382 RELIGION. IDOLS AND WORSHIP OF MEN, ANIMALS, ETC. 



straight that one arrow went into each eye of Sibil ja ; and she 

 stumbled and fell down on her head, and her bellowing was 

 much more than before. When she came at them he bid them 

 to throw him on her, and he was as light to them as a little 

 child, for they were not very near to the cow when they threw 

 him ; he came down on the back of Sibilja, and became as 

 heavy as if a rock fell on her, and every bone in her was broken 

 and she was killed. 



" Although the sons of Eagnar were valiant, they could not 

 stand both an overwhelming force of men and witchcraft; 

 nevertheless they made a stout resistance, and fought like 

 warriors with great renown. Eirik and Agnar were in the front 

 that day, and often went through the ranks of King Eystein, 

 but Agnar fell " (Ragnar Lodbrok's Saga). 



" King Olaf was at a feast in Ogvald sues. One evening there 

 came to the farm an old man, very wise in talk, one-eyed, with 

 a hood low down over his face ; he could tell of every country. 

 He began to talk with the king, who liked it very much and 

 asked about many things, but he was able to answer any ques- 

 tion, and the king did not go to bed for a long time that night. 

 Then the king asked if he knew who Ogvald was, after whom 

 the beer and the ness (cape) were named. The guest said he 

 had been a king and a great warrior, and had worshipped a 

 cow more than anything else, and taken it with him wherever 

 he went, as he thought it wholesome to drink its milk. Ogvald 

 fought against a king called Varin, and fell in the battle ; he 

 was mounded there a short way from the boar and the bauta- 

 stories raised, which stand there still. In another place near to 

 this boer the cow was mounded (Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, c. 71). 



' Floki Vilgerdarson, a great Viking, made himself ready in 

 Rogaland to search for Snow-land (Iceland). He made a large 

 sacrifice to the three ravens, which were to show him the way. 

 They sailed to the Faroes, and then put to sea with the three 

 ravens, to which sacrifice had been made in Norway ; when the 

 first was let loose it flew in the direction of the stern ; the second 

 rose into the air, and came back to the ship ; the third flew in 

 front of the prow in the direction in which they found the land. 



" They landed at the place called Vatnsfjord, in Breidifjord. 

 The fjord was so full of fish that they neglected to gather hay 

 on account of the fishing, and during the winter therefore all 

 their cattle died. The spring was rather cold there, and Floki 

 went up on a mountain on the north side of the fjord, and on 

 the other side saw a fjord filled with ice. Therefore they called 

 the land Iceland " (Landnarna i., c. 2). 



Natural objects, such as groves and the sacrificing stone, 



