Then the king proceeded to Tunsberg, and held a Thing, at which he
declared in a speech that all the men of whom it should be known to a
certainty that they dealt with evil spirits, or in witchcraft, or were
sorcerers, should be banished forth of the land. Thereafter the king had
all the neighborhood ransacked after such people, and called them all
before him; and when they were brought to the Thing there was a man
among them called Eyvind Kelda, a grandson of Ragnvald Rettilbeine,
Harald Harfager's son. Eyvind was a sorcerer, and particularly knowing
in witchcraft. The king let all these men be seated in one room, which
was well adorned, and made a great feast for them, and gave them strong
drink in plenty. Now when they were all very drunk, he ordered the house
be set on fire, and it and all the people within it were consumed, all
but Eyvind Kelda, who contrived to escape by the smoke-hole in the roof.
And when he had got a long way off, he met some people on the road going
to the king, and he told them to tell the king that Eyvind Kelda had
slipped away from the fire, and would never come again in King Olaf's
power, but would carry on his arts of witchcraft as much as ever. When
the people came to the king with such a message from Eyvind, the king
was ill pleased that Eyvind had escaped death.