[Seizes him by the arm, and says softly.] Skule Bårdsson was God’s step-child on earth; that was the secret.
[The song of the women is heard more loudly from the chapel; all the bells are still ringing in Nidaros.
THE END.
[21]. Pronounce Sverrë.
[22]. Pronounce Inghë.
[23]. The old name for Trondheim[Trondheim].
[24]. The “Birkebeiner” or Birchlegs were at this period a political faction. They were so called because, at the time of their first appearance, when they seem to have been little more than bandits, they eked out their scanty attire by making themselves leggings of birch-bark. Norway at this time swarmed with factions, such as the “Bagler” or Croziers (Latin, baculus), so called because Bishop Nicholas was their chief, the Ribbungs, the Slittungs, etc., devoted, for the most part, to one or other of the many Pretenders to the crown.
[25]. A “thing,” or assembly, held from time to time on the “öre” or foreshore at the mouth of the river Nid, at Trondhiem.
[26]. The word hird is very difficult to render. It meant something between “court,” “household,” and “guard.” I have never translated it “court,” as that word seemed to convey an idea of peaceful civilisation foreign to the country and period; but I have used either “guard” or “household” as the context seemed to demand. Hirdmand I have generally rendered “man-at-arms.” Lendermand I have represented by “baron”; lagmand and sysselmand by “thane”; and stallare by “marshal”—all mere rough approximations.