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226 RELIGION OF THE NOKTHMEU.
mighty chieftain. Now I have been so many times
given to Odin that I neither can nor will deceive
him." "With these words upon his lips Eyvind
died.* When the Swedish King Eirik Sigrsseli (the
Victorious) was on the eve of an important battle
with his nephew Styrbjorn, and greatly feared the
issue of the contest, he went in the night to Odin's
temple and gave himself to the God in order to
obtain the victory—though on condition that he
should have ten years longer to live.f It is stated
that this same King Eirik died ten years afterwards
of sickness;:!: but in general it was certainly the
belief of the heathen Northmen that they who were
given or had given themselves to Odin must die a
violent death, or at least be marked in their dying
hour with the spear-point.^ The Leira-King Harald
Hyldatand and King Vikarr of HorSaland, both of
whom had been given to Odin from their birth,
ended their lives by a violent death ; the former, as
it appears, by Odin's own hand, the latter by a
special arrangement of Odin's.
Besides by the sacrifice of living beings, it was
believed that the favor of the Gods might also be
gained by gifts (fom) to temples and idols, as well
as by prayers and thevows (heit) connected, with
them. Thus it is said of Hakon Jarl, when he wished
to obtain for Sigmund Brestersson the protection of
the Goddess Thorgerd HorgabruS, that he first cast
himself down at the foot of her statue and lay there
* OL Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 204.
t Styrbjorn. JSttr, 2, in Fornm. S. V. p. 250.
i 01. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. I. p. 61.