“When he became a Christian he continued his custom with the feasts. He then had in the autumn a great feast for his friends, and a Yule-feast in the winter, and still invited many people; the third feast he had at Easter-time (Páskar), and then also invited many. This he continued while he lived” (St. Olaf’s Saga, 123).
But the struggle continued for some time, for the people were loth to abandon the ancient faith, and Hakon was obliged, as king, to assist at the sacrificial feast at the temple at Hladir. Sigurd jarl on one occasion dedicated the first toast to Odin, and the king drank out of the horn, first making the sign of the cross over it. One of those present who watched him saw this, which displeased him very much; whereupon we see by the answer of Sigurd that he tried to make the people believe that it was Thor’s sign, from which we must conclude that the two signs were very much alike.
The following day the bœndr, who wanted the king to observe the tenets of the ancient belief, wished him to eat horseflesh, then to drink the gravy, and finally to eat the fat; but as he would do none of these, he had to “open his mouth over the handle of the kettle.” At the Frostathing, Hakon made a speech, wherein he said he wanted the people to be Christians and keep Sundays, which the bœndr did not like. Asbjörn, a powerful bondi, answered thus:—
“‘When thou didst hold a Thing the first time in Thrándheim, and we had taken thee for king and got our odals, we thought we had grasped heaven with our hands; now we do not know whether we have become free, or thou wilt make us thralls again in a curious manner, as thou wantest us to scorn the belief which our fathers and forefathers had before, first in the burning age and now in the mound age; many of them have been much more eminent than we, but nevertheless this belief has been good for us. We have loved thee highly, so that we have given thee with us the rule of all laws and land-rights. Now it is our will and decision to have and keep the laws which thou didst establish at the Frostathing, and to which we then consented; we will all follow thee and hold up thy kingship while any of the bœndr here at this Thing are alive, if thou, king, wilt show moderation and ask of us only what we can grant thee, and what is not unfeasible. But if thou wilt go so far in this matter as to deal with us by force and overbearing, we have all of us determined to part from thee, and take another chief, that we may be free to hold the belief we wish to have; now thou shalt make thy choice, king, before the Thing is closed.’ The bœndr cheered this speech much, and said they wanted to have it as Asbjörn said; it was a loud noise. Sigurd jarl said, when he got a hearing: ‘It is the will of King Hakon to assent to all that the bœndr want, and never to part from your friendship.’ The bœndr said they wanted the king to sacrifice for good seasons and peace, as his father did. The grumbling ceased, and they closed the Thing. Thereupon Sigurd spoke to the king, and told him not to flatly refuse the wish of the bœndr, and that it would not do to act otherwise, ‘for, as you have heard, it is the strong will of the chiefs and all the people; but I will find some way out of the difficulty.’ The king assented to this.
“In the autumn during the winter-nights there was a large sacrificing-feast at Hladir, and thither came King Hakon. He had been accustomed when he was present at sacrifices to take his meals in a small house with few men. The bœndr complained that he did not sit in his high-seat at such a great feast; the jarl told him to do it, and he did it. When the first horn was filled, Sigurd jarl spoke and consecrated it to Odin; he drank from it to the king; the king took it and made a sign of the cross over it; then a man called Kár of Grýting said: ‘Why does the king behave thus? Will he no longer worship[[446]] the gods?’ Sigurd jarl answered: ‘The king acts like all others who believe in their own strength and might; he signs his cups to Thor; he made a hammer-sign over it before he drank it.’[[447]] That evening all was quiet. Next day when they sat down at the tables the bœndr crowded towards the king and asked him to eat flesh (horseflesh, another text); the king would by no means do it. Then they asked him to drink the broth, which he would not. Then they asked him to eat the grease [fat of the soup; another text, the blood], and he would not. Thereupon they were going to attack him. Sigurd tried to reconcile them, and asked the bœndr to stop the tumult; he said the king was going to open his mouth over the handle of the kettle where the steam of the horseflesh-broth had made it greasy. The king went to it and wrapped a linen cloth round the handle, and opened his mouth over it. Then he went to his seat, and none of them, bœndr or king, liked it well” (Fornmanna Sögur, i., c. 22, 23).
“King Olaf went with his men after Yule to Thrándheim. Kjartan, Bolli and Halfred Ottarsson were with him, and many Icelanders; and he had a large and fine host. When he came to Mœri those chiefs of the Thrands who were most opposed to Christianity were there, and with them all the great bœndr who had before been accustomed to keep up the sacrifices there; a great crowd was present, and, as had been agreed upon at the Frostathing, a Thing was summoned, and both parties went fully armed to it. At first there was noise and tumult; but when it subsided, and a hearing could be got, King Olaf bade the bœndr be christianized, as he had done before. Járnskeggi (Iron-beard) answered on behalf of the bœndr as before, and said: ‘Now, as before, king, we do not want thee to break our laws; it is our will, king, that thou sacrificest like other kings have done here in the country before thee and other chiefs of the Thrands, Sigurd Hlada jarl, and Hakon jarl (the great), who before thee was chief over the greater part of this country; he was a famous man on account of his wisdom and bravery, though he had not king’s name; for long his rule was very well liked, and he did not lose it through preaching such lawlessness that no one should believe in the god he liked; nor did his father. Hakon Adalsteinsfostri has been the only one who brought this forward; the Thrands got bitter and threatened him if he continued this, and after the persuading of Sigurd jarl and other friends of his he thought right to give in to the bœndr; the only thing that will do for thee is to act as we told thee before this winter, for we have not changed our mind since about the belief.’ The bœndr cheered loudly the speech of Skeggi, and said they wanted it all to be as he had said. Then the king said: ‘I will do as we agreed to at the Thing of Frosta; I will now enter the temple, and see your proceedings and the preparing of the sacrifice.’ The bœndr were well pleased, and went to the temple. The king went in with a few of his men and some of the bœndr. All who went in were unarmed; the king had a gold ornamented staff in his hand. When they came into the temple there was no lack of idols. Thor sat in the middle, and was most worshipped; he was tall, and ornamented all over with gold and silver. The king raised the staff and struck Thor so that he fell down from the altar and was broken; then the king’s men who had entered rushed forward and knocked down all the gods from their altars. While they were in, Járnskeggi was slain outside the door of the temple by the king’s men” (Fornmanna Sögur, c. 166, 167).
It was so difficult to make any progress in christianizing the people, that they were for a time allowed to perform their rites secretly. The bœndr were little satisfied with the religious belief of their king. The eight chiefs who superintended the sacrifices (probably from the eight fylkis of the Thrándheim district) united to exterminate the Christian religion.
“These eight men who ruled over the sacrifice made an agreement that the four chiefs from outer Trandheim should overthrow Christianity, and the four from inner Thrandheim should force the king to sacrifice” (Hakon the Good’s Saga, c. 19).
“Gunnhild’s sons had embraced Christianity in England, but when they began to rule in Norway they could not make any progress in christianising the people; but wherever they could they tore down the temples and spoiled the sacrifices, and thus became very much disliked by the people. The good years also soon ceased in the land. The kings were many, and each had his hird around him, and therefore spent much and were greedy of property; so they did not well observe the laws established by King Hakon. They were handsome men, large and strong, and great men of idróttir”[[448]] (Fornmanna Sögur, 1).
“Thorbjörn Ongul (hook) had a foster-mother, Thurid; she was very old, and people thought her good for little. In heathen times when she was young, she had been very skilled in witchcraft, but she appeared to have forgotten all this. Although Christianity prevailed in the land, there were many traces of heathendom left. It had been the law of the land that it was not forbidden to sacrifice secretly or perform other old customs, but if it was discovered it was to be punished by lesser outlawry” (Gretti’s Saga, c. 80).