and Hallgerda's infamy. In marriage contracts the rights of brides, like
Unna the great heiress of the south-west, or Hallgerda the flower of the
western dales, were amply provided for. In the latter case it was a
curious fact that this wicked woman retained possession of Laugarness,
near Reykjavik, which was part of her second husband Glum's property, to
her dying day, and there, according to constant tradition, she was
buried in a cairn which is still shown at the present time, and which is
said to be always green, summer and winter alike. Where marriages were
so much matter of barter and bargain, the father's will went for so much
and that of the children for so little, love matches were comparatively
rare; and if the songs of Gunnlaugr snaketongue and Kormak have
described the charms of their fair ones, and the warmth of their passion
in glowing terms, the ordinary Icelandic marriage of the tenth century
was much more a matter of business, in the first place, than of love.
Though strong affection may have sprung up afterwards between husband
and wife, the love was rather a consequence of the marriage than the
marriage a result of the love.

When death came it was the duty of the next of kin to close the eyes and
nostrils of the departed, and our Saga, in that most touching story of
Rodny's behaviour after the death of her son Hauskuld, affords an
instance of the custom. When Njal asks why she, the mother, as next of
kin, had not closed the eyes and nostrils of the corpse, the mother
answers, "That duty I meant for Skarphedinn". Skarphedinn then performs
the duty, and, at the same time, undertakes the duty of revenge. In
heathen times the burial took place on a "how" or cairn, in some
commanding position near the abode of the dead, and now came another
duty. This was the binding on of the "hellshoes," which the deceased was
believed to need in heathen times on his way either to Valhalla's
bright hall of warmth and mirth, or to Hell's dark realm of cold and