hearths for fires in the middle, with louvres above to let out the
smoke. On either side nearest to the wainscot, and in some cases
touching it, was a row of benches; in each of these was a high seat, if
the hall was that of a great man, that on the south side being the
owner's seat. Before these seats were tables, boards, which, however, do
not seem, any more than our early Middle Age tables, to have been always
kept standing, but were brought in with, and cleared away after, each
meal. On ordinary occasions, one row of benches on each side sufficed;
but when there was a great feast, or a sudden rush of unbidden guests,
as when Flosi paid his visit to Tongue to take down Asgrim's pride, a
lower kind of seats, or stools were brought in, on which the men of
lowest rank sat, and which were on the outside of the tables, nearest to
the fire. At the end of the hall, over against the door, was a raised
platform or dais, on which also was sometimes a high seat and benches.
It was where the women eat at weddings, as we see from the account of
Hallgerda's wedding, in our Saga, and from many other passages.

In later times the seat of honour was shifted from the upper bench to
the dais; and this seems to have been the case occasionally with kings
and earls In Njal's time, if we may judge from the passage in the Saga,
where Hildigunna fits up a high seat on the dais for Flosi, which he
spurns from under him with the words, that he was "neither king nor
earl," meaning that he was a simple man, and would have nothing to do
with any of those new-fashions. It was to the dais that Asgrim betook
himself when Flosi paid him his visit, and unless Asgrim's hall was much
smaller than we have any reason to suppose would be the case in the
dwelling of so great a chief, Flosi must have eaten his meal not far
from the dais, in order to allow of Asgrim's getting near enough to aim
a blow at him with a pole-axe from the rail at the edge of the platform.
On high days and feast days, part of the hall was hung with tapestry,