ABSTRACT

In the middle of the tenth century Denmark, under that restless and ambitious king, Harald Gormsson, was chief of the northern powers. Late in December, accordingly, with a fleet of sixty magnificent long-ships they sailed to Norway in the hopes of surprising Haakon, and after making their way plundering up the west coast they came at length to Hareidland in Sondmor, where they were told by a Norwegian farmer the gratifying news that Haakon, accompanied by only one or two ships, lay in the neighbouring Jorundfjord. In the Gulf of Danzig and along the coast of East Prussia the Swedes were jealous rivals of the Danes, but in the second half of the ninth century when the Englishman Wulfstan made his celebrated voyage to Truso near Elbing, this famous mart was in the undisputed possession of the native folk.