The desire of travel came upon Nial’s sons when they were men, and Grim and Helgi fared abroad, and were away five winters, part in Orkney and part in Norway (989–994). They were well received in Orkney by Earl Sigurd the Stout, for he found them to be bold and trustworthy men, and he took them into his bodyguard, and gave Helgi a gold ring and mantle and Grim a shield and sword. It was in the Western Isles that they met Kari, Solmund’s son, who gave them help and brought them to the earl, and was ever their friend; and together they fought for Earl Sigurd against the Scots in Caithness, and against Godred, King of the Isle of Man, and everywhere they were successful and got renown. When their time of sea-roving was past they busked them for Iceland, and Kari with them; and Kari was there that winter with Nial, and asked his daughter Helga to wife, and when they were married they were much with Nial, for he was now an old man, and he liked to have his children about him.
This was the more needful, for now when he was seventy winters old troubles began to fall upon Nial and his sons. Evil men envied their prosperity, and hated Nial the more that all spake honourably of him and praised the valour and uprightness of his sons. These men of bad feeling went about to separate the old man from his friends and stir up suspicion against him, and it was thought likely that for all he was aged, and the justest of counsellors and a friend whom no backbiting could shake even when his friendship was sorely tried, his own prophecy of himself would come true, and that his end would be far from that which anyone could guess. But things went quietly for a time, because it was hard to bring a cause of complaint against Nial. At last they thought that they had found a handle to turn against him when he erected a new Court of Law in the island, which he called the Fifth Court; to this appeals might be made when for any reason a decision on a case was not come to at one of the Quarter Courts then established in Iceland. For there were many suits pleaded in the Quarter Court that were so entangled that no way could be seen out of them, and many said that they lost time in pleading their suits when no decision was come to, and that they preferred to seek their rights “with point and edge” of sword, and to fight it out; so that there was danger of anarchy in the country. But Nial’s plan was to refer these disputed cases to a higher court for its decision. But though all agreed that this was a wise plan, many of the judges in the old Quarter Courts were annoyed that their authority was lowered and the supreme jurisdiction given to the new court, in which were to be placed only the wisest and best men; and what angered them still more was that one of these new judges was Hoskuld, Nial’s foster-son. In the time of paganism there were no clergy such as we have to-day, but the chief of each large clan or family was its priest, and there was only a fixed number of priests in each district, men who were regarded as the head-men or chiefs of that Quarter. So long as the old faith remained in the land it was the head of the family who offered the sacrifices for his own people. Hoskuld was made a judge in the new court, and he got the priesthood with it; he was called the Priest of Whiteness. His judgments were so just that many men refused to plead in the other courts and went to have their suits pleaded before Hoskuld’s court. Out of this jealousies arose, and above all two enemies of Nial, Valgard the Guileful and his son Mord, were angry because their court was left empty, while Hoskuld’s was full. One night Valgard was sitting over the fire when his son Mord came in. Valgard looked up at him and said: “If I were a younger man I should not be sitting here very busy doing nothing while the court of Hoskuld is crowded with suitors; and now I regret that I gave up my priesthood to thee; I see thou wilt take no action to support it; but I, if I were young, would work things so that I would drag them all down to death, Nial and all his sons together.”
“I do not see,” said Mord, “how that is to be done.”
“My plan is,” said Valgard the Guileful, “that you should make great friendship with Nial’s own sons. Ask them to thy house and give them gifts when they leave, and win their trust and goodwill, so that they shall come to have confidence in thee as much as they have in one another. For awhile say nothing that shall arouse suspicion of thy friendship, but when once they are won over, begin little by little to sow discord between them and Hoskuld, and keep on tale-bearing to each of the other, so that they will be set by the ears, and will end by killing Hoskuld and then it is likely that they themselves will fall in the blood-feud that will arise from his death, and so we shall get rid of all of them, and thou mayest seize the chieftainship when they are all dead and gone.”
“It will not be easy to do this,” answered Mord, “for Hoskuld is so much beloved that no one will believe any ill of him. Moreover, he and Nial’s sons, his foster-brothers, are so warm in friendship together that they are always in each other’s company and support each other in every way. Still, I will see what can be done, for Nial and his sons are no dearer to me, father, than they are to thee.”
From that time forward Mord was much at Nial’s house, and he struck up a great friendship with Skarphedinn, and said he would willingly see more of him. Skarphedinn took it all well, though he said that he had never sought for anything of the kind before; and he encouraged Mord to come backward and forward, so that often they spent whole days together; but Nial disliked his coming, for he distrusted the man, and often he was rather short with him.
This was while Grim and Helgi were sea-roving. But when they came home Mord said he would like to give a great feast in their honour, because they had been long away. They promised to go, and he called together a crowded feast, and at their going away he gave them handsome gifts, with a brooch of gold to Skarphedinn, and a silver belt also to Kari.
They went home well pleased, and showed their gifts to Nial. But all he said was: “Ye will pay full dearly for those gifts before all is done.”
From that time Mord began to drop hints to Nial’s sons that Hoskuld was not dealing fairly with them, and to Hoskuld he told many tales of slighting words spoken about him by Nial’s sons. At first they paid little attention to it, but after a while, as these stories grew (and Mord had ever a new one when they met), a coldness sprang up between the sons and Hoskuld, and he came less often to their house, and when they met they scarcely spoke together. But Hoskuld knew not what to think, for he loved his foster-brothers well, and he found it hard to believe that they had the designs on him that Mord made out. One day, when Mord had brought him a new story that Skarphedinn carried an axe under his belt, intending to take an opportunity to kill him, Hoskuld broke out angrily: “I tell you this, Mord, right out, that whatever ill-tales you tell me of Nial’s sons, you will never get me to credit them; but supposing such things were true, and it became a question between us whether I must slay them or they me, I tell thee that far rather would I be slain by them than work the least harm to them. A bad man thou art, with these tales of thine.”
Mord bit his lip, and knew not what to answer, but soon after that he went to Nial’s house and fell a-talking to Kari and Skarphedinn in a low voice, telling them all sorts of evil of Hoskuld, worse than before, and egging them on to kill him that very evening. He said that if they did not kill Hoskuld he would kill him himself for their honour. So he got his way with them, and bound them to meet him that night with their weapons and ride down to Hoskuld’s house at Ossaby.