“One day Gilli and Leif (kinsmen) went from their booths to a hill, which was on the island, and there talked together; they saw many men on the headland on the eastern side of the island ... there glittered in the sunshine fine shields and magnificent helmets, axes and spears, and the men looked very valiant; they saw that a man, tall and bold-looking, went in front of the rest in a red kirtle, with a shield half blue and half yellow, a helmet on his head, and a long cutting spear in his hand; they thought they recognized in him Sigurd Thorlaksson. Next to him walked a stout man in a red kirtle, who had a red shield; they thought they recognized him with certainty as Thórd Lági (the low); the third man had a red shield, with a man’s face painted on it, and a large axe in his hand; this was Gaut the red” (Færeyinga Saga, c. 48). While King Olaf was at Stiklastadir a man came to him who was not like other men. “He was so tall that no other man reached higher than to his shoulders; he was very handsome, and fair-haired. He was well armed; he had a very fine helmet, a coat of mail, and a red shield; he was girt with an ornamented sword and had a large spear inlaid with gold, whose handle was so thick that it could scarcely be grasped with the hand” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 22). It was the custom for those who attended the Thing to put on their best clothes. “The champion Gunnar came to the Althing, so finely dressed that none were dressed as well, and the people came out of every booth to admire him. He had on the scarlet state[219] clothes which King Harald Gormsson (Denmark) gave him, and a gold ring on his hand from Hakon jarl” (Njala, c. 33). ----- Footnote 205: Here the word _möttul_ = mantle, the same garment which elsewhere is called _skikkja_. Footnote 206: Laxdæla, 46. Footnote 207: Fornmanna Sögur; Harald Hardradi. Footnote 208: Magn. Baref., 8. Footnote 209: Flateyjarbok, i. 481. Footnote 210: In the time of Olaf Kyrri, before 1100, very tight _hosur_ were used. Blue trousers and blue and grey hosur are mentioned. Footnote 211: Baldakin, stuff or skin from Bagdad. Footnote 212: It seems to have been the custom to fold up the edges of the skikkja (Magnus Erlingson, ch. 13, 37; Magnus Barefoot, 8; Flateyjarbók, iii.). Footnote 213: Brooches = fibulæ. Footnote 214: Cf. also for cloaks.—Egil’s Saga, c. 77; Eyrbyggja, c. 37; Vigaglum’s Saga, c. 6; Ljosvetninga Saga, c. 17. Footnote 215: Valaskikkja = Welsh (foreign) cloak. Footnote 216: Cf. also Eyrbyggja Saga, c. 43. Footnote 217: Cf. Svarfdæla Saga, c. 5, and Magnus Barefoot, c. 8. Footnote 218: The _hird_ or hirdmen were so called because they guarded their lord or king; the word being derived from _hirda_, to guard or preserve. The hird of a king was often very considerable: King Harald Fairhair sometimes had a hird of 400 men. Footnote 219: Fignarklœdi = dignity-clothes; clothes of highborn men.