elt.
Having no son and only one daughter, he appointed these invasive sons
of Eric to be sent for, and if he died to become king; but to "spare his
friends and kindred." "If a longer life be granted me," he said, "I will
go out of this land to Christian men, and do penance for what I have
committed against God. But if I die in the country of the heathen, let
me have such burial as you yourselves think fittest." These are his
last recorded words. And in heathen fashion he was buried, and besung by
Eyvind and the Skalds, though himself a zealously Christian king. Hakon
the _Good_; so one still finds him worthy of being called. The sorrow on
Hakon's death, Snorro tells us, was so great and universal, "that he
was lamented both by friends and enemies; and they said that never again
would Norway see such a king."

CHAPTER IV. HARALD GREYFELL AND BROTHERS.

Eric's sons, four or five of them, with a Harald at the top, now at once
got Norway in hand, all of it but Trondhjem, as king and under-kings;
and made a severe time of it for those who had been, or seemed to be,
their enemies. Excellent Jarl Sigurd, always so useful to Hakon and his
country, was killed by them; and they came to repent that before very
long. The slain Sigurd left a son, Hakon, as Jarl, who became famous
in the northern world by and by. This Hakon, and him only, would the
Trondhjemers accept as sovereign. "Death to him, then," said the sons
of Eric, but only in secret, till they had got their hands free and
were ready; which was not yet for some years. Nay, Hakon, when actually
attacked, made good resistance, and threatened to cause trouble. Nor did
he by any means get his death from these sons of Eric at this time, or
till long afterwards at all, from one of their kin, as it chanced. On
the contrary, he fled to Denmark now, and by and by managed to come
back, to their cost.

Among their other chief victims were two cousins of their own, Tryggve
and Gudrod, who had been honest under-kings to the late head-king, Hakon
the Good; but were now become suspect, and had to fight for their lives,
and lose them in a tragic manner. Tryggve had a son, whom we shall hear
of. Gudrod, son of worthy Bjorn the Chapman, was grandfather of Saint
Olaf, whom all men have heard of,--who has a church in Southwark even,
and another in Old Jewry, to this hour. In all these violences, Gunhild,
widow of the late king Eric, was understood to have a principal hand.
She had come