Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/73

 REIGN OF OLAF TRYGGVESON. 63 succeed. Take a sample or two of that wonderful conversion process : At one of his first Things he found the Bonders all assemhled in arms ; resolute 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; hut 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 orna- ments, regardless of expense, especially a very big and splendid Thor, with massive gold collar round the neck of him, not the like of it in Norway, — King Olaf Tryggveson was clamorously invited by the Bonders to step in there, enlighten his eyes, and partake of