The Kings of Norway
Magnus Barefoot — the Last Viking King
The peace-king's restless son
Magnus came to the throne as the son of Olaf Kyrre, under whom Norway had known a long generation of unbroken peace — and he could not abide it.[1] Where his father had built towns and kept the country quiet, Magnus burned to win glory abroad in the old way, and within a year of taking the crown he was fitting out for war.
He is the saga's great throwback — a viking-king born two generations too late, in a Norway that had settled into law and trade. The whole journey is the story of a man imposing the heroic age on a country that had moved past it. It gives Heimskringla one last burst of pure viking adventure — sea-roving, island-conquest, dazzling raids — before the kingdom's history turns, with his crusading son, toward Christendom and the wider Christian world.
The source text · 1
Magnus, King Olaf's son, was, immediately after King Olaf's death, proclaimed at Viken king of all Norway; but the Upland people, on hearing of King Olaf's death, chose Hakon, Thorer's foster-son, a cousin of King Magnus, as king. Thereupon Hakon and Thorer went north to the Throndhjem country, and when they came to Nidaros they summoned the Eyrathing; and at that Thing Hakon desired the bondes to give him the kingly title, which was agreed to, and the Throndhjem people proclaimed him king of half of Norway, as his father, King Magnus, had been before. Hakon relieved the Throndhjem people of all harbour duties, and gave them many other privileges. He did away with Yule-gifts, and gained by this the good-will of all the Throndhjem people. Thereafter Hakon formed a court, and then proceeded to the Uplands, where he gave the Upland people the same privileges as the Throndhjem people; so that they also were perfectly well affected to him, and were his friends. The people in Throndhjem sang this ballad about him: --— heimskringla
Magnus, Olaf Kyrre's son, proclaimed king of all Norway (Laing).
Out into the West sea
Magnus took the finest fleet Norway could raise and sailed west, first to the Orkney Islands — where he seized the two earls, sent them east to Norway, and set his own young son Sigurd over the isles.[1] It was the opening move of a deliberate reconquest: a century after the great viking expansion had faded, a king of Norway was sailing the old sea-roads to bind the western isles to his crown again.
The saga relishes the scale and confidence of it — the whole power of Norway, its best men and ships, pouring out into the Atlantic isles. This is not a raid but an imperial progress, reasserting Norwegian rule over Orkney, the Hebrides and Man. The viking age, which the rest of Heimskringla shows fading into Christian kingship, here roars back for one generation under a king who simply willed it so.
The source text · 1
King Magnus undertook an expedition out of the country, with many fine men and a good assortment of shipping. With this armament he sailed out into the West sea, and first came to the Orkney Islands. There he took the two earls, Paul and Erlend, prisoners, and sent them east to Norway, and placed his son Sigurd as chief over the islands, leaving some counsellors to assist him. From thence King Magnus, with his followers, proceeded to the Southern Hebudes, and when he came there began to burn and lay waste the inhabited places, killing the people and plundering wherever he came with his men; and the country people fled in all directions, some into Scotland-fjord, others south to Cantire, or out to Ireland; some obtained life and safety by entering into his service. So says Bjorn Krephende: --— heimskringla
Magnus sails west, takes Orkney, sets his son Sigurd over the isles (Laing).
The locked door at Iona
Magnus came with his forces to the Holy Island — Iona, the ancient heart of Celtic Christianity — and gave peace and safety to all there.[1] The saga tells one strange small thing: the king opened the door of the little Columba's kirk, but did not go in; he instantly locked it again, and decreed that no man should ever be so bold as to enter it — and so it remained.
It is a haunting, ambiguous moment in the middle of a conqueror's progress — the rough viking-king pausing at the holiest church of the isles, looking in, and choosing reverence (or dread) over plunder. Whatever it meant, it shows the saga's Magnus as more than a marauder: a man who could stand at a sacred threshold and turn away. The conqueror sparing Iona is the western expedition's quiet, mysterious centre.
The source text · 1
King Magnus came with his forces to the Holy Island (Iona), and gave peace and safety to all men there. It is told that the king opened the door of the little Columb's Kirk there, but did not go in, but instantly locked the door again, and said that no man should be so bold as to go into that church hereafter; which has been the case ever since. From thence King Magnus sailed to Islay, where he plundered and burnt; and when he had taken that country he proceeded south around Cantire, marauding on both sides in Scotland and Ireland, and advanced with his foray to Man, where he plundered. So says Bjorn Krephende: --— heimskringla
Magnus opens and re-locks Columba's kirk at Iona, sparing it (Laing).
The battle of Anglesey Sound
Magnus pressed south, farther than any king of Norway before him, all the way to Wales — and at the Sound of Anglesey a Welsh-Norman army met him, led by two earls, Hugh the Brave and Hugh the Stout.[1] In the sea-fight Magnus drew his bow against Hugh the Brave, who was armoured head to foot with nothing bare — until an arrow found the one gap, beside his eye, and dropped him; and the saga says it was Magnus's own shaft, or another's beside him.
Magnus won, and took Anglesey — and the saga marks the moment precisely: this was the farthest south the kings of Norway had ever extended their rule.[2] It is the high-water mark of the whole viking expansion, reached not in the ninth century but at the very end, by this one anachronistic king. From a turf-farm island in the North Atlantic, Norwegian power touched the coast of Wales — and would never reach so far again.
The source text · 2
Afterwards King Magnus sailed to Wales; and when he came to the sound of Anglesey there came against him an army from Wales, which was led by two earls -- Hugo the brave, and Hugo the Stout. They began immediately to give battle, and there was a severe conflict. King Magnus shot with the bow; but Huge the Brave was all over in armour, so that nothing was bare about him excepting one eye. King Magnus let fly an arrow at him, as also did a Halogaland man who was beside the king. They both shot at once. The one shaft hit the nose-screen of the helmet, which was bent by it to one side, and the other arrow hit the earl's eye, and went through his head; and that was found to be the king's. Earl Huge fell, and the Britons fled with the loss of many people. So says Bjorn Krephende: --— heimskringla
Magnus's arrow finds the one gap in Hugh the Brave's armour at Anglesey (Laing).
King Magnus gained the victory in this battle, and then took Anglesey Isle, which was the farthest south the Norway kings of former days had ever extended their rule. Anglesey is a third part of Wales. After this battle King Magnus turned back with his fleet, and came first to Scotland. Then men went between the Scottish king, Melkolm and King Magnus, and a peace was made between them; so that all the islands lying west of Scotland, between which and the mainland he could pass in a vessel with her rudder shipped, should be held to belong to the king of Norway. Now when King Magnus came north to Cantire, he had a skiff drawn over the strand at Cantire, and shipped the rudder of it. The king himself sat in the stern-sheets, and held the tiller; and thus he appropriated to himself the land that lay on the farboard side. Cantire is a great district, better than the best of the southern isles of the Hebudes, excepting Man; and there is a small neck of land between it and the mainland of Scotland, over which longships are often drawn.— heimskringla
Magnus takes Anglesey — the farthest south the Norse kings ever ruled.
Every island he could sail around
Turning back to Scotland, Magnus made a treaty with King Malcolm: he should have all the islands lying west of Scotland between which and the mainland he could pass in a vessel with the rudder shipped.[1] His men then rowed through every fjord and around every isle, inhabited and waste, taking possession of the whole western seaboard for the crown of Norway.
It is a wonderfully precise, lawyerly clause for a viking conquest — the boundary of an empire defined by where a longship can float. The treaty turned raw conquest into recognised right, and gave Norway a legal title to the Hebrides that lasted nearly two centuries. The viking-king, for all his sword-work, knew that a kingdom is held by agreement as much as by arms — and he had the cunning to get his conquest written down.
The source text · 1
King Magnus gained the victory in this battle, and then took Anglesey Isle, which was the farthest south the Norway kings of former days had ever extended their rule. Anglesey is a third part of Wales. After this battle King Magnus turned back with his fleet, and came first to Scotland. Then men went between the Scottish king, Melkolm and King Magnus, and a peace was made between them; so that all the islands lying west of Scotland, between which and the mainland he could pass in a vessel with her rudder shipped, should be held to belong to the king of Norway. Now when King Magnus came north to Cantire, he had a skiff drawn over the strand at Cantire, and shipped the rudder of it. The king himself sat in the stern-sheets, and held the tiller; and thus he appropriated to himself the land that lay on the farboard side. Cantire is a great district, better than the best of the southern isles of the Hebudes, excepting Man; and there is a small neck of land between it and the mainland of Scotland, over which longships are often drawn.— heimskringla
Malcolm's treaty: all islands Magnus could sail around are his (Laing).
The ship dragged over Kintyre
And then the most famous exploit of all, the legend that grew from that treaty clause. The long peninsula of Kintyre was joined to the mainland only by a narrow neck of land — but Magnus, determined to claim it as an island, had a ship hauled across the isthmus with its sail set, while he himself sat at the helm holding the tiller, so that he 'sailed' over the land.[1] By the letter of the treaty — a vessel passing with the rudder shipped — Kintyre was now an island, and his.
It is the perfect Magnus story: audacious, literal-minded, half a joke and half deadly serious, and entirely about a king bending the world to his will. The image of the warrior-king riding a dragged ship over dry land to win a peninsula is one of the most memorable in all the kings' sagas — the viking spirit reduced to a single brilliant, absurd, triumphant gesture. He took Kintyre, the saga says, because it was a better land than the best of the Hebrides.
The source text · 1
King Magnus was all the winter in the southern isles, and his men went over all the fjords of Scotland, rowing within all the inhabited and uninhabited isles, and took possession for the king of Norway of all the islands west of Scotland. King Magnus contracted in marriage his son Sigurd to Biadmynia, King Myrkjartan's daughter. Myrkjartan was a son of the Irish king Thialfe, and ruled over Connaught. The summer after, King Magnus, with his fleet, returned east to Norway. Earl Erland died of sickness at Nidaros, and is buried there; and Earl Paul died in Bergen.— heimskringla
Magnus has his ship drawn across the Kintyre isthmus to claim it as an island (Laing).
Barefoot
Magnus and his men came home from the western isles so taken with the dress of the Gaelic lands that they kept it — short tunics and cloaks, and bare legs in the Highland manner — and from this the king got the by-name the sagas know him by: Barefoot, or Bare-legs.[1] The king of Norway walking his own court in a Hebridean kilt.
It is a small, telling detail of how deeply the western voyages marked him. Magnus did not merely conquer the isles; he was conquered, a little, by them — bringing their fashion home and wearing it as a badge. The by-name fixes him forever as the king who went west and came back changed, the most Gaelic-touched of all Norway's rulers. In a chronicle of grand deeds, the saga remembers him partly by his bare legs.
The source text · 1
King Magnus was all the winter in the southern isles, and his men went over all the fjords of Scotland, rowing within all the inhabited and uninhabited isles, and took possession for the king of Norway of all the islands west of Scotland. King Magnus contracted in marriage his son Sigurd to Biadmynia, King Myrkjartan's daughter. Myrkjartan was a son of the Irish king Thialfe, and ruled over Connaught. The summer after, King Magnus, with his fleet, returned east to Norway. Earl Erland died of sickness at Nidaros, and is buried there; and Earl Paul died in Bergen.— heimskringla
Magnus and his men adopt Gaelic dress; hence 'Barefoot' (Laing).
The second expedition
After nine years as king, Magnus could not stay still. He equipped himself again to go out of the country with a great force, taking with him the most powerful men of Norway, and sailed once more into the West sea.[1] He bound his line to the isles by betrothing his son Sigurd to the daughter of the Irish king of Connaught, and made alliance and war along the Irish coasts.
The saga lets a shadow fall here. The first expedition had been a triumph; the second is heavier, more entangled, drawn deep into the politics and the bogs of Ireland. A king who had everything to lose was going back to the dangerous edge of the world one more time — because, as he would say, that was what a king was for. The reader, who knows how it ends, watches him sail toward it.
The source text · 1
When King Magnus had been nine years king of Norway (A.D. 1094-1102), he equipped himself to go out of the country with a great force. He sailed out into the West sea with the finest men who could be got in Norway. All the powerful men of the country followed him; such as Sigurd Hranason, Vidkun Jonson, Dag Eilifson, Serk of Sogn, Eyvind Olboge, the king's marshal Ulf Hranason, brother of Sigurd, and many other great men. With all this armament the king sailed west to the Orkney Islands, from whence he took with him Earl Erlend's sons, Magnus and Erling, and then sailed to the southern Hebudes. But as he lay under the Scotch land, Magnus Erlendson ran away in the night from the king's ship, swam to the shore, escaped into the woods, and came at last to the Scotch king's court. King Magnus sailed to Ireland with his fleet, and plundered there. King Myrkjartan came to his assistance, and they conquered a great part of the country, both Dublin and Dyflinnarskire (Dublin shire). King Magnus was in winter (A.D. 1102) up in Connaught with King Myrkjartan, but set men to defend the country he had taken. Towards spring both kings went westward with their army all the way to Ulster, where they had many battles, subdued the country, and had conquered the greatest part of Ulster when Myrkjartan returned home to Connaught.— heimskringla
After nine years Magnus equips a second great western expedition (Laing).
Ambushed in the bog
In Ireland, near Ulster, Magnus's men went inland to gather cattle, and the Irish fell on them in a boggy, broken country where the heavy-armed Norwegians could not keep their footing.[1] The Irish shot from all sides, and though they fell in crowds, two came forward for every one that dropped; Magnus, drawn into the trap, found his retreat to the ships cut off across the mire.
It is the viking-king's nightmare end — not a clean sea-battle but a confused slaughter in a marsh, his armour and discipline worthless on the soft ground, the enemy endless. The saga has been building toward this since he first refused his father's peace; the man who lived for the bold expedition is caught at last by the country he came to raid, in exactly the kind of place where his strengths counted for nothing.
The source text · 1
When the dust-cloud approached nearer they knew their own men, who were driving the cattle. The Irish king had been faithful to the promises he had given the king, and had sent them. Thereupon they all turned towards the ships, and it was mid-day. When they came to the mires they went but slowly over the boggy places; and then the Irish started up on every side against them from every bushy point of land, and the battle began instantly. The Northmen were going divided in various heaps, so that many of them fell.— heimskringla
The Irish ambush Magnus's men in a boggy country, shooting from all sides (Laing).
Thus we break spear-shafts
Magnus was pierced by a spear through both thighs above the knees. He took hold of the shaft between his legs, broke it in two, and said: 'Thus we break spear-shafts, my lads; let us go briskly on — nothing hurts me.'[1] A moment later an Irish axe caught him in the neck, and that was his death-wound.
The breaking of the spear is the saga's last great gesture of the viking spirit — the wounded king making a defiant joke of his own injury, urging his men on, refusing to the last to be anything but undaunted. It is brave and a little foolish and entirely of a piece with the man. He died as he had lived: pressing forward, scornful of danger, on a foreign shore, far from the quiet kingdom he could not bear to rule in peace.
The source text · 1
King Magnus received a wound, being pierced by a spear through both thighs above the knees. The king laid hold of the shaft between his legs, broke the spear in two, and said, "Thus we break spear-shafts, my lads; let us go briskly on. Nothing hurts me." A little after King Magnus was struck in the neck with an Irish axe, and this was his death-wound. Then those who were behind fled. Vidkun Jonson instantly killed the man who had given the king his death-wound, and fled, after having received three wounds; but brought the king's banner and the sword Legbit to the ships. Vidkun was the last man who fled; the other next to him was Sigurd Hranason, and the third before him, Dag Eilifson. There fell with King Magnus, Eyvind Olboge, Ulf Hranason, and many other great people. Many of the Northmen fell, but many more of the Irish. The Northmen who escaped sailed away immediately in autumn. Erling, Earl Erlend's'son, fell with King Magnus in Ireland; but the men who fled from Ireland came to the Orkney Islands. Now when King Sigurd heard that his father had fallen, he set off immediately, leaving the Irish king's daughter behind, and proceeded in autumn with the whole fleet directly to Norway.— heimskringla
Magnus breaks the spear in his thighs, then is killed by an Irish axe (Laing).
Made for honour, not long life
Magnus Barefoot was barely thirty when he fell, having been king ten years. His people had been heavily burdened by his levies and thought him harsh, the saga says — but his men loved him; and the words that survived him were these, spoken when friends warned that he went too recklessly on his expeditions: 'The kings are made for honour, not for long life.'[1]
It is one of the great epitaphs of the whole corpus, and it explains him entirely. Magnus chose glory over length of days, the bold voyage over the safe throne, and got exactly the death his creed demanded. He is the last king in Heimskringla to belong wholly to the viking age — and the bridge to what comes after, for his son is Sigurd the Crusader, who would take the same restless energy not west to raid the isles but south to Jerusalem and the Christian world. The last viking father of the first crusader-king.
The source text · 1
King Magnus was ten years king of Norway (A.D. 1094-1105), and in his days there was good peace kept within the country; but the people were sorely oppressed with levies. King Magnus was beloved by his men, but the bondes thought him harsh. The words have been transmitted from him that he said when his friends observed that he proceeded incautiously when he was on his expeditions abroad, -- "The kings are made for honour, not for long life." King Magnus was nearly thirty years of age when he fell. Vidkun did not fly until he had killed the man who gave the king his mortal wound, and for this cause King Magnus's sons had him in the most affectionate regard.— heimskringla
Magnus's epitaph: 'kings are made for honour, not for long life' (Laing).
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