permit themselves to be baptized, to believe in the one God and His Son Jesus Christ. The people listened in silence. Had the king stopped there, it is possible he might have met with, at any rate, a partial success; but when he proceeded to tell them they must not work on Sundays, and that, further, they must be prepared to follow the Christian usage and fast on Fridays, then the cries of dissent broke out. The idea of abstinence from food was not at all an acceptable one to the Northmen, and to abstain from work on Sundays might often mean the partial loss of the hay harvest, or failure in securing a good haul of fish. Haakon, however, was very plain in setting before them all that the acceptance of Christianity would entail.

When the king had ended, there stood up in the council one Asbjørn of Medalhus, a wealthy bonde from a place now called Melhus in Guldal, near Trondhjem. He told the king that the people willingly acknowledged the benefits which had come to them from his wise and kindly rule, especially in the restoration to them of their Odel rights and privileges. But he declared in no uncertain tones that they would not give up the faith of their fathers, and accept the thraldom which it seemed the king wished to force upon them. If he insisted on this, then they would choose another king, but they had no desire to quarrel with him so long as they were left to worship the gods of their forefathers. This speech was received with shouts of applause by the people, and it was at once apparent that the assembly was entirely hostile to Haakon's proposed innovations.

Then Sigurd Jarl stood up in defence of the young monarch. He hastened to explain to the people that they were under a mistake in supposing that Haakon wished to force his views on them, or to cause any break in the friendship which existed between them. With this he

quieted the people, and the proceedings terminated, the victory remaining with the heathen party.

Having thus thwarted the king, the believers in the old gods were determined to press home their advantage, and an opportunity for this soon presented itself. At the usual festival held in October, when the winter sacrifices were offered, the Odin's mindebæger (the horn of beer to be drunk to Odin) was handed to the king. Before drinking it he made the sign of the cross over it. At this the watchful heathen protested, but the wily Jarl Sigurd explained that the king, believing in his own strength, dedicated the horn to Thor instead of Odin, by making over it the sign of Mjølnir (Thor's hammer), and so the incident passed.

The crisis, however, soon came. At the Julefest the heathen party resolved there should be no more temporizing. They made it clear to the king that either he must join in the heathen ceremonies or forfeit his crown. Sigurd Jarl saw the danger, and with difficulty persuaded Haakon to give way. The feast was held, and the king ate some of the horse-flesh and drank of all the necessary horns of beer to the gods, this time without making the sign of the cross, and thus openly sealed his adherence to the Asa faith. But he left the feast heavy and displeased, and intending to come back with a powerful force and revenge himself on the bønder, but for the time the triumph of Odin and Thor over "the White Christ" was complete.

It is easy for us to condemn Haakon for his apostacy, but we must remember the position in which he was placed. Cut off from the support of those in England among whom he had been brought up, surrounded by heathen, many of whom he had good cause to love, and with the certainty of losing his kingdom, if not his life, if he refused to join in the idol feasts, his kind-heartedness and good-nature, as well as the pressure of circumstances,

all combined to make him yield an outward compliance with the demands of the heathen party. All through the rest of his life he seems to have felt deeply his abandonment of the faith, and his failure to spread it in his kingdom. He was doubtless sincere in his intention to make another effort on behalf of Christianity when a convenient opportunity presented itself, but the "convenient season" never came.

After these events, fresh trouble was in store for Haakon and his kingdom. His brother, Erik Bloodaxe of Northumberland, was slain in battle, and his sons determined to attempt to regain the kingdom from which their father had been driven by Haakon. Queen Gunhild went with them to Denmark, where the king, Harald Gormssøn, was ready to give them assistance. They made several descents upon Norway, and Haakon was obliged to summon to his aid all his available forces, and he dared not weaken his strength by any question of religion.

The attacks of Gunhild's sons were repulsed with great loss to them, but they only retired to Denmark for fresh help, and appeared again and again on the coast. This state of things lasted till the close of Haakon's life.

In 960 the king was paying a visit at Fitjar, on the large island of Stord, in Søndhordland, off the entrance to the great Hardanger Fjord. While there, with but a small force, he was surprised by the fleet of Harald Graafell, the eldest of Erik's sons. The enemy were in overwhelming force, but Haakon and his men disdained to seek safety in flight. A fierce battle ensued, in which, after a desperate struggle, Harald Graafell's forces were defeated and forced to fly. Just at the very end of the battle Haakon was mortally wounded by an arrow. Before his death, having no son, he named his nephew Harald as his successor. Then, we are told, the sorrow for his abandonment of the faith filled the king's mind. "If life is granted to me,"

he said to his followers, "I will betake myself to a land of Christian men, and do penance and atone for my sin against God, but if I die here in heathenism, then bury me as you wish yourselves."

His men, with tears, told him they would carry his body over to England, and give it Christian burial. But the dying king shook his head. "I am not worthy of it," he said. "I have lived as a heathen, and, therefore, as a heathen should I be buried."

As a heathen he was laid to rest. He was buried on his estate at Sæheim, in Nordhordland. All men mourned for him, friends and foes alike, and "men said such a good king would never come to Norway again." The love and veneration of his people marked him out among the kings as Haakon the Good.

CHAPTER V.

HARALD GRAAFELL; AND THE HEATHEN REACTION UNDER HAAKON JARL.

Norway under Gunhild's Sons-Graafell murdered in DenmarkHaakon Jarl rules Norway under Harald Blaatand of Denmark -Haakon Jarl's enforced Baptism-Danish Missionaries in Viken -Adam of Bremen's Testimony-The Results of this WorkNorwegian Church a Daughter of the English Church-Haakon Jarl and the Jomsvikings-The Battle at Livaag-Haakon's Evil Deeds and the Coming Deliverer.

THE death of Haakon the Good was followed by a period of anarchy and struggles with foreign foes, which lasted for some thirty-five years, and caused much suffering and want in the land.

Haakon, on his deathbed, had expressed the wish that his nephew Harald, surnamed Graafell, should succeed him. He was the eldest of the five sons of Erik Blodøkse, and with them he shared the portions of Norway ruled over by Haakon, namely, the northern and north-western divisions, for it must be remembered that the grandsons of Harald Haarfagre held the petty kingdoms in Viken (the country around the Christiania Fjord), which he had bestowed on their fathers.

Harald Graafell, however, was the overlord of the portions where his brothers ruled. As they were mainly guided by the universally detested Gunhild, they soon became very unpopular. Following the example of their father, they endeavoured to extend their authority by the treacherous murder of King Trygve,* the son of Olaf, and

* The father of the great Olaf Trygvessøn, who at the time of this murder was not yet born, see p. 40.