pelled the court and
dismissed the service.

At this time Ole, the son of Siward and of Harald's sister, came to
Denmark from the land of Norway in the desire to see his uncle. Since it
is known that he had the first place among the followers of Harald, and
that after the Swedish war he came to the throne of Denmark, it bears
somewhat on the subject to relate the traditions of his deeds. Ole,
then, when he had passed his tenth to his fifteenth year with his
father, showed incredible proofs of his brilliant gifts both of mind and
body. Moreover, he was so savage of countenance that his eyes were like
the arms of other men against the enemy, and he terrified the bravest
with his stern and flashing glance. He heard the tidings that Gunn,
ruler of Tellemark, with his son Grim, was haunting as a robber the
forest of Etha-scog, which was thick with underbrush and full of gloomy
glens. The offence moved his anger; then he asked his father for a
horse, a dog, and such armour as could be got, and cursed his youth,
which was suffering the right season for valour to slip sluggishly away.
He got what he asked, and explored the aforesaid wood very narrowly. He
saw the footsteps of a man printed deep on the snow; for the rime was
blemished by the steps, and betrayed the robber's progress. Thus guided,
he went over a hill, and came on a very great river. This effaced the
human tracks he had seen before, and he determined that he must cross.
But the mere mass of water, whose waves ran down in a headlong torrent,
seemed to forbid all crossing; for it was full of hidden reefs, and the
whole length of its channel was turbid with a kind of whirl of foam.
Yet all fear of danger was banished from Ole's mind by his impatience
to make haste. So valour conquered fear, and rashness scorned peril;
thinking nothing hard to do if it were only to his mind, he crossed
the hissing eddies on horseback. When he had passed these, he came upon
defiles surrounded on all sides with swamps, the interior of which was
barred from easy approach by the pinnacle of a bank in front. He took
his horse over this, and saw an enclosure with a number of stalls. Out
of this he turned many horses, and was minded to put in his own, when
a certain Tok, a servant of Gunn, angry that a stranger should wax so
insolent, attacked him fiercely; but Ole foiled his assailant by simply
opposing his shield. Thinking it a shame to slay the fellow with the
sword, he seized him, shatte