“Björn now rode to Borg to see his kinsman Skúli. When they met, Björn told him that he wished above all to get Oddny Thorkel’s daughter before he left. Skúli asked if he had said anything about it to her. Björn answered he had certainly done so. Then let us go, said Skúli; and they went. They came to Hjörsey, and saw Thorkel and his daughter Oddny. Björn then told him the state of his feelings, and asked Oddny in marriage. Thorkel took it well, and referred it altogether to his daughter’s decision. As Björn had been known to her before, and they had loved each other very fondly, she consented. Then the betrothal was performed at once, and she was to sit betrothed for three winters. And even if Björn, while staying in the same country (Iceland), was prevented from marrying her, she was to wait for him nevertheless during a fourth winter. If he should not come back from Norway in three winters, Thorkel was to give her in marriage if he liked. Also Björn was to send men to Iceland to renew the betrothal if he could not come himself. Skúli contributed as part of the contract so much property with Björn that it was as much as all the property which Thorkel added to his daughter’s _mund_”[12] (Björn Hitdælakappi’s Saga). The betrothed who without valid reason did not fulfil her engagement, and the giver-away who kept back the betrothed woman, were outlawed. If she of her free will took another man than her betrothed, both she and the giver-away were outlawed. “If a man betroths a woman he shall have her married within twelve months if no necessity hinders” (Frostath., iii. 12). “The giver-away of a woman may keep her from her betrothed man for twelve months” (Gulathing’s Law, 51). “If she (the betrothed woman) wants to break the betrothal within twelve months, and says she has been betrothed against her will, he can use his witnesses against her words and get her. If he lacks witnesses then she and also her father and mother, or their nearest kinsmen if they do not exist, shall assure it is against her will with an oath, and pay the betrothed man as much as was promised. If this takes place after the wedding she loses her third” (Frostath., iii. 22). “If the man to whom a woman is betrothed becomes sick he shall send word half a month before (the wedding) to the man who has betrothed the woman that he will not come to the wedding on account of his health, and the woman need not be brought home to him though it was agreed, and the reasons must be told. Then the wedding shall not be before the same time next year, unless the man wants it before, and then word must be sent half a month or more before, and he shall keep the wedding at his sole cost. If he does not recover in the next twelvemonth the betrothal is dissolved, unless both wish otherwise” (Gragas, i. 310). The wedding generally took place at the home of the bride; very seldom at the bridegroom’s: on the wedding-night the _mund_ became the wife’s personal property.