Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/19

 HAKALD HAARFAGR. 9 fuel all wasted. Turf-Einar too may be regarded as a benefactor to his kind. He was, it appears, a bas- tard ; and got no coddling from liis father, who dis- liked him, partly perhaps, because * he was ugly and blind of an eye,' — got no flattering even on his con- quest of' the Orkneys and invention of peat. Here is the parting speech his father made to him on fitting him out with a * long-ship ' (ship of war, ' dragon-ship,' ancient seventy -four), and sending him forth to make a living for himself in the world : "It were best if thou never camest back, for I have small hope that thy people will have honour by thee ; thy mother's kin throughout is slavish." Harald Haarfagr had a good many sons and daughters ; the daughters he married mostly to jarls of due merit who were loyal to him ; with the sons, as remarked above, he had a great deal of trouble. They were ambitious, stirring fellows, and grudged at their finding so little promotion from a father so kind to his jarls ; sea-robbery by no means an adequate career for the sons of a great king. Two of them, Halfdan Haaleg (Long-leg), and Gudrod Ljome (Gleam), jealous of the favours won by the great Jarl