CHAPTEE XV. 



HALLS AND BUILDINGS. 



Vast size and beauty of some buildings Wood the only material used Halls 

 Durability of the wooden structures Carved doorways Use of 

 tapestry Walls adorned with shields The seats Positions of the 

 guests Carved benches Houses and rooms Women's apartments- 

 Open hearths Use of turf as fuel Representations of episodes from the 

 sn gas. 



FROM the Eddas and Sagas we sometimes get a vivid 

 conception of the vast size, beauty, and magnificence of 

 some of the buildings of the Vikings in their home in 

 the North. 



The only material mentioned in their construction is 

 wood. 



Each prominent man or chief lived on his estate with his 

 family, followers, and servants. The collection of buildings 

 they occupied was called loer ; 1 they were of different styles, and 

 varied in number according to the power, wealth, and taste of 

 the owners, and often seem to have been far apart from each 

 other ; every house was known by a different name. These 

 buildings appear to have been built so as to form a quad- 

 rangle, the front facing an open space or grass plot called 

 tun, the whole being surrounded by a fence called gard, 2 

 through which the entrance was by a gate, "grind," or gate- 

 way, " lilid" 



" Eaudulf lived in the days of King St. Olaf in the Austrdal 

 (Osterdal valley), when the king was journeying round the land 

 and forcing people to embrace Christianity. He sent his sons 

 to King Olaf, and invited him home to a feast. It was rat Inf- 

 late in the day when the king came to Eaud, with two hundred 

 men ; he saw high and well-closed fences, and when they came 



1 Boer or Bii, meant a dwelling-place 2 The name gard, gaard, still signifies 



occupied by a single family. all the buildings of a t'arm. 



VOL. II. R 



