I have gone with a bloody blade And with a sounding spear So that the wound-birds followed me, There was hard onset on the Vikings, We made angry battle; Fire played about the seats of men. We let the bloody corpses Fall asleep in the town-gates. “Then they drank together, and were very merry that evening, and the next day too. Then the Vikings went to their ships, and they separated from the jarl in friendship and exchanged gifts” (Egil’s Saga, c. 48). Sometimes high-born maidens entertained their guests alone. Hjalti, Gizur, and Óttar, the skalds of St. Olaf, went to Sweden in order to reconcile the king to St. Olaf. “They went one day to the house of the king’s daughter Ingigerd; she sat and drank with many men. She received them well, for they were known to her.... They sat there the greater part of the day and drank; she put many questions to Hjalti, and asked him to come often and talk with her. He did so” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 71 (Heimskringla)). At the end of a feast presents were given to the guests. Thorgeir, the famous Godir (lawman), who accepted Christianity on the people’s behalf at the Althing A.D. 1000, made a feast. “After the feast Thorgeir gave large gifts. He gave his kinsman Finnbogi five stud-horses, dandelion yellow in colour. It was said that they were the best horses in Nordlendinga-fjordung (the northern quarter of Iceland)” (Finnboga Saga, c. 23). When Harald Fairhair came to Halogaland, great feasts were prepared for his reception on his own farms among his lendirmen or powerful bœndr. The feast that Thorolf prepared was so magnificent, that the king was jealous of it. “The king had nearly three hundred men when he came to the feast, but Thórólf had five hundred men already there. Thórólf had prepared a large corn-barn, and set benches in it; there they drank, for no other room was large enough for them all to be in it together. Shields were hung all round the room. The king sat down in a high-seat. When the room was full from one end to the other, he looked round and got red in his face, but said nothing, and they felt that he was angry. The feast was splendid, and all the provisions were of the best. The king was not very merry, and stayed there for three nights, as he intended. On the day the king was about to leave, Thórólf went to him and asked him to go down with him to the beach. The king went. There the dragon ship which Thórólf had had made was floating, with tents and all outfittings. Thórólf gave it to the king, and asked him to consider that so many guests had been invited to do him honour, and not to compete with him. The king took this well” (Egil’s Saga, c. 11). Very many Sagas give instances of the heavy drinking at these feasts.