heathen and withal a wizard, who at will could raitje wind 

 to sail whither he pleased. So some time altex tho batt-lo, 

 Olaf went with his folk, who took Eaud, killed his guards, 

 and carried him bound before the king, who urged him to 

 become a Christian. Eaud in blasphemous^ words refused 

 to be baptized, when tho king in wrath said Eaaid should 

 die the worst oi" deaths. So, in the words of the saga.: 

 They took a hollow stalk of angelica, or, as some say, the 

 king's horn, and set it in tho mouth of Eaud. Therein 

 they laid a ling- worm, and laid a glowing iix>n to the out- 

 wai'ds thereof, so that the worm crav/led into^ the mouth 

 of him; and there came Eaud to his end." 



These Norse stories were written in Iceland by Snorri 

 Sturluson, earl}' in the thirteenth century. They were 

 taken down on that tar-off island near the verge of the 

 great north polar basin, just as they fell from the lips of 

 aged men, half heathen and half Christian, so that, strange 

 as the stories axe, the circumstaiicos of their origin are 

 equally weird. 



In the latter half of the century in which Saorri 

 Sturluson oolleote-d sagas fi-om the Noi-^e folk, Bishop 

 Jaeobus! Voragine, on the shores of the Mediterraneaar, 

 brought together materials for liis "Golden Legend." A 

 guide to the eeclesiastical year, explaining the festivals of 

 Christendom, tho Bishop's work was aJsO' a ha^ology of 

 nearly two hundred worthies - of the Christaan church. 

 Voragine laid under contribution eveiTthing ho thought 

 would give point or charm to his book. From the canonical 

 scriptureis, tho I^ives of the Fathers, by Jerome and by 

 Eusebius, to profaaie histories and oral traditions, neither 

 fact nor legend was discarded. The result is, the Legenda 

 Aurca contains lives time caamot despoil of their simple 

 grace, like that of JNIary of Egypt; legends that will ah\^aya 

 please, like those of the boyhood of Moses and of tho sleep- 

 ing fishes of St. Brandon; and passages which excite sur- 

 prise, like that closing tho curious account of St. Gangol- 

 fus in chapter two hundred and one, ^^'hich could hardly 



24 



