by Martin Regal
that the snow-white land land of the head-dress: woman
of the head-dress loved me –
if the well-bred woman
had a son so like me;
I yearn for the goddess wave’s fire: gold; its goddess: woman
of the wave’s fire yet.
‘It may be in your best interest not to have anything to do with Thurid, and to stop thinking about her,’ said Thord.
‘That may be so,’ said Bjorn, ‘but that’s far from how I feel, even though it will mean taking on a powerful man like Snorri the Godi, her brother.’
‘Then you’d better work out your own plan of action,’ said Thord, and that was the end of their conversation.
Bjorn went back to Kamb where he took over the management of the farm, since his father was by now dead. That winter he set out on a journey north over the heath to visit Thurid. Even though Thorodd felt uneasy about it, he could not see a way of putting a stop to it, since it kept going round in his head how difficult it had been for him when he had interfered in their affair before, and he saw that Bjorn was much stronger now.
That winter Thorodd paid Thorgrima Magic-cheek to bring about a wild storm while Bjorn was crossing the heath. One day Bjorn went over to Froda, but when he left to go home that evening, the sky was overcast and it had started to rain, and he was rather late getting going. By the time he came up to the heath, the weather had turned very cold and there were snow-drifts. It was so dark that he could not see the path in front of him. After that a blizzard blew up with so much force that he could hardly stand up. His clothes, which were soaked through, began to freeze, and he had completely lost his bearings and did not know which way he was going. He came upon a cave jutting out of the land, and went into it to shelter for the night, but it was a cold campsite.
Then Bjorn spoke this verse:
29.
The goddess of the sea’s flame sea’s flame: gold; its goddess: woman
– she who spreads the cloth
over the wide bed – would hardly
think well of my lot,
if the goddess of wave-fire wave-fire: gold; its goddess: woman
knew that I, courtly fir-tree
of the sea’s steed, lay frozen, sea’s steed: ship; its fir-tree: man
alone, in a cave of stones.
And then he spoke another verse:
30.
From the east, my laden ship of planks
has plied the ice-cold earth of swans, earth of swans: sea
ever since the flirting bride
brought us straight to love;
many a hardship I’ve endured,
but now the hardy battle-tree battle-tree: warrior
lives here in a cave for a while,
instead of on a woman’s pillow.
Bjorn was in the cave for three days and nights before the storm let up, and walked back across the heath on the fourth day and got back to Kamb. He was completely exhausted. Men on the farm asked him where he had been during the storm.
Bjorn replied:
31.
Our deeds became famous
under Styrbjon’s gilded standards;
iron-clad Eirik piled up
men in the din of spears; din of spears: battle
I have trodden the heath-land
lost as a bewildered hound,
stumbling across the wide ways
in the woman’s wet magic snow-drift.
Bjorn spent the rest of the winter at home. In the spring his brother Arnbjorn established a farm at Bakki in Hraunhofn, but Bjorn continued to farm at Kamb, and his farm became a great estate.
41 The same spring at the Thorsnes Assembly Thorleif Kimbi asked to marry Helga, the daughter of Thorlak of Eyri and the sister of Steinthor of Eyri. Her brother Thormod, who was married to Thorleif Kimbi’s sister, Thorgerd Thorbrandsdottir, was very much in favour of this. But when the matter was raised with Steinthor, he responded hesitantly, and passed the decision over to his brothers.
Then they went to see Thord Blig, who responded by saying, ‘I’m not going to leave this matter up to other people; I’m going to take it on myself. What I have to say to you, Thorleif, is that those scars on your neck, that you got from the burning porridge three winters ago in Norway, will have to heal before I will marry my sister to you.’
‘I don’t know what can be done about that,’ replied Thorleif. ‘But whether this is avenged or not, I hope someone gets the better of you before another three winters pass.’
‘Your threats don’t unsettle me,’ Thord replied.
The next morning there was a turf-game21 going on outside the Thorbrandssons’ booth when the Thorlakssons were walking by. Just as they were going past, a big sandy sod flew up and hit Thord Blig on the neck with such force that his legs were thrown up over his head. When he stood up, he saw that the Thorbrandssons were all laughing at him. The Thorlakssons turned back at once and drew their weapons. The two sides attacked each other and started fighting. Some men were wounded, but nobody died. Steinthor had not been with them when this happened; he had been talking to Snorri the Godi.
When the sides were separated, a settlement was sought and it was decided that Snorri and Steinthor should arbitrate. The wounds on each side were roughly equal, as was the aggression on each side, but any disparities had to be compensated for. Everyone had been nominally reconciled by the time they rode home from the assembly.
42 That summer a ship arrived at the mouth of Hraunhofn, and another at Dagverdarnes. Snorri the Godi had business to do with the ship at Hraunhofn, and rode there with fifteen men. As they rode south over the heath into Dufgusdal, six fully armed men galloped after them. They were the Thorbrandssons. Snorri asked them where they were intending to go. They answered that they were going to the ship at Hraunhofn mouth. Snorri said he would do their business on their behalf and asked them to ride back home without taunting anyone, saying that it often took very little to provoke people who had previously been on cool terms, if they should happen to meet.
Thorleif Kimbi replied, ‘It will never be said of us that we didn’t dare ride through the Breidavik people’s territory, but you may well ride home yourself if you don’t dare ride on your way, even though you have business to do.’
Snorri did not reply. Then they rode out across the ridges and on to Hofgard, and from there out over the sand banks along the coast. When they were right out towards the mouth of the inlet, the Thorbrandssons rode apart and went up to Bakki. When they came to the farmstead, they leapt down from their horses and intended to go inside, but they could not break open the door. They then jumped up on to the roof of the building and started to tear it off. Arnbjorn took up his weapons and defended himself from inside the farmstead, thrusting his spear through the roof, which caused them a few injuries. It was then early in the morning and the weather was clear.
The men of Breidavik had risen early that morning, intending to ride down to the ship. As they came past Oxl they saw a man in fine clothes on the roof of the farm at Bakki. And they knew that was not Arnbjorn’s attire. Bjorn and his men then changed direction and rode up there. When Snorri the Godi realized that the Thorbrandssons had ridden apart from his company, he rode back after them. When they reached Bakki, they were still madly trying to tear off the roof of the farmstead. Snorri asked them to leave and not to cause trouble while in his company. Since they had not managed to get inside the farmstead, they gave up their attack as Snorri directed, and then rode down to the ship with Snorri.
The men of Breidavik arrived at the ship during the day, and each side kept to itself. There were a lot of hard feelings and wariness between them, but neither side attacked the other. The men of Breidavik had greater numbers at the marketplace. In the evening Snorri the Godi rode south to Hofgard, where Bjorn lived with his son Gest, the father of Hofgarda-Ref. Bjorn the Champion of the Breidavik People and his men offered to ride after Snorri and his supporters but Arnbjorn did not want that, saying that each side sho
uld be content for now with what they had achieved. Snorri and his men rode home the next day and the Thorbrandssons now considered themselves worse off than before. And so the autumn passed.
43 Thorbrand of Alftafjord had a slave called Egil the Strong. He was the biggest and strongest of men, and was unhappy with his life as a slave, and often asked Thorbrand and his sons to give him his freedom, offering to do whatever he could to earn it. One evening Egil went to herd the sheep along Alftafjord out to Borgardal. As evening drew on he saw an eagle flying from the west across the fjord. Egil had with him a large foxhound, which the eagle swooped on and lifted up in its talons, flying back to the west across the fjord to the cairn of Thorolf Lame-foot, and then it disappeared into the mountain. Thorbrand believed this sighting to be an omen.
Around the Winter Nights it was the custom of the people of Breidavik to hold ball games under Oxl mountain, south of Knorr. The spot is still called Leikskalavellir (Game-shed plains), and people from the whole district would come there. Large sheds were built for them to stay in, and some of them stayed for a fortnight or longer. At that time there was a good supply of fit men, as the district was well populated and most of the young men, except Thord Blig, were in the games. He would not join in on account of his aggressive temperament – not because he was so strong that he was not able to take part. He sat on a stool and watched the games. Because of their strength, it was not considered fair for the brothers Bjorn and Arnbjorn to play except against one another.
That same autumn the Thorbrandssons told their slave Egil to go to the ball games and kill one of the Breidavik men, either Bjorn, Thord or Arnbjorn, and in return he would receive his freedom. According to some this was done on the advice of Snorri the Godi, who had given instructions to Egil to find out if he could hide inside the shed and make his attack from there. He was to go down the mountain pass which rises up from Leikskalar, but he was only to go down after the fires for the evening meal had been made, because he said there was usually an evening breeze from the sea which would blow the smoke up into the mountain pass then. He told him to wait until the mountain pass was filled with smoke before going down.
Egil went on this journey, going first out along the fjord asking after the Alftafjord sheep and pretending that he was looking for them. But while he was on this journey, Freystein Bofiwas looking after the sheep back at Alftafjord. On the evening that Egil left, Freystein went west across the river to check on the sheep, and when he came to the avalanche, named Geirvor, on the other side of the river, he saw a severed human head lying out in the open.
The head spoke this stanza:
32.
Geirvor is bloodied
by the gore of men,
she will hide
the skulls of men.
He told Thorbrand about this apparition, and he thought it was portentous. Meanwhile Egil made his way out along the fjord and up on to the mountain east of Bulandshofdi, and then south over the mountains, heading for the mountain pass down to Leikskalar. He hid there during the day and watched the games. Thord Blig was sitting on the sidelines.
‘I’m not sure what it is I see up there in the mountain pass,’ said Thord, ‘whether it’s a bird or a man hiding, but it comes into view from time to time. It’s certainly alive,’ he said. ‘I think it would be a good idea to investigate it,’ but that was not done.
That day it was the turn of Bjorn the Champion of the Breidavik People and Thord Blig to do the cooking, and Bjorn was to make the fire and Thord to fetch the water. When the fire was made, the smoke drifted up into the mountain pass just as Snorri had said. Then Egil made his way down under the cover of the smoke towards the shed.
The games were not yet finished, but it was very late, and the fires were now blazing away so that the shed was full of smoke. And Egil made his way there. He had got quite stiff crouching up on the mountain. He had tasselled shoe-laces, as was the custom then, and one of the laces had become untied so that the tassel trailed along the ground. The slave went into the entrance hall of the shed. When he went into the main hall, he wanted to move silently because he could see Bjorn and Thord sitting by the fire, and Egil felt it would only be a little while before he earned for himself everlasting freedom. But when he went to step across the threshold, he trod on the loose tassel. When he tried to step forward with his other foot, the tassel held fast, causing him to trip, and he fell forward on to the floor of the hall. There was a huge thud as if the skinned carcass of a cow had been thrown down on the floor.
Thord leapt up and asked what enemy was there. Bjorn leapt up too and grabbed hold of Egil before he could get to his feet, and asked him who he was.
‘It’s Egil here, Bjorn, my friend,’ he said.
‘Who is this Egil?’ Bjorn asked.
‘Egil from Alftafjord,’ he replied.
Thord drew his sword and wanted to kill him.
Bjorn took hold of Thord and told him not to kill the man so quickly, saying, ‘we want to get the whole story out of him first.’
Then they put fetters on Egil’s feet. In the evening when people had come back to the shed, Egil recounted how his journey was meant to have turned out, in full hearing of everyone. He stayed there that night, but the next morning they led him up the mountain pass, which is now known as Egilsskard, and there they killed him.
It was the law in those days that if a man killed another man’s slave, he had to take the compensation payment of twelve ounces of silver to his home, beginning his journey there no later than the third sunrise after the killing of the slave. If the payment for the slave was legally made, there was no case to be answered for the killing of the slave.
After the killing of Egil the men of Breidavik decided to discharge the slave payment according to the law, and chose thirty men from those at the Leikskalar games, and that was a select band. They rode north across the heath and spent the night at Eyri with Steinthor. He joined them on their journey, bringing the total number in their band to sixty. They rode east along the fjord and spent the second night at Bakki with Thormod, Steinthor’s brother. They asked their kinsmen, Styr and Vermund, to join them, making their number eighty altogether.
Then Steinthor sent a man over to Helgafell to find out what Snorri the Godi would do when he found out about the band of men they had gathered together. When the messenger arrived at Helgafell, Snorri the Godi was sitting in his high seat, and there was nothing unusual about the household. Steinthor’s messenger was none the wiser about Snorri’s intentions. When he returned to Bakki, he described the situation at Helgafell to Steinthor.
‘It was to be expected that Snorri would abide by the law,’ said Steinthor. ‘And if he’s not going to Alftafjord, I don’t see why we need a large force, because I want us to behave prudently, even though we are conducting our case legally. It would seem a good idea to me, kinsman Thord,’ Steinthor went on, ‘for you and the rest of the Breidavik men to stay here, because it will only take the smallest incident to start a fight between you and the Thorbrandssons.’
‘Well I’m certainly going,’ replied Thord, ‘because Thorleif Kimbi is not going to have cause to mock me for not daring to deliver the slave payment.’
Then Steinthor said to Bjorn and his brother Arnbjorn, ‘I would like you two to stay behind with twenty men.’
‘I’m not going to fight to come along with you, if you don’t think it’s appropriate,’ said Bjorn, ‘but this will be the first time I’ve ever been rejected from a band of men. It’s my opinion that Snorri the Godi will outsmart you in his actions. I’m not clairvoyant, but I’ve got a hunch how this journey will turn out, and before we next meet you will have found yourself with too few men to support you.’
‘I will make the decisions here while I am in charge,’ said Steinthor, ‘even though I’m not as clever as Snorri the Godi.’
‘You can do whatever you like, kinsman, as far as I’m concerned,’ Bjorn replied.
After that Steinthor and his men rode away from Bakki,
and there were almost sixty of them altogether, riding east along Skeid to Drapuhlid, then over Vatnshals and across Svelgsardal, from where they headed east to Ulfarsfellshals.
44 Snorri the Godi had sent word to his neighbours asking them to move their ships under the headland at Rauda vikurhofdi. As soon as Steinthor’s messenger had left the farm, Snorri and his men went to the ships. He did not leave earlier because he felt certain a man would be sent to spy on his activities. Snorri sailed in along Alftafjord on the three ships, which had almost fifty men on them, arriving at Karsstadir before Steinthor and his men.
When people saw Steinthor’s party from Karsstadir, the Thorbrandssons said they should advance to meet them, and stop them reaching the hayfield, ‘because we have a large force of fine men.’
There were eighty of them altogether.
Then Snorri the Godi replied, ‘They must not be denied access to the farm, and Steinthor must get his legal rights, because he will conduct his case sensibly and quietly. I would like everyone to stay inside and not to exchange words with them, because that will only add to the troubles between us.’
After that everyone went into the main room and sat down on the benches, but the Thorbrandssons paced the floor. Steinthor and his men rode up to the door, and it is said that Steinthor was wearing a red tunic and had tucked the front of the skirt up under his belt. He had a beautiful shield and helmet, and on his belt a sword, which was elaborately decorated. The boss shone white with silver, and the hilt was bound in beautifully gilded silver. Steinthor and his men dismounted and Steinthor went up to the door and fastened to the door-hinge a purse containing twelve ounces of silver. He named witnesses to testify that the slave payment had been legally made. The door was open and one of the women of the farm was standing in the doorway listening to the naming of witnesses.
She went into the main room and said, ‘That Steinthor of Eyri is brave, and indeed he spoke very well when he delivered the slave payment.’
When Thorleif Kimbi heard that, he rushed forward and was followed by the other Thorbrandssons, and everyone else who had been in the main room went out after them. Thorleif was first to the door, and saw that Thord Blig was standing in front of the door with his shield, but Steinthor was by that time walking back across the hayfield. Thorleif grabbed a spear that was standing by the doorway and hurled it towards Thord Blig, hitting his shield, glancing off on to his shoulder, and causing a serious wound. After that the other men ran out, and a battle began in the hayfield. Steinthor was the most aggressive and struck out on both sides. When Snorri the Godi came out, he told men to stop the brawling and asked Steinthor to ride away from the hayfield, saying that he would not come after him. Steinthor and his men left the field and the fight broke up.
