ly do,
for they worshipped him. They had shared peril and suffering together,
had lived as comrades, but through it all he had kept his authority
intact and demanded obedience. Birchlegs they still called themselves,
for they had grown proud of the title, and they named their opponents
Heklungs, from the story that some of them had robbed a beggar woman
whose money was wrapped in a cloak (_hekl_).

For six years afterwards the war for dominion in Norway continued, the
star of King Sverre steadily rising. In 1180 Magnus attacked his opponent
with an army much larger than that of Sverre, but was utterly routed; and
an army of peasants that came on afterwards, to kill the "devil's
priest," met with the same ill success.

Magnus now took refuge in Denmark, abandoning Norway to his rival, and
from there he came year after year to continue the contest. In a naval
battle in 1181, in which Sverre had less than half the number of ships of
his opponent, his star seemed likely to set. The Birchlegs were not good
at sea fighting and the Heklungs were pressing them steadily back, when
Sverre sprang into the hottest of the fight, without a shield and with
darts and javelins hurtling around him, and in stirring tones sang the
Latin hymn, "Alma chorus domini."

This hymn seemed to turn the tide of victory. Magnus, storming furiously
forward at that moment, was wounded in the wrist as he was boarding a
hostile ship. The pain caused him to pause and, his feet slipping on the
blood-stained deck, he fell headlong backward, a glad shout of victory
coming from the Birchlegs who saw him fall.

Orm, one of King Magnus's captains, demanded what had happened.

"The king is killed," he was told.

"Then the fate of the realm is decided," he cried.

Cutting the ropes that held the ships together, he took to flight,
followed by others and breaking the line of battle. Leaping to his feet,
Magnus called out that he was not hurt and implored them not to flee from
certain victory. But the terror and confusion were too great, and Sverre
took quick advantage of the opportunity, capturing a number of ships and
putting the others to flight.

The final battle in this contest for a throne came in 1184. It was one in
which Sverre was in imminent danger of a fatal end to his career. Usually
not easily surprised, he was now taken unawares. He had sailed up the
Nore fiord with a few ships and a small force of men, to punish some
parties who had killed hi