Our author has drawn information as to Biorn the Champion of the Broadwickers from a saga about him which no longer exists, save for the fragments preserved in our story. Biorn's sojourn in Jomsburg, where evidently the title of Broadwickers' Champion was conferred on him, and his joining Styrbiorn, the Swedes' champion, in his ill-fated expedition against King Eric the Victorious, is nowhere mentioned, though many historical notices exist relating to Styrbiorn, and a special fragment setting forth the chief events of his life, and a particularly detailed description of the battle of Fyrisfield, where he fell ("Fornmannasogur", v. 245-251)™

We have to deal with a pure romance in the account of Biorn's last voyage from Iceland (chap. XLVII, p. 134), and Gudleif's meeting with him in some unknown land (chap. LXIV). Biorn left Iceland when north-eastern winds prevailed mostly for a whole summer season, that is, till they, never changing (!), had brought Biorn to his destination. Gudleif falls in with the same persistent gales west of Ireland, yet comes in spite of that to Biorn's country. Gudleif knows no name for the country, and apparently never was curious enough to ask about it: he falls in with a chiefly-looking person talking Icelandic, who refuses to tell his name, but is simple enough to question Gudleif mostly about people whom Biorn knew aforetime, and to send gifts to just the two persons he loved best in Iceland, with the naive declaration that they came from him "who was a greater friend of the goodwife of Frodis-water than of the Priest of Holyfell." It is an obvious matter that this was written after Thorfin Karlsefni's saga had made the Icelanders familiar with the geographical position of the North American continent. It may, of course, be derived from the lost saga of Biorn; but it must not be overlooked that chapters LXIII and LXIV of our saga occupy a peculiar position in the book. Our saga is really an unfinished work. For some reason or other it leaves the last eighteen years of Snorri's life a perfect blank. Did Abbot Hall, supposing he was the author, leave it in that state, on being transferred to Thickby? But however that may be, the fact is, that a gap of eighteen years there is at the end of the book between chapters LXII and LXV. This, we take it, struck someone as a drawback and a blemish, and so, not knowing what records to draw upon for further facts relating to Snorri, he dashed in those two chapters to round off the tale, the first dealing with an uncouth popular legend, the second securing for goodman Kiartan of Frodis-water a descent from a real ruler of men, an American gothi, in fact. The language of these chapters, however, appears in no marked manner to differ from the rest of the book, so they must be from a contemporary hand. It must be said in passing, however, that the Gudleif episode is of great beauty, and, together with the weird story of the bull Glossy, relieves the latter part of the saga from the reproach of dulness.

Superstition plays a very conspicuous part in our saga, and the folklore embodied in it bears witness to a very imaginative author. Touching in its serious simplicity is the heathen's belief in the holy purity of the spot which is regarded as the god's special habitation. In this respect the faith of the Thorsnessings is depicted in our saga in perfect harmony with what we know from elsewhere, about the northern heathen's ideal conception of the purity and delicacy of the personified powers of nature. In the edition of "Landnama" by Justice Hawk (iv, 7, p. 258), we read: "This was the beginning of the heathen laws, that men should not go to sea in figure-headed ships, but if they did so, they should remove the figure-head before they came in sight of land, nor should they sail up to the land with gaping heads or yawning snouts, lest the land-sprites should take fright thereat." Thorolf Mostbeard's injunction, "that no man unwashed should turn his eyes to Holyfell," proceeds evidently from the same high conception of the pure holiness of the supernatural powers he believed in.

But beside this charming phase of the heathen's belief, we have also the cruder forms of faith in sorcery, represented by Cunning Gils, Katla, Geirrid, and Thorgrima Witchface, in portents such as those of Frodis-water, in ghosts, such as Thorolf Halt-foot, Thorod Scatcatcher and his crew, Thorgunna, Stir, and the "revenants" of Frodis-water. In the case of Thrand the Strider we have the Christian churchman's idea of the cause to which the "hamremi", or preternatural strength, was due, which, like a fit, would seize the ancient heathen at moments when success or safety depended on desperate efforts. With the heathen this was heredity derived from trolls, with the Christian it was "devilhood" (p. 167). For folklore, a good deal of which seems to be derived from popular songs, the Ere-dwellers' story stands, beside the Grettir's story, pre-eminent among Icelandic sagas. It is evident that the author has been peculiarly fascinated with this kind of literature, realizing how genuinely national it was, and how well it lent itself to treatment by a good story-teller. The whole episode about Thorgunna, chaps. L-LV, forms a saga within a saga between two chapters which are inseparably connected.

As to the heathen cult, our story contains one of the most important records extant in the literature. The description of the Temple of Thor, built by Thorolf, is as graphic as it is significant, and may be regarded as a "locus classicus". There attaches to it the one drawback, that the author has left us in the dark as to the meaning and use of the "regin-naglar", gods' nails, a term which only occurs here, unless the nails that secured the stability of the high-seat pillars were so called. The temple description of our saga is most interestingly supplemented by that of the temple of the "alsherjar-gothi" of Kjalarness, as given in the otherwise romancing "Kialnesinga saga": "Thorgrim" (grandson of Ingolf Ernson, the first settler) "was a great sacrificer. He had a large temple reared in his homefield, one hundred feet long and sixty feet wide, whereunto all men (all his Thingmen) should pay temple-toll. There Thor was held in highest honour. From the inner end thereof there was a building in the shape of a cap. The temple was arrayed with hangings, and had windows all round. There Thor stood in the middle, and on either hand the other gods. In front thereof (i.e., of the row of the idols) was a stall wrought with great cunning, and lined at the top with iron, whereon there should burn a fire that must never go out; that they called a hallowed fire." Here then, in respect of architectural form, we have the interesting detail given, that the building, which corresponds to that additional room, which in the temple of Thorsness was built to the inner end of it, "of that fashion whereof now is the choir of a church," was in the shape of a "cap". The form of the public temple of Keelness cannot be traced now. But at the homestead of Thyrill, some ten miles distant from the spot where the temple of Keelness must have stood, there have been laid bare of late years the ruins of a "blot-hus", house of sacrifice, private temple, which we know from "Hord Grimkelson's saga" ("Islendinga sogur", 1847, ii, pp. 109-10), existed in the latter part of the tenth century, at which even its devout owner, Thorstein Goldnob, was slain in October, 986. This private temple was, though not in size, in shape undoubtedly, modelled on the public temple of Keelness. The excavated ground-plan shows clearly that at one end a semicircular chamber was built, divided from the main building by a party wall. It was, in fact, the apse of the temple, appropriately termed by the Icelanders "hufa"= cap. A nave with a walled-off apse seems to have been the general form of the heathen temples of Iceland.

In its account of the temple rites our saga agrees closely with other existing records. Thus, again, the "Keelnessings' saga" states that on the stall should lie a stout ring made of silver, which the temple-priest should wear on his arm at all man-motes; thereon should all oaths be taken in matters relating to ordeal cases. On that stall, too, there should stand a bowl of copper, a large one, wherein should be poured all the blood which flowed from animals given to Thor, or to men, which blood they called "hlaut", and the bowl "hlautbolli". The "hlaut" should be sprinkled over the folk and beasts; but the wealth which was paid to the temple should be used for the entertainment of men, when sacrificial feasts were held. But those men whom they sacrificed should be hurled into that fen which was outside by the door, which fen they called the pit of sacrifice ("Keelnessings' saga", ch. ii).

A third record relating to the temple rites we have in Hawk the Justice's edition of "Landnama", iv, ch. 7, pp. 258-59: "A ring, weighing two or more (var. lec. twenty) ounces should lie on the stall in every head-temple; that ring each gothi should wear on his arm at all Things prescribed by law, such as he was bound to hold himself, having first reddened it in the blood of a neat which he himself had sacrificed there. Any man who had there to do business as by law provided before the court, should first deliver an oath on that ring, and name to himself two witnesses or more, saying these words: I call witnesses thereunto that I take oath on ring, a lawful oath, so help me Frey and Niord and the Almighty god, as I shall this case plead or defend, or witness bear, or verdicts give, or dooms deliver, according as I know rightest and truest and ratherest lawful, and all lawful deeds out of hand turn such as unto my share fall while I be at this Thing.... There were men chosen to ward the temples even according to their wisdom and righteousness; even they should name judges at the Things, and rule the pleading of cases; hence were they called gothar. Every man should pay toll to temple, even as tithe to churches now."

"Hlaut," n., by its root-vowel, belongs to the gradation series jo (ju, u) -au -u -o, and stands to "hljota", as "skaut", n., offshoot, skirt, to "skjota", "saup", n., sip-meat, to "supa", "staup", n., what of more or less solid nature is turned out of a stoup, to "stupa"; and since "hljota" means to come by by lot, to come in for as a share, "hlaut" seems simply to mean the blood-lot (collectively speaking) which was kept in the bowl to from the sprinkler fall to every worshipper's share. Accordingly, "hlaut-teinn" would mean allotment rod, distributing rod, sprinkler.

The ring figures here, as elsewhere throughout its interesting history, as an emblem of unity -- the unity in one person of two distinct functions: pontifical supremacy in things religious, lordly supremacy in matters of state.

******

Finally, one word about our treatment of the songs of these sagas. We have dealt with them even more literally than those of the sagas of the first volume. We have endeavoured to allow to the "kenningar" or periphrastic expressions the same force in the translation as they bear in the original; but considering that this method must necessarily carry with it a certain amount of obscurity to a modern reader, we have drawn up a list, under the heading Poetical periphrasis in Index III., "Subject-matter," of all these kenningar in a way we thought would recommend itself best to students and general readers alike. Our translation of the songs of the Ere-dwellers' saga is based on Vigfusson's prose arrangement of the same at the end of his edition of that saga, those of the "Heathslayings' saga" on Jon Thorkelsson's explanation in "Skyringar a visum i nokkurum islenzkum sogum, Reykjavik, 1868."

The chronological list for the Ere-dwellers' story follows in all essential points Vigfusson's table at the end of his edition; for the Heath-slayings' story we have followed his Timatal (excepting the date of the Heath-battle), not because we think it sound, but. because it is the accepted chronology at present, as indeed it was long before he wrote.

Genealogical tables have been added in order to facilitate the perusal of the book.

An abstract of the Ere-dwellers' story, in English, by Walter Scott, was published in "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities", 1813, pp. 475-513, reprinted in P. Blackwell's "Northern Antiquities", 1847, pp. 517-540. -- Of the Lay of the Mewlithers there is found what is meant for a translation into English, in the "Corpus Poeticum", vol. ii, pp. 58-60.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ORIGINAL TEXT --

Sveinsson, Einar Olafur (Ed.): "Islenzk Fornrit, vol. IV: Eyrbyggja Saga" (University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1935).

OTHER TRANSLATIONS --

Palsson, Hermann & Paul Edwards (trans): "Eyrbyggja Saga" (Penguin Classics, London, 1972, 1989).

RECOMMENDED READING --

Anonymous: "Egil's Saga" (Translation: Hermann Palsson & Paul Edwards, Penguin Classics, London, 1976).

Anonymous: "Saga of Grettir the Strong" (Translation: G.A. Hight, London, 1914; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-Text #9, 1995)

Anonymous: "The Story of the Heath Slayings" (Translation: William Morris & Eirikr Magnusson, Bernard Quaritch, London, 1892; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text #34, 1998).

Anonymous: "Laxdaela Saga" (Translation: Muriel Press; The Temple Classics, London, 1899; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text #32, 1997).

Anonymous: "Life and Death of Cormac the Skald" (Translation: W.G. Collingwood & J. Stefansson; Ulverston, 1901; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text #7, 1995).

Anonymous: "The Story of Burnt Njal" (Translation: George W. DaSent, London, 1861; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text #11, 1995).

Anonymous: "The Vinland Sagas" (Translation: Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Palsson; Penguin Classics, London, 1965) Contains translations of "Greenlanders Saga" and "Eirik the Red's Saga".

Jones, Gwyn: "History of the Vikings" (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1968, 1973, 1984).

Sturluson, Snorri: "The Heimskringla" (Translation: Samual Laing, London, 1844; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text #15, 1996).