often of great worth and beauty, and over the hangings all along the
wainscot, were carvings such as those which ... our Saga tells us
Thorkel Foulmouth had carved on the stool before his high seat and over
his shut bed, in memory of those deeds of "derring do" which he had
performed in foreign lands.

Against the wainscot in various parts of the hall, shields and weapons
were hung up. It was the sound of Skarphedinn's axe against the wainscot
that woke up Njal and brought him out of his shut bed, when his sons set
out on their hunt after Sigmund the white and Skiolld.

Now let us pass out of the skáli by either door, and cast our eyes at
the high gables with their carved projections, and we shall understand
at a glance how it was that Mord's counsel to throw ropes round the ends
of the timbers, and then to twist them tight with levers and rollers,
could only end, if carried out, in tearing the whole roof off the house.
It was then much easier work for Gunnar's foes to mount up on the
side-roofs as the Easterling, who brought word that his bill was at
home, had already done, and thence to attack him in his sleeping loft
with safety to themselves, after his bowstring had been cut.

Some homesteads, like those of Gunnar at Lithend, and Gísli and his
brother at Hol in Hawkdale, in the West Firths, had bowers, ladies'
chambers, where the women eat and span, and where, in both the houses
that we have named, gossip and scandal was talked with the worst
results. These bowers stood away from the other buildings....

Every Icelandic homestead was approached by a straight road which led up
to the yard round which the main building and its out-houses and
farm-buildings stood. This was fenced in on each side by a wall of