Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/429

 Custom and Belief in Icelandic Sagas. 413

5. {lb., 934.) Skallagrim was howed ... It is not told

that much money was laid with him. Egil inherited the lands and loose money.

6. (//?., 965.) Karl and the Eastmen were buried, with

much treasure. (As foreigners, they would have no heirs in Iceland to claim their money.)

7. {Lnxdcela, 972.) Hoskuld was buried honourably ;

little money was put in the howe with him.

The transition is also marked in the reproach of Ingi- mund on his son's inactivity ( Waterdale Saga, before the Settlement of Iceland) : " In our day it was the custom with kings and earls, our peers, that they won for them- selves fortune and fame ; wealth was not counted as a heritage, nor would sons inherit from their fathers, but rather lay their possessions in the howe with them."

These tomb-treasures were the natural prey of the adventurous :

1. {Landnaina.) Korni was buried in Korni's howe; a

man broke in and carried away his belt and ring.

2. {lb.) Styrbjorn found a bag of money in a cairn and

hid it.

3. {lb.) Skeggi broke into Hrolf Kraki's howe, and got

a sword and axe and much money.

4. {Floamamta, 946.) Later in the winter, some thralls

broke open a howe for the money. Examples of the terrors by which the howe was guarded against desecration occur repeatedly in the mythical chapters of sagas :

1. {Hoe7isa-Thoris Saga, 920.) Thori broke open the

howe of his father's brother, who directed him to a cave in Finmark where a viking and his sons guarded their treasure as fiery dragons.

2. {lb., 940.) Thori himself was not known to die ; he

disappeared with his treasure-chests, and is said to have lain on them and become a dragon.

3. {Har^ar Saga, 965.) Hord and his companions