if thou wishest, but thou wilt not therewith kill all the sons of King Harald, and it will be said hereafter, as has been said before, that he who fosters the child of another is a lesser man.’ Thereafter Hauk went away, and took the cloak on his left arm and held his drawn sword in the other hand; the one of his men who had entered the last went out first. This done they went down to their ship, and as there was fair wind from the land out to sea, they made use of it, sailing to Norway. And when they came to King Harald he thanked Hauk well for his journey. King Adalstein had Hakon raised at his Court, and he was afterwards called Athelstan’s foster-son. In these dealings of the kings it was seen that each of them wanted to be regarded as higher than the other, but there was no difference made between their rank on this account, and each of them was king in his realm till his death-day” (Fagrskinna, c. 21–22). In the raising and education of boys, most attention was paid to their physical development; both physical and intellectual accomplishments were named _idrottir_. The most important of these were—the skilful handling of all kinds of weapons, riding, swimming, snow-shoe running, rowing, wrestling, working in wood and metal, and harp-playing; to which should sometimes be added skill in training and managing dogs, falcons and hawks for the hunt. Of intellectual accomplishments are mentioned knowledge of runes, laws, the art of poetry, so necessary for remembrance of the deeds of heroes, eloquence, skill in draughts or checkers, chess, and the use of foreign tongues. Kali, the son of Kol, who had settled in the Orkneys, well known as a kindly and accomplished man, composed the following stanza:— I am ready to play chess, I know nine idrottir, I shall scarcely forget the runes, I am a book-reader and smith; I can slide on snow-shoes, I shoot and row usefully, I know too both Harp-playing and metres. (Orkneyinga Saga, c. 49.)