18. THE ICELANDERS AND EYVIND THE SKALD.
Eyvind composed a poem about the people of Iceland, for which they rewarded him by each bonde giving him three silver pennies, of full weight and white in the fracture. And when the silver was brought together at the Althing, the people resolved to have it purified, and made into a row of clasps; and after the workmanship of the silver was paid, the row of clasps was valued at fifty marks. This they sent to Eyvind; but Eyvind was obliged to separate the clasps from each other, and sell them to buy food for his household. But the same spring a shoal of herrings set in upon the fishing ground beyond the coast-side, and Eyvind manned a ship's boat with his house servants and cottars, and rowed to where the herrings were come, and sang:—
"Now let the steed of ocean bound
O'er the North Sea with dashing sound:
Let nimble tern and screaming gull
Fly round and round—our net is full.
Fain would I know if Fortune sends
A like provision to my friends.
Welcome provision 'tis, I wot,
That the whale drives to our cook's pot."
So entirely were his movable goods exhausted, that he was obliged to sell his arrows to buy herrings, or other meat for his table:—
"Our arms and ornaments of gold
To buy us food we gladly sold:
The arrows of the bow gave we
For the bright arrows of the sea."
King Olaf Trygvason's Saga
6. OLAF IS SET FREE IN EISTLAND.
10. COUNCILS HELD BY HAKON AND HARALD.
11. HARALD GORMSON'S MESSAGE TO NORWAY.
12. TREACHERY OF HARALD AND HAKON.
16. GUNHILD'S SONS LEAVE THE COUNTRY.
18. BATTLE BETWEEN HAKON AND RAGNFRED.
21. OLAF TRYGVASON'S JOURNEY FROM RUSSIA.
22. OLAF TRYGVASON'S MARRIAGE.
24. HARALD OPPOSES CHRISTIANITY.
25. OLAF TRYGVASON'S WAR EXPEDITION.
27. HARALD AND HAKON ARE BAPTIZED.
28. HAKON RENOUNCES CHRISTIANITY.
29. THE EMPEROR OTTA RETURNS HOME.
30. OLAF'S JOURNEY FROM VINDLAND.
34. KING OLAF AND ALFVINE'S DUEL.
35. KING OLAF GETS HIS DOG VIGE.
36. HARALD GORMSON SAILS AGAINST ICELAND.
37. HARALD SENDS A WARLOCK TO ICELAND.
39. VOW OF THE JOMSBORG VIKINGS.
40. EIRIK AND HAKON MAKE A WAR LEVY.
41. EXPEDITION OF THE JOMSBORG VIKINGS.