Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 1.djvu/149

 OLAF TRYGGVESON 85 made court visits to King Ethelred ; one visit to him at Andover of a very seri- ous nature. By Elphegus, as we can discover, he was introduced into the real depths of the Christian faith. Elphegus, with due solemnity of apparatus, in presence of the king, at Andover baptized Olaf anew, and to him Olaf engaged that he would never plunder in England any more ; which promise, too, he kept. In fact, not long after, Svein's conquest of England being in an evidently for- ward state, Tryggveson (having made, withal, a great English or Irish marriage, a dowager princess, who had voluntarily fallen in love with him, see Snorro for this fine romantic fact !) mainly resided in our island for two or three years, or else in Dublin, in the precincts of the Danish Court there in the Sister Isle. Accordingly it was in Dublin, as above noted, that Hakon's spy found him ; and from the Liffey that his squadron sailed, through the Hebrides, through the Ork- neys, plundering and baptizing in their strange way, toward such success as we have seen.* Tryggveson made a stout, and, in effect, victorious and glorious struggle for himself as king. Daily and hourly vigilant to do so, often enough by soft and even merry methods, for he was a witty, jocund man, and had a fine ringing laugh in him, and clear pregnant words ever ready, or if soft methods would not serve, then by hard, and even hardest, he put clown a great deal of miscel- laneous anarchy in Norway ; was especially busy against heathenism (devil-wor- ship and its rites) : this, indeed, may be called the focus and heart of all his royal endeavor in Norway, and of all the troubles he now had with his people there. For this was a serious, vital, all-comprehending matter : devil-worship, a thing not to be tolerated one moment longer than you could by any method help! Olaf's success was intermittent, of varying complexion; but his effort, swift or slow, was strong and continual ; and on the whole he did succeed. Take a sample or two of that wonderful conversion process : At one of his first Things he found the Bonders all assembled in arms ; reso- lute to the death seemingly, against his proposal and him. Tryggveson said little; waited impassive, "What your reasons are, good men?" One zealous Bonder started up in passionate parliamentary eloquence ; but after a sentence or two broke down ; one, and then another, and still another, and remained all three staring in open-mouthed silence there ! The peasant-proprietors accepted the phenomenon as ludicrous, perhaps partly as miraculous withal, and consented to baptism this time. On another occasion of a Thing, which had assembled near some heathen temple to meet him, temple where Hakon Jarl had done much repairing, and set up many idol figures and sumptuous ornaments, regardless of expense, espe- cially a very big and splendid Thor, with massive gold collar round the neck of him, not the like of it in Norway, King Tryggveson was clamorously invited by the spy, Olaf did sail with his fleet for Norway, found the people there in unexpected rebellion against Hakon's tyranny, set himself at their head, easily overthrew the king, executed him amid general rejoicing and established himself upon the throne.
 * Hakon, now King of Norway, sent a spy to learn if Olaf thought of regaining his inheritance. Guided