men many real converts, and found still more
ready to accept external conformity. Sometimes he would argue, exhort,
appeal to the reason and the goodwill of chiefs and people. But often the
old Viking spirit of his pagan days would master him, and he would hack
down with his battle-axe the emblems and the altars of Thor and Odin, and
challenge the old gods to avenge the insult if they had the power, and then
tell the startled onlookers that if they were to be loyal to him and live
in peace they must accept the new and better creed.

The open sea and the deep fiords running far into the hills were the best
highways of his kingdom, and Olaf spared no effort to maintain a good
fighting fleet, the best ships of which lay anchored before his great hall
at Trondhjem when he was at home. When he went out to war his path was by
the sea. He hunted down the pirates and destroyed their strongholds in the
northern fiords, with none the less zeal because these places were also the
last refuge of the old paganism and its Berserker magicians.

He had built for his own use a ship called the "Crane" (_Tranen_), longer
than ships were usually made at the time, and also of narrower beam. Her
additional length enabled more oars to be used, and her sharp bow, carved
into a bird's head, and her graceful lines made her the fastest ship in the
fiords when a good crew of rowers was swinging to the oars. A good
rowing-boat is generally a bad sailer, but Olaf had made the "Crane" swift
enough under canvas, or to speak more accurately, when her sails of
brightly dyed wool were spread. She was given high bulwarks, and must have
had more than the usual four-foot draught of water, for she carried plenty
of heavy stone ballast to stiffen her under sail. With the "Crane" as his
flagship, Olaf sailed northward to attack the Viking Raud, pirate and
magician, who held out for the old gods and the old wild ways. Raud had
another exceptionally large ship, the longest in Norway, and till the
"Crane" was built the swiftest also. The bow, carved into a dragon's head
and covered with brazen scales, gave Raud's ship the name of the "Serpent"
(_Ormen_). As Olaf sailed northward Raud and his allies met him in a
skirmish at sea, but soon gave way to superior numbers, and Raud, when he
steered the "Serpent" into the recesses of Salten Fiord, thought he had
shaken off pursuit, especially as the weather had broken, and wild winds,
stormy seas, and driving mists and rai