When the Bonders who were at the Thing saw it, they started up, and bowed themselves down before the ugly idol.

Thereupon it was set down upon the Thing field; and on the one side of it sat the Bonders, and on the other the King and his people.
"Then Dale Gudbrand stood up and said, 'Where now, king, is thy God?
I think he will now carry his head lower; and neither thou, nor the man with the horn, sitting beside thee there, whom thou callest Bishop, are so bold to-day as on the former days.

For now our God, who rules over all, is come, and looks on you with an angry eye; and now I see well enough that you are terrified, and scarcely dare raise your eyes.

Throw away now all your opposition, and believe in the God who has your fate wholly in his hands.' "The king now whispers to Kolbein the Strong, without the Bonders perceiving it, 'If it come so in the course of my speech that the Bonders look another way than towards their idol, strike him as hard as thou canst with thy club.' "The king then stood up and spoke.

'Much hast thou talked to us this morning, and greatly hast thou wondered that thou canst not see our God; but we expect that he will soon come to us.