Love of display. Hardicanute, presented him with a ship, the prow of which was richly decorated with gold;[1] and Macpherson has recorded how the step-father of Olaf, though usually a plain man and good farmer, would, on state occasions, dress himself in "breeches or trousers of Cordovan leather, and clothes made of silk, with a scarlet cloak over them. His sword," remarks the same writer,[2] "was richly adorned with carving in gold, and his helmet and spurs were gilded. His horse had a saddle embellished with golden ornaments, and a bridle shining with gold and gems."[3]
It is probable that such decorations were not unfrequently the prizes of piracy rather than of fair trade: for, though some of the people of the southern portions of Norway are said to have been considerable traders to England, Ireland, Saxony, Flanders, and Denmark, yet their attachment to trade in no way interfered with occasional amusements of a very different kind, or with quartering themselves during the winters on the countries of the Christians. Nor were they particular in their objects of plunder. In the periodical fairs of Germany, which were established about this period, a large portion of the merchandise brought to them for sale consisted of slaves of both sexes; ordinary slaves of either sex realizing about a mark, or eight ounces of silver,
- ↑ "Florence of Worcester," p. 623, who calls the vessel a "trierem."
- ↑ "Annals of Commerce," vol. i. p. 279.
- ↑ It may not be generally known that a considerable number of the charters and deeds preserved in the collections of the British Museum, and of the libraries of the Bodleian and of Magdalen College at Oxford, bear seals impressed with ancient Roman, and occasionally with Greek, gems, all, or nearly all, of which are now lost.
