r death, ruthlessness, munificence and poetic skills (qualities which appear in the saga) (Bronsted 256). Rigidly hierarchical, the rulers or chieftains, related by kinship, "enjoyed special legal privileges, and special rights and duties . . . presumably for the protection they offered the folk" (Loyn 15). They ruled over free farmers who themselves owned Celtic and other slaves in thralldom. Polytheistic, Scandinavians believed in gods like Odin and Thor, the god of thunder who regulated the weather, who were cunning, cruel and overpowering. Their fallen warriors feasted and fought with each other even after death in Odin's Vahalla. The family was the predominant unit, "members of it are bound to
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