Rúna Hauksdóttir flashed a frown at her husband Grímur Geitskör who nodded to her, smiling. The crack of distant thunder in such cold weather was quite unusual yet they both did hear it. She doubted his prediction of a severe increase to the light snowfall as they gathered their horses and weapons to leave the small, roundish crater of Kerith Lake. Yet the fluffy flecks and sparkly slivers grew with ever increasing intensity despite light breaths of quiet, frigid air as the two travelers made their way towards Bláskógar, a day’s trek in the best of times. Þorsteinn Ingólfsson held title to the freehold of cliffs, lakes, and rocklands there that Grímur had determined was the best place for the new Althing, an obligatory parliament for a nation getting its start.
The horses’ hooves thumped and scraped through the deepening white carpet alongside Bakkalot Lake as man and woman discussed their objectives while they trudged alongside their animals and towards the larger lake Thingvallavatn that was at the eastern edge of Ingólfsson’s domain. Ingólfsson would not relinquish a single stone nor tree limb which exasperated Grímur. Rúna suggested a possible solution vague in detail but rich in promise, while abstaining violence against the holder of tenurial rights to Bláskógar.
“You have no sword.” He pausing knee deep in snow, he faced his wife and draped his gloved hand lightly on the hilt of his own sword. Rúna grabbed and strung her bow, weathered yet strong. Grímur idly adjusted a saddle strap and shook his head, “To take a heimskautsrefur, it must die.” Arctic foxes.
Rúna had hunted many of them to feed her husband and herself throughout the 5 years of their bonding. She smiled, “I shall not loose against your friend.” With arrow knocked, she pointed her bow at her husband and grinned without drawing.
Quietly, solemnly, Grímur told his wife, “Shoot in another direction, woman, where the need is greater.”
Two days of following the edge of the frozen waters of Thingvallavatn, allowed for Grímur Geitskör and Rúna Hauksdóttir to stand under clear skies with a crowd that included Þorsteinn Ingólfsson and his family, and thirty chieftains of the surrounding Icelandic mainland. All were gathered to decide the guilt or innocence of Þorsteinn Ingólfsson charged with murdering the husband of Ingrid Magnusson. Despite having no weapons other than his sword and Breið-øx, a broad axe, Ingólfsson was found accountable for sending an arrow through the right eye of Ingrid Magnusson’s husband, killing him. The penalty for taking the life of his lover’s husband was to have his entire land holdings of Bláskógar made public. This area then became known as Thingvellir.
The Althing (assembly) at Thingvellir was Iceland’s supreme legislative and judicial authority from its establishment in 930 until 1271, over 300 years. The Lögberg or Law Rock was the focal point of the Althing and a natural platform for holding speeches.
