King Sigurd Syr was standing in his corn-field when the messengers came
to him and brought him the news, and also told him all that Asta was
doing at home in the house. He had many people on his farm. Some
were then shearing corn, some bound it together, some drove it to the
building, some unloaded it and put it in stack or barn; but the king,
and two men with him, went sometimes into the field, sometimes to the
place where the corn was put into the barn. His dress, it is told, was
this:--he had a blue kirtle and blue breeches; shoes which were laced
about the legs; a grey cloak, and a grey wide-brimmed hat; a veil before
his face; a staff in his hand with a gilt-silver head on it and a silver
ring around it. Of Sigurd's living and disposition it is related that
he was a very gain-making man who attended carefully to his cattle and
husbandry, and managed his housekeeping himself. He was nowise given
to pomp, and was rather taciturn. But he was a man of the best
understanding in Norway, and also excessively wealthy in movable
property. Peaceful he was, and nowise haughty. His wife Asta was
generous and high-minded. Their children were, Guthorm, the eldest; then
Gunhild; the next Halfdan, Ingerid, and Harald. The messengers said to
Sigurd, "Asta told us to bring thee word how much it lay at her heart
that thou shouldst on this occasion comport thyself in the fashion of
great men, and show a disposition more akin to Harald Harfager's race
than to thy mother's father's, Hrane Thin-nose, or Earl Nereid the Old,
although they too were very wise men." The king replies, "The news ye
bring me is weighty, and ye bring it forward in great heat. Already
before now Asta has been taken up much with people who were not so near
to her; and I see she is still of the same disposition. She takes this
up with great warmth; but can she lead her son out of the business with
the same splendour she is leading him into it? If it is to proceed so
methinks they who mix themselves up in it regard little property or
life. For this man, King Olaf, goes against a great superiority of
power; and the wrath of the Danish and Swedish kings lies at the foot of
his determination, if he ventures to go against them."