essengers came back soon
after to the king's house; but the doorkeepers saw it, and reported it
to the king, who told them not to let the messengers in. "I will not
speak with them," said he. Then the messengers went off, and Thorgaut
said he would now return home with his men; but Asgaut insisted still
that he would go forward with the king's errand: so they separated.
Thorgaut proceeded accordingly through Strind; but Asgaut went into
Gaulardal and Orkadal, and intended proceeding southwards to More, to
deliver his king's message. When King Olaf came to the knowledge of this
he sent out his pursuivants after them, who found them at the ness in
Stein, bound their hands behind their backs, and led them down to the
point called Gaularas, where they raised a gallows, and hanged them so
that they could be seen by those who travelled the usual sea-way out of
the fjord. Thorgaut heard this news before he had travelled far on his
way home through the Throndhjem country; and he hastened on his journey
until he came to the Swedish king, and told him how it had gone with
them. The king was highly enraged when he heard the account of it; and
he had no lack of high words.

58. OLAF AND ERLING RECONCILED.

The spring thereafter (A.D. 1016) King Olaf Haraldson calls out an army
from the Throndhjem land, and makes ready to proceed eastward. Some of
the Iceland traders were then ready to sail from Norway. With them King
Olaf sent word and token to Hjalte Skeggjason, and summoned him to come
to him, and at the same time sent a verbal message to Skapte the lagman,
and other men who principally took part in the lawgiving of Iceland, to
take out of the law whatever appeared contrary to Christianity. He sent,
besides, a message of friendship to the people in general. The king
then proceeded southwards himself along the coast, stopping at every
district, and holding Things with the bondes; and in each Thing he
ordered the Christian law to be read, together with the message of
salvation thereunto belonging, and with which many ill customs and much
heathenism were swept away at once among the common people: for the
earls had kept well the old laws and rights of the country; but with
respect to keeping Christianity, they had allowed every man to do as he
liked. It was thus come so far that the people were baptized in the most
places on the sea-coast, but the most of them were ignorant of Christian
law. In the upper ends of the valleys,