Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/152

 142 EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY. the Dovrefjeld, about fifteen years, ten of them shiningly victorious. The news from Norway were naturally agitating to King Olaf ; and, in the fluctuation of events there, his purposes and prospects varied much. He some- times thought of pilgriming to Jerusalem, and a henceforth exclusively religious life ; but for most part his pious thoughts themselves gravitated towards Norway, and a stroke for his old place and task there, which he steadily considered to have been committed to him by God. Norway, by the rumours, was evidently not at rest. Jarl Hakon, under the high patronage of his uncle, had lasted there but a little while. I know not that his government was especially unpopular, nor whether he himself much remembered his broken oath. It appears, however, he had left in England a beautiful bride; and considering farther that in England only could bridal ornaments and other wedding outfit of a sufficiently royal kind be found, he set sail thither, to fetch her and them him- self. One evening of wildish-looking weather he was seen about the north-east comer of the Pentland Frith ; the night rose to be tempestuous ; Hakon or