The harvest thereafter, towards the winter season, there was a festival
of sacrifice at Hlader, and the king came to it. It had always been his
custom before, when he was present at a place where there was sacrifice,
to take his meals in a little house by himself, or with some few of
his men; but the bondes grumbled that he did not seat himself in his
high-seat at these the most joyous of the meetings of the people. The
earl said that the king should do so this time. The king accordingly
sat upon his high-seat. Now when the first full goblet was filled, Earl
Sigurd spoke some words over it, blessed it in Odin's name, and drank to
the king out of the horn; and the king then took it, and made the sign
of the cross over it. Then said Kar of Gryting, "What does the king mean
by doing so? Will he not sacrifice?" Earl Sigurd replies, "The king is
doing what all of you do, who trust to your power and strength. He is
blessing the full goblet in the name of Thor, by making the sign of his
hammer over it before he drinks it." On this there was quietness for
the evening. The next day, when the people sat down to table, the bondes
pressed the king strongly to eat of horse-flesh (1); and as he would on
no account do so, they wanted him to drink of the soup; and as he would
not do this, they insisted he should at least taste the gravy; and on
his refusal they were going to lay hands on him. Earl Sigurd came and
made peace among them, by asking the king to hold his mouth over the
handle of the kettle, upon which the fat smoke of the boiled horse-flesh
had settled itself; and the king first laid a linen cloth over the
handle, and then gaped over it, and returned to the high-seat; but
neither party was satisfied with this.
ENDNOTES: (1) This eating of horse-flesh at these religious festivals
was considered the most direct proof of paganism in the
following times, and was punished by death or mutilation by
Saint Olaf. It was a ceremony apparently commemorative of
their Asiatic origin and ancestors.