Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/51

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ar Tanibar- skelvcr. KINGS OF NORWAY. 39 very youth he had been sent out on war expeditions, s aga i x. where he acquired great honour and consideration, and became afterwards one of the most celebrated men. Einar Tambarskelver was the most powerful lender- Chapter . XLI man* in the Drontheim land. There was but little of Ein/ friendship between him and King Harald, although Einar retained all the fiefs he had held while Magnus the Good lived. Einar had many large estates, and was married to Bergliot, a daughter of Earl Hakon, as related above. Their son Endrid was grown up, and married to Sigrid, a daughter of Ketil Kalfsson and Gunhild, King Harald's sister's daughter. Endrid had inherited the beauty of his mother's father Earl Hakon, and his sons ; and in size and strength he took after his father Einar, and also in all bodily per- fections by which Einar had been distinguished above other men. He was also, as well as his father, the most popular of men, which the sagas, indeed, show sufficiently. Orm was at that time earl in the Uj^lands. His ^JJ.^x '^ mother was Ragnhild, a daughter of Earl Hakon the of Eari ' Great, and Orm was a remarkably clever man. Aslak ^^^' Erlingsson was then in Jedderen at Sole, and was mar- ried to Sigrid, a daughter of Earl Swend Hakonsson. Gunhild, Earl Swend's other daughter, was married to the Danish king Swend Ulfsson. These were the descendants of Earl Hakon at that time in Nor- way, besides many other distinguished people; and the whole race was remarkable for their very beauti-

  • The fiefs of these feudatories not being hereditary, nor conveying

the feudal baronial privileges and powers over the sub-vassals belonging to the fiefs in feudally constituted countries_, and being in reality only life-rent tacks of crown lands, or collectorships of crown rents and taxes in certain districts, the original word Lendermen (Lendr Madr) is pre- ferred, in this translation, to the word Baron, which denotes feudal rights and powers which the lendermen had not. The King's Sheriffs might, perhaps, express this condition and class better. D 4