The Greatest World Classics Retold for Children. Гарриет Бичер-СтоуЧитать онлайн книгу.

      "It is a good name," everybody cried.

      Then Harald said:

      "But I have another thing to do now. Guthorm, you shall take the same message to Gyda that you gave ten years ago."

      So Guthorm went and brought back this answer from Gyda:

      "I will marry the king of all Norway."

      So when the wedding time came, Harald rode across the country to the home of Gyda's father, Eric. Many men followed him. They were all richly dressed in velvet and gold.

      For three nights they feasted at Eric's house. On the next night Gyda sat on the cross-bench with her women. A long veil of white linen covered her face and head and hung down to the ground. After the mead-horns had been brought in, Eric stood up from his high seat and went down and stood before King Harald.

      "Will you marry Gyda now?" he asked.

      Harald jumped to his feet and laughed.

      "Yes," he said. "I have waited long enough."

      Then he stepped down from his high seat and stood by Eric. They walked about the hall. Before them walked thralls carrying candles. Behind them walked many of King Harald's great earls. Three times they walked around the hall. The third time they stopped before the cross-bench. King Harald and Eric stepped upon the platform, where the cross-bench was.

      Eric gave a holy hammer to Harald, and it was like the hammer of Thor. Harald put it upon Gyda's lap, saying:

      "With this holy hammer of Thor's, I, Harald, King of Norway, take you, Gyda, for my wife."

      Then he took a bunch of keys and tied it to Gyda's girdle, saying:

      "This is the sign that you are mistress of my house."

      After that, Eric called out loudly:

      "Now, are Harald, King of Norway, and Gyda, daughter of Eric, man and wife."

      Then thralls brought meat and drink in golden dishes. They were about to serve it to Gyda for the bride's feast, but Harald took the dish from them and said:

      "No, I will serve my bride."

      So he knelt and held the platter. When he did that his men shouted. Then they talked among themselves, saying:

      "Surely Harald never knelt before. It is always other people who kneel to him."

      When the bride had tasted the food and touched the mead-horn to her lips she stood up and walked from the hall. All her women followed her, but the men stayed and feasted long.

      On the next morning at breakfast Gyda sat by Harald's side. Soon the king rose and said:

      "Father-in-law, our horses stand ready in the yard. Work is waiting for me at home and on the sea. Lead out the bride."

      So Eric took Gyda by the hand and led her out of the hall. Harald followed close. When they passed through the door Eric said:

      "With this hand I lead my daughter out of my house and give her to you, Harald, son of Halfdan, to be your wife. May all the gods make you happy!"

      Harald led his bride to the horse and lifted her up and set her behind his saddle and said:

      "Now this Gyda is my wife."

      Then they drank the stirrup-horn and rode off.

      "Everything comes to King Harald," his men said; "wife and land and crown and victory in battle. He is a lucky man."

      King Harald Goes West-Over-Seas

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      Now many men hated King Harald. Many a man said:

      "Why should he put himself up for king of all of us? He is no better than I am. Am I not a king's son as well as he? And are not many of us kings' sons? I will not kneel before him and promise to be his man. I will not pay him taxes. I will not have his earl sitting over me. The good old days have gone. This Norway has become a prison. I will go away and find some other place."

      So hundreds of men sailed away. Some went to France and got land and lived there. Big Rolf-go-afoot and all his men sailed up the great French River and won a battle against the French king himself. There was no way to stop the flashing of his battle-axes but to give him what he wanted. So the king made Rolf a duke, gave him broad lands and gave him the king's own daughter for wife. Rolf called his country Normandy, for old Norway. He ruled it well and was a great lord, and his sons' sons after him were kings of England.

      Other Norsemen went to Ireland and England and Scotland. They drew up their boats on the river banks. The people ran away before them and gathered into great armies that marched back to meet the vikings in battle. Sometimes the Norsemen lost, but oftener they won, so that they got land and lived in those countries. Their houses sat in these strange lands like warriors' camps, and the Norsemen went among their new neighbors with hanging swords and spears in hand, ever ready for fight.

      There are many islands north of Scotland. They are called the Orkneys and the Shetlands. They have many good harbors for ships. They are little and rocky and bare of trees. Wild sea-birds scream around them. On some of them a man can stand in the middle and see the ocean all about him. Now the vikings sailed to these islands and were pleased.

      "It is like being always in a boat," they said. "This shall be our home."

      So it went until all the lands round about were covered with vikings. Norse carved and painted houses brightened the hillsides. Viking ships sailed all the seas and made harbor in every river. Norsemen's thralls plowed the soil and planted crops and herded cattle, and gold flowed into their masters' treasure-chests. Norse warriors walked up and down the land, and no man dared to say them nay.

      These men did not forget Norway. In the summers they sailed back there and harried the coast. They took gold and grain and beautiful cloth back to their homes. In Norway they left burning houses and weeping women.

      Every summer King Harald had out his ships and men and hunted these vikings. There are many little islands about Norway. They have crags and caves and deep woods. Here the vikings hid when they saw King Harald's ships coming. But Harald ran his boat into every creek and fiord and hunted in every cave and through all

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