right hand slain!
So well the raven-flocks were fed--
So well the wolves were filled with dead!"

Earl Hakon was very generous; but the greatest misfortunes attended even
such a chief at the end of his days: and the great cause of this was
that the time was come when heathen sacrifices and idolatrous worship
were doomed to fall, and the holy faith and good customs to come in
their place.

57. OLAF TRYGVASON ELECTED KING.

Olaf Trvgvason was chosen at Throndhjem by the General Thing to be the
king over the whole country, as Harald Harfager had been. The whole
public and the people throughout all the land would listen to nothing
else than that Olaf Trygvason should be king. Then Olaf went round the
whole country, and brought it under his rule, and all the people of
Norway gave in their submission; and also the chiefs in the Uplands and
in Viken, who before had held their lands as fiefs from the Danish king,
now became King Olaf's men, and held their hands from him. He went thus
through the whole country during the first winter (A.D. 996) and the
following summer. Earl Eirik, the son of Earl Hakon, his brother Svein,
and their friends and relations, fled out of the country, and went east
to Sweden to King Olaf the Swede, who gave them a good reception. So
says Thord Kolbeinson:--

"O thou whom bad men drove away,
After the bondes by foul play,
Took Hakon's life! Fate will pursue
These bloody wolves, and make them rue.
When the host came from out the West,
Like some tall stately war-ship's mast,
I saw the son of Trygve stand,
Surveying proud his native land."

And again,--

"Eirik has more upon his mind,
Against the new Norse king designed,
Than by his words he seems to show--
And truly it may well be so.
Stubborn and stiff are Throndhjem men,
But Throndhjem's earl may come again;
In Swedish land he knows no rest--
Fierce wrath is gathering in his breast."

58. LODIN'S MARRIAGE

Lodin was the name of a man from Viken who was rich and of good family.
He went often on merchant voyages, and sometimes on viking cruises.
It happened one summer that he went on a merchant voyage with much
merchandise in a ship of his own. He directed his course first to
Eistland, and was there at a market in summer. To the place at which the
market was held many merchant goods were brought, and also many thralls
or slaves for sa