Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway

4. KING OLAF'S WAR EXPEDITION.

Olaf Haraldson was twelve years old when he, for the first time, went on board a ship of war (A.D. 1007). His mother Asta got Hrane, who was called the foster-father of kings, to command a ship of war and take Olaf under his charge; for Hrane had often been on war expeditions. When Olaf in this way got a ship and men, the crew gave him the title of king; for it was the custom that those commanders of troops who were of kingly descent, on going out upon a viking cruise, received the title of king immediately although they had no land or kingdom. Hrane sat at the helm; and some say that Olaf himself was but a common rower, although he was king of the men-at-arms. They steered east along the land, and came first to Denmark. So says Ottar Svarte, in his lay which he made about King Olaf:—

     "Young was the king when from his home
     He first began in ships to roam,
     His ocean-steed to ride
     To Denmark o'er the tide.
     Well exercised art thou in truth—
     In manhood's earnest work, brave youth!
     Out from the distant north
     Mighty hast thou come forth."

Towards autumn he sailed eastward to the Swedish dominions, and there harried and burnt all the country round; for he thought he had good cause of hostility against the Swedes, as they killed his father Harald. Ottar Svarte says distinctly that he came from the east, out by way of Denmark:—

     "Thy ship from shore to shore,
     With many a well-plied car,
     Across the Baltic foam is dancing.—
     Shields, and spears, and helms glancing!
     Hoist high the swelling sail
     To catch the freshening gale!
     There's food for the raven-flight
     Where thy sail-winged ship shall light;
          Thy landing-tread
          The people dread;
     And the wolf howls for a feast
     On the shore-side in the east."