Adalward
Source: TW
29. Glowing with fervor, then, Adalward entered Sweden to preach the Gospel and in a short time led to the Christian faith all in Sigtuna and round about.
He also secretly agreed with Egino, the most saintly bishop of Scania, that they should go together to the pagan temple called Uppsala
to see if they could perhaps offer Christ
some fruit of their labors there,
for they would willingly undergo every kind of torture for the sake of destroying that house which was the seat of barbarous superstition.
For, if it were torn down, or preferably burned, the conversion of the whole nation might follow.
Observing that the people murmured about this design of the confessors of God,
the most pious king Stenkil shrewdly kept them from such an undertaking,
declaring that they would at once be punished with death and he be driven from the kingdom for bringing malefactors into the country,
and that everyone who now believed would quickly relapse into paganism,
as they could see had lately been the case in Slavia.
The bishops deferred to these arguments of the king and going through all the cities of the Goths,
they broke up idols and thereafter won many thousands of pagans to Christianity.
When Adalward later died in our midst, the archbishop appointed in his place a certain Tadico of Ramelsloh, who out of love for his belly preferred even to starve at home rather than be an apostle abroad. Let these remarks about Sweden and its rites suffice.
Heimskringla
Source: TW
विस्तारः (द्रष्टुं नोद्यम्)
Of course snake gnawing its way out can’t have been real but the gist of events is clear
Heimskringla: The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway By Snorri Sturluson
King Olaf went up to the house immediately with his people;
made an attack on the loft in which Raud was sleeping, and broke it open.
The men rushed in: Raud was taken and bound,
and of the people with him some were killed
and some made prisoners.
Then the king’s men went to a lodging in which Raud’s house servants slept,
and killed some, bound others, and beat others.
Then the king ordered Raud to be brought before him,
and offered him baptism.
“And,” says the king, “I will not take thy property from thee, but rather be thy friend,
if thou wilt make thyself worthy to be so.”
Raud exclaimed with all his might against the proposal, saying he would never believe in Christ,
and making his scoff of God.
Then the king was wroth, and said Raud should die the worst of deaths.
And the king ordered him to be bound to a beam of wood, with his face uppermost,
and a round pin of wood set between his teeth to force his mouth open.
Then the king ordered an adder to be stuck into the mouth of him; but the serpent would not go into his mouth, but shrunk back when Raud breathed against it.
Now the king ordered a hollow branch of an angelica root to be stuck into Raud’s mouth;
others say the king put his horn into his mouth,
and forced the serpent to go in by holding a red-hot iron before the opening.
So the serpent crept into the mouth of Raud and down his throat,
and gnawed its way out of his side;
and thus Raud perished.
King Olaf took here much gold and silver, and other property of weapons, and many sorts of precious effects;
and all the men who were with Raud he either had baptized,
or if they refused had them killed or tortured.
Then the king took the dragonship which Raud had owned,
and steered it himself;
for it was a much larger and handsomer vessel than the Crane. In front it had a dragon’s head, and aft a crook,
Orkneyinga Saga
The Orkneyinga Saga
1873
Joseph Anderson
Source: TW
When Earl Sigurd had listened to King Olaf’s long and eloquent harangue,
he hardened his mind against him, and said:
“I will tell you, King Olaf, that I have absolutely resolved that I will not, and I dare not, renounce the faith which my kinsmen and forefath before me, because I do not know better counsels than they, a not know that the faith which you preach is better than that which we have had and have held all our lives.”
When the King saw that the Earl persisted obstinately in his error,
he caught hold of his young son, who was with him,
and who had been brought up in the Islands.
The King carried this son of the Earl to the forepart of the ship.
There he drew his sword, and made ready to hew the boy down, saying at the same time:
“Now I will show you, Earl Sigurd, that I shall spare no man who will not serve Almighty God,
or listen to my preaching of the blessed message.
Therefore I shall kill your son before your eyes this instant,
with the sword now in my hand,
unless you and your men will serve my God.
For I shall not leave these Islands until I have completely fulfilled his blessed commission,
and you have been baptized along with this son of yours whom I now hold.”
And because the Earl was situated as he was,
he chose the better alternative of doing as the King desired, and so he embraced the true faith.
Then the Earl was baptized, and so were all the people of the Orkneys.
Then Earl Sigurd became the Earl of King Olaf according to this world’s dignity, and held from him lands and dominions,
and gave him as a hostage his son who has already been mentioned.
His name was Hvelp or Hundi (whelp or hound).
King Olaf had him baptized by the name of Hlödver, and took him with him to Norway.
Earl Sigurd confirmed all their agreement with oaths.
After this King Olaf sailed from the Orkneys, leaving priests to instruct the people in the holy faith. King Olaf and Earl Sigurd parted friends.
Hlödver lived but a short time, and after his death Earl Sigurd paid no homage to King Olaf. Then he married the daughter of Melkólf, the King of Scots, and their son was Thorfinn.