Life hi the Heroic Age 257 



Anglo-Saxon kings had also. Tliat great family of 

 Throndhjem earls, for instance, from which came Earl 

 Hakon and his sons, had its country seat at Lade, close 

 to the more modern town of Throndhjem, and we 

 almost always hear of the earls residing there. In the 

 case of one of the small rulers in the south of Norway^ 

 that Sigurd Syr, who was stepfather of St. Olaf, we have 

 a picture of the king superintending the i:)er8onnel 

 of his estate at their work, which is delightful and 

 Homeric, and made all the more so by the fact that 

 Sigurd, though he is really only quite a petty ruler, yet 

 bears the title of king, 



' King Sigurd Syr was standing in his cornfield when 

 the messengers came to him and brought him the news 

 [of the coming of Olaf, his stepson, who was about to 

 raise the country and assert his claim to the throne] ; 

 and also told him all that Aasta was doing at home in 

 the house. He had many people on his farm. Some 

 were then shearing corn, some bound it together, some 

 drove it to the building, some unloaded it and put it in 

 sack or barn ; but the king, and two men with him, 

 went sometimes into the field, sometimes to the place 

 where the corn was put into the barn. His dress, it is 

 told, was this : He had a blue girdle and blue hose, 

 shoes which were laced about the legs, a grey cloak, 

 and a grey, wide-brimmed hat, a veil before his face, 

 a staff in his hand, w'ith a silver-gilt head on it, and a 

 silver ring round it. Of Sigurd's living and disposition 

 it is related that he was a very gain-making man, who 

 attended carefully to his cattle and husbandry, and 

 managed his household himself. He was nowise given 

 to pomp, and was rather taciturn ; but he was a man 



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