If OESHIP OF GROVES, ETC. 383 



were worshipped, and no one was allowed to look at Helgafell 

 (a holy mountain) before he had washed himself in the morn- 

 ing, and no cattle were to be killed there. 



" Ey vind, the son of Lodin, settled in the valley of Flatey 

 (his land extending) as far as Gunnsteinar (Gunn-rocks), which 

 he worshipped." 



" Thorir Snepil took up the whole of Fnjoskadal to Odeila, 

 and dwelt at Lund (grove) ; he worshipped the grove " (Land- 

 nama iii., ch. 17). 



" Herd's brother-in-law Indridi wished to slay the bondi 

 Thorsteiu Gullknapr (gold-button), and waited for him on the 

 way to his sacrificing house, whither he was wont to go. When 

 Thorstein came, he entered the sacrificing house and fell on his 

 face before the stone he worshipped, which stood there, and 

 then he spoke to it. Indridi stood outside the house ; he 

 heard this sung; in the stone : 



'to 



Thou hast hither Before the sun shines, 



For the last time The hard Indridi 



With death-fated feet Will justly reward thee 



Trodden the ground ; For thy evil doings. 



" Thorstein went out and home ; Indridi distinctly saw him 

 going, and told him not to run so fast. He went in front of him. 

 and at once struck him with the sword of Soti under the chin 

 so that his head flew off" (Herd's Saga, c. 37). 



" On the ness stands a mountain, which he (Thorolf Mostrar- 

 skegg) held in such reverence that no one was allowed to look 

 on it unwashed, and nothing was to be killed on it, neither 

 men nor cattle. He called it Helgafell (holy mountain), and 

 he believed he would go thither when he died, as well as all 

 his kinsmen on the ness. On the point at which Thor had 

 landed he made the place for all judgments, and there estab- 

 lished a lierad-thing (a Thing for the district). This place 

 was so holy that he would not allow the field to be defiled in 

 any manner " (Eyrbyggja, c. 4). 



Fire seems to have been looked upon as holy ; and it was 

 sometimes the practice to ride round the land with fire, or to 

 throw a burning arrow, so as to signify ownership. 



" Jorund godi (temple-priest), son of Hrafu Heimski, settled 

 west of Fljot, where it is now called Svertingsstadir ; there he 

 raised a large temple. A small piece of land lay unsettled east 

 of Fljot, between Krossa (river) and Joldustein ; Jorund went 



