Olaf's son Tryggve escaped, however, and was kept in concealment, as long as Erik was master in the land. [Footnote A: Olaf was the son of King Harold and Svanhild, a daughter of Earl Eystein of Hedemark and Vestfold.] [Illustration: CYLINDRICAL MOUNTING OF BRONZE PROBABLY FOR THE SHAFT OF A SPEAR. FOUND NEAR STAVANGER.] Erik had now killed four of his brothers, if not five, and it was the common opinion that Gunhild would not rest until she had exterminated all the race of Harold the Fairhaired outside of her husband's line. While Erik was a youth, he had made the acquaintance of an Icelander named Thorolf, the son of Skallagrim (Bald Grim) and nephew of Thorolf Kveld-Ulf's son, whom King Harold had treacherously slain. This Thorolf, like his uncle and namesake, was a tall and handsome man, of fine presence and winning manners. He had made Erik a present of a ship, very beautifully built and decorated, and had thereby gained his friendship. In return Erik had obtained from his father permission for Thorolf to remain unmolested in the country. The handsome Icelander made many friends in Norway, among whom two mighty men named Thore Herse and Björn the Yeoman. When he returned to Iceland he brought with him, as a gift from the king to his father, an axe with a handle of precious workmanship. But Bald Grim, though he received his son well, treated King Erik's gift with contempt, and finally, when Thorolf again made a cruise to Norway, he sang an insulting verse and begged to have it reported to Erik. The axe he also wished to have returned. Thorolf, who was determined not to revive the ancient feud, threw the axe into the ocean, and conveyed his father's thanks and greeting to the king. If he had had his way, the blood-feud would have been at an end. But he had a younger brother named Egil,[A] who insisted upon bearing him company, and he soon fanned the dying embers into flame. [Footnote A: Pronounced _Agil_, "g" hard, as in gimlet, gilt, etc.] Egil was the very incarnation of the old untamable Norse spirit, the turbulent and indomitable individualism, which is incapable of considering any but personal aims, and of submitting to any kind of discipline. Like his father, Bald Grim, he was large of stature, swarthy, and ill-favored, and displayed in his childhood a fierce and revengeful spirit, but also a rare gift of song, which, no less than his foolhardy deeds, brought him fame during his long and adventurous career.