Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/19

 KINGS OF NORWAY. He hates * — the generous king, the bold 1 He who four score towers laid low, Ta'en from the Saracenic foe. Before upon Sicilian plains, Shield joined to shield, the fight he gains. The victory at Hilda's garnet; And now the heathens dread his name." So says also lUuge Bryndasla-scald : — " For Michael's empire Harald fought. And southern lands to Michael brought; So Budle's son his friendship showed When he brought friends to his abode." X Here it is said that Michael was king of the Greeks at that time. Harald remained many years in Africa, where he gathered great wealth in gold, jewels, and all sorts of precious things ; and all the wealth he gathered there which he did not need for his expenses, he sent with trusty men of his own north to Novogorod to King Jarisleif 's care and keeping. He gathered together there extraordinary treasure, as is reasonable to suppose ; for he had the plundering of the part of the world richest in gold and valuable things, and he had done such great deeds as with truth are related, such as taking eighty strong-holds by his valour. Now when Harald came to Sicily he plundered there also, and sat down with his army before a strong p,atti and populous castle. He surrounded the castle ; but ^'"^'^^ the walls were so thick there was no possibility of breaking into it, and the people of the castle had enough of provisions, and all that was necessary for Chaptek, VI. e in scald for the generous man. The serpent's bed was, in the Odin mythology, gold; and its hater is the man who parts with it as with a thing he hates — ^the generous giver. ■j" Hilda's game, the game of war. X Atle, according to the Edda, invited his wife's friends to him, and killed them ; so Harald, according to the saga, put out the eyes of the emperor Michael, with all the appearances of friendship. This seems to be the meaning of the allusion of the scald to Budle's son. B 4
 * ' The serpent's bed of glowing gold saga ix.
 * The hater of the serpent's bed is the figurative expression of the