The Age of the two Olafs 173 



by Denmark, the greatest achievement which lies to the 

 credit of any Scandinavian power. For Sweden it in- 

 cludes the reign of a victorious King Erik, but also that 

 of Olaf, known as Skatt-Konung, or Olaf the Tribute 

 King : the only king of Sweden who as yet had been 

 tributary to the Danes. To the same era belonged in 

 Greater Suithiod or Gardariki (Scandinavian Eussia) 

 the reign of the first Christian king, Valdemar (Vlado- 

 Ij niir), and of Jarisleif (Yaroslav), his successor, the 



lawgiver. In the Orkney Islands, too, it nearly corre- 

 sponds to a very great period, the reigns of the two 

 celebrated earls, at first joint rulers, afterwards rivals, 

 Eognvald and Thorfinn. It is the era of the conversion 

 of Iceland and of the Orkneys, so that the two extremi- 

 ties, Eussia and Iceland, were, like the intermediate 

 country Norway, converted during this period. For 

 Iceland it is the end of what we may call the period of 

 settlement, the beginning of the Saga Age. 



We may say, indeed, that the chief growth of Norse 

 literature belongs to this age. It is just to about the 

 end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh cen- 

 tury that we may refer the development of the Edda 

 poetry in Celtic Scandinavia, as we may call it; and 

 parallel with that, or a little later, the growth of the 

 Saga prose in Iceland. 



But this is likewise the age in which the mutual 

 jealousies and mutual hostilities of the different Scan- 

 dinavian nations begin to be most accentuated. The 

 ambition of Denmark for the conquest of Norway and 

 of Sweden ; the attempts of Norway to dictate to the 

 people of Iceland, and to obtain possession of the 

 Orkneys by taking the part of one earl against his rival ; 



