Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/107

 KINGS or NOKWAY. 95 met each other south in England at Helsingja-port.* saga ix. There was a great battle, in which King Harald and his brother Earl Gyrder and a great part of his men fell. This was the nineteenth day after the fall of King Harald Sigurdsson. Harald's brother, Earl Walthiof, escaped by flight, and towards evening fell in with a division of William's people, consisting of 100 men; and when they saw Earl Walthiof 's troop they fled to a wood. Earl Walthiof set fire to the wood, and they were all burnt. So says Thorkel Skallason in Walthiof 's ballad : — '' Earl Walthiof the brave His foes a warming gave: Within the blazing grove A hundred men he drove. The w^olf will soon return. And the witch's horse will burn Her sharp claws in the ash, To taste the Frenchman's flesh." Chapter CI. Earl William was proclaimed king of England. He sent a message to Earl Walthiof that they should be recon- ciled, and gave him assurance of safety to come to the ^^.ath. ^" place of meeting. The earl set out with a few men ; but when he came to a heath north of Kastala- bryggiaf, there met him two ofiicers of King William, with many followers, who took him prisoner, put him in fetters, and afterwards he was beheaded ; and the English call him a saint. Thorkel tells of this : — '^ William came o'er the sea, With bloody sword came he : Cold heart and bloody hand Now rule the English land. -|- Kastala-bryggia may be Boroughbridge. According to the Saxon Chronicle, Earl Walthiof was executed at Winchelsea in the year IO76 for an alleged conspiracy, and his body was interred at Croyland. This is ten years after William's accession to the crown of England. He had been taken into favour by William, and sent to command in Northumberland, and made prisoner for a conspiracy in which he was accused of taking part. The Saxon Chronicle is certainly much better authority than the saga for the dates of historical events in England.
 * Helsingja-port — Hastings.