Note 2 — Chapter II

There must have been an air of barbaric grandeur about these heathen temples. On the door of that at Lade, near Trondjem, was a massive gold ring. Olaf Trygveson, when wooing Sigrid the Haughty, made her a present of it. Having an eye to the main chance, she put it in the hands of the Swedish goldsmiths to be tested (Becky Sharp would not have done worse). They grinned knowingly. The weight was due in a great measure to a copper lining. No wonder after this that she flatly refused to be baptized, the condition Olaf had laid down for wedding her. Upon this he called her a heathen ——, and struck her on the cheek with his glove. “One day this shall be thy death,” she exclaimed. She kept her word. Through her influence Sweyne was induced to war with Olaf, who lost his life in the memorable battle of the Baltic.