Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/296

 288 CHRONICLE OF THE Chapter CXCIII. Of Jokul Bardson. saga vii. against him, that he appeared hard and severe in his retributions. Besides, King Canute offered great sums of money, and the great chiefs were corrupted by this, and by his offering them greater dignities than they had possessed before. The inclinations of the people, also, were all in favour of Earl Hakon, who was much beloved by the country folks when he ruled the country before. Earl Hakon had sailed with his fleet from Dron- theim, and gone south to More against King Olaf, as before related. Now when the king bore away, and ran into the fiord, the earl followed him thither ; and then Kalf Arneson came to meet him, with many of the men who had deserted King Olaf. Kalf was well received. The earl steered in through Todarfiord to Valdai, where the king had laid up his ships on the strand. He took the ships which belonged to the king, had them put upon the water and rigged, and cast lots, and put commanders in charge of them according to the lots. There was a man called Jokul, who was an Icelander, a son of Bard Jokulson of Vatsdal: the lot fell upon Jokul to command the Bison, which King Olaf himself had commanded. Jokul made these verses upon it : — "Mine is the lot to take the helm Which Olaf owned, who owned the realm ; From Suit King Olaf s ship to steer (111 luck I dread on his reindeer). My girl will never hear the tiding, Till o'er the wild wave I come riding In Olaf 's ship, who loved his gold, And lost his ships with wealth untold." We may here shortly tell what happened a long time after,— that this Jokul fell in with King Olaf 's men in the island of Gotland, and the king ordered him to be taken out to be beheaded. A willow twig accordingly was plaited in with his hair, and a man held him fast by it. Jokul sat down upon a bank,