To reconcile these contradictions would be a vain attempt. All that yet remains to be communicated respecting this, and one or two preceding reigns, may be found in the chapter devoted to the origin of Christianity in these regions.[158]
CHAP. III.
NORWAY.
ABOUT A.C. 70 TO A.D. 1030.
NEW KINGDOM OF THE YNGLINGS IN VERMELAND.—KINGS FROM OLAF TRÆTELIA TO HALFDAN THE BLACK.—HALFDAN THE TRUE FOUNDER OF THE NORWEGIAN MONARCHY.—HARALD HARFAGER.—ERIC OF THE BLOODY AXE.—HAKO THE GOOD.—HARALD GRAAFELD.—HAKO THE JARL.—SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF OLAF TRYGVESON.—HIS EARLY PIRATICAL EXPLOITS.—HIS ROMANTIC FORTUNES.—HE BECOMES KING OF NORWAY.—HIS DESTRUCTION OF THE IDOLS.—HIS INTOLERANT BIGOTRY AND CRUEL PERSECUTIONS.—HIS TRAGICAL DEATH, OR, ACCORDING TO SOME WRITERS, HIS MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE WORLD.—OLAF THE SAINT.—HIS ADVENTURES OF A PIRATE.—HIS ACCESSION TO THE CROWN OF NORWAY.—HIS PERSECUTING CHARACTER.—HIS QUARRELS AND SUBSEQUENT ALLIANCE WITH SWEDEN.—IS DRIVEN INTO EXILE BY CANUTE THE GREAT.—HE RETURNS, AND IS SLAIN.—HIS PRETENDED SANCTITY.
That Norway had its chiefs with the regal title, if not prior to our Saviour’s birth, many centuries before the fall of the Ynglings in Sweden, is undoubted. We find allusions to them in Danish and Swedish history, and in chronicles which, though of a later period, were derived from sources now lost. The country was full of them. Most of them, as we have already observed[159], boasted of their descent from an old Finnish race, which, though half mythologic, had, in primeval times, produced many chiefs of illustrious name. But of their deeds we have no evidence beyond the little supplied by the uncertain voice of tradition; and that little is so exaggerated by fable as to be useless. We will not rescue their names from oblivion: our narrative must accompany the fates of the Ynglings from their first settlement in Vermeland in Sweden, to their conquest of Norway. In regard to the latter country, we shall only observe that when Olaf Trætelia laid the foundation of a new power, it had as many reguli as at any former period. To subjugate them in succession, and to incorporate their petty states into one great monarchy, was the constant aim of his successors.[160]
|630 to 640.|
The province of Vermeland, to which Olaf Trætelia retired, and in which he laid the foundation of a new state, was, as we have before observed, situated to the north of the Vener Lake. Here the assiduity with which he and his followers cleared the ground of its forests procured him, at Upsal, the scornful application of Trætelia, or Wood-cutter. But he despised the ridicule, and persevered. By degrees, many thousands of the people, whom attachment to the Ynglings, or the hope of greater freedom in the woods, rendered discontented at Upsal, or Sigtuna, or Birca, hastened to join him. Some writers assert that he returned for a season to his capital, and ruled the Swedes as his ancestors had done. But this statement is unsupported by any ancient authority, and is hostile to reason. Vermeland might well be confounded with Upland, for both were and are Swedish provinces. But the very circumstance which should have fortified him against the power of his enemies occasioned his death. The number of new comers was so great that the region, which was yet imperfectly cultivated, was unable to support them; the colony became a prey to famine, and the visitation was, as usual, ascribed to the king. According to the religious notions of the Swiar, every public misfortune was a proof that the gods were offended: but they could not be offended without a cause; and, as the monarch was the representative of the whole society, he was held responsible for the calamity. Besides, Olaf was not very zealous in the observances of religion; he seldom offered sacrifices; and his blood only could propitiate the deities. By a large body of his subjects his house was surrounded, set on fire, and consumed with him—a meet sacrifice to Odin for an abundant year. This prince deserved a better fate. His name will be held in remembrance, not only as the founder of a new kingdom, but as one who laboured with much zeal for the welfare of his people. By his marriage with Solveig, the daughter of Halfdan, king of Soleyr, a state lying to the west of Vermeland, and founded about a century before his own, he left to his successors a claim on that province.[161]
|640 to 840.|
Olaf left two sons, Halfdan and Ingiald. The former, on the tragical death of his father, was with his grandfather in Soleyr, but he was followed by the Swedes, and demanded from the old king. The latter, however, having no desire to surrender his grandson to the murderers of the father, resisted, and a battle ensued, in which he lost his life. Halfdan was raised to the government of both states, and, with the aid of both, he subdued Raumarik, a country west of Soleyr. The three formed a compact and scarcely accessible kingdom, which, when governed by chiefs of enterprise and policy, could not fail to extend its limits to the west and north. Like his father, Halfdan studied how to promote the interest of his new state by a matrimonial alliance. North of Raumarik lies Hedmark, a small province subject to a king named Eystein. Its situation was so convenient in respect to Raumarik and Soleyr, that Halfdan eagerly sought and obtained the hand of Esa, daughter of Eystein. This union affording him a pretext for interfering in the affairs of that province, half of it, by force or policy, he soon added to his other states; and he afterwards subdued a considerable portion of Westfold, which he claimed in right of Hilda, princess of Westfold, the wife of his son. He died at Thotnia, one of his new acquisitions; but his body was carried to Westfold, and there interred. Over Vermeland was his brother Ingiald; and after the death of this chief the province was administered by jarls.
|730 to 840.|
Eystein, the son of Halfdan, succeeded to the united crowns of Raumarik and Westfold. As the latter province was maritime, Eystein built vessels, and followed the ordinary as well as most honourable profession of his time—that of piracy. According to the tradition which the poet Thiodulf perpetuated, he perished in one of his expeditions. He had the temerity to disembark on the coast of Varnia—the king of which was a great magician—to lay waste the region bordering on the sea; to carry to his ships everything upon which he could lay his hands, and to slaughter the cattle on the sea-shore. Scarcely had he embarked, when the wizard king arrived. The latter knew how to be avenged. Shaking his mantle in the air, and blowing from his mouth, another vessel suddenly appeared close to that of Eystein, and the spar which was used for distending the sails striking the king, who was sitting at the helm, he was thrown overboard. The sailors flew to his aid, but could not rescue him from the waves until the vital spark had fled. Halfdan II., the son of Eystein, is noted for a strange inconsistency in his conduct. To his followers—and as a piratical chief he had many—he gave, in the shape of wages, as many golden as other kings gave silver pieces of money; yet he almost starved them for want of food.[163] The sceptre was now swayed by Gudred, the son of Halfdan, who, from his chief pursuit, was called the hunter king. He was also called Gudred the Magnificent, probably from the extent of his dominions, no less than from his wealth. None of his predecessors understood better the art of profiting by matrimonial alliances. His first wife was Alfhilda, daughter of the king of Alfheim; and with her he received, as dowry, a part of Vingulmark. As this province was bounded on the north by Raumarik, on the west by Westfold—both on the southern confines of Norway and Sweden—it was a valuable acquisition. On her death, in looking round where his dominions could be most conveniently extended, the maritime coast of Agder, which lay to the south of Westfold, and which, like that province, is now a portion of Christiania, as Raumarik is of Aggerhus, he demanded Asa, daughter of that king. On the refusal of Harald to bestow the princess on him—probably from a knowledge of his ulterior policy—he equipped a fleet, sailed to the coast of Agder, disembarked, hastened to the royal abode, and assailed king Harald, who fell in the battle, together with the heir of the province. Agder therefore became an easy prey to this ambitious monarch. But it was his doom to fall by the hand of a domestic, at the instigation of his second wife, Asa, many years after. His states were now divided between Olaf and Halfdan; the former his son by Alfhilda,
