weather. He rowed up the water with 400 men, and
came with them to Ringsaker before day dawned; and the watchmen were not
aware of the army before they were come into the very court. Ketil knew
well in what houses the kings slept, and the king had all these houses
surrounded and guarded, so that nobody could get out; and so they stood
till daylight. The kings had not people enough to make resistance, but
were all taken prisoners, and led before the king. Hrorek was an able
but obstinate man, whose fidelity the king could not trust to if he made
peace with him; therefore he ordered both his eyes to be punched out,
and took him in that condition about with him. He ordered Gudrod's
tongue to be cut out; but Ring and two others he banished from Norway,
under oath never to return. Of the lendermen and bondes who had actually
taken part in the traitorous design, some he drove out of the country,
some he mutilated, and with others he made peace. Ottar Black tells of
this:--

"The giver of rings of gold,
The army leader bold,
In vengeance springs
On the Hedemark kings.
Olaf the bold and great,
Repays their foul deceit--
In full repays
Their treacherous ways.
He drives with steel-clad hand
The small kings from the land,--
Greater by far
In deed of war.
The king who dwelt most north
Tongueless must wander forth:
All fly away
In great dismay.
King Olaf now rules o'er
What five kings ruled before.
To Eid's old bound
Extends his ground.
No kings in days of yore
E'er won so much before:
That this is so
All Norsemen know."

King Olaf took possession of the land these five kings had possessed,
and took hostages from the lendermen and bondes in it. He took money
instead of guest-quarters from the country north of the valley district,
and from Hedemark; and then returned to Raumarike, and so west to
Hadaland. This winter (A.D. 1018) his stepfather Sigurd Syr died; and
King Olaf went to Ringerike, where his mother Asta made a great feast
for him. Olaf alone bore the title of king now in Norway.

75. KING OLAF'S HALF-BROTHERS.

It is told that when King Olaf was on his visit to his mother Asta,
she brought out her children, and showed them to him. The king took his
brother Guthorm on the one knee, and his brother Halfdan on the other.
The k