In the third year of the reign of Olaf Tryggvason a man came into the presence of the king and asked to be admitted to his bodyguard. He was uncommonly tall and strong and somewhat stricken in years. He said that his name was Gest and that he was the son of a Danish man named Thord of Thinghusbit, who once dwelt on the estate of Grøning in Denmark. Though he had not been baptized but only signed with the cross, the king gave him a seat among the guests. One day king Olaf was presented with a costly ring by one of his men; all the retinue admired it greatly, with the exception of Gest, who let it be understood that he had seen better gold before. What he said proved to be true; for he produced a piece of what was once a buckle of a saddle, and all those who saw it had to admit that the gold in it was of superior quality. On the king’s asking him to tell how he got hold of the ornament, Gest recounted many of the adventures he had passed through. He related how he had fared to the court of king Hjalprek in Frankland and there had entered the service of Sigurd Fafnirsbane; furthermore, how he had followed Sigurd in battles against the sons of Hunding1 and against the sons of Gandalf.2 The piece of ring Sigurd had given him once when Grani’s chest harness had broken. After the death of Sigurd he had for some time attended the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok as they were about to set forth for Rome. Later he had sojourned with king Erik of Uppsala and with king Harold Fairhair. It was at the court of king Lodvi of Saxony that he had been signed with the cross. Finally he told how he had come by the name of Norna-Gest. While he still lay in the cradle, three wise women or Norns had come to his father’s estate at Grøning and had foretold the child’s destiny. The youngest of the Norns, deeming that the two others made rather light of her, determined to render void their promises of good fortune for the child; so she prophesied that his life was to last no longer than that of a candle standing lit beside the cradle. The eldest Norn at once quenched the candle and bade the mother hide it well. When Gest was grown to manhood, he got the candle in his own keeping; and now he showed it to the king. Gest afterward permitted himself, at the king’s desire, to be baptized. When he had come to be three hundred years of age, the king asked him how much longer he wished to live. “Only a short time,” answered Gest. He then lighted his candle and made ready for death. When the candle had burned down, Gest’s life was at an end.
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