his old love for Kraka, or Asloeg as she was now called,
came back.

The remainder of the lives of Ragnar and Asloeg and of their warlike sons
is full of valiant deeds and magic arts, far too long to be told here,
but which gave them a high place in the legendary lore of the north, in
which Ragnar Lodbrok is one of the chief heroes. At length Ragnar was
taken prisoner by King Ethelred of England and thrown into a pit full of
serpents, where he died. Afterwards Iwar and his brothers invaded
England, conquered that country, and avenged their father by putting
Ethelred to death by torture. Iwar took England for his kingdom and the
realms of the north were divided among his brothers, and many more were
the wars they had, until death ended the career of these heroes of
northern legend.

_HAROLD FAIR-HAIRED FOUNDS THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY._

To the far-off island of Iceland we must go for the story of the early
days of Norway. In that frosty isle, not torn by war or rent by tumult,
the people, sitting before their winter fires, had much time to think and
write, and it is to Iceland we owe the story of the gods of the north and
of the Scandinavian kings of heathen times. One of these writers, Snorri
Sturlasson by name, has left us a famous book, "The Sagas of the Kings of
Norway," in which he tells of a long line of ancient kings, who were
descended from the gods. Here are some of their names, Aun the Old,
Ingjald Ill-Ruler, Olaf the Wood-Cutter, Halfdan Whiteleg, and Halfdan
the Swarthy. There were others whom we need not name, and of these
mentioned the names must suffice, for all we know of them is legend, not
truth.

In those times there was no kingdom of Norway, but a number of petty
provinces, ruled over by warriors who are spoken of as kings, but whose
rule was not very wide. Most powerful among them was Halfdan the Swarthy,
who was only a year old in 810 when his father was killed in battle.

He lived for many years, and he and his wife Ragnhild had strange dreams.
The queen dreamed that a thorn which she took out of her clothes grew in
her hands until one end of it took root in the ground and the other shot
up into the air. It kept on growing until it was a great tree, so high
that she could barely see its top. The lower part of it was blood-red,
higher up it was bright green, and the spreading branches were white as
snow. So widely they spread that they seemed to shade the whole country
of Norway.

King