Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/216

 208 CHRONICLE OF THE saoa v, standing here in the boat-house will be so old that it will rot under its coat of tar. Here are all the houses full of wool, which is neither used nor sold. It should not be so if I were a few winters younger. Sigurd sprang up, called upon Gaut and Thord, and said he would not endure Thrand's scoffs. They went out to the house-servants, and launched the vessel upon the water, brought down a cargo, and loaded the ship. They had no want of a cargo at home, and the ves- sel's rigging was in good order, so that in a few days they w°e?e ready for sea. There were ten or twelve men in the vessel. Thoralf 's ship and theirs had the same wind, and they were generally in sight of each other. They came to the land atHerdlo* in the evening, and Sigurd with his vessel lay outside on the strand, but so°that there was not much distance between the two ships. It happened towards evening, when it was dark, that just as Thoralf and his people were preparing to go to bed, Thoralf and another went on shore for a certain purpose. When they were ready, they prepared to return on board. The man who had accompanied Thoralf related afterwards this story, — that a cloth was thrown over his head, and that he was lifted up from the ground, and he heard a great bustle. He was taken away, and thrown head fore- most down; but there was sea under him, and he sank under the water. When he got to land, he went to the place where he and Thoralf had been parted, and there he found Thoralf with his head cloven down to his shoulders, and dead. When the ship's people heard of it they carried the body out to the ship, and let it remain there all night. King Olaf was at that time in guest-quarters at Lygref, and thither they sent a message. Now a Thing was called by message- token, and the king came to the Thing. He had ■f A farm on the mainland, not far from Herdlo Isle.
 * An island near Askeland Isle, in Bergen district.