estivals of sacrifice in the Throndhjem country.
It was an old custom, that when there was to be sacrifice all the bondes
should come to the spot where the temple stood and bring with them all
that they required while the festival of the sacrifice lasted. To this
festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as
well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from
them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were
called hlaut-vessels. Hlaut-staves were made, like sprinkling brushes,
with which the whole of the altars and the temple walls, both outside
and inside, were sprinkled over, and also the people were sprinkled with
the blood; but the flesh was boiled into savoury meat for those present.
The fire was in the middle of the floor of the temple, and over it hung
the kettles, and the full goblets were handed across the fire; and he
who made the feast, and was a chief, blessed the full goblets, and
all the meat of the sacrifice. And first Odin's goblet was emptied for
victory and power to his king; thereafter, Niord's and Freyja's goblets
for peace and a good season. Then it was the custom of many to empty the
brage-goblet (1); and then the guests emptied a goblet to the memory of
departed friends, called the remembrance goblet. Sigurd the earl was an
open-handed man, who did what was very much celebrated; namely, he made
a great sacrifice festival at Hlader of which he paid all the expenses.
Kormak Ogmundson sings of it in his ballad of Sigurd:--

"Of cup or platter need has none
The guest who seeks the generous one,--
Sigurd the Generous, who can trace
His lineage from the giant race;
For Sigurd's hand is bounteous, free,--
The guardian of the temples he.
He loves the gods, his liberal hand
Scatters his sword's gains o'er the land--"

ENDNOTES: (1) The brage-goblet, over which vows were made.--L.

17. THE FROSTA-THING.

King Hakon came to the Frosta-thing, at which a vast multitude of people
were assembled. And when the Thing was seated, the king spoke to the
people, and began his speech with saying,--it was his message and
entreaty to the bondes and householding men, both great and small, and
to the whole public in general, young and old, rich and poor, women as
well as men, that they should all allow themselves to be baptized, and
should believe in one God, and in Christ the son of Mary and refrain
fro