2 26 Norway and the Norwegians 



ally, gave Olaf four hundred men from his bodyguard, 

 and leave to recruit adventurers in his country. From 

 Norway, meantime, Earl Hakon, who had been set over 

 the kingdom by Cnut, had returned for a while to 

 England, ' where he had a wife,' says the Saga ; and, on 

 his voyage back to Norway, he was caught in a storm 

 and drowned off Caithness. Some of Olaf's former 

 subjects thought now of returning to their allegiance ; 

 and a body of six hundred men marched over the 

 mountains to join the king's army in Sweden. It was 

 headed by Olaf's half-brother, Harald, son of Sigurd 

 Syr and Aasta, the mother of Olaf, the prince who is 

 called Harald Sigurdsson in Norse history, but is best 

 known to us by his nickname of Hardradi — Harald 

 hard-of-rede. He was now about to take part in a 

 desperate enterprise, and inaugurate a long period of 

 adventure which ended only with his life. 



The united Norse army, with these additions, and 

 with its Swedish recruits, amounted to about three 

 thousand men. Olaf's march — his last — was through 

 Dalecarlia to Jemtland, and so over the ridge into Nor- 

 way. He must have passed pretty nearly over the same 

 ground which is now traversed by the great high-road 

 which leads from Jemtland to the Throndhjem Fjord. 

 During the last stages of his march he descended 

 towards Verdal, where the high land slopes rapidly 

 down through fertile alluvial terraces towards the bed 

 of the fjord. We have ourselves looked down from 

 these high lands, over the long, winding arm of water 

 of the inner fjord, set amidst its pleasant fields and 

 well-to-do farms, until stretched beyond, we saw, 

 or seemed to see, glimpses of the more distant open 



