Heimskringla
The oaken keel carved westward
the climbing water from Garðar.
After
that all the Svíar
aided
you, bold land-ruler.
Haraldr’s
waterlogged warship
went,
with much gold, under
the
broad sail, listing to leeward—
over the lord broke a furious tempest.
Heimskringla
“Thou shalt keep watch, therefore, in case anything happen in the night.”
Harald then went away to sleep somewhere else, and laid a billet of wood in his place. At midnight a boat rowed alongside to the ship's bulwark; a man went on board, lifted up the cloth of the tent of the bulwarks, went up, and struck in Harald's bed with a great ax, so that it stood fast in the lump of wood. The man instantly ran back to his boat again, and rowed away in the dark night, for the moon was set; but the axe remained sticking in the piece of wood as an evidence.
…
King Haraldr gave Steiger-Thorir there at the banquet a mazer bowl. It had a sliver band around it and a silver handle on top, both gilded, and was completely filled with pure silver coins. With it there were two golden rings which together weighed a mark. He also gave him his cloak, it was fine cloth dyed brown, trimmed with white fur, and promised him great honor and his friendship.
Harald
Vikings
are petty and vicious, but in the Viking world there is nothing that can’t be
settled with gold. I traded a hundred gold arm rings for half a share of the
kingdom of Norway, and when my nephew Magnus died a year later it all belonged
to me.
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