218 



TRADERS AND TRADING-SHU'S. 



Thrand. answered that he thought it best that Leif should look 

 at it on his behalf. Leif and the others then went out, and a 

 short way from the booth they sat down and weighed the silver. 

 Karl took the helmet from his head, and poured the silver 

 which was weighed into it" (Fsereyinga Saga, c. 46). 1 



As in the Greek, Eoman, and earlier Byzantine periods, so 

 in the Viking age, the island of Gotland stands foremost as the 

 commercial centre of the North, as is proved by the number of 

 coins discovered, showing that she kept the supremacy of trade 

 for some ten or twelve centuries. The numerous English coins 

 found there and in Sweden, show that the Swedes, and the 



Fig. 1015. Fig. 1016. 



Arabic coin called Kufic, coined in 903 in Samarcand. Gotland. Real size. 



Fig. 1017. Fig. 1018. 



Kufic coin of silver, date 742-743. Real size. Found in the cemetery of Fredriks- 

 hald, Sweden, where another Kufic coin and two silver bracelets had previously 

 been found. 



people inhabiting the islands of the Baltic, were a seafaring 

 people, and were constantly engaged in trading and warlike 

 expeditions to England ; in a word, they must have formed a 

 great part of the host that made warfare in Western Europe. 

 The runic stones which have been raised to the memory of 

 those who have died in foreign lands are found almost if not 

 entirely in Sweden. 



Norway has produced fewer coins than the other Scandinavian 



1 Cf. Gretti's Saga, c. 98. 



