A prisoner who had been quartered at Veikle farm in Qvam parish, and who had been well treated, sent later, says tradition, "when he got home," six silver spoons to the farmer,[116] as a token of remembrance. Respecting two other prisoners, one of whom was at a farm in Qvam, the other at a farm in Sel, it is related that they were shot the same autumn, "as the proprietors did not find it would pay them to feed them over the winter." Another of the prisoners is said to have been killed at Vaage. The farmer with whom he lived took him on a journey into the woods. On the way, it is said, they began to talk about the battle at Kringlen. The prisoner having said that if the Scots had known about the Bönder as much as the latter had known of them matters would have turned out differently, the farmer got angry and cut his prisoner down on the spot.
It is related of the Bönder from Vaage that on the return homewards they met at Kalsteen, in Vaage, a portion of the men of Lom who intended to encounter the Scots. An argument arose between the men of Vaage, proud of victory, and those of Lom, and a bloody battle very nearly ensued, but it was prevented by individual representations. A certain Peder Killie[117] of Dovre is reported to have said on his return home from the battle that he thanked God he had not fired a shot at the Scots; but when another Bonde, his neighbour, heard this, he became angry, quickly cocked his gun to shoot him, and would have killed him had not others intervened and prevented him.
A man called, Jörgen Fjerdingreen[118] of Hedalen is said to have got possession of Sinclair's money-chest (or holster), and was carrying it home on a pack-horse. At Breden farm he went inside to enjoy himself; but spending a long time over his dinner, the holster, which he had left outside, was carried away.[119] This has given rise to the saying, which, however, is not very general, "to dine like Jörgen."
OLD MONUMENT OVER SINCLAIR'S GRAVE.
Sinclair's body was carried to Qvam and there buried just outside the church-yard, as the exasperated Bönder would not allow him to lie in consecrated ground. It is told that one of his relatives thought he had not been killed, but only taken prisoner, and therefore came to Norway in search of him, but found only his grave. A simple wooden post close to the road, a little to the south of the church,[120] shows to this day where he lies buried. A board with the following inscription is fastened to the post:—
Epitaphium.
Here below rests
Mr. Colonel George Jörgen Sinkler,
Who fell at Kringlene,
In the year 1612, with a force of 900 Scots,
Who were crushed like earthen pots
By a smaller number of 300 Bönder
Of Lessöe, Waage, Froen; and the
Leader of the Bönder was Berdon
Sejelstad of Ringeboe Parish.[121]
On the spot where Sinclair and his Scots fell, a monument was also raised in commemoration of the event. In lieu of the stone pillar which, according to Slange, had the inscription, "Here was Colonel George Sinclair shot the 26th August, anno 1612," the present post was raised in 1733, on the occasion of King Christian the Sixth's journey to Trondhjem. The monument, which stands under the shadow of a birch tree on the top of the hill beside the road, and a few paces to the south of the spot where Sinclair was shot, is in the form of a simple wooden cross, with a board on which the inscription is as follows:—