Frey and His Wife

by Maurice Hewlett

There was little else to do, indeed, there was nothing else. When Olaf heard the story, he said, "This is certainly a prophet. I will go to see him."

Olaf was a very noticeable man, very tall and broad, with a golden beard; he was high-coloured and had bright blue eyes. The prophet was sitting in the mouth of his cave, which he had swept out and put in order. When he saw Olaf he bowed until his head was level with his knees. Olaf sat down beside him, and they had a long conversation.

The prophet presently began to prophesy. He said, "You will become a notable king in a country which is yours, though you have never seen it. And you will be a Christian king and cause all your people to become so before the end. And in case you doubt what I say, as you may easily do, listen to this token. When you take to your ships again, all of you, there will be a plot against you, and a rising by night. Then there will be a battle—but on land; and you will lose men, and be wounded. They will carry you on a shield to your ship, and in seven days you will be well. The first thing you will do will be to seek out a bishop hereabouts, and go down into the water with him and be baptized. After you all your men will go, and that will be the beginning of Christianity in Norway and Iceland."

Now the odd thing about this tale is that it all fell out as the holy man had foreseen. That very man of the king's whom he had warned against treachery was himself the beginner of a treacherous attack. There was fierce fighting, the king sorely wounded. He was carried on a shield to the boats, and laid aboard his own long ship. There he lay for seven days, and on the seventh he was well. The first thing he did was to visit the man of God.

"You told me the truth," said Olaf; and the prophet said, "That is why I am here and living in sanctity."

Olaf said, "The least I can do is to fulfil the prophecy which has so far fulfilled itself. I will go into the water when you please."

The man of God said, "The sooner the better. You will find the bishop very ready for you."

"I will send for him," King Olaf said, "but you shall tell me something of the religion which I suppose gives you the powers you possess."

The prophet agreed to that. "It is a very good religion for a king," he said, "because it may make him humble-minded before God, which he has no reason otherwise to be—or so he is apt to think. In any event it must make his subjects so, which is very useful to the king."