A MARKET PLACE. 507 



daughter, the widow of King Tryggvi, and then she was 

 unlike what she had been the last time he saw her. She was 

 pale and lean, and badly dressed. He went to her and asked 

 how it was with her. She answered : ' Heavy is it to tell that. 

 I have been sold into slavery and taken hither for sale.' Then 

 they knew each other, and Astrid also him. She asked him 

 to buy her and take her home to her kinsmen. 'I will,' 

 answered he, 'take thee to Norway if thou wilt marry inc.' 

 And because she was then hardly situated, and knew that 

 Lodin was a man of great kin, brave and wealthy, she promised 

 him this to get away. Then Lodin bought Astrid and took 

 her home to Norway, and married her there with the consent of 

 her kinsmen " (Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, Heimskringla, c. 58). 



Sigurd, Astrid's brother, came to Eistland to gather taxes 

 for the King of Holmgard. 



" He saw on a market-place a very fine boy, who seemed to 

 him a foreigner, and asked for his name and family. He 

 said he was called Olaf, and his father Tryggvi Olafsson, and 

 his mother Astrid, daughter of Eirik Bjodaskalli. Sigurd 

 recognised in him his sister's son, and asked why he was here. 

 Olaf told him what had happened. Sigurd took him to Kens' 

 bondi and bought the boys Olaf and Thorgils, and took them 

 to Holmgard " l (Olaf Tryggvason, c. 6). 



" One day Olaf was in the market-place, which was crowded. 

 There he recognised Klerkon, who had slain his foster-father 

 Thorolf Liisaskegg ; he had a small axe in his hand, and went 

 up to Klerkon and cut his head down to the brains. There- 

 upon he at once ran home and told his kinsman Sigurd. 

 Sigurd took him to the room of Queen Allogia (Olga, which is 

 a corruption of the Northern name Helga) with these tidings, 

 and asked her to help the boy. She looked at him, and said, 

 'Such a handsome boy must not be slain;' and ordered all 

 her men to come thither fully armed. In Holmgard there was 

 such gxe&tfridhelgi (peace-holiness), that the law bade that any 

 one who slew another, not condemned, should himself be slain. 

 Therefore the people rushed forward according to their custom 

 and laws to search for Olaf and take his life, as the law bad. 

 It was said that he was in the queen's house, and that there 

 was a fully armed host to defend him. When the king heard 

 this he quickly went thither with his hird, and as he did not 

 want them to fight, first procured a truce, and then a settle- 

 ment, He adjudged a fine for the murder, which was paid by 



1 Cf. also lleim.skringla, <,-. 58. 



