246 Norivay and the No7^wegians 



Harald the Hard. Few figures in Norse history realise 

 better than he does the picturesque character of the old 

 Viking leader. Tew men seemed better fitted to draw 

 the Norse nation back to the unity from which it was 

 slipping away ; yet none were more unfortunate than 

 this king was ; in truth, we may reckon his death as one 

 of the greatest blows ever dealt to Norway. 



Harald was but a boy when he fought by his step- 

 brother's side at Stiklestad. He received a wound 

 there ; and when the day had gone hopelessly against 

 his side, he fled up into the kindly shade of the forest 

 with one friend only beside him. Earl Eognvald, the 

 Eognvald of whom we have just spoken, and whom the 

 Orkney Saga calls ' the most accomplished man of his 

 day.' Eognvald left young Harald with a bonder who 

 lived in this forest-country of the border to be healed 

 of his wounds ; and, when better, the youth passed on 

 in the early spring through the dense wood of the 

 Markland into Jemtland, and so on to the Swedish 

 court of Upsala. There he met many fugitive Norse- 

 men, among the rest his friend Eognvald once more. 

 These two decided not to stay in Sweden, but to travel 

 eastward to the Greater Sweden, and to the court of 

 King Jarisleif of Novgorod. 



We have already beheld many fugitives from Norway 

 taking the same route. But Harald Hardradi travelled 

 further than most of these. He followed in the wake of 

 those men from Greater Sweden who had found their 

 way as far as the states of the Byzantine Empire, and 

 taking service with the emperor, had formed them- 

 selves into a bodyguard, which went by the name of 

 the Invincible Guard. It was also called the Varingian 



