trict. Hogne was the name of a son of the Upland king, Eystein the Great, who subdued for himself the whole of Hedemark, Thoten, and Hadeland. Then Ysermeland fell off from Gudrod's sons, and turned itself, with its payment of scatt, to the Swedish king. Olaf was about twenty years old when Gudrod died; and as his brother Halfdan now had the kingdom with him, they divided it between them; so that Olaf got the eastern, and Halfdan the southern part. King Olaf had his main residence at Gairstad.[1] There he died of a disease in his foot, and was laid under a mound at Gairstad. So sings Thiodolf:—
"Long while this branch of Odin's stem
Was the stout prop of Norway's realm;
Long while King Olaf with just pride
Ruled over Westfold far and wide.
At length by cruel gout oppressed,
The good King Olaf sank to rest:
His body now lies under ground,
Buried at Gierstad, in the mound."
Chapter LV.
Of Rognvald the Mountain-high.
Rognvald was the name of Olaf's son who was king of Westfold after his father. He was called "Mountain-high," and Thiodolf of Huina composed for him the "Ynglinga-talfin[2];" which he says—
"Under the heaven's blue dome, a name
I never knew more true to fame
Than Rognvald bore; whose skilful hand
Could tame the scorners of the land,—
Rognvald, who knew so well to guide
The wild sea-horses[3] through the tide:
The ' Mountain-high ' was the proud name
By which the king was known to fame."
- ↑ Geirstadir. This ancient seat of royalty in small is now supposed to have been a farm called Gierrestad, in the same parish, Tiolling, in which Skiringssalr was situated.
- ↑ Ynglinga-tal—the succession of the Yngling race. Our word Tale applied to numbers, as things told over one by one, appears connected with this word.
- ↑ The wild sea-horses—ships, which are generally called the horses of the ocean in scaldic poetry.
