Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/263

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 251 take off the skin, they could not do it for the gush saga xiv. of blood. They took leather whips and flogged him so long, that the skin was as much taken off as if he had been flayed. Then they stuck a piece of wood in his back until it broke, dragged him to a tree and hanged him; and then cut off his head, and brought the body and head to a heap of stones and buried them there. All acknowledge, both enemies and friends, that no man in Norway, within memory of the living, was more gifted with all per- fections, or more experienced, than Sigurd; but in some respects he was an unlucky man. Hall says that he spoke little, and answered only a few, and in single words, under his tortures, although they spoke to him. Hall says further, that he never moved when they tortured him, more than if they were striking a stock or a stone. This Hall alleged as a proof that he was a brave hero, who had courage to endure tortures; for he still held his tongue, and never moved from the spot. And farther, he says that he never altered his voice in the least, but spoke with as much ease as if he was sitting at the ale-table ; neither speaking higher nor lower, nor in a more tre- mulous voice than he was used to do. He spoke until he gave up the ghost, and sang between whiles parts of the Psalm-book, and which Hall considered beyond the powers and strength of ordinary men. And the priest who had the church in the neighbourhood let Sigurd's body be transported thither to the church. This priest was a friend of Harald's sons; but when they heard it they were angry at him, had the body carried back to Avhere it had been, and made the priest pay a fine. Sigurd's friends afterwards came from Denmark with a ship for his body, carried it to Aalburg, and interred it in Mary church in that town. So said Dean Ketil, who officiated as priest at Mary church, to Eric ; and that Sigurd was buried