Now when King Olaf, coming from the east, went over the keel-ridge and
descended on the west side of the mountain, where it declines towards
the sea, he could see from thence far over the country. Many people rode
before the king and many after, and he himself rode so that there was a
free space around him. He was silent, and nobody spoke to him, and thus
he rode a great part of the day without looking much about him. Then the
bishop rode up to him, asked him why he was so silent, and what he was
thinking of; for, in general, he was very cheerful, and very talkative
on a journey to his men, so that all who were near him were merry. The
king replied, full of thought, "Wonderful things have come into my mind
a while ago. As I just now looked over Norway, out to the west from the
mountains, it came into my mind how many happy days I have had in that
land. It appeared to me at first as if I saw over all the Throndhjem
country, and then over all Norway; and the longer this vision was before
my eyes the farther, methought, I saw, until I looked over the whole
wide world, both land and sea. Well I know the places at which I have
been in former days; some even which I have only heard speak of, and
some I saw of which I had never heard, both inhabited and uninhabited,
in this wide world." The bishop replied that this was a holy vision, and
very remarkable.