Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/131

he refused the treaty and alliance which King Olaf of Norway proposed by his ambassador Hialte the Scald. The lagman appears to have been the depositary and expounder of the laws passed by the Things, and to have been either appointed by the people as their president at the Things, or to have held his office by hereditary succession from the godar, and to have been priest and judge, exercising both the religious and judicial function. At this general Thing at Upsal the lagman of the district of Upland was entitled to preside; and his influence and power in this national assembly appear to have been much greater than the king's. It is a picturesque circumstance, mentioned in the Saga of Saint Olaf about this Thing at Upsal in 1018, that when Thrognyr the lagman rose after the ambassador from Norway had delivered his errand, and the Swedish king had replied to it, mil the bonders, who had been sitting on the grass before, rose up, and crowded together to hear what their lagman Thrognyr was going to say; and the old lagman, whose white and silky beard is stated to have been so long that it reached his knees when he was seated, allowed the clanking of their arms and the din of their feet to subside before he began his speech. The Things appear to have been always held in the open air, and the people were seated; and the speakers, even the kings, rose up to address them. In the characters of great men given in the sagas we always find eloquence, ready agreeable speaking, a good voice, a quick apprehension, a ready delivery, and winning manners, reckoned the highest qualities of a popular king or eminent chief. His talent as a public speaker is never omitted. In Sweden this one general Thing appears to have been for the whole country; and besides the religious or civil business, a kind of fair for exchanging; commodities arose from the concourse of people to it from all parts of the country.