“I must learn thee to leave thy niggishness,” said Styrbiorn then. And this choice he gave them: either that they should fetch him two hundred ships, and that man withal whom he should choose to go with him, either else would Styrbiorn and his host sit down now in the land and dwellings of the Danes and eat up all their substance. “And that will seem a hard choice to you, and harder to bear. Yet shall you find the stronger must rule.”
In the end, bethinking them that need giveth little choice, the King and his folk said yea to this. Styrbiorn said he would choose his man now to go with him, “And that shall be Harald the King.” The King was mad wroth, but for none of his pleas nor offers would Styrbiorn be moved. Styrbiorn was like a man who, with mind at ease now, sitteth with his hand on the helm steering with a fair wind toward his set resolve.
The fourth day after these things aforesaid Styrbiorn, with the whole great host of the Jomsburgers and the Danes, sailed for the north. King Harald would have fared aboard of his own ship, but Styrbiorn made him go with him in Ironbeak. The King had learnt now the wisdom of that saying, “Never strive to match the sea,” and he would contend no more against Styrbiorn. Styrbiorn said to Biorn, “I will trust my father-in-law very discreetly. Till this fight be over, I will keep him by me like a doll. That will be good for him and good for his following. For they will guess well that if they keep not faith with me I will slay him out of hand.”
So now they rowed out from the haven and down the Limfirth, and so set sail and hove out into the open sea. And first they steered southeastward for the narrow seas betwixt Sealand and Skaney, meaning to coast so along Skaney-side and so north along the land toward Sigtun and Upsala. And that fleet needed wide sea-room to sail, as with foaming wake they stood out from the land, and it was long between the first ship and the last, and between that which steered outermost and that which steered nearest to landward.
But upon these things did the Danes that were left behind in Jutland sing this stave:
“Ne’er would the Jute-folk
Yield gild to swift ships,
Till by the land stood
Sea-deer of Styrbiorn.
Now must the Dane-lord
Follow that hosting:
Land-lorn and folk-lorn
Drees he his weird now.”
XIV
King Eric’s Hosting
Eric the King had espial since winter’s end of all that was done in the south there. When news was brought him of the gathering to a head of that power in Jomsburg and the Dane-realm he took counsel first with Thorgnyr the Lawman. “And now,” said the King, “is that need come upon us that we must lay our plans not as ’twere but Danes only and outlanders we must cope withal. For this, if it come about, shall bring into the land upon us a man of our own blood and line; and a man not to be driven alive out of the Swede-realm, I well think, once he shall have reached out hand to take it in my despite; and a man well loved of the folk too.”
Thorgnyr looked and beheld awhile in silence the face of the King. Then, “Lord,” he said, “there be two ways at every turning.”
“I see but one,” answered the King.
“That,” said Thorgnyr, “is because you do hold your head so high that you may not of your greatness see this other way. And that is right, for it beseemeth not Kings to see all that groundlings can. Only, if you bid me counsel you in this, I must be no partial counseller. There be two ways.”
“Stand or flee away?” said King Eric. “There is but one way for Kings.”
Thorgnyr said, “You have answered me.” And he fell silent again. The King had turned his gaze away, and sat there leaning his chin heavily on one hand. Thorgnyr had liberty so to study the King’s face, and it seemed to him the face of a man that hath put behind him both good and ill, and goeth in some deep resolve unto his fate. Thorgnyr pondered these things awhile. Then he said, “Now I shall not be slow to tell you my rede, Lord. And this it is: that you let call a Thing straightway in Upsala. There, what griefs soever the bonders have, right them out of hand, and better thus and thus the laws for the common sort and do men right, that men’s hearts may incline mightily unto you. And therewithal let shear up the war-arrow, and call an all-folk hosting. And that were good rede, too, to stick the seaways that leadeth to Upsala, so as their ships may find no fairway to come up at us through the Low.”
They talked long on these things, and the King deemed good of Thorgnyr’s redes and let do accordingly. And the King let hallow the holy Thing, and there was huge going together of the folk in the Thing-mead before Upsala, with the throng of the bonders and the common sort and the King’s men and the following of the Earls and lords and landed men that were thither come at the King’s bidding from all the lands and countries of the realm of Sweden. And thither were gathered Earl Aunund of Fiadrundarland and the Earls of Helsingland and Tenthland and East Gautland, Bodvar Auzurson of Leikberg with a great company, Hermund the Old from Eyland, Koll Sigmundson of Acre-eres and Hiarrandi his brother, An the Black from Jarnberaland, Slaying-Starkad of Raening-oyce, Kalf Ongialdson of Kalmar, Steinfinn of
