258 N^orzvay and the Norwegians 



of the best understanding in Norway, and also exces- 

 sively wealthy in moveable property. Peaceful he was, 

 and nowise haughty.' 



When the news was brought to Sigurd of Olaf's 

 approach, 'he sat down and made them take off his 

 shoes and put Corduvan boots on, to which he bound 

 his gold spurs. Then he put off his coat and cloak, 

 and dressed himself in liis finest clothes, with a scarlet 

 cloak over all, girded on his sword, set a gilt helmet on 

 his head, and mounted his horse. He sent bis labour- 

 ing people out to the neighbourhood, and gathered to 

 him thirty well-clothed men, and rode home with them.' 



There is something very naif in this last touch of 

 King Sigurd sending his labourers among the tenants 

 to collect thirty well- clothed men to ride M'ith the king. 



This Sigurd was an inland landowner. The larger 

 landowners, whose estates went down to the sea, had 

 nearly all of them one or more boats of their own 

 building, which they might use in various ways, either 

 as vessels of war or as merchantmen. We have said a 

 good deal already about the boat-building of the north. 

 The best descriptions of Viking ships which we have 

 come to us from this period. Tlie boats were not all 

 built on one pattern. There was one kind called a 

 Snaekke, which means a particularly fast boat (fast, 

 that is, for rowing), and which I will guess approached 

 most nearly the ordinary fjord-boat of modern days. 

 Then there was the regular war- vessel, which was called 

 sometimes the long ship, sometimes (purely as a generic 

 name) a dragon, or a worm. I daresay these long ships 

 belonged chiefly to the later Viking age, as in the earlier 



