teinker all the
Yule; for there is plenty prepared for him for the Yule feast: but if he
hears we are assembling men, he will set right out of the fjord with his
vessels, and we shall not get hold of him." Einar's advice was taken;
and the earl went to Stjoradal, into guest-quarters among the bondes.

When King Olaf came to Steinker he collected all the meat prepared for
the Yule feast, and made it be put on board, procured some transport
vessels, took meat and drink with him, and got ready to sail as fast as
possible, and went out all the way to Nidaros. Here King Olaf Trygvason
had laid the foundation of a merchant town, and had built a king's
house: but before that Nidaros was only a single house, as before
related. When Earl Eirik came to the country, he applied all his
attention to his house of Lade, where his father had had his main
residence, and he neglected the houses which Olaf had erected at the
Nid; so that some were fallen down, and those which stood were scarcely
habitable. King Olaf went now with his ships up the Nid, made all the
houses to be put in order directly that were still standing, and built
anew those that had fallen down, and employed in this work a great
many people. Then he had all the meat and drink brought on shore to the
houses, and prepared to hold Yule there; so Earl Svein and Einar had to
fall upon some other plan.

41. OF SIGVAT THE SKALD.

There was an Iceland man called Thord Sigvaldaskald, who had been long
with Earl Sigvalde, and afterwards with the earl's brother, Thorkel the
Tall; but after the earl's death Thord had become a merchant. He
met King Olaf on his viking cruise in the west, and entered into his
service, and followed him afterwards. He was with the king when the
incidents above related took place. Thord had a son called Sigvat
fostered in the house of Thorkel at Apavatn, in Iceland. When he was
nearly a grown man he went out of the country with some merchants; and
the ship came in autumn to the Throndhjem country, and the crew lodged
in the hered (district). The same winter King Olaf came to Throndhjem,
as just now related by us. Now when Sigvat heard that his father Thord
was with the king, he went to him, and stayed a while with him. Sigvat
was a good skald at an early age. He made a lay in honour of King Olaf,
and asked the king to listen to it. The king said he did not want poems
composed about him, and said he did not understand the skald's craft.
Then Si