The Red Romance Book Part 9

Then Kolskegg began to inquire of the vessels that were sailing that summer, and he settled that he would go on board the ship of Armfin of the Bay, and Gunnar his brother would go with him.

They sent down to the sh.o.r.e those things that they might need in foreign lands, and then Gunnar bade farewell to Njal and his men, and thanked his friends for the help they had given him.

At the last he took leave of the thralls at Lithend, and of his mother, and told them that, since his own country had outlawed him, he would never return to it. Then he threw his arms round every man, and without looking back sprang into the saddle.

As they rode along the Mark fleet, his horse stumbled, and Gunnar fell to the ground. When he got up he did not mount at once, but stood and looked round him for a while. Suddenly he turned and said to Kolskegg: 'Never has my home seemed to me so fair as now when the corn is ripe and ready for cutting. Come what may, I will not leave it.'

'Do not let your foes triumph over you,' answered Kolskegg. 'For if you should break your atonement, any man may deal with you as he will.'

'I will go no whither,' repeated Gunnar, 'and I would that you would stay with me.'

'I cannot do this thing,' answered Kolskegg; 'but if you go back, tell my mother and my kindred that I bid them farewell for ever, for you will soon be dead, and I shall have naught to bind me to Iceland.'

Hallgerda's heart was filled with joy when Gunnar came under the doorway, but Rannveig said nothing, for her heart was sad.

All that winter Gunnar sat fast at Lithend and would not be prevailed on to leave it, and when the winter had gone and the Thing had met, Gizur the white proclaimed Gunnar an outlaw for having broken his atonement.

Then he called together all his foes, and they planned together how that they should ride to Lithend and slay him. But Njal heard what they had been saying, and he warned Gunnar.

'You have always dealt truly and kindly with me,' said Gunnar, when Njal had finished speaking, 'and if ill befall me, take heed, I pray you, of my son and Hogni. As for Grani, he has an evil nature, and there is no turning him from bad deeds.'

It was in the autumn that Mord, the son of Valgard, sent word to Gunnar's foes that the time had come to make the attack upon Lithend, as all his men had gone to the haymaking on the isles of the sea. So they set forth secretly, but stopped first at the farm nearest to Lithend, where they seized the farmer, and warned him that unless he came with them and put to death the hound Sam which had guarded Gunnar ever since Olaf the Peac.o.c.k had bestowed him as a gift, his own life should be forfeit. Thorkell the farmer was sore at heart when he heard what was required of him, but he took his axe and went with the rest. It was easy to entice Sam the hound into a hollow dell; but when he saw the crowd of men behind Thorkell he knew that evil was afoot, and sprang on Thorkell and tore open his throat. Then Aumond of Witchwood smote him on the head with his axe, and Sam gave a howl which was not the utterance of any mortal dog, and rolled over.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GUNNAR'S LAST FIGHT & HALLGERDA'S REVENGE]

Gunnar, who was sleeping in the narrow s.p.a.ce above his great wooden hall, heard the awful sound, and said to himself: 'So they have killed thee, Sam, my fosterling. Well, I will follow thee soon;' and, taking his bill in his hand, he went up into the roof of the hall, where among the beams were little slits for windows. In the winter there were shutters fastened over these little slits, but now they were left open.

From the beam on which he was crouching Gunnar saw a red tunic slipping by the window, and he thrust swiftly out his bill. In a moment a man's body fell upon the ground below.

'Well, is Gunnar at home?' said Gizur, and Thorgrim the Easterling answered: 'Go and see for yourselves; but if Gunnar is not at home, his bill is,' and those were his last words, for the thrust had been mortal.

It hardly seemed possible that one man could keep such a force at bay, but wherever they went Gunnar's arrows followed them. Three times they came on, and three times they fell back, and Gunnar's heart beat high, for he thought that perchance their courage might fail, and that they would return whither they had come.

'One of their own arrows sticks outside the window,' he said, laughing loud in his glee; 'I will send it to kill its master.' But his mother answered: 'It is ill to waken a sleeping dog, my son.'

Her words were wise, but Gunnar would not listen to them. He shot the arrow into the midst of the men gathered beneath him, and knew not that it had dealt a death-blow, or that Gizur the white had been watching its course.

'The arm that drew in that shaft had a ring on it--a gold ring such as Gunnar wears,' said he, 'and if they had not shot away their own arrows they would not be needing ours;' and with that he urged them to make a fresh attack.

'Let us set the house on fire,' said Mord, but Gizur answered him hotly, and bade him find out some other plan.

Now Mord was a man of many thoughts, and great skill in planning, so he looked about him to see if there was aught else he could do. Lying near were some ropes, and as soon as he saw them he cried out, 'If we can twist one end of the ropes round the beams, and the other round this rock, we can twist them tight, and pull the roof off the hall.'

And this was done; and when the roof fell down they beheld Gunnar standing on the beam, shooting arrows at his enemies.

At this Mord cried once more that the house should be burned, but the rest called shame on him, and then Thorbrand crept up on one side and cut Gunnar's bowstring with his axe. But before he could reach the ground again Gunnar had seized his bill, and driven it through his body.

Then, without looking round, Gunnar said swiftly to Hallgerda his wife: 'Let you and my mother cut off two locks of hair from your heads, and twist them into my bowstring, so that I may shoot at them once more.'

'Does aught depend on it?' she asked. 'My life,' he said; and Hallgerda made answer: 'Do you remember that time when you struck me in the face?'

said she; 'well, now you shall die for it.'

For many a day men sang of the fight which Gunnar made for his life and the numbers that he slew before he himself was struck down and slain.

'We have laid low a great chief,' said Gizur, 'and many hearts will be sore because of his slaying. But, though his body is dead, his name shall live for ever.'

(_Saga_)

NJAL'S BURNING

Now, Valgard the Cunning was dying. And he sent for his son Mord and bade him stir up strife between Njal's sons and their brother Hauskuld the priest, for he ever hated Njal, and longed to be avenged on him. So Mord fared to Hauskuld, and told him tales of what his brothers had said of him, but Hauskuld bade him begone, for he would listen to none of his stories. Then Mord left Hauskuld the priest, and had ready a long tale, how that Hauskuld had meant to burn them while they sat at a feast in Whiteness, had not Hogni, Gunnar's son, come by. And as this plan had failed, he set about gathering his men together to slay his brothers as they rode home, but neither Grani, son of Gunnar, nor Gunnar, son of Lambi, had the heart to do it.

At first, neither Njal's sons, nor Kari, who had married their sister, would give ear to Mord's false words, but in spite of themselves ill-feelings began to spring up in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s towards Hauskuld.

Thus things went on for many months, and whenever Mord met one of Njal's sons, or Kari, who had married their sister, he had new stories to tell them, till at length their hearts grew hot, and they determined that they would slay Hauskuld, lest perchance he might first slay them.

Hauskuld was sowing his corn when his brothers, and with them Mord, Valgard's son, came up to kill him. Skarphedinn, Njal's son, was their leader, and had bidden the rest each to give Hauskuld a wound. But the first blow dealt by Skarphedinn brought him on his knees, and he died praying that they might be forgiven for the ill they had brought on him, guiltless.

When he was dead they went home and told Njal what they had done.

'It had been well if two of you had died and Hauskuld had lived,' said Njal after he had heard the tidings, 'for I know better than you what will be the end of this.'

'And what will be the end?' asked Skarphedinn.

'My death, and yours, and your mother's,' answered Njal.

'Shall I die also?' he asked; but Njal shook his head.

'Good fortune will ever be with you!' he answered, and turned away and wept.

Now all men knew that at the next Thing a suit would be brought for the slaying of Hauskuld, and Njal and his sons made ready to fare to it, and to hear the award which should be given. But first sundry of Njal's friends came to see him and offered to stand by him, and to set up their tents beside his, and among them were Gizur the white and Asgrim. And at the Thing an award was made, but was made void by a quarrel between Flosi, the friend of Hauskuld the slain, and Skarphedinn, and Njal and his sons returned home, and Njal's heart was heavy.

'Are you riding back to your wife?' asked he of Kari, his son-in-law; and Kari made answer, 'Whatever happens to you, happens to me!' and they all stayed at Bergthorasknoll.

In the house dwelt an old, old woman, so old that she had nursed Bergthora, Njal's wife, and she was wise and could see into the future.

Njal's sons laughed at her warnings, and took no heed to them, but for all that they knew well that it was often the truth she told them. One day Skarphedinn was standing outside the door, and the old woman came out with a stick in her hand, and she pa.s.sed silently by him, and walked up the path to where a pile of dried shrubs lay above the house.

'May a curse be upon you!' she cried, shaking her stick over it; and Skarphedinn, who had followed after her, asked wherefore she was wroth with the pile.

'Because with the fire lighted from this pile there will be a great burning,' said she. 'And Njal and his sons will be burnt, and Bergthora, my foster-child. So carry it away and scatter it in the water, or else set fire to it before your enemies can get here!'