I 74 Norway and the Norwegians 



the efforts of the Orkney earls to extend their sway 

 over the Hebrides, and Man, and Dublin. 



In the account which the Saga gives us of the acces- 

 sion of Svend (Sweyn), king of Denmark, the father of 

 our Canute, we have a curious picture of the way in 

 which the different Scandinavian states of Greater 

 Scandinavia were connected by ties both of friendship 

 and hostility. King Sweyn bade to his succession- 

 feast {arvol, heirship-ale, is the technical name for such 

 a feast), not only the chiefs of his own dominions, but 

 some of the leaders of the republic of the Joms Vikings, 

 who had their seat in Mecklenburg, somewhere near the 

 modern Stettin. At these feasts, when men had well 

 drunk, they had the custom of pledging each other in 

 what was called a Bragi-cup, and over this cup they 

 took oaths of what they would accomplish afterwards. 

 It need not be said that they often regretted their rash 

 vows ^ when next morning brought reflection. On this 

 occasion Svend, over the Bragi-cup, swore that he 

 would hunt King ^thelred out of England ; a threat 

 which, as we know, he fulfilled. Earl Sigvald, the chief 

 of the Jomsburgers, swore for his part that before three 

 years were over he would either kill Earl Hakon of 

 Norway or chase him out of the country. 



Olaf Tryggvason, on his side, had been in company 

 with Svend, and was harrying round the English coast. 

 He allied himself, moreover, with some of the chief Scan- 

 dinavian settlers in the British Isles. He is said to have 



1 This Bragi-cup is a relic of the old custom which Tacitus notes among 

 the Germans of his day (Germ. 22), of deciding on matters when drunk, 

 but reserving the details of carrying out the decision till they were sober. 

 The same custom prevailed among the ancient Persians. 



