# The North Star/Chapter 2

II THE JOMSVIKINGS
Jomsborg, which sits picturesquely on the Island, near the mouth of the rushing Oder, was, at the close of the tenth century, the stronghold of the Jomsvikings. If the ordinary Norse vikings were bold and adventurous, the piratical Jomsvikings were even greater adventurers. Here on their Island, they gathered; bound by stern oaths to their chief, Earl Sigvalde, and obeying, without questioning, their own stern laws. They loved danger and laughed at death. To women, they gave only a passing, contemptuous thought; and none of the gentler sex were ever allowed to enter the sacred precincts of Jomsborg. Such of the Jomsvikings as claimed any feminine association, wives or mothers or sisters, secluded them on the mainland; and none ever dared allow the profanation of a female foot upon their stronghold. The chief of the Jomsvikings, Earl Sigvalde, had at Nidaros a gentle, devoted wife, and a peaceful, well-ordered home, very different from the tumultuous surroundings of his wild realm on the banks of the Oder. The Lady Aastrid, the wife of Earl Sigvalde, was of the same name and was a kinswoman of the mother of the wandering King Olaf. ​After the ascendency of Earl Haakon as overlord of Norway, Queen Aastrid had married a wealthy chief, named Lodin, and had lived quietly in the province of Viken. Aastrid, however, never ceased to work and hope for her son’s return, and in this she was greatly helped by Earl Sigvalde’s wife, who had kept alive the loyalty of the Norsemen to her kinsman. She was pledged, heart and soul, to the restoration of Olaf. In this she was not entirely controlled by family affection; for Aastrid was an earnest convert to the Christian faith; and she knew that from Olaf she could hope for every aid in spreading the religion of Christ. The Lady Aastrid was a sincere, noble woman, and her influence was all that was good in the life of the wild jarl, Sigvalde.
Earl Haakon, the overlord of Norway, at the close of the tenth century, was a man of great strength of character and yet of great weaknesses. His dread of Olaf’s return to Norway made him anxious to devise some means for his destruction; for Olaf was the legitimate king; and Earl Haakon knew that the Norsemen only waited a chance to proclaim the son of Trygge Olafsson. Earl Haakon had stubbornly refused to accept the Christian religion and clung to the old Asa faith. He was regarded with a certain awe by the Pagan contingency of Norway, because his kingship carried with it the dignity of priest of Odin and Thor, director of their sacrifices and guardian of their temples. With the advance of ​Christianity, came the abolishing of the pagan priesthood, and a consequent lowering of the kingly position.
So at this period Earl Haakon represented the departing pagan power, and Olaf the prevailing Christian influence; that marvellous combat between Christ and Thor, between the gospels of fierce hate and gentle peace, that ended in the triumph of the Cross—so beautifully sung in the old Norse sagas, under the suggestive title of “The Twilight of the Gods.”
And it was at this time, while brave Olaf, the true king, wandered afar, and fierce, false Haakon ruled in his place, that Harold of Denmark incited the Jomsvikings to rebel against the wicked jarl.