forbear. Egil seems to have admired and liked his elder brother (just as Skallagrim did the elder Thorolf). Thorold did not, when Egil was a boy, return the affection: but they got on better together afterwards.
Ch. XLII.―Thorolf asks Asgerdr] This marriage probably is misplaced; it appears here as in 915: probably it was in 923, as also the slaying of Bard, etc.
Ch. XLIV.―False deceiver] Egil's ire at stinginess and inhospitality is shown here, and again in his Vermaland journey at Armod's, ch. lxxiv.
Ch. XLV.—Sheppey] Sheep were kept on it, and visited now and again, as is done on small islands off the Scotch coast. The whole description of this island, with its overgrowth, brake, etc., is a vivid picture, and recalls several such places in the Scotch highlands.
Ch. XLVI.―the eastward way] i.e., to the Baltic: Courland is at the east end of that sea.
Ch. XLVIII.―cast their lots] Skaut may be either the skirt of a cloak, or a kerchief, in fact anything of a bag-like character: the earl then draws the lots out. In Homer lots are thrown into a helmet and shaken out.
why sittest] Jónsson disallows this stave, as also the other girl's stave later in the story. According to the Saga this Holland expedition seems to fall in 916: but Jónsson thinks it may have been later.
Ch. XLIX.―Eyvind Skreyja] He fell by king Hacon's hand in the battle at which Hacon received his death-wound in the year 960.
Ch. L.―Alfred] The account given of England and its kings at that time is remarkably correct, considering that it was written by a foreigner some three hundred years after Alfred's time. The Saga-writer terms Alfred first of his family 'supreme king over England.' Historians count Egbert, his grandfather, to have been so in some sense: 'under Egbert,' says Freeman, 'the West Saxons became the chief people of Britain, and their kings became lords over all the princes of the island.' But the reigns that followed, of Ethelwulf and his elder sons, were so much troubled with wars, especially against the Danes, that none till Alfred earned permanently the claim to be regarded 'einvalds-konungr.' Alfred, after much fighting, well deserved the title. Alfred's reign, as the Saga says, was in the days of Harold Fairhair. Harold came to the throne in 860, and lived till 933: but he made over part of his kingdom to his sons before his death.
Edward] King from 901-925. His reign, in which there was much fighting, was a prosperous one. The Danes were a large part of the population, and had an established power in the East and North-East: but they owned Edward as over-lord. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 924 says, 'In this year king Edward was chosen for father and for lord by the king of the Scots, and by the Scots, and by king Ragnald, and by all the Northumbrians, and also by the king of the Strathclyde Welsh, and by all the Strathclyde Welsh.'
Athelstan] Of this king we have now facts recorded in the Saga that are found nowhere else. But these seem very probable, and agree with what we know of Athelstan from other sources. He had, as our writer says, many brothers, and sisters too, 'most of whom became kings and queens' (Freeman).
a young king] Athelstan was thirty at his accession. That occasion would be taken by some to rebel, and that it was so, is plain enough; but the Chronicle does not tell us much about this at the beginning of Athelstan's reign, only giving details of the great struggle at Brunanburh twelve years later.
Britons, Scots, and Irish] Britons: i.e., Welsh, either of Wales (as we use the word), or of Strathclyde. The English had to deal with both.
