HAKON THE GOOD. 23 Froste, and to maintain tliee as king so long as any of us bonders who are here upon the Thing has life left, provided thou, king, wilt go fairly to work, and demand of us only such things as are not impossible. But if thou wilt fix upon this thing with so great obstinacy, and employ force and power, in that case, we Bonders have taken the resolution, all of us, to fall away from thee, and to take for ourselves another head, who will so behave that we may enjoy in freedom the belief which is agreeable to us. Now shalt thou, king, choose one of these two courses before the Thing disperse." * Whereupon,' adds the Chronicle, 'all the Bonders raised a mighty
- shout, "Yes, we will have it so, as has been said/"
So that Jarl Sigurd had to intervene, and King Hakon to choose for the moment the milder branch of the alternative.* At other Things Hakon was more or less successful. All his days, by such methods as there were, he kept pressing forward with this great enterprise; and on the whole did thoroughly shake asunder the old edifice of heathendom, and fairly introduce some foundation for the new and
- Dalilmann, ii. 93.
