angrily, telling them to stop
prophesying such good things about me:

'For I ordain that the boy shall live no longer than that candle burns
which is alight beside him.'

Then the eldest spae-wife took the candle and extinguished it and bade
my mother take charge of it and not light it until the last day of
my life. After that the spae-wives went away, and my father gave them
good gifts at parting. When I was full-grown, my mother gave me the
candle to take charge of: I have it with me now."

The King said: "Why have you come here to me now?"

Guest replied: "The idea that came into my mind was this: I expected
that I should get good luck from you, because I have heard you highly
praised by good and wise men."

The King said: "Will you receive holy baptism now?"

Guest replied: "Yes, I will, since you advise it."

So it came to pass; and the King took him into his favour and made
him one of his retinue. Guest became a very good Christian and loyally
followed the King's rules of life. He was also popular with everybody.

XII. It happened one day that the King asked Guest: "How much longer
would you live if you could choose?"

Guest replied: "Only a short time, please God!"

The King said: "What will happen if you take your candle now?"

Thereupon Guest took his candle out of the frame of his harp. The King
ordered it to be lighted, and this was done. And when the candle was
lighted it soon began to burn away.

Then the King said to Guest: "How old are you?"

And Guest replied: "I am now three hundred years old."

"You are an old man," observed the King.

Then Guest laid himself down and asked them to anoint him with oil.
The King ordered it to be done, and when it was finished there was
very little of the candle left unburnt. Then it became clear that
Guest was drawing near to his end, and his spirit passed just as the
torch flickered out; and they all marvelled at his passing. The King
also set great store by his stories and held that the account which he
had given of his life was perfectly true.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THATTR OF SOeRLI

This story, like the last, is taken from the long _Saga of Olaf
Tryggvason_ contained in the _Flateyjarbok_, Vol. I, pp. 275-283. Its
connection, however, with the story of that King is of the slightest.
According to the opinion of Finnur Jonsson[1] the story in its present
form dates from the first half of the fourteenth century.

This story, like the _Thatt