_King._ "'What wilt thou give me, Jarl, if, for this time, I let thee
go, whole and unhurt?'

_Hakon._ "'What wilt thou take, King?'

_King._ "'Nothing, except that thou shalt leave the country; give up
thy kingdom; and take an oath that thou wilt never go into battle
against me.'"[12]

Jarl Hakon accepted the generous terms; went to England and King Knut,
and kept his bargain for a good few years; though he was at last
driven, by pressure of King Knut, to violate it,--little to his
profit, as we shall see. One victorious naval battle with Jarl Svein,
Hakon's uncle, and his adherents, who fled to Sweden, after his
beating,--battle not difficult to a skilful, hard-hitting king,--was
pretty much all the actual fighting Olaf had to do in this enterprise.
He various times met angry Bonders and refractory Things with arms in
their hand; but by skilful, firm management,--perfectly patient, but
also perfectly ready to be active,--he mostly managed without coming
to strokes; and was universally recognized by Norway as its real king.
A promising young man, and fit to be a king, thinks Snorro. Only of
middle stature, almost rather shortish; but firm-standing, and
stout-built; so that they got to call him Olaf the Thick (meaning Olaf
the Thick-set, or Stout-built), though his final epithet among them
was infinitely higher. For the rest, "a comely, earnest,
prepossessing look; beautiful yellow hair in quantity; broad, honest
face, of a complexion pure as snow and rose;" and finally (or firstly)
"the brightest eyes in the world; such that, in his anger, no man
could stand them." He had a heavy task ahead, and needed all his