long inlet or estuary: e.g., the Kyle of Sutherland, of Durness, Kyle-Akin, etc. Anda, 'of ducks': önd is Germ. Ente, Lat. anas, anatis.
Ch. XXIX.—many legs] A quaint expression 'stód a mörgum fótum.' Skallagrim had 'many irons in the fire,' 'his eggs in more that one basket,' would be other proverbial equivalents.
Ch. XXX.—to the falls] 'Foss.' 'Force' is still used in the North for waterfall. This Long-river foss is several times mentioned: the stream appears to have been navigable up to it.
Four men] Homer's Hector lifts a stone 'which not two men could bear'; Virgil's hero one big enough for 'twelve.'
this stave] Not genuine according to Jónsson.
Ch. XXXI.—sprinkled with water] This is not Christian Baptism: which is expressed in Icelandic differently. To baptize is skira 'to purify': Baptism is skirn. Cf. ch. xcii., Thorstein tók skirn.
Egil] Two sisters were between Thorolf and Egil: Egil's birth is thought to have been at least ten years after Thorolf's. The date which is most certain, and from which the others are reckoned, is the year of Egil's return to Iceland after his service with Athelstan: this was 927. He had been out twelve years, therefore he and Thorolf went out in 915. A year before that Thorolf returned from his freebootings with Bjorn: and the year before that (913) Egil is said to have been twelve years old; thus his birth would fall in 901, in which year Jónsson puts it. Thorolf goes out with Bjorn in 903 or 904, soon after the feast at Yngvar's when Egil is said to have been three years old. Thorolf cannot well have been less than eighteen years old then, which would bring his birth to 886 or thereabouts. Skallagrim came to Iceland in 878, and had several children before Thorolf, none of whom lived. Suppose these to have numbered three or four, this would agree well enough with the date assigned for Thorolf's birth. But Egil's birth may have been two or three years earlier than 901. One authority puts it in 898. This would make Egil two or three years older at Yngvar's feast: and it is not unlikely that in telling of his childish exploits his precociousness came to be rather overstated. There seems nothing that can fix absolutely the date of Thorolf's first going out with Bjorn but if Asgerdr (Thorolf's wife) was born (as is probable) about 900. Thorolf's first voyage falls in 903 or 904. He is said to have been 'abroad a long time,' which we may take to mean about ten years. Egil is said (ch. xc.) to have been in the eighties (upwards of eighty) in the last (or first) days of earl Hacon: i.e., in 975-85 or 985-95. The reading is uncertain: see note on ch. xc.
draught horse] Or 'yoke-horse.' Eykr akin to ok 'yoke.' Cf. Gr. υποζύγιον.
Gold . . . guardeth] Gold is called the 'serpent's treasure' in allusion to the story of Fafnir in Volsunga-Saga. Cf. the golden apples of the Hesperides and their dragon. This and the next verse are not thought genuine.
dogs] Why? The lexicon says it is an allusion to Icelandic children's play, who put pebbles for animals.
Ch. XXXII.—Bjorn took Thora] The abduction of Thora by Bjorn is something like that of Hildirida by Bjorgolf. And earl Atli disallows it as a marriage. But it was afterwards accepted and confirmed by Thorir, Thora's brother.
Ch. XXXIII.—they stood slant-wise] Or 'beat up against the wind.' The Icel. word is 'beittu,' from beita 'to bite.' It is plainer to see what this means in nautical phraseology than why it means the same. The term is used when with a head or cross wind tacking is needed, when the ship does not run before, but advances across, or into the teeth of the wind, by slant-
