ar's noble game,
(The skald no greater monarch finds
Beneath the heaven's wide hall of winds)
All sin and evil from him flings
In Jordan's wave: for all his sins
(Which all must praise) he pardon wins."

King Sigurd stayed a long time in the land of Jerusalem (Jorsalaland) in
autumn, and in the beginning of winter.

11. SIDON TAKEN.

King Baldwin made a magnificent feast for King Sigurd and many of his
people, and gave him many holy relics. By the orders of King Baldwin
and the patriarch, there was taken a splinter off the holy cross; and
on this holy relic both made oath, that this wood was of the holy cross
upon which God Himself had been tortured. Then this holy relic was given
to King Sigurd; with the condition that he, and twelve other men with
him, should swear to promote Christianity with all his power, and erect
an archbishop's seat in Norway if he could; and also that the cross
should be kept where the holy King Olaf reposed, and that he should
introduce tithes, and also pay them himself. After this King Sigurd
returned to his ships at Acre; and then King Baldwin prepared to go to
Syria, to a heathen town called Saet. On this expedition King Sigurd
accompanied him, and after the kings had besieged the town some time it
surrendered, and they took possession of it, and of a great treasure of
money; and their men found other booty. King Sigurd made a present of
his share to King Baldwin. So say Haldor Skvaldre:--

"He who for wolves provides the feast
Seized on the city in the East,
The heathen nest; and honour drew,
And gold to give, from those he slew."

Einar Skulason also tells of it:--

"The Norsemen's king, the skalds relate,
Has ta'en the heathen town of Saet:
The slinging engine with dread noise
Gables and roofs with stones destroys.
The town wall totters too,--it falls;
The Norsemen mount the blackened walls.
He who stains red the raven's bill
Has won,--the town lies at his will."

Thereafter King Sigurd went to his ships and made ready to leave
Palestine. They sailed north to the island Cyprus; and King Sigurd
stayed there a while, and then went to the Greek country, and came
to the land with all his fleet at Engilsnes. Here he lay still for a
fortnight, although every day it blew a breeze for going before the wind
to the north; but Sigurd would wait a side wind, so that the sails might
stretch fore a