“Sigvat skáld and other Icelanders were with King Olaf as has been told. Olaf enquired carefully how Christianity was kept in Iceland. He thought it was very badly kept when they told him that it was allowed by the laws to eat horseflesh and expose children as the heathens used to do” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 56).

It was the general custom among the chiefs and other leading men not to have the children reared at home, but to have them educated with some distinguished friend for the future duties of life. Those who received them were bound to treat them as their own children, with love and kindness; and there are many examples in the Sagas of the great love of the foster-parents for their foster-children.

The general custom was first to have the child knee-seated (knésetja), or put on the knees of him who was to be fosterer; the child was then called the knee-seated (knésetningr) of his foster-father, who bestowed upon him as much care as if he had been his own child.

“Harald (Gormsson) took Harald, son of Eirik (Blood-axe), to raise him, and knee-seated him; he was raised in his hird”[[72]] (Fornmanna Sögur, i., ch. 19).

“Höskuld, an Icelandic chief, having died and his sons having held arvel after him, one of these, Thorleik by name, was jealous of his stepbrother Olaf, whose mother was Melkorka, an Irish king’s daughter, who had been bought as a thrall by Höskuld. To conciliate him, Olaf offered to foster Thorleik’s son, saying: ‘I will foster thy son, for he is always called a lesser man who fosters the child of another’”[[73]] (Laxdæla, c. 27).

To raise another’s child was a proof that the fosterer considered himself of lower or subordinate position than the father. A very good example in this respect is that of Harald Fairhair and Athelstan of England.

“At this time there ruled over England a young king, Adalstein (Athelstan) the Good, who was one of the most high-born men in Northern lands. He sent men to Norway to King Harald with a message. The messenger went before the king and gave him a sword the handle and hilt of which were ornamented with gold. The whole scabbard was ornamented with gold and silver, and set with precious stones. The messenger held out the sword-handle towards the king, and said: ‘Here is a sword which Adalstein, King of England, sent you as a gift.’ The king took hold of the handle, and at once the messenger said: ‘Now you have taken hold as our king wanted, and after this you will be his thegn and sword-taker.’ King Harald felt that this was sent to delude him, thought much over it, and asked his wise men if the messenger should be killed or the king disgraced in any other manner, for he would not be the thegn of the Engla king or any other man in the world. Then King Harald at the persuasion of his men remembered that it was not king-like to kill the messengers of another king, who bore the message of their master without adding to it; but to let plot contend against plot, and word against word; and he let the men of the Engla king go in peace. The following summer Harald sent a ship west to England, and gave the command of it to his best friend, Hauk Hábrók. The king gave into his hands a child which a bondwoman of the king’s, by name Thora Mostrstöng, had borne. She was a native of Mostr in Sunnhördaland. This boy was named Hakon, and the mother said he was the son of King Harald. But Hauk came west to England, and found King Adalstein in Lundúnir (London), and went before him when the tables were cleared and greeted him. The king bade him welcome. Then Hauk said: ‘Lord, Harald, the King of the Northmen, sends you good greeting, and therewith sends you a white bird well trained, and asks you to train it better hereafter.’ He took the child from his cloak and put it on the knee of the king, who looked at him, but Hauk stood in front of the king, and did not bow to him; he had under the left side of his cloak a sharp sword, and thus all his men were dressed, and they were altogether thirty. Then King Adalstein said: ‘Who owns this child?’ Hauk answered: ‘A bondwoman in Norway, and King Harald said that thou shouldst raise her child.’ The king answered: ‘This boy has not the eyes of a thrall!’ Hauk answered: ‘The mother is a bondwoman, and she says that King Harald is the father, and now the boy is thy knee-seater, and now thou owest him as much as thy own son.’ The king answered: ‘Why should I raise the child of King Harald though it were the child of King Harald’s own wife, much less the child of a bondwoman?’ and with one hand he grasped a sword lying at his side and the child with the other. Then Hauk said: ‘Thou hast taken as fosterer one child of King Harald’s and knee-seated it, and thou mayest murder it if thou wishest, but thou wilt not therewith kill all the sons of King Harald, and it will be said hereafter, as has been said before, that he who fosters the child of another is a lesser man.’ Thereafter Hauk went away, and took the cloak on his left arm and held his drawn sword in the other hand; the one of his men who had entered the last went out first. This done they went down to their ship, and as there was fair wind from the land out to sea, they made use of it, sailing to Norway. And when they came to King Harald he thanked Hauk well for his journey. King Adalstein had Hakon raised at his Court, and he was afterwards called Athelstan’s foster-son. In these dealings of the kings it was seen that each of them wanted to be regarded as higher than the other, but there was no difference made between their rank on this account, and each of them was king in his realm till his death-day” (Fagrskinna, c. 21–22).

In the raising and education of boys, most attention was paid to their physical development; both physical and intellectual accomplishments were named idrottir. The most important of these were—the skilful handling of all kinds of weapons, riding, swimming, snow-shoe running, rowing, wrestling, working in wood and metal, and harp-playing; to which should sometimes be added skill in training and managing dogs, falcons and hawks for the hunt. Of intellectual accomplishments are mentioned knowledge of runes, laws, the art of poetry, so necessary for remembrance of the deeds of heroes, eloquence, skill in draughts or checkers, chess, and the use of foreign tongues.

Kali, the son of Kol, who had settled in the Orkneys, well known as a kindly and accomplished man, composed the following stanza:—

I am ready to play chess,