My tale starts and ends with Hekla, and I will tell it as it happens, in the manner of the bards.

The Earth is inconceivably old. But Iceland is barely a child.

Cats, I decided, had certain advantages over men. There were loyal without being sycophantic, independent without being absent, and affectionate without being rapacious. That they choke up balls of fur and leave dead rodents at my feet is unfortunate. But it is not grounds for divorce.

It takes more than wings to release one from the bonds of kinship.