Hákon replied: “Great things you have foretold, if they turn out to be true; but I think my fate will prove itself better than you have said; and perhaps you have not seen the truth.” The spae-man said he was free to believe what he liked of it, but that such events would not the less surely come to pass. CHAPTER XXVII OF THE SCHEMES OF HAKON, PAUL’S SON. AFTER this Hákon went to see King Ingi, and stayed with him a short while. Then he obtained leave from the King to depart. He went first to Norway to see his kinsman, King Magnus, who received him very well. There he heard that the government of the Orkneys was almost exclusively in the hands of Earl Erlend and his sons, and that they were greatly loved, but that his father Paul took little part in the government. He also thought he could perceive from conversations with men from the Orkneys, who gave him a true account of the state of matters, that the Orkneymen had no desire for his return home. They were living in peace and quiet, and were afraid that Hákon’s return would give rise to disturbance and strife. When Hákon was turning this over in his mind, he thought it likely that his kinsmen would try to keep him out of his possessions, and that it would be dangerous for him if he did not go west with a numerous retinue. Then he devised a scheme to induce King Magnus to put him into his possessions in the Orkneys. CHAPTER XXVIII HAKON’S INTERVIEW WITH KING MAGNUS. THIS was after King Magnus had put Steigar Thórir and Egil to death, and put down all opposition to his rule. Hákon was a sagacious man, and he thought he could understand from King Magnus’s conversation that he was ambitious of grand undertakings, and covetous of the possessions of other rulers. Hákon began to tell the King that it would be a princely feat to make an expedition to the west, and subdue the Islands, as Harald the Fairhaired had done. He also said that if he established his power in the Sudreyar (Hebrides), he might easily make forays into Ireland and Scotland from them. Then, having subdued the western countries, he might attack the English, with the help of the Northmen, and thus take revenge for his grandfather Harald, Sigurd’s son. When they were speaking about these things, it became evident that the King was pleased with this proposal, and said it was spoken like a nobleman, and quite according to his own mind. “But I wish you not to be surprised, Hákon,” said the King, “in case I shall be persuaded by your words to carry an army into the west, if I put forward a strong claim to the possessions there, without regard to the claims of any man.”