The father or the guardian of the girl had the decision over her marriage. If the father was dead the brothers were the guardians of the unmarried sister. If she had neither father nor brothers, her mother in connection with the nearest uncle could give her away; and as the maiden had no voice in the matter, she could be forced by her father or guardians into a marriage against her will. “Thorvald Usvifrsson, a rich man, demanded Hallgerd in marriage from her father Höskuld, an Icelandic chief. Höskuld told him that she was proud, but Thorvald said that did not matter. Höskuld did not ask his daughter, because he intended to give her in marriage and betroth her to Thorvald. When he told her, she said: ‘Now I have found out what I long suspected, that thou dost not love me so much as thou always pretendest, as thou didst not think it worth while to speak to me about this matter; nor do I think this match as high as you have promised me.’ It could be seen that she considered herself to be married beneath her rank” (Njala 10).[19] “The giver away next to a father or brother is a lawfully wedded mother. If there is no mother, then the man twenty winters old or more who is the nearest heir after the woman who is married” (Frostath., law ii. 13). The father did not always exercise his right of deciding about the marriage; sometimes he left the decision of the suit entirely in the hands of the daughter, but such cases must be regarded as an exception. If a girl married against the will of her parents or kinsmen the latter could disinherit her, and her progeny were illegitimate, and this act of disobedience would even get her self-chosen husband declared an outlaw as a woman-robber. When a poor girl was given in marriage to a rich man, one of the conditions made was that her clothes and ornaments should be provided, though if she was an heiress and fifteen years of age she could betroth herself with the advice of her kinsmen. The different Sagas and laws place the age of majority of men as well as of women at fifteen years, and early marriages of women at that age were not uncommon. “Thorvald (a wealthy Icelander) asked in marriage Gudrún Úsvifr’s daughter at the _Althing_ when she was fifteen winters old. The answer was favourable, but Úsvifr said it would be seen by the conditions that they were not equally high-born. Thorvald took this well, and said he asked for the woman and not for property. Then Gudrún was betrothed to Thorvald, and Úsvifr made the agreement. It was that Gudrún alone should rule over their property after they had come into one bed, and be owner of one half of all, whether they lived longer or shorter together. He was also to buy costly things for her, so that no equally rich wife had better jewels” (Laxdæla, c. 34).[20]