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190 EELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN.
family, were the Landvsettir* believed to be for
whole proviaces and their inhabitants, but in such
a manner that they were properly bound to the
place, and not to the people, with whom they were
connected only in-so-far as they were inhabitants
of a certain district.
It is most probable that the heathen JSTorthmen
believed their country to be under the special pro-
tection of some one of the .^ir, probably of Thor,
and that it is this Protecting-God which the Skald
Egil Skallagrimsson means by the .Land-As whose
hostility he, in a poem, calls down upon King Eirik
Blood-axe.f The Landvsettir, however, were beings
of less importance, who protected the smaller dis-
tricts of the country, and on whose favor the pros-
perity of the inhabitants in a great measure de-
pended. Hence is derived a provision- which occu-
pied the first place in the heathen laws of Iceland
that "no one shall have ships on the sea bearing
figure-heads upon the prow ; but if any one have
such, he shall remove the heads before coming in
sight of land, and not sail toward the land with
gaping heads and out-stretching snouts, lest the Pro-
tecting Spirits of the Land (Landvsettir) should be
frightened thereby." That a similar belief was pre-
valent in Norway is evinced by the proceedings of
Egil Skallagrimsson ^heh he wished to avenge him-
self on King Eirik Blood-axe and Queen Gunhilda.
He went up, it is stated, on an island near the coast
of Norway and set up a hazel-stake in a cleft of the
* Laud-guardians, from land, and vsettr orvsettjagenius, spirit,
t Egils S, 68.
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