Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of NorwaySnorri Sturluson
History
Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
Snorri Sturluson
Iceland -- History; Norway -- History; Sagas -- Translations into English; Scandinavia -- History
King Olaf appointed a meeting with the relations of Jarnskegge, and
offered them the compensation or penalty for his bloodshed; for there
were many bold men who had an interest in that business. Jarnskegge had
a daughter called Gudrun; and at last it was agreed upon between the
parties that the king should take her in marriage. When the wedding day
came King Olaf and Gudrun went to bed together. As soon as Gudrun, the
first night they lay together, thought the king was asleep, she drew a
knife, with which she intended to run him through; but the king saw it,
took the knife from her, got out of bed, and went to his men, and told
them what had happened. Gudrun also took her clothes, and went away
along with all her men who had followed her thither. Gudrun never came
into the king's bed again.
79. BUILDING OF THE SHIP CRANE.
The same autumn (A.D. 998) King Olaf laid the keel of a great long-ship
out on the strand at the river Nid. It was a snekkja; and he employed
many carpenters upon her, so that early in winter the vessel was ready.
It had thirty benches for rowers, was high in stem and stern, but
was not broad. The king called this ship Tranen (the Crane). After
Jarnskegge's death his body was carried to Yrjar, and lies there in the
Skegge mound on Austrat.
80. THANGBRAND THE PRIEST GOES TO ICELAND.
When King Olaf Trygvason had been two years king of Norway (A.D. 997),
there was a Saxon priest in his house who was called Thangbrand, a
passionate, ungovernable man, and a great man-slayer; but he was a good
scholar, and a clever man. The king would not have him in his house upon
account of his misdeeds; but gave him the errand to go to Iceland, and
bring that land to the Christian faith. The king gave him a merchant
vessel: and, as far as we know of this voyage of his, he landed first in
Iceland at Austfjord in the southern Alptfjord, and passed the winter in
the house of Hal of Sida. Thangbrand proclaimed Christianity in Iceland,
and on his persuasion Hal and all his house people, and many other
chiefs, allowed themselves to be baptized; but there were many more
who spoke against it. Thorvald Veile and Veterlide the skald composed
a satire about Thangbrand; but he killed them both outright. Thangbrand
was two years in Iceland, and was the death of three men before he left
it.
81. OF SIGURD AND HAUK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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