Icelandic author of the early 13th century Heimskringla mastered this literary style particularly well, stylistically and psychologically. His stories includes a so-called mannjevning (literally "comparison of men") between Eystein and Sigurd, in which the two boast about their skills and deeds in an attempt to outdo each other. In a similar fashion, Snorri also tells a story about how Eystein managed to cure the melancholy of a friend, by agreeing to regularly clear time to talk with him about what troubled him. On his physical appearance, Snorri wrote that Eystein "was the handsomest man that could be seen. He had blue open eyes; his hair yellow and curling; his stature not tall, but of the middle size." More reliable information, particularly about Eystein's building-projects, is offered in earlier sagas such as the work of Theodoric the Monk, a Norwegian chronicler who wrote in the late 12th century. Reign The co-rule between Eystein, Sigurd and Olaf entailed a shared kingship, and the kingdom itself was not divided into fixed borders. During the early years of their reign, Eystein is nonetheless said to have stayed mostly in Western Norway and Trøndelag, while Sigurd was in Viken. In practice, only Eystein and Sigurd ever ruled as kings, as Olaf was considerably younger and died when he was only seventeen years old, and virtually nothing is known about him beyond his name. One of the earliest acts by the kings was passing a retterbot, a special law ordained by the king, which among other things abolished various royal taxes that originated from the Danish rule of Sweyn Knutsson and Ælfgifu (under Cnut the Great) in the early 1030s. The kings became very popular because of this. According to some sources, the main motivation for abolishing the taxes was to gain the support of the population for Sigurd's planned crusade. In 1107 or 1108, after years of preparations, Sigurd sailed with a large fleet on a crusade to the Holy Land, the first European king ever to do so. Sigurd arrived back in Norway in 1111. Eystein, on the other hand, did not engage in any warfare, and considerably less information is thus written about him than about Sigurd, although Snorri notes that he "had also effected much in the country that was useful while King Sigurd was on his journey." While Sigurd gained fame in posterity as the "warrior king", although mainly because of