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de nedlagte sager, da saadant vilde være meningsløst.
Antages det derimod, som nys nevnt, at det omhandlede
træaffald efter al rimelighed hidrører fra tilhugningen
paa stedet af gravkammerets tømmer, synes den formod-
ning ikke fjern, at man vilde lade alt, hvad der var
fremkommet ved indretningen af kammeret, følge skibet.
Naar vi endelig skulle bestemme tiden for begra-
velsen og udtale nogen mening om den begravne per-
son, da vidner stilen i de fundne sager, som alle-
rede paa flere steder ovenfor anført, sikkert om, at de
tilhøre den yngre jernalder eller det tidsrum, der be-
gyndte omtrent ved aar 700 efter Kristus og sluttede
1000. Men da
allerede viser sig fuldt udviklet og, som bemerket,
noget senere end aaret stilen her
antages stærkt paavirket af den irske ornamentik, kan
de fundne sagers alder neppe sættes længer op end
til det
det ikke rimeligt,
niende hundredaar. Paa den anden side synes
at en begravelse i skib og dertil
1 forbindelse med en saa storartet ofring af husdyr,
som vi her have truffet, kan være foregaaet saa langt
ned i tiden som henimod aaret 1000. Der tages saa-
ledes vistnok neppe synderlig fejl ved at sætte man-
dens død til omkring 900 efter Kristus. Hvem han var,
kan derimod ikke bestemmes. Kun saameget tør tem-
melig sikkert antages, at han ej var nogen kongelig
person. Om alle dem, der nævnes som konger over
Vestfold i den her omhandlede tid, og næsten ogsaa om
alle de nærmest foregaaende konger fortælles nemlig i
sagaerne, hvor de bleve begravne, og dette var ikke i
Sandehered, men som oftest paa Borre og kun et par
gange i Skiringssal eller det nuværende Thjødling preste-
gjeld. Blandt de sidste var kong Olaf, der døde om-
trent 840 af «fodverk» (/otarverkr, podagra?) paa sin
gaard Geirstad (nu Gjerstad), og hvis derværende grav
i 995 blev opbrudt og plyndret for vaaben og andre
kostbarheder).
ved et snurrigt træf en lighed mellem ham og Gok-
I to henseender viser der sig saaledes
stadskibets ejer; thi ogsaa dennes grav blev, som vi
have seet, plyndret — rimeligvis mens der endnu gik
sagn om, at man med ham havde nedlagt et eller andet,
mulig berømt vaaben —, og ligeledes bliver det, efter hvad
professor Heiberg har oplyst i anhanget, sandsynligt nok,
at ogsaa han døde som en verkbruden mand.. Forresten
1) Muncu, det norske Folks Hist. I å p, 398, 6 p. 494.
for such
On the other
the fact assumed, as recently stated, that this waste-
objects deposited - therein; an assumption
would be altogether absurd. hand were
wood fell, on the spot, from the preparation of the
the
further assumption is by no means far fetched, that the
timbers used in erecting the sepulchral chamber,
intention was to let all that fell, during the construction
of the chamber, accompany the vessel.
Should we, finally, seek to define the period of
this sepulture, and venture any conjectures as to the
person interred, then the style of the unearthed relics
renders certain, as already noted, their assignment to
the later iron age, or to that period which commenced
about A. D. 700, and closed shortly after A. D. 1000.
Here, however, since the style adopted indicates a
period of full development, and, as previously remarked,
infers a powerful influence received from the decorative
art of Ireland, the date of these relics can scarcely be
placed earlier than the ninth century. On the other
hand it may hardly be deemed probable, that a ship-
burial, a burial attended too with so large a sacrifice
this instance,
of domestic animals as that which, in
occurred, can have taken place so late as A. D. 1000.
Assuredly, then, there can scarcely be any essential
error in setting the decease of the personage here
buried at about A, D. 900. Who or what was that
personage cannot now be decided. Consistently with
rational probability only so much may be _ negatively
said: — that he ranked not with royalty. For of the
the kings of Vestfold within that
term whereof we treat, as well as of almost all their
burialplace of all
nearest predecessors, the saga record is unbroken; and
that place was not Sandehered, but oftenest Borre
and, that in but two instances, Skiringssal or the
present parish of Thjødling. Of these one instance
is that of King Olaf, who resided at Geirstad,
(now Gjerstad), and died of gout (?/otarverkr) about
A. D. 840; his grave there was broken open A. D.
995,
pillaged )).
and its weapons, as well as other treasures,
In two respects there is by a strange coin-
cidence a similarity between him and the owner of the
Gokstad ship; inasmuch, as we have seen, the sepulchre
of this latter too was violated and plundered — and
that in all likelihood at a period so early after the
interment, that stories were circulated to the effect that
with him some famous weapon was interred — and,
according to what Professor Heiberg has shown in the
appendix, it is also probable, that he too died a paralytic.
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