Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/446

 Earl Hakon had ordered to be made, and which hung in the door of the temple; and then had the temple burnt. But when the bonders heard of this, they sent out a war-arrow as a token through the whole district, ordering out a warlike force, and intended to meet the king with it. In the mean time King Olaf sailed with a war-force out of the Fiord along the coast northward, intending to proceed to Halogaland, and baptize there. When he came north to the Bear Islands, he heard from Halogaland that a force was assembled there to defend the country against the king. The chiefs of this force were Harek of Thiotto, Thorer Hiort from Yaage, and Eyvind Kinnreif. Now when King Olaf heard this, he turned about and sailed southwards along the land; and when he got south of Stad proceeded at his leisure, and came early in winter all the way east to Viken.

Queen Sigrid in Sweden, who had for surname the Haughty, sat in her mansion, and during the same winter messengers went between King Olaf and Sigrid to propose his courtship to her, and she had no objection; and the matter was fully and fast resolved upon. Thereupon King Olaf sent to Queen Sigrid the great gold ring he had taken from the temple door of Lade, which was considered a distinguished ornament. The meeting for concluding the business was appointed to be in spring on the frontier, at the Gotha river. Now the ring which King Olaf had sent Queen Sigrid was highly prized by all men; yet the queen's goldsmiths, two brothers, who took the ring in their hands, and weighed it, spoke quietly to each other about it, and in a manner that made the queen call them to her, and ask "what they smiled at?" But they would not say a word, and she commanded them to say what it was they had discovered. Then they said the ring is false. Upon this she ordered the ring to be broken in pieces, and it was found to be copper inside. Then