66. OLAF PROPOSES MARRIAGE TO QUEEN SIGRID.

Queen Sigrid in Svithjod, who had for surname the Haughty, sat in her

mansion, and during the same winter messengers went between King Olaf

and Sigrid to propose his courtship to her, and she had no objection;

and the matter was fully and fast resolved upon. Thereupon King Olaf

sent to Queen Sigrid the great gold ring he had taken from the temple

door of Hlader, which was considered a distinguished ornament. The

meeting for concluding the business was appointed to be in spring on the

frontier, at the Gaut river. Now the ring which King Olaf had sent Queen

Sigrid was highly prized by all men; yet the queen's gold-smiths,

two brothers, who took the ring in their hands, and weighed it, spoke

quietly to each other about it, and in a manner that made the queen call

them to her, and ask "what they smiled at?" But they would not say a

word, and she commanded them to say what it was they had discovered.

Then they said the ring is false. Upon this she ordered the ring to be

broken into pieces, and it was found to be copper inside. Then the queen

was enraged, and said that Olaf would deceive her in more ways than this

one. In the same year (A.D. 998) King Olaf went into Ringenke, and there

the people also were baptized.

Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway · 第 199 / 1013 题