SUPERSTITION REGARDING HIGH-SEAT PILLARS. 060 



mother. He then said that the place should be called Thor- 

 disarholt. He chose a site for his residence in a very beautiful 

 grove, raised a large temple, one hundred feet in length ; and 

 when he was digging holes for his high-seat pillars he found 

 the image of Frey of silver, as he had been foretold. Then he 

 said, ' It is indeed true that you cannot go against fate, but 

 nevertheless I like this. This farm shall be called Hof 

 (temple) ' ' (Vatnsdaela, 15). 1 



Lodmund the old, a Norwegian from Voss, went to Iceland : 



" He threw his high-seat pillars overboard at sea, and said he 

 would settle where they were driven ashore. They landed in the 

 eastern fjords, and he settled in Lodmnndarfjord, where he 

 lived that winter. When he heard that his high-seat pillars 

 were on the south coast he carried on board the ship all his 

 property, hoisted the sail, laid himself down, and bade no one 

 be so bold as to utter his name. After he had been lying 

 down for a short time a loud crash was heard, and it was 

 seen that a large land-slip had come down upon the farm 

 where Lodmund had dwelt. He rose and said, 'It is my 

 imprecation that the ship which hereafter sails out from 

 here shall never come undamaged back from the sea.' He 

 took up land where the high-seat pillars had come ashore " 

 (Landnama iv. 5). 2 



1 Cf. Landnama, iii., c. 2, 7. 



2 Cf. also Vatnsdrcla, 12. Landnama, 



i., c. 10. Ondvegissula = high - seat 

 pillar. 



