Early Years of St. Olaf 207 



death on a journey to Sweden ; and his widow married 

 another petty king, Sigrod or Sigurd, by whom she had 

 a second family, of which one of the children was 

 Harald, afterwards known as Harald Hardradi, whom 

 we shall hear of again. 



Olaf Haraldsson was brought up at the house of 

 his step-father. But at twelve years of age — the Norse 

 youth was supposed to reach maturity at twelve years 

 of age — he was sent out upon Viking expeditions under 

 the tutorship of his foster-father, Eani, who was called 

 Eani the Far-travelled. In this Viking life Olaf spent 

 many years of his early manhood. He went eastward 

 into the Baltic lands and plundered in Sweden and 

 right up the Gulf of Bothnia, among the magic-dealing 

 Finns. He next met the leader of the Joms-vikings 

 near Denmark, and went into partnership with him. 

 They sailed together, plundering down the west coast 

 of Jutland, and on to Friesland or Holland. From 

 thence Olaf sailed to England, and took service on the 

 side of ^thelred 11. against Svend, and lent a hand 

 towards the restoration of ^thelred after Svend's death. 



Olaf had returned aoain for a while to his Vikino- 

 life. He intended, the Saga tells us, to sail into the 

 Mediterranean, and by that way on to Jerusalem. But 

 he was warned by a dream against this course, and 

 was told that a greater future lay before him in his own 

 land. 



An opportunity was made for him by the ambitious 

 schemes of Cnut, who, as we have seen, had collected 

 all his forces for the invasion of England, and had 

 carried Eail Erik witli him. At the beginning of the 



