Einarr þambarskelfir

Einar Tambaskelfer is the great Throndhjem chief whose long career bridges the saga of the kings — warrior, kingmaker, and at last the man who fetches a king home from the east. As a youth he is the famous bowman aboard Olaf Tryggvason's Long Serpent at Svolder, who, when his bow is shot through and snaps, answers the king's question with the unforgettable line that what broke was 'Norway from your hand, king.' Decades later, repenting of the rebellion against St Olaf, it is Einar who sails east to Russia to bring the boy Magnus home to be king, and becomes his foster-father and chief support — and who curtly warns Magnus, when the young king raises Svein Ulfsson too high, 'too great an earl, my foster-son.' Einar is the saga's image of the durable great chief — the bowman of Svolder grown into the elder statesman who fetches and counsels kings, his blunt wisdom echoing across reigns.