messages, however, passed between the king and the earl, and at
last it came to a conference; and when they met the earl submitted the
case altogether to the king's decision, and the king condemned the earl
Einar and the Orkney people to pay a fine of sixty marks of gold. As the
bondes thought this was too heavy for them to pay, the earl offered to
pay the whole if they would surrender their udal lands to him. This they
all agreed to do: the poor because they had but little pieces of land;
the rich because they could redeem their udal rights again when they
liked. Thus the earl paid the whole fine to the king, who returned in
harvest to Norway. The earls for a long time afterwards possessed all
the udal lands in Orkney, until Sigurd son of Hlodver gave back the udal
rights.
33. DEATH OF GUTHORM AND HALFDAN THE WHITE.
While King Harald's son Guthorm had the defence of Viken, he sailed
outside of the islands on the coast, and came in by one of the mouths
of the tributaries of the Gaut river. When he lay there Solve Klofe came
upon him, and immediately gave him battle, and Guthorm fell. Halfdan the
White and Halfdan the Black went out on an expedition, and plundered
in the East sea, and had a battle in Eistland, where Halfdan the White
fell.
34. MARRIAGE OF EIRIK.
Eirik, Harald's son, was fostered in the house of the herse Thorer, son
of Hroald, in the Fjord district. He was the most beloved and honoured
by King Harald of all his sons. When Eirik was twelve years old,
King Harald gave him five long-ships, with which he went on an
expedition,--first in the Baltic; then southwards to Denmark, Friesland,
and Saxland; on which expedition he passed four years. He then sailed
out into the West sea and plundered in Scotland, Bretland, Ireland, and
Valland, and passed four years more in this way. Then he sailed north to
Finmark, and all the way to Bjarmaland, where he had many a battle, and
won many a victory. When he came back to Finmark, his men found a girl
in a Lapland hut, whose equal for beauty they never had seen. She said
her name was Gunhild, and that her father dwelt in Halogaland, and was
called Ozur Tote. "I am here," she said, "to learn sorcery from two of
the most knowing Fins in all Finmark, who are now out hunting. They both
want me in marriage. They are so skilful that they can hunt out traces
either upon the frozen or the thawed earth, like dogs; and they can run
so swiftly on skees that neit
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