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Pearsall Surname Project
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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The men
who left Norway
towards the end of the ninth century of the Christian era, were of no
savage or servile race. As we look at it now, and from another point of
view, we see that what to them was unbearable tyranny, was really a step
in the great march of civilization and progress, and that the
centralization and consolidation of the royal authority, according to
Charlemagne's system, was in time to be a blessing to the kingdoms of the
north. But to the freeman it was a curse. He fought against it as long as
he could; worsted over and over again, he renewed the struggle, and at
last, when the isolated efforts, which were the keystone of his edifice
of liberty, were fruitless, he sullenly withdrew from the field, and left
the land of his fathers, where, as he thought, no freeborn man could now
care to live. Thus there was ready at hand a large army of men, and a
great fleet of vessels, which ultimately came under the rule and sway of
the son of Rognvald when he was banished from Norway.
But before this after King Harold had subdued the whole land, he was one
day at a feast in More given by Earl Rognvald.
Then King Harold went into a bath, and had his hair dressed. Earl Rognvald now cut his hair, which had been uncut and
uncombed for ten years; and therefore the king had been called Lufa, that is, with rough matted hair. But then Earl Rognvald gave him the distinguishing name-Harold Harfager, i. e. Fair Hair;
and all who saw him agreed that there was the greatest truth in that
surname, for he had the most beautiful and abundant head of hair. Any
modern Scandinavian would however translate Lufa
by a stronger English word than rough matted hair. [The Story of the Burt
Njal translated from the Saga by Sir George Nibbe Dasant, 1906,
Editors, Rasmus B. Anderson and J. W. Buel. Heimskringla or the
Chronicles of the Kings of Norway, by Snowe Sturlason.]
King Harold
heard that the Vikings, who were in the West
Sea in winter, plundered far and
wide in the middle part of Norway; and therefore every
summer he made an expedition to search the isles and out-skerries, or uninhabited dry or half-tide rocks of a
coast, on the coast. Wheresoever the Vikings
heard of him they all took to flight, and most of them went out into the
open ocean. At last the king grew weary of this work, and therefore one
summer he sailed with his fleet right out into the West sea. First he
came to Hjaltland (Shetland), and he slew all
the Vikings who could not save themselves by flight. Then King Harold sailed
southwards, to the Orkney Islands, and
cleared them all of Vikings. Thereafter he proceeded to the Sudreys or Hebrides,
plundered there, and slew many Vikings who formerly had had men-at-arms
under them. Many a battle was fought, and King Harold was always
victorious. He then plundered far and wide in Scotland itself, and had a
battle there. When he was come westward as far as the Isle of Man, the
report of his exploits on the land had gone before him; for all the
inhabitants had fled over to Scotland, and the island was left entirely
bare both of people and goods, so that King Harold and his men made no
booty when they landed. So says Hornklofe:
The
wise, the noble king, great Harold,
Whose
hand so freely scatters gold,
Led
many a northern shield to war
Against
the town upon the shore.
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