Part 146 - Of The Icelanders

King Olaf called before him the men who had come from Iceland, Thorod Snorrason, Geller Thorkelson, Stein Skaptason, and Egil Halson, and spoke to them thus: —

"Ye have spoken to me much in summer about making yourselves ready to return to Iceland, and I have never given you a distinct answer.

Now I will tell you what my intention is.

Thee, Geller, I propose to allow to return, if thou wilt carry my message there; but none of the other Icelanders who are now here may go to Iceland before I have heard how the message which thou, Geller, shalt bring thither has been received."

When the king had made this resolution known, it appeared to those who had a great desire to return, and were thus forbidden, that they were unreasonably and hardly dealt with, and that they were placed in the condition of unfree men. In the meantime Geller got ready for his journey, and sailed in summer (A.D. 1026) to Iceland, taking with him the message he was to bring before the Thing the following summer (A.D. 1027).

The king's message was, that he required the Icelanders to adopt the laws which he had set in Norway, also to pay him thane-tax and nose- tax ^[1]; namely, a penny for every nose, and the penny at the rate of ten pennies to the yard of wadmal ^[2]. At the same time he promised them his friendship if they accepted, and threatened them with all his vengeance if they refused his proposals.

The people sat long in deliberation on this business; but at last they were unanimous in refusing all the taxes and burdens which were demanded of them.

That summer Geller returned back from Iceland to Norway to King Olaf, and found him in autumn in the east in Viken, just as he had come from Gautland; of which I shall speak hereafter in this story of King Olaf. Towards the end of autumn King Olaf repaired north to Throndhjem, and went with his people to Nidaros, where he ordered a winter residence to be prepared for him.

The winter (A.D. 1027) that he passed here in the merchant-town of Nidaros was the thirteenth year of his reign.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nefgildi (nef=nose), a nose-tax or poll-tax payable to the king. This ancient "nose-tax" was also imposed by the Norsemen on conquered countries, the penalty for defaulters being the loss of their nose.

[2]:

Wadmal was the coarse woollen cloth made in Iceland, and so generally used for clothing that it was a measure of value in the North, like money, for other commodities. — L.