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62 II. CONVERSION OF SWEDEN (A.D. 8301130).
had been Christians at heart as well as in profession, and
had done something to make the teaching of Christ known.
The first was Hakonjthe Good, the youngest son of Harald
Fairhair, whom Harald sent to be fostered by King
Athelstan in England, and who long reigned in Norway
(934 A.D. 961 A.D.). Hakon tried to introduce Christianity
quietly into his country, but public opinion was too strong
for him and he was obliged to take part in heathen sacri
fices. Much the same thing may be said of Harald Grey-
skin. Olaf Tryggvason s reign in Norway was a much
shorter one, only five years (995 A.D. 1000 A.D.), but it was
fruitful of lasting consequences for the whole north. He
was a man of much more impetuous and daring character,
and probably of greater nobility, notwithstanding his dis
courtesy to Sigrid and his occasional acts of ferocity. I
should like, though I find it somewhat difficult to do so, to
accept the portraiture of him which has been drawn in a
very effective manner by my friend, Mr. Vigfusson, in the
Corpus Poeticum Boreale (Vol. ii., pp. 83-90). It is based
on Ari s report, preserved in the Heimskringla and other
Sagas, from which Mr. Vigfusson rejects what he supposes
to be later monkish legends, such as the scarcely credible
one of the torture of Raud the Sorcerer (ch. 87). He writes
of Olaf :
"
The greatest of all the northern kings, his life is
an epic of exceeding interest. Coming out of the darkness
he reigns for five short years, during which he accomplishes
his great design, the Christianizing of Norway and all her
colonies; and then, in the height of his glory, with the
halo of holiness and heroism undimmed on his head, he
vanishes again. But his works do not perish with him.
He had done his work, and though, maybe, his ideal of a
great Christian empire of the Baltic was unfulfilled, he had,
single-handed, wrought the deepest change that has ever
affected Norway. His noble presence brightens the Sagas
wherever it appears, like a ray of sunshine gleaming across
the dark shadowy depths of a Norway firth. All bear
witness to the wonderful charm which his personality
exercised over all that were near him ;
so that, like the holy
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