“Then they both walked to the house and knocked at the door. A húskarl opened the door. She ... went to Njal’s bed. She asked if Njal was awake. He answered: ‘I have slept till now, but now I am awake, and why art thou here so early?’ She said: ‘Rise from the bed of my rival and walk out with me, with her, and with thy sons.’ They rose and went out. Skarphédin (Njal’s son) said: ‘Let us take our weapons with us.’ Njal said nothing; they ran in and came out armed with their weapons. Hródný walked in front till they came to the sheephouse. She went in and told them to follow her. She took a creeping light (lantern) and said: ‘Here, Njal, is thy son Höskuld. He has got many wounds and now needs to be healed.’ Njal said: ‘I see marks of death on him but no marks of life. Why hast thou not given him nabjargir as his nostrils are open?’ She answered: ‘I intended that for Skarphédin.’ Skarphédin walked to the corpse and performed the nabjargir. Then he said to his father: ‘Who, sayest thou, has slain him?’ Njal answered: ‘Lýting of Sámsstadir with his brothers has probably slain him.’ Hródný said: ‘I intrust it to thy hands, Skarphédin, to avenge thy brother. I expect thou wilt do thyself honour though he is not legitimate, and that thou wilt take the revenge into thy hands’” (Njala, c. 98). Before putting a body in the mound _hel_ shoes were put on for the journey to Hell. “Thereafter Gisli and all his household made ready for the mounding of Vestein, his brother-in-law. He intended to mound him in the sand plain ... below Sæból. When they were on their way with the corpse Thorgrím with many men joined him. When they had made the mound Thorgrím godi walked to Gisli and said: It is now the custom, brother-in-law, to tie Hel-shoes on the feet of men before they are mound-laid. For it was said that they (the shoes) should go to Hel when the man was dead, and therefore a man who dresses much when he goes out, or is long in dressing, is said to prepare for Hel. Thorgrím said: I will do this with Vestein and tie the Hel-shoes on his feet. When he had done it, he said: I know not how to tie Hel-shoes if these are unfastened” (Gis Súrsson’s Saga). In the weird description of the burial of Sigurd and Brynhild[194] we see that the mound was reddened with blood, and that human beings were burned with them on the pyre. I will ask of thee Only one boon; It will in the world My last one be; Let so wide a burgh Be raised on the plain That under us all It be equally roomy, Beneath us all who shall die With Sigurd.