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

by Martin Regal

  ‘Don’t come any farther, Alf,’ said Ospak. ‘You’ve got a thin skull and I have a heavy axe. You’ll end up worse off than Thorir if you come a step closer.’

  Alf took this good advice, just as he was directed. Ospak and his men carried the whale to the boat, and had finished before Thorir came to. When he realized what had happened, he reproached his men for being worthless, standing by while some were being robbed and others beaten. Then Thorir leapt up, but by then Ospak had launched his boat and was well out from land. They rowed west across the fjord to Eyri and started work on their catch. Ospak would not let anyone who had been with him on the journey leave, and they all settled in and readied themselves inside the fortification. Thorir and his companions divided up what was left of the whale, with each person bearing a share of the loss according to how much of the whale they owned. After that they all travelled back home, but there was great enmity between Thorir and Ospak. Because Ospak had so many men with him, they quickly went through their provisions.

  58 One night Ospak and fourteen of his men went over to Thambardal. They walked into Alf’s home and drove everyone in his household into the main room, while they stole from the farm and carried away their loot on four horses. When the people of Fjardarhorn became aware of their journey, a man was sent over to Tunga to tell Thorir. Thorir gathered a force of eighteen men together at once, and they rode down to the head of the fjord. Then Thorir saw Ospak and his men riding past and heading north from Fjardarhorn.

  When Ospak saw the men riding after them, he said, ‘Men are approaching and it’s probably Thorir. He must be intending to avenge the blow I dealt him last winter. There are eighteen of them, and fifteen of us, but we are better equipped. It’s difficult to say who is the more enthusiastic for a fight. The horses that we got from Thambardal might be eager to go back home, but I will not give up what we now have in our possession. Two of our men, who are least ready to fight, should drive the packhorses back over to Eyri, and have the men who are there come over to join us, while the thirteen of us who are here will face them however it turns out.’

  They did as Ospak told them. When Thorir and his men came up, Ospak greeted them and asked the news. His conversation was very smooth, as he tried to buy time from Thorir and his men. Thorir asked where they had got all their loot. Ospak said they had got it from Thambardal.

  ‘How exactly did you come by it?’ asked Thorir.

  ‘It was neither given nor sold,’ Ospak replied, ‘and nothing was paid for it.’

  ‘Will you give it up into our hands, then?’ Thorir asked.

  Ospak said he did not feel inclined to do so.

  Then they made at one another and the fighting began. Thorir and his men fought very fiercely, but Ospak’s men defended themselves valiantly. None the less they were short of men, and some on their side were soon wounded and others killed. Thorir had a bear-hunting knife in his hand and rushed at Ospak, lunging at him, but Ospak averted the blow. Since Thorir had thrown himself into a lunge which did not find its mark, he fell forward on to his knees with his head bent over. Ospak then struck down on Thorir’s back with his axe and there was a loud crack.

  ‘That will dampen your enthusiasm for long journeys, Thorir,’ said Ospak.

  ‘It might,’ Thorir said, ‘but I think I’ll still make full-day journeys despite you and your blow.’

  Thorir had had a knife hanging on a strap around his neck, as was the practice in those days, and the knife was around the back when the blow fell there, so he only got a slight scratch on either side of the knife. Then one of Thorir’s companions rushed up and struck at Ospak, but he parried with his axe, the blow striking the shaft so that it broke in two, the axe then falling down. Ospak called out to his men and told them to try and get away. He took off running himself. As soon as Thorir stood up, he threw his short sword after Ospak, and it hit him in the thigh and ran through to the other side. Ospak pulled the sword out of his wound, turned around, and sent the sword back. It hit the belly of a man who had struck him previously, so that he fell down dead on the ground.

  After that Ospak and his followers ran away, and Thorir and his men chased them out along the shore right up to Eyri. Men and women then came running down from the farm, so Thorir and his men turned back. The rest of the winter passed without incident, but in that fight, three of Ospak’s men had died, and one of Thorir’s, and many had been wounded on both sides.

  59 Snorri the Godi took up the case of Alf the Short against Ospak and his men, who were all sentenced to lesser outlawry at the Thorsnes Assembly. After the assembly Snorri the Godi went back to Tunga, and stayed at home until the confiscation court. Then he went north to Bitra with a large body of supporters, but by the time he arrived there, Ospak had got away with all his belongings. He and fourteen men had sailed north to Strandir in two boats, where they stayed for the summer and caused a great deal of trouble. They settled in the north at Tharalatursfjord, and collected more men around them. A man named Hrafn, known as the Viking, joined them. He was a particularly evil man, who had been living as an outlaw in North Strandir. They did a great deal of damage there in robberies and murders, and the band stayed together right up until the Winter Nights. Then the men of Strandir gathered a force together, with Olaf Eyvindarson from Drangar and other farmers joining him. Ospak’s band had built a fortification around their farm at Tharalatursfjord, and there were now thirty of them altogether. Olaf and his men laid siege to the fortification, which seemed impenetrable. They then held talks with the men inside, and the troublemakers offered to travel away from Strandir and cause no further disturbances in the district if they could leave the fortification. Since they did not think it would be to their advantage to continue dealing with them, they accepted the offer and swore an oath to this effect. The farmers then went back home.

  60 To turn back now to Snorri the Godi, he went north to the court of confiscation at Bitra, as was written earlier. By the time he came to Eyri Ospak had already left, but Snorri the Godi conducted the confiscation proceedings according to the law, and claimed all the property of the outlaws, dividing it up among the men who had suffered the most damage, Alf the Short and the other men who had been robbed. Then Snorri the Godi rode home to Tunga and so the summer passed.

  Ospak and his men left Strandir at the Winter Nights with two large boats. They sailed along the coast of Strandir and then north across Floi bay to Vatnsnes. They went ashore and looted there, and loaded both boats as high as the sides would allow them, then sailed north across Floi into Bitra, landed at Eyri, and carried their loot up into the fortification. Ospak’s wife and their son Glum had spent the summer there, along with two cows. The same night that they had come home, they rowed their boats up to the head of the fjord and walked up to the farmstead at Tunga and broke into the house. They dragged the farmer Thorir out of his bed, led him outside and killed him. Then they stole all the property that was in the house and took it down to the boats.

  They then rowed to Thambardal, leapt ashore and broke down the doors just as they had done at Tunga. Alf the Short was lying in bed with all his clothes on, and when he heard the doors being broken down he jumped up and ran through a secret doorway at the back of the house. He got away and ran up into the valley. Ospak and his men stole everything they could get their hands on and took it to their boats, travelling back to Eyri with both boats fully laden. They carried their loot into the fortification and then hauled their boats in too. They filled them both with water and then closed up the fortification so that they were in the best position for a battle, and there they sat out the winter.

  61 Alf the Short ran south across the heath and did not stop until he came to Snorri the Godi’s at Tunga, and told him about his troubles. He strongly urged Snorri to go north at once to attack Ospak and his band. But first Snorri the Godi wanted to find out from the north whether they had done anything more than push Alf the Short out of the way and whether they had taken up residence somewhere in Bitra. Some time l
ater they heard from Bitra in the north about the killing of Thorir and the preparations which Ospak had made there. People found out that it would not be easy to overpower them. Then Snorri the Godi had Alf’s family and what was left of his livestock fetched, and they all came to Tunga and stayed there for the winter. Snorri the Godi’s enemies condemned him for being slow in righting Alf’s lot. Snorri the Godi let anyone say whatever he wanted, but none the less, nothing was done.

  Sturla Thjodreksson sent word from the west that he was ready to move against Ospak’s band as soon as Snorri wished, claiming he was no less bound to make the journey than Snorri. During the winter right up until Yule reports kept coming from the north of destruction by Ospak and his men. The winter was very severe and all the fjords had iced over. Just before Lent Snorri the Godi sent a message over to Ingjaldshvol in Nes, to a man named Thrand Strider. Thrand was the son of the Ingjald after whom the farm at Ingjaldshvol was named, and he was the biggest and strongest of men, as well as a very fast runner. He had once been in Snorri the Godi’s household. When he was a heathen he was known as a shape-shifter, but most people gave up magic when they were baptized. Snorri sent word to Thrand, asking him to come over to Tunga to see him, and to prepare himself for a journey that might involve certain dangers.

  When Snorri the Godi’s message reached Thrand, he said to the messenger, ‘You should rest here for however long you like, but I will set off on Snorri the Godi’s mission. We won’t end up travelling together anyway.’

  The messenger said that would only be known after it had been tried. But in the morning when the messenger woke up, Thrand was already well on his way. He had taken his weapons and walked east below Enni, and from there he followed the path over to Bulandshofdi, and then around the head of the fjord to the farmstead named Eid. Then he travelled across the ice, onwards across Kolgrafarfjord and Seljafjord, and from there east into Vigrafjord, and farther east across the ice all the way to the head of the fjord. He arrived at Tunga in the evening when Snorri was sitting at the table. Snorri greeted him warmly. Thrand responded in kind, and asked him what he wanted him to do, adding that he was prepared to travel anywhere he wanted to send him. Snorri asked him to stay there and rest the night, and Thrand’s clothes were then taken off him.

  62 The same night Snorri the Godi sent a man west to Stadarhol to ask Sturla Thjodreksson to come and join him the following day at Tunga north in Bitra. Snorri also sent men to the next farm to gather more men. The next day they left for the north across the Gaflfell heath, and there were fifty of them altogether. They arrived at Tunga in Bitra in the evening, where Sturla was ready with thirty men, and they all left for Eyri that night. When they arrived, Ospak and his men came out on to the fortification wall and asked who the leaders of the band were. They told them, and ordered them to give up the fortification, but Ospak said he would not give up.

  ‘But we will give you the same choice as we gave to the men of Strandir,’ he said. ‘We’ll leave this district if you go away from the fortification.’

  Snorri replied that they were not in a position to lay down hard terms. The next morning as soon as it was light, they divided themselves up to storm the fortification. Snorri the Godi got the side of the fortification to attack which Hrafn the Viking was defending, and Sturla was assigned the side which Ospak was defending. Sam and Thormod, the sons of Bork the Stout, attacked another side and Snorri’s sons Thorodd and Thorstein Cod-biter were to attack the remaining side. Ospak and his men mainly used rocks to defend themselves as best they could. They fought on determinedly, for they were valiant fighters. Snorri and Sturla’s side had mainly missiles for weapons, both for shooting from bows and hurling by hand. They had brought a lot of them, since they had spent some time preparing themselves to storm the fortification. The assault was a fierce one, and many were wounded on both sides, but no one was killed.

  Snorri and his supporters kept up such a barrage of missiles that Hrafn and his men retreated behind the wall of the fortification. Then Thrand Strider made a running leap at the wall, jumping high enough to be able to hook his axe over the top of the wall and then pull himself up by the axe-handle until he got on to the fortification. When Hrafn saw that a man had got into the fortification, he rushed at Thrand with his spear, but Thrand warded off the lunge and swung at Hrafn’s shoulder, cutting off his arm. Many men then rushed at him, but he jumped off the wall of the fortification and got back to his men.

  Ospak urged his men to keep up the defence, and fought on bravely himself. He kept going out on to the fortification wall and throwing stones. At one point when he was making a bold defence by hurling a stone into Sturla’s troop, Sturla threw a thonged spear at him, which hit him in the stomach, knocking him down outside the fortification. Sturla ran up to him straightaway and took hold of him, not wanting anyone else to wound him, because he wanted there to be no dispute that he was Ospak’s killer. A third man was killed on the side of the wall that Bork’s sons were attacking.

  After that, the Vikings offered to surrender the fortification, if they could have a truce to protect their lives and limbs, and they said they would accept whatever conditions Snorri the Godi and Sturla demanded. Since Snorri the Godi’s side was fast running out of missiles, they agreed to this. Then the fortification was given up, and the men in it surrendered to Snorri the Godi, who let them all get away without injury to life or limb as they had asked. Both Ospak and Hrafn died there, as well as a third man from their side, and there were many wounded on both sides.

  This is how Thormod described the event in ‘Words of the Raven’:

  35.

  There was a battle at Bitra

  and I believe the trouble-stirrer

  provided bountiful flesh there victory-women:

  for the birds of the victory-women; valkyries; their birds: ravens

  three steerers of sea-riders sea-riders (i.e. chariots): ships;

  lay there, scant of life, their steerers: warriors

  before the courage-sweller; courage-sweller: warrior

  the raven got carrion there.

  Snorri the Godi let Ospak’s wife and his son Glum keep their farm there. Glum later married Thordis, the daughter of Asmund Grey-locks and the sister of Grettir the Strong,29 and their son was Ospak, who quarrelled with Odd Ofeigsson of Midfjord.30 Snorri the Godi and Sturla dispersed the Viking band, sending each of them on his way, and then they went back home. Thrand Strider stayed for a short while with Snorri the Godi before he returned to Ingjaldshvol. Snorri thanked him generously for his excellent support. Thrand Strider lived for a long time at Ingjaldshvol, and then later on at Thrandarstadir; he was a commanding figure.

  63 Thorodd Thorbrandsson was living at Alftafjord at this time, and he had estates at both Ulfarsfell and Orlygsstadir. Thorolf Lame-foot’s ghost had been so active that people did not think they could live on either of the estates. Bolstad was now deserted, because Thorolf had begun to haunt it as soon as Arnkel died, and both people and livestock had been killed there. No one had dared to farm there after that happened. When it was derelict, Lame-foot moved up to Ulfarsfell and caused a lot of trouble there. Everyone was terrified whenever they caught sight of Lame-foot.

  The farmer at Ulfarsfell, Thorodd’s tenant, went over to Karsstadir to complain about the problem to him, saying everyone felt that Lame-foot would not let up until he had cleared the whole district of both people and livestock, unless a solution was found.

  ‘And I won’t be able to hold out much longer if nothing is done,’ he said.

  When Thorodd heard this, he could not think of any good way out of it. The next morning Thorodd had his horse brought, and he summoned his farmhands to join him. He also got men from neighbouring farms to come along. They travelled over to Baegifotshofdi (Lame-foot’s headland), to Thorolf’s cairn. They broke into it and found Thorolf’s body, still unrotted and monstrous to look at. He was as black as Hell and as huge as an ox. When they tried to move him, they could not budge him. Then
Thorodd had a lever pushed underneath him, and by this means they were able to lift him out of the cairn. Then they rolled him down to the foreshore, and cut wood for a great funeral fire, set fire to it, rolled Thorolf into it and burnt him to cold coals. None the less, it took a long time before the fire had any effect on Thorolf. The wind was strong and blew the ashes far and wide once the burning took off, but whatever ashes they could collect they scattered on the sea. When they had finished, they went home.

  It was about time for the night meal when Thorodd got back to Karsstadir, and the women were doing the milking. As Thorodd rode up to the milking-pen, one of the cows started away from him, and fell over and broke one of her legs. They examined the cow, but she was too lean to be worth slaughtering, so Thorodd had her leg bound. The cow stopped producing any milk and when her leg was healed, she was taken for fattening at Ulfarsfell because the pasture there is as good as on an island. The cow often went down to the foreshore where the funeral fire had been, and licked the stones on to which the ashes had drifted.

  According to some people, when the men from the islands sailed along the fjord with their cargo of dried fish, they could see the cow up on the mountain side with a dapple-grey bull, but no one thought this likely. In autumn Thorodd intended to kill the cow, but when men went to look for her, she was nowhere to be found. Thorodd often had searches made for her that autumn, but she was never found. People therefore assumed that the cow must either be dead or have been stolen.