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 t