470 THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



should never escape thence if he came to them, and they said 

 he would not dare to advance farther south in the Dalir. 

 They sent seven hundred men north to Breida to spy, with 

 the son of Gudbrand, eighteen winters old, as leader, and 

 many other prominent men. These men came to the farm 

 Hof and remained there three nights, and many who had fled 

 from Lesjar and Loar and Vagar, unwilling to adopt Christianity, 

 joined them there. King Olaf and Sigurd, the bishop, left 

 teachers in Loar and Vagar. 



" The king went to the boendr and held the Thing with 

 them. The day was very wet. When the Thing was opened 

 the king rose and told them that the men of Lesjar, Loar 

 and Vagar had accepted Christianity and torn down their 

 sacrih'cing-houses, and now believed in the true God. who 

 shaped heaven and earth and knew all things. The king 

 sat down, and Gudbrand answered : ' We do not know about 

 whom thou art talking ; dost thou call him God whom 

 neither thou nor any other can see ? We have a god whom 

 we may see every day, but he is not out to-day because the 

 weather is wet. He will look terrible and great to you I 

 expect that fear will creep into your breasts if he comes to the 

 Thing. But as thou sayest that thy God is so powerful, then 

 let him make the weather to-morrow cloudy, with no rain, and 

 we will meet here.' Thereupon the king went home to his 

 room, and with him Gudbrand's son as a hostage, while 

 the king gave them another man in his place. In the 

 evening the king asked Gudbrand's son how their god was 

 made. He answered he was made after Thor (his likeness) ; 

 had a hammer in his hand; was of a large size, and hollow 

 inside ; that a platform was made under him, on which 

 he stood when outside the temple ; that he did not lack gold 

 and silver on him : that four loaves of bread were brought to 

 him every day, and as much meat. Then they went to bed. 

 But the king was awake all that night and prayed. When 

 it was day he went to mass, then to his meal, and then to the 

 Thing. The weather was as Gudbrand had said. The bishop 

 rose in his gown with a mitre on his head and a crozier in 

 his hand, and preached to the Ixendr and told them many 

 tokens which God had shown, and ended his speech well. 

 Thord Istrumagi (paunch-belly) answered : ' This horned man 

 with a staff in his hand with a top like a crooked ram's horn 

 talks much. As you, comrades, say that your god works so 

 many tokens, then ask him to-morrow before sunrise to let 

 the weather be bright and sunny, then we will meet and do 

 one of two things agree on this matter, or light a battle.' 

 They parted for a time. 



