At Easter (A.D. 1021) the king held a feast, to which he had invited
many of the townspeople as well as bondes. After Easter he ordered his
ships to be launched into the water, oars and tackle to be put on board,
decks to be laid in the ships, and tilts (1) and rigging to be set up,
and to be laid ready for sea at the piers. Immediately after Easter
he sent men into Veradal. There was a man called Thoralde, who was the
king's bailiff, and who managed the king's farm there at Haug; and
to him the king sent a message to come to him as quickly as possible.
Thoralde did not decline the journey, but went immediately to the town
with the messenger. The king called him in and in a private conversation
asked him what truth there was in what had been told him of the
principles and living of the people of the interior of Throndhjem, and
if it really was so that they practised sacrifices to heathen gods. "I
will," says the king, "that thou declare to me the things as they are,
and as thou knowest to be true; for it is thy duty to tell me the truth,
as thou art my man."
Thoralde replies, "Sire, I will first tell you that I have brought here
to the town my two children, my wife, and all my loose property that I
could take with me, and if thou desirest to know the truth it shall be
told according to thy command; but if I declare it, thou must take care
of me and mine."
The king replies, "Say only what is true on what I ask thee, and I will
take care that no evil befall thee."
Then said Thoralde, "If I must say the truth, king, as it is, I must
declare that in the interior of the Throndhjem land almost all the
people are heathen in faith, although some of them are baptized. It is
their custom to offer sacrifice in autumn for a good winter, a second at
mid-winter, and a third in summer. In this the people of Eyna, Sparby,
Veradal, and Skaun partake. There are twelve men who preside over these
sacrifice-feasts; and in spring it is Olver who has to get the feast in
order, and he is now busy transporting to Maerin everything needful for
it." Now when the king had got to the truth with a certainty, he
ordered the signal to be sounded for his men to assemble, and for the
men-at-arms to go on board ship. He appointed men to steer the ships,
and leaders for the people, and ordered how the people should be divided
among the vessels. All was got ready in haste, and with five ships and
300 men he steered up the fjord. The wind was favourable, the ships
sailed briskly before it, and nobody could have thought that the king
would be so soon there. The king came in the night time to Maerin, and
immediately surrounded the house with a ring of armed men. Olver was
taken, and the king ordered him to be put to death, and many other men
besides. Then the king took all the provision for the feast, and had it
brought to his ships; and also all the goods, both furniture, clothes,
and valuables, which the people had brought there, and divided the
booty among his men. The king also let all the bondes he thought had the
greatest part in the business be plundered by his men-at-arms. Some were
taken prisoners and laid in irons, some ran away, and many were robbed
of their goods. Thereafter the bondes were summoned to a Thing; but
because he had taken many powerful men prisoners, and held them in his
power, their friends and relations resolved to promise obedience to
the king, so that there was no insurrection against the king on this
occasion. He thus brought the whole people back to the right faith, gave
them teachers, and built and consecrated churches. The king let Olver
lie without fine paid for his bloodshed, and all that he possessed was
adjudged to the king; and of the men he judged the most guilty, some
he ordered to be executed, some he maimed, some he drove out of the
country, and took fines from others. The king then returned to Nidaros.
ENDNOTES: (1) The ships appear to have been decked fore and aft only;
and in the middle, where the rowers sat, to have had tilts or
tents set up at night to sleep under.--L.