Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/236

 228 CHRONICLE OF THE saga vii. were many peasants in the village, who all drank in company together at Yule. There was another village not far distant, where Thorer's brother-in-law dwelt, who was a rich and powerful man, and had a grown-up son. The brothers-in-law intended to pass the Yule in drinking feasts, half of it at the house of the one and half with the other ; and the feast began at Tho- rer's house. The brothers-in-law drank together, and Thorodd and the sons of the peasants by themselves ; and it was a drinking match. In the evening words arose, and comparisons between the men of Sweden and of Norway, and then between their kings both of former times and at the present, and of the man- slaughters and robberies that had taken place be- tween the countries. Then said the peasants' sons, " If our king has lost most people, his sheriffs will make it even with the lives of twelve men when they come from the south after Yule ; and ye little know, ye silly fools, why ye are kept here." Thorodd took notice of these words, and many made jest about it, and scoffed at them and their king. When the ale began to talk out of the hearts of the Jemtelanders, what Thorodd had before long suspected became evident. The day after Thorodd and his comrade took all their clothes and weapons, and laid them ready ; and at night, when the people were all asleep, they fled to the forest. The next morning, when the Jemtelanders were aware of their flight, men set out after them with dogs to trace them, and found them in a wood in which they had concealed themselves. They brought them home to a room in which there was a deep cellar, into which they were thrown, and the door locked upon them. They had little meat, and only the clothes they had on them. In the mid- dle of Yule, Thorer, with all his freeborn men, went to his brother-in-law's, where he was to be a guest until the last of Yule. Thorer's slaves were to keep guard