was left
without people. When the Thing was concluded the bondes still remained
assembled; and when the king observed this he went on board his ships,
rowed in the night right across the water, landed in the country there,
and began to plunder and burn. The day after the king's men rowed
from one point of land to another, and over all the king ordered the
habitations to be set on fire. Now when the bondes who were assembled
saw what the king was doing, namely, plundering and burning, and saw the
smoke and flame of their houses, they dispersed, and each hastened to
his own home to see if he could find those he had left. As soon as there
came a dispersion among the crowd, the one slipped away after the other,
until the whole multitude was dissolved. Then the king rowed across
the lake again, burning also on that side of the country. Now came the
bondes to him begging for mercy, and offering to submit to him. He gave
every man who came to him peace if he desired it, and restored to him
his goods; and nobody refused to adopt Christianity. The king then had
the people christened, and took hostages from the bondes. He ordered
churches to be built and consecrated, and placed teachers in them. He
remained a long time here in autumn, and had his ships drawn across the
neck of land between the two lakes. The king did not go far from the
sides of the lakes into the country, for he did not much trust the
bondes. When the king thought that frost might be expected, he went
further up the country, and came to Thoten. Arnor, the earl's skald,
tells how King Olaf burnt in the Uplands, in the poem he composed
concerning the king's brother King Harald:--

"Against the Upland people wroth,
Olaf, to most so mild, went forth:
The houses burning,
All people mourning;
Who could not fly
Hung on gallows high.
It was, I think, in Olaf's race
The Upland people to oppress."

Afterwards King Olaf went north through the valleys to Dovrefield, and
did not halt until he reached the Throndhjem district and arrived at
Nidaros, where he had ordered winter provision to be collected, and
remained all winter (A.D. 1024). This was the tenth year of his reign.

130. OF EINAR TAMBASKELFER.

The summer before Einar Tambaskelfer left the country, and went westward
to England (A.D. 1023). There he met his relative Earl Hakon, and stayed
some time with him. He then visited King Canute, from w