Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/16

 CHRONICLE OF THE SAGA IX, Chapter IV. Of Harald and Gyr- ger casting lots. and immediately, in autumn, went on board the gal- leys manned with troops which went out to the Greek sea. Harald had his o^vn men along with him. Now Harald had been but a short time in the army before all the Y^eringers* flocked to him, and they all joined together when there was a battle. It thus came to pass that Harald was made chief of the Yseringers. There was a chief over all the troops who was called Gyrger, and who was a relation of the empress. Gyrger and Harald went round among all the Greek islands, and fought much against the corsairs. It happened once that Gyrger and the Yseringers were going through the country, and they resolved to take their night quarters in a wood ; and as the Yasringers came first to the ground, they chose the place which was best for pitching their tents upon, which was the highest ground; for it is the nature of the land there to be soft when rain falls, and therefore it is bad to choose a low situation for your tents. Now when Gyrger, the chief of the army, came up, and saw where the Yaeringers had set up their tents, he told them to composed mostly of Northmen. Gibbon speaks of them, chap. Iv.; and refers to Boyer_, Du Cange, and other authors who have written of the Varangi, or Varagi, at Constantinople. Vaeringers, — the defenders, — appears to have been the true name of this body-guard, taken from the ■words Wehr, Vser, Ware, which belong to every branch of the great Northern language in the meaning of active defence. The best proof that this body-guard was composed principally of Northmen is, that almost every year coins of the Greek emperors, Cuftish coins, and gold chains and other ornaments, apparently of Eastern workmanship, are found in Norway about the houses of bonders, being probably the hidden treasures of their forefathers, brought with them from their ser- vice in Constantinople. The number of Greek and Arabic (Cuftish) coins found in these hoards, with scarcely any admixture of Anglo- Saxon or other Northern money, is very considerable. They are to be seen in the museums of Christiania and Copenhagen. The time when Harald joined the Va?ringers, according to Schoning, was about 1034, when Zoe was empress. Her husband Romanus Argyrus died that year; and after him was Michael Pajililago, who dying 1042 was succeeded by Michael Calaphates, who was the husband of Zoe, — called Catalactus by the saga men.
 * The Vaeringers were the body-guard of the emperors, and were