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144 “There is none greater than thou. No light upon earth shines like our North Star. No king is greater than thou. A wassail to King Olaf!” shouted the chiefs, hastily sheathing their knives to drain their horns.

Olaf bowed his head. There was a touching humility in his tone. “Nay! nay! There is One: the great King of heaven and earth and the Lord of the sea.”

“Thou art lord of the sea, and none other,” protested Erling.

Again Olaf bowed his head. “I have sailed my little sea, but there is One, Sovereign over all the seas of earth. Will ye not honor this great King who lives forever and whose kingdom is the whole earth and the sea and the sky?”

An aged chief stood up and questioned Olaf. “Is he king of the land beyond Erin?” for to the Norsemen the world seemed bounded on the south by the land of the Celts.

“Yea,” answered Olaf heartily, “of all lands we have ever seen, and of all lands we shall never see. If ye have so honored a poor king like myself, why will ye not honor this mighty Lord of heaven and earth?” Olaf took his crucifix in his hand. Erling, looking with great scorn at the symbol, declared: “Christ the White was no king.”

“He was King over all the earth, though he hung upon a cross.”