44 THE BIRTH AND BEINGING-UP OF CHILDREN. 



plot, and word against word ; and he let the men of the 

 Engla king go in peace. The following summer Harald sent 

 a ship west to England, and gave the command of it to his 

 best friend, Hank Habrok. The king gave into his hands a 

 child which a bondwoman of the king's, by name Thora Mostr- 

 stong, had borne. She was a native of Mostr in Sunnhorda- 

 land. This boy was named Hakon, and the mother said he 

 was the son of King Harald. But Hauk came west to 

 England, and found King Adalstein in Lundunir (London), 

 and went before him when the tables were cleared and 

 greeted him. The king bade him welcome. Then Hauk said : 

 ' Lord, Harald, the King of the Northmen, sends you good 

 greeting, and therewith sends you a white bird well trained, 

 and asks you to train it better hereafter.' He took the child 

 from his cloak and put it on the knee of the king, who looked 

 at him, but Hauk stood in front of the king, and did not bow 

 to him ; he had under the left side of his cloak a sharp sword, 

 and thus all his men were dressed, and they were altogether 

 thirty. Then King Adalstein said : 'Who owns this child?' 

 Hauk answered : ' A bondwoman in Norway, and King Harald 

 said that thou shouldst raise her child.' The king answered : 

 ' This boy has not the eyes of a thrall ! ' Hauk answered : 

 ' The mother is a bondwoman, and she says that King Harald 

 is the father, and now the boy is thy knee-seater. and now 

 thou owest him as much as thy own son.' The king answered : 

 ' Why should I raise the child of King Harald though it were 

 the child of King Harald's own wife, much less the child of a 

 bondwoman ? ' and with one hand he grasped a sword lying at 

 his side and the child with the other. Then Hauk said : 

 ' Thou hast taken as fosterer one child of King Harald's and 

 knee-seated it, and thou niayest murder it if thou wishest, but 

 thou wilt not therewith kill all the sons of King Harald, and 

 it will be said hereafter, as has been said before, that he who 

 fosters the child of another is a lesser man.' Thereafter Hauk 

 went away, and took the cloak on his left arm and held his 

 drawn sword in the other hand ; the one of his men who had 

 entered the last went out first. This done they went down to 

 their ship, and as there was fair wind from the land out to sea, 

 they made use of it, sailing to Norway. And when they came 

 to King Harald he thanked Hauk well for his journey. King 

 Adalstein had Hakon raised at his Court, and he was afterwards 

 called Athelstan's foster-son. In these dealings of the kings it 

 was seen that each of them wanted to be regarded as higher 

 than the other, but there was no difference made between 

 their rank on this account, and each of them was king in his 

 realm till his death-day " (Fagrskinna, c. 21-22). 



