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SACKED EDIFICES. 215
together with the temple possessions, but in return
had to take charge of the temple and keep it in
repair.
It may be assumed that many temples in Norway,
even chief-temples, which were attended by the
whole population of a Fylki or Province, were actually
the private property of certain chieftains who
had erected them in the first place and presided
over them, and in whose family this supremacy or
priesthood afterward became hereditary. It thus
becomes explicable how such chieftains could have
authority to tear down temples and take them along
when they left the country, as we have above seen
was the case both with the temple of Mseri in
Throndheim, which appears to have been a Chief-
Temple of the inhabitants of Inner-Throndheim, and
with the temple on Moster.*
* Landnmb. IV., 6 ; Eyrb. S. S.