mmoned
by message-token the people to a Thing, both for the districts of Vagar,
Lear, and Hedal; and gave out the message along with the token, that
they must either receive Christianity and give their sons as hostages,
or see their habitations burnt. They came before the king, and submitted
to his pleasure; but some fled south down the valley.

118. THE STORY OF DALE-GUDBRAND.

There was a man called Dale-Gudbrand, who was like a king in the valley
(Gudbrandsdal), but was only herse in title. Sigvat the skald compared
him for wealth and landed property to Erling Skjalgson. Sigvat sang thus
concerning Erling:--

"I know but one who can compare
With Erling for broad lands and gear--
Gudbrand is he, whose wide domains
Are most like where some small king reigns.
These two great bondes, I would say,
Equal each other every way.
He lies who says that he can find
One by the other left behind."

Gudbrand had a son, who is here spoken of. Now when Gudbrand received
the tidings that King Olaf was come to Lear, and obliged people to
accept Christianity, he sent out a message-token, and summoned all the
men in the valley to meet him at a farm called Hundthorp. All came,
so that the number could not be told; for there is a lake in the
neighbourhood called Laugen, so that people could come to the place both
by land and by water. There Gudbrand held a Thing with them, and said,
"A man is come to Loar who is called Olaf, and will force upon us
another faith than what we had before, and will break in pieces all our
gods. He says that he has a much greater and more powerful god; and it
is wonderful that the earth does not burst asunder under him, or that
our god lets him go about unpunished when he dares to talk such things.
I know this for certain, that if we carry Thor, who has always stood by
us, out of our temple that is standing upon this farm, Olaf's god will
melt away, and he and his men be made nothing so soon as Thor looks upon
them." Then the bondes all shouted as one person that Olaf should never
get away with life if he came to them; and they thought he would never
dare to come farther south through the valley. They chose out 700 men to
go northwards to Breida, to watch his movements. The leader of this band
was Gudbrand's son, eighteen years of age, and with him were many other
men of importance. When they came to a farm called Hof they heard of the
king; and they remained