Chapter 10 Summary

By the year 984, Merewyn is part of her Icelandic community. She is married to Sigurd, and has a fifteen-month-old son Orm. Their home is in Western Iceland, near the Bogarfjord, and has a view of the Hafnarfell mountains. She learns to read the wildlife signs around her, and understands the land. Merewyn and Sigurd raise sheep and horses, and even have a cow and a pig. Sigurd is a good farmer, and Merewyn reflects often on the time that she asked Sigurd and Ketil not to go a-viking anymore.

Ketil is slightly over fifty now, but still a powerful man. He loves his grandson, and respectfully calls Merewyn "Dottir". Merewyn and Sigurd lease their land from Thorstein Egilson, who is the chief of the Borg district, and Ketil resents it mightily. When Ketil goes down to the naust for his daily walk to...