HAKON THE OLD AT LARGS. 197

was a great Politician in his time ; and succeeded in many things heforc he lost Largs. Snorro's death hy murder had happened about twenty years before llakon's by broken heart. He is called Hakon the Old, though one finds his age was but fifty-nine, probably a longish life for a Norway King. Snorro's narrative ceases when Snorro himself was bom ; that is to say, at the threshold of King Sverrir ; of whose exploits and doubtful birth it is guessed by some that Snorro willingly forbore to speak in the hearing of such a Hakon.