Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/117

 and undisputed his right of succession, ventured to assume the kingly title, dignity, and power, but by the vote and concurrence of a Thing. He was proposed by a bonder; his right explained; and he was received by the Thing before he could levy subsistence, or men and aid, or exert any act of kingly power within the jurisdiction of the Thing. After being received and proclaimed at the Ore Thing held at Drontheim as the general or sole king of Norway, the upper king,—which that Thing alone had the right to do,—he had still to present himself to each of the other district Things, of which there were four, to entitle him to exercise royal authority, or enjoy the rights of royalty within their districts. The bonders of the district, who had voice and influence in those Things by family connection and personal merit, were the first men in the country. Their social importance is illustrated by the remarkable fact, that established kings—as, for instance, King Olaf Tryggvesson—married their sisters and daughters to powerful bonders, while others of their sisters and daughters were married to the kings of Sweden and Denmark. Erling the bonder refused the title of Earl when he married Astrid, the king's sister. Lodin married the widow of a king, and the mother of King Olaf Tryggvesson. There was no idea of disparagement, or inferiority, in such alliances; which shows how important and influential this class was in the community. It is here, in these assemblies or Things of the Northmen, the immediate predecessors of the Norman conquerors, and their ancestors also,—by which, however rudely, legislation and all parliamentary principles were exercised,—that we must look for the origin of our parliaments, and the spirit and character of our people; on which, and not on the mere forms, our constitution is founded. The Wittenagemoth of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchic kings were not, like the