418 RELIGION. SACRIFICES TO THE ALFAR, ETC. 



" ' It is true ; for I saw that which thou didst not see/ 

 * What was it?' said Thorstein. ' I can tell thee. When thou 

 earnest into the room a young white bear followed thee, and 

 ran before thee on the floor ; when he saw me he stopped, but 

 thou didst rush on and stumble over the young bear ; I think 

 thou art not the son of Krumm, but of higher kin' " l (Forn- 

 manna Sogur, iii. p. 113). 



" He (Thorhalli) dreamt a dream and went northward to 

 Finni. When he came to the door he said : ' I should like 

 thee to explain a dream which I have dreamt.' Finni said : 

 ' Go ; I will not hear thy dream,' and pushed the door and said : 

 ' Go away as quick as thou canst, and tell it to Gudmund of 

 Modruvellir, or else thou shalt be driven away with weapons at 

 once.' Then he went away to Modruvellir. Gudmund had 

 ridden that day out into the district and was expected home 

 that night. Einar, his brother, lay down and fell asleep. He 

 dreamt that an ox, very fine-looking, with large horns, walked 

 up through the district ; it walked up to Modruvellir and went 

 to every house of the farm, and at last to the high-seat, and 

 there fell dead. Thereupon Einar said : ' This forebodes great 

 tidings, and this is the fylgja of a man.' Then Gudmund 

 came home, and it was his custom to go to every house of the 

 farm beer. When he had come to his high-seat he leant back 

 and talked with Thorhalli, who told him his dream. Then he 

 rose in the seat when food was brought. It was hot milk, 

 warmed with stones. Gudmund said : ' This is not hot.' Thor- 

 laug said : ' Now I do not know where thy liking for the heat 

 comes from.' He drank again and said : ' This is not hot.' 

 Then he sank backward and was dead. Thorlaug said : ' This 

 is great tidings, which will be heard widely ; no man shall 

 touch him, and often has Einar had forebodings of lesser 

 tidings.' Then Einar came and prepared the body and said : 

 ' Thy dream, Thorhalli, has no small power, 2 and Finni has 

 seen in thee that the man to whom thou didst tell the dream 

 would be death-fated, and he liked Gudmund to become so. 

 Cold must he have been inside, as he did not feel anything ' 

 (Ljosvetninga, c. 21). 



The country as well as the people had its guardian spirits, or 

 Landvcettir, by which it and its inhabitants were protected, 

 and which were supposed to assume different shapes. What 

 the Disir and Hamingja were to the family, the Landvcettir 

 were to the whole or a large tract of the country ; and though 

 they were sometimes attached to special men, whom they 



1 Cf. also Orvar Odd's Saga, c. 4. 



2 This dream seems to have had the 



power to make the first man who heard 

 it death-fated. 



