Note 9. ALONE AND REPENTANT. This poem was first printed in 1865, but was probably written in 1861 or 1862 in Germany or Italy. The friend was Ivar Bye, whom Björnson had saved from distress and social ostracism in Christiania before 1857, when Bye went as an actor with Björnson to the theater in Bergen. He was no great actor but an unusual man, for whom Björnson had deep respect and warm sympathy. Björnson described his character and life-experience in the study "Ivar Bye," first published in 1894, in which he said: "Our literature possesses a memorial of his way of receiving what was confided to him. It lies in the poem: 'A friend I possess.' I wrote it far away from him,--not that he might have it, his name is not mentioned, and he never had it, but because at that time things were hard for me." Note 10. OLAF TRYGVASON. Grandson of Harald Fairhair, and King from 995 to 1000. On one of his viking expeditions to England he was converted to Christianity. Returning to Norway to win back his ancestral inheritance from Haakon Jarl (see Note 14), he had fortune with him; for as he steered into the Trondhjem Fjord, he received the tidings of the successful uprising of the peasants against Haakon. He founded Nidaros, the present city of Trondhjem, established Christianity in a large part of the country, and soon became dearer to the people than any other Norwegian King. But he had powerful enemies outside of the land: the Danish King, Svein Forkbeard, the Swedish King, Olaf, and Erik, son of Haakon Jarl. By a large sea-force under these he was attacked off the island Svolder (near the island of Ringen), and there lost his life. Erling Skjalgsson, a great chieftain, holding large fiefs from Olaf and married to his sister, lived at Sole in southwestern Norway. With a large number of the smaller ships of Olaf Trygvason he had been allowed to sail away in advance and did not know of the battle at Svolder. Long Serpent was the name of the large fighting ship that Olaf had built for this expedition. It held six hundred men.