Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/290

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276

CHRONICLE OF THE

in the land of Drontheim, and laid the whole of it under him.

Chapter VIII.
King Harald seizes all Numedal district.

North in Numedal were two brothers, kings,—Herlaug and Hrollaug; and they had been for three sum¬ mers raising a mound or tomb of stone and lime and of wood. Just as the work was finished, the brothers got the news that King Harald was coming upon them with his army. Then King Herlaug had a great quantity of meat and drink brought into the mound, and went into it himself, with eleven companions, and ordered the mound to be covered up. King Hrollaug, on the contrary, went upon the summit of the mound, on which the kings were wont to sit, and made a throne to be erected, upon which he seated himself. Then he ordered feather-beds to be laid upon the bench below, on which the earls were wont to be seated, and threw himself down from his high seat or throne into the earls' seat, giving himself the title of earl. Now Hrollaug went to meet King Harald, gave up to him his whole kingdom, offered to enter into his service, and told him his whole proceeding. Then took King Harald a sword, fastened it to Hrollaug's belt, bound a shield to his neck, and made him thereupon an earl, and led him to his earl's seat; and therewith gave him the district of Numedal, and set him as earl over it.^[1]

↑ Before writing was in general use, this symbolical way of performing all important legal acts appears to have entered into the jurisprudence of all savage nations; and according to Gibbon, chap. 44., "the jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime: the words were adapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairest claims." This ceremony of demission from the seat of a king, and assumption of the rank and seat of an earl, and the subsequent investiture of Hrollaug by the ceremony of binding a sword and shield on him, and leading him. to the earls' seat, have probably been ceremonies adopted from the feudal countries. Harald Haarfager's object appears to have been to feudalise the dominions he conquered from the small kings; but the subsequent partition of the country among his

[p276-1] Before writing was in general use, this symbolical way of performing all important legal acts appears to have entered into the jurisprudence of all savage nations; and according to Gibbon, chap. 44., "the jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime: the words were adapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairest claims." This ceremony of demission from the seat of a king, and assumption of the rank and seat of an earl, and the subsequent investiture of Hrollaug by the ceremony of binding a sword and shield on him, and leading him. to the earls' seat, have probably been ceremonies adopted from the feudal countries. Harald Haarfager's object appears to have been to feudalise the dominions he conquered from the small kings; but the subsequent partition of the country among his

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