They had with them a farm-servant who knew their purpose.They went in a boat along the shore of a lake which is called Rands lake, and landed at a ness called Skiptisand, where they went on shore and amused themselves awhile.Then they went to a retired place, and commanded their servant-man to strike the priest with an axe-hammer.He struck the priest so hard that he swooned; but when he recovered he said, "Why are ye playing so roughly with me?" They replied, "Although nobody has told thee of it before, thou shalt now find the consequence of what thou hast done."They then upbraided him; but he denied their accusations, and besought God and the holy King Olaf to judge between them.Then they broke his leg-bones, and dragged him bound to the forest with them; and then they put a string around his head, and put a board under his head and shoulders, and made a knot on the string, and bound his head fast to the board.Then the elder brother, Einar, took a wedge, and put it on the priest's eye, and the servant who stood beside him struck upon it with an axe, so that the eye flew out, and fell upon the board.Then he set the pin upon the other eye, and said to the servant, "Strike now more softly." He did so, and the wedge sprang from the eye-stone, and tore the eyelid loose.Then Einar took up the eyelid in his hand, and saw that the eye-stone was still in its place; and he set the wedge on the cheek, and when the servant struck it the eye-stone sprang out upon the cheek-bone.Thereafter they opened his mouth, took his tongue and cut it off, and then untied his hands and his head.As soon as he came to himself, he thought of laying the eye-stones in their place under the eyelids, and pressing then with both hands as much as he could.Then they carried him on board, and went to a farm called Saeheimrud, where they landed.They sent up to the farm to say that a priest was lying in the boat at the shore.While the message was going to the farm, they asked the priest if he could talk; and he made a noise and attempted to speak.Then said Einar to his brother, "If he recover and the stump of his tongue grow, I am afraid he will get his speech again." Thereupon they seized the stump with a pair of tongs, drew it out, cut it twice, and the third time to the very roots, and left him lying half dead.The housewife in the farm was poor; but she hastened to the place with her daughter, and they carried the priest home to their farm in their cloaks.They then brought a priest, and when he arrived he bound all his wounds; and they attended to his comfort as much as they were able.And thus lay the wounded priest grievously handled, but trusting always to God's grace, and never doubting; and although he was speechless, he prayed to God in thought with a sorrowful mind, but with the more confidence the worse he was.
He turned his thoughts also to the mild King Olaf the Saint, God's dear favourite, of whose excellent deeds he had heard so much told, and trusted so much more zealously on him with all his heart for help in his necessity.As he lay there lame, and deprived of all strength, he wept bitterly, moaned, and prayed with a sore heart that the dear King Olaf would help him.Now when this wounded priest was sleeping after midnight, he thought he saw a gallant man coming to him, who spoke these words, "Thou art ill off, friend Richard, and thy strength is little." He thought he replied to this assentingly.Then the man accosted him again, "Thou requirest compassion?" The priest replies, "Ineed the compassion of Almighty God and the holy King Olaf." He answered, "Thou shalt get it." Thereupon he pulled the tongue-stump so hard that it gave the priest pain; then he stroked with his hands his eyes, and legs, and other wounded members.Then the priest asked who he was.He looked at him, and said, "Olaf, come here from Throndhjem;" and then disappeared.But the priest awoke altogether sound, and thus he spoke: "Happy am I, and thanks be to the Almighty God and the holy King Olaf, who have restored me!" Dreadfully mishandled as he had been, yet so quickly was he restored from his misfortune that he scarcely thought he had been wounded or sick.His tongue was entire; both his eyes were in their places, and were clear-sighted; his broken legs and every other wound were healed, or were free from pain;and, in short, he had got perfect health.But as a proof that his eyes had been punched out, there remained a white scar on each eyelid, in order that this dear king's excellence might be manifest on the man who had been so dreadfully misused.
26.KING INGE AND SIGURD HOLD A THING.
King Eystein and King Sigurd had quarrelled, because King Sigurd had killed King Eystein's court-man Harald, the Viken man, who owned a house in Bergen, and also the priest Jon Tapard, a son of Bjarne Sigurdson.On account of this affair, a conference to settle it was appointed in winter in the Uplands.The two sat together in the conference for a long time, and so much was known of their conference that all three brothers were to meet the following summer in Bergen.It was added, that their conference was to the effect that King Inge should have two or three farms, and as much income as would keep thirty men beside him, as he had not health to be a king.When King Inge and Gregorius heard this report, they came to Bergen with many followers.King Sigurd arrived there a little later, and was not nearly so strong in men.Sigurd and Inge had then been nineteen years kings of Norway (A.D.1155).King Eystein came later still from the south than the other two from the north.Then King Inge ordered the Thing to be called together on the holm by the sound of trumpet;and Sigurd and Inge came to it with a great many people.
