veneration, and must always accompany the chief if he moved his abode, and point out his new homestead, if he fared for it over sea, by the spot where they drifted ashore, as, when land was sighted, they were thrown overboard.  In front of the seat-rows just described were placed the tables whereon the meals were put forth.  And when the number of people exceeded the capacity of the ordinary benches, a new row of benches was placed in front of the tables, so that there were two rows of benches down along either side of the hall with the tables between them.  The last-named rows of benches were called forsoeti; and their occupiers, when seated at table, faced those of the upper and lower bench.  In the centre of the hall, if of the fashion, as it probably was in early times, of a fire-hall, was a narrow oblong stone-pavement, probably as long as the rows of the benches, whereon fires were lit for heating of the room, for cooking of food in some cases, and for the purpose of lighting up the hall.  The smoke that rose from the burning fuel found its way out through the luffer or louvre, in the middle of the ridge of the roof (ljori); the reyk-beri, reek-bearer, seems to have been a contrivance for creating draught to carry the smoke out through the ljori.  In that end of the hall which was opposite to the entrance was the cross-bench, dais (pallr), occupied by the women.  Here was also a high seat (oendvegi a palli), which was generally taken by the mistress of the house.  In our saga it seems that the hall of Sand-heaps made an exception to this general rule, as it apparently had the dais immediately within the doorway.

P. 77 (cpr. 110).  It is worth observing here, that Thorvald, son of Asgeir Madpate the younger, dwells at As in Waterdale, about 1013, when Thorgils Makson was slain.  When Grettir played, as a youth, on Midfirth-water (or cca. 1010), he dwelt at Asgeirsriver.  We mention this because there has been some confusion about the matter.  On the slight authority of the Þattr af Isleifi biskupi’, Biskupa Soegur I. 54, it has been maintained that he dwelt at Asgeirsriver even as late as cca. 1035, when his daughter Dalla was wooed by Isleif the Bishop.  G. Vigfusson, Safn til Soegu Islands, I. 337.  On the other hand, the statement of Hungrvaka that he farmed at As (i.e., at the Ridge), at the time aforesaid, has given rise to the conjecture that thereby must be meant Valdar-As, a farm in Willowdale, near Asgeirsriver, the manor of the Madpate family.  G. Vigfusson, in Biskupa Soegur, I. 61, note 2.  It seems there is no need of setting aside the clear statement of our saga, that the As was As in Waterdale (see Index), and not Valdaras in Willowdale at all, or that Thorvald had, by 1013, moved up to the neighbouring country-side of Waterdale, and settled among the kin of his great-grandmother.

P. 114, 1. 1.  ‘The men of Meals,’ is a close translation of the original, which, however, is incorrect; for the men of Meals were Grettir’s kin-in-law, and natural allies.  The saga means the men of Meal, Kormak and his followers, and the original should be either, þeir Mel-menn, or Mels-menn, or þeir Kormakr fra Mel.