1016 The Danish Conquest of England

MAPS

Introduction

Mention the conquest of England, and the answer is 1066 and William the Conqueror, but fifty years before, England was conquered by Cnut the Dane. It did not come as a surprise. His father Sven Forkbeard, king of Denmark, had conquered England three years before, in 1013, but the whole thing went back much further than that.

The populations around the shores of the North Sea are surprisingly homogenous genetically, and that appears to have been the case since the Neolithic era. There must have been vivid exchanges of goods and culture over the water for thousands of years, but the first, indirect, written evidence of that exchange is some of the early Saxon poems, primarily Beowulf. Written in Old-English (or Saxon) the poem tells of Danish kings in a glorious past. The poem also mentions the Dane Hengest, who could very well be identical to the Hengest called in by the British (Welsh) King Vortigern, to help him against the Picts and the Scots, but Hengest stayed and conquered a kingdom for himself, maybe he was the first Danish king in England.

After the darkest, and coldest, period of the Middle Ages, from 500 to 700 AD, with very few written sources, a new type of cultural exchange appears in 793, looking much like a religious war. Christian missionaries on the Continent had been destroying pagan temples and Charlemagne was busy converting the heathens by the sword. Some of the missionaries were English and some had been trained at Lindisfarne. The Vikings probably also enjoyed pillaging and raping, but the religious element was very consistent and they spent much effort on destroying Christian symbols and relics, from which they apparently gained nothing but revenge. Later they also settled, most densely in the Danelaw area and in the north-western corner of Gaul, later to be called Normandy after the Danes and other people from the north, who were all lumped together as Normans.

There were plenty of Danish kings in East Anglia and Northumbria, one of whom, called Cnut, left an awful lot of coins but no written traces, but he may very well have been a forefather of today’s royal Danish family. King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark (and of later electronic fame) believed that he had a hereditary claim on the English throne through his mother, Thyra, who appears to have been a (half)sister of Aethelstan the Glorious. Wars in Scandinavia and against the German emperor kept Harald pretty occupied, but he did send a son to conquer England, without much success.

Map 1 The North Sea

Harald Bluetooth’s other son, Sven Forkbeard, was more successful, but he was also extremely persistent. According to the Jomsvikinga Saga he had sworn to conquer England in the mid 980s, he may have taken part in the Battle of Maldon, 991, and he definitely attacked London in 994. He was bought out with Danegeld and left England in peace for some years, until the St. Brice’s Day Massacre of the Danes in 1002, where Sven himself lost a sister. Still, it took him another eleven years before all the English held him for full king, in 1013. He died shortly afterwards, and England reverted to the House of Wessex, with Aethelred Unred who had sought refuge with his wife’s Danish family in Normandy.

Sven’s son Cnut, who had been in charge of the fleet during the invasion of 1013, reconquered England in 1016. A couple of years later he became king of Denmark, after the death of his brother Harald, and in 1028 also of Norway, when he had driven King Olaf (the Holy) out of the country, creating a Noth Sea empire, a concept that still has some appeal today, due to common cultural characteristics, like a low level of corruption and a decent amount of naivety.

When Cnut had settled in during the first couple of years, his reign was an exceptionally peaceful period for England. The Encomiast, who was employed by Cnut’s wife Emma, wrote that Cnut diligently defended wards and widows, he supported orphans and strangers, he suppressed unjust laws and those who applied them, he exalted and cherished justice and equity, he built and dignified churches, he loaded priests and clergy with dignities, an he enjoined peace and unanimity upon his people. Forgotten was the religious war, at least at the top level of society.

That the Encomiast praises Cnut may not be very surprising, his position taken into account, but later historians mostly agree. An English historian has said a period of seventeen years in which we cannot see that a sword was drawn within the borders of England was something altogether unparalleled in those warlike ages, something which speaks volumes in favour of the king who bestowed such a blessing on our land. Maybe this is the reason that Cnut has been forgotten in England, unlike William the Conqueror.

Cnut’s North Sea Empire crumbled quickly after his death. In England he was followed by a son with Aelfgifu of Northampton, Harold Harefoot, in Denmark by his son, Hardecnut, with Emma, and Norway regained its independence under a son of Olaf the Holy, Magnus the Good. After Harold Harefoot’s death a few years later, Hardecnut recreated part of the empire by becoming king of England in addition to Denmark. He made his half-brother, Edward the Confessor, who had grown up in Normandy, his coregent. Hardecnut only reigned for two years, but a Danish claim to the English throne lived on for several hundred years.

Contemporary historical sources are sparse, and even the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is not always correct, and often biased. Later sources are often more legendary than historical, not least the Northern Sagas, but they make up for that by being highly entertaining. The following collection leaves it to the intelligent reader to sort fact from fiction (if that is possible), and serves as a reminder that there is still a surprising continuity of culture along the shores of the North Sea.

The Battle of Hjoerungevaag

An Icelandic Saga from about 1200 tells of the Jomsvikings, a group of Scandinavian pirates who had established themselves in Jomsborg (Julin or Wollin) on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, at the mouth of the Oder, about 250 years earlier. Much of the story is legendary and the more historical parts are to a large extent erroneous, but it is a good story and it gives a vivid picture of the mentality of the later Viking age, or at least of how it lived on in the folktales of Iceland a few hundred years after the events. The entire Saga is given in the Appendix, taken from Carl Christian Rafn’s 1829 translation into Danish, except for the chapters on the Battle of Hjoerungevaag presented below.

The first part of the Saga tells of the Danish kings, starting by the historically rather confused period before Gorm the Old, of Gorm’s marriage to the beautiful and wise Thyra and of their two sons, the elder, favourite, Cnut Dana’ast (the love of the Danes) and the rather less perfect Harald (Bluetooth). The name Harald is derived from hari-waldar, army-leader. Harald kills Cnut, and the news of this, kills Gorm, after which Harald is proclaimed king. Harald Bluetooth allies himself with the powerful earl of Lade in Norway, Hakon, and with the son of Cnut Dana’ast, Gold-Harald, to do away with the ruler of Norway, Harald Greycloak, and his mother Gunhild. When Gold-Harald has killed Harald Greycloak, his ally Hakon takes revenge for his kinsman (Harald Greycloak) and kills Gold-Harald, and finally Harald Bluetooth has Gunhild drowned in a swamp (according to other sources Gunhild was the sister of Harald Bluetooth). The first part of the Saga ends with the wars of Harald Bluetooth and Earl Hakon, on one side, against Emperor Otto the Great and his ally, Olaf Tryggvason, later king of Norway, on the other.

The second part of the Saga tells of a magnate on the island of Fyen, between Sjaelland and Jutland (Map 6), called Toke who has two sons, Aage and Palner, with his wife, and a third son, Fjoelner, with a mistress. When Toke dies Fjoelner gets upset because his inheritance is less than the parts of his two brothers. He seeks employment with Harald Bluetooth and manages to convince him that Aage is a serious rival to the king. When Aage is returning from a successful proposal to the daughter of the earl of Gotland, Harald kills Aage in an ambush. Palner then marries the earl’s daughter and they get a son, Palnatoke, who resembles his uncle Aage more than anyone else.

Palnatoke, eventually, becomes the foster-father of a son, Sven (Forkbeard), that Harald Bluetooth has fathered with the daughter, Saum-Aesa, of a simple peasant. Harald will not acknowledge Sven as his son, and when Sven grows up, Palnatoke sends Sven to attack parts of Harald’s kingdom, except for Fyen. It turns into a war between Harald and Sven, where Palnatoke sneaks in on Harald, while he is resting in a forest, and shoots an arrow through him, from the bottom and out through the mouth. This ends the war and Sven is crowned king of Denmark.

Palnatoke gets to rule over half of Britain and founds Jomsborg. Saxo Grammaticus has another version of the founding of Jomsborg. According to Saxo it was Harald Bluetooth who conquered Julin and put Styrbjoern the Strong in command of the Viking castle. Styrbjoern was a son of the Swedish King Olof, who died around 975, and Olof’s brother and co-regent Erik the Victorious would not accept the 12 year old Styrbjoern as his coregent. Harald Bluetooth got married to Styrbjoern’s sister Gyrid, and Styrbjoern to Harald’s daughter Thyra. They had a son called Thorkel (or Thorgils), whose daughter Gytha married Godwin, earl of Wessex, and became the mother of Harold Godwinson. Saxo agrees with Jomsvikinga Saga on Palnatoke’s murder of Harald, but claims that part of the reason was that Harald had forced Palnatoke to shoot an apple off the head of his son (a motive also found in some the Sagas, but they are probably younger than Saxo). This has been taken to be the origin of the William Tell legend, but that is very doubtful. Apart from the apple on the head of the boy, the two legends are very different; nonetheless, this slight similarity has led to heated political debates in Switzerland.

Palnatoke’s son Aage married a daughter of Besete, the ruler of the island of Bornholm, and their son Vagn, who was a rather difficult person, spent some of his youth on Bornholm, with his grandfather and his two uncles, Bue the Bulky (den Digre) and Sigurd Kappe. On their way to Jomsborg two sons of Strut-Harald, earl of Sjaelland, Sigvald and Thorkel the Tall, plundered some of Besete’s property, and this called for revenge. After some fighting the quarrel is settled, and Sigurd Kappe is married to Tofa, the sister of Sigvald and Thorkel. Eventually Bue, Sigurd, and Vagn are also admitted to the Jomsvikings.

After Palnatoke’s death Sigvald becomes commander-in-chief of Jomsborg. He wants to marry Astrid, a daughter of King Burislav, in whose country Jomsborg is situated, but the princess is not interested in a mere son of an earl, and makes it a condition that he should either get King Sven to abolish the yearly tribute that King Burislav is paying, or get Sven into the power of Burislav. (Burislav is a legendary figure, maybe a combination of two Polish rulers, Mieszko I, 962 – 992, and his son Boleslaw I, 992 – 1025). Sigvald opts for the second solution, abducts Sven, and cheats him into marrying another of Burislav’s daughters, Gunhild, who is less beautiful and not as wise as Astrid, but Sven knows how to get his revenge:

37. Not long after, a serious rumour came from Denmark that Earl Strut-Harald, Sigvald’s and Thorkel’s father, had died. The youngest brother, Heming, was still very young when this happened, and King Sven felt himself to be responsible for arranging the funeral ale after Strut-Harald, if the elder sons did not come back, because Heming was too young to arrange the feast. He sent a message to Jomsborg to the two brothers Sigvald and Thorkel, that they should come for the funeral ale; there they should meet and all together take care of the arrangement, to make sure that the feast after such a chieftain, as Strut-Harald had been, would be as magnificent as possible. The two brothers immediately answered back that they would be coming, and asked the king to make all preparations that were needed, and they let it be known that it should be at their expense, and asked him to cover whatever was needed from the possessions that Strut-Harald had owned.

Most of the Jomsvikings found it inadvisable to go, because they suspected that the friendship between King Sven and Sigvald, or with all of the Jomsvikings in general, was not to be trusted, considering what had passed between them, although they did not, at this point in time, show any hostility towards each other, but Sigvald and Thorkel the Tall insisted that they had to go, as they had promised, and all of the rest decided to follow them for the feast.

When the time came, they left Jomsborg with very many men and they had one hundred and seventy ships. They sailed straight to Sjaelland, where Earl Harald had ruled. King Sven was already there and had prepared for the funeral ale, so that everything was ready for the feast; it was at the beginning of winter. A large crowd had gathered and it was a great feast. The Jomsvikings drank a lot during the first evening and the drink had a pronounced influence on them. When it had been going on for some time, King Sven sensed that they had all been overwhelmed by the drink, and were very talkative and gay and did not worry about saying things they would otherwise never had said. And when the king sensed this, he spoke up and said: Here is a large crowd and much gaiety, said he, and I will suggest that you now start on some joyful entertainment for the men, that will be of importance and be recalled for a long time. Sigvald answered the king and said: It appears to me that the best thing would be, my Lord! that you take the lead; that will increase the cheerfulness in the hall, and we will all follow you, and agree to the way you decide that the joy can be aroused. I know, said the king, that it has been a custom at precious feasts and gatherings, where brave men were together, to make solemn promises for fun and fame, and I would like us to do the same, because I expect that, as you Jomsvikings surpass everybody else here in the northern part of the world with respect to fame, will propose the most marvellous in this entertainment, that you will outdo anybody else and will be remembered for a long time. However, I shall not decline to take the lead in this game, and let me start by this pledge, said the king, that before three years are over, I will have driven King Aethelred out of his kingdom or cut him down and thus gained his kingdom; and now it is your turn, Sigvald, and let your pledge not be any less than mine. Let it be done, my Lord! said he, that I shall also make a pledge, and I promise that I will ravage and plunder Norway, with all the men I can get together, and before three years I will have driven Earl Hakon out of the country or have killed him or, as the third possibility, reached my own bane. Now you are talking, said King Sven, that promise was well made, if you follow it up, and manly, may luck be with you, that you have spoken this and carry out your pledge well and bravely! Now it is your turn, Thorkel the Tall! continued the king, let us hear your pledge, and let it be a manly one. I have considered my pledge, my Lord! said Thorkel, and it is the following: I shall follow my brother Sigvald and not flee till I see his stern, and if he battles on land, my promise is not to flee as long as I can see him and his banner in front of me. Well spoken, said King Sven, and you are so brave a man that you, without any doubt, will keep your promise. And now, Bue the Bulky! continued the king, now it is up to you, and we know that you will make a manly pledge. I make the pledge, that I shall follow Sigvald in his doings, with all my manhood and bravery, and not flee before fewer are left than fallen, and even stay on as long as Sigvald does. That was as we expected, said the king, that you would give a manly answer, and now it is for you, Sigurd Kappe! said the king, to speak, after your brother Bue. That is soon done, my Lord! said Sigurd, I promise to follow my brother Bue, and not flee till he is dead, if that is the will of destiny. It was to be expected, said the king, that you would be as brave as your brother; but now for you, Vagn Aageson! we are very eager to hear which pledge you will make, because your family have been formidable people for several generations. Vagn replied, and said: I make the promise that I shall follow Sigvald and my kinsman Bue on this expedition, and stay as long as Bue does, if he is alive, and to this promise let me add, said he, that if I get to Norway then I shall get to bed with Ingeborg, the daughter of Thorkel Leira in Viken, without his or any of his kinsmen’s permission, before I return to Denmark. Now that happened as I suspected, said the king, that you surpassed most of those we know, in bravery and courtesy. It is told that Bjoern the British was in the company of the Jomsvikings and he was the companion of Vagn Aageson, because they reigned over Britain together after the death of Palnatoke. And now the king said: What is your pledge, Bjoern the British? I promise, said he, that I will follow my foster-brother to the best of my ability and as well as my senses and manliness allow.

Promisses at Earl Harald’s funeral ale. To the right: Sigvald, Vang Aageson, Bue the Bulky, and Thorkel the Tall (Frederiksborg Castle).

This ended the conversation, and the men went to sleep, earlier than would have been expected. Sigvald went to the bed of his wife Astrid, and was soon after fast asleep. But his wife Astrid kept watch over him, and when he had been sleeping for a long time, she woke him up, and asked him whether he could remember the promise he had made during the evening; but he said that he did not remember any promise whatsoever from the evening. This you will not be able to escape so easily, said Astrid, in my opinion, and you need both intelligence and reflection. What do you advise me to do? said Sigvald, you are always wise, and I am sure that you can give me a good advice. I do not know of any advice that is good, said she, but this I will say: when you get to the drinking table tomorrow, you should be happy and gay, for King Sven will, I expect, recall your promises and when he speaks of it to you, then you should answer him: where the beer goes in the mind goes out, had I not been drinking, I would never have made such an enormous pledge; then you should ask the king how he will assist you, so that you can accomplish your promise, and speak openly to the king, as if you believe that the whole matter is a question of his assistance, because he thinks that he has deceived you thoroughly, and ask him how many ships he will give you for this expedition, if you decide to go, and if he accepts this, but will not tell you how many ships he will contribute, then keep asking him and tell him that he must decide how many ships he will give you, and tell him that you will need a lot, because Earl Hakon has a large navy; but you must keep doing this and press him hard, said she, because I believe that he will be more willing to promise you troops and ships, as long as he does not know for certain whether anything will come of the expedition or not; but once the expedition has been decided, then I doubt that you will get much assistance from him, if he has not already promised it to you, for he will certainly not wish either you or Earl Hakon any luck, and he would prefer that both of you come to a sorry end.

38. It is now told that Sigvald did as Astrid had told him; and when they started drinking the next evening, he was very gay and joking. And now the king brought up the promises they had made the evening before, which the king appreciated very much, and he felt that he had been able to allure Sigvald and all of the Jomsvikings together. Sigvald answered the king and said all the words that had been put in his mouth by Astrid, and finally asked him which assistance he would be getting from the king. It came to the point where the king said that he intended, when Sigvald was ready for the expedition, to lend him twenty ships. That contribution, said Sigvald, would be good enough from some important peasant, but it is not a royal contribution, from a chieftain like you. King Sven then answered, and with an angry look at Sigvald asked him How much do you think you need, if you must have as much as you wish for? I will tell you, said Sigvald, I need sixty large ships, all well equipped, but in return I will offer you the same number of ships, or more, although they will be smaller, because it is impossible to know whether all of your ships will return, that is very uncertain. The king then said, All the ships shall be ready, Sigvald! when you are ready for the expedition, make your preparations and I shall give you all that you demand. This is a good and honourable offer, my Lord! said Sigvald, as could have been expected from you. Now get ready what you have promised, as we will get on with the expedition straight away, as soon as this feast is over, and get all of the ships so that we will not be delayed, and I will get the crews for them and both of us together. And now the king was somewhat surprised and hesitated at first, and was silent for some time, but finally he said, before it was expected: This shall be done, Sigvald! as you demand it, although it has gone somewhat faster than I thought, because I did not expect the expedition to take place as soon as this. Then Sigvald’s wife Astrid said: It would not be likely, that you could gain an important victory over Earl Hakon, if you delayed the expedition long enough for him to be informed and get time to prepare; this is the only advice, that you get ready as fast as possible, and not let any news slip in front of you, but take the earl by surprise.

It is now told that they made the decision to go on with the expedition, as soon as the feast was over, and they completed the funeral ale and began to think about the journey. The daughter of Earl Strut-Harald, Tofa, now spoke up and said to her husband Sigurd: You must now leave as you have decided, but I will ask you to follow your brother Bue as closely as possible, and that you ensure for yourself an honourable memory, and I will wait for you, and let no man come into my bed, as long as there is hope that you are alive; but here are two men, Bue! said she, that I will give to you on this expedition, because you always have been kind to me; one of them is named Havard, called the Chopper (Huggende), the other Aslak is called the Headbutter (Holmskalle); and I give you these two men because I like you, and do not mind admitting that I much rather would have married you, than the one I have now, but that will remain as it is. Bue welcomed the men and thanked her very much, and he immediately gave Aslak to his kinsman Vagn, to follow him, while Havard followed himself. The feast now came to its end, and the Jomsvikings left immediately and when they left the country they had one hundred large ships; from Jomsborg they had brought hundred and seventy ships, but many of these were quite small.

39. They now went out on their journey, had a good wind and came to Viken in Norway, they reached land late in the evening, and the same night they headed for the town Toensberg, and arrived with all of the army at midnight. There is a man mentioned in the Saga by name of Oegmund, called Oegmund the White; he was the vassal of Earl Hakon, he was young but highly respected by the Earl. He was the chief commander in Toensberg when these things happened. When the army reached the town, they plundered it thoroughly and killed many people, and robbed without any mercy anything that was of any value; and the inhabitants did not wake up to happy news, but many soon suffered sword cuts and armed attack. Oegmund the White also woke up by the unrest, just like everyone else who was sleeping in the inn. He took the decision with the rest of them, to flee to the attic, which they thought would be easier to defend, because there was no way that they could escape to the forest.

When the Jomsvikings became aware of this, they made their way towards the attic, and started to hammer at it with all their force; Oegmund could see, that the army was much too violent and irascible for them to defend themselves at the attic, so he jumped down onto the street, where he kept to his feet. Vagn Aageson was standing just next to where Oegmund came down, and immediately struck after him and cut off his hand above the wrist; Vagn kept the hand, but Oegmund escaped to the forest. With the hand came a golden ring that Vagn picked up and kept. When Oegmund reached the forest, he could still hear the men speaking, and he stopped to try to find out who they were, because he did not know, and he feared that he might be blamed for his ignorance when he met other people, and still did not know, although he had received a hostile mark. From their words and talk he discovered that it was the Jomsvikings, who had arrived, and likewise he got to know, who had dealt him the blow. Then he continued through forest and scrub, and it is said that he was in the forest for three days before he reached some farms; as soon as he got to the village and the people, he received all the care he needed, for many of them knew him, and he was well respected and very popular. He asked where the Earl would be visiting and went immediately to him. The earl was visiting the farm Skugge, at one of his vassals, by the name of Erling; he was there with a hundred men, and his son Erik was with him.

It is told that Oegmund the White reached him late during the evening, and went into the hall, straight to the earl, and greeted him. The earl received his greetings well, and asked him what news he was bringing. From my journey are only poor news to tell, said Oegmund, but they could turn out to be quite important. What are they? asked the earl; this said Oegmund, that I can bring news of war, of a large hostile army that has gone ashore to the east in Viken, which proceed with violence and destruction, and I believe that it is their intention to continue in earnest. The earl replied: I see, said he, that people in this country will not stop telling lies, before someone is hanged for it! You must not say that, said Erik, this is not an untruthful person who is telling this. Do you know who this man is, since you defend his case? I believe so, said Erik, it is Oegmund the White, your vassal, who often has received us better, than we now receive him. I did not recognize him, said the earl, bring him back to talk to me! Oegmund immediately came back on the earl’s order and went in front of him. Which Oegmund are you? asked the earl; and he gave him all information about himself, so that the earl might recognize him. The earl then said: I know, that you would only be telling the truth, if you are this man, but tell me, he continued, who is the leader of this great army? Sigvald is the name of the leader, said Oegmund, but in addition I heard the names Bue and Vagn, and I have a mark to witness that I have not invented this: and he lifted up his hand and showed the stump to the earl. The earl then said: You have been badly treated and miserably mauled, but do you know who did this to you? I concluded from what they said, when he took the ring from the hand: There is something won for you, Vagn Aageson! they said, and from this I concluded that it was he who had cut off my hand, and that this army must be the Jomsvikings. This you must have understood correctly, said the earl, from those men that were mentioned from the army, but it is certainly so, that this army is the last one I would have chosen against me, had I had the choice, and now we need both wisdom and hardiness, that is what I presume.

40. The earl immediately sent some men to Lade, to his son Sven, to inform him about the warfare, and order him to call on all of the people from Trondheim, and request from all the most respected men, and from the less respected as well, that they get every ship of any size ready. The earl immediately left the feast with all of the men he could gather there, and went to Romsdalen and after that he gathered men from Nordmoere. He sent Erling south through Rogeland, to spread the news and gather people there; and he sent him off immediately, before he left the feast, and sent the message to all of his men, who were in the country, and to all those who were any good, that they should come to him with all the men they could gather. And he likewise sent messages to those men with whom he had a discord, that they should also come, and added that he would settle the disagreements with those that came now and rendered him assistance. Earl Hakon’s son Erik went north through Rummedalen to his brother Sven, and everywhere on the islands and at the outskirts of the country, he gathered all the people he could get. It is told that when Erik sailed south through Hamresund, some warships came towards him under command of a man called Thorkel Midlang; he was a very harsh Viking and had a discord with Earl Hakon. The Vikings immediately grabbed their weapons and headed for attack, they had three ships. But when Erik saw that, he said to Thorkel Midlang: If you want to fight us, we are ready, but I have a better suggestion. What is that? asked Thorkel. It is not appropriate in my view, said Erik, that we men from Norway should fight amongst ourselves, now that there is a better chance at hand: if you will come to my father with your men and assist him the best you can, then everything will be settled between you, without any trouble on the part of my father. I will accept that condition, said Thorkel, if you vouch for it, Erik! that it will not remain unfulfilled when I come to your father. I will vouch for that, said Erik, and Thorkel Midlang and his men now went along with Erik. Soon after that the two brothers Erik and Sven met each other, and they went to the place that Hakon and Erik had agreed to meet before they parted, and later all of them met, Hakon, Erik and Sven, at the agreed place, and where all of the army was to gather; it was on Soendmore at the island called Hoed; very many vassals came. All in all they had three hundred ships, many of which, however, were quite small. They anchored in the bay called Hjoerungevaag, and took council, and stayed there with all of the fleet.

41. About the Jomsvikings is then to be told that they went along the coast, from the south, and ravaged and plundered wherever they came. They raided along the coast, killed many people and burnt down the farms to ashes over a wide area, and they went northwards under arms, and everyone fled away who heard about them, and who got a chance to flee. They continued like this until they got to the sound called Ulvesund (the sound of the wolf), and they had come to Stad, and it is said that none of the parties, neither Earl Hakon nor the Jomsvikings, had any certain knowledge of the whereabouts of the other. The Jomsvikings now went past Stad, from the south, for twenty nautical miles and continued until they came to the harbour of Heroerne, where they anchored with all of their fleet. When they had come that far, they were in need of new provisions, and it is said that Vagn Aageson went with his ship to the island of Hoed, and did not know that the earl was in the bay, a short distance from the island. Vagn moored at the island, and they went ashore to raid, if they could find some cattle. Now it so happened that they met a man who was driving three cows and twelve goats; Vagn asked the man for his name; he answered and said he was called Ulf. Then Vagn told his men: Take now the cows and the goats, slaughter them, and take them to our ship, and do likewise should you meet more cattle! Who is this man, said Ulf, who commands the men of this ship? His name is Vagn, and he is the son of Aage, answered Vagn. Then it seems to me, said Ulf, that there is much more fat stock for slaughter not far from you, and just what you want Jomsvikings! so you need not slaughter my cows and goats. Tell it to us, if you know anything about the whereabouts of Earl Hakon, said Vagn, and if you can tell us for certain where he is, then we will leave your cows and goats: what can you tell us, what do you know of Earl Hakon? Ulf replied, Here he was late yesterday evening with one ship behind the island of Hoed on Hjoerungevaag, and you could kill him straight away, if you want to, for he is waiting there for his men. Then we will leave you all your cattle and now get aboard our ship, and guide us to the earl. That I cannot do, said Ulf, and I can certainly not fight against the earl, that is not appropriate; but I can tell you the way, so that you can get into the bay, if you want to; and if I get onto your ship, then it must be on the condition that you let me leave in peace, when you can see far enough to find your way into the bay." Ulf now boarded the ship; it was early in the morning, and they hastened as fast as they could to the Heroerne, and told Sigvald and all of the Jomsvikings the news, that Ulf had brought them.

42. The Jomsvikings now prepared everything as well as they could, as if they were preparing for the worst fight in their life, and wanted to be ready for anything, even though Ulf pretended that it should be quite easy; and when everything was ready, they rowed for the bay. It is now told that Ulf had a feeling that the ships in the bay might seem to be more numerable to them, than what he had told them; and as soon as they got sight of the ships, Ulf jumped overboard, dived down with the intention to swim onto the beach, without waiting for any reward for his effort; but when Vagn saw it, he wanted to give him the reward that he deserved, grabbed a spear and threw it at him, and the spear hit him in the middle and he died on the spot.

Sigvald and all of the Jomsvikings now rowed into the bay, and saw that all of the bay in front of them was covered by warships. They immediately got their ships in battle order. From the other side the earls Hakon and his sons now saw the Jomsvikings arriving, and they released all of the ships from each other, and decided on who was going to fight against each of the enemies. It is said, that the bay of Hjoerungevaag is facing the east, but the mouth of the bay is towards the west; out in the bay are three stones, called the Hjoerunger (children of Hjoer), of which one is somewhat larger than the other two; and the bay is named after these stones. In the middle of the bay there is a rocky reef, from which the distance to land is the same in all directions, both inwards into the bay and outwards to both sides; north of the bay is an island called Primsigud, and to the south is Harund, and inside of this is the Harunderfjord.

Now it is told, that the Jomsvikings arranged their ships in the following order: Sigvald placed his ship in the middle of the battle array, and closest to him his brother Thorkel the Tall placed his; Bue the Bulky and his brother Sigurd Kappe placed their ships in one of the wings of the array; and Vagn Aageson and Bjoern the British were in the other wing. Earl Hakon and his sons, on their side, considered who, from their fleet, should fight against these giant warriors, and they arranged their people in most places so that three were assigned to each one of the Jomsvikings. Now is first to be told of their decisions, that Sven Hakonson should fight against Sigvald; but against Sigvald’s brother Thorkel the Tall, three men were assigned, of which one was Yrjar Skegge, the other Sigurd Steikling from up in Halogaland, the third Thorer, with the nickname Hjort (Deer); with Sven Hakonson were also two other men against Sigvald, namely Gudbrand of Dale and Styrkar from Gimse; against Bue the earl’s vassals Thorkel Midlang and Halstein Kaerlingebane (Bitchkiller) from Fjaler and as the third man Thorkel Leira, who also was the earl’s vassal; against Bue’s brother Sigurd Kappe were assigned Armod from Oenunderfjord and his son Arne; against Vagn Aageson Earl Erik Hakonson, Erling of Skugge and Oegmund the White as the third, and he had a revenge to take on Vagn, for cutting off his hand, as was previously told; against Bjoern the British it was decided to assign the vassal Einar the Little, Havard Uppsja as the second and Halvard of Flydrenaes as the third; but Hakon himself would move around freely and was not assigned to anyone specific, but should assist where needed and command the fleet.

It is said that four Icelanders had been with the earls Hakon and Erik, they were Einar, who was then called Skjoldmoe-Einar (Shieldmaid-Einar); he was the scald of the earl, but was not very highly regarded by the earl, compared to what he had been before; Einar was frequently saying that he wanted to run away from Earl Hakon’s men and go over to Sigvald, and later he chanted this song:

In a troubled time I

Odin’s drink prepared,

Sang to honour heroes,

While others dozed;

Nowhere I went, were

Money revered more than

Scalds; the earl saves

His gold for an honour drapa!

(Odin’s drink is poetry)

And I will surely go over to Sigvald, said he, he will not show me less honour than this earl is showing me; he then jumped from Earl Hakon’s ship onto the wharf, and pretended that he wanted to run away, but he did not leave straight away, but wanted to see how the earl would react; and when he was on the wharf, another song came onto his tongue, and he sang for Sigvald:

The earl who feeds the wolfs,

We now will seek,

Our shields on Sigvald’s

Ships will we hang!

Then no disdain the chieftain

Shows me when meeting,

On the horses of the sea

When our weapons we wield.

It now occurred to Earl Hakon that Skjoldmoe-Einar was about to leave, and he called him back, so that he could talk to him. He obeyed. The earl then took two large cups, that he had, made of pure silver and gilded, and this was followed by two weights, one of gold, the other of silver, and on each there was an image of a man, and they are called lots (which also means weights in Scandinavia), and they were very good lots, that the earl used in all cases that were of some importance. The earl used to place these lots in the cups and decide, what each lot should indicate to him, and whenever the lots went well, and the one came up that he wanted, then the lot moved in the cup, if what he wanted was going to happen, and the lot that moved in the cup made some noise. These valuables the earl gave to Einar, and he was pleased and happy, and he gave up on running away, and did not go over to Sigvald; this gave Einar a new name, and he was called Einar Skaaleglam (cup noise). The other Icelander was called Vigfus, and he was son of Vigaglum; the third was Thord, with the nickname Oervehoend or Keithaand (the Lefthanded), the fourth Thorleif, with the nickname Skuma, was a son of Thorkel the Rich from the west in Alvidra in the Dyrefjord. About this Thorleif is told that he made himself a huge club or knobbly stick in the forest and went to where the cooks were preparing the food over fire and scorched the club in the fire, and with this club in his hand he now went to Erik Hakonson, just as he was descending into the ship, in the company of Einar Skaaleglam; Thorleif went along with them, and when Erik saw him he said: What are you going to do, Thorleif! with the huge club that you hold in your hand? Thorleif answered in this way:

In the hand I have

The head hitter

Bue’s bone breaker,

Sigvald’s misfortune,

Vikings’ bane,

Hakon’s guardian,

The oak club,

If we live,

This will cause

Death to Danes.

The four Icelanders Thorleif Skuma and Einar Skaaleglam, Vigfus Vigaglumson and Thord Oervehoend now boarded the ship with Erik.

43. The fleets then arranged themselves against each other in the order that has just been told, and Earl Hakon was in the battle array with his son Sven, to help him against Sigvald, and a very violent battle started between the armies, and it was not necessary to encourage anyone to fight aggressively, and it is said that Sigvald as well as Hakon and Erik fought bravely, and none of their ships pulled back. But as things developed Earl Hakon got to see that Bue had made a deep impression on their array where he was in the northern wing, and those who were fighting against him had let their ships fall back, and found that it was better to keep some distance to him, but he pursued them nevertheless, and dealt them some bad blows, and caused much damage, and he was dangerous in the struggle. The earl noticed that things were more balanced between Erik and Vagn, who were in the southern wing. Erik then left with his own ship, and the same did his brother Sven with his, and they sailed to the point where Bue was and fought against him, and managed to straighten out the array again, but nothing more. Earl Hakon in the meanwhile was fighting against Sigvald, but when Erik came back to the southern wing, Vagn had made a deep impression on Erik’s fleet; Erik’s ships had pulled back, and had split, and Vagn had penetrated the array, and pushed them far back. When Erik saw this, he got very angry, and rammed his iron bow hard against the ship that Vagn was commanding, and the bows met, and the fight got even more intense than it had been before. It is told that Vagn and Aslak Headbutter jumped from their ship over onto Erik’s, and each of them went along one side of the ship, and Aslak Headbutter struck to either side, in a way that is worth telling about, and the same did Vagn, and they struck with such power, that all the men pulled back in front of them. Erik could see that these men were so angry and furious that it could not go on like that for long, and that it was necessary to seek the advice of the earl as quickly as possible. Aslak was, as it is told, bald, and he did not wear any helmet on his head, but pushed forward with his naked skull. The weather was clear and warm, and because of the heat many took off their clothes, and only kept their armour. Erik tried to encourage his men against those who were pushing them back, and they pressed against Aslak and used their weapons against him; they struck him on the head, with swords and axes, and thought that this would cause him serious damage, as his skull was totally exposed; but it is told that the weapons rebounded without any effect from Aslak’s skull, whether they struck him at the head with the sword or the axes, none of them would bite, but rebounded. As they now saw how he pressed forward, no matter what they did, and made room around himself, struck to either side, frequently and hard, and felled many men, then it is said that Vigfus Vigaglumson got the bright idea, to grab a large pointed anvil on the deck of the ship, that he had previously used to mend the hilt of his sword, that had gone lose, and struck it at the head of Aslak Headbutter, so that the point went straight into his head; this Aslak was not hardened against and he fell dead to the ground. But Vagn proceed along the other side, and struck to either side and did a lot of damage, and as he did this Thorleif Skuma ran against Vagn and hit him with the club on the helmet; the blow was so hard, that he was wounded behind the helmet, he waived and stumbled towards Thorleif, and when he stumbled he stuck his sword straight through Thorleif, and then he jumped back onto his ship, and reached it standing on his feet. No one had been more vicious in attack than he and all of his men; and he and Headbutter had cleared Erik’s ship, and he had to take men from other ships onboard, until it again was fully manned, and a new angry battle started between him and Vagn. Erik now saw that his father Earl Hakon and his men had gone ashore, and the battle died down.

44. Earl Hakon and his sons all got together and spoke to each other; Earl Hakon said: It seems to me that the battle is going very badly for us, and it is true that I always considered these men to be very difficult to fight against, and now it appears to me that they have no equals, that they are worse than anybody else, and I can see that it will not end well, unless we can find a way out. You should now remain here with the army, because it is not advisable that all the chieftains leave the men, if the Jomsvikings should attack again, which is to be feared; but I will go inland with a few men, said Earl Hakon, and see what can be done.

The earl went into the country with a few men, and turned north on the island of Primsigud. On this island there was a great forest; the earl went to an open space in the forest, and bent down on both knees in prayer. He turned to the north, and spoke like this; as he expected it would help the most, and it came to the point with his prayers that he called upon his patron goddess Thorgerde Hoerdetrold, but she shut her ears against the earl’s prayers, and it appeared to him that she was angry with him. He offered her different things as a sacrifice, but she would not receive it, and he was close to giving up all hope. It finally came to the point where he offered her a human sacrifice, but she would not accept what he offered her as a human sacrifice. Now the earl thought that his case would be even worse if he did not manage to appease her, and he raised the offer to her to be any human being, himself and his sons Erik and Sven excepted; but the earl had a son called Erling, who was seven years old, and a very promising boy; and the final result was, that Thorgerde accepted the earl’s offer of his son Erling. As the earl now felt that his prayers and invocations were finally heard, he gained courage; he let the boy bring, and handed him over to his slave Kark, and he took the life of the boy in the same way as Hakon used to do, and as he had told him to do.

After this the earl went back to his ships, and encouraged all of his men: now I know for sure, as he said, that we shall gain victory over the Jomsvikings, so go forward in confidence! for I have made promises to the two sisters Thorgerde and Irpa, and they will not deceive us now, as they have never done before. While the earl had been gone, there had been some lull in the fighting, and in the meanwhile both sides had prepared themselves the best they could, to be ready for the new fight.

After this the earl boarded his ship, and they went against each other for the second time. The earl was now fighting against Sigvald, and went fiercely forward relying on Hoerdebrud and Irpa; and now the weather started to get unruly in the north, a thick black cloud rose from the sea, and suddenly covered them all; it was when the time was approaching three o’clock during the day, and the cloud completely covered the sky, and a sharp burst of rain followed, and it seemed that it had both lightning and thunder, and all of the Jomsvikings had to fight against the tempest. This shower and the weather that went with it, was such a wonder that some people could do nothing but try to resist it, and the people who earlier in the day had removed their cloth because of the heat, now started shivering from the cold, but even then they fought very manly. It is told that Bue’s companion Havard the Chopper was the first to spot Hoerdebrud onboard Earl Hakon’s fleet; there were also many others who saw her, although they were not wont to see ghosts, and when the shower calmed down a bit, they also saw that an arrow flew from each finger of the witch, and each arrow felled one man on the spot. They told this to Sigvald and their mates; now Sigvald spoke up, for Hakon and his sons continued the fight as furiously as they could, both when the shower started and as long as it lasted, and said: It does not seem to me that we are fighting against people only today, but rather against the worst trolls, and though it appears somewhat more difficult to go against trolls, it would be better that everyone shows himself as hardy as possible.

It is now told about Earl Hakon, that when he saw the shower abate, and as it became less violent than before, he again eagerly invoked Thorgerde and her sister Irpa, and pointed out to both of them how much he had sacrificed, as he had sacrificed his own son, to gain the victory; and the shower now came back for the second time, and as it became more violent, Havard the Chopper saw two matrons over on Earl Hakon’s ship, and they were both acting in the same way as he had seen one of them do before, and Sigvald now spoke up again: Now I will flee, said he, and all my men should do likewise, for now it is much worse than before, when I spoke about this, for now we are fighting against two troll women, and then there were only one, and now we will not hesitate any longer, and may it serve us as an excuse for falling back, that we are not fleeing from humans, but we never promised to fight against trolls. Sigvald now turned back with his ship, and called to Vagn and Bue, that they should flee as fast as possible.

In the same moment as Sigvald released his ship from the fleet and called to Bue and Vagn, Thorkel Midlang jumped from his own ship over on Bue’s ship, and this happened in a flash; he cut off his lip and chin, all the way through, and the piece fell down on the ship, and the teeth flew out of the mouth of Bue at the blow. When Bue got this wound he said: But little will the Danish maids on Bornholm now like to kiss us, if we should ever get there again. Bue struck back at Thorkel, but the ship was slippery from blood, and Thorkel fell on the shield deck, when he tried to cushion the blow, and he was struck at the middle and Bue cut him into two pieces. Immediately after this Bue took his gold chests, one in each hand, and jumped overboard with the two chests, and none of them came up later and no one ever saw either him or the chests. When Bue got up on the board, in order to jump overboard, as he did soon after, he shall, according to some, have said these words: Overboard, all of Bue’s men! and then he jumped overboard.

Now is to be told about Sigvald, that he pulled his ship out of the fleet, and did not notice that Bue had jumped overboard, and he shouted to Vagn and Bue, that they should flee like him; but Vagn answered him, and sang this song:

Sigvald self has

Set us here in strife

The wretched coward

Fled for Denmark

Soon in the arms of

His wife will he rest,

But over broad board

Bue went boldly.

Sigvald had, so it is told, been cold from the shower, and now went to the oars to row to get warm, while another man took the steering oar, and when Vagn had sung his song, and saw Sigvald in front, he threw a spear after him, believing that he was at the steering oar, but he had gone to the rowing oars, and the spear hit the man who was steering; but when Vagn threw the spear, he said to Sigvald: May a bad fate hit you for your flight! Sigvald’s brother Thorkel the Tall left at once, when Sigvald had fled, and he had six ships, and the same did Sigurd Kappe, for his brother Bue had gone overboard, and he did not need to wait for him, and both of them, Thorkel and Sigurd, believed that they had now fulfilled their promise, and they all continued the journey to Denmark without any breaks, and they went away with twenty four ships.

But all of those who could get away from the ships that were left behind, jumped onto Vagn’s ship, and defended themselves vigorously until it started to get dark, when the fight stopped, and quite a number of men were still standing on Vagn’s ship; but the day was not long enough for Earl Hakon and his men to inspect the ships, how many were alive on them or could live, so they kept watch during the night, that no one should escape under the shelter of darkness from the ships of the Jomsvikings, and they removed all the rigging from the ships. Having done this Earl Hakon and his men rowed to the shore, and pushed the shields over their heads, and it seemed that they could rejoice in victory won. They weighed the grains of hail, to check the competence of the two sisters, Thorgerde and Irpa, and it is said that they passed the test very well, for each of the grains had the weight of one oere (approximately 27 grams, 33mm diameter) when they were weighed in the cups. Then the wounds were dressed, and Earl Hakon himself and Gudbrand of Dale kept watch during the night.

45. Now is to be told of Vagn and Bjoern the British that they