Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/109

 KING OLAF THE THICK-SET^S VIKING DAYS. 99 the most that are going even now, for a high and deep young soul. His first distinguished expedition was to Sweden : natural to go thither first, to avenge his poor father's death, were it nothing more. Which he did, the Skalds say, in a distinguished manner ; making vic- torious and handsome battle for himself, in entering MsDlare Lake ; and in getting out of it again, after being frozen there all winter, showing still more surprising, almost miraculous contrivance and dex- terity. This was the first of his glorious victories ; of which the Skalds reckon up some fourteen or thirteen very glorious indeed, mostly in the Western and Southern countries, most of all in England ; till the name of Olaf Haraldson became quite famous in the Yiking and strategic world. He seems really to have learned the secrets of his trade, and to have been, then and afterwards, for vigilance, contrivance, valour, and promptitude of execution, a superior fighter. Several exploits recorded of him betoken, in simple forms, what may be called a military genius. The principal, and to us the alone interesting, of his exploits seem to have lain in England, and, what h2