e of the land, and they
went by all the forest paths they could, avoiding the common road. The
bonde's son did not know who it was he was attending; and as they were
riding together between two uninhabited forests, Harald made these
verses:

"My wounds were bleeding as I rode;
And down below the bondes strode,
Killing the wounded with the sword,
The followers of their rightful lord.
From wood to wood I crept along,
Unnoticed by the bonde-throng;
'Who knows,' I thought, 'a day may come
My name will yet be great at home.'"

He went eastward over the ridge through Jamtaland and Helsingjaland, and
came to Svithjod, where he found Ragnvald Brusason, and many others of
King Olaf's men who had fled from the battle at Stiklestad, and they
remained there till winter was over.

2. HARALD'S JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

The spring after (A.D. 1031) Harald and Ragnvald got ships, and went
east in summer to Russia to King Jarisleif, and were with him all the
following winter. So says the skald Bolverk:--

"The king's sharp sword lies clean and bright,
Prepared in foreign lands to fight:
Our ravens croak to have their fill,
The wolf howls from the distant hill.
Our brave king is to Russia gone,--
Braver than he on earth there's none;
His sharp sword will carve many feast
To wolf and raven in the East."

King Jarisleif gave Harald and Ragnvald a kind reception, and made
Harald and Ellif, the son of Earl Ragnvald, chiefs over the land-defence
men of the king. So says Thiodolf:--

"Where Ellif was, one heart and hand
The two chiefs had in their command;
In wedge or line their battle order
Was ranged by both without disorder.
The eastern Vindland men they drove
Into a corner; and they move
The Lesians, although ill at ease,
To take the laws their conquerors please."

Harald remained several years in Russia, and travelled far and wide in
the Eastern land. Then he began his expedition out to Greece, and had a
great suite of men with him; and on he went to Constantinople. So says
Bolverk:--

"Before the cold sea-curling blast
The cutter from the land flew past,
Her black yards swinging to and fro,
Her shield-hung gunwale dipping low.
The king saw glancing o'er the bow
Constantinople's metal glow
From tower and roof, and painted sails
Gliding past towns and