of his nobles. This act of placing a child in the lap of another person was considered to make the latter the foster-parent or guardian of the child, and according to some writers it was looked upon as an insult, since whoever became the fosterfather of another man's child was counted as his inferior.

In the case of Hakon, however, no insult can have been intended, for his uncle, the Jarl Sigurd who brought him to the English court, was the bearer of many costly gifts from King Harald to King Æthelstan, amongst which we read of a ship with a golden beak and purple sails which had gilded shields to shelter the oarsmen on their benches. Æthelstan treated the young prince with kindness, and after having had him trained in all respects like one of his own children and instructed in the Christian faith, he sent him after several years' stay in England back to Norway, loaded with gifts of many kinds.1

1 See "Old English History," chap. ix. p. 159.

CHAPTER VI.

NORWAY IN EARLY TIMES.

Norwegians under Harald Haarfager go in search of new lands-Discovery of Iceland doubly important as leading to those of Greenland and America-Iceland first visited between 861 and 868; reported to be a land of mountain giants-Norwegians venture to revisit the island-Its settlement by Ingolf-He throws the consecrated door-posts of his former house into the sea and follows them for three years-How the Northmen proceeded when they settled-Thorolf brings a carved image of Thor for his temple-Builds a house and temple, sets up an altar to hold the sacred silver ring on which men swore-He prepares the Temple and the Thing-Divides Iceland into districts-Chieftains send to Norway to learn what the old laws were-Ulfljot spends three years in studying the laws -Hakon's Laws-Iceland a Republic-Cruel wars for mastery-State of Norway after Harald's death-Hakon's reign-His subjects refuse to become Christians-Sigurd Jarl tries to screen Hakon-He makes sign of cross or Thor's mallet-Hakon's defeat and death-Troubles in Norway-Olaf Trygvasson, his deeds, wars and death-Olaf the SaintKnud the Great-Olaf's death-Miracles said to have been wrought by Olaf's body-Magnus the Good dies and leaves Denmark to Svend Estridsen-Troubles in Sweden-Erik Sejrsæl-Olaf the Lap-king, first Christian king-Bold language of peasants-Olaf's sons Anund and Edmund-Last of Ynglingar race of Uppsala kings-Erik the Red discovers Greenland-Erik's son Leif brings monks to Greenland, builds Churches-Fate of Greenland-" Black Death "-Hans Egede and his wife go to teach the savage Greenlanders-Leif's wish to make discoveries-He reaches American coasts-Vinland and its grapesSettlers all murdered by natives-Last notice of Vinland -Columbus re-opens the way.

PART I.

ICELAND.

Early Explorers.-BEFORE we quite leave the time of the Norwegian King Harald Haarfager, we must see how his stern rule, by driving so many of his subjects forth in search of new homes, led to the discovery and settlement in the Northern

Ocean of the island of Iceland, which soon grew to be the most important colony of Norway. This discovery is doubly interesting because it proved the means of encouraging the northern seamen to venture still further westward, till at length they reached the coasts of Greenland, and landed at many spots along the eastern side of the North American Continent. It is true that their discovery of America led to no lasting results, and was forgotten by the other nations of Europe -if it had ever been known to them-till many ages later, when the voyages of Columbus and the other great discoverers of the time drew the attention of learned men to accounts given in the sagas of the early landing of Northmen on the American coasts. But the fact that they did visit the shores of America ought not to be forgotten, and we must now see how the settlement of Iceland and these later and less useful discoveries were brought about.

Iceland was first visited by a Swede, called Gardar, by a Norwegian Nadod, who named the country Snæland (Snowland), and by another Norwegian known as Floki Rafn, who gave the island its present name. These three men all landed in Iceland between the years 861 and 868, and even passed many months at a time there, but it is not certain who among them had been the first to come to the island. On their return to Scandinavia they gave a dreadful account of the land, which according to their report had been cursed by the gods, and given over to the power of horrible giants, who lived hidden within caves and mountains where they kept up a neverending strife in the midst of liquid fire, boiling water, and burning stones. After the Northmen had heard this report, some years passed before anyone cared to venture upon another visit to a country of which such an alarming character could be given; but when men began to feel the weight of Harald's harsh rule in Norway, they remembered that Floki's companions had not thought so badly of it as he did. Some of the old vikingar then declared that any land must be better than the kingdom over which a Harald Haarfager ruled, while many of the poorer men in Norway said that they did not care for the mountain giants, if only they might reach a spot where neither king nor jarl could have power over them. So

all who were able to go, set sail in search of this free land in the far north of which they knew so little.

1

One of the most important of the expeditions fitted out about this time was that headed by Ingolf the son of a Norwegian Jarl who had slain his foe in a deadly combat known as a "holmgang," and who, finding that King Harald meant to punish him according to the laws, embarked with all his family and household slaves, and reached Iceland late in the autumn of the year 874. When he caught sight of the land he threw into the sea the consecrated posts of his Norwegian house which he had brought with him, vowing that he would make his home wherever the waves and winds should cast them ashore. They were however drifted away, and for three years Ingolf, attended by his slaves, continued to seek for them, until at length the sacred door-posts were found in a bay on the south-west of the island, where he fixed his abode, and began to build houses on the spot which is now known as Reykiavik, and has always been the chief town of Iceland. Ingolf may thus rank as the first settler on the island, but he was soon followed by so many other Norwegians of noble birth, that in the course of a few years all the habitable parts of Iceland had been peopled by them and their followers, and the usages and laws, as well as the religion and language of the old country, had been carried to this new colony.

Northern Customs.-Among the many old sagas of Norway there is one called the Eyrbyggja Saga, to which we will now refer on account of the light thrown on northern customs in the story of the Jarl Thorolf-Mostrar-Skegg when he went to Iceland after having been outlawed, in 880, by King Harald because he had refused to give up to the king's officer his kinsman Björn, who had been guilty of piracy. It appears that Thorolf, who acted according to the usages practised in such cases by all great Norwegian settlers, carried with him—

Holmgang meant a fight on an island (Holm), and this mode of fighting was one of the most fatal practised by the Northmen. When two men wanted to settle a quarrel by fighting, it was the custom in the Scandinavian lands for them to go to some small and deserted island where they might be free from interruption, and they often fought with such fury that both died from the wounds which they had given each other. Thus a holmgang came to be looked upon as the fiercest of all single combats.

when he sailed from Norway with his family and slaves-the image of the god Thor and the earth on which it had stood, together with the greater part of the wood-work of the temple in which he had worshipped in his home. Many friends followed him, and when the vessels drew near to the coasts of Iceland, Thorolf as pontiff, or chief priest of all who had come with him, threw into the sea the columns of the temple on which the image of Thor was carved, and following these sacred objects they entered a bay which from its breadth he called "Breida-Fjord." Here Thorolf landed and took formal possession of the country in the usual manner, which was by walking with a burning fire-brand in his hands round the lands he meant to occupy, and setting fire to the grass along the boundary line. He then built a large house with a temple near it to receive the sacred columns, together with Thor's image and the consecrated earth that he had brought from Norway. In the middle of the temple was a sanctuary or altar, on which was placed a silver ring two pounds in weight, which was worn by the pontiff at all public meetings of the people of his district, and used to give solemnity to an oath. So sacred was this practice held, that the person who perjured himself after swearing upon Thor's ring was looked upon by the Northmen as the vilest of men.

When Thorolf had provided the temple with these sacred objects and with the basins, knives, and other instruments used for making the sacrifices, he prepared niches all round the building for the images of any other northern gods that the people might wish to set up for worship. Next he caused the space around the temple to be enclosed by rows of stones to prepare it for the annual "Herjar-Thing" (the assise), or "assembly of the chiefs," which according to the old northern usage should be held in the open air within sight and sound of the sacrifices. The ground on which the members of the Thing held these meetings was considered as sacred as that on which the temple stood, and was not to be defiled by the shedding of blood in anger nor trodden by the feet of men carrying arms. In the middle of the enclosure one spot was raised higher than the rest, where the jurors and witnesses were to stand forth before a trial began and to take a solemn oath in the