x.] TOUR IN NORWAY, 1851. 345 



peculiar circumstances of the time, was recorded in the 

 Sagas, and has been traditionally recollected ever since. 

 It happened, as has been placed beyond a doubt by the 

 careful and ingenious researches of Professor Harsteen of 

 Christiania, on the afternoon of the 31st August, 1030. 

 King Olaf the saint (canonized for his efforts to introduce 

 at the point of the sword the doctrines of Christianity 

 among the heathens of Scandinavia) engaged in battle on 

 that day with his rebellious subjects, who were urged on 

 I*}- Knut, king of Denmark and England, who desired 

 also to acquire Norway. Olaf was returning from Sweden 

 with the troops he had collected, and entered his own do- 

 minions not far from Throndhjem. Meeting the revolters, 

 led by three powerful chiefs, at Stiklastad, in Vserdal, 

 about sixty English miles north-east of the capital, he 

 gave them fight, was defeated and slain. In the chro- 

 nicle of Snorre Sturlason, it is related that " the weather 

 was fine and the sun shone clear, but after the fight 

 began, a red hue overspread the sky and the sun, and 

 before the battle ended, it was dark as night." One of 

 the skalds or poets thus expressed it, " the unclouded sun 

 refused to warm the Northmen. A great wonder hap- 

 pened that day. The day was deprived of its fair light." 

 The body of Olaf was secretly conveyed to Throndhjem 

 u called Nidaros) and interred. A chapel was after- 

 wards built over it, which is now included within the 

 east end of the cathedral/ 



The day after the eclipse, Forbes left Bergen to visit 

 s of the Hardanger-field, on his way to 

 Christiaiiia. He was fortunate in finding a companion 

 for this wild journey in a - ntleinan of Bergen, already 

 acquainted with the country, who was making a tour in 

 the same direction. The rain fell with hopeless intensity, 

 and tin; ailection of the people for their ponies, which 

 unwilling to expose their belOVOd animals 

 to the smallest lie, inter!, n <1 Anally \\ith their 



progress. At Oos, however, they quitted their carriole 

 for a large four-oared boat, in \\hieh they passed through 



the .-I'l'-ll'lul >erin'iy of tile Hal flopl to Build- 



