[353]. It is curious that Cæsar has described the ancient Britons as observing in his time the same custom of shaving the lower part of the chin, and wearing the hair long on the upper lip.
[354]. Borgarfiord seems here to be a misreading for Breidafiord (the Moray Firth), unless we suppose that there was another Borgarfiord besides the one in Shetland. Jonæus has nordr instead of sudr, thus making Swein sail north to Borgarfiord, which in this case would be in Shetland. But it is hardly probable that he would have taken Shetland in his route from Orkney to the coast of Moray.
[355]. Dúfeyrar must have been situated on the sandy shore of the parish of Duffus, on the Moray coast, eyri signifying a spit of sand. It has been supposed, with some degree of probability, that Burghead is the place here meant.
[356]. Ekkialsbakki, probably for Atjoklsbakki. (See note on p. [107].)
[357]. Hjalmundal, Strath Helmsdale, or Strath Ulli, which runs up along the south side of the Ord, the mountain chain separating Caithness from Sutherland. The expression “near the middle of Sutherland” must mean that Swein came up through the central or inland region of the country, and thus came down into Strath Helmsdale, a long way from the coast, or “near the middle of the land.”
[358]. Ines in Jonæus; it has not been identified.
[359]. Probably Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel.
[360]. Syllingar, the Scilly Islands. There was an ecclesiastical settlement there in Olaf Tryggvason’s time. It was in the Scilly Islands that he was baptized, and embraced the faith which he afterwards propagated with the strong hand both in his own kingdom and in Orkney.
[361]. Lúdr.—This same signal was used by the army of the Bœndr at the battle of Stiklestad (Flateyjarbók, ii. 352). The signal-horn used at the present day by the Shetland fishermen still retains the ancient name, “the ludr-horn.”
[362]. Clavis Rhythmica, apparently a kind of rhyming dictionary or repertory of versification. Torfæus states that this joint production of Earl Rögnvald and Hall, Ragna’s son, is still extant in the library at Upsala.