f the royal house he could find to make his own son
king. Of the boy who was destined to dispute his claim, the cook's son on
the Faroes, he knew nothing, and when the bright youth landed in Norway,
whether he had gone in spite of the protests of Bishop Roe, not a soul in
the kingdom dreamed that a new claimant for the throne was in the realm.

No one was likely to learn from Sverre until his plans were ripe. He was
too shrewd and cautious for that. He wanted to feel the sentiment of the
people, and was disappointed to find them all well satisfied with their
king. Full of humor and a good talker, everybody he met was pleased with
him, and when he talked with the men-at-arms of Erling Skakke they told
him all they knew about the state of affairs. They were quite won over by
this lively priest from the Faroes. He even made the acquaintance of
Erling Skakke himself and got a thorough idea of his character.

The cunning adventurer was feeling his way and found things not at all to
his liking. To attempt, alone and with an empty pocket, to drive a
favorite monarch from the throne, seemed the act of madness. But the
ambitious youth had dreamed his dream of royal state and had no fancy for
returning to a humble priesthood on the bleak Faroes.

In Sweden, across the border, dwelt Earl Birger, who had married a sister
of King Sigurd Mouth. To him Sverre went, told who he was, and begged for
aid. The earl looked on him as an imposter and would have nothing to do
with him. Then he sought Folkvid the Lawman, with whom lived his
half-sister Cecilia, and told him the same story. Folkvid received him
more graciously, but he had no power to make him king. But the rumor
that a son of the late King Sigurd was in the land got abroad, and soon
made its way to the ears of a band of rebels who hated the king.

Here we must go back a step. All the people of Norway were not content
with the new king. From time to time pretenders to the throne arose,
hornets whom Magnus and his father Erling had some trouble in destroying.
They had their following, and the malcontents gathered at last around
Eystein Meyla (Little Girl), who professed to be the grandson of a former
king. But all this last of the pretenders was able to do was to roam
about in the wilderness, keeping himself and his followers from starving
by robbing the people. They were in so desperate a state that they had to
use birch-bark for shoes, and the peasants in derision called them