handiest carpenters and smiths. Gísli Súr's son knew every corner of his
foeman's house, because he had built it with his own hands while they
were good friends. Njal's sons are busy at armourer's work, like the
sons of the mythical Ragnar before them, when the news comes to them
that Sigmund has made a mock of them in his songs. Gunnar sows his corn
with his arms by his side, when Otkell rides over him; and Hauskuld the
Whiteness priest is doing the same work when he is slain. To do
something, and to do it well, was the Icelander's aim in life, and in no
land does laziness like that of Thorkell meet with such well deserved
reproach. They were early risers and went early to bed, though they
could sit up late if need were. They thought nothing of long rides
before they broke their fast. Their first meal was at about seven
o'clock, and though they may have taken a morsel of food during the
day, we hear of no other regular daily meal till evening, when between
seven and eight again they had supper. While the men laboured on the
farm or in the smithy, threw nets for fish in the teeming lakes and
rivers, or were otherwise at work during the day, the women, and the
housewife, or mistress of the house, at their head, made ready the food
for the meals, carded wool, and sewed or wove or span. At meal-time the
food seems to have been set on the board by the women, who waited on the
men, and at great feasts, such as Gunnar's wedding, the wives of his
nearest kinsmen, and of his dearest friend, Thorhillda Skaldtongue,
Thrain's wife, and Bergthora, Njal's wife, went about from board to
board waiting on the guests.

In everyday life they were a simple sober people, early to bed and early
to rise--ever struggling with the rigour of the climate. On great
occasions, as at the Yule feasts in honour of the gods, held at the
temples, or at "arvel," "heir-ale," feasts, when heirs drank themselves
into their father's land and goods, or at the autumn feasts, which