Chapter XX: Earl Thorfinn Comes to King Harald

ABOUT this time King Harald, Sigurd’s son,[273] King Magnus’s uncle, arrived in Norway, and King Magnus gave him the half of the kingdom. One winter they called out men from the whole of Norway, intending to go south to Denmark, but while they lay in Seley[274] two war ships rowed into the harbour and up to King Magnus’s ship. A man in a white cloak went from the [strange] ship, and along the [King’s] ship, and up to the quarterdeck. The King sat at meat; the man saluted him, and taking up a loaf he broke it and ate of it. The King received his salutation, and handed the cup to him when he saw that he ate the bread. The King looked at him and said: “Who is this man?”

“My name is Thorfinn,” he said.

“Art thou Earl Thorfinn?” said the King.

“So am I called in the west,” he said, “and I am here with two ships of twenty benches, well manned considering our means, and I wish now to join in this expedition with you, if you will accept my assistance; all my men and I myself are in God’s power and yours, my lord, on account of my great misdeeds by which I have offended you.”

In the meantime some men gathered together and listened to their conversation.

“It is true, Earl Thorfinn” (said the King), “that I intended, in case we should meet, that you should not have to tell of our parting, but now matters stand so that it does not become my dignity to have you slain, and you shall go with me now, but the terms of our reconciliation I will declare when I am more at leisure.”

Earl Thorfinn thanked the King and returned to his ship. The King stayed a long time in Seley, and men gathered to him from Vík;[275] for he intended to sail to Jutland when he obtained a fair wind. Thorfinn was often in conversation with the King, who treated him in a friendly manner, and had him frequently present at his councils.

One day the Earl went on board the King’s ship, and went up to the poop. The King asked him to sit down. The Earl sat down, and they both drank together and were merry. A tall brave-looking man, dressed in a red tunic, came to the poop and saluted the King, who received his greeting graciously. He was one of the King’s henchmen. He said: “I have come to see you, Earl Thorfinn.”

“What is your business with me?” said the Earl.

“I wish to know what compensation you intend to give me for my brother who was killed by your orders out west in Kirkiuvag (Kirkwall), along with others of King Magnus’s henchmen.”

“Have you never heard,” said the Earl, “that it is not my wont to pay money for the men whom I cause to be killed?”

“I have nothing to do with how you have treated other people, if you pay the manbote for him for whom it devolves on me to seek compensation. I also lost some money there myself, and was shamefully treated. It is more binding on me than any one else to seek redress for my brother and myself, and therefore I now demand it. The King may remit offences committed against himself, even if he thinks it of no importance that his henchmen are led out and slaughtered like sheep.”

The Earl answered: “I understand it to be to my advantage here that I am not in your power. Are not you the man to whom I gave quarter there?”

“True enough,” said he, “it was in your power to have killed me like the others.”

Then the Earl said: “Now the saying proves true—‘That often happens to many which they least expect.’ I never thought I should be so placed that it would be injurious to me to have been too generous to my enemies; but now I have to pay for having given you quarter; you would not have denounced me to-day in the presence of chiefs if I had caused you to be killed like your comrades.”

The King looked at the Earl and said: “There it comes out still, Earl Thorfinn, that you think you have killed too few of my henchmen without compensation.” While saying this the king turned blood-red [with anger]. The Earl started up and left the poop, and returned to his own ship, and all was quiet during the evening. In the morning, when the men awoke, a fair wind had sprung up, and they rowed away from the harbour. The King sailed south to Jutland with the whole fleet. In the earlier part of the day the Earl’s ship stood out farther to sea, and in the afternoon he took a westerly course, and there is nothing to be told of him till he arrived in the Orkneys, and resumed the government of his dominions.

King Magnus and Harald sailed to Denmark, and spent the summer there. King Swein was unwilling to meet them, and stayed in Skàney[276] with his army. That summer King Magnus was seized with an illness of which he died; but he had previously declared that he gave the whole kingdom of Norway to his uncle Harald.