Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway

100. FALL OF KING HARALD GODWINSON.

King Harald Godwinson gave King Harald Sigurdson's son Olaf leave to go away, with the men who had followed him and had not fallen in battle; but he himself turned round with his army to go south, for he had heard that William the Bastard was overwhelming the south of England with a vast army, and was subduing the country for himself. With King Harald went his brothers Svein and Gyrd, and Earl Valthiof. King Harald and Earl William met each other south in England at Helsingja-port (Hastings). There was a great battle in which King Harald and his brother Earl Gyrd and a great part of his men fell. This was the nineteenth day after the fall of King Harald Sigurdson. Harald's brother, Earl Valthiof, escaped by flight, and towards evening fell in with a division of William's people, consisting of 100 men; and when they saw Earl Valthiof's troop they fled to a wood. Earl Valthiof set fire to the wood, and they were all burnt. So says Thorkel Skallason in Valthiof's ballad:—

     "Earl Valthiof the brave
     His foes a warming gave:
     Within the blazing grove
     A hundred men he drove.
     The wolf will soon return,
     And the witch's horse will burn
     Her sharp claws in the ash,
     To taste the Frenchman's flesh."