five hundred cardinals, skalds seven thousand.
King Skule.
Greet your Master and give him my thanks for his friendship. Tell him he is the only king who sends help to Skule the First of Norway.
The Monk.
Hear now, King Skule, what brings me to you—
my Master’s henchmen down there are legion,
and each up here is allotted a region;
they gave Norway to me, as the place I best knew.
Håkon Håkonsson serves not my Master’s will;
we hate him, for he is our foeman still—