“Housemaids and neighbouring women shall be at the _bed-journey_ of every woman until the child is born, and not leave it before they have laid it to the breast of the mother.... No woman shall have her child at the breast longer than three fasts,[68] but shall have it until the third one. If her husband says that she must take her child from the breast and his wife has such power that she will not obey his words, she is liable to pay three marks of her own property. If he does not heed it any more than she, then they are each to pay three marks of their property” (Borgarthing Law, 3). The children of prominent families were said to be born with weapons, which seem to have been specially made to be given at the time of birth; and the animals born that day were also given to the child as a birth-gift. “Hlöd, the son of King Heidrek, was brought up with King Humli, his mother’s father, and was the most handsome and bold of men. But it was an old saying at that time that a man was born with weapons or horses; this was said about the weapons that were made at the time the man was born. Also sheep, animals, oxen or horses, if born at the time, were given to high-born men in their honour, as here is said about Hlödver Heidreksson: Hlöd was then born In Húnaland, With sax and sword, With a long brynja, With a ring-adorned helmet, With a sharp sword (mækir), With a well-broken horse On the holy field.”[69] (Hervarar Saga, c. 13.) When a child cut his first tooth it was the custom to give him a present. The Gods in days of yore Gave to Frey Alfheim as a tooth fee. (Grimnismal.) “Ásta, Gudbrand’s daughter, bore a boy who was named Olaf when he was water-sprinkled by Hrani. It was said by some that Gudbrand would not let him be raised on account of the hatred he had against his father (Harald Grænski), until Hrani told him that he had seen light over the house in which the child was born. Gudbrand himself went to look at it. Then the boy was taken and brought up with great love. Hrani gave him a belt and a knife as tooth-fee, and when he grew up he gave him a ring and a sword” (St. Olaf’s Saga, vol. iv.; Fornmanna Sögur). In the battle of Svold, Olaf Tryggvason said to Thyri, his queen:- “Now thou needest not weep, for thou hast got back thy possessions in Vindland, but I shall to-day claim thy tooth-fee from King Svein, thy brother, which thou hast often asked me to do.” The goddesses and gods seem to have been called upon to help women in the pangs of childbirth. “Borgný, a king’s daughter, could not be delivered of her child before Oddrun, the sister of Atli, came to help her; and then Borgný says: