Our journey through Egil's Saga continues with chapters 7-15. This time, we're following the meteoric rise of Thorolf Kveldulfsson. Against his father's better judgment, Thorolf makes his way to the court of King Harald soon-to-be Fairhair. It's no surprise to anyone when Thorolf distinguishes himself and becomes Harald's most trusted and successful follower. But like Icarus, Harald flies too close to the sun. With all his success, he's managed to gather extensive landholdings, abundant wealth, and a lot of followers. Before long, rivals at court are working to undermine him and sully his good name with King Harald. Who are these rivals? What cause do they have to hate this paragon of Norwegian virtue? And will King Harald fall under their spell? There's only one way to find out!

This episode includes the famous and decisive Battle of Hafrsfjord, where King Harald vanquishes his enemies and unites Norway (at least a significant portion of it) under a single crown (or so legendary history would have us believe). The battle places Thorolf, Olvir Hump, Eyvind Lamb, and their new fried Bard Brynjolfsson at the prow of King Harald's ship. We've covered this battle before, but never from this perspective. Perhaps you'll encounter a familiar face on the enemy side if you pay attention.

Sverd i Fjell monument in Stavanger, Norway

If you'd like to dive into the scholarship used to prepare this and other Egil's Saga episodes, visit the bibliography page on our blog site.

Thanks again to Matt Smith for another original illustration. If you enjoy Matt's work for Saga Thing, you'll want to keep up with his latest doodles, drawings, and projects on Twitter.

Music Credits:

Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Summary Music - "April Showers" by Eddie Elkins' Orchestra

Preview Music - "Black Vortex" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/