Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/56

 46 EAKLY KINGS OF NORWAY. fitted either for bleaching linen, or for a bit of fair duel between nations, in those simple times. Whether our refitted Jomsburgers had the least thing to do with it is only matter of fancy, but if it were they who here again got a good beating, fancy would be glad to find herself fact. The old piratical kings of Denmark had been at the founding of Jomsburg, and to Svein of the Forked Beard it was still vitally important; but not so to the great Knut, or any king that followed ; all of whom had better business than mere thieving ; and it was Magnus the Good, of Norway, a man of still higher anti- anarchic qualities, that annihilated it, about a century later. Hakon Jarl, his chief labours in the world being over, is said to have become very dissolute in his elder days, especially in the matter of women ; the wretched old fool, led away by idleness and fulness of bread, which to all of us are well said to be the parents of mischief. Having absolute power, he got into the habit of openly plundering men's pretty daughters and wives from them, and, after a few weeks, sending them back ; greatly to the rage of the fierce Norse heart, had there been any means of