Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Wharton School Annals of Political Science: March, 1885
Next came a more marked subdivision of the hall internally. A wall parallel with the gable and of equal height cut off a part of its Western end, forming an ante-room which served more purposes than one. It was divided into two stories by a horizontal ?ooring, and each story into two rooms by a per pendicular partition. Of the two rooms on the South, the lower formed a porch to keep off draughts from the fire, and to keep out the cold air, as do our storm-doors. The room above it was connected with it by a trap-door. As is indicated by its name, herhfrzet or peace-keeper - corrupted in later English into belfry - it was an addition to the defences of the house. A sentinel placed in the upper story of the new porch, or a person escaping into it, could offer a prolonged and successful resistance to an attacking party. The other half of the upper story was used as an especially safe bed-room, and was called a ram-loft or strong-loft, while the room below it became a store-house for clothes and food. It serves to mark the date of this innovation that the ram-loft is men tioned in the Saga of St. Olaf as a new thing, the royal mis sionary being lodged in such a loft during one of his many journeys through Norway.
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