Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/292

 284 CHKONICLE OF THE saga vii. must I fly, and never more come to this fold." When the king's people awoke in the morning the king proceeded to the mountains, and said to Bruse, " Here shall now a farm be settled, and the bonder who dwells here shall never want what is needful for the support of life ; and never shall his crop be destroyed by frost, although the crops be frozen on the farms both above it and below it." Then the king proceeded over the mountains, and came to a farm called Einbo, where he remained for the night. King Olaf had then been fifteen years king of Norway, including the year both he and Swend were in the country, and this year we have now been telling about. It was, namely, a little past Yule when the king left his ships and took to the land, as before related. Of this portion of his reign the priest Are Thorgilson the Wise was the first who wrote ; and he was both faithful in his story, of a good memory, and so old a man that he could remember the men, and had heard their accounts, who were so old that through their age they could remember these circumstances as he himself wrote them in his books, and he named the men from whom he received his information. Otherwise it is generally said that King Olaf had been fifteen years king of Norway when he fell; but they who say so reckon to Earl Swend's government, the last year he was in the country, for King Olaf lived fifteen years afterwards as king, ex a* When the king had been one night in Lesie he pro- of's pro- ceeded on his journey with his men, day by day; first into Gudbrandsdal, and from thence out to Hedemark. Now it was seen who had been his friends, for they followed him; but those who had served him with less fidelity separated from him, and some showed him even indifference, or even full hostility, which afterwards was apparent ; and also it could be seen clearly in many Upland people that they took very ill his putting Thorer to death, as before related.