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THE DIVTNE 8EKVICE OF THE HEATHENS. 227
for a long time. He then arose and told Sigmund
tliat he "was to bring her an offering (forn) of silver
and lay it upon the footstool before her. But as the
statue would not even then give the desired token
of its good-will, the Jarl cast himself down before it
again and then shed tears. Thereupon the statue
gave the desired token by letting loose a gold ring
which it bore upon its arm, and which the Jarl
wished to take from it for Sigmund.* Before Thor's
statue in a temple at Hundsthorp in Gudbrandsdal,
the people placed every day four loaves of bread
with the due proportion of meat, and they believed
that the God consumed the food, when it was de-
voured by the vermin that found a retreat in the
great hollow wooden statue.f "When the heathen
Icelander Hallfred VahdraeSaskald wished to get
quickly away from Norway, which Olaf Tryggvason
was just then converting to Christianity, he and his
seamen united in making vows to the Gods, in order
to get a fair wind for any heathen country whatso-
ever, and they promised to give goods (fe) and three
barrels of ale to Frey if they could get a fair wind
for Sweden, or to Thor or Odin, if they came back
to Iceland.^ Tlie purport of this gift we suppose to
be, that there should be a banquet held at which
they would drink the promised ale to the honor of
the Gods they called upon. During a severe win-
ter in "Iceland, the people of Eeykdal held a meeting
at the house of the hofgoSi Ljot, on the Thveri
* FareyingaS. 23.
f
Snor. : 01. Hel. S. 118-119.
i 01. Tr. S. 154, in Fornm. S. p. 15.