There was the Fiddle. He was the fiddle. He was the son of Sigmot the Red and he lived at

Vole in the Rongabetlier District.

He was a powerful chieftain and strong in pressing lawsuits.

He was so learned in the law that no verdicts were considered valid unless he had been involved.

He had an only daughter named Une.

She was beautiful, well-mannered, and gifted, and was thought to be the best match in Rangavutler. This glowing introduction is how the author of Nial's saga, which is perhaps the most sweeping and

literarily ambitious of all of the Icelandic texts chose to begin their now famous tale.

Mord's family made their way to Iceland when his father or perhaps his grandfather immigrated to Iceland from

Halogoland in northern Norway rather early in the Lanham period.

Upon arriving on the rather early in the Lagnan period.

Upon arriving on the island, he laid claim to vast tracts of land in the fertile river valleys of southwestern Iceland.

Having inherited these prosperous lands and adding to them

his notable skillet law and all the respect to which came along with it,

Mord was a formidable man. He was also, as is all too common when figures are introduced into a saga, a man with a problem.

But we'll get into that in just a bit.

First, we must follow the author of Nial's Saga and turn our attention north to Loch style, a region which we are becoming rather familiar with in this series.

Here we are introduced to two half brothers,

Hoskold and Harut.

We have actually already met Hoskold, if very briefly, when we talked about the story of Vigdis and Thord-Gody a few episodes back.

Hossald was a prominent chieftain, and he was he who took charge of Thord-Gody's property

after his wife had left him.

And it was Hosscold in his kinsman,

...