CHAPTER XX.

MAGNUS THE BLIND (1130-1135) AND HAROLD GILLE (1130-1136).

When the tidings of his father's death reached him, Magnus hastened to summon a _thing_ in Oslo and have himself proclaimed king of the whole country. Harold, who had been waiting for this opportunity to break his oath, did the same at Tunsberg; only he contented himself preliminarily with half the kingdom. Magnus naturally refused to recognize his claim, and the people were soon divided into two parties, one of which sided with Magnus, while the other supported Harold.

In point of character they were both equally unfitted for the leadership of a nation. Magnus was a coarse, avaricious, and arrogant roisterer, addicted to drink, and incapable of any noble impulse. Harold was a weak and vacillating man, jolly, liberal, and easy-going, in whom the Irish characteristics predominated. He was pliable as wax in the hands of the liegemen, to whom he left all the cares of state, while he himself conceived of the royal dignity as a mere privilege to live high, wear good clothes, and enjoy certain honors in daily intercourse. The tribal magnates, who had long been excluded from the power which they believed to be their due, were therefore attracted to him, while Magnus repelled them by his haughtiness and avarice.

For three years the two rivals kept the peace; but the fourth winter after their accession, Magnus began to collect troops, and attacked Harold at Fyrileiv (1134) in Viken, winning a great victory. He was so elated at his success that, contrary to the advice of the liegemen, he dismissed his army and betook himself to Bergen, where he lived riotously, paying no heed to Harold's movements. The latter, in the meanwhile, had found a refuge in Denmark, and had received the province of Halland in fief. He soon gathered a sufficient force to invade Norway, and as he sailed northward to Bergen, he gained many adherents in the coast-shires. Magnus, when he heard of his approach, lost his head completely, rejected the counsel of his friend, Sigurd Sigurdsson, and contented himself with scattering about the city a kind of sharp, iron "foot-hooks," which in the end only injured his own men, and locking the harbor with iron chains, whereby he prevented his own escape, when shortly afterward the town fell into his enemy's hands. Most of his men then abandoned him, while he himself, with his faithful friend, Ivar Assersson, remained on his ship, until it was boarded by Harold's men.

It is scarcely an excuse for Harold Gille to say, that his friends induced him to commit the atrocity, of which he was now guilty. He did not content himself with putting Magnus' eyes out, but he cut off one of his legs and subjected him to another still more revolting mutilation. Ivar Assersson, who strikingly resembled King Magnus, was asked whether he would now care to resemble him; and the brave man answered unflinchingly that he would, whereupon he too was blinded. The miserable Magnus was now dressed in a monk's garb and shut up in the monastery of Nidarholm. Bishop Reinald, who was suspected of having the royal treasures in his keeping, was hanged because he would not reveal their hiding-place.

These misdeeds did not long remain unavenged. In the summer of 1136 came a man, named Sigurd, to Norway, who also claimed to be a son of Magnus Barefoot. Sigurd was a man of great intelligence, courage, and ambition; and in those respects, at least, a much worthier pretender than the weak, vicious Harold Gille. He had led a very adventurous life, played an important role in the feuds between the Earls of the Orkneys, visited Rome and the Holy Land, and bathed in the Jordan. The ability of Harold Hard-Ruler and the restless and enterprising spirit of Magnus Barefoot seemed to be united in him. His mother, Thora Saxe's-Daughter, is said to have kept the secret of his paternity from him until he was grown, because Magnus Barefoot had had a child by her sister, and a sense of shame had therefore kept her silent. As a boy, Sigurd had an ungovernable disposition, and in order to tame his wildness, his foster-father had him educated and consecrated to the church. When he finally kicked through the traces, he was therefore called Sigurd Slembedegn, _i.e._, the Bad Priest.

On his return to Norway in 1136 Sigurd went to Harold Gille, after having procured a safe-conduct, and announced his origin. There was now a chance for Harold to return the generosity, which Sigurd the Crusader had shown to him when he came, as a poor and unknown youth from Ireland, and proclaimed himself heir to the throne of Norway. But, although Sigurd Slembedegn could bring apparently satisfactory proof of the truth of his assertion, Harold was perhaps, on this account, only the more afraid of him. His advisers among the liegemen who were now governing without restraint, in the king's name, had cause to fear a man like Sigurd who would make short work of their pretensions. They therefore advised the king to rid himself of the new aspirant to the throne, by fair means or foul. On the pretence of punishing him for his alleged participation in a slaying, Harold made an attempt to capture him; but Sigurd escaped by swimming, and returned the king's breach of faith by killing him in the house of his mistress, Thora Guttorm's-Daughter. He then called the citizens of Bergen together, and, standing upon his ship, avowed the murder and asked them to make him their king. Contrary to his expectation, however, a great indignation was aroused against him, and the liegemen artfully fanned the excitement, until it was no longer safe for him to remain in the city. "If thou art the son of King Magnus," the citizens said, "then it is thy brother whom thou hast assassinated." And they forthwith outlawed the regicide and all his adherents. Sigurd fled in haste northward on his ships and arrived in Nordhoerdland. Harold Gille was thirty-two years old, when he was slain. He was one of the most unworthy kings that ever disgraced the throne of Norway. It was a short while before his death (1136) that the Wends, under their prince, Ratibor, sacked and burned the flourishing town of Konghelle, which Sigurd the Crusader had enlarged and beautified.