Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/220

 212 CHRONICLE OF THE SAGA VII. Chapter CXLVII. Of the Jemteland people. tax* and nose-tax; namely, a penny for every nose, and the penny at the rate of ten pennies to the yard of wadmal.f At the same time he promised them his friendship if they accepted, and threatened them with all his vengeance if they refused his proposals. The people sat long in deliberation on this business ; but at last they were unanimous in refusing all the taxes and burdens which were demanded of them. That summer Geller returned back from Iceland to Norway to King Olaf, and found him in autumn in the east in Viken, just as he had come from Gotland ; of which I shall speak hereafter in this story of King Olaf. Towards the end of autumn King Olaf repaired north to Drontheim, and went with his people to Nidaros, where he ordered a winter residence to be prepared for him. The winter that he passed here in the merchant town of Mdaros was the thirteenth year of his reign. There was once a man called Ketil Jemte, a son of Earl Onund of Sparboe, in the Drontheim district. He fled over the ridge of mountains from Eystein Ildraade, cleared the forest, and settled the country now called the province of Jemteland. A great many people joined him from the Drontheim land, on ac- count of the disturbances there ; for this King Eystein had laid taxes on the Drontheim people, and set his dog, called Saur, to be king over them. Thorer Hilsing was Ketil's grandson, and he colonised the province called Hilsingialand, which is named after him. When Harald Haarfager subdued the kingdom by force, many people fled out of the country from him, both Drontheim people and Naumedal people, and thus new settle- having certain property and rank. t Wadmal was the coarse woollen cloth made in Iceland, and so generally used for clothing that it was a measure of value in the North, like money, for other commodities.
 * Thegn-gilldi has been probably a thane-tax, or tax on free men