Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/79

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REIGN OF OLAF TRYGGVESON. bd them they came once, — from the far West, Grsenske ; from the far East, the Itussian; — and arrived both together at Sigrid's court, to prosecute their impor- tunate, and to her odious and tiresome suit ; much, how very much, to her impatience and disdain. She lodged them both in some old mansion, which she had contiguous, and got compendiously furnished for them ; and there, I know not whether on the first or on the second, or on what following night, this un- paralleled Queen Sigrid had the house surrounded, set on fire, and the two suitors and their people burnt to ashes ! No more of bother from these two at least ! This appears to be a fact; and it could not be un- known to Tryggveson. In spite of which, however, there went from Trygg- veson, who was now a widower, some incipient mar- riage proposals to this proud widow ; by whom they were favourably received ; as from the brightest man in all the world, they might seem worth being. Now, in one of these anti-heathen onslaughts of King Olaf 's on the idol temples of Hakon — (I think it was that case where Olaf's own battle-axe struck down the monstrous refulgent Thor, and conquered an immense