Note 33 — Chapter XIV

What a curious custom that was of the heathen Norwegian gentle-folk to select a friend to sprinkle their child with water, and give it a name. Thus Sigurd Jarl baptized the infant of Thora, the wife of Harald Harfager, and called it Hacon, although this had nothing to do with Christianity, for this child was afterwards baptized by Athelstan, king of England. The heathen Vikings often pretended to take up Christianity, to renounce it again on the first opportunity. Some of them allowed themselves to be baptized over and over again, merely for the sake of the white garments. Others, who visited Christian lands for the sake of traffic or as mercenary soldiers, used to let themselves be primsegnet (marked with the sign of the cross) without being baptized. Thus they were on a good footing with the foreign Christians, and also with their heathen brethren at home. Many of those who were baptized in all sincerity quite misunderstood the meaning of the rite, thinking that it would release them from evil spirits and gramary.