Styrbiorn the Strong

they went to bed, were all the Dane-folk swine-drunken, so that they lay where they slid and snouked and snored till morning; but Styrbiorn and his folk kept their wits, albeit not a man of them but drank cup and cup against the Danes. And King Harald outdrank his folk, yet was overcome at length with his quaffings and lay drunk in his chair. He was burly of build and quack-bellied and thick and short of neck and with great chuff cheeks, and his mouth was ugly, and a monstrous dead tooth lay out of it over his lip of one side, that had been there these many years; and it was thence came that by-name by which men called him through all the Northlands, of Harald Blue-tooth. Many a night the while they guested with King Harald he made them the like good cheer, and always it ended in the same way, that the Jomsburgers showed themselves the sturdier drinkers.

Now it was King Harald’s wont that every night when they were set at meat, ere they fell to, the King let hallow the board by a priest of his that went in a long-coloured gown like as women use to wear, and had the top of his head shaven bald and smooth. And the King had a house nigh to his own house that he called his kirk, and here must this priest say his mass at proper seasons, and the King went to mass and all his folk. But the Jomsburgers went not so. Styrbiorn asked Biorn how came it about that the Dane-King and his folk would not do worship and trowed no more in the Gods. “So it is said,” answered he, “that in years gone by Keisar Otto came up against the Dane-work and bade the Danes take christening. King Harald said nay to that and all his folk, and held the Dane-work against the Keisar and there was long war betwixt them. The King sent for Earl Hakon out of Norway, and the Earl came to help him. But in the end the Keisar won the Dane-work, and let do christen the King willy-nilly, him and all his men. And thereafter the King and the Keisar let christen the Earl too, and his men. But as soon as Earl Hakon was gotten with his ships out of the land, men say that he went ashore on an isle that is there and made blood-offering unto the Gods and so went again ashipboard and so home to Hladir. And ruleth Norway from that day forth as he were very King, and never no more payeth no scat, and counteth not a flea’s worth neither christen-faith nor the King of the Danes, whose Earl he was aforetime.”

“That was well done,” said Styrbiorn.

Styrbiorn and his folk were there with King Harald Gormson in Roiskeld all winter till Yule. There was not a man of the King’s men could stand with Styrbiorn in feats of strength and skill, nor durst any quarrel with him nor cross him. At first the King wished to have him to be his man, and offered him both goods and land thereto and an Earl’s name, if he would leave Jomsburg and come to him, but Styrbiorn would not. The King bade him take christening, but Styrbiorn would have naught of that. And now their friendship, which had begun hopefully, seemed to grow no more, but bide where it was, like a thorn set in poor soil on a windy headland. But with the lads and young men that were with King Harald that winter in Roiskeld Styrbiorn was so blithe and gamesome that they loved him well, and it was easy to see that they took joy to follow him and back him, and what thing soever seemed good to him that thing they praised and cried down the thing that he misliked or cared not for. King Harald, seeing and considering these things, now began to change his mind into another tune, and became exceeding glum when Styrbiorn was by, and short-spoken. Styrbiorn thought it good game to jest with the King when he was in a dump and make sport with him. And he would say now and then to the King in his sport that he knew not for sure if Harald were a good King for the Dane-folk, what with his kirk and his priest, and he would say he was minded sometimes to put some other king there in Harald’s stead and send him packing. King Harald made as if to take these jests in good part, giving him back flyting answers and making game of it. But within himself these things rankled, and that more and more as time went by.

King Harald had but one son, Svein, that was now at fostering with Palnatoki as is aforesaid. Svein was as now nine winters old. Thyri was King Harald’s daughter. She was now fourteen winters old, of few words but with a merry eye. Her hair was black and of a dainty curling growth, her mouth sweetly shaped but somewhat large. Folk found it hard to say if she were exceeding fair to look on or not fair at all, for she seemed both the one and the other by turns. She was not tall of stature, yet of a sweet and noble carriage.

Oft would Styrbiorn and Thyri be a-talking together. Biorn marked how those two, that were wont to be short of speech with other folk, were between themselves full of all talk and merriment; and their talk was easy, as if each knew easily the other’s mind, as a man knows the countryside he was bred up in and finds all things there of kin with him. So it went for a time. And now Thyri seemed silenter of speech again, and it was as if the morning freshness of her mood became shadowed a little. Biorn, marking these things, asked Styrbiorn on a day