Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/76

 68 CHRONICLE OF THE saga vii. bring him word from me to advance your errand with his counsel and strength. This thy errand I will think well fulfilled if thou nearest the Swedish king's own words, be they yea or nay : and this gold ring thou shalt give Earl Kognvald. These are tokens* he must know well." Hialte went up to the king, saluted him, and said, " We need much, king, that thy luck attend us ;" and wished that they might meet again in good health. The king asked where Hialte was going. "With Biorn," said he. The king said, "It will assist much to the good success of the journey that thou goest too, for thy good fortune has often been proved ; and be assured that I shall wish that all my luck, if that be of any weight, may attend thee and thy company." Biorn and his followers rode their way, and came to Earl Bognvald's court. Biorn was a celebrated and generally known man, — known by sight and speech to all who had ever seen King Olaf ; for, at every Thing, Biorn stood up and told the king's mes- sage. Ingeborg, the earl's wife, went up to Hialte and kissed him. She knew him, for she was living with her brother Olaf Tryggvesson when Hialte was there: and she knew how to reckon up the relation- ship between King Olaf and Vilborg, the wife of way of accrediting a special messenger between kings and great men was by giving the messenger a token; that is, some article well known by the person receiving the message to be the property of and valued by the person sending it. The exchange of tokens of friendship, and of presents of rings and jewels, was not merely an expression of the sentiments of friendship, but the means of confidential communications in business — the credentials of the persons, sent with them as being messengers to be confided in, and having a real message to convey. Others, as well as the translator, may remember when, in remote pa- rishes of the north of Scotland, it was no unusual circumstance to give a beggar the key of the girnal to carry to the house, as a token to the housewife that he was to get half a stone of meal bv order of the gude- man. * °
 * Before writing was a common accomplishment in courts, the only