Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/221

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 213 ments were added to Jemteland ; and some settlers saga vn. went even eastwards to Helsingialand and down to the Baltic coast, and all became subjects of the Swedish king. While Hakon Athelstan's foster-son was over Norway there was peace, and merchant traffic from Drontheim to Jemteland ; and, as he was an excellent king, the Jemtelanders came from the east to him, paid him scatt, and he gave them laws and adminis- tered justice. They would rather submit to his go- vernment than to the Swedish king's, because they were of Norwegian race ; and all the Helsingialand people, who had their descent from the north side of the mountain ridge, did the same. This continued long after those times, until Olaf the Thick and the Swedish king Olaf quarrelled about the boundaries. Then the Jemteland and Helsingialand people went back to the Swedish king ; and then the forest of Eida was the eastern boundary of the land, and the moun- tain ridge, or keel of the country, the northern : and the Swedish king took scatt of Helsingialand, and also of Jemteland. Now, thought the king of Norway, Olaf, in consequence of the agreement between him and the Swedish king, the scatt of Jemteland should be paid differently than before ; although it had long been established that the Jemteland people paid their scatt to the Swedish king, and that he appointed officers over the country. The Swedes would listen to nothing, but that all the land to the east of the keel of the country belonged to the Swedish king. Now this went so, as it often happens, that although the kings were brothers-in-law and relations, each would hold fast the dominions which he thought he had a right to. King Olaf had sent a message round in Jemteland, declaring it to be his will that the Jemte- land people should be subject to him, threatening them with violence if they refused ; but the Jemteland people preferred being subjects of the Swedish king. p 3