3io EARLY REMINISCENCES all precedent that the Norwegians should accept as their Kin a man who descended from the royal line by the distaff; and to secure the throne to his son, Erling set to work to hunt u and exterminate every grandson of Harald Gille that he coul hear of. Sverrir had had a quarrel with the son of the Governor of the Faroe Isles, and a sojourn in them was no longer secure for him. Now only did Gunnhild reveal to Sverrir that he was not the son of Uni the Horner, but of Sigurd Mouth, and grandson of Harald Gille, who had reigned from 1137 to 1155 ; but this had been kept a profound secret, lest he should share the fate of all Harald's grandsons. No sooner did Sverrir hear this than he resolved on abandoning his clerical profession, and on trying his chance to obtain possession of the Norwegian throne. A more mad and desperate undertaking could hardly have been conceived. He—the reputed son of a man who fashioned and sold combs cut out of cow-horn, and of a dairymaid in one of the Ion islands of Faroe, out of the current of political life, without friends, without money, without evidence to show that his pretensions were other than bombast—what could he expect save disaster, mockery and death at the hands of Erling, the King's father, should he fall into his power ? He was constrained to abandon his wife and his two sons and two daughters ; he could not take his mother with him to confirm her story. He had to depend on his own wits and luck, and to the restlessness that existed in portions of Norway, where many were impatient of the domination of Erling, being offended at his cruelty, and more by his pride. Sverrir left the Faroes in the year 1174, when he was aged twenty-two, so that he must have married very young, and if a priest, must have been ordained before the canonical age. The story of Sverrir's life, his achievements, his defeat of Magnus, Erling's son, his capture of the throne of Norway, of his contest with Innocent III to maintain the independence of the Norwegian Church, is one of the most marvellous and romantic records in history, and yet it is hardly known out of Scandinavia. Innocent did all in his power to humble Sverrir, by excommunication, by stirring up the disloyal and anti-national elements in the land, by urging the native clergy to combine against him, by
