Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/357

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 349 proceed to have the king buried in the earth at saga vn. Clement's church ; arid it was so done. Twelve months and three days after King Olaf 's death his holy remains were dug up, and the coffin had raised itself almost entirely to the surface of the earth ; and the coffin appeared quite new, as if it had but lately been made. When Bishop Grimkel came to King Olaf 's opened coffin, there was a delightful and fresh smell. Thereupon the bishop uncovered the king's face, and his appearance was in no respect altered, and his cheeks were as red as if he had but just fallen asleep. The men who had seen King Olaf when he fell re- marked, also, that his hair and nails had grown as much as if he had lived on the earth all the time that had passed since his fall. Thereupon King Swend, and all the chiefs who were at the place, went out to see King Olaf 's body. Then said Alfifa, " People buried in sand rot very slowly, and it would not have been so if he had been buried in earth." Afterwards the bishop took scissars, clipped the king's hair, and arranged his beard ; for he had had a long beard, ac- cording to the fashion of that time. Then said the bishop to the king and Alfifa, " Now the king's hair and beard are such as when he gave up the ghost, and it has grown as much as ye see has been cut off." Alfifa answers, " I will believe in the sanctity of his hair, if it will not burn in the fire ; but I have often seen men's hair whole and undamaged after lying longer in the earth than this man's." Then the bishop had live coals put into a pan, blessed it, cast incense upon it, and then laid King Olaf 's hair on the fire. When all the incense was burnt the bishop took the hair out of the fire, and showed the king and the other chiefs that it was not consumed. Now Alfifa asked that the hair should be laid upon uncon- secrated fire ; but Einar Tambarskelver told her to be silent, and gave her many severe reproaches for her