XXXIX
THE BAPTISM OF OLAF THE SAINT
True to his promise, King Olaf visited, with Bishop Sigurd and his court, the home of Sigurd Syr in Ringerike. Sigurd Syr, who was overlord of the province, was a kinsman of Olaf. He was of the race of Harold Fairhaired, and he might have disputed with Olaf to be king; save that Sigurd loved better to stay at peace in his own province than to rule over all Norway. The special reason for Olaf’s visit to his kinsman was to be present, and to act as sponsor for the little step-son of Sigurd. The king was to give the boy his own name, and, as he said, to let him be “another Olaf.” Sigurd and Aasta, his wife, were to be baptized at the same time.
“Poor little lad!” King Olaf said to Bishop Sigurd, as they sat in the guest-room at the home of Sigurd Syr. “He hath indeed seen a troublous childhood. I will call him ‘Olaf,’ and who knows but he may take my place?—for his father stands as close as I do to the throne of Norway. The little lad’s father, Harold the Greenlander, forgot his faith to his wife, Aasta, in his ambition to wed the rich and powerful Queen Sigrid, King Erik’s widow. He went wooing
