Read "Paradise Reclaimed" by Halldor Laxness online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
We have now heard how Steinar of Hlíðar in Steinahlíðar left Iceland to visit his horse at the Danish king's residence; how he delivered the gift he brought and received for it few thanks and fewer titles, and then started to drink water in Denmark. But as was previously explained, this water brought him a drinking-companion who was to mould his destiny for a time-the man who was once tethered to a boulder outside a church in Iceland.
After a while, Steinar revealed his curiosity to see this country that the Lord of Hosts had indicated as part of true doctrine. If all the needs of soul and body were provided in that country, then Steinar thought it obvious that Joseph Smith propounded a truer doctrine than the Danish kings, and he wanted his children to benefit therefrom. Hence it followed that he, old Steinar of Hlíðar, on behalf of himself and his family, should become a disciple of this revelation; but he added that he was sadly short of the funds required to betake himself across land and sea to the other side of the earth. But the hardest thing of all would be to explain such a journey to his family.