stopping until he came to
Todar fjord, where he brought up at Valdal, and landed from his ship. He
had then five ships with him, which he drew up upon the shore, and took
care of their sails and materials. Then he set up his land-tent upon a
point of land called Sult, where there are pretty flat fields, and set
up a cross near to the point of land. A bonde, by name Bruse, who dwelt
there in More, and was chief over the valley, came down to King Olaf,
together with many other bondes, and received him well, and according
to his dignity; and he was friendly, and pleased with their reception of
him. Then the king asked if there was a passable road up in the country
from the valley to Lesjar; and Bruse replied, that there was an urd in
the valley called Skerfsurd not passable for man or beast. King Olaf
answers, "That we must try, bonde, and it will go as God pleases. Come
here in the morning with your yoke, and come yourself with it, and let
us then see. When we come to the sloping precipice, what chance there
may be, and if we cannot devise some means of coming over it with horses
and people."

189. CLEARING OF THE URD.

Now when day broke the bondes drove down with their yokes, as the king
had told them. The clothes and weapons were packed upon horses, but the
king and all the people went on foot. He went thus until he came to a
place called Krosbrekka, and when he came up upon the hill he rested
himself, sat down there a while, looked down over the fjord, and said,
"A difficult expedition ye have thrown upon my hands, ye lendermen, who
have now changed your fealty, although but a little while ago ye were my
friends and faithful to me." There are now two crosses erected upon
the bank on which the king sat. Then the king mounted a horse, and rode
without stopping up the valley, until he came to the precipice. Then
the king asked Bruse if there was no summer hut of cattle-herds in the
neighbourhood, where they could remain. He said there was. The king
ordered his land-tent to be set up, and remained there all night. In the
morning the king ordered them to drive to the urd, and try if they could
get across it with the waggons. They drove there, and the king remained
in the meantime in his tent. Towards evening the king's court-men and
the bondes came back, and told how they had had a very fatiguing labour,
without making any progress, and that there never could be a road made
that they could get across: so they conti