rpose.--L.

260. OF KING OLAF'S AGE AND REIGN.

It is reckoned by those who have kept an exact account, that Olaf the
Saint was king of Norway for fifteen years from the time Earl Svein left
the country; but he had received the title of king from the people of
the Uplands the winter before. Sigvat the skald tells this:--

"For fifteen winters o'er the land
King Olaf held the chief command,
Before he fell up in the North:
His fall made known to us his worth.
No worthier prince before his day
In our North land e'er held the sway,
Too short he held it for our good;
All men wish now that he had stood."

Saint Olaf was thirty-five years old when he fell, according to what
Are Frode the priest says, and he had been in twenty pitched battles. So
says Sigvat the skald:--

"Some leaders trust in God--some not;
Even so their men; but well I wot
God-fearing Olaf fought and won
Twenty pitched battles, one by one,
And always placed upon his right
His Christian men in a hard fight.
May God be merciful, I pray,
To him--for he ne'er shunned his fray."

We have now related a part of King Olaf's story, namely, the events
which took place while he ruled over Norway; also his death, and how his
holiness was manifested. Now shall we not neglect to mention what it
was that most advanced his honour. This was his miracles; but these will
come to be treated of afterwards in this book.

261. OF THE THRONDHJEM PEOPLE.

King Svein, the son of Canute the Great, ruled over Norway for some
years; but was a child both in age and understanding. His mother Alfifa
had most sway in the country; and the people of the country were her
great enemies, both then and ever since. Danish people had a great
superiority given them within the country, to the great dissatisfaction
of the people; and when conversation turned that way, the people of
the rest of Norway accused the Throndhjem people of having principally
occasioned King Olaf the Holy's fall, and also that the men of Norway
were subject, through them, to the ill government by which oppression
and slavery had come upon all the people, both great and small; indeed
upon the whole community. They insisted that it was the duty of the
Throndhjem people to attempt opposition and insurrection, and thus
relieve the country from such tyranny; and, in the opinion of the common
people, Throndhjem was also the ch