the spring he went to a certain king, Audbiorn, and said to him:

"Now, there are two things that we can do. We can become this Shockhead

Harald's thralls, we can kneel before him and put our heads between his

knees. Or else we can fight. My father thought it better to die in

battle than to be any man's thrall. How is it? Will you join with my

cousin Arnvid and me against this young Shockhead?"

"Yes, I will do it," said the king.