Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice)

finger. Then he turned and before Gaukur could grab him, he leaped into the crater.
    ‘At least the ring is destroyed,’ said Ásgrímur. ‘But at a very high price.’
    In the years afterwards, Gaukur changed. He became vain and quarrelsome, cunning and greedy. But he was even stronger and braver in battle and had a fearsome reputation. Despite all this, his foster-brother Ásgrímur remained steadfast in his loyalty. He frequently supported Gaukur in the various disputes Gaukur was involved in at the annual gathering of the Althing in Thingvellir.
    Gaukur married Ingileif. She was a wise woman and beautiful. She had a strong temper, but she was usually quiet. She noticed the change in Gaukur and she did not like it. She also noticed that Gaukur spent much time at Steinastadir, the farm of his neighbour Ketil the Pale.
    Ketil the Pale was a clever farmer, wise and peaceful and a gifted composer of poetry. He was popular with everyone, except perhaps his wife. Her name was Helga. She had fair hair and long limbs and was contemptuous of her husband, but admired Gaukur.
    There was a marsh between the two farms, on Ketil the Pale’s land. It was waterlogged in winter, but in spring it produced very sweet grass. One spring Gaukur decided to graze his own cows on the land and chased Ketil the Pale’s cows away. Ketil the Pale protested, but Gaukur brushed him off. Ketil the Pale did nothing. Helga scolded her husband for being so weak.
    After midsummer, when Gaukur was returning from the Althing at Thingvellir, he passed by Ketil the Pale’s farm. He came across a slave of Ketil the Pale who was slow to get out of his way. So Gaukur chopped off his head. Once again, Ketil the Pale did nothing.
    Helga was again contemptuous of Ketil the Pale. She scolded him from morning until night, vowing never to share his bed again until he had demanded compensation from Gaukur.
    So Ketil the Pale rode over to Stöng to speak to Gaukur.
    ‘I have come to demand compensation for the unlawful killing of my slave,’ Ketil said.
    Gaukur snorted. ‘His killing was perfectly lawful. He blocked the way back to my own farm and would not let me pass.’
    ‘That is not my understanding of what happened,’ said Ketil.
    Gaukur laughed at him. ‘You understand very little, Ketil. Everyone knows that every ninth night you are the woman to the troll of Búrfell.’
    ‘And they know that you could not sire anyone because you were gelded by the troll’s daughters,’ Ketil replied, for at that time Gaukur and Ingileif had no children.
    Whereupon Gaukur picked up his axe and after a brief struggle chopped off Ketil the Pale’s leg. Ketil dropped down dead.
    Afterwards Gaukur made even more visits to Ketil the Pale’s farm, where Helga was now the mistress. Ketil’s brother’s demanded compensation from Gaukur, but he refused to pay, and his foster-brother Ásgrímur supported him loyally.
    Ingileif was jealous, and determined to stop Gaukur. She spoke to Thórdís, Ásgrímur’s wife and told her a secret. Ísildur had not jumped into the crater of Hekla while wearing the ring. He had been killed by Gaukur, who had taken the ring, and then pushed his brother into the crater. Gaukur had hidden the ring in a small cave watched over by a troll’s hound.
    Thórdís told her husband what Ingileif had said. Ásgrímur did not believe her. But that night he had a dream. In his dream he was with a group of men in a great hall and an old Sami sorceress pointed to him. ‘Ísildur tried and failed to destroy the ring and was killed in the process. Now it is up to you to find the ring and to take it to the mouth of Hel.’
    Killing a man without reporting it was a great crime. Although Ásgrímur was convinced by his dream, he had no proof with which to accuse Gaukur, and Gaukur was not the man to accuse without proof. So Ásgrímur went to his neighbour Njáll, a great and clever lawyer, to help him. Njáll admitted that it would be impossible to prove anything at the Althing. But he suggested a trap.
    So Ásgrímur told Thórdís who told Ingileif that Ísildur had given him a helm in secret when he had returned from Norway. The helm belonged to Fafnir, the son of Hreidmar, and it was famous in legend. Ásgrímur had hidden it in an old barn on a hill at the edge of his farm at Tongue.
    Then Ásgrímur stood watch, hiding in the roof of the barn to ambush Gaukur, if he should come looking for the helm. Sure enough, on the third night, he