Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/160

152 to consist in a quick succession of deep perpendicular curtsies, and an attempt to tug the machine in after her by its tail. Sea-fishing is generally a failure; one or two are partially successful, the rest are sick. So with aimless sails, at a shilling an hour; the boatmen are extortionate and oracular, the excursionists wretched.

By the sea-side, however, as everywhere else, those only enjoy themselves as they might who dare seek recreation as the innocent whim may lead them; who defy the dressiness of the prigs and puppies, in easy clothing and old shoes indoors and out; who are not ashamed to roll or lounge on the shingle, unattracted by the band and the esplanade; who, having come to rest, idle wisely, with perpetual acted protest against the fuss of affected science and fashionable propriety. H. J.

Harfagri, or Fair-Haired Harald, also called Lufa, or the Thick-Haired, was born about the year 850, and was the son of Halfdan the Black, King of Uplend, an inconsiderable district in Norway. By the mother’s side he was descended from Ragnar Lodbrok and the renowned Sigurd the Serpent-killer. When he was ten years of age his father died, and he became king of the little district of Uplend. For some years his affairs were managed by Guthorm, his mother’s brother, but when he was about eighteen he took everything into his own hands. Harald was tall and athletic—of an exceedingly handsome countenance—bold and daring, and of a mind of great ambition. At that time there was no universal king in Norway, almost every district being governed by its own petty sovereign or head man, under whom the people enjoyed their othul or right of soil, merely paying a slight tribute to the ruler. This state of things, however, was not doomed to continue. No sooner had Harald become his own master than he made a vow to Odin that he would neither cut nor comb his hair till he had made himself sole king of the country and absolute lord of the lives and property of the inhabitants. All this he accomplished in a few years by dauntless bravery, force of character, and terrible severity. In some instances he experienced a desperate resistance, but he never lost a battle. His hardest conflict was the sea-fight at Hafirsfirth, in which he encountered several confederated kings. In this he was hard pressed, and would probably have been worsted, but for the fall of Haklangr or Longchin, the principal leader of the opposite party, a man of great courage and immense strength. This battle was decisive, for after it Harald was sole master of Norway, from the inhabitants of which he took their cherished othul, reducing them to the condition of bondsmen or servants.

Harald was satisfied with being king of Norway, but the effects of what he did were by no means confined to that country. Perhaps the actions of few or none have had so much influence on the affairs of Europe as those of Harald Harfagr. He was the principal causer and originator of what may be called the Norman March. The people of Norway, in general, submitted to the sway of Harald, and several of the petty kings were glad to become his earls and land-warders, but there were proud, indomitable spirits both amongst the peasants and the chieftains who disdained to be enthralled by him. Many repaired to Iceland, which had been discovered by one Gardr, at an early period of his reign, and colonised it; others betook themselves to the Faroer, and the Shetland and Orkney Isles, where they formed piratical establishments; others to the Sotheries and Man, of all which islands they became masters—thousands to Ireland, where they founded Dublin—immense numbers to that part of England which is north of the Humber, which they entirely took possession of. The élite, however, of the discontented Norsemen repaired to France, a part of which they conquered and occupied, and named—after themselves—Normandy, or the land of the Normans, where, from the connubial relations, which they formed with the women of the country, a race sprang up which in course of time subdued England, Naples, and Sicily, giving kings of the Norman race to all three.

Harald’s life, after he had become monarch, was tolerably tranquil. Any insurrections against him he speedily put down by means of his hirdlid, an armed force, which he always kept about him, consisting of about four hundred of the tallest and strongest fellows whom he could induce to serve him. To these he was very liberal in clothes, bracelets, armour and coin; but it was said of him, during his life and long after his death, that though he was free of gold he was rather stingy of meat.

He had several places of residence, but his favourite one was Rogaland in Utstein. He had a great many concubines, who, in all, bore him twenty sons. On his marriage, however, with Ragnhilda, daughter of the King of Jutland, he dismissed them all to their homes. By this Ragnhilda he had Eirik, surnamed Blood-axe, from his desperate deeds in war, to whom he bequeathed the sceptre of Norway at his death.

He lived and died a believer in the religion of Odin, Thor, and Frey—a religion of blood and horror—the votaries of which held two great festivals in the year, one at Yule or Midwinter, and the other at Haust or Harvest, at which they drank ale and ate horse-flesh in honour of the gods. He was very fond of poetry, and had generally several skalds about him, who sang his praises in alliterative verse. He died at the age of eighty-three, after having been king seventy-three years, and absolute sovereign of Norway about fifty-eight. He was a contemporary of Alfred the Great, his son Edward, and his grandson Athelstan, to the last of whom he sent his son Hakon to be fostered, a child born to him in his old age, and who eventually became king of Norway, and was the first Christian ruler of that country.

The poem, of which the following is a very close translation, was composed by various skalds