'Of ships'-battle the awakener
For my work a mark bestowed;
To praise vouchsafeth he
Each one who proveth him thereof worthy.'

|| King Harald was fifty years of age when he fell. We have no tales of
count regarding his up-growing, or ever he was fifteen winters old and
was at Stiklastad, in the battle, with his brother King Olaf. Thereafter
lived he for five and thirty years, and during all that time had ever
turmoil and strife. King Harald never fled from any battle, but
oft-times sought he expedients when the odds of war were against him.

All men who followed him in battle or warfare avowed that when he found
himself hard pressed or was obliged to make a swift resolution, he chose
that course which afterwards all men saw to be the likeliest to avail.

|| Halldor, the son of Bryniolf the Camel, hight likewise the Old, was a
wise man and a great lord, and thus spake he when he heard the
conversation of men in respect to the very different natures of King
Olaf the Saint and his brother King Harald.

'I was with both brothers,' said he, 'and high in favour, and I wotted
the natures of both: never did I find two men so alike at heart. Both
were very wise and valiant men, loving possessions and power, masterful,
not lowly-hearted, overbearing, haughty, and quick to chastise. King
Olaf constrained the people of the land to Christianity and the true
Faith, but punished harshly those who turned a deaf ear to his commands.

The chiefs of the land who would not suffer his even-handed dispensation
of justice rose up against him and slew him in his own land, and it is
for that reason he is called saintly.

But King Harald harried for renown and dominion, bringing under his yoke
all people that he could bring under it, and he fell in the land of
other kings.

Both these brothers in normal life were men of religion and had regard
for their honour; they were likewise travelled & vigorous in mind, & it
is from such-like qualities that they waxed so far-famed.'

|| King Magnus Haraldson ruled Norway the first winter after the fall of
King Harald, but thereafter ruled he the land for two winters together
with his brother King Olaf, and there were then two kings together,
Magnus having dominion in the northern half of the land & Olaf in the
eastern half. King Magnus had a son who was hight Hakon & his
foster-father was Steig-Thorir; a youth of promise was he.

|| After the death of King Harald Sigurdson, S