*

now. When the king saw where Thorer Hiort, who was quicker on foot than any man, was running to, he ran after him with his dog Vige. The king said, "Vige! Vige! catch the deer." Vige ran straight in upon him; on which Thorer halted, and the king threw a spear at him. Thorer struck with his sword at the dog, and gave him a great wound; but at the same moment the king's spear flew under Thorer's arm, and went through and through him, and came out at his other side. There Thorer left his life; but Vige was carried wounded to the ships.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.-King Olaf's Voyage to Godey.

King Olaf gave life and freedom to all the men who asked it and agreed to become Christian. King Olaf sailed with his fleet northwards along the coast, and baptized all the people among whom he came; and when he came north to Salten fiord,† he intended to sail into it to look for Raud, but a dreadful tempest and storm was raging in the fiord. They lay there a whole week, in which the same weather was raging within the fiord, while without there was a fine brisk wind only, fair for proceeding north along the land.

* Hiort signifies the deer or hart.-L.

The Salten fiord is more celebrated in the north of Norway, and more dreaded, than the famous Maelstrom. It is a large fiord within ; but the throat through which the vast mass of water has to run in and out at flood and ebb is so narrow, that it makes a very heavy and dan. gerous race or roost for many miles out in the sea, especially in ebb, when the whole body of water is returning to the ocean. The stream can only be crossed during a few minutes at still water, when flood or ebb has not begun to run, unless at a great distance from the jaws of this singular gulf. Salten fjord is called by Snorre Salpti.-L.

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Then the king continued his voyage north to Omd, in Hind island, where all the people submitted to Christianity. Then the king turned about and sailed to the south again; but when he came to the north side of Salten fiord, the same tempest was blowing, and the sea ran high out from the fiord, and the same kind of storm prevailed for several days while the king was lying there. Then the king applied to Bishop Sigurd, and asked him if he knew any counsel about it; and the bishop said he would try if God would give him power to conquer these arts of the Devil.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.—Of Bishop Sigurd, and of Raud's being Tortured.

Bishop Sigurd took all his mass robes and went forward to the bow of the king's ship; ordered tapers to be lighted, and incense to be brought out. Then he set the crucifix upon the stem of the vessel, read the Evangelist and many prayers, besprinkled the whole ship with holy water, and then ordered the ship-tent to be stowed away, and to row into the fiord. The king ordered all the other ships to follow him. Now when all was ready on board the Crane to row, she went into the fiord without the rowers finding any wind; and the sea was curled about their keel track like as in a calm, so quiet and still was the water; yet on each side of them the waves were lashing up so high that they hid the sight of the mountains. And so the one ship followed the other in the smooth sea track; and they proceeded

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this way the whole day and night, until they reached Godey. Now when they came to Raud's house his great ship, the dragon, was afloat close to the land. King Olaf went up to the house immediately with his people; made an attack on the loft in which Raud was sleeping, and broke it open. The men rushed in: Raud was taken and bound, and of the people with him some were killed and some made prisoners. Then the king's men went to a lodging in which Raud's house servants slept, and killed some, bound others, and beat others. Then the king ordered Raud to be brought before him, and offered him baptism. And," says the king, "I will not take thy property from thee, but rather be thy friend, if thou wilt make thyself worthy to be so." Raud exclaimed with all his might against the proposal, saying he would never believe in Christ, and making his scoff of God. Then the king was wroth, and said Raud should die the worst of deaths. And the king ordered him to be bound to a beam of wood, with his face uppermost, and a round pin of wood to be set between his teeth to force his mouth open. Then the king ordered an adder to be stuck into the mouth of him; but the serpent would not go into his mouth, but shrunk back when Raud breathed against it. Now the king ordered a hollow branch of an angelica root to be stuck into Raud's mouth; others say the king put his horn into his mouth, and forced the serpent to go in by holding a redhot iron before the opening. So the serpent crept into the mouth of Raud and down his throat, and

gnawed its way out of his side; and thus Raud perished. King Olaf took here much gold and silver, and other property of weapons, and many sorts of precious effects; and all the men who were with Raud he either had baptized, or if they refused had them killed or tortured. Then the king took the dragon-ship which Raud had owned, and steered it himself; for it was a much larger and handsomer vessel than the Crane. In front it had a dragon's head, and aft a crook, which turned up, and ended with the figure of the dragon's tail. The carved work on each side of the stem and stern was gilded. This ship the king called the Serpent. When the sails were hoisted they represented, as it were, the dragon's wings; and the ship was the handsomest in all Norway. The islands on which Raud dwelt were called Gylling and Haring; but the whole islands together were called Godey Isles, and the current between the isles and the mainland the Godey Stream. King Olaf baptized the whole people of the fiord, and then sailed southwards along the land; and on this voyage happened much and various things, which are set down in tales and sagas, namely, how witches and evil spirits tormented his men, and sometimes himself; but we will rather write about what occurred when King Olaf made Norway Christian, or in the other countries in which he advanced Christianity. The same autumn Olaf with his fleet returned to Throndhjem, and landed at Nidaros, where he took up his winter abode. What I am now going to write about concerns the Icelanders.

of

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.—Of the Icelanders.

Kjartan Olafson, a son's son of Hoskuld, and a daughter's son of Egil Skallagrimson, came the same autumn [999]† from Iceland to Nidaros, and he was considered to be the most agreeable and hopeful man any born in Iceland. There was also Haldor,‡ a son of Gudmund of Modruveller; and Kolbein, a son of Thord, Frey's gode, and a brother's son of Brenne-Flose; together with Sverting, a son of the gode Runolf. All these were heathens; and besides them there were many more,-some men of power, others common men of no property. There came also from Iceland considerable people, who, by Thangbrand's help, had been made Christians; namely, Gissur the White, a son of Teit Ketilbiornson; and his mother was Alof, daughter of herse Bodvar, who was the son of viking Kare. Bodvar's brother was Sigurd, father of Eirik Biodaskalle, whose daughter Astrid was King Olaf's mother. Hialte Skeggjason was the name of another Iceland man, who was married to Vilborg, Gissur the White's daughter. Hialte was also a Christian; and King Olaf was very friendly to his relations Gissur and Hialte, who

* Kjartan Olafson is one of the chief characters in Laxdæla Saga. He was born about the year 980, was abroad from 996 to 1000, and fell April 9, 1002.

† 999 is a mistake made by Snorre. According to Laxdæla Saga Kjartan came to Norway in 996.

Haldor fell in the Brian battle Easter 1014.

§ Flose got his surname, Brenne, from his burning the wise Njal in

The gode Runolf was one of the most valiant defenders of heathendom. He caused the banishment of Hjalte Skeggjason.