506 SLAVERY THPALDOM. 



much to the boy. Then Hoskuld went to them and asked 

 for her name, and told her it would not do to conceal it longer. 

 She said she would not. They sat down on the slope ; then 

 she said : ' If thou wantest to know my name, it is Melkorka.' 

 Hoskuld asked her to tell more about her kin. She said: 

 ' My father is named Myrkjartan ; he is king in Ireland, and 

 I was taken captive thence fifteen winters old.' Hoskuld said 

 she had too long been silent about such good kin. Then 

 Hoskuld went in and told Jorun (his wife) about what had 

 happened on his walk. Jorun said she knew not whether 

 she told the truth, and that she did not like uncouth people, 

 and then they left off speaking ; Jorun was not friendlier to 

 her than before, but Hoskuld somewhat more. A little later, 

 when Jorun went to bed, Melkorka pulled off her shoe-clothes 

 (skoklaxli = shoes and stockings) and laid them on the floor. 

 Jorun took the stockings and struck her head with them. 

 Melkorka got angry and struck Jorun's nose with her fist so 

 that blood spurted out. Hoskuld came and parted them. 

 Thereafter Hoskuld let Melkorka go away, and gave her a 

 boar in Laxardal ; it has since been called Melkorkustadir, 

 and is now waste ; it is south of the Laxa (a river). Melkorka 

 had a household there, to which Hoskuld gave all that was 

 needed, and Olaf their son went with her ; it was soon seen 

 in Olaf, when he grew up, that he would surpass other men 

 in beauty and good manners" (Laxdsela, c. 12, 13). 



" Astrid, Olaf Tryggvason's mother, went with her son, who 

 was then three winters old, on board a trading-ship bound to 

 Gardariki ; her brother Sigurd was with King Valdimar there. 



" On their voyage eastward Vikings met them ; they were 

 Eistr (Esthonians) ; they took the property and the people 

 and killed some of them, while they divided the others among 

 themselves as slaves. Olaf was parted from his mother, and 

 Klerkon, an Esthonian, took him and Thorolf and Thorgils 

 (two of Astrid's followers). Klerkon thought Thorolf too old 

 for a thrall and unfit for work, and killed him ; but took the 

 boys with him and sold them to a man called Klerk, and got 

 for them a very good he-goat. Another man bought Olaf for a 

 good rain-cloak ; his name was Eeas, that of his wife Kekon, of 

 his son, Kekoni. Olaf stayed there long, and was well kept 

 and liked by the bondi, and remained six winters in Eistland 

 in this outlawry " (Olaf Tryggvason, c. 5). 



Lodin, a Norwegian trader, once was at a market in Eistland. 



" There he saw a woman who had been sold as thrall, and 

 when he looked at her he recognised in her Astrid, Eirik's 



