Part 15 (1/2)
Olaf Haroldsson, Harold Sigurdsson's son, steered his course first to the Orkneys, where his half-sister Maria, in the meanwhile, had died.
There he remained during the winter and spring, and sailed the following summer, with Queen Ellisif and his sister Ingegerd, to Norway. Of all the splendid fleet with which his father had sailed away only twenty-four s.h.i.+ps returned.
King Harold was fifty-one years old when he fell. In spite of the discontent of the chiefs, Norway took great strides, during his reign, toward a settled internal condition. The tribes were being welded into a people. In every branch of the administration the king's strong hand was felt. His wars, though in one sense disastrous, tended, on the whole, to give Norway a secure place among the nations. A long controversy which he had concerning ecclesiastical affairs with Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen ended in his triumph, and though no formal decision was made, the Norwegian Church ceased, for a while, to recognize the supremacy of the see of Bremen. If King Harold had been as n.o.ble as he was able, he would have left a greater name behind him.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XVII.
OLAF THE QUIET (KYRRE) (1066-1093) AND MAGNUS HAROLDSSON (1066-1069).
On his return to Norway, Olaf Haroldsson found his elder brother Magnus, who had already been acknowledged as king before his father's death, in possession of the government. After some negotiations it was agreed that the two brothers should divide the kingdom between them--Magnus taking the larger portion toward the north and west, and Olaf contenting himself with Viken. If this division was founded upon the equal allodial rights of the brothers, it was obviously unfair. But Olaf, being averse to quarrelling, accepted it, as far as we know, without protest.
The campaign to England had largely exhausted the resources of the country; and Sweyn Estridsson of Denmark thought that the opportunity was now favorable for avenging the wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of King Harold. The brothers then made levy in ma.s.s from all the country, but Sweyn succeeded in engaging Olaf with his division of the fleet, off the coast of Halland (1067), before Magnus had joined him.
The battle must have been indecisive; for both sides claimed a victory.
It is, however, probable that Olaf suffered the more, as he was the first to propose peace. Magnus had, in the meanwhile, come, and their allied fleets were, in all probability, equal or superior to Sweyn's. At all events, Sweyn had suddenly lost the desire to prosecute the war; and a peace was made at Kongh.e.l.le (1068), at which a.s.surances of friends.h.i.+p and good-will were exchanged. Olaf is said to have borne his part in the negotiations with a firmness and intrepidity which inspired Sweyn with respect. As a first result of the meeting, two marriages were arranged, viz.: one between Harold Hard-ruler's widow, Ellisif, and King Sweyn, and the other between Olaf and Sweyn's daughter, Ingrid.
It is not known whether Magnus was present at the peace of Kongh.e.l.le. If he was, his ill health must have prevented him from transacting any business; for only Olaf's name is mentioned in connection with the treaty. During the following year, too, all public business devolved upon Olaf; for Magnus lay ill in Nidaros and finally died in the spring, 1069. He left one son, Haakon, who was but an infant and was fostered by Th.o.r.e of Steig. No one put forth any claim to the kingdom in his name, and Olaf thus became king of the whole country.
With the exception of the little ripple of martial excitement during the first years after his accession, Olaf Haroldsson's reign of twenty-seven years presents not a single warlike event. His saga is a saga of peace--a long and honorable record of achievements in the service of civilization. The key-note of his character was prudent moderation. He was religious, but not fanatical; devout, but not bigoted. Easy-going by temperament, yet negligent of no duty, cheerful but not jolly, calm but not indolent, he is indeed a unique but none the less attractive figure among the martial descendants of Harold the Fairhaired. He is the more remarkable because his leading traits of character contrast so strikingly with those of the prevailing type of man in his age. Serenity of soul s.h.i.+nes out of those of his utterances which the sagas have thought it worth while to preserve. There seems to be a conscious conviction, far in advance of his century, in a saying like this:
”Why should I not be happy, since I am sitting here with you at a feast, which is consecrated to my kinsman St. Olaf, and I see both joy and liberty among my subjects? In the days of my father this people lived under much compulsion and fear. Then most of them hid away their gold and treasures, but now I see s.h.i.+ne upon every one the ornaments which he possesses. Your freedom and joy are my feast and my delight.”
The surname _Kyrre, i. e._, the tranquil, the quiet one, which the people gave him, whether originally meant as a compliment or not, became, in the course of time, an honorable distinction; for during the century of strife and bloodshed which followed, all looked upon his bloodless reign as upon a golden age of peace.[A] As a later author [B]
says: ”He was in favor both with G.o.d and men; he laid great stress upon peace and tranquillity; let every man keep what was his own, and suppressed nothing but what was evil. * * * There were then excellent crops and manifold splendor, so that Norway had never since Harold the Fairhaired been in such a prosperous condition, as in his days. All the people loved him warmly; for he conceded many a thing for their convenience which Harold had insisted upon with harshness and enforced with severity. He was liberal with gold and silver and good ornaments; but only tenacious of land; the reason of this was his intelligence; for he saw that it was for the welfare of the kingdom.”
[Footnote A: See Munch, ii., p. 430.]
[Footnote B: Thjodrek Munk, Cap. 29. Quoted from Munch Det Norske Folk's Historie.]
The story of Olaf the Quiet occupies but a few pages in the sagas, while that of his father and his son, both great warriors, fills much s.p.a.ce.
The work of destroying lives, in which the latter were accomplished, appealed more to the warlike historian of the kings of Norway than the quiet activity for the preservation of life and the amelioration of its ills, to which Olaf devoted his energies. The little that Snorre says about him is, indeed, all in his praise, and very likely there was no one in those days who thought of singing songs or otherwise preserving other deeds than those of the sword. The scald who has sung Olaf's praise has, therefore, dwelt chiefly upon his partic.i.p.ation in his father's foolhardy expedition to England, and his battle with Sweyn Estridsson.
It was natural that a man of Olaf's character should have small sympathy with the viking spirit which was yet to a certain extent prevalent; and though we do not know what he did to discourage viking cruises, we hear that this form of piracy became very much rarer during his reign. One circ.u.mstance which must have been discouraging to the vikings was the greatly increased risk which they ran, on account of the consolidation and increased power of the states which they were wont to attack.
England under William the Conqueror was no longer a congenial stopping-place for Norse pirates, and France, Spain, and Germany had likewise taken measures for the protection of their coasts, which greatly interfered with the summer amus.e.m.e.nts of the Norse chieftains. A trip to Ireland, to be sure, still offered some inducements in the way of slaves and plunder; but along the Swedish and the Russian coasts of the Baltic, the native tribes had proved apt pupils of the vikings, and had commenced plundering on their own account, thus diminis.h.i.+ng the chances of profit for the Nors.e.m.e.n. That the influence of Christianity may also have been active in weaning men from their predatory habits we would fain believe, if the long carnival of bloodshed which followed did not seem to prove the contrary. The material considerations just cited, were evidently the more powerful; though in the case of the king, who himself set the example of devotion to peaceful industries, there is no doubt that his religion influenced his life by strengthening the unwarlike side of his character. He manifested his sincerity as a Christian, not only by his fondness for the priests, whose vestments he often a.s.sisted in putting on, but more particularly by his efforts to change and suppress every thing which he believed to be antagonistic to the spirit of the religion of Christ. Thus he was the first king of Norway who endeavored to put an end to serfdom. He gave the law, that every s.h.i.+re in the kingdom should annually manumit one thrall. His first object in giving this order, however, was to get citizens for his towns, and thereby encourage commerce and peaceful occupations. Many of the thralls were artisans, and a large number of those who had been enthralled as prisoners of war were men of intelligence and enterprise.
Commerce had, even previous to the reign of Olaf the Quiet, enjoyed periods of prosperity. The vikings were often merchants as well as pirates, and bought for money or goods what they could not take with the sword. Merchants, on the other hand, who were not vikings, had always to have the sword at hand to defend their cargoes. A very sharp distinction between the warrior caste and that of the merchants, did not therefore exist, and we find that great chieftains, nay even kings themselves, engaged in commerce, and were not ashamed of the profit they reaped by mercantile enterprise. Thus we hear that Olaf the Saint went into partners.h.i.+p, for one voyage, with the merchant Gudleik Gerdske, and Harold Hard-ruler made the trade with the Finns a royal monopoly which he farmed out to his underlings. A considerable exchange of commodities by barter took place between Norway and Denmark, Sweden and England, and as piracy declined, and the precious metals came into general use, a more regular commercial intercourse. These first effects of a more orderly social organization were beginning to be visible during the reign of Olaf the Quiet, and it is owing to this fact, that we hear so much about the promotion of commerce and the prosperity of the towns.
The city of Bjorgvin (now Bergen) was founded by him (1070-1075) and very soon became a commercial centre of great importance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF ORKHAUGEN, OLD NORSE DWELLING ON THE ORKNEYS.]
As long as their occupation was war and industrial pursuits were left to thralls, the Nors.e.m.e.n could not be expected to have much sense for domestic comfort. And the fact is that, before the days of Olaf the Quiet, even the wealthiest of them lived in a primitive way, on coa.r.s.e food and with rude surroundings. Their houses contained but one room, with closed alcoves along the walls for beds. As floor, served the bare earth, stamped hard and covered with straw, and along the middle of it burned fires which sent gusts of smoke and sparks through the room. In the roof was a large hole for the escape of the smoke, and also for the admission of light. There were no ceilings; but the smoke-encrusted rafters from which often depended fis.h.i.+ng-tackle, skins, and articles of clothing, stretched from wall to wall. Near the eaves there were square holes in the roof, closed with shutters. On both sides of the fire were tables and benches which extended lengthwise through the hall. In the middle of each of the two benches which ran along the walls was a more elaborately carved seat with tall posts, called the high-seat. The high-seat on the north wall, facing south, belonged to the master of the house; that on the south wall was a.s.signed to distinguished guests. The walls were, in the houses of chieftains, decorated with finely wrought weapons and hangings of colored cloth. Besides the princ.i.p.al dwelling (_skali_) there were a number of smaller houses, such as the bath-house, kitchen, woman's bower, servant's hall, and sometimes a guest-house.
Among the out-houses the store-house, the barn, and the cow-stables were the most important. It will be seen from this that the farm of a well-to-do peasant must have had the appearance of a small village.
In these arrangements Olaf made certain changes, all tending toward increased comfort. In the first place, he removed the fire-place from the middle of the floor into a corner, and had a chimney built for the escape of the smoke. It thus became possible to have floors of stone or wood, and this innovation immediately followed. Windows were cut in the walls and furnished with panes of gla.s.s or translucent membranes.