Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/382

 370 CHRONICLE OF THE NOTES. Stanford Bridge near York, Snorro tells us that this event took place thirty-five years after the battle of Stiklestad, at which this King Harald, then a youth, was present. Now the battle of Stanford or Battle Bridge was fought on Mon- day the 25th September, nineteen days before the battle of Hastings, which took place on Saturday the 14th October, in the year 1066, which brings the battle of Stiklestad, fought thirty -five completed years before, to 1030. The saga- reckoning of years is so many winters ; and thirty-five win- ters had passed between the battle of Stiklestad in autumn 1030, and the battle of Stanford Bridge in autumn 1066. The Saxon Chronicle also gives the year 1030 as the date of the battle in which King Olaf fell; and this Chronicle, giving nothing but the dates and events, without any relation of causes or results, or any attempt at giving any thing more than the event and date, is unquestionably the best historical authority for the time and fact. During the battle of Stikle- stad a total solar eclipse is understood by antiquaries, from the text of Snorro, to have taken place ; and this would have fixed the day and year beyond all question. But on the IV. Calends of August, 1030, there was no full moon, and conse- quently there could be no total solar eclipse ; and there is no getting rid of Snorro's distinct day, Wednesday the IV. Calends of August, and of that IV. Calends of August in 1030 actually falling upon a Wednesday in that year. Professor Hansten of Christiania has, it is said, calculated that a total eclipse of the sun did take place in the latitude of Stiklestad, 63° 40' north, on the 31st of August, 1030; but that would be a Monday, not a Wednesday. The only other near eclipse is one on the 29th June, 1033, and some antiquaries have removed the battle for the sake of the echpse to the year 1033 ; but the eclipse fell on a Friday the 29th June, not on a Wednesday the IV. Calends of August ; and Snorro is distinct about his Wednesday, and that it was Wednesday the IV. Calends of August. It has been suggested to the translator by Professor Kelland, that possibly it may have been a fog, and not an eclipse at all; and, on considering Snorro's description of what took place, this conjecture ap- pears highly probable. The duration of the obscurity, viz. from half-past 1 to half- past 3, as stated in the Saga, exceeds greatly the duration of the obscurity produced by a total