After the ascendency of Earl Haakon as overlord of Norway, Queen Aastrid had married a wealthy chief, named Lodin, and had lived quietly in the province of Viken. Aastrid, however, never ceased to work and hope for her son’s return, and in this she was greatly helped by Earl Sigvalde’s wife, who had kept alive the loyalty of the Norsemen to her kinsman. She was pledged, heart and soul, to the restoration of Olaf. In this she was not entirely controlled by family affection; for Aastrid was an earnest convert to the Christian faith; and she knew that from Olaf she could hope for every aid in spreading the religion of Christ. The Lady Aastrid was a sincere, noble woman, and her influence was all that was good in the life of the wild jarl, Sigvalde.
Earl Haakon, the overlord of Norway, at the close of the tenth century, was a man of great strength of character and yet of great weaknesses. His dread of Olaf’s return to Norway made him anxious to devise some means for his destruction; for Olaf was the legitimate king; and Earl Haakon knew that the Norsemen only waited a chance to proclaim the son of Trygge Olafsson. Earl Haakon had stubbornly refused to accept the Christian religion and clung to the old Asa faith. He was regarded with a certain awe by the Pagan contingency of Norway, because his kingship carried with it the dignity of priest of Odin and Thor, director of their sacrifices and guardian of their temples. With the advance of Chris-
