Now Sigurd bade all those who were present gather in solemn Thing, that
they might make Havelok king indeed; and that was a gathering of all the
best in our quarter of the land, so that all would uphold what they had
done. And when they were gathered in the great hall in due order, the
doors were set wide open, and outside the freemen who followed the
chiefs sat in silence to see what they might and hear.
Then swore Havelok to keep the ancient laws and customs, and to do
even-handed justice to all men, and to be bound by all else that a good
king should hold by. Sometimes these oaths are not kept as well as they
might be, but I was certain that here was one who would keep them.
Thereafter Sigurd brought forth a crown that he had had made hastily by
his craftsmen from two gold arm rings, and they set it on Havelok's
head, and hailed him as king indeed; and one by one the chiefs came and
swore all fealty to him, beginning with Sigurd, and ending with a boy of
some seventeen winters, who looked at the king he bent before as though
he was Thor himself.
Then they would have had Havelok forth to the people at once; but he
bade them hearken for a moment, and said, taking Goldberga by the hand,
"Were it not for this my wife, I do not think that I had been here
today, and without her I am nothing. Now I am king by your word, and I
think that I might bid you take her as queen.
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