Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/49

 HAKON JARL. 39 to have dangerous potencies derived from the Devil himself. The dark heathen mind of him struggling vehemently in that strange element, not altogether so unlike our own in some points. For the rest, he was evidently, in practical matters, a man of sharp, clear insight, of steadfast resolution, diligence, promptitude; and managed his secular matters uncommonly well. Had sixteen Jarls under him, though himself only Hakon Jarl by title ; and got obedience from them stricter than any king since Haarfagr had done. Add to which that the country had years excellent for grass and crop, and that the herrings came in exuberance ; tokens, to the thinking mind, that Hakon Jarl was a favourite of Heaven. His fight with the far-famed Jomsvikings was his grandest exploit in public rumour. Jomsburg, a locality not now known, except that it was near the mouth of the Eiver Oder, denoted in those ages the impregnable castle of a certain body corporate, or ' Sea Robbery Association (limited),' which, for some generations, held the Baltic in terror, and plundered far beyond the Belt, — in the ocean itself, in Flanders and the opulent trading havens there, —