280 FEASTS, ENTERTAINMENTS. 



" Egil took hold of her and seated her at his side ; and 

 sang : 



I have gone with a bloody blade We made angry battle ; 



And with a sounding spear Fire played about the seats of men. 



So that the wound-birds followed me, We let the bloody corpses 



There was hard onset on the Vikings, Fall asleep in the town-gates. 



" Then they drank together, and were very merry that 

 evening, and the next day too. Then the Vikings went to 

 their ships, and they separated from the jarl in friendship and 

 exchanged gifts " (Egil's Saga, c. 48). 



Sometimes high-born maidens entertained their guests 

 alone. 



Hjalti, Gizur, and Ottar, the skalds of St. Olaf, went to 

 Sweden in order to reconcile the king to St. Olaf. 



"They went one day to the house of the king's daughter 

 Ingigerd ; she sat and drank with many men. She received 

 them well, for they were known to her. . . . They sat there 

 the greater part of the day and drank ; she put many questions 

 to Hjalti, and asked him to come often and talk with her. 

 He did so " (St. Glut's Saga, c. 71 (Heimskringla)). 



At the end of a feast presents were ^iven to the guests. 



Thorgeir, the famous Godir (lawman), who accepted Chiis- 

 tianity on the people's behalf at the Althing A.D. 1000, made 

 a feast. 



"After the feast Thorgeir gave large gifts. He gave his 

 kinsman Finnbogi five stud-horses, dandelion yellow in colour. 

 It was said that they were the best horses in Nordlendinga- 

 fjordung (the northern quarter of Iceland) " (Finnboga Saga, 

 c. 23). 



When Harald Fairhair came to Halogaland, great feasts 

 were prepared for his reception on his own farms among his 

 lendirmen or powerful bcendr. The feast that Thorolf prepared 

 was so magnificent, that the king was jealous of it. 



" The king had nearly three hundred men when he came to 

 the feast, but Thorolf had five hundred men already there. 

 Thorolf had prepared a large corn-barn, and set benches in it ; 

 there they drank, for no other room was large enough for them 

 all to be in it together. Shields were hung all round the 



