Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/27

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 15 prisoner, and put out both the eyes of hhn. So says ^a^jx. Thorarin Skeggesson in his poem : — The king got plenty in this land; But its great emperor in the strife Was made stone-blind for all his life." So says Thiodolf the scald also ; — " He who the hungry wolf's wild yell Quiets with prey, the stern, the fell, Midst the uproar of shriek and shout Stung the Greek emperor's eyes both out: The Norse king's mark will not adorn. The Norse king's mark gives cause to mourn ; His mark the Eastern king must bear, Groping his sightless way in fear." In these two songs, and many others, it is told that Harald himself blinded the Greek emperor ; and they would surely have named some duke, count, or other great man, if they had not known this to be the true account; and King Harald himself, and other men who were with him, spread this account. The same night King Harald and his men went to Chapter the house where Maria slept, and carried her away HamW's by force. Then they went down to where the galleys journey of the Vseringers lay, took two of them, and rowed constan- out into SaBvids sound.* When they came to the *"'°p^^* place where the iron chain is dra^vn across the sound, Harald told his men to stretch out at their oars in both galleys ; but the men who were not rowing to run all to the stern of the galley, each with his lug- gage in his hand. The galleys thus ran up, and lay on the iron chain. As soon as they stood fast on it, and would advance no farther, Harald ordered all the men to run forward into the bow. Then the galley in which Harald was balanced forwards, and swang down over the chain ; but the other, which remained the name implies, from a narrow strait.
 * ' Of glowing gold that decks the hand
 * Saevids sound — the Bosphorus ; where the Black Sea widens, as