Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/448

 Then the king proceeded to Viken, and held a Thing, at which he declared in a speech that all the men of whom it should he known to a certainty that they dealt with evil spirits, or in witchcraft, or were sorcerers, should he banished forth of the land. Thereafter the king had all the neighbourhood ransacked after such people, and called them all before him; and when they were brought to the Thing there was a man among them called Eyvind Kellda, a grandson of Rognvald Rettilbein, Harald Haarfager's son. Eyvind was a sorcerer, and particularly knowing in witchcraft. The king let all these men be seated in one room, which was well adorned, and made a great feast for them, and gave them strong drink hi plenty. Row when they were all very drunk, he ordered the house to be set on fire, and it and all the people within it were consumed, all but Eyvind Kellda, who contrived to escape by the smoke-hole in the roof. And when he had got a long way off, he met some people on the road going to the king, and he told them to tell the king that Eyvind Kellda had slipped away from the fire, and would never come again in King Olaf's power, but would carry on his arts of witchcraft as much as ever. When the people came to the king with such a message from Eyvind, the king was ill pleased that Eyvind had escaped death.

When spring came King Olaf went out to Viken, and was on visits to his great farms. He sent notice over all Viken that he would call out an army in summer, and proceed to the north parts of the country. Then he went north to Agder; and when Easter was approaching he took the road to Rogaland with 300 men, and came on Easter evening north to Augvaldsness, in Kormt Island, where an Easter feast was prepared for him. That same night came Eyvind Kellda to the island with a well-manned long-ship, of which the whole crew consisted of sor-