only.Morris, William and Eirikr Magnusson: "Heimskingla", in "SagaLibrary", vol III-VI (London, 1893).RECOMMENDED READING --Jones, Gwyn: "A History of the Vikings" (Oxford University Press,Oxford, 1968; Revised, 1984).*****************************************************************PREFACE OF SNORRE STURLASON.In this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heardthem told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have haveheld dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danishtongue; and also concerning some of their family branches,according to what has been told me. Some of this is found inancient family registers, in which the pedigrees of kings andother personages of high birth are reckoned up, and part iswritten down after old songs and ballads which our forefathershad for their amusement. Now, although we cannot just say whattruth there may be in these, yet we have the certainty that oldand wise men held them to be true.Thjodolf of Hvin was the skald of Harald Harfager, and hecomposed a poem for King Rognvald the Mountain-high, which iscalled "Ynglingatal." This Rognvald was a son of OlafGeirstadalf, the brother of King Halfdan the Black. In thispoem thirty of his forefathers are reckoned up, and the death andburial-place of each are given. He begins with Fjolner, a son ofYngvefrey, whom the Swedes, long after his time, worshipped andsacrificed to, and from whom the race or family of the Ynglingstake their name.Eyvind Skaldaspiller also reckoned up the ancestors of Earl Hakonthe Great in a poem called "Haleygjatal", composed about Hakon;and therein he mentions Saeming, a son of Yngvefrey, and helikewise tells of the death and funeral rites of each. The livesand times of the Yngling race were written from Thjodolf'srelation enlarged afterwards by the accounts of intelligentpeople.As to funeral rites, the earliest age is called the Age ofBurning; because all the dead were consumed by fire, and overtheir ashes were raised standing stones. But after Frey wasburied under a cairn at Upsala, many chiefs raised cairns, ascommonly as stones, to the memory of their relatives.The Age of Cairns began properly in Denmark after Dan Milkillatehad raised for himself a burial cairn, and ordered that he shouldbe buried in it on his death, with his royal ornaments andarmour, his horse and saddle-furniture, and other valuable goods;and many of his descendants followed his example. But theburning of the dead continued, long after that time, to be thecustom of the Swedes and Northmen. Iceland was occupied in thetime that Harald Harfager was the King of Norway. There were