Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/190

 180 EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY. | ent-thinking man ; something of ruggedly strong, sin- cere and honest, with peculiarities that are amiable and even pathetic in the character and temperament of him ; as certainly, the course of life he took was of his own choosing, and peculiar enough. He happens furthermore to be, what he least of all could have chosen or expected, the last of the Haarfagr Genealogy that had any success, or much deserved any, in this world. The last of the Haarfagrs, or as good as the last ! So that, singular to say, it is in reality, for one thing only that Sigurd, after all his crusadings ^nd wonderful adventures, is memorable to us here : the advent of an Irish gentleman called * Gylle Krist' (Gil-christ, Servant of Christ), who, — not over welcome, I should think, but (unconsciously) big with the above result, — appeared in Norway, while King Sigurd was supreme. Let us explain a Httle. This Gylle Krist, the unconsciously fatal indi- vidual, who ' spoke Norse imperfectly,' declared him- self to be the natural son of whilom Magnus Bare- foot ; born to him there while engaged in that unfor- tunate * Conquest of Ireland.* "Here is my mother