Gisli Sursson's Saga and The Saga of the People of Eyri

by Martin Regal

  When they rode down from the heath to the farm, they saw that Bjorn was outside in the home meadow working on a barrow, and there was no one with him and no weapons were around except a small axe and a large carving-knife that he was using to bore holes in the barrow. The knife’s blade was a hand wide at the handle. Bjorn saw that Snorri and his men were riding down from the heath and on to the field. He recognized the men at once. Snorri the Godi was wearing a black cloak and rode in front of the party. Then Bjorn made a clever move, taking the knife and walking quickly over towards them. With one hand he grabbed Snorri’s cloak-sleeve when he came up to them, and with the other hand he grasped the knife and held it as if he were ready to plunge it into Snorri’s chest if he felt like it.

  Bjorn greeted them as soon as they met and Snorri returned his greeting, but Mar’s hand failed him because he thought Bjorn could harm Snorri very quickly if any attack was made on him. Then Bjorn walked along with them and asked the news, maintaining his original grip on Snorri.

  Then Bjorn said, ‘There’s no denying, farmer Snorri, that I have done things to you which you may well hold against me, and I’ve been told that you bear hard feelings towards me. To my mind, it would be best if you made clear if you have some purpose in coming here other than visiting me on your way past. If you don’t have one, then I would like you to agree to a truce between us, and I will go back home, because I am not going to be made a fool of.’

  ‘You’ve been so lucky in the way our meeting has turned out,’ Snorri replied, ‘that you will get your truce this time, whatever else I might have intended before. But I want to ask this of you, that from now on you stop toying with my sister Thurid, because things won’t get any better between us if you keep carrying on like that.’

  ‘I will only promise you what I can deliver,’ Bjorn replied, ‘and I don’t know how I will manage that while Thurid and I are living in the same district.’

  ‘There’s not so much for you here,’ Snorri said, ‘that you mightn’t just as well leave the district.’

  ‘What you say is true,’ Bjorn replied. ‘And it will be so, since you have come over yourself to see me and our meeting has turned out like this, that I will promise you that you and Thor-odd won’t be irritated by my visits to Thurid next winter.’

  ‘You do well, then,’ said Snorri.

  After that they parted. Snorri the Godi rode to his ship and then went home to Helgafell.

  The next day Bjorn rode south to the ship at Hraunhofn and took a passage abroad that summer, but they were rather late setting sail. They were caught in a north-easterly wind which blew for most of that summer, and nothing was heard of the ship for a long time.

  48 After the reconciliation between the people of Eyri and the people of Alftafjord, the Thorbrandssons, Snorri and Thorleif Kimbi went to Greenland. Kimbavog bay, which lies between the glaciers in Greenland, is named after him, and Thorleif lived in Greenland until his old age. Snorri went to Vinland the Good with Karlsefni, and while fighting against the Skraelings,24 Snorri, the bravest of men, was killed. Thorodd Thorbrandsson went back to farming at Alftafjord. He married Ragnhild Thordardottir, the granddaughter of Thorgils Eagle and the great-granddaughter of Hallstein the Godi of Hallsteinsnes, who owned the slaves.25

  49 The next story to be told is about Gizur the White and his son-in-law Hjalti, who came out to Iceland to preach the Christian faith, and everyone in Iceland was baptized26 and Christianity was legally adopted at the Althing. Snorri the Godi was most influential in persuading the people of the West Fjords to adopt Christianity. When the Thing was over, Snorri the Godi had a church built at Helgafell and his father-in-law, Styr, had a second church built at Hraun. Men were greatly encouraged to build churches by the priests’ promise that they would have the right to places in heaven for as many people as could stand in the church they had built. Thorodd the Tax-trader had a church built on his farm at Froda, but there was no priest to perform mass at the church once it was built, because there were so few of them in Iceland at that time.

  50 In the summer when Christianity was adopted by law in Iceland, a ship landed at Snaefellsnes. It had come from Dublin and had Irish and Hebridean men aboard, as well as a few Norwegians. They stayed at Rif long into the summer, waiting for a good wind to sail east along the fjord to Dagverdarnes, where many people from around Nes travelled to trade with them.

  There was a Hebridean woman named Thorgunna on the ship. The crew of the ship said that she had brought finery with her that was very hard to get in Iceland. When Thurid, the mistress of the house at Froda, heard this she was very curious to see the finery, since she was fond of fine things and given to showy display. She went to the ship and found Thorgunna and asked her if she had any women’s clothing that was particularly fine. Thorgunna said she had no finery for sale, but added that she herself had such finery as to be unashamed at feasts or other public gatherings. Thurid asked if she could see her things, and she agreed, and they seemed to her very nice and well tailored, but not costly.

  Thurid made an offer to buy the finery but Thorgunna would not sell it. Then Thurid invited her to come and stay with her, because she knew Thorgunna was very well dressed and she thought she might get the clothes from her at her leisure.

  ‘I like the idea of coming to stay with you,’ Thorgunna replied, ‘but you should know that I’m not keen to pay for my keep while I am still able to work. Hard work isn’t disagreeable to me, as long as I don’t have to work in the wet. But I will decide myself what I will pay you for my keep, from the money I have.’

  Thorgunna spoke rather bluntly, but Thurid still wanted her to come to stay. Thorgunna’s belongings were then carried off the ship. She owned a very heavy chest as well as a portable chest, which were both taken over to Froda. When Thorgunna arrived at her lodgings, she asked for her bed. She was given a place in the inner part of the hall. She then opened up her chest and took out of it some beautifully worked bedclothes. She spread fine English sheets and a silken quilt over the bed. She also took out of the chest bed-curtains and a canopy to go all around the bed. These were all so well made that people thought nothing like them had been seen before.

  Then Thurid, the mistress of the house, said, ‘What price do you put on the bedclothes?’

  ‘I’m not going to lie in straw for your sake,’ Thorgunna replied, ‘even though you are well bred and carry yourself proudly.’

  This displeased Thurid, and she did not make another offer for the finery. Thorgunna worked at weaving every day when there was no haymaking to be done. But when the weather was fine, she worked outside drying hay in the cultivated home field, and had a special rake made for herself, which only she was allowed to use.

  Thorgunna was a well-built woman, both big and tall and very stout, with dark eyebrows and narrow eyes, and a full head of chestnut hair. She was generally well mannered and she went to church every day before starting work, but she was neither cheerful nor normally very talkative. It was general opinion that Thorgunna must have reached her sixth decade, but she was still a very vigorous woman.

  At that time Thorir Wood-leg and his wife Thorgrima Magic-cheek had come to live in the Froda household, and they were not getting on well with Thorgunna. The farmer’s son, Kjartan, was the only person with whom Thorgunna was on good terms. She liked him very much but he was rather reserved towards her, which often irritated her. Kjartan was then thirteen or fourteen, and was both well built and of imposing appearance.

  51 That summer was not very dry but the weather was fine in the autumn. By then the haymaking at Froda had got to the stage where the cultivated hayfield had been mown and nearly half its hay was completely dried. This was followed by a good drying day when the weather was still and clear so that no cloud could be seen in the sky. Thorodd the farmer got up early that morning and organized the day’s work. Some men were put to carting hay, and some to stacking it, and the farmer directed the women to dry the hay, with the work divided between them. Thorgunna was give
n enough hay to dry for a cow to have lived off over the winter.

  A lot of work was done during the day, but towards mid afternoon a black cloud appeared in the sky to the north over Skor, and quickly swept across the sky straight towards the farm. People thought it looked as if the cloud would bring rain. Thorodd told everyone to rake up the hay but Thorgunna kept turning her hay as energetically as she could. She did not rake it up even though she had been told to. The cloud quickly scudded across the sky and when it was over the farm at Froda it grew so dark that people could not see beyond the home meadow, and they could scarcely distinguish their own hands. So much rain fell from the cloud that all the hay lying on the ground became soaked. The cloud suddenly drew past and the weather cleared up. People could then see that blood had rained down in the shower.

  In the evening there were good drying conditions and the blood quickly dried out of all the hay except that which Thorgunna was drying. It would not dry and the rake she had been using did not dry out either. Thorodd asked what Thorgunna thought this marvel might mean.

  She said she did not know, ‘but it seems most likely to me,’ she said, ‘that it is a foreboding of doom for someone who is here.’

  Thorgunna went home that evening and took to her bed, taking off her blood-soaked clothes. She then lay down in her bed and heaved a great sigh. People realized that she had taken ill. This shower had not fallen anywhere except at Froda. Thorgunna would not eat any food that evening. In the morning the farmer Thorodd went to see her and asked how long she thought her illness might last. She said she thought she would not have any further illnesses.

  Then she said, ‘I consider you to be the wisest man here on the farm. So I want to tell you what arrangements I want made for everything I leave behind, and for myself, because things will turn out just as I say. Even though you may think there is not much remarkable about me, I think little good will come of disregarding what I say. Things have started out in such a way that I don’t suppose the damage can be contained unless strong measures are taken at once.’

  ‘It’s not unlikely that you’re close to the truth about this,’ Thorodd replied. ‘So I will promise not to disregard your instructions.’

  ‘What I want is to have my body carried to Skalholt27 if I die from this illness,’ Thorgunna said, ‘because something tells me that place will one day be the most venerated in Iceland. And I also know that there are priests there now who can sing mass for me. That’s why I want to ask you to have me taken there. In return you can have whatever property of mine you want to recompense you. But before my property is divided up, Thurid is to be given the scarlet cloak I own. I’m doing this as some relief for her because I will dispose of the rest of my possessions as it suits me. But I would like you to take whatever you or she likes of what I leave as compensation for any costs you have born on my behalf. The gold ring that I own must go to the church with me, and I want my bed and bedclothes to be burnt in a fire since they will be of no use to anybody. I’m not saying this because I would begrudge anyone enjoying this finery if I knew it might be useful to them. I’m saying this so insistently because I wouldn’t like it if, because of me, people became as badly afflicted as I know they will be if what I say is disregarded.’

  Thorodd promised to do just as she instructed. After that, the illness took hold of Thorgunna, and she did not lie there many days before she died. Her body was taken to the church and Thorodd had a coffin made for it. The next day Thorodd carried her bedclothes outside, and collected wood and built a big bonfire. Then Thurid, the mistress of the house, went outside and asked him what he was intending to do with the bedclothes. He said he was going to burn them in the fire as Thorgunna had asked.

  ‘I won’t have that,’ said Thurid, ‘such fine things being burnt.’

  ‘She insisted,’ Thorodd replied, ‘that no good would come of disregarding her instructions.’

  ‘That’s nothing but malicious talk,’ said Thurid. ‘She didn’t want anyone else to enjoy them, that’s why she told you to do this. But no harm will come of it, whatever instructions of hers we disregard.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ he said, ‘if this is going against her instructions.’

  Then she put her arms around his neck and asked him not to burn the bedclothes. She pleaded with him so much that she changed his mind with the result that Thorodd burnt the featherbed and pillows but she kept the quilt and the sheets and the whole canopy, but neither of them was very pleased.

  After that they prepared for the funeral journey, and got trustworthy men to travel with the body on good horses that Thorodd owned. The body was wrapped in a linen cloth without seams, and then it was laid in the coffin. They travelled south across the heath, following the established tracks. Nothing is told of their journey until they came south of Valbjarnarvellir. There they came to very wet boggy ground and the body often fell off the horse, but they kept going south to Nordura river, which they crossed at Eyjarvad ford through deep water. The weather was stormy and there was very heavy rain.

  They came at last to a farm in Stafholtstungur named Lower Nes, where they asked for lodgings but the farmer would not put them up. Since it was nearly night, they did not think they would be able to travel any farther because it did not seem sensible to them to tackle the Hvita river by night. They unloaded their horses and carried the body into a store-room outside the main door, and then went into the main room and took off their clothes, intending to spend the night there without food. The people of the farm went to bed while it was still daylight.

  Once they were in their beds, they heard a great racket in the pantry, and wondered whether thieves had got inside. When they came to the pantry, they could see a tall woman standing there. She was completely naked, without a stitch on, and she was preparing a meal. The people who saw her were so frightened that they did not dare go near her. When the coffin-bearers heard this, they went to see what was going on. It was Thorgunna, and they all thought it wise not to interfere with her. And when she had done what she wanted, she carried the food into the main room, set the table and served her meal.

  Then the coffin-bearers said to the farmer, ‘It may well be that before we leave, you’ll consider yourself to have paid a high price for not putting us up.’

  The farmer and the mistress of the house replied, ‘We will gladly give you food and whatever other hospitality you need.’

  As soon as the farmer had offered them hospitality, Thorgunna walked out of the main room and she was not seen again. After that a fire was lit in the main room, and the wet clothes taken off the guests and replaced with dry ones. Then they sat at the table and made the sign of the cross over their food, and the farmer had the whole building sprinkled with holy water. The guests ate their food, and no one found fault with it even though Thorgunna had prepared it. They slept through the night and found the place very comfortable.

  The next morning they prepared to go on with their journey and things went very smoothly for them, because wherever this news was heard, most people thought it advisable to show them whatever hospitality they required. From then on, their journey went without incident. When they arrived at Skalholt, the gifts that Thorgunna had left the Church were presented. The priests accepted them gladly. Thorgunna was then buried and the coffin-bearers went home. Their journey back went smoothly and they arrived home safely.

  52 At the Froda farm there was a large fire room that had a bed closet behind it, as was customary in those days. In front of the fire room were two store-rooms, one on each side, with dried fish stored in one and flour in the other. Every evening fires were lit in the fire room, as was the custom then. People would sit in front of the fires for a long time before they had their meal.

  On the evening when the coffin-bearers came back, everyone was sitting in front of the fire at Froda, when they saw on the room’s wainscoting that a half-moon had appeared. Everyone in the room could see it. It went backwards around the house, against the motion of the sun. It did not disappea
r as long as people were sitting in front of the fire. Thorodd asked Thorir Wood-leg what it might mean.

  Thorir said it was a weird-moon, ‘and it will be followed by someone’s death here,’ he said.

  This kept happening there all week, the weird-moon appearing every evening just like the night before.

  53 The next thing that happened was that a shepherd came inside, and he was very downcast. He had little to say, and what he did say was irritable. People thought he must have been bewitched because he was beside himself, and kept talking to himself. This went on for some time. After two weeks of winter had passed, the shepherd came home one evening, went to his bed and lay down. In the morning he was found dead by people who went looking for him, and he was buried there at the church.

  Soon after that serious hauntings began. One night Thorir Wood-leg went outside when nature called and was on his way back to the door, but when he tried to go back inside, he saw that the shepherd was standing in front of the doorway. Thorir wanted to go in, but the shepherd certainly did not want him to. Then Thorir tried to get away, but the shepherd went after him and took hold of him and threw him back against the door. He was hurt, but managed to get back to his bed, black and blue all over. He became ill because of this, and died. He was buried there at the church. The shepherd and Thorir Wood-leg were always seen in each other’s company after that. As might be expected, this terrified everyone.