XII
THE CRUISE OF THE “ALRUNA”
Full sailed upon the stormy North Sea and borne by the strong March wind, the “Alruna” and the “Aastrid” rode towards the shores of Norway. At the prow of the “Alruna” sat Olaf and Thore Klakka. Not far away was a group of monks,—Bishop Sigurd, whom Olaf had persuaded to come with him, and four Irish priests. Bishop Sigurd was a Norseman who had been sent years before to England to become a Christian priest. The German missionaries then laboring in Norway, found the lad a promising convert, and to Dunstan, the abbot of Glastonbury, he was sent. Bishop Sigurd was a learned prelate, and had been one of King Edgar’s advisers when the monarch recalled Dunstan. When his step-mother’s hate, through her hired assassin’s knife, found King Edward the Martyr, at Corfu Castle, and the weak King Ethelred reigned, Bishop Sigurd was glad to leave England. Then, too, he yearned to bring the faith of Christ to his own land. So when the “Alruna” rested for a few days on the English coast, messengers of King Olaf brought Bishop Sigurd to join the priests already embarked.
