Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

centuries until it was found by Ulf Leg Lopper.
    When Trandill returned to Norway he was a changed man: secretive, cunning and selfish. He constantly taunted Erlendur and one evening, in a drunken rage, he attacked him. Erlendur killed him with a lucky blow.
    Erlendur was going to take the ring, but Gandalf laid claim to it. That evening he put it on. At once he felt different: stronger, powerful, and also greedy.
    Later that evening a Sami sorceress from the North knocked at the door of Gandalf’s house seeking shelter. She saw that Gandalf was wearing the ring. She was overcome with terror and tried to leave into the night, but Gandalf stopped her. He demanded to know what she had seen.
    She said that the ring had a terrible power. It would consume all who owned it, until a man so powerful wore it that he would rule the world and destroy everything good in it. The world would be plunged into eternal darkness.
    Gandalf was concerned. He could feel the effect that the ring was having on him, but he was not yet in its power. He took off the ring at once and told the sorceress that he would destroy it. She said that the only way the ring could be destroyed was as Andvari had prophesied; it must be thrown into the mouth of Hel.
    ‘Tell me, woman, where is Hel?’
    ‘It is a mountain in the land of fire and ice,’ the sorceress replied.
    ‘I know where she means,’ said Erlendur. ‘Trandill told me of it. It is Hekla, a great volcano near his farm at Stöng.’
    So Gandalf decided never to wear the ring again and to keep it safe for Trandill’s sons. He told Ísildur to take the ring to Hekla in Iceland and throw it into the volcano.
    That night Ísildur had a dream that he was leading a glorious raiding party through England and he won a hoard of gold. He woke up before it was light and put on the ring. Immediately he felt taller, stronger, invincible. And he was determined to earn an even greater fortune overseas.
    He went to Gandalf and demanded that the earl give him a ship and permit him to lead a raiding party to England. Gandalf saw he was wearing the ring and ordered him to take it off. Ísildur felt a surge of anger shoot through him. He took up an axe and was just about to split Gandalf’s skull when Erlendur grabbed him from behind.
    As they struggled, Erlendur shouted: ‘Stop, Ísildur. You don’t know what you are doing! It is the ring! You will make me have to kill you just like I killed your father!’
    Ísildur felt a burst of strength course through his veins and he threw Erlendur off him. He raised his axe high above the defenceless Erlendur. But when he looked down on his cousin and his friend with whom he had shared so many adventures that summer, he stopped himself. He threw down the axe and pulled the ring off his finger. He replaced the ring in its box and left for Iceland immediately.
    He returned home to Iceland with the ring and his treasure. Gaukur had taken over the management of the farm at Stöng, and was betrothed to a woman named Ingileif. When Ásgrímur heard that Ísildur had returned he travelled to Stöng to meet his foster-brother. Ísildur told his brother and his foster-brother about his adventures in Norway and the Baltic. Then he told them all about Andvari’s Ring, and Earl Gandalf’s instruction that he toss it into Hekla. He described the immense sense of power he had felt when he put on the ring, and the constant temptation to try it on again. He said that he intended to take the ring up the mountain the very next day and he asked Gaukur and Ásgrímur to accompany him to make sure that he went through with the quest.
    Hekla had a fearsome reputation and no one had climbed it before. But the three men were brave and undaunted, so early the next morning they set off for the volcano. On the second day, they were most of the way up the mountain when Ásgrímur slipped down a gully and broke his leg. He could not continue further, but he agreed to wait until the brothers returned from the summit.
    He waited until nearly midnight before he heard the sound of footsteps scrambling down the mountain. But there was only one man, Gaukur. He told Ásgrímur what had happened. He and his brother were standing by the crater at the top of the mountain. Ísildur took the ring from its box and was about to toss it into the crater, but he seemed unable to do so. He said that the ring was very heavy. Gaukur urged him to throw it, but Ísildur became angry and put the ring on his