Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/270

Chapter XLVII.
Olaf the Tree-feller burned.

There were a great many people who fled the country from Sweden, on account of King Ivar; and when they heard that King Olaf had got good lands in Term eland, so great a number came there to him that the land could not support them. Then there came dear times and famine, which they ascribed to their king; as the Swedes used always to reckon good or bad crops for or against their kings. The Swedes took it amiss that Olaf was sparing in his sacrifices, and believed the dear times must proceed from this cause. The Swedes therefore gathered together troops, made an expedition against King Olaf, surrounded his house, and burnt him in it, giving him to Odin as a sacrifice for good crops. This happened at the Yenner lake. Thus tells Thiodolf of it:—

"The temple wolf^[1], by the lake shores.,
The corpse of Olaf now devours.
The clearer of the forests^[2] died
At Odin's shrine by the lake side.
The glowing flames stripped to the skin
The royal robes from the Swedes' king.
Thus Olaf, famed in days of yore,
Vanished from earth at Venner's shore."

Chapter XLVIII.
Halfdan Huitbein made king.

Those of the Swedes who had more understanding found that the dear times proceeded from there being a greater number of people on the land than it could support, and that the king could not be blamed for this. They took the resolution, therefore, to cross the Eida forest^[3] with all their men, and came quite unexpectedly into Soloer, where they put to death King Solve, and took Halfdan Huitbein prisoner, and made him their chief, and gave him the title of king. Thereupon he subdued Soloer, and proceeding with his army into Eaumarige, plundered there, and laid that district also in subjection by force of arms.

1. The temple wolf—the fire which devoured the body of Olaf.
2. Olaf was called the Tree-feller.
3. Eydiskogr, a great uninhabited forest, which then., and to a late period, covered the frontier of Norway towards Sweden on the south.