Olaf the Glorious: A Story of the Viking Age

by Robert Leighton

  CHAPTER XVIII: THE "LONG SERPENT".

  King Olaf had now ruled over Norway for three years. In that brief timehe had done more for the country than any king who had gone before him.He had succeeded in establishing Christianity--not very thoroughly, itis true, for during the rest of his reign, and for long enoughafterwards, there was plenty of heathenism in Norway; but he did allthat he could to make men Christians, as far as he knew how himself,and, by his own example of a pure and upright life, he did much todeepen the feeling that, even in a social sense, the Christianreligion' offered advantages which had never before been enjoyed in theland. It was noticed almost immediately that there was less bloodshedamong the people than formerly, and that the peasants lived in greatersecurity. The doctrine of peace upon earth was set forth as one of thefirst principles of Olaf's mission, and he was never tired of showingthat, while Odin and Thor took pleasure in bloodshed and rejoiced inwar, Christ the White was a lover of peace, and accorded no merit tothe manslayer.

  Olaf made it a law throughout his realm that all men should keep theSabbath holy, that they should always fast on Fridays, and that theyshould teach their children the Ten Commandments. He could not hopethat grownup people, who had all their lives been accustomed to worshipgraven images, would all at once become fervent and devout Christians;but he clearly saw the importance of bringing up all the children to afull knowledge of the Christian faith, and accordingly he bade hispriests give constant care to the education of the young.

  What King Olaf achieved in Norway he achieved also in the outlyingparts of his dominions. He sent priests into the lands of the Laps andFins. It has been told how he sent his priest Thrangbrand to Iceland.He also sent missions to the Orkney Islands, to the Shetlands, and theFaroes, and even to so distant a country as Greenland. All these landswere converted to Christianity during Olaf's brief reign.

  But it was not in religious matters alone that Olaf Triggvisonexercised his wisdom and his rule. He encouraged fisheries andhusbandry and handicrafts, and men who had given up their lives towarfare and vikingry now occupied themselves with useful arts andindustries. Himself a rare sailor, he loved all seamen and shipmen andshipbuilders, and so that these might have work to do he encouragedcommerce with the lands over sea--with England and Scotland andIreland, with Russia, Wendland, Friesland, Flanders, and France.

  When he had been in England he had learned something of the good lawsestablished in that country by King Alfred the Great. He strove tointroduce many of these laws into his own kingdom. Like Alfred theGreat, King Olaf recognized the value of a strong navy, and, so soon ashe had assured himself of the goodwill of his subjects, he levied taxesupon them, and set about the work of building ships.

  The great dragonship which he had taken as a prize of war from Rand theWizard was the largest and finest vessel in the Norwegian seas at thistime. The king determined to have a much larger and finer ship built,one which should surpass in splendour and equipment every vessel thathad been launched in Norway or any other land throughout the ages. Onthe banks of the river Nid, at the place where he had built the town ofNidaros, a great forest of pine trees had been cleared, and there wastimber in plenty ready at hand. There had been two most fruitfulseasons, with good crops, and the country was rich. Olaf himselfpossessed more wealth than any monarch in all Scandinavia, and also hewas fortunate in having about him a number of men who were highlyskilled in the work of designing and building ships. So he had ashipyard prepared under the cliffs of Lade, and he appointed a mannamed Thorberg Shafting to be his master builder.

  Rand's dragonship, which was named the Serpent, was taken as a model ofthe new ship that was to be made, but all her measurements were exactlydoubled, for the new craft was to be twice as long in the keel, twiceas broad in the beam, and twice as great in the scantling. Olaf himselfhelped at the work, and laboured as hard as any other two men. Wheneverany difficulty arose he was there to set it right, and all knew thatevery part of the work must be well done, that every piece of timbermust be free from rot, and every nail and rivet made of the best metalor the king would discover the fault and have it undone.

  Many men were in the shipyard, some to hew timbers with their heavyaxes, some to fashion iron bolts and bars, and others to spin theshining flax into the ropes that were to form the rigging. Burlyblacksmiths stood at the roaring forge, wielding huge hammers; sawyersworked in the pits, making the stout beams and ribs and cutting greattrunks into thin planks. Black cauldrons of boiling tar smoked andbubbled over the fires. The clattering of hammers, the rasping of saws,the whirring of wheels, and the clamour of men's voices sounded fromearliest morning until the setting of the sun; and the work went onapace all day and every day, saving on Sunday, when no man was allowedto touch a nail or lift a hammer.

  On a certain morning in the midsummer, King Olaf was down in theshipyard. He wore his coarsest and oldest clothes; his thick, strongarms were bared above the elbows, and his hardened hands were smutchedwith tar and nail rust. His head was shielded from the hot sun by alittle cloth cap that was torn in the crown, and his long hair and hisbroad back and shoulders were besprinkled with sawdust. Save for hisgreater tallness and strength he looked not very different from any ofthe workmen about him; and indeed Kolbiorn Stallare, who stood near himin courtly apparel, might well have been mistaken for the king and theking for the servant.

  Olaf had paused in his work, and was talking with Kolbiorn concerningsome matter of state. As he stood thus, leaning with one elbow on thelong handle of his great sledgehammer, he saw young Einar Eindridsoncoming towards him, followed by a woman. The woman seemed to be ofmiddle age, and she looked weary with travel. As she came nearer, hereyes rested upon Kolbiorn as though she wished to speak with him.

  "Go to her," said the king. And Kolbiorn left Olaf's side and went tomeet her.

  "Long have I searched for you, King Olaf," said she, drawing back thecloak from her head, and letting the sun shine full upon her face. "ButI have found you at last, and now I crave your help for the mercy ofGod!"

  "You make a mistake, lady," said Kolbiorn; "I am not King Olaf, butonly his servant. Yonder is the king at work among his shipwrights. Butif you would speak with him I will take you to him, for I see that youare in distress."

  So he took her to where Olaf was, and when she stood near him shelooked at him in disbelief, taking him to be but a workman. But whenthe king laid down his hammer and stood up at his full height anduncovered his head, she saw that he was no ordinary man. Her eyes wentto his bare arm, where there still remained the mark branded there inthe days of his bondage in Esthonia.

  "By that token do I know you, O king," said she. "But you are tallerand stronger than when last we met."

  "In what land and in whose company was that meeting?" asked King Olaf."Methinks I have indeed seen you before, but in what circumstances andat what time I do not call to mind."

  "We met long years ago," said she. "First in Wendland, when you were aguest at the court of King Burislaf; and again when we sat side by sideat the inheritance feast of King Sweyn of Denmark. My name is Thyra.Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark, was my father, and I am the sisterof King Sweyn of the Forked beard, who now reigns over all Denmark, andwho has lately wedded with Queen Sigrid of Sweden."

  "Right well do I now remember you," returned Olaf. "And well do I mindthat, at that same feast in Denmark, you scorned me because I had beena slave."

  There was a frown upon his brow and a look of mistrust in his eyes; forhe guessed that the coming of this woman was some guileful trick of herbrother Sweyn, whom he knew to be an enemy of his own.

  "At the time you speak of," said she, "you were but a heathen viking ofJomsburg, a lover of warfare, a man who lived by plunder and bloodshed,who worshipped the pagan gods, and knew not the sweetness of a peacefullife. But now you are a king--a great and glorious king. And, what ismore, you are a Christian, worshipping the true God, and doing gooddeeds for the good Christ's sake."

  The look of mistrust now vanished from
Olaf's eyes, and gave place to alook of softness and pity.

  "It is because you are a Christian that I have come to you now," shewent on. "For days and weeks I have travelled on foot across themountains; and now that I have found you I crave your pity and yourhelp, for I am in sore distress, and know of none other than you, Oking, to whom I can go for shelter. At the same time that you wereyourself in Wendland, and at the time when Earl Sigvaldi of Jomsburgwas wedded with the Princess Astrid, and my brother Sweyn with hersister Gunnhild, it was arranged that I too should be wedded. And thehusband whom Sigvaldi and Sweyn chose for me was their father-in-law,King Burislaf. Now, Burislaf was an elderly man, while I was but alittle girl, and I was sorely against this matter. So I craved thatthey would not press me to the marriage, and they yielded so far that Iwas left alone for a while.

  "Early in this present summer King Burislaf renewed his pleadings thatI should wed with him, and he sent Earl Sigvaldi into Denmark to carryme away. So well did the Earl prevail with my brother that Sweyndelivered me into his hands, and also covenanted that the domains inWendland which Queen Gunnhild had had should be my dowry.

  "Now, already I had become a Christian, and it was little to mysatisfaction that I should become the wife of a pagan king and live forever after among heathen folk, so on a certain dark and stormy night Ifled away. A poor fisherman brought me over into Norway, where I knewthat the people were all of the Christian faith, and so, after muchtrouble and privation, I have found my way hither."

  Thus Thyra spoke with King Olaf. And when she had told him all hertrouble he gave her good counsel and a kindly welcome, and said thatshe should always have a peaceful dwelling in his realm.

  Now, Olaf Triggvison knew full well that in giving succour to Thyra hewas doing that which would give great offence to King Sweyn of Denmark;and that Sweyn, when he heard that his sister was here in Norway, wouldspeedily come over and carry her back to Wendland. Nevertheless, Olafthought well of her ways and saw that she was very fair, and it cameinto his mind that this would be a good wedding for him. So when Thyrahad been in Nidaros some few weeks he spoke with her again, and askedher if she would wed him.

  Little loth was Thyra to obey his behests, for she deemed herself mostfortunate in that there was a chance of her marrying so noble a king.So she yielded to him, and their wedding was held in harvest time, andcelebrated according to the Christian rites. From that time onward theyreigned together as king and queen of Norway.

  All through that summer King Olaf busied himself in his shipyard, andin the early autumn the great ship's hull was well nigh finished. Atthis time Thorberg, the master shipwright, went home to his farmsteadin Orkadale to gather in his harvest, and he tarried there for manydays. When he came back the bulwarks were all completed.

  On the same day of his return the king went down with him to the yardto see how the vessel looked, and they both agreed that never beforehad they seen its equal in size and in beauty of form. All had beendone as Thorberg had designed, and great praise did he win from hismaster. But Thorberg said, nevertheless, that there were many thingsthat he would have improved.

  But early the next morning the king and Thorberg went again to theship. All the smiths had come thither, but they stood there doing nowork.

  "Why are ye standing idle?" demanded Olaf in surprise.

  "Because the ship is spoiled, O king," said one of the men, "and thereis no longer any good in her! Some evil minded man has been at work inthe night, undoing all that we have done!"

  The king walked round to the ship's side, and lo! every plank along herbulwarks was hewn and notched and deeply gashed as with an axe.

  "Envious mischief maker!" cried the king in a sorrowful voice. Then ashe realized the full extent of the wreckage he swore an oath, anddeclared that the man who had thus spoiled the ship should die, andthat he who should discover the evildoer would be well rewarded.

  Then Thorberg went to his side, and said he: "Be not so wrathful, Oking. I can tell you who it is that has done this mischief. It was Iwho did it."

  "You!" cried the king. "You in whom I have trusted so long? You, whohave taken so much pride in the building of this ship? Unhappy man!Know this, that you shall repair this mischief and make it good, orelse you shall lose your life!"

  Thorberg laughed lightly and said: "Little the worse will the ship bewhen I have done, lord."

  And then he went to the ship and planed out all the notches and cuts,and made the bulwarks so smooth and fair that all who saw what he diddeclared that the ship was made far handsomer than she had been before.So well pleased was King Olaf that he bade Thorberg do the same on theother side, and gave him great praise and reward.

  Late in the autumn the hull was finished and painted, ready forlaunching. Bishop Sigurd sprinkled the vessel's bows with holy water,and as she slipped over the rollers into the sea King Olaf named herthe Long Serpent.

  There was yet much to be done before she would be ready for sea; butsuch work as the stepping of her two masts, fitting her standingrigging, caulking her deck planks, fashioning her cabins, and adorningher prow and stern could best be done when she was afloat.

  The Long Serpent would not be considered a very large vessel in thesemodern days, but she was the largest ship known to have been builtbefore the time of King Canute, and she was, so far as it is possibleto calculate, exactly double the size of the ship in which Columbuscrossed the Atlantic. Her length was not less than two hundred feet.Her breadth between the gunwales was about forty feet. It is notprobable that she was very deep in the water; but of this there is norecord. She was fitted with thirty-four "rooms" amidships, each roombeing divided into two half rooms. These half rooms accommodated eightmen whose duty it was to attend to one of the long oars. Thus, therewere thirty-four pairs of oars and five hundred and seventy-fourrowers. Between the half rooms, and also along the bulwarks, there werewide gangways, running fore and aft. There was a large forecastle inwhich the warriors slept and took their meals, and abaft the main mastthere was another cabin called the "fore-room", in which King Olaf hadhis high seat, or throne. Here he held his councils. Here, too, he hadhis armour chests. Thirty men lived in the fore-room.

  King Olaf's own private cabin was under the "lypting", or poop. It wasvery splendidly furnished, with beautifully carved wood and tapestriesof woven silk. Only his chosen companions and his personal servantswere allowed to enter this apartment. Above it there was a large deckwhich in the time of battle was occupied by the king and his mostvaliant warriors.

  The prow of the Long Serpent, which rose high above all other parts ofthe hull, took the form of a dragon's head and shoulders. Thisferocious looking monster, with wide open jaws and staring eyes, wascovered with beaten gold. At the vessel's stern stood the dragon'stwisted tail, and this also was plated with gold. Close beside it wasthe handle of the steering board, which was usually held, when at sea,by King Olaf himself or his chief captain.

  It was not until the middle of the next springtime that the ship wasready for sea. Then Olaf had his fair weather sails hoisted. They wereas white as newly fallen snow, with a large blood red cross in themiddle. Banners of silk streamed from the masthead and from theyardarms, and a most beautiful standard fluttered from a tall staff onthe lypting. The midships tent, which shielded the rowers from theglare of the strong light, was striped with red and blue. The weathervanes and the dragon glittered in the sun, and the men on the deckswere arrayed in their best, with their polished brass helmets and gailycoloured cloaks. King Olaf himself was most splendidly attired. He hadon a newly wrought coat of chain mail, which was partly covered by amantle of fine crimson silk. His helmet was made of burnished copper,inlaid with gold ornaments and surmounted by a gold dragon. Near tohim, as he stood at the tiller, his shield was hung up. It was the sameshield that he had bought from Thangbrand, bearing the image of thecrucifix.

  Great crowds of people assembled on the banks of the Nid. They allthought it a most wonderful sight, and they cheered lustily as, inanswer to a loud b
last from the king's bugle horn, the rowers began topull. As the great vessel glided out of the river with her eight andsixty oars moving in regular strokes she looked like a thing of life.Never in all time or in all lands had such a magnificent ship been seen.

  Olaf steered her out into the blue waters of Thrandheim Fiord, and thenas the wind caught her sails the oars were shipped and she sped onwardwith such even speed that all were astonished. Not far had she gonewhen she came in sight of Olaf's other dragonship--the Short Serpent,as she was now called--which had been sent out an hour in advance. Inspite of the long start that she had had, the smaller vessel wasquickly overhauled and passed, as though she had not been moving. Olafhad wanted to have a race; but now he saw that this was useless; forthe Long Serpent had proved herself to be not only the most beautifulship to look upon, but also the quickest sailer of all vessels afloat.

  Out into the sea he took her. There was a strong breeze blowing and thesea was rough. She rode easy upon the waves, both before and againstthe wind, and Olaf was well pleased. So, when the trial cruise wasover, he returned to Nidaros, satisfied that if ever he should be drawninto a war with any foreign power he had a battleship which no enemycould equal.

  Now King Olaf lived in happiness and contentment with Queen Thyra, andthere was great love between them. But there was one thing which gavethe queen much trouble, and over which she was for ever fretting. Itwas that, by reason of her flight from Wendland, she had forfeited allthe possessions that had been reserved as her dowry. She felt that,here in Norway, she had no private wealth of her own such as beseemed aqueen, whereas there were her great estates in Wendland and Denmark,from which large revenues were due. Again and again she spoke to theking on this matter, praying him with fair words to go and get her herown. King Burislaf, she declared, was so dear a friend of King Olafthat so soon as they met he would surely give over to him all that hecraved. But Olaf always shook his head and asked her if she did notthink that there was wealth enough for them both in Norway. But Thyrawas not satisfied with this constant delay. Whenever her husband spokewith her she always contrived to bring in some peevish mention of herestates. She wept and prayed and pleaded so often that Olaf's patiencewas well nigh exhausted. It seemed that if only for the sake ofdomestic peace an expedition to Wendland must soon be brought about.Nevertheless, all the friends of the king, when they heard of thistalk, advised him against such a journey, for they knew full well thatit must end in a war with the queen's brother, Sweyn Forkbeard. On acertain day in that same spring, when it was nearing Eastertide, KingOlaf was passing down the street, when by the marketplace a man methim, and offered to sell him some very fine spring vegetables. Olafnoticed that he had some large angelica heads. This was a herb verymuch valued in those days and eaten as we now eat celery. The king tooka great stalk of the angelica in his hand and went home with it toQueen Thyra. He found the queen in her hall weeping for her lostestates.

  "See here the big angelica I give thee," said he.

  The queen rose and thrust the vegetables contemptuously aside, and,with the tears streaming down her cheek, cried: "A pretty gift indeed!Greater gifts did my father, Harald Bluetooth, give me when, as achild, I got my first tooth! He did not fear to come over here toNorway and conquer this land; whereas you, with all your boasted gloryand your great ships, are so much afraid of my brother Sweyn that youdare not venture into Denmark to get me what belongs to me, and ofwhich I have been shamefully robbed!"

  Then up sprang King Olaf and retorted with an angry oath: "Afraid?" hecried. "Never have I gone in fear of your brother Sweyn, and I am notafraid of him now. Nay, if we ever meet, he shall surely give waybefore me! Now--even now--I will set sail for Wendland, and you shallhave your wretched estates!"