>>11136674‘What we farmers thought, King Hákon, when you [170] held the first
assembly here in Þrándheimr and we had accepted you as king and received
from you our ancestral rights, was that we then had heaven in our grasp, but
now we are not sure which is more the case, that we will have received freedom
or that you will have had us enslaved anew in an amazing way, that we should
abandon the beliefs that our fathers held before us, and all our forefathers, first
about the age of burning, and now about the age of mound-burial, and they
have been far more noble than we, and yet these beliefs have served us well.
We have become so fond of you that we have let you decide all our laws and
privileges. Now this is what we desire and the farmers have agreed on, that
we keep the laws which you established for us here at the Frostaþing and we
consented to with you. We will all follow you and keep you as king, as long
as any of the farmers who are now present at this assembly is alive, if you,
king, will exercise some moderation in asking of us only what we can grant
you and what is not impossible for us. But if you try to pursue this business
with such great rigour as to treat us with physical force and tyranny, then we
farmers have made our decision, all of us to part company with you and find
ourselves another ruler who will carry on towards us so that we can hold to
that belief which we wish in freedom. Now you, king, must choose from these
alternatives before the assembly is broken up.’
The farmers gave loud applause to this speech and say that that is how
they want it to be.
