Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/106

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CHAPTER IX. KING OLAF THE THICK-SET's VIKING DAYS. King Hakald Grjenske, who, with, another from Russia accidentally lodging beside him, got burned to death in Sweden, courting that unspeakable Sigrid the Proud, — ^was third cousin or so to Tryggve, father of our heroic Olaf. Accurately counted, he is great- grandson of Bjorn the Chapman, first of Haarfagr's sons whom Eric Bloodaxe made away with. His little

  • kingdom,' as he called it, was a district named the

Greenland (Groeneland) ; he himself was one of those little Haarfagr kinglets whom Hakon Jarl, much more Olaf Tryggveson, was content to leave reigning, since they would keep the peace with him. Harald had a loving wife of his own, Aasta the name of her, soon expecting the birth of her and his pretty babe, named Olaf, — at the time he went on that deplorable Swedish adventure, the foolish, fated creature, and