forward state, Tryggveson (having made, withal, a great English or
Irish marriage,--a dowager Princess, who had voluntarily fallen in
love with him,--see Snorro for this fine romantic fact!) mainly
resided in our island for two or three years, or else in Dublin, in
the precincts of the Danish Court there in the Sister Isle.
Accordingly it was in Dublin, as above noted, that Hakon's spy found
him; and from the Liffey that his squadron sailed, through the
Hebrides, through the Orkneys, plundering and baptizing in their
strange way, towards such success as we have seen.

Tryggveson made a stout, and, in effect, victorious and glorious
struggle for himself as king. Daily and hourly vigilant to do so,
often enough by soft and even merry methods, for he was a witty,
jocund man, and had a fine ringing laugh in him, and clear pregnant
words ever ready,--or if soft methods would not serve, then by hard
and even hardest he put down a great deal of miscellaneous anarchy in
Norway; was especially busy against heathenism (devil-worship and its
rites): this, indeed, may be called the focus and heart of all his
royal endeavor in Norway, and of all the troubles he now had with his
people there. For this was a serious, vital, all-comprehending
matter; devil-worship, a thing not to be tolerated one moment longer
than you could by any method help! Olaf's success was intermittent,
of varying complexion; but his effort, swift or slow, was strong and
continual; and on the whole he did succeed. Take a sample or two of
that wonderful conversion process:--

At one of his first Things he found the Bonders all assembled in arms;
resolute to the death seemingly, against his proposal and him.
Tryggveson said little; waited impassive, "What your reasons are, good
men?" One zealous Bonder started up in passionate parliamentary