Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/61

 rcQ KINGS OF NORWAY. 5o the bonders accepted of the laws which the king pro- saga vn. posed. So says Sigvat : — ce The king, who at the helm guides His warlike ship through clashing tides, Now gives one law for all the land — A heavenly law, which long will stand." King Olaf was a good and very gentle man, of little speech, and open-handed although greedy of money. Sigvat the scald, as before related, was in King Olaf's house, and several Iceland men. The king asked particularly how Christianity was observed in Iceland, and it appeared to him to be very far from what it ought to be ; for as to observing Christian practices, it was told the king that it was permitted there to eat horse-flesh, to expose infants as heathens do, besides many other things contrary to Chris- tianity. They also told the king about many prin- cipal men who were then in Iceland. Skopte Tho- raddsson was then the lagman of the country. He inquired also of those who were best acquainted with it about the state of people in other distant countries; and his inquiries turned principally on how Christianity was observed in the Orkney, Shet- land, and Faroe Islands : and, as far as he could learn, it was far from being as he could have wished. Such, conversation was usually carried on by him ; or else he spoke about the laws and rights of the country. The same winter came messengers from the Swed- Chapter ish king, Olaf the Swede, out of Sweden; and their 0f the L leaders were two brothers, Thors;aut Skarde, and Swedish o ' King Asgaut the bailiff; and they had twenty-four men oiafsmes- with them. When they came from the eastward, ^ThS' over the ridge of the country down into Vaerdal, they baiii ' r summoned a Thing of the bonders, talked to them, death" and demanded of them scatt and duties upon account of the king of Sweden. But the bonders, after con- sulting with each other, determined only to pay the e 3