The Sign of the Raven Read online

  HARALD, THE VICTOR

  Battle roiled between and across the benches. Blades flickered, axes crunched, war hammers clanked on helmets. Roar and clangor boomed to the paling stars as the Norsemen snapped the Danish line and leaped aboard. Harald strode forth, his sword awhirl.

  The two men stood on the lengthwise walk, and the spaces at either side bristled with weapons. Harald came at those two in a rush, ignoring the men who stabbed at him from below. His weapon blazed. Pushing on its shaft, he got the enemy off balance, sending him to the ground.

  Harald stood at the tail of the ship and looked across the waters. The scene was frightful. A full seventy ships floated manless. Blood dripped from the planks and stained the sea; a horde of gulls was already swooping down to feast. But Harald scarcely noticed any of that. What he saw was the Danish fleet broken, fleeing in disorder, finished! And all he could think of was victory . . .

  THE LAST VIKING

  BOOK 3

  THE SIGN OF THE RAVEN

  POUL ANDERSON

  ZEBRA BOOKS KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. 21 East 40th Street New York, N.Y. 10016

  Copyright © 1980 by Poul Anderson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Printed in the United States of America

  This trilogy is dedicated to the memory of my father Anton William Anderson

  FOREWORD

  The Golden Horn told of the early life of Harald Sigurdharson. Born in Norway in 1015 A.D., he was an Yngling, a scion of the house of Harald Fairhair, who had fought his way to kingship over the whole country a century and a half before. The father of this later Harald, Sigurdh Sow, bore the name of king himself, but was in fact only a chieftain in the South. Since 1000, when its strong King Olaf Tryggvason fell in battle, most of Norway had lain under lords of lower rank.

  In the year of Harald's birth, a new Olaf arrived from the West. This was the son of another Norse under-king, also called Harald. After the death of the latter, his wife Aasta married Sigurdh Sow. Thus Olaf Haraldsson, nicknamed the Stout, and Harald Sigurdharson were half brothers. Olaf had been a Viking abroad until he became a zealous Christian. Now he returned to claim the throne. Any man born to the royal house could do that, if he could get enough support; this situation had led to civil war in the past and would again in the future. Many of the regional Things (folk-moots) hailed Olaf king; those leaders who stood against him, he overthrew, until he reigned alone.

  He proved an overbearing master, especially in the ways he set about converting the heathen left in Norway. At last a goodly number of chieftains and yeomen, Christian as well as pagan, rebelled. In this they had the help of the mighty King Knut of Denmark and England (known to English history as Canute), who planned thus to make Norway a fief of his own.

  Olaf must needs flee. He found refuge in Novgorod with Grand Prince Jaroslav the Wise. The rulers of the Kievan state were of Scandinavian origin and had kept in touch with the ancestral lands. Jaroslav himself had married a Swedish princess, Ingigerdh, who was fond of Olaf and pleaded his cause.

  A year later, in 1030, Olaf came back with what forces he could gather to try to regain his kingdom. Other Norsemen rallied to him. Among them was young Harald Sigurdharson.

  The royal host met the rebels at Stiklastadh. After a hard battle, Olaf fell and his army broke. Harald, wounded, was brought to a hiding place by a friend.

  When he had recovered, he went first to Sweden and thence to Novgorod. Jaroslav received him, too, kindly, as he had already received Olaf s bastard son, a small boy named Magnus. In the next few years, Harald got his full growth, to seven feet of height. He fought well in Jaroslav's wars and rose to a high position. He also learned something about civilization, which in Russia was far more developed than among his own folk.

  Meanwhile a Danish viceroy ruled Norway so oppressively that Olaf came to be thought of by the people as a saint.

  Restless, ambitious, aware he would do best to gain wealth before attempting anything else, Harald presently left Novgorod for Constantinople. The capital of the Byzantine Empire was still the largest, richest, most cultivated and brilliant city in Christendom. Harald enlisted in the emperor's Varangian Guard, crack troops recruited from men of the northern lands. Waging war, taking enormous booty that he shipped to Jaroslav for safekeeping, he soon won a name for himself, and then the captaincy of the guard. Likewise he won the lifelong friendship of an Icelandic warrior called Ulf Uspaksson—and, at last, the love of a young noblewoman, Maria Skleraina.

  He lost her forever, when conflicts and intrigues at court forced him to escape from the empire with some followers. He reached Jaroslav, now resident in Kiev, in 1045, and was royally received; but he never got over his bitterness, and vowed he would never again be powerless. During the next months, he used his wealth and fame to draw men to him. He also made a strong alliance when he married Elizabeth, a daughter of Jaroslav and Ingigerdh. His Norsemen softened her name to Ellisif.

  After Knut's death, the chieftains of Norway had plotted to overthrow Danish rule in their country. Foremost among them were Einar Thambaskelfir (the Archer), his son Eindridhi, and the brothers Finn and Kalf Arnason. Of the latter, Finn had fought with Olaf at Stiklastadh, Kalf against him; but they had never lost family feeling. An expedition crossed the Baltic Sea and fetched back young Magnus Olafsson to be the king of a free Norway.

  Joyful, the folk flocked about him. The Danes, under Knut's weak son Hardhaknut, gave way rather easily. Magnus and Hardhaknut made peace by a treaty which provided that, if either should die without an heir, the other would succeed him.

  At first Magnus proceeded as harshly at home as his father had done. Among others, Kalf Arnason had to flee overseas. Rebelliousness seethed. Then Magnus' godfather, the skald (poet) Sighvat, brought him to his senses. Thereafter the king reigned so well that he became known as Magnus the Good.

  When Hardhaknut did, indeed, die sonless, the Norse were ready to help Magnus make his claim on Denmark. They subdued that country, or so they thought. Magnus appointed Svein Estridhsson his jarl over it. ("Jarl" was a title of nobility which could be inherited or bestowed; it implied great power, and some jarls had been stronger in fact than kings.) This man's mother Estridh had been of higher rank than his father, hence his nickname. However, he was descended from the Skjoldungs, the royal house of Denmark. When Magnus went home, Svein proclaimed himself the Danish king. His folk upheld him.

  Magnus fared back to put down his unruly jarl. Thus matters stood when Harald came north. Since Magnus would not agree that his uncle had an equal right to rule over Norway, Harald joined Svein. That became an uneasy alliance, with bad faith on both sides, and finally broke apart. Harald, who had been secretly negotiating with Magnus, now sought his nephew out. With him were Elizabeth and the daughter she had borne to him that winter, whom he had had christened Maria.

  Harald and Magnus met in friendlier wise than before (1046). They decided that they would share both the kingship of Norway and the riches brought from the South. It seemed that together they could soon overcome Svein . . . and then perhaps go on to England, since Magnus had a claim on the throne of that country as well, through his old treaty with Hardhaknut.

  Sea Horse Road took up the story from there. Harald and Magnus ravaged widely in Denmark but could not catch Svein. They vowed they would return next year with a greater host and make an end of him. Meanwhile they sailed home.

  Traveling about the kingdom he had won, dealing with its folk, Harald added men to his following, among them the Icelandic
skald Thjodholf. However, he made enemies, for he was impatient with the loose government and backward ways of the people, and often rode roughshod over them. This, as well as the clash of their two overweening prides, brought him more and more into conflict with Magnus.

  Nonetheless, the kinsmen sailed together against Denmark the following year. They were victorious in a pitched battle, but Magnus was mortally injured. Repentant of the harm he had done, he said as he lay dying that Svein should rule in Denmark. Harald swore Magnus had had no right to give that claim away; it was his too. But many of the Norse had never cared for this war, and had only waged it for love of Magnus. Under the leadership of Einar Thambaskelfir, they went home. Thereafter, Harald could do nothing else. He must return fast and get the shire-Things to hail him king before anyone could rise to challenge him.

  Riding about the country, he met the sheriff Thorberg Arnason, a brother of Kalf and Finn. ("Sheriff stands for an Old Norse word meaning a man whom the king appointed to keep order and otherwise represent him in a district, but who might well become a leader of opposition to him.) Thorberg was friendly and kept Harald as his guest for some time. Harald and Thorberg's daughter Thora fell in love. She was willing to become his mistress, but neither she nor her father wished to see her a mere bedfellow. Harald promised that, when she came to him in the spring, she would get the name of queen, equal to Elizabeth's title. This enraged the daughter of Jaroslav; however, she soon yielded, if only because she loved her husband. The two women seldom quarrelled openly in later years, but they were always hostile to each other.

  Harald soon made a warlike return to Denmark, but could not force a decision. Under the law, he could summon men to fight for but a limited time in any year; then they must be free to go home and tend their farms. His guard, full-time warriors, over whom he made Ulf Uspaksson marshal, were not enough to keep the field by themselves. Svein would flee or avoid battle, but always came back afterward. The Dane was no fool—rather, a gifted and learned man, who had among his correspondents that Hildebrand in Rome who was to become one of the greatest of the Popes.

  Despite his lack of success with Svein something did fall to Harald. Thorfinn, jarl of the Norse settlers in the Orkney Islands, made submission to him. This was because Thorfinn was an ally of Macbeth, who had seized the throne of Scotland. War with the former King Duncan's son Malcolm, and with the powerful Anglo-Danish Earl Siward, looked likely, and Thorfinn could not risk an attack from Norway.

  After the campaign Harald rewarded his trusty man Ulf by marrying the Icelander to Jorunn, Thora's sister. It proved a reasonably happy union, though Ulf was, chastely, in the company of Elizabeth as often as possible. Thora bore Harald a son, whom the father named Magnus in the hopes of pleasing the people.

  This needed to be done, for there was more and more strife between king and folk. Einar Thambaskelfir was foremost among those who felt their freedom threatened. For his part, while Harald frankly sought power for himself and his house— being, after all, an Yngling—he also remembered what he had seen abroad and heard from men learned in history. In the world as it was, a land without a strong king soon became prey.

  He would not even bow to the Church. More and more, as the breach between Catholic and Orthodox widened, his Russian connections and the Russian clergy he kept for Elizabeth brought reproaches which went unheeded. Much worse was his insistence on appointing bishops in Norway himself, particularly since the archdiocese that included Scandinavia was headed by a friend of Svein. The Papacy threatened him with the interdict but, weak at this time, did not carry it out. After all, Harald was building churches as well as commissioning secular works, and honored the late King Olaf; who was now considered a saint everywhere in his country, albeit not yet formally canonized.

  Harald fared back against Denmark. His force was not as large as he had hoped, because of the un-cooperativeness of Einar, Eindridhi Einarsson, and other chieftains, but it might still win his war for him. Among those newly in his train, as regular guardsmen, were Thora's brother Eystein, called Gorcock, and sullen but dogged Styrkaar. Many Norsemen, especially younger sons who had no other prospects, were glad to follow the king.

  In this campaign, he seized, looted, and burned the Danish trading town Heidhaby. But then Svein brought up overwhelming strength. The Norse escaped only by throwing most of the booty out of their ships. Harald could have won if he had had the following he needed; but Einar and his kind had denied him that. Raging, Harald swore that he would at least raid Denmark every year. His raven banner Landwaster, which Elizabeth had woven for him, would fly in front of swords and torches, until at last Svein must meet him on something like equal terms.

  The struggle was not only for the name of king in another country; it was for kingship itself.

  Einar saw that just as clearly, but would not agree that an all-powerful Icing was good to have. Rather, he believed most strength should lie with the chieftains as of old, and with the yeomen.

  A Thing met at Nidharos on the Throndheimsfjord, the greatest town in Norway. There a dispute between Harald and Einar led to Einar's use of armed force. This was a grave breach of law, foreboding open revolt. Egged on by Thora, Harald killed Einar and Eindridhi.

  At once, the Thronds rose—the dwellers around that fjord and in the countryside behind, the Throndlaw. Often before had they been at loggerheads with the southern-born Ynglings. Harald sought the respected chieftain Finn Arnason, hoping he could make peace before outright civil war broke loose. Finn agreed to try, but wanted a reward: amnesty for his exiled brother Kalf, who had fought against St. Olaf and was still no friend to any Yngling.

  The foremost man to conciliate was Haakon Ivarsson, a kinsman of Einar's widow. Though young and unwed, he was the leader of the Uplands district, which had also long resisted high-handed kings. Harald told Finn to offer Haakon any compensation within reason.

  It was not easy, but at length Finn persuaded Haakon that rebellion would do more harm than good. As his condition for settling with Harald, and thus persuading other men to lay down their arms, Haakon demanded Ragnhild in marriage, the daughter of the late King Magnus. Such an alliance would make him so strong that Harald did not press for it. Instead, while he made the young man welcome in Nidharos, he said Haakon must do his own courting.

  Though still a girl, Ragnhild told her suitor she would not wed a man of lesser rank than jarl. When Haakon asked Harald for that title, Harald replied that the kings before him had had no more than one jarl in Norway, and he would not take that dignity away from the present Jarl Orm who had ever been loyal to him.

  Haakon left in a white rage. It was too late to rebel; too much time had passed since Einar's fall. Haakon took ship to Denmark and entered the service of King Svein.

  Harald set himself to pacify Norway. A nickname stuck to him, "Hardrede" or "Hard Counsel," for his sternness. Yet well-liked followers of his such as Ulf and Thjodholf spoke to people on his behalf, and he did carry out works that were of use to the country—among them, founding the town of Oslo. Each of his queens gave him a second child. Thora bore his son Olaf, Elizabeth his daughter Ingigerdh.

  Kalf Arnason came home, and was soon plotting against the king. Harald learned of this from spies, but thought it unwise to accuse the man openly. Instead, next year, when they were campaigning in Denmark, he sent Kalf ashore with a small force . . . then hung back while the Danes cut it down. When Finn learned about this, he left Norway to join Svein.

  He had thought to meet Haakon Ivarsson there, but that did not happen. Haakon had, just then, fallen out with his Danish lord. Homesick, he sailed back to Norway, where he met Harald in shared wariness. The king first gave him truce—for the king was, indeed, trying to get along better with the people—and then, having gotten an oath of fealty, pardoned him, and even made him jarl, since Orm had died. Haakon sought out Ragnhild, who was now ready to marry him.

  Harald found Thora enraged at what he had done to her kinsmen Kalf and Finn, but after a while
she forgave him. He was what he was, a living storm, but also a man with a vision of the future, and the one she loved.

  During all these years, and later, England had its own woes. When the line of Knut the Great died out, the Witan chose a king from the old Wessex house—Edward, known as the Confessor, pious but a childless weakling and with close ties to the upsurging Duchy of Normandy. Wessex itself remained a center of resistance to Norman encroachments, under the leadership of its Earl Godwin. Among the sons of Godwin were Harold, a doughty warrior, and his younger brother Tosti, also bold in battle but a wild and haughty sort. Conflict worsened between these men and the royal party. For some while, Godwin and his sons were even outlawed; but they returned with such force that the king and his court perforce made peace, and the Norman favorites were banished.

  Soon after, Godwin died. Tosti was so dissatisfied with the settlements that followed that he made endless trouble. This led to renewed war with the Welsh, whom Harold had difficulty in quelling. He also had to repel a Viking fleet sent from Norway as a probe of English strength (1058).

  Otherwise Harald Hardrede could do little about the claim to the throne of England that he had inherited from Magnus the Good—unless and until he ended his feud with Svein Estridhsson. He continued to raid Denmark year after year. When warfaring season was past, he would work on other things, buildings, foreign trade, the steering and strengthening of Norway. He had little more opposition at home; hounding down robbers, he even got some peace for people in their daily lives. His queens bore him no more children that lived, but the four that he had—Magnus and Olaf by Thora, Maria and In-gigerdh by Elizabeth—were growing apace.

  Yet Harald was not content. He felt life slipping past him while he lay in a war he could not win. Once he had dreamed of seeing the whole world.