Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/47

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 39 took meat and drink with him, and got ready to sail SA GA V IL as fast as possible, and went out all the way to Nidaros. Here King Olaf Tryggvesson had laid the foundation of a merchant town, and had built a king's house ; but before that Nidaros * was only a single house, as before related. When Earl Eric came to the country, he applied all his attention to his house of Ladef, where his father had had his main residence, and he neglected the houses which Olaf had erected at the Nid ; so that some were fallen down, and those which stood were scarcely habitable. King Olaf went now with his ships up the Nid, made all the houses to be put in order directly that were still standing, and built anew those that had fallen down, and employed in this work a great many people. Then he had all the meat and drink brought on shore to the houses, and prepared to hold Yule there : so Earl Swend and Einar had to fall upon some other plan. There was an Iceland man called Thord Sigvalda- chapter scald, who had been long with Earl Sigvald, and 0f ^j L ^ t afterwards with the earl's brother, Thorkel the Tall ; the scald, but after the earl's death Thord had become a mer- chant. He met King Olaf on his viking cruise in the west, and entered into his service, and followed him afterwards. He was with the king when the inci- dents above related took place. Thord had a son called Sigvat fostered in the house of Thorkel at Apavatn, in Iceland. When he was nearly a grown man he went out of the country with some mer- chants; and the ship came in autumn to the Dron- theim country, and the crew lodged in the Hered district. The same winter King Olaf came to Dron- theim, as just now related by us. Now when Sigvat Nidaros is the mouth of the Nid, — the river mouth at which it is situated. D 4
 * The present city of Drontheim, of about 18,000 inhabitants.
 * Lade is a farm near Drontheim, on the opposite side of the bay.