against
whom it became necessary that he should launch his whole force. These
were King Hunthiof, who ruled over the district of More, and his son
Solve Klofe; also King Nokve, who ruled over Romsdal, and was the
brother of Solve's mother. These men were great warriors. Hearing that
King Harald was sailing north, they resolved to give him battle.

For this purpose they raised a large force, and went out among the
skerries to intercept him.

We do not intend here to go into the details of the fight that followed,
or its consequences. It is sufficient for the proper development of our
tale to say that they met at an island in North More named Solskiel,
where a pitched battle was fought, and gained by Harald. The two kings
were slain, but Solve Klofe escaped, and afterwards proved a great thorn
in Harald's side, plundering in North More, killing many of the King's
men, pillaging some places, burning others, and generally making great
ravage wherever he went; so that, what with keeping him and similar
turbulent characters in check, and establishing law and order in the
districts of the two kings whom he had slain, King Harald had his hands
fully occupied during the remainder of that summer, and was glad to go
north to spend the winter peacefully in Drontheim.

The families and neighbours, therefore, of those with whom our tale has
chiefly to do had rest during that winter. How some of them availed
themselves of this period of repose may be gathered from a few incidents
which we shall now relate.

In the first place, Erling the Bold spent a large proportion of his time
in learning the alphabet! Now this may sound very strange in the ears
of many people in modern times, but their surprise will be somewhat
abated when we tell them that the art of writing was utterly unknown
(though probably not unheard of) in Norway at the end of the ninth
century, and long after that; so that Erling, although a gentleman of
the period, and a Sea-king to boot, had not up to the time we write of,
learned his A B C!

It is just possible that antiquaries, recalling to mind the fact that
the art of writing was not introduced among the Norse colonists of
Iceland until the eleventh century, may be somewhat surprised to learn
that our hero acquired the art at all! But the fact is, that there
always have been, in all countries, men who were what is popularly
termed "born before their time"--men who were in advance,
intellectually, of th