loyalty in some degree redeemed the ferocity and
cruelty of the blood-feud he waged against the ill-doer.

It is certain that in the popular Icelandic saga of "Howard the Halt"
tradition has recorded with minute detail of approbation the story of
a man and woman, old, weak, friendless, who, in spite of terrible
odds, succeeded in obtaining a late but sufficing vengeance for the
cruel slaughter of their only son, the murderer being the most
powerful man of the region. The part here assigned to the woman
indicates the firm hold which the blood-feud had gained on the
imagination of the Norsemen.

Icelandic Ghosts

The story possesses a further interest as revealing the unique
character of the Icelandic ghost or phantom. In other literatures the
spirit returned from the dead is a thin, immaterial, disembodied
essence, a faint shadow of its former self; in Icelandic legend the
spirit returns in full possession of its body, but more evil-disposed
to mankind than before death. It fights and wrestles, pummels its
adversary black and blue, it is huge and bloated and hideous, it tries
to strangle men, and leaves finger-marks on their throats. If the
ghosts are those of drowned men, they come home every night dripping
with sea-water, and crowd the family from the fire and from the hall.
Apparently they are evil spirits animating the dead body, and nothing
but the utter destruction of the body avails to drive away the
malignant spirit.

The Story. Howard and Thorbiorn

Thus runs the saga of "Howard the Halt":

About the year 1000, when the Christian faith had hardly yet been
heard of in Iceland, there dwelt at Bathstead, on the shores of
Icefirth, in that far-distant land a mighty chieftain, of royal
descent and great wealth, named Thorbiorn. Though not among the first
settlers of Iceland, he had appropriated much unclaimed land, and was
one of the leading men of the country-side, but was generally disliked
for his arrogance and injustice. Thorkel, the lawman and arbitrator of
Icefirth, was weak and easily cowed, so Thorbiorn's wrongdoing
remained unchecked; many a maiden had he betrothed to himself, and
afterwards rejected, and many a man had he ousted from his lands, yet
no redress could be obtained, and no man was bold enough to attack so
great a chieftain or resist his will. Thorbiorn's house at Bathstead
was one of the best in the district, and his lands stretched down to
the shores of the firth, where he had made