ive
I will not renounce my title. If King Magnus come here with an army, I
will gather no army against him; but he shall only get the opportunity
of taking England when he has taken my life. Tell him these words of
mine." The ambassadors went back to King Magnus, and told him the answer
to their message. King Magnus reflected a while, and answered thus:
"I think it wisest, and will succeed best, to let King Edward have his
kingdom in peace for me, and that I keep the kingdoms God has put into
my hands."

SAGA OF HARALD HARDRADE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, was born in the year A.D. 1015, and
left Norway A.D. 1030. He was called Hardrade, that is, the severe
counsellor, the tyrant, though the Icelanders never applied this epithet
to him. Harald helped the Icelanders in the famine of A.D. 1056, and
sent them timber for a church at Thingvol. It was the Norwegians who
gave him the name tyrant in contrast to the "debonairete" of Magnus. He
came to Norway in A.D. 1046, and became sole king in A.D. 1047. He died
in A.D. 1066, and his son and successor Magnus died in A.D. 1069.

His saga is to be compared with "Agrip", "Fagrskinna", and
"Morkinskinna".

The skalds quoted are: Thiodolf, Bolverk, Illuge Bryndalaskald, Stuf the
skald, Thorarin Skeggjason, Valgard o' Val, Od Kikinaskald, Grane Skald,
Thorleik the Fair, Stein Herdison, Ulf the Marshal, Arnor the earls'
skald, Thorkel Skallason, and King Harald Hardrade himself.

1. HARALD ESCAPES FROM THE BATTLE OF STIKLESTAD.

Harald, son of Sigurd Syr, brother of Olaf the Saint, by the same
mother, was at the battle of Stiklestad, and was fifteen years old when
King Olaf the Saint fell, as was before related. Harald was wounded, and
escaped with other fugitives. So says Thiodolf:--

"At Haug the fire-sparks from his shield
Flew round the king's head on the field,
As blow for blow, for Olaf's sake,
His sword and shield would give and take.
Bulgaria's conqueror, I ween,
Had scarcely fifteen winters seen,
When from his murdered brother's side
His unhelmed head he had to hide."

Ragnvald Brusason led Harald from the battle, and the night after the
fray took him to a bonde who dwelt in a forest far from other people.
The peasant received Harald, and kept him concealed; and Harald was
waited upon until he was quite cured of his wounds. Then the bonde's son
attended him on the way east over the ridg