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SACEED EDIFICES. 207
afford us some idea of their construqtion ; for the
first propagators of Christianity were very careful to
have every building of the kind destroyed, or at
least transformed into a Christian church, and under
the transformation the older form was soon no longer
to be recognized. We must, therefore, be content
with the ancient descriptions, some of which, as they
are found in our Sagas, are tolerably complete.
When the ISTorse Chieftain Thorolf Mostrarskegg
left Norway in order to settle in Iceland, he tore
down the temple of Thor on the Island Moster,
which he had presided over, and took with him
most of the timber, togeffier with the earth beneath
the platform on which Thor's statue had been
seated. When he had come to Iceland and had there,
according to Thor's directions—or rather, according
to the directions of the Sacred Columns upon which
Thor's image was carved*—selected his place]]of
abode at Thorsnes on the southern side of BreiSafjord,
he built on the spot a 'large hof of the same
timber and probably in the same form as the torndown
temple of Moster. The door of this temple
was in the siae-wall, near one end ; within the door
stood the sacred columns, and in them there were
nails which were called reginnaglar (nails of the
Gods), but of their meaning no information is given.
Within this house there was another, like the choir
in Christian churches, and here, in the middle of the
floor, stood a platform (stallr), and an altar upon
which lay a ring with the ends unjoined (hringr
See aboTe, Chap. XIX.