BUIilAL WITH HOUSE HUES*, ETC. 327 



with saddle and bridle, his standards, and all war-dress, his 

 hawk and dog. Aran sat on a chair in all his armour. Asmund 

 let his chair be put into the mound and sat down upon it, and 

 then the mound was closed. The first night Aran rose from 

 the chair, killed the hawk and the dog, and ate them both. 

 The second night he rose, killed the horse and cut it to pieces, 

 tearing it much with his teeth; he ate the horse, the blood 

 streaming down from his mouth ; .he invited Asmund to eat 

 with him. The third night Asmund began to feel sleepy : 

 and suddenly Aran seized his ears and tore them off. Then 

 Asmund drew his sword, and cut Aran's head off; and afterwards 

 burned him to ashes. He thereupon went to the rope and was 

 drawn up, and the mound, was closed; Asmund took with him 

 the property which had been placed in the mound ' : (Egil 

 and Asmund's Saga, c. 7). 



"Angantyr had a large mound raised below the Havacla- 

 mountains, at the place where the king had been slain. It 

 was built with timber, and was very strong" (Hervarar Saira, 

 c. 16). 



Sometimes the body of a man was divided into several 

 portions, and each of these buried in different parts of the 

 country. 



" While he (Halfdan) was king there were very good years. 

 The people made so much of him that when they heard he 

 was dead, and that his body had been taken to Hringariki to 

 be buried there, powerful men from Raumariki, Vestfold and 

 Heidmork came, and all asked for leave to take his body and 

 mound it in their fylki ; l they thought that those who got it 

 were likely to have good seasons. They agreed to divide the 

 body in four pieces, and the head was mounded at Stein in 

 Hringariki ; the others took their pieces home and mounded 

 them, and they are all of them called the mounds of Halfdan 

 (in Snorri's time) " (Halfdan the Black's Saga, ch. 9 (Heim- 

 skringla)). 



Friends often wished to be buried near each other, for they 

 believed that their spirits could talk to each other or look over 

 their household before important events occurred. 



" Then Thorstein fell sick. He said to Fridthjof : 'My sou, 

 I beg of thee that thou wilt yield to the king's sons with 

 regard to thy temper, for that befits thee on account of their 

 dignity, and I have good hope of thee. I want to be laid in a 



1 A division of land. 



