Harek answered: 'May I speak with permission what I please?'
'Speak,' said the king.
'This I judge,' said Harek, 'that thou wouldst not deem it to be well,
if thou, O king, heardest every one's words,
what men say when speaking their minds freely at home,
how they think that it is a tyranny thou exercisest over all people.
But the plain truth is, O king, that to rise against thee the people
lack nothing but boldness and a leader.
Nor is it wonderful in a man like Thorolf that he thinks himself
above everyone; he wants not for strength and comeliness;
he keeps a guard round him like a king;
he has wealth in plenty, even though he had but what is truly his,
but besides that he holds others' property equally at his
disposal with his own.
Thou, too, hast bestowed on him large grants,
and he had now made all ready to repay them with ill.
For this is the truth that I tell thee:
when it was learnt that thou wert coming north to
Halogaland with no more force than three hundred men,
the counsel of people here was that an army should
assemble and take thy life,
O king, and the lives of all thy force.
And Thorolf was head of these counsels,
and it was offered him that he should be king over the
Halogalanders and Naumdalesmen.
Then he went in and out of each firth and round all the islands,
and got together every man he could find and every weapon,
and it was no secret that this army was to muster
for battle against king Harold.
But the truth is, O king, that though thou hadst somewhat
less force than those who met thee,
yet the farmer folk took flight when they saw thy fleet.