APPENDIX
A.
KING OLUF THE SAINT.
(Foreign Quarterly Review, No. XI.)
1.
“King Oluf and his brother bold,
’Bout Norroway’s rocks a parley hold.
2.
“‘The one of the two who best can sail,
Shall rule o’er Norroway’s hill and dale.
3.
“‘Who first of us reaches our native ground,
O’er all the region shall king be crown’d.’
4.
“Then Harald Haardrode answer made:
‘Ay, let it be done as thou hast said;
5.
“‘But if I to-day must sail with thee,
Thou shalt change thy vessel, I swear, with me:
6.
“‘For thou hast got the Dragon of speed,
I shall make with the Ox a poor figure indeed.
7.
“The Dragon is swift as the clouds in chace,
The Ox, he moveth in lazy pace.’
8.
“‘Hear, Harald, what I have to say to thee:
What thou hast proposed well pleaseth me.
9.
“‘If my ship in aught be better than thine,
I’ll readily, cheerfully lend thee mine.
10.
“‘Do thou the Dragon so sprightly take,
And I with the Ox will the journey make.
11.
“‘But first, to the church we’ll bend our way,
Ere our hand on sail or on oar we lay.’
12.
“And into the church Saint Oluf trode,
His beautiful hair like the bright gold glow’d.
13.
“But soon, out of breath, there came a man:—
‘Thy brother is sailing off as fast as he can.’
14.
“‘Let them sail, my friend, who to sail may choose,
The word of our Lord we will not lose;—
15.
“‘The mass is the word of our blessed Lord.
Take water, ye swains, for our table board.
16.
“‘We will sit at board, and the meat we will taste,
Then unto the sea-shore quietly haste.’
17.
“Now down they all sped to the ocean-strand,
Where the Ox lay rocking before the land:
18.
“And speedily they to the ocean bore
The anchor, and cable, and sail, and oar.
19.
“Saint Oluf he stood on the prow when on board:
‘Now forward, thou Ox, in the name of the Lord.’
20.
“He grappled the Ox by the horn so white:
‘Hie now, as if thou went clover to bite.’
21.
“Then forward the Ox began to hie,
In his wake stood the billows boisterously.
22.
“He hallooed to the lad on the yard so high:
‘Do we the Dragon of Harald draw nigh?’
23.
“‘No more of the pomps of the world I see,
Than the uppermost top of the good oak tree.—
24.
“‘I see near the land of Norroway skim
Bright silken sails with a golded rim.—
25.
“‘I see ‘neath Norroway’s mountains proud,
The Dragon bearing of sail a cloud.—
26.
“‘I see, I see, by Norroway’s side,
The Dragon gallantly forward stride.’
27.
“On the Ox’s ribs a blow he gave:
‘Now faster, now faster, over the wave.’
28.
“He struck the Ox on the eye with force:
‘To the haven much speedier thou must course.’
29.
“Then forward the Ox began to leap,
No sailor on deck his stand could keep.
30.
“Then cords he took, and his mariners fast
He tied to the vessel’s rigging and mast.
31.
“‘Twas then—’twas then—the steersman cried:
‘But who shall now the vessel guide?’
32.
“His little gloves off Saint Oluf throws,
And to stand himself by the rudder goes.
33.
“‘Oh! we will sail o’er cliff and height,
The nearest way, like a line of light.’
34.
“So o’er the hills and dales they career,
To them they became like water clear.
35.
“So they sail’d along o’er the mountains blue,
Then out came running the Elfin crew.
36.
“‘Who sail’s o’er the gold in which we joy?
Our ancient father who dares annoy?’
37.
“‘Elf! turn to stone, and a stone remain
Till I by this path return again.’
38.
“So they sail’d o’er Skaaney’s mountains tall,
And stones became the little Elves all.
39.
“Out came a Carline with spindle and rok:
‘Saint Oluf! why sailest thou us to mock?
40.
“Saint Oluf, thou who the red beard hast,
Through my chamber wall thy ship hath pass’d.’
41.
“With a glance of scorn did Saint Oluf say:
‘Stand there a flint-rock for ever and aye.’
42.
“Unhinder’d, unhinder’d they bravely sail’d on,
Before them yielded both stock and stone.
43.
“Still onward they sail’d in such gallant guise,
That no man upon them could fasten his eyes.
44.
“Saint Oluf a bow before his knee bent,
Behind the sail dropp’d the shaft that he sent.
45.
“From the stern Saint Oluf a bark shot free,
Behind the Ox fell the shaft in the sea.
46.
“Saint Oluf he trusted in Christ alone,
And therefore first home by three days he won.
47.
“And that made Harald with fury storm:
Of a laidly dragon he took the form.
48.
“But the Saint was a man of devotion full,
And the Saint got Norroway’s land to rule.
49.
“Into the church Saint Oluf trode,
He thank’d the Saviour in fervent mood.
50.
“Saint Oluf walk’d the church about,
There shone a glory his ringlets out.
51.
“Whom God doth help makes bravely his way:
His enemies win both shame and dismay.”
B.
SAINT OLAUS OR OLAVE, KING OF NORWAY, M.
(From Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints.)
He was son of Herald Grenscius, prince of Westfold in Norway, by his wife Asta, daughter of Gulbrand Kuta, governor of Gulbrand’s Dale or Valley. He delivered his country from the tyranny under which the Swedes and Danes had for some time held it, whilst Norway was divided between Sweno, king of Denmark, Olave Scot-Konung, son of Eric king of Sweden, and Eric, son of Hacon, earl of Norway. In 1013, he sailed to England, and successfully assisted king Ethelred against the Danes after the death of Sueno, or Sweyn, their king. He afterwards waged war against Olaus Scot-Konung, king of Sweden, till, making an advantageous peace, he took to wife the daughter of that king. These two princes about that time introduced the Romescot, a small annual tribute yearly to be paid to the apostolic see. St. Olave brought over from England several pious and learned priests and monks, one of whom, named Grimkele, was chosen bishop of Drontheim, his capital. The holy king did nothing without the advice of this prelate, and by his counsels published many wholesome laws, and abolished such ancient laws and customs as were contrary to the Gospel; which he did not only in Norway, but also in the isles of Orkney and of Iceland; though the entire conquest of Orkney was reserved to his son Magnus, who also subdued the isle of Man, as Cambden relates from the ancient Chronicle of Man.
Our religious king, having settled his dominions in peace, set himself to extirpate out of them the abominable superstitions of idolatry. He travelled in person from town to town, exhorting his subjects to open the eyes of their souls to the bright light of faith. A company of zealous preachers attended him, and he demolished in many places the idolatrous temples. The heathens rebelled, and with the assistance of Canutus the Great, defeated and expelled him. St. Olave fled into Russia, whence he soon after returned, and raised an army in order to recover his kingdom, but was slain by his rebellious and infidel subjects in a battle fought at Stichstadt, north of Drontheim, on the 29th of July, 1030, having reigned sixteen years. These rebels seem to have been in the interest of Canute the Great, who arrived from England in Norway, took possession of that kingdom, and left his nephew Hackin viceroy; but he being soon after drowned at sea, Canute made his son Sweno viceroy of Norway. St. Olave’s body was honourably buried at Drontheim, and the year following bishop Grimkele commanded him to be honoured in that church among the saints with the title of martyr. His son Magnus was called home from Russia in 1035, and restored to the throne. Sweno, who saw himself entirely abandoned, fled into Sweden. Magnus exceedingly promoted the devotion of the people to the memory of his father, the martyr, who was chosen titular saint of the cathedral of Drontheim. This church was rebuilt with such splendour and magnificence as to have been the glory and pride of all the north. Munster has given us a minute description of it, after Lutheranism was introduced; but it was soon after burnt by lightning. The body of St. Olave was found incorrupt in 1098; and again when the Lutherans, in 1541, plundered the shrine, which was adorned with gold and jewels of an immense value, a treasure nowhere excelled in the north. The ship which carried the greatest part of this sacrilegious booty perished at sea in the road to Denmark; the rest was robbed at land, so that nothing of it came into the king of Denmark’s hands. The Lutherans treated the saint’s body with respect, and left it in the same place where the shrine had stood, in the inner wooden case, till, in 1568, they decently buried it in the same cathedral. A shirt or inner garment of St. Olave’s is shown at St. Victor’s in Paris. His shrine became famous by many miracles, and he was honoured with extraordinary devotion throughout all the northern kingdoms, and was titular saint of several churches in England and Scotland. He was called by our ancestors St. Olave, and more frequently St. Tooley; but in the Norway Chronicles Olaf Haraldson, and Olaf Helge, or the Holy.