MEANING OF THE WORD " KIXG." 497 



property, for he kept up in the same manner his liberality and 

 high living, though he had smaller and less revenues than 

 in the days of King Olaf " (St. Olafs Saga, 21). 



" Thorstein Thorskabit became a most powerful man ; he 

 always had with him sixty free men " (Eyrbyggja Saga, ii.). 



The King. Kon l in the old Northern tongue meant a man 

 of high birth ; in the Rigsmal, the word is konung. 



All descendants of Rig 2 retained the name of konung. 

 Dyggvi, who was the first of the Ynglings, assumed this title, 

 and later arose a class of chiefs to whom the name of konung 

 was applied. 



" His son Dyggvi then ruled the lands and of him is nothing 

 told except that he died of sickness. . . . The mother of Dyggvi 

 was Drott, the daughter of King Danp, the son of Rig, who 

 was the first that was called king (konung) in the Danish 

 tongue ; his kinsman always afterwards held the king's name 

 to be the highest name of honour. Dyggvi was the first of 

 his family who was called king. 



"Before, they (the family) were called drottnar (lords) and 

 their wives drottningar and the hird was called drott. Each 

 one of them was called Yiigvi all his life and all together 

 they were called Ynglingar. Drott the drottning (queen) 

 was the sister of Dan the Proud, after whom Danmork 

 (Denmark) is named" (Ynglinga, c. 20). 



The process of the transfer of the ruling authority from the 

 hands of the Hersir to those of the King cannot be clearly 

 shown ; it was most probably gradual and slow, the one being 

 absorbed by the other. The dignity of Hersir was earlier than 

 that of Konung. 



At first the name of king was a dignity which implied 

 power or rule with it ; there were several grades. 



The FyTki kings ; the Herad kings ; the Skatt kings = tax- 

 kings or sub-kings ; the Sea-kings, and the Host-kings. 



The Herad-kings, the kings of the whole realm, who ruled 

 over several Fylkis or Herads, were the most powerful. They 

 were originally spiritual rulers, and traced their origin to Odin 

 and his sons. 



1 PI. Konir. 



2 



Rig seems to be a son of Rig Jarl, 



the hero of Rigsmal, whose name was 

 otherwise Kon. 



VOL. I. 2 K 



