OCULAR DELUSIONS. 445 



and men were sitting at the fires at Frocla, they saw a halt' 

 moon appearing on the wall of the room. All those who were 

 inside could see it. It moved backwards against the course of 

 the sun through the room. It did not vanish while they sat at 

 the fire. Thorod asked Thorir Wood-leg what this foreboded. 

 Thorir answered it was the Urdarmani (moon of Urd). Deaths 

 of men will follow upon this. This continued all the week ; 

 the urdarmani entered every night " (Eyrbyggja, c. 52). 1 



"Late in the summer Hord went to Saurboer with twenty- 

 three men, for ft Thorstein Oxnabrodd (ox -staff) had boasted 

 that his witchcraft-knowing toster-mother Skroppa could with 

 her sorcery effect that the Holmverjar (men ot Holm, the 

 island) were not able to harm him. They came to the beer ; 

 Skroppa and the daughters of the bondi Helga and Sigrid were 

 at home, but Thorsteiu was at his sreter at Kuvallardal, in 

 Svinadal. Skroppa opened all the rooms ; she made sjonhver- 

 fingar, so that the three (women) sitting on the cross-bench 

 seemed to them three boxes standing there. The men of Hord 

 talked about wanting to break these boxes. Hord forbade 

 that. They then left the farm and turned northward to see if 

 they could find any cattle. They saw a young sow running with 

 two pigs in that direction ; they got ahead of it. Then it seemed 

 to them that a large crowd of men was coming: against them 

 with spears and fully armed, and the sow with its pigs shook 

 their ears. Geir (Hord's foster-brother) said : ' Let us go to 

 our boat ; there will be odds against us.' Hord said it was 

 best not to run away so soon without any trial. At the same 

 time he lifted up a large stone and struck the sow to death. 

 When they came to it they saw Skroppa lying dead there, 

 while the bondi's daughters, whom they had taken for pigs, 

 stood at her side. When she was dead they at once saw that 

 the crowd which came against them was oxen and not men ; 

 they drove the cattle down to the boat, killed them, and loaded 

 their boat with the meat. Geir took Sigrid away against her 

 will, and they went out to the Holm (Hord's Saga, 25). 2 



When drowned men came to their own arvel, or burial feast, 

 as ghosts, it was looked upon as a good sign for the survivors 

 of the family, for then the dead men had been well received by 

 Ran. 



The people were strong believers in ghosts, and thought that 

 the spirit of the dead could come into the mound where the 



1 Cf. Lamlnama, pt. iii. 



2 Cf. also Eyrbyggja, c. 20 ; and 



Fcereyinga, c. 40. 



