And he answered: "What's the use

Of this bragging up and down, When three women and one goose Make a market in your town!" Every Scald

Satires scrawled

On poor Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.

Something worse they did than that;

And what vexed him most of all

Was a figure in shovel hat,

Drawn in charcoal on the wall;

With words that go

Sprawling below,

"This is Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest."

Hardly knowing what he did,

Then he smote them might and main,

Thorvald Veile and Veterlid

Lay there in the alehouse slain.

"To-day we are gold,

To-morrow mould!"

Muttered Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.

Much in fear of axe and rope,

66

Back to Norway sailed he then.

"O, King Olaf! little hope

Is there of these Iceland men!"

Meekly said,

With bending head,

Pious Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.

"ALL the old gods are dead,

All the wild warlocks fled;

But the White Christ lives and reigns,

And throughout my wide domains

His Gospel shall be spread!"

On the Evangelists

Thus swore King Olaf.

But still in dreams of the night
Beheld he the crimson light,

And heard the voice that defied

Him who was crucified,

And challenged him to the fight.

To Sigurd the Bishop

King Olaf confessed it.

And Sigurd the Bishop said, "The old gods are not dead,

For the great Thor still reigns, And among the Jarls and Thanes The old witchcraft still is spread."

Thus to King Olaf

Said Sigurd the Bishop.

"Far north in the Salten Fiord,

By rapine, fire, and sword,

Lives the Viking, Raud the Strong;

All the Godoe Isles belong

To him and his heathen horde."

Thus went on speaking

Sigurd the Bishop.

"A warlock, a wizard is he,

And lord of the wind and the sea;

And whichever way he sails,

He has ever favoring gales,

By his craft in sorcery."

Here the sign of the cross made

Devoutly King Olaf.

"With rites that we both abhor,

He worships Odin and Thor;

So it cannot yet be said,

That all the old gods are dead,

And the warlocks are no more,"

Flushing with anger

Said Sigurd the Bishop.

Then King Olaf cried aloud:

"I will talk with this mighty Raud,

And along the Salten Fiord

Preach the Gospel with my sword,

Or be brought back in my shroud!"

So northward from Drontheim

Sailed King Olaf!