Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/200

 190 EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY. same could not, nor would not be endured any- longer ! And, by tbeir Sverrir, strange to say, they did attain a kind of permanent success ; and, from being a dismal laughing-stock in Norway, came to be important, and for a time all-important tbere. Their opposition nicknames, ' Baglers (from Bagall, baculus, bishop's staff; Bishop Nicholas being chief Leader),' ' Gold-legs/ and the like obscure terms (for there was still a considerable course of counter-fighting ahead, and especially of counter-nick-naming), I take to have meant in Norse prefigurement seven centuries ago, * bloated Aristocracy,' * tyrannous JBoiirgeoisie/ — till, in the next century, these rents were closed again ! — King Sverrir, not himself bred to comb-making, had, in his fifth year, gone to an uncle. Bishop in the Faroe Islands ; and got some considerable educa- tion from him, with a view to Priesthood on the part of Sverrir. But, iiot liking that career, Sverrir had fled and smuggled himself over to the Birkebeins; who, noticing the learned tongue, and other miraculous qualities of the man, proposed to make him Captain of them; and even threatened to kill