41^4 VALHOLL-VALHALLA. 



Then she slept with the kin*;, who when he took leave asked 

 her to let their child, if a boy, be called Gantrek. 



" When Snotra came home, her father said : 'A great wonder 

 has happened that this king lias come to our farm and eaten 

 up a great deal of our property which we 'least of all wanted to 

 lose. I think we cannot maintain our family on account of 

 poverty, and therefore I have brought together all my property r 

 and want to divide the inheritance between my sons. I and 

 my wife and my thrall intend to go to Valhalla. I cannot 

 reward the thrall better for his faithfulness than by taking him 

 with me ; Grilling together with his sister Snotra shall get 

 my good ox; Fjolmodi and his sister Hjotra shall have my 

 gold-bars ; Imsigul and his sister Fjotra shall have all the 

 corn and the fields ; but I ask you, my children, not to increase 

 your number so that you cannot preserve my inheritance/ 

 When Skafnortung had said what he liked they all went up ou 

 Gillingsrock, and they led their lather and mother down on the 

 ./Etternisstapi, and they went cheerfully and merrily to Odin, 

 Now when they came homo they consulted how to manage ; 

 they took wooden pins and pinned the vadmal (thick woollen 

 cloth) round every one, so that none of them touched the other 

 naked ; they thought this the best way of preventing their 

 number increasing. Snotra became aware that she was with 

 child ; she moved the wooden pin in the vaduial so that she 

 could be touched with the hand, and affected sleep. When 

 Gilling woke he touched her cheek with his hand, and said : 

 ' This is bad that I have hurt thee ; it seems to me thou art 

 much stouter than before.' She answered : 'Hide this as well 

 as thou canst.' He said : ' That shame I will not have, for 

 this cannot be hidden when our number is increased.' 



" Two black snakes crept on the gold-bars of Fjolmod, who- 

 therefore with his wife threw himself down from the /Etternis- 

 stapi. Imsigul saw a bird take corn from his field ; therefore 

 he and his wife went down from ^Etternisstapi. Gilling, the 

 third brother, did the same after Gautrek, Snotra's boy, had 

 slain his ox. Snotra being left alone went to King Gauti " 

 (Gautrek's Saga, c. 1, 2). 



The scald Eyvind composed a poem on King Hakon 

 Adalsteinsfostri after his death in the battle of Stord against 

 the sons of Eirik Blood-axe, and in this poem we see how he 

 made his entrance into Valhalla, and how Odin sent Valkyrias 

 to choose those he loved. 



" The body of King Hakon Adalstein's foster-son, after the 

 battle, was carried to Sceheim in Lygrisfjord, in North Horda- 



