Frosta-thing were reorganized, with probably several amendments on their respective laws, and were extended to their later boundaries. In one respect Hakon was not in accord with his subjects. He had been brought up as a Christian at Athelstan's court, and attempted to introduce Christianity into the land; but in this attempt he signally failed, and at one time seems nearly to have broken with his people in consequence. On the whole, however, Norway enjoyed under Hakon internal peace. The troubles which beset his reign, more especially towards its close, arose from Denmark and the sons of Erik Blood-axe.
Erik Blood-axe. It is not easy to trace Erik's career after he fled to the Orkneys. According to the Norse sources, he received Northumberland from Athelstan as a vassal kingdom not long after leaving Norway. In the English sources we find him represented as holding Northumberland not under but in opposition to the English king. It is probable enough that he may have held it in both relations; but, however that may be, he certainly ruled for a time at York, and fell in England c. 952. At the time of his death his wife Gunhild went to the Orkneys with her children and thence to Denmark. She was a famous character in the history of the time, and to her the Norse tradition attributes much of the evil that appears in the career of her husband and children. According to one account she was the sister of Harold Bluetooth, but it is scarcely credible that the relationship between two such well-known figures in the 10th century should be unknown to the principal Norse writers. The favourable reception which she and her children met with in Denmark is sufficiently accounted for by Erik's own Danish descent, and the relations which then existed between Denmark and Norway. Shortly after their arrival in Denmark Erik's sons commenced a series of expeditions against Norway which lasted during the rest of Hakon's reign; at last, after gaining many victories over the invaders, Hakon was taken by surprise and slain c. 961.
On Hakon's death the sons of Erik, with Harold, afterwards called Greyfell, at their head, got possession of the western part of Norway, but Vik and the Uplands remained under their former kings, and Earl Sigurd still kept firm hold of the Throndhjem country. Earl Sigurd was treacherously Earl Hakon the Great. slain, and was succeeded by his son, Earl Hakon the Great; and for many years afterwards the history of the country is a series of struggles between the sons of Erik and Hakon, mixed up with occasional interferences from Denmark. At length Harold Greyfell was slain in Denmark, and Hakon succeeded with the help of the Danes in driving the sons of Erik out of the country. For a time he remained in nominal dependence on Denmark, but this was soon shaken off, and in the latter part of his life Hakon, though he never assumed the title of king, ruled in entire independence over the whole north and west of Norway. Latterly he excited animosity by some reckless outrages on the feelings of the people; a rising took place against him in the Throndhjem country, in which he was slain c. 995, and at the very time of the rising Olaf Tryggvason landed in Norway.
Olaf Tryggvason. Olaf was a great-grandson of Harold Fairhair. His father, Tryggve, had been treacherously slain by the sons of Erik, and his mother had with difficulty escaped with him. After some strange adventures the boy was received and brought up at the court at Novgorod, and then in his early youth took to a viking life. He soon became a famous leader, and plundered far and wide. In 991 we hear of him in England as one of the chiefs who fought the battle of Maldon, and he appears there again in 994. He sailed on his Norwegian expedition from Ireland, and found the whole country well disposed to receive him as king. Olaf's short reign of five years was chiefly occupied with his efforts to Christianize the country. He had been baptized some time during his English expedition, and had taken up Christianity in a more serious manner than was generally the case with the Northern converts of his class, who as a rule submitted to baptism as a convenient or necessary transaction. Olaf's Christianity does not appear to have been of a very deep or enlightened type, but he was thoroughly in earnest about it, and set himself to enforce its supremacy with the whole energy of his character. And in an incredibly short time, if he had not exactly succeeded in making his subjects Christian, he had at least made it very unsafe for them to be anything else. By force, or gifts, or persuasion, or even by torture if necessary—for his anger was sometimes cruel enough—he had soon scarcely left a man of note unbaptized in Norway. Even Iceland was persuaded to accept the faith by his energetic handling of the Icelanders at his court. Of course this wholesale conversion was of a very nominal character, and even Olaf himself always appears to be little more than a loyal and devoted heathen vassal of the new faith. Perhaps the strangest thing is not merely that he attained his end so rapidly, but that he did so without rousing and alienating the people. His splendid personal appearance, his wonderful strength and skill in arms, his inexhaustible courage and energy, and the frank chivalrous nature—bright and joyous when in quiet, but capable of terrible passion when enraged—seem to have overawed and attracted every one at the time, and have made him since the favourite hero of Norse history. In the fifth year of his reign (c. 1001) Olaf undertook an expedition to the Baltic, and a league was formed against him by the kings of Denmark and Sweden, and by Earl Erik, the son of Hakon, who had fled into Sweden after his father's death. Olaf went with a powerful fleet, he himself commanding his great ship the “Long Serpent,” the largest and best manned that had ever sailed from Norway. His foes lay in wait for him on his return under Swöld, an island off the German coast which cannot now be identified, and there took place the most famous and picturesque battle in Norse history. Olaf's ships were induced by treachery to pass by the island behind which the forces of his enemies lay, while the hostile chiefs watched them as they sailed by. At last when all were gone on their way to Norway but the few ships which with Olaf himself brought up the rear, the enemy rowed out and fell upon them. Olaf bound his ships together with the “Long Serpent” in the centre, and his foes surrounded him on all sides. One after another the ships were taken and cleared of men, and at last the crew of the “Long Serpent” were left alone, under a shower of spears and arrows, with the whole enemy around them and with fresh men continually attempting their decks. The saga tells us that Olaf's men grew so mad with rage that they leaped at the ships that surrounded them, not seeing that they were often so far off, so that they fell into the sea and perished. At length almost none were left, and Olaf leaped overboard in his armour. His people at home could scarce believe that he could have perished, and for many years stories were circulated that he had been seen in foreign countries; but, however that may be, says the chronicler, Olaf Tryggvason came back no more to his kingdom in Norway.
The two kings and Earl Erik divided Norway among them, but in reality the greater part of the country was held by Earl Erik and his brother Earl Svend, under a little more than nominal vassalage. In the south some of the districts were more directly dependent on Denmark and Sweden. Fourteen years afterwards another descendant Saint Olaf. of Harold Fairhair appeared in the country. Olaf, son of Harold Gränske, had, like most of his race, spent his early youth in foreign expeditions. When about nineteen he
