Folks Historie, pt. i. vol. i. p. 441.] The title, which is assigned him, 'herkonungr,' signifies a king of troops, a warrior-king. Norway, prior to the reign of Harold Fairhair, was divided into numerous petty states, called 'fylki.' The rulers of these small kingdoms were called 'fylkiskonungar' [fylki-kings], as contradistinguished from those 'kings' who had command over the troop of warriors or a war-ship, but who were not necessarily rulers of the land. These warrior-kings were called 'herkonungar, ' or occasionally 'sjókonungar [sea-kings]. [Cf. Keyser, Norges Stats- og Retsforfatning i Middelalderen, in his 'Efterladte Skrifter,' Chr'a, 1867, vol. ii. p. 20 et seq.] As the forays of these 'warrior-kings' were mainly directed against the people living in and about the British Isles, and hence to the westward of Norway, the expression, 'at herja í vestrvíking,' 'to engage in a westerly foray,' came to be a general term for a viking descent upon some part of the coast of Great Britain, Ireland, or the adjacent islands. These free-booting expeditions began on the Irish coasts, perhaps as early as 795. In 798, the Norsemen plundered the Hebrides, and in 807 obtained a lodgment upon the mainland of Ireland[1].
(10) Aud, or as she is also called Unnr, [cf. ante, note 4, p. 15], the Enormously-wealthy [hin djúpauðga] or Deep-minded [hin djúpúðga], was one of the most famous of the Icelandic colonists. Her genealogy is thus given in the first chapter of the Laxdœla Saga: 'There was a man named Ketil Flat-nose, a son of Biorn Buna; he was a mighty chieftain in Norway, and a man of noble lineage; he dwelt at Romsdal in the Romsdal-fylki, which is between South Mœr and North Mœr. Ketil Flat-nose married Ingvild, daughter of Ketil Wether, a famous man; they had five children....Unn, the Enormously-wealthy, was Ketil's daughter, [she] who married Olaf the White, Ingiald's son, son of Frodi the Brave, who slew the Swertlings.' Aud was one of the few colonists who had accepted the Christian religion before their arrival in Iceland. Her relatives, however, seem to have lapsed into the old faith soon after her death, for on the same hill on which Aud had erected her cross, they built a heathen altar, and offered sacrifices, believing that, after death, they would pass into the hill. [Landnáma, Pt. ii. ch. xvi.] Earl Sigurd the Mighty, with whom Aud's son, Thorstein, formed his alliance, was the first earl of the Orkneys, and this league was formed ca. 880. [Orkneyinga Saga, ed. Vigfusson, l. c. p. 5.] Vigfusson makes the date of Thorstein the Red's fall, ca. 888, of Aud's arrival in Iceland, ca. 892, and of her death, ca. 908–10. [Tímatal l. c., p. 494]; Munch, on the other hand, gives the date of Aud's death as 900. [Norske Historie, pt i. p. 802.]
(11) Suðreyjar [Sodor], lit. the southern islands; a name applied specifically, as here, to the Hebrides.
(12) Knǫrr, a kind of trading-ship. It was in model, doubtless, somewhat similar to the modern Nordlands-jægter, the typical sailing craft of northern Norway. It was, probably, a clinker-built ship, pointed at both ends, half-decked, [fore?] and aft, and these half-decks were in the larger vessels connected by a gangway along the gunwale. The open space between the decks was reserved for the storage of the cargo, which, when the ship was laden, was protected by skins or some similar substitute for tarpaulins. The vessel was provided with a single mast, and was propelled by a rude square sail, and was also supplied with oars. The rudder
- ↑ Cf. Orkneyinga Saga, translated by Hjaltalin and Goudie, Edinburgh, 1873, p. xxi.
