Conspiracy Theorists Aren’t Crazy

Harek, who was Hildirid’s son, whispered in the ear of King Haraldr: His trusted hersir Thorolf, hero of Havsfjord, lord of Sandnes, was a traitor. Like his father Kveldulf, he was a malcontent and rebel, and was hoarding his true fortune in secret. The king had just returned from a feast, thrown for him by Thorolf, at which he had been presented with a gift: a longship, newly carved, with its prow in the style of a dragon. It almost wasn’t so, Harek revealed. Thorolf meant to ambush you; the feast was thrown together at the very last, only when the size of the king’s retinue caught the schemers by surprise. Soon, Harek said, Thorolf would raise an army and declare himself a rival king. A dozen other courtiers attested to these facts. King Haraldr, enraged, sailed to Sandnes. There he set fire to Thorolf’s longhouse, burning his men inside, and slaughtering those who managed to break free. Thorolf himself fell in battle just a few steps from the king. His lands and duties were given to Harek and the other witnesses against him. Thorolf was remembered as a traitor and that was the story for four hundred years until the truth of Harek’s slanders were revealed by the poet Snorri Sturluson in the Egils saga Skallgrimssonar.