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97 Läsebok. N:o 77 — 78.
King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders, who was
a vassal of Harold Hardrada, King of Norway. This brother,
and this Norwegian King, joining their forces against
England, with Duke William’s help, won a fight in which the
English were commanded by two nobles; and then besieged
lork. Harold, who was waiting for the Normans on the
coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to Stamford Bridge
upon the river Derwent to give them instant battle.
He found them drawn up in a hollow circle, marked out
by the shining spears, Riding round this circle at a distance,
to survey it, he saw a brave figure on horseback, in a blue
mantle and a bright helmet, whose horse suddenly stumbled
and threw him.
»Who is that man who has fallen?» Harold asked of
one of his captains.
»The King of Norway», he replied.
»He is a tall and stately king», said Harold, »but his
end is near».
He added in a little while, »Go yonder to my brother,
and tell him, if he withdraw his troops, he shall be Earl of
Northumberland, and rich and powerful in England».
The captain röde away and gave the message.
»What will he give to my friend the King of Norway ?»
asked the brother.
»Seven feet of earth for a grave», replied the captain.
»No more?» returned the brother, with a smile.
»The King of Norway being a tall man, perhaps a little
more», replied the captain.
»Ride back!» said the brother, »and tell King Harold to
make ready for the fight!»
He did so, very soon. And such a fight King Harold
led against that force, that his brother and the Norwegian
King, and every chief of note in all their host, except the
Norwegian King’s son, Olave, to whom he gave honourable
dismissal, were left dead upon the field. The victorious
army marched to York. As King Harold sat there at the
feast, in the midst of all his company, a stir was heard at
the doors; and messengers all covered with mire from riding
far and fast through broken ground came hurrying in, to
report that the Normans had landed in England.
The intelligence was true. They had been tossed about
by contrary winds, and some of their ships had been wrecked.
A part of their own shore, to which they had been driven
back, was strewn with Norman bodies. But they had once
more made sail, led by the Duke’s own galley, a present
from his wife, upon the prow whereof the figure of a
golden boy stood pointing towards England. By day, the
banner of the three Lions of Normandy, the diverse coloured
7
Löfving: Eng. läsebok. 1
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