CHAPTER XXXV. 



DIVISIONS OF PEOPLE INTO CLASSES. 



Antiquity of class divisions in the North Influence of education The classes 

 into which society was divided The Jarl the progenitor of kings 

 Primogeniture The thrall Description of freemen The freeman a 

 farmer or bondi Occupation of Jarl and his wife High-born women 

 Marriage of the high born Sons of Jarls Divisions of the people at 

 the close of the Pagan era The Hersir or leader of the host Customs 

 of ancient chiefs The Jarl in earlier and later times The Lendirmenu 

 the leaders and advisers of the bcendr The position and power of the 

 Bondi The Haulld, a higher grade of bondi The king Grades of 

 kingship Sea kings Consent of the Thing to the election of a king 

 Manner of selecting a king. 



FROM very early times the people of the North were divided 

 into classes. Men and women were educated from their child- 

 hood to believe in the superiority or inferiority of their own 

 being, of the position inherited by them at their birth, and 

 consequently to think themselves superior or inferior to the 

 ther people of the commonwealth. This belief was intensified 

 by the education they received, their surroundings and their 

 mode of life, as seen throughout from the day of their birth to 

 the time when they were buried. The class that governed held 

 that they were born to rule, and the slave to remain a slave. 

 The lot of each had been hereditary, fate had so decreed. 



This demarcation into classes was acquiesced in by the people 

 of the land, for it could not have existed a single moment 

 without their will, and formed an integral part of the social 

 and political fabric throughout the whole history of the people. 



But as will be seen in the perusal of these volumes, no man 

 was allowed to rule over the people unless he excelled in 

 many things. 



The Eigsmdl gives in a striking manner the mode of life of 

 early times, and shows into howmany classes society was divided: 

 viz., the slave ; the karl or bondi ; the jarl, and the kersir. 



