Slavery was commonly practised in the days of which we are writing, and slaves taken in war were often carried from the British Isles to Iceland or Norway. There are many accounts of slaves with Irish or Scottish names in the Icelandic “Book of the Settlements”; they appear often to have given great trouble to their foreign masters. But it is less common to find a lady of high rank, an Irish princess, carried off from her people and sold as a slave in open market. The lady was named Melkorka, and her story is found in Laxdæla Saga, from which Saga we have already taken our account of the life and death of Unn the Deep-minded.[28] Parts of this Saga are closely connected with Irish affairs. There was in the tenth century in Iceland a young man whose name was Hoskuld. He was of good position and held in much esteem both in Norway and at his own home in Iceland. He was appointed one of the bodyguard of King Hakon, and he stayed each year, turn and turn about, at Hakon’s Court, in Norway and at his own home in Iceland, which he called Hoskuldstead. He was married to a handsome, proud, and extremely clever woman, named Jorunn, who, the saga says, “was wise and well up in things, and of manifold knowledge, though rather high-tempered at most times.” Hoskuld and she loved each other well, though in their daily ways they made no show of their love. Hoskuld, with his wife’s money joined to his own, became a great chieftain, for Jorunn was daughter of the wealthiest land-owner in all that part of the country, and his house and family stood in great honour and renown. Now there came a time when the King, attended by his followers, went eastward at the beginning of summer, to a meeting at which matters of international policy were discussed and settled between Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. From all lands men came to attend the meeting, and Hoskuld, who at that time was staying with his kinsfolk in Norway, went along with the rest. There was a great fair going on in the town, with eating and drinking and games and every sort of entertainment, and crowds passed to and fro along the streets. Hoskuld met many of his kinsfolk who were come from Denmark, and one day, as they went out to disport themselves, he marked a stately tent far away from the other booths, with a man in costly raiment and wearing a Russian hat on his head presiding at the door of the tent. Hoskuld asked his name. He said his name was Gilli;[29] “but most men call me Gilli the Russian,” he added, “and maybe you know me by that name.” Hoskuld said he knew him well, for he was esteemed the richest man of all the guild of merchants. “Perhaps,” he said, “you have things to sell which we might wish to buy.” Gilli asked what sort of things he might be looking for, and Hoskuld said he was needing a bondswoman, if he had one to sell. “There,” said the man, “I see that you mean to give me trouble by asking for things you don’t expect me to have in stock; but after all perhaps I can satisfy you.”