e trained, from the earliest basis, in
Norse accomplishments and arts. New children came, one or two; but
Olaf, from his mother, seems always to have known that he was the
distinguished and royal article there. One day his Foster-father,
hurrying to leave home on business, hastily bade Olaf, no other being
by, saddle his horse for him. Olaf went out with the saddle, chose the
biggest he-goat about, saddled that, and brought it to the door by way
of horse. Old Sigurd, a most grave man, grinned sardonically at the
sight. "Hah, I see thou hast no mind to take commands from me; thou art
of too high a humor to take commands." To which, says Snorro, Boy Olaf
answered little except by laughing, till Sigurd saddled for himself, and
rode away. His mother Aasta appears to have been a thoughtful, prudent
woman, though always with a fierce royalism at the bottom of her memory,
and a secret implacability on that head.

At the age of twelve Olaf went to sea; furnished with a little fleet,
and skilful sea-counsellor, expert old Rane, by his Foster-father,
and set out to push his fortune in the world. Rane was a steersman and
counsellor in these incipient times; but the crew always called Olaf
"King," though at first, as Snorro thinks, except it were in the hour of
battle, he merely pulled an oar. He cruised and fought in this capacity
on many seas and shores; passed several years, perhaps till the age
of nineteen or twenty, in this wild element and way of life; fighting
always in a glorious and distinguished manner. In the hour of battle,
diligent enough "to amass property," as the Vikings termed it; and in
the long days and nights of sailing, given over, it is likely, to his
own thoughts and the unfathomable dialogue with the ever-moaning Sea;
not the worst High School a man could have, and indeed infinitely
preferable to the most that are going even now, for a high and deep
young soul.

His first distinguished expedition was to Sweden: natural to go thither
first, to avenge his poor father's death, were it nothing more. Which
he did, the Skalds say, in a distinguished manner; making victorious and
handsome battle for himself, in entering Maelare Lake; and in getting
out of it again, after being frozen there all winter, showing still more
surprising, almost miraculous contrivance and dexterity. This was the
first of his glorious victories, of which the Skalds reckon up some
fourteen or thirteen very glorious indeed, mostly in the We