and it was done accordingly. Thus it is said in the Vellekla:

'Seeing that he was wise
The folk-leader commanded that be sacred kept
The temple-lands of Thor and other Gods.
Home to glory across the billows
Did the shield-bearer steer the ship,
It was the Gods that led him.
'And the men-loving AEsirs gloat on the offerings
Whereby the shield-bearer is made of more account.
Bountifully doth the earth give forth her sustenance
When its lord builds temples for the Gods.'
All that is northward to Vik lies under the heel of the Earl;
Wide is the sway that he holds, mightily waxed by victories.'

[Illustration]

|| That self-same first winter wherein King Hakon ruled over Norway came
the herring up along the coast, and before that in the autumn had the
corn grown wheresoever it had been sown; in the spring men gat
themselves seed-corn and the greater number of the peasants sowed their
fields, and soon there was promise of a good harvest.

|| King Ragnfrod, son unto Gunnhild, and Gudrod, he that was another son
to her, these two were now the only sons of Eirik and Gunnhild who were
still alive.

Thus saith Glum Geirason in Grey-cloak's lay:

'Half is my hope of wealth downfallen since the strife,
The strife in which the life of the chief was lost,
The death of Harald weigheth me down,
Albeit his brethren twain have good things promised me,
And to them all men look for their welfare.'

|| Now when Ragnfrod had abode one winter in the Orkneys made he him
ready in the spring and thence shaped a course eastward to Norway,
& with him were a chosen company in large ships.

And when he was come to Norway learned he tidings how Earl Hakon was in
Throndhjem, forthwith did he steer northward round Stad & laid waste
South More; and some folks submitted to him as oft befalleth when
warrior bands go through a country-- those that they meet with seek
help, each one wheresoever it seemeth likeliest to be gotten. When it
was told to Earl Hakon that there was war in the south within More,
caused he war-arrows to be sharpened and he equipped himself in haste &
set sail down the fjord. Moreover an easy matter was it for him to bring
folk around his standard. Earl Hakon and Ragnfrod sighted one another
off the northernmost part of South More, & straightway Hakon gave
battle, he that had most men but withal smaller ships. Hard was the
struggle & therein waxed Hakon luckless; men fought f