Note 382 — Chapter LXXXII · RÖGNVALD CONQUERS THE DRÓMUND.

The tying of knots at the Jordan is also alluded to in the saga of Sigurd the Jorsala-farer. King Sigurd and his brother Eystein are “comparing each other’s exploits,” and Sigurd says:—“I went to Palestine, and I came to Apulia, but I did not see you there, brother. I went all the way to Jordan, where our Lord was baptized, and swam across the river; but I did not see thee there. On the edge of the river-bank there was a bush of willows, and there I twisted a knot of willows, which is waiting thee there; for I said this knot thou shouldst untie, and fulfil the vow, brother, that is bound up in it.” The tying of knots seems also to have had another meaning covertly alluded to in the stanzas.—(See the story of Gunnhild and Hrut in the Njáls Saga, p. 18.)