HARALD THE VIKING


Erik the Red, the most famous of all Vikings, had three sons, and once
when they were children the king came to visit Erik and passed through the
playground where the boys were playing. Leif and Biorn, the two oldest,
were building little houses and barns and were making believe that they
were full of cattle and sheep, while Harald, who was only four years old,
was sailing chips of wood in a pool. The king asked Harald what they were,
and he said, "Ships of war." King Olaf laughed and said, "The time may
come when you will command ships, my little friend." Then he asked Biorn
what he would like best to have. "Corn-land," he said; "ten farms." "That
would yield much corn," the king replied. Then he asked Leif the same
question, and he answered, "Cows." "How many?" "So many that when they
went to the lake to be watered, they would stand close round the edge, so
that not another could pass." "That would be a large housekeeping," said
the king, and he asked the same question of Harald. "What would you like
best to have?" "Servants and followers," said the child, stoutly. "How
many would you like?" "Enough," said the child, "to eat up all the cows
and crops of my brothers at a single meal." Then the king laughed, and
said to the mother of the children, "You are bringing up a king."

As the boys grew, Leif and Harald were ever fond of roaming, while Biorn
wished to live on the farm at peace. Their sister Freydis went with the
older boys and urged them on. She was not gentle and amiable, but full of
energy and courage: she was also quarrelsome and vindictive. People said
of her that even if her brothers were all killed, yet the race of Erik the
Red would not end while she lived; that "she practised more of shooting
and the handling of sword and shield than of sewing or embroidering, and
that as she was able, she did evil oftener than good; and that when she