Fig. 1109.—Side view of chair.
Warrior, with open helmet, slaying a dragon—Vaage, Gudbrandsdal, Norway.
The stofa, which was usually occupied by women,[[197]] was large or small; sometimes it was intended for a sleeping apartment. At the royal residence in Nidaros, St. Olaf built a large hirdstofa (king’s men’s house), with doors at both ends, for meals and general intercourse; a large svefnskali (sleeping house); and also a large stofa,[[198]] in which he held his hirdstefna (king’s men’s meetings). The common entrance led first into the forstofa (lobby), and then into the house proper; both were provided with doors, which could be locked. Sometimes the door was fastened on the inside with a slagbrand (bar).
Fig. 1110.—Back view of chair.
Warriors fighting on horseback.
The lofts, which consisted of rooms in the upper part of the skali, were frequently used as bedrooms, and were lighted by loft-glugg[[199]] (loft openings). Outside the loft there was, at least on one side, a svalir (balcony),[[200]] which was reached by an outside stairway. The loft generally had no communication with the undir-skemma.
When Fjölnir assisted King Frodi in Denmark, he was given a loft-room as a sleeping apartment; in an adjoining loft-room the flooring had been removed, in order to fill the large mead-vat standing in the undir-skemma. During the night Fjölnir went out, and as he had to return along the svalir to his room, he made a mistake as to the door, and fell down into the mead-vat.[[201]]
The beds (hvila, rekkja) were placed round the walls, inside the benches, and consisted of straw, the covering being the clothes worn in the daytime, and over the head a feld (fur cloak) was placed.
The buildings had windows, sometimes called light-holes, covered with a membrane, instead of glass, sufficiently large to enable a man to creep through them. The material used was the after-birth membrane, enclosing the fœtus of the cow, which was stretched over the light-hole. This when dried is almost as transparent as glass, and can, for a certain time, resist the rain. It is still in use in some out-of-the-way places in Iceland; in the Sagas it is called Skjall, and the window is called Skja.
“Also if men sit in houses with skjá (light-holes) in them, it is so light inside that all men indoors recognise each other” (Konungs Skuggsja, p. 47).
There was no ceiling within the roof; the smoke from the open hearths on the floor, which covered the inside with soot, escaped through the Ljori, of which there was at least one, and which also admitted light.[[202]]