"
Then I had to fetch Bertric, and thereafter we arranged all that
was needful as to ship and crew. We were to have thirty men, and
that would be as many as we should want, seeing that Gerda's folk
would join us so soon as they knew that she had returned. Also we
must find a pilot, for Gerda's place lay some four days' sail down
the coast, at the head of the fjord which men call Hvinfjord, or
Flekkefjord, which lies among the mountains south of Stavanger, in
a land of lakes and forests and bright streams, of which she had
told me much.
Presently Hakon spoke to me of another matter wherein I might help
him. It was his hope that he might win Norway to the Christian
faith, and, indeed, I think that he cared little for the crown if
it might not give him power to that end. He knew that in the long
days of the homeward cruise both Gerda and I had been talking much
with Father Phelim and the two English clergy, so that we could not
be aught but friendly toward the faith, if not more.
"Stubborn are our Norse folk," he said, "and the work will be hard.
Maybe I shall do little, but someone else may take up the task
which I mean to begin. It must needs be begun at some time. In that
quiet place of Gerda's it is likely that men may listen peacefully,
and so will be a centre whence one may hope much.
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