Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/40

 28 CHRONICLE OF THE sAGA^ix. life. y^i iq commit a crime which thou wilt never be able to expiate?" He thought he made the answer, -' Do thou, father, choose for me." Then the king thought the answer was, " Thou shalt follow me." King Magnus told his men this dream. Soon after he fell sick, and lay at a place called Sudathorp. AYhen he was near his death he sent his brother Thorer with tokens to Swend Ulfsson, with the re- quest to give Thorer the aid he might require. In this message King Magnus also gave the Danish do- minions to Swend after his death; and said it was just that Harald should rule over Norway, and Swend over Denmark. Then King Magnus the Good died, and great was the sorrow of all the people at his death. So says Odd Kikinascald : — The people's tears, were all sincere: Even they to whom he riches gave Carried him heavily to the grave. All hearts were struck at the king's end ; His house- thralls wept as for a friend ; His court-men oft alone would muse. As pondering o'er un thought -of news." Chapter XXIX After this event King Harald held a Thing of his King men-at-arms, and told them his intention to go with fuS?^ the army to Viburg* Thing, and make himself be pro- claimed king over the whole Danish dominions, to which, he said, he had hereditary right after his relation Magnus, as well as to Norway. He therefore asked his men for their aid, and said he thought the Norway man should show himself always superior to the Dane. Then Einar Tambarskelver replies, that he considered it a greater duty to bring his foster-son King Magnus's corpse to the grave, and lay it beside his father King Olaf's north in Drontheim town, than to be fighting appear to have had some claim, like the Ore Thing at Drontheim, to confer the sovereign power in Denmark.
 * ^ The tears o'er good King Magnus' bier,
 * Viburg, a small town in North Jutland ; the Things at which place