'But you must have formed an opinion about him?' Thora asked.
'Of course I did. I thought he was a peculiar character, to say the leastand not just because of his appearance. But he didn't bother me in the slightestunlike Gunnar, for example, who couldn't really stand him. I enjoyed having students who did things their own way. And he was extremely diligent and focused. As a rule I don't make any other demands.'
Thora raised her eyebrows. 'Focused? Gunnar gave the impression his research was quite scattered.'
Thorbjorn snorted. 'Gunnar's from the old school. Harald wasn't. Gunnar wants his students to stick to a prearranged course. Harald was more the type I likeon his journeys he liked to take a look down the side streets, so to speak. That's the way to go about it. You don't know where it will lead and it takes longer, but sometimes it yields windfalls.'
'So Harald wasn't going to change his dissertation topic, as Gunnar claims?' Matthew asked.
'Far from it,' Thorbjorn replied. 'Gunnar's always convinced every-thing's going to the dogs. I wonder if he was worried that Harald would stay here as a perpetual student. It's happened, you know.'
'Would you mind telling us a little about Harald's research?' Thora asked. 'We were wondering if his interest in witchcraft could be linked to the murder.'
Now it was Thorbjorn's turn to lift his eyebrows. 'Seriously?' Thora and Matthew nodded their heads. 'Well, I never. I'd be very surprised at that. History isn't so exciting that people kill for it very often,' he said. 'Anyway, Harald was planning to compare witch hunts in Iceland and on the mainland. As you know, it was mainly males who were burned at the stake for sorcery in Iceland, but it was females elsewhere. So that was his starting point. Since he was well acquainted with witch hunts on the mainland, Harald concentrated on acquiring Icelandic resources and studying the history of that period here. In my opinion he had established a good overview when he was murdered.'
'So what about those side streets?' asked Matthew.
Thorbjorn paused to think. 'Well, he had quite a fascination with Bishop Jon Arason and the printing press he's said to have imported to Iceland. At first I couldn't quite grasp how he intended to link that with witch hunts, but I let him proceed. Then he abandoned that angle for Brynjolfur Sveinsson, the bishop of Skalholt. I thought that was a better approach.'
'Was he connected with witch hunts?' Thora asked.
'Of course,' replied Thorbjorn. 'He was bishop at the time, but he was generally considered to take a soft line when it came to witches. It is known that he kept some boys at the school in Skalholt from being burned at the stake when a sorcerers' quire was found in their possession. But on closer examination it's an untenable view. For example, he did nothing to restrain his relative, Pall from Selardalur, who was one of Iceland's most vigorous witch hunters. Seven men were burned at the stake on suspicion of causing an outbreak of illness at Pall's farm.'
'This sorcerers' quire that you mentioned, was Harald particularly interested in that?' Matthew asked.
Thorbjorn shook his head slowly. 'No, not that I recall. It goes by the name of the Skalholt Quire and Bishop Brynjolfur probably had it destroyed. Though he did make a record of the eighty spells described in it, I think. Harald was fascinated by Brynjolfur's library, which contained an assortment of manuscripts and books. And his personal history also aroused Harald's interest, of course.'
'How?' asked Matthew, adding by way of apology: 'I know very little about Icelandic history.'
Thorbjorn gave him a pitying smile. 'In short, Brynjolfur had seven children, but only two reached adulthood: Ragnheidur and Halldor,' he explained. 'Ragnheidur gave birth to a son out of wedlock nine months after Brynjolfur had made her publicly swear an oath, on her hands and knees, that she was a virgin. The oath was taken because of rumors that she was having an affair with her father's young assistant, a man by the name of Dadi. Ragnheidur's bastard son was taken from her arms and sent to be brought up by the father's family. She died shortly afterward, when the baby was about one year old.
'Halldor, Brynjolfur's son, died a few years later while studying abroad. Brynjolfur then brought back his only surviving heir, Ragnheidur's son Thordur, who was six by then. He soon became the apple of the old man's eye. Brynjolfur's wife died three years after the lad moved to Skalholt and to top off the bishop's tragedy Thordur died of consumption at the young age of twelve. So Brynjolfur, one of the great figures of Icelandic history, was left with no family or heirs. I think Harald was enthralled by the bishop's story and what could be read into it. If Brynjolfur had treated his daughter more fairly at the fateful moment, somehow you feel things would have turned out better for him and his family. Ragnheidur had tricked him, you see. Popular belief has it that she swore an honest oath in the church but allowed herself to be seduced by Dadi the same evening, in vengeance against the old man.'
'I'm not surprised that such a story appealed to Harald,' said Thora.
'If I remember correctly, his interest in Brynjolfur had started to wanehe'd studied him comprehensively. I'm told he took a week off before he was murdered, so I don't know exactly what he was up to then.'
'Do you know if Harald had any other business in Iceland apart from studying? Was he trying to buy up antiquities or objects of possible historical value?' asked Matthew.
Thorbjorn laughed. 'Do you mean treasure troves? No, we never discussed anything like that. Harald seemed to have both feet firmly on the ground, he was a devoted student and I found him nice to work with. Don't let Gunnar's hysteria deceive you.'
Thora decided to change the subject and asked about the meeting in the faculty building on the fateful night.
'Quite right,' said Thorbjorn. The playful glint had vanished from his eyes. 'We were here, most of the teachers from the department. Are you implying anything?'
'Not at all,' Thora retorted. 'I was just asking in the vague hope that you noticed something that might help us. Something that may have dawned on you since you gave your statement to the police. Memories often take a while to gestate.'
'You won't learn anything from those of us who were at the meeting. We left long before the police said the murderer appeared. We were celebrating our application for a grant in cooperation with a university in Norway. We're not exactly party animals, and we don't have much stamina at such gatherings. We'd all left before midnight.'
'You're certain?' Matthew asked.
'AbsolutelyI was the last to leave and I switched on the security alarm myself. If anyone had been left inside it would have set off every bell in the building. That's happened to me and it's not exactly pleasant.' He looked at Matthew, who appeared unconvinced, and added: 'The printout from the security system can corroborate that.'
'I don't doubt that it can,' said Matthew, stone-faced.
CHAPTER 24
The good weather from the previous evening seemed likely to hold. They were at the aviation school office where Thora and Matthew had hired a plane the day before. While Matthew completed a form for the pilot, Thora took advantage of the complimentary coffee. The fare had surprised herthe scheduled flight time to Holmavik was just under an hour either way but it cost less than if they had driven and stayed at a hotel. She had even been offered a lower price if they were willing to accept a trainee pilot. She opted for the higher fare.
'Okay, we're ready.' The pilot smiled. He was so young that he must have just been promoted from the lower fare bracket. They followed him to a small plane that accommodated four people including the pilot. Matthew offered Thora the seat in front, but she declined when she saw how cramped it was in the back. Although tall, she was still smaller than Matthew and therefore less likely to need a shoehorn to get her out at the other end. She climbed in and buckled up.
