Olaf Tryggvason and the Pigsty
HE answered, “I was at Lade, and Olaf Tryggvason was laying a gold ring about my neck.” The earl says, “It will be a red ring Olaf will lay about thy neck if he catches thee. Take care of that. From me thou shalt enjoy all that is good, therefore betray me not.”
They then kept themselves awake both; the one, as it were, watching upon the other. Towards day the earl suddenly dropped asleep; but his sleep was so unquiet that he drew his heels under him, and raised his neck, as if going to rise, and screamed dreadfully high. On this Karker, dreadfully alarmed, drew a large knife out of his belt, and killed Earl Hakon. Then Karker cut off the earl’s head, and ran away.
Late in the day he came to Lade, where he delivered the earl’s head to King Olaf, and told all these circumstances of his own and Earl Hakon’s doings. Olaf had him taken out and beheaded.*
tr. Samuel Laing (abridged)
On the principle that one should never trust a traitor: Olaf’s promise of reward applied only to those who were loyal through-and-through. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) retold the story very faithfully in verse, through the eyes of Thora: see ‘Thora of Rimol’.