Runes traced on sticks (_kefli_), which were sometimes used, did not offer proper security against falsification, unless personal runes were used, which however were known only to a very limited number. An Icelandic settler named Gris, who had gone on a journey to Norway, was going back to Iceland from Nidaros (Throndhjem). “A woman came to him with two children, and asked him to take them with him. He asked: ‘What have they to do there?’ She said that their uncle Thorstein Svörf lived in the district where Gris had a bœr, and that her name was Thorarna. Gris said: ‘I will not do that without some evidence.’ Then she gave him from under her cloak a stick on which were many words known to Thorstein. Gris said: ‘Thou wilt think me greedy for property.’ She asked: ‘Ask as much as thou wilt.’ He answered: ‘Four hundreds in very good silver, and thou must follow with the children.’ ‘It is not possible for me to follow them,’ she said, ‘but I will pay what thou askest.’ She told him the name of the boy Klaufi, and of the girl Sigrid. Gris added: ‘How hast thou become so wretched, thou who art of such good kin?’ She replied: ‘I was taken in war by Snækoll Ljotsson, who is the father of these children; after which he drove me away against my will.’ “Gris had a favourable wind after he had taken these children on board, and sailed to Iceland into the same river-mouth as usual; and as soon as he had landed he carried away both children, so that no one knew of his coming. That evening he went to Thorstein at Grund, who received him very well, mostly because his son Karl had gone abroad at the time that Gris had been abroad, and Thorstein wanted to ask about his journey. Gris spoke little. Thorstein inquired if he was ill. Gris answered that it was rather that he was not well pleased with his doings; ‘for I have brought hither two children of thy sister.’ ‘How can that be?’ said Thorstein. ‘And I will not acknowledge their relationship unattested.’ Then Gris showed him the stick, and he recognized his words thereon, though it was long since he spoke them. He acknowledged the children, but paid Gris to bring up Klaufi” (Svarfdæla, c. 11). “Klaufi and Gris sailed from Solskel southward along the Norwegian coast, until they came to an islet, where lay two ships with no men on them. They jumped on board one of the ships, and Klaufi said: ‘Tell thou, Gris, who has steered these ships, for here are runes, which tell it.’ Gris said he did not know. Klaufi answered: ‘Thou knowest, and must tell.’ Gris was obliged to do so, against his will, and thus read the runes: ‘Karl steered the ship when the runes were carved’” (Svarfdæla, c. 14).