第138章

Odd, the chief of Jather, who declared that Ring had assuredly seized his inheritance, and lamented that he harried him with continual wrongs, received Omund kindly.Ring, in the meantime, was on a roving raid in Ireland, so that Omund attacked a province without a defender.Sparing the goods of the common people, he gave the private property of Ring over to be plundered, and slew his kinsfolk; Odd also having joined his forces to Omund.Now, among all his divers and manifold deeds, he could never bring himself to attack an inferior force, remembering that he was the son of a most valiant father, and that he was bound to fight armed with courage, and not with numbers.

Meanwhile Ring had returned from roving; and when Omund heard he was back, he set to and built a vast ship, whence, as from a fortress, he could rain his missiles on the enemy.To manage this ship he enlisted Homod and Thole the rowers, the soils of Atyl the Skanian, one of whom was instructed to act as steersman, while the other was to command at the prow.Ring lacked neither skill nor.dexterity to encounter them.For he showed only a small part of his forces, and caused the enemy to be attacked on the rear.Omund, when told of his strategy by Odd, sent men to overpower those posted in ambush, telling Atyl the Skanian to encounter Ring.The order was executed with more rashness than success; and Atyl, with his power defeated and shattered, fled beaten to Skaane.Then Omund recruited his forces with the help of Odd, and drew up his fleet to fight on the open sea.

Atyl at this time had true visions of the Norwegian war in his dreams, and started on his voyage in order to make up for his flight as quickly as possible, and delighted Omund by joining him on the eve of battle.Trusting in his help, Omund began to fight with equal confidence and success.For, by fighting himself, he retrieved the victory which he had lost when his servants were engaged.Ring, wounded to the death, gazed at him with faint eyes, and, beckoning to him with his hand, as well as he could --for his voice failed him -- he besought him to be his son-in-law, saying that he would gladly meet his end if he left his daughter to such a husband.Before he could receive an answer he died.

Omund wept for his death, and gave Homod, whose trusty help he had received in the war, in marriage to one of the daughters of Ring, taking the other himself.

At the same time the amazon Rusla, whose prowess in warfare exceeded the spirit of a woman, had many fights in Norway with her brother, Thrond, for the sovereignty.She could not endure that Omund rule over the Norwegians, and she had declared war against all the subjects of the Danes.Omund, when he heard of this, commissioned his most active men to suppress the rising.

Rusla conquered them, and, waxing haughty on her triumph, was seized with overweening hopes, and bent her mind upon actually acquiring the sovereignty of Denmark.She began her attack on the region of Halland, but was met by Homod and Thode, whom the king had sent over.Beaten, she retreated to her fleet, of which only thirty ships managed to escape, the rest being taken by the enemy.Thrond encountered his sister as she was eluding the Danes, but was conquered by her and stripped of his entire army;he fled over the Dovrefjeld without a single companion.Thus she, who had first yielded before the Danes, soon overcame her brother, and turned her flight into a victory.When Omund heard of this, he went back to Norway with a great fleet, first sending Homod and Thole by a short and secret way to rouse the people of Tellemark against the rule of Rusla.The end was that she was driven out of her kingdom by the commons, fled to the isles for safety, and turned her back, without a blow, upon the Danes as they came up.The king pursued her hotly, caught up her fleet on the sea, and utterly destroyed it, the enemy suffered mightily, and he won a bloodless victory and splendid spoils.But Rusla escaped with a very few ships, and rowed ploughing the waves furiously; but, while she was avoiding the Danes, she met her brother and was killed.So much more effectual for harm are dangers unsurmised; and chance sometimes makes the less alarming evil worse than that which threatens.The king gave Thrond a governorship for slaying his sister, put the rest under tribute, and returned home.

At this time Thorias (?) and Ber (Biorn), the most active of the soldiers of Rusla, were roving in Ireland; but when they heard of the death of their mistress, whom they had long ago sworn to avenge, they hotly attacked Omund, and challenged him to a duel, which it used to be accounted shameful for a king to refuse; for the fame of princes of old was reckoned more by arms than by riches.So Homod and Thole came forward, offering to meet in battle the men who had challenged the king.Omund praised them warmly, but at first declined for very shame to allow their help.

At last, hard besought by his people, he brought himself to try his fortune by the hand of another.We are told that Ber fell in this combat, while Thorias left the battle severely wounded.The king, having first cured him of his wounds, took him into his service, and made him prince (earl) over Norway.Then he sent ambassadors to exact the usual tribute from the Sclavs; these were killed, and he was even attacked in Jutland by a Sclavish force; but he overcame seven kings in a single combat, and ratified by conquest his accustomed right to tribute.