crown to the male line of Harald Haarfagre. This was the rise of the famous party of the Birkebeiner, to which we must now turn. The severities with which Erling had crushed out all resistance to his son's rule, had produced much discontent, and a number of men, mostly young, who had been driven from their homes, gradually gathered themselves together into a band. They were found mostly in Viken, where they lived in the woods and on the mountains, where they had to take refuge after their occasional forays on the bønder. They were a very ragged and unkempt body of men, and when their clothing failed them they bound round their legs and on their feet the birch bark, from whence they got the name of Birkebeiner, or birch legs, and long afterwards the name was retained and held in honour by the defenders of the ancient rights of Norway, against the encroachments of the hierarchy.* About the year 1174 they took as their chief a young man named Eystein, said to be a son of King Eystein, Inge's brother. He was generally known as Eystein Møila, the surname being probably given in derision, as it means the "little girl." With him they ranged over the land, not daring openly to attack Magnus; but in 1177 they managed to procure some ships, and determined on an audacious stroke. They came Nidaros and captured the town. was much discontent among the Thing and proclaimed Eystein as king. soon to retreat to Viken, whither the young king Magnus followed them and defeated them in a battle fought at Re, near Tønsberg, where Eystein Møila was slain and his party scattered.† quite unexpectedly on Then, as they found there people, they gathered a They had, however, * Compare the name Tory in English politics. This is the last historical event mentioned by Snorre, and concludes the Heimskringla. It seemed now as if the rule of Magnus Erlingssøn was firmly established in the land, and that an end had come, at least for a time, to internal strife, as there was no one to dispute his title to the throne. The remains of the Birkebeiner force sought refuge in Vermland with Cecilia, the daughter of Sigurd Mund (whom Erling had forced, against her will, into a marriage with Folkvid, a Swede), and appeared impotent for harm. But Magnus was not to reign unchallenged. The Birkebeiner found a new leader in the great man to whose extraordinary history we must now turn-the priest from the Faroe Islands, Sverre Sigurdssøn. CHAPTER XII. SVERRE, AND THE GREAT STRUGGLE WITH Sverre's Early Days-Comes to Norway-Forced to Lead the THE personality of Sverre Sigurdssøn is, perhaps, the most striking which we meet in the history of Norway. He was the illegitimate son of Sigurd Mund, in whose household his mother, Gunhild, had been a servant. The date of his birth is placed at 1151, the year before the visit of Cardinal Nicholas. Whether the future king first saw the light in Norway or the Faroe Islands is doubtful, but it is certain that his early days were spent in the latter place. His mother, Gunhild, married a man named Unas, who was brother to Bishop Roe, the prelate of these islands. Here Sverre grew up, passing as the son of Unas, and his quickness and intelligence attracted the attention of his supposed uncle, the bishop, who, as he was in need of native clergy, had him educated for the Church's service, and having passed through the minor orders, he was finally ordained priest about the year 1174 or 1175. Very soon after this, his mother revealed to him the secret of his paternity, and thus changed the whole current of his life. "If I am born to a crown" (said the young priest), "then shall I strive to win it, cost what it may, for without it life has no value for me." Sverre knew full well that illegitimacy was no bar to his claim, and that he alone, according to the old law of Norway, was the rightful king. He quickly made up his mind to claim what he knew to be his lawful inheritance, but he was not the man to do anything rashly or to endanger his chances of success by any premature move. Armed with a letter of introduction from Bishop Roe, to the great Archbishop Eystein, he went to Norway in order to see for himself the position of affairs, but determining for the present to conceal his identity. Arrived in the country, he saw at once that the power of Magnus and Erling was too great to be easily shaken, and that it would be quite useless to make known his claim or to present his letter to the archbishop. Instead, therefore, of going to Nidaros, he made his way to Vermland, to the house of his sister Cecilia, who received him as her brother and made him welcome. This was in the year 1177, shortly after the battle at Re, near Tønsberg, where Magnus had crushed the Birkebeiner and slain their chief Eystein Møila. The remnants of this faction had taken refuge with Cecilia, and they at once recognized in Sverre the very chief they wanted-namely, a descendant of Harald Haarfagre in the male line. The prudent Sverre, however, was very unwilling to have the leadership of this handful of defeated men thrust upon him, but the Birkebeiners would brook no refusal, and insisted on his becoming their chief. Seeing there was no help for it, he reluctantly agreed to their proposal, and taking his courage à deux mains, embarked on what appeared to be a forlorn hope. At Easter he started northwards with his small band, having obtained what help he could from his sister. He did not dare to go through the frequented parts of the country, but made his way through the forests, enduring terrible hardships from the fierce cold of the winter. Having established himself in Jæmtland, where he gathered around him a considerable body of men, he determined on a bold stroke. Moving into Trøndelagen he encamped for a time on an island in the Selbusjø, not far from Nidaros. Shortly after, with that wonderful good luck which seldom deserted him, he suddenly attacked and captured the town, and, calling a Thing, was proclaimed king by the bønder. The Trønder were always well disposed towards him, and it was only the armed power of Erling which had forced them into submission to Magnus's claim. Notwithstanding his unexpected stroke of good fortune in the capture of the town, Sverre at once saw that he was not yet able to meet Magnus and Erling in the field, and on their approach with an army to recapture Nidaros, he at once evacuated the town and betook himself to the south. The next two years Sverre went through a series of extraordinary adventures whilst he carried on a guerilla war against Magnus. Often reduced to the greatest extremities, and over and over again almost captured, he always managed to extricate himself and to astonish his foes, by appearing unexpectedly in places where they least looked for him. Through the wildest mountain districts of the west of Norway, Sverre and his men roamed, and to the present day the memory of his journeys is preserved in such names as Sverre's Skar and Sverre's Stigen, passes and paths over which a goat could scarcely travel, but by which Sverre and his men escaped from the hands of their enemies. At the end of two years spent in this way, Sverre felt himself strong enough to take the field against Magnus and Erling, and moving north again descended on Nidaros and |