Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/50

 42 CHRONICLE OF THE Chapter XLIV. Of Earl Swend's forces. saga vii. mark, whom the kings had given him ; and also many powerful people from among the bonders joined him, among whom Ketil Kalf from Ringness. He had also people from Raumarike. His stepfather, Si- gurd Syr, gave him the help also of a great body of men. They went down from thence to the coast, and made ready to put to sea from Viken. The fleet, which was manned with many fine fellows, went out then to Tunsberg. After Yule, Earl Swend gathers all the men of the Drontheim country, proclaims a levy for an expedi- tion, and fits out ships. At that time there were in the Drontheim country a great number of lendermen ; and many of them were so powerful and well-born, that they were descended from earls, or even from the royal race, which in a short course of generations reckoned to Harald Haarfager, and they were also very rich. These lendermen * were of great help to the kings or earls who ruled the land ; for it was as if the lenderman had the bonder-people of each district in his power. Earl Swend being a good friend of the lendermen, it was easy for him to collect peo- ple. His brother-in-law, Einar Tambarskelver, was on his side, and with him many other lendermen; and among them many, both lendermen and bon- ders, who the winter before had taken the oath of fidelity to King Olaf. When they were ready for sea they went directly out of the fiord, steering south along the land, and drawing men from every district. When they came farther south, abreast of Rogaland, scatt and other revenues of the kings, and to have held the function in feu, paying for it to the king a proportion of the income of the district. The fines due to the king for misdemeanors, murders, &c. must have come through them into the royal coffers; for we find the appointment of new lendermen for every district the first act of every king on acquiring a part of the country. It is literally men having a lend; and the name includes those who held in lehn (or loan) the land, land-tax, or other revenues from the king, for a certain fixed payment.
 * The lendermen appear to have been sheriffs for collecting the