What Life Is Worth

The man walked into the hall, uninvited, unforeseen, and unchallenged by the servants who fled his terrible look and angry blade. He walked toward Froeri son of Oesti and said this. "I am Naul son of Naud. I say that you killed that man my father. What do you say then?"
Froeri, when he spoke, was never judged poor at it. He spoke then in this way. "I admit that I did, that you are his son, and that I owe a price. Here is my offer." He emptied the cup before him, and a large cup it was. He reached behind his seat then into a chest and filled that cup up, three handfuls it took till gold spilled from it. "Well?"
Naul stepped forward to accept the weregild, but Froeri drew it back. "But wait." The master of the hall gestured, and the servants carried in a great board that when set on its side became a wall that had three closed doors in it, too small for men. Froeri grabbed two more cups and filled the both of them with what he took from a different chest, which was copper. He went behind the little wall with it between him and the man Naul. After some little time, he came out again.
"Whether I owe the bigger price or the smaller, we will decide this way. Do you pick which door to open, and that cup behind it is yours."
Naul thought on that and prayed to the gods that favored his family and the laws. "That," he said, and pointed to the middle door. A servant, one who had run and became after that eager to please his master, walked toward it, but stopped when Froeri held up his hand. "First, open that one." The servant did as he bade. The leftmost door had behind it a copper-bearing cup. "See that? Now I give you this choice. Either order the creature to open the middle door, or else change your mind and your luck by picking the right instead."
Again Naul prayed, that time to whatever gods of wisdom and cunning he knew, and this was his answer. "Why not kill you and take all three?"
"The rightmost one."
Naul nodded and took the greater price alone.
"None of these men like sport and wit," Froeri complained.
"You did kill all their fathers."
"Who spoke just now? Where is the villain?" That, he never learned.
Finis