Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/291

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 283 slope called Sessur, where a road should be cleared bagavil When the king came all his people were sitting down, quite worn out with the hard labour. Bruse said, " I told you, sire, but you would not believe me, that we could make nothing of this steep." The king laid aside his cloak, and told them to go to work once more at the steep slope. They did so, and now twenty men could handle stones which before 100 men could not move from the place; and thus before mid-day the road was cleared so well, that it was as passable for men, and for horses with packs, as a road in the plain fields. The king, after this, went down again to where the meat was, which place is still called Olaf 's Hil- lock. At the hillock is a spring, at which Olaf washed himself; and therefore at the present day, when the cattle in the valley are sick, their illness is made bet- ter by their drinking at this well. Thereafter the king sat down to table with all the others; and when he was satisfied he asked if there was any other sheeling on the other side of the steep, and near the mountains, where they could pass the night. Bruse said there was such a sheeling, called Gronningen ; but that nobody could pass the night there on account of witchcraft, and evil beings who were in the sheeling. Then the king said they must get ready for their journey, as he wanted to be at the sheeling for the night. Then came the kitchen-master to the king, and tells that there was come an extraordinary sup- ply of provisions, and he did not know where it had come from, or how. The king thanked God for this blessing, and gave the bonders who drove down again to their valley some rations of food, but remained him- self all night in the sheeling. In the middle of the night, while the people were asleep, there was heard in the cattle-fold a dreadful cry, and these words: " Now Olaf 's prayers are burning me," says the spirit, " so that I can no longer be in my habitation ; now