Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway

32. HARALD AND EINAR RECONCILED.

King Harald now ordered a levy, and gathered a great force, with which he proceeded westward to Orkney; and when Earl Einar heard that King Harald was come, he fled over to Caithness. He made the following verses on this occasion:—

     "Many a bearded man must roam,
     An exile from his house and home,
     For cow or horse; but Halfdan's gore
     Is red on Rinansey's wild shore.
     A nobler deed—on Harald's shield
     The arm of one who ne'er will yield
     Has left a scar.  Let peasants dread
     The vengeance of the Norsemen's head:
     I reck not of his wrath, but sing,
     'Do thy worst!—I defy thee, king!—'"

Men and messages, however, passed between the king and the earl, and at last it came to a conference; and when they met the earl submitted the case altogether to the king's decision, and the king condemned the earl Einar and the Orkney people to pay a fine of sixty marks of gold. As the bondes thought this was too heavy for them to pay, the earl offered to pay the whole if they would surrender their udal lands to him. This they all agreed to do: the poor because they had but little pieces of land; the rich because they could redeem their udal rights again when they liked. Thus the earl paid the whole fine to the king, who returned in harvest to Norway. The earls for a long time afterwards possessed all the udal lands in Orkney, until Sigurd son of Hlodver gave back the udal rights.