le, whom he plundered
and killed wherever he found them. And when he came west to Sarpsborg he
took prisoners two of King Magnus s lendermen, Asbjorn and his brother
Nereid; and gave them the choice that one should be hanged, and the
other thrown into the Sarpsborg waterfall, and they might choose as they
pleased. Asbjorn chose to be thrown into the cataract, for he was the
elder of the two, and this death appeared the most dreadful; and so it
was done. Halder Skvaldre tells of this:--

"Asbjorn, who opposed the king,
O'er the wild cataract they fling:
Nereid, who opposed the king,
Must on Hagbard's high tree swing.
The king given food in many a way
To foul-mouthed beasts and birds of prey:
The generous men who dare oppose
Are treated as the worst of foes."

Thereafter King Harald proceeded north to Tunsberg, where he was well
received, and a large force gathered to him.

5. OF THE COUNSELS PROPOSED.

When King Magnus, who was in Bergen, heard these tidings, he called
together all the chiefs who were in the town, and asked them their
counsel, and what they should now do. Then Sigurd Sigurdson said, "Here
I can give a good advice. Let a ship be manned with good men, and put
me, or any other lenderman, to command it; send it to thy relation, King
Harald, and offer him peace according to the conditions upright men may
determine upon, and offer him the half of the kingdom. It appears to
me probable that King Harald, by the words and counsel of good men, may
accept this offer, and thus there may be a peace established between
you."

Then King Magnus replied, "This proposal I will not accept of; for of
what advantage would it be, after we have gained the whole kingdom in
summer to give away the half of it now? Give us some other counsel."

Then Sigurd Sigurdson answered, "It appears to me, sire, that your
lendermen who in autumn asked your leave to return home will now sit
at home and will not come to you. At that time it was much against my
advice that you dispersed so entirely the people we had collected; for
I could well suppose that Harald would come back to Viken as soon as he
heard that it was without a chief. Now there is still another counsel,
and it is but a poor one; but it may turn out useful to us. Send out
your pursuivants, and send other people with them, and let them go
against the lendermen who will not join you in your necessity, and
kill them; and besto