Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/292

 28o The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood.

sacrificial meat. The following chapters describe the refusal of the Christian king, Hakon, to take his part in these public feasts, and the dangerous position in which he consequently found himself involved. The Norwegian evidence therefore is consistent ; from the king or earl down to the village chieftain, priestly duties are everywhere combined with temporal power. We never hear of any person of exclusively priestly character during the whole history of the country. In the case where communities combine for public worship we find the chiefs undertaking the office of priest in turn. Such was the case with the sacrifices at Maeren in St. Olaf's time. They were held by twelve chiefs in turn.^ It is to be observed that this was during the reign of a Christian king, and at a time when none of the great heathen chiefs were left in the land. Yet it is quite possible that it was merely the revival of an old custom, which may have been in existence before the rise of the monarchy.

3. For Denmark our materials on this subject are almost wholly wanting. It would hardly have been necessary to deal with this country, had not certain writers^ brought forward three Runic inscriptions, found in Fyn, as evidence for the existence of a specifically priestly class. The first inscription is that of Helnaes : rhuulfR sati stain nuRaku\i aft Ku\uniut, &c., i.e., ' Hroulfr Noragodi erected the stone to the memory of Godumundr," &c. The second is that of Flemldse : aft ruulf statR stain sasi is uas nuRakuyi, &c., i.e. " this stone stands in memory of Hroulfr, who was Noragodi," &c. These inscriptions evidently refer to the same person and are assigned by Wimmer to the beginning of the ninth century. The third inscription is that of Glavendrup, and dates from about goo, according to Wimmer : raknhiltr sati stain ]>ansi auft ala saulna- }iu\a uia hai\uiar\an \iatzn, &c, i.e. " Ragnhildr erected

' Olafss. Helga{Heimskr.\ 115; cf. K. M:\.\xxqx, Bekehrung, ii.,p. 214; v.V.'S. 2 Especially K. Maurer, ZfdPh., iv., 128 f.