Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/353

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 345 D r on theim country ; and there, as elsewhere, he was saga vn. received as king. King Swend introduced new laws in many respects Chapter into the country, partly after those which were in 0f King ' Denmark, and in part much more severe. No man Swend's Jsws. must leave the country without the king's permission; or if he did, his property fell to the king. Whoever killed a man outright, should forfeit all his land and moveables. If any one was banished the country, and an heritage fell to him, the king took his inhe- ritance. At Yule every man should pay the king a meal* of malt from every harvest steading, and a leg of a three-year old ox, which was called a friendly gift, together with a spandf of butter; and every house- wife a rock J full of unspun lint, as thick as one could span with the fingers of the longest hand. The bonders were bound to build all the houses the king required upon his farms. Of every seven males one should be taken for the service of war, and reckoning from the fifth year of age; and the outfit of ships should be reckoned in the same proportion. Every man who rowed upon the sea to fish should pay the king five fish as a tax, for the land defence, wherever he might come from. Every ship that went out of the country should have stowage reserved open for the king in the middle of the ship. Every man, foreigner or native, who went to Iceland, should pay a tax to the king. And to all this was added, that Danes should enjoy so much consideration in Norway, that one witness of them should invalidate ten of Northmen. § Shetland rentals. t A spand of butter was eighteen marks. $ A " rock of tow *' would still be understood in the north of Scot- land. The rock — rykiar — is the wooden pin round which the lint to be spun is bound, to be drawn out by the fingers of the spinner. § This may probably have referred not to witnesses of an act, but to
 * A meal of corn was a measure, and is still used in Orkney and