{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48622/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48622","id":"gutenberg_48622","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48622","summary":null,"tags":["Adventure stories","Category: Historical Novels","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction","Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction","Farmers -- Juvenile fiction","Grettir \u00c1smundarson, 996-1031 -- Juvenile fiction","Natural history -- Juvenile fiction","Outdoor life -- Juvenile fiction","Outlaws -- Juvenile fiction","Rivers -- Juvenile fiction","Sagas -- Adaptations","Sailing -- Juvenile fiction","Storytelling -- Juvenile fiction","Swords -- Juvenile fiction","Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Cover art]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: THORKELL AND THE OUTLAWED GRETTIR LEAVE THE ASSIZE.]\n\n\n\n\n                          *Grettir the Outlaw*\n\n                          *A Story of Iceland*\n\n\n                                   by\n\n                            S. BARING-GOULD\n\n Author of \"John Herring\" \"Mehalah\" \"Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas\" &c.\n\n\n\n            _WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY M. ZENO DIEMER_\n\n\n\n                        BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED\n                       LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN\n                                  1889\n\n\n\n\n                               *PREFACE.*\n\n\n                          TO MY YOUNG READERS.\n\n\nIt is now just thirty years since I first began to read the \"Saga of\nGrettir the Strong\" in Icelandic.  At that time I had only a Danish\ngrammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish dictionary, and I did not\nknow a word of Danish.  So I had to learn Danish in order to learn\nIcelandic.\n\nIt was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line when I began\ntook me some time to understand.  Moreover, I had not much time at my\ndisposal, for then I was a master in a school.\n\nNow, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I became intensely\ninterested in it myself, and it struck me that my boys whom I taught\nmight like to hear about Grettir.  So I tried every day to translate,\nafter school hours, a chapter, hardly ever more at first, and sometimes\nnot even as much as that.  Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk\nto some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story of Grettir.\nWell, Grettir went on for some months in this way, a fresh instalment of\nthe tale coming every half-holiday, and it was really wonderful how\ninterested and delighted the boys were with the story.  Nor was I less\nso; the labour of translation which was so great at first became rapidly\nlighter, and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as\nwere the boys.  The other day I met an old pupil of mine, and almost the\nfirst thing he said to me was: \"Oh! do you remember Grettir?  Thirty\nyears ago!  Fancy!  I am a married man and have boys of my own, and I\nhave often tried to tell them the story which made such an impression on\nme, but I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order.  I do wish\nyou would write it as a story for boys.  I should like to read it myself\nagain, and my boys would love it.\"  \"Very well,\" I said, \"I will do so.\"\n\nNow my boy readers must understand that I have told them the story in my\nown words and in my own way.  I went to Iceland in 1861, and went over\nnearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir.\nConsequently, I am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I\nactually saw.  In the original book there is a great deal more than I\nhave attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors of\nGrettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no great importance\nand very confusing to the memory.  So I have taken the leading points in\nthe story, and given them.\n\nS. BARING-GOULD.\n\n\n\n\n                              *CONTENTS.*\n\nCHAP.\n\n      I. Winter Tales\n     II. How Grettir played on the Ice\n    III. Of the Ride to Thingvalla\n     IV. The Doom-day\n      V. The Voyage\n     VI. The Red Rovers\n    VII. The Story of the Sword\n   VIII. Of the Bear\n     IX. The Slaying of Biorn\n      X. Of Grettir's Return\n     XI. The Horse-fight\n    XII. Of the Fight at the Neck\n   XIII. How Grettir and Audun made Friends\n    XIV. The Vale of Shadows\n     XV. How Grettir fought with Glam\n    XVI. How Grettir Sailed to Norway\n   XVII. The Hostel-burning\n  XVIII. The Ordeal by Fire\n    XIX. The Winter in Norway\n     XX. Of what Befell at Biarg\n    XXI. The Return of Grettir\n   XXII. The Slaying of Oxmain\n  XXIII. At Learwood\n   XXIV. The Foster-brothers\n    XXV. How Grettir was well nigh Hung\n   XXVI. In the Desert\n  XXVII. On the Great Eagle Lake\n XXVIII. On the Fell\n   XXIX. The Fight on the River\n    XXX. A Mysterious Vale\n   XXXI. The Death of Hallmund\n  XXXII. Of Another Attempt against Grettir\n XXXIII. At Sandheaps\n  XXXIV. How Grettir was Driven About\n   XXXV. On the Isle\n  XXXVI. Of Grettir on Heron-ness\n XXXVII. Of Hoering's Leap\nXXXVIII. Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends\n  XXXIX. Of the Old Hag\n     XL. How the Log came to Drangey\n    XLI. The End of the Outlaw\n   XLII. How Asdis received the News\n  XLIII. How Dromund kept his Word\n\nEpilogue\n\n\n\n\n                            *ILLUSTRATIONS.*\n\n\nThorkell and the outlawed Grettir leave the Assize, _Frontis_.\n\nGrettir challenges Kormak and his Party\n\nGrettir defends Himself from the Mob\n\nGrettir attacked in the Rift by Thorir's Party\n\nFording the quivering flood\n\nIllugi defends the dying Grettir\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: PEDIGREE OF THE FAMILY OF ASMUND OF BIARG]\n\n\n\n\n                         *GRETTIR THE OUTLAW.*\n\n\n\n                              *CHAPTER I.*\n\n                            *WINTER TALES.*\n\n\n    _The Birthplace of Grettir--The Peopling of Iceland--A History\n    of Quarrels--Stories Round the Hearth--Biarg--The Great Blue\n    Bay--The Boy Grettir--The Saga of Onund Treefoot--The Northern\n    Pirates--The Fight with King Harald--Onund's Wound--After the\n    Battle_\n\n\nIt was night--drawing on to midnight--in summer, that I who write this\nbook arrived at the little lonely farm of Biarg, on the Middle River, in\nthe north of Iceland. It was night, near on midnight, and yet I could\nhardly call it night, for the sky overhead was full of light of the\nclearest amethyst, and every stock and stone was distinctly visible.\nAcross the valley rose a rugged moor, and above its shoulder a snow-clad\nmountain, turned to rosy gold by the night sun.  As I stood there\nwatching the mist form on the cold river in the vale below, all at once\nI heard a strange sound like horns blowing far away in the sky, and\nlooking up, I saw a train of swans flying from west to east, bathed in\nsunlight, their wings of silver, and their feathers as gold.\n\nI had come all the way from England to see Biarg, for there was born,\nabout the year A.D. 997, a man called Grettir, whose history I had read,\nand which interested me so much that I was resolved to see his native\nhome, and the principal scenes where his stormy life was passed.\n\nThe landscape was the same as that on which Grettir's childish eyes had\nlooked more than eight hundred and fifty years ago.  The same outline of\ndreary moor, the same snowy ridge of mountain standing above it,\ncatching the midnight summer sun, the same mist forming over the river;\nbut the house was altogether different.  Now there stood only a poor\nheap of farm-buildings, erected of turf and wood, where had once been a\nnoble hall of wood, with carved gable-ends, surrounded by many\nout-houses.\n\nBefore we begin on the story of Grettir, it will be well to say a few\nwords about its claim to be history.\n\nIceland never was, and it is not now, a much-peopled island.  The\nfarmhouses are for the most part far apart, and the farms are of very\nconsiderable extent, because, owing to the severity of the climate, very\nlittle pasturage is obtained over a wide extent of country for the sheep\nand cattle.  The population lives round the coast, on the fiords or\ncreeks of the sea, or on the rivers that flow into these fiords. The\ncentre of the island is occupied by a vast waste of ice-covered\nmountain, and desert black as ink strewn with volcanic ash and sand, or\nelse with a region of erupted lava that is impassable, because in\ncooling it has exploded, and forms a country of bristling spikes and\ngulfs and sharp edges, very much like the wreck of a huge ginger-beer\nbottle factory.\n\nWhat are now farmhouses were the halls and mansions of families of noble\ndescent.  Indeed, the original settlers in Iceland were the nobles of\nNorway who left their native land to avoid the tyranny of Harold\nFairhair, who tried to crush their power so as to make himself a\ndespotic king in the land.\n\nThese Norse nobles came in their boats to Iceland, bringing with them\ntheir wives, children, their thralls or slaves, and their cattle; and\nthey settled all round the coast.  The present Icelanders are descended\nfrom these first colonists.\n\nNow, the history of Iceland for a few hundred years consists of nothing\nbut the history of the quarrels of these great families.  Iceland was\nwithout any political organization, but it had an elected lawman or\njudge, and every year the heads of the families rode to Thingvalla, a\nplain in the south-west, where they brought their complaints, carried on\ntheir lawsuits, and had them settled by the judge. There was no army, no\nnavy, no government in Iceland for a long time; also no foreign wars,\nand no internal revolutions.\n\nThese noble families settled in the valleys and upon the fiords thought\na good deal of themselves, and they carefully preserved, at first orally\nthen in writing, the record of their pedigrees, and also the tradition\nof the famous deeds of their great men.\n\nIn summer there is no night; in winter, no day. In winter there is\nlittle or nothing to be done but sit over the fire, sing songs, and tell\nyarns.  Now, in winter the Icelanders told the tales of the brave men of\nold in their families, and so the tradition was handed on from father to\nson, the same stories told every winter, till all the particulars became\nwell known.  At the same time there can be no doubt that little\nembellishments were added, some exaggerations were indulged in, and here\nand there the grand deed of some other man was grafted into the story of\nthe family hero.  About two hundred or two hundred and fifty years after\nthe death of Grettir, his history was committed to writing, and then it\nbecame fixed--nothing further was added to it, and we have his story\nafter having travelled down over two hundred years as a tradition.  That\nwas plenty of time for additions and emendations, and the hobgoblin and\nghost stories that come into his life are some of these embellishments.\nBut the main facts of his life are true history.  We are able to decide\nthis by comparing his story with those of other families in the same\npart of the island, and to see whether they agree as to dates, and as to\nthe circumstances narrated in them.\n\nIn the north-west of Iceland is an immense bay called the Huna-floi,\nwhich branches off into several creeks, the largest of which is called\nthe Ramsfirth, and the next to that is the Middlefiord.  Into this flows\na river that has its rise in the central desert, in a perfect tangle of\nlakes.  Three rivers issuing from these lakes unite just above Biarg,\nand pour their waters a short morning's ride lower through sands into\nthe Middlefirth.\n\nThe valley is not cheerful, running from north to south.  Biarg lies on\nthe east side, and faces the western sun.  The moor which lies behind\nit, and forms the hill on the other side of the river, is not broken and\npicturesque, and if it were not for the peak of Burfell, covered with\nsnow a good part of the year, the view from Biarg would be as\nuninteresting as any to be found in the land.  But then, when one rides\ndown to the coast, or ascends the moor, what a splendid view bursts on\nthe sight! The great Polar Sea is before one, intensely blue, not with\nthe deep ultramarine of the Mediterranean, but with the blue of the\nnemophyla or forget-me-not, rolling in from the mysterious North; and\nacross the mighty bay of the Huna-floi can be seen the snowy mountains\nof that extraordinary peninsula which runs out to the north-west of\nIceland, and is only just not converted into an island because connected\nwith Iceland by a narrow strip of land.  That great projection is like a\nhand with fiords between the fingers of land, and glacier-mountains\nwhere are the knuckles; but the wrist is very narrow indeed, only about\none English mile across, and there lies a trough along this junction,\nwith a little stream and a lake in it.  Now, at this wrist, as we may\ncall it, lies the farm of Eyre, where, somewhat later, lived the sister\nof Grettir, who married a man that farmed there, named Glum.\n\nLooking away across the great blue bay, the mountains of the hand may be\nseen rising out of the sea, and looking like icebergs.\n\nGrettir the Strong was the son of a well-to-do bonder, or yeoman, who\nlived at Biarg, and was descended from some of the great nobles of\nNorway. His father's name was Asmund with the Grey-head, and his\nmother's name was Asdis.\n\nHe had a brother called Atli, a gentle, kindly young fellow, who never\nwittingly quarrelled with anyone, and was liked by all with whom he had\nto do.  He had also two sisters--one was called Thordis, and she was\nmarried to Glum of Eyre--but neither come into the story; and he had\nanother sister called Rannveig, who was married to Gamli of Melar, at\nthe head of Ramsfirth.  He had also a little brother called Illugi, of\nwhom more hereafter. Grettir was not a good-looking boy; he had reddish\nhair, a pale face full of freckles, and light blue eyes.  He was\nbroad-built, not tall as a boy, though in the end he grew to be a very\nbig man.\n\nHe was not considered a good-tempered or sociable boy.  He seemed lazy\nand sullen; he liked to sit by the fire without speaking to anyone,\nlistening to what was said, and brooding over what he had heard.\n\nIf his father set him a task, he did it so unwillingly, and so badly\nthat Asmund Greyhead regretted having set him to do anything.\n\nNow, during the winter, as we have already seen, when there is but a\nvery little daylight, and the nights are vastly long, when, moreover,\nthe whole land is deep in snow, so that there is no farm-work that can\nbe done, and no travelling about to visit neighbours, it was, and is\nstill, usual in Iceland for those in the house to tell tales, or sagas,\nas they are called.  Some of these sagas relate to the old gods of the\nNorsemen, some are fabulous stories of old heroes who never existed, or,\nif they did exist, have had all sorts of fantastic legends tacked on to\ntheir histories; but other sagas are the tales of the doings of\nancestors of the family.\n\nNow, among the sagas that Grettir used to hearken to with greatest\ndelight was that of old Onund Treefoot, his great-grandfather, who first\nsettled in Iceland.  And this was the tale:\n\n\nOnund, the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, son of Ivar the Smiter, was a mighty\nViking in Norway; that is, he went about every summer harrying the\ncoasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland.  He joined with three friends,\nand they had five ships together, and one summer they sailed to the\nHebrides--which were then called the Sudereys, or southern isles. The\nBishop of the Isle of Man is still called Bishop of Sodor and Man,\nbecause his diocese originally included the Sudereys.  Then out against\nthem came Kiarval, king of the Hebrides, with five ships, and they gave\nhim battle, and there was a hard fray. But the men of Onund were the\nmightiest warriors. On each side many fell, but the end of the battle\nwas that the king fled with only one ship.  So Onund took the four\nvessels and great spoil, and he wrought great havoc on the coast,\nplundering and burning, and so in the fall of the year returned to\nNorway.  In the history of England, and in that of Scotland and of\nIreland, we read of the terrible annoyance given to the natives of Great\nBritain and Ireland by the northern pirates; and, indeed, they conquered\nDublin, and established a kingdom there, and also took to themselves\nOrkney.  Well, when Onund returned to Norway he did not find that\nmatters were pleasant there; for King Harald the Unshorn had begun to\nestablish himself sole king in Norway.  Hitherto there had been many\nsmall kings and earls; but Harald had taken an oath that he would not\ncut or trim his hair till he had subdued all under his power, and made\nhimself supreme throughout the land.\n\nA great many bonders and all the little kings united against him, and\nthere was a great battle fought at Hafrsfiord--the greatest battle that\nhad as yet been fought in Norway.  Onund was in the battle along with\nhis friend, King Thorir Longchin, and he set his ship alongside of that\nof King Longchin. King Harald ran his ship up alongside of that of\nLongchin, grappled it, and boarded it.  There was a furious fight, and\nHarald sent on board his Bearsarks, a set of half-mad ruffians, who wore\nnot bear but wolf skins, and who were said to lead charmed lives, so\nthat no weapon would wound them.  Thorir Longchin and all his men were\nkilled; and then King Harald cut away the ship and ran up against that\nof Onund.  Onund was in the fore part, and he fought manfully.  As the\ngrappling-irons of Harald caught his ship, Onund made a sweep with his\nlongsword at the man who threw the irons, and in so doing he put his leg\nover the bulwark.  Then one on the king's ship threw a spear at Onund.\nHe saw it flung, and leaned his head back to let it fly over him, and as\nhe did so one on the king's ship smote at him with a battle-axe, and the\naxe fell on his leg below the knee and shore his leg off. Then Onund\nfell back on board his own vessel, and his men carried him across into\nthat of a friend named Thrand, who lay alongside of him on the other\nboard.  And Thrand had a great cauldron there of pitch boiled, and Onund\nset his knee in the boiling pitch, and never blinked nor uttered a cry.\nThat staunched the blood.  If he had not done this he would have bled to\ndeath.\n\nNow, Thrand saw that King Harald was gaining the mastery everywhere, so\nhe fled away with his ship and sailed west.\n\nOnund was healed of his wound, but ever after he walked with a wooden\nleg, and that is why he got the name of Onund Treefoot.\n\nAfter the battle of Hafrsfiord, Onund could only return to Norway by\nstealth, and he could not recover his lands there, so he deemed it\nwisest for him to sail away and seek a home elsewhere.  That is how he\nleft Norway and settled in Iceland.\n\nAnd when King Harald saw himself lord and master through all the land,\nthen he had his hair trimmed and combed, and it was so long and so\nbeautiful, that ever after he who had been called \"The Unshorn\" went by\nthe name of \"Fairhair,\" and in history he is known as King Harald\nFairhair.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER II.*\n\n                    *HOW GRETTIR PLAYED ON THE ICE.*\n\n\n    _An Evil Boyhood--Golf on the Ice--Grettir Quarrels with\n    Audun--A Threat of Vengeance_\n\n\nThere are several tales told of Grettir when he was a boy, which show\nthat he was a rough and unkindly lad.  He was set by his father to keep\ngeese on the moors, and this made him angry, so he threw stones at the\ngeese and killed or wounded them all.\n\nThe old man suffered from lumbago, and in winter when unwell asked his\nwife and the boys to rub his back by the fire; but when Grettir was\nrequired to do this, he lost his temper, and on one occasion he snatched\nup a wool-carding comb and dug it into his old father's back.\n\nMany other things he did which made those at home not like him, and\nthere was not much love lost between him and his father.  The fact was\nthat Grettir was a headstrong, wilful fellow, and bitterly had he to pay\nin after life for this youthful wilfulness and obstinacy.  It was these\nqualities, untamed in him, that wrecked his whole life, and it may be\nsaid brought ruin and extinction on his family. There were great and\ngood qualities in Grettir's nature, but they did not show when he was\nyoung; only much suffering and cruel privations brought out in the end\nthe higher and nobler elements that were in him.\n\nIt is so with all who have any good in them, if by early discipline it\nis not manifested, then it is brought out by the rough usage of\nmisfortune in after life.\n\nAnd now I will give one incident of Grettir's boyhood.  It was a\nfavourite amusement for young fellows at that time to play golf on the\nice, and in winter, when the Middlefirth was frozen over, large parties\nassembled there for the sport.\n\nOne winter a party was arranged for a match on the ice, and a good many\nlads came to Middlefirth from Willowdale, a valley only separated from\nthe Middlefirth by a long shoulder of ugly moor.  The Willowdales-men\nhad a much better sheet of water, a very large lake called Hop, into\nwhich their river flowed, before discharging itself into the sea; and\nthe return match was to be played on Hop.\n\nAmong the young fellows who came from Willowdale was Audun, a fine,\nstrapping fellow; frank, well-built, good-looking, and amiable.\n\nWhen the parties were assembled at the place, there they were paired off\naccording to age and strength; and on this occasion I am speaking of,\nGrettir, who was fourteen, was set to play with Audun, who was two years\nolder than he, and a head taller.\n\nAudun struck the ball and it flew over Grettir's head, and he missed it,\nand it went skimming away over the ice to a great distance, and Grettir\nhad to run after it.  Some of those who were looking on laughed.  Then\nGrettir's anger was roused.  He got the ball and came back carrying it,\ntill he was within a few yards of Audun, and then, instead of dropping\nthe ball, and striking it with his golfing-stick, he suddenly threw it\nwith all his force against his adversary, and struck him between his\neyes, so that it half-stunned him, and cut the skin.  Audun whirled his\ngolfing-bat round, and struck at Grettir, who dodged under and escaped\nthe blow.  Then Audun and Grettir grappled each other, and wrestled on\nthe ice.\n\nEvery one thought that Audun would have the stumpy, thick-set boy down\nin a trice, but it was not so; Grettir held his ground;--they swung this\nway, that way; now one seemed about to be cast, and then the other, and\nalthough Audun was almost come to a man's strength, he could not for a\nlong time throw Grettir.  At last Grettir slipped on a piece of ice\nwhere some had been sliding, and went down.  His blood was up, so was\nthat of Audun; and the fight would have been continued with their\nsticks, had not Grettir's brother Atli thrown himself between the\ncombatants and separated them.  Atli held his brother back, and tried to\npatch up the quarrel.\n\n\"You need not hold me like a mad dog,\" said Grettir.  \"Thralls wreak\ntheir vengeance at once, cowards never.\"\n\nAudun and Grettir were distant cousins.  They were not allowed to play\nagainst each other any more, and the rest went on with their game.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER III.*\n\n                      *OF THE RIDE TO THINGVALLA.*\n\n\n    _Thorkel Mani's Find--Thorkel Krafla--The Halt at Biarg--A Bad\n    Prospect--Among the Lakes--The Lost Meal-bags--Suspicion\n    Confirmed--The Slaying of Skeggi--The Song of the\n    Battle-ogress--Grettir Chooses to take his Trial_\n\n\nThere lived in Waterdale, a day's journey from Biarg, an old bonder,\nnamed Thorkel Krafla. He was the first Icelander who became a Christian.\n\nIn heathen times, among the Northmen as among the Romans, it was\nallowable for parents to expose their children to death, if they did not\nwant to have the trouble of rearing them.  Now Thorkel had been so\nexposed, with a napkin over his face.  It so happened that a great chief\ncalled Thorkel Mani was riding along one day, thinking about the gods\nthat he had been taught to believe in, who drank and got drunk, and\nfought each other, and, being a grave, meditative man, he could not make\nout what these rollicking, fighting gods could have had to do with the\nworld,--with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, and the earth with\nits yield.  He thought to himself, \"There must be some God above these\ntipsy, quarrelsome deities; and this higher God must love men, and be\ngood and kind to men.\"\n\nAs he thought this, he heard a little whimpering noise from behind a\nstone; he got off his horse, and went to see what produced this noise,\nand found there a poor little baby, that with its tiny hands had rumpled\nup the kerchief which had been spread over its nose and mouth.  Thorkel\nMani took up the deserted babe in his arms, and looking up to heaven, to\nthe sun, said, \"If the good God, who is high over all, called this\nlittle being into life, gave it eyes and mouth and ears and hands and\nfeet, He surely never intended His handiwork to be cast out as a thing\nof no value, to die.  For the love of Him I will take this child.\"\n\nThen Thorkel Mani rode home, carrying the baby in his arms; and he\ncalled it by his own name, Thorkel; but to distinguish it from himself,\nit was given the nickname Krafla, which means to rumple, because the\nbabe had rumpled up the kerchief, so as to let its cries be heard.  So\nthe child grew up, and kept the name through life of Thorkel Rumple.\nThis Thorkel became a very great man, and Godi, or magistrate, of the\nWaterdale; and, as I have said, he was the first man to become a\nChristian, when missionaries of the gospel came to Iceland.\n\nVery soon after Grettir's birth Christianity became general, and in the\nyear 1000 was sanctioned by law; but there were few Christian priests in\nthe land, so that the knowledge of the truth had not spread much, and\ntaken hold and transformed men's lives. Thorkel Rumple was now very old.\nHe was the bosom friend of Asmund, and every year when in the spring he\nrode to the great assizes at Thingvalla, he always halted at least one\nnight at Biarg.  Not only were Asmund and he men of like minds, and\nfriends, but they were also connected.  In the spring of the year 1011,\nThorkel arrived as usual at Biarg, attended by a great many men, and he\nwas most warmly received by Asmund and his wife.  He remained with them\nthree nights, and he and they fell a-talking about the prospects of the\ntwo young men, Atli and Grettir.  Asmund told his kinsman that Atli was\na quiet, amiable fellow, now at man's estate, and likely to prove a good\nfarmer; a man who would worthily succeed him at Biarg when he died, and\nkeep the honour of the family untarnished, and would enlarge the estate.\n\n\"Ah!  I see,\" said Thorkel.  \"A useful man, good and respectable, like\nyourself.  But what about Grettir?\"\n\nAsmund hesitated a moment before answering; but presently he said, \"I\nhardly know what to say of him.  He is unruly, sullen, makes no friends,\nand he has been a constant cause of vexation to me.\"\n\nThorkel answered, \"That is a bad prospect; however, let him come with me\nto Thingvalla, and I shall be able to see on the journey of what stuff\nhe is made.\"\n\nTo this Asmund agreed; and right glad was Grettir to think he was to go\nto the great law-gathering.\n\nThorkel had sixty men with him, and he rode in some state; for, as\nalready said, he was a great man. The way led over the great desolate\nwaste, called the Two-days-ride; but as on this expanse there were few\nhalting-places, the grass most scanty, and not sufficient to allow of a\nstay, the party rode across it down to the settled lands nearer the\ncoast as quickly as they could, and reached Fleet-tongue in time to\nsleep; so they took the bridles off their horses, and let them graze\nwith their saddles on.  Their road had lain among the lakes, from which\nissued the rivers that united above Biarg.  In each lake floated a pair\nof swans.  Often they heard the loud hoarse cry of the great northern\ndiver; but there was hardly any grass, for the moor lies high, is swept\nby the icy blasts from the glacier mountains to the south, and is made\nup of black sand.  Before them all day had stood towering into the sky\nthe Eyreksjokull, a mountain with perfectly precipitous sides of black\nbasalt, domed over with glittering ice.  It resembles an immense\nbridecake.  At one place this mountain in former times had gaped, and\npoured forth a fiery stream of lava that ran to the lakes, and for a\nwhile converted them to steam.  One can still see whence this great\nfiery river issued from the mountain.  Little did Grettir think then as\nhe passed under it, a boy of fourteen, that, for the three most lonely,\nwretched years of his life, that great glacier-crowned mountain was to\nbe the one object on which his eye would rest.\n\nThe men were all very tired after their long ride, and they slept till\nlate next morning, lying about on the scant herbage, around a fire made\nof the roots of trailing willows that they had dug out of the sand.\n\nWhen they awoke many of the horses had strayed, and some had rolled in\nthe sand, burst their girths and shaken off their saddles.  But they\ncould not have gone any great distance, for they were all hobbled.  In\nIceland thick woollen ropes are put round the legs of the horses, below\nthe hocks, and twisted together into a knot with a knuckle-bone. This\nserves as a secure hobble, and the wool being soft does not gall the\nskin.\n\nIt was customary in those days for every one to take his own provisions\nwith him, and most of those who went to the great assize carried\nmeal-bags athwart their saddles.  Grettir found his horse at last, but\nnot his meal-bag, which had come off, and was lost; for the saddle was\nturned under the belly of his cob.\n\nThe horses could not have strayed far, not only because they were\nhobbled, but also because the Tongue where they had been turned loose\nwas a narrow strip of land between two rivers; but then the slope was\nconsiderable in places, and the meal-bag might have rolled down into the\nwater.\n\nAs Grettir was running about hunting for his bag, he saw another man in\nthe same predicament.  What is more, he saw that the rest of the party,\nimpatient to get on their way, would tarry no longer for them, and were\ndefiling down the hill to cross the river.\n\nGrettir was in great distress.  Just then he saw the man run very\ndirectly in one course, and at the same moment Grettir saw something\nwhite lying under a mass of lava.  It was towards this that the fellow\nwas running.  Grettir ran towards it also.  It was a meal-sack.  The man\nreached it first, and threw it over his shoulder.\n\n\"What have you got there?\" asked Grettir, coming up panting.\n\n\"My meal-sack,\" answered the fellow.\n\n\"Let me look at it,\" said Grettir.  \"It may be mine, not yours.  Let me\nlook before you appropriate it.\"\n\nThis the man refused to do.\n\nGrettir's suspicion was confirmed, and he made a catch at the sack, and\ntried to drag it away from the fellow.\n\n\"Oh, yes!\" sneered the man--who was a servant at a farm called The\nRidge, in Waterdale, and his name Skeggi,--\"Oh, yes! you Middlefirthers\nthink you will have everything your own way.\"\n\n\"That is not it,\" answered Grettir.  \"Let each man take his own.  If the\nsack be yours, keep it; if mine, I will have it.\"\n\n\"It is a pity Audun is not here,\" scoffed the serving-man, \"or he would\ntrip up your heels and throttle you, as he did on the ice when golfing.\"\n\n\"But as he is not here,\" retorted Grettir, \"you are not like to get the\nbetter of me.\"\n\nSkeggi suddenly took his axe by the haft and hewed at Grettir's head.\nGrettir saw what he was at, and instantly put up his left hand and\ncaught the handle below where Skeggi's hand held it; wrenched it out of\nhis grasp, and struck him with it, so that his skull was cleft.  The\nthing was done in a moment, and Grettir had done it in self-preservation\nand without premeditation.  He was but a boy of fourteen, and this was a\nfull-grown stout churl.\n\nGrettir at once seized the meal-bag, saw it was his own, and threw it\nacross his saddle.  Then he rode after the company.  Thorkel Krafla rode\nat the head of his party, and he had no misgiving that anything untoward\nhad taken place.\n\nBut, when Grettir came riding up with his meal-bag, the men asked him if\nhe had left Skeggi still in search of his.  Grettir answered in song:\n\n    \"A rock Troll did her burden throw\n    Down on Skeggi's skull, I trow.\n    O'er the battle-ogress saw I flow\n    Ruby rivers all aglow.\n    She her iron mouth a-gape\n    Did the life of Skeggi take.\"\n\n\nThis sounds like nonsense; to understand it one must have a notion of\nwhat constituted poetry in the minds of Icelanders and Northmen.  With\nthem the charm of poetry consisted in never calling anything by its\nright name, but using instead of it some far-fetched similitude or\nperiphrasis.  Thus--the burden of the rock Troll is iron.  The Troll is\nthe spirit of the mountain, and the heaviest thing found in the mountain\nis iron.  The battle-ogress is the axe which bites in battle.  The\nverses that the Norse poets sang were a series of conundrums, and the\nhearers puzzled their brains to make out the sense. This time they soon\nunderstood what Grettir meant, and the men turned and went back to the\nTongue, and there found Skeggi dead.\n\nGrettir went on to Thorkel, and in few words, and to the point, told how\nthings had fallen out. He was not the aggressor.  He had merely defended\nhimself.\n\nThorkel was much troubled, and he told Grettir that he might either come\non to the assize or go home; that this act of man-slaughter would be\ninvestigated at the law-gathering, and judgment given upon it.\n\nGrettir agreed to go on, and see how matters would turn out for him.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER IV.*\n\n                            *THE DOOM-DAY.*\n\n\n    _The Lava Plain--The Law of Man-slaughter--Grettir's\n    Sentence--The Grettir Stone_\n\n\nThat evening they arrived at Thingvalla.\n\nThe great plain of Thingvalla is entirely composed of lava.  At some\nremote period before Iceland was colonized a beautiful snowy cone of\nmountain, called \"The Broad Shield,\" poured forth a deluge of molten\nrock, which ran in a fiery river down a valley for some miles,\nhalf-choking it up, and then spread out over a wide plain where\nanciently there had been a great lake.  Then all cooled, but after the\ncooling, or whilst it was in process, there came a great crack, crack.\nThe great mass of lava must have been poured over some subterranean\ncaverns; at any rate the whole plain snapped and sank down a good many\nfeet, the lava becoming cracked and starred like glass.  Nowadays, one\ncannot cross the plain because it is all traversed with these fearful\ncracks, chasms the bottom of which is filled with black water.  Where\nthe plain sank deepest there water settled and formed the beautiful\nThingvalla Lake.\n\nAt the side of one of the cracks where the plain broke off and sank is a\nvery curious pinnacle of black rock, and this was called the Hanging\nRock, as criminals were hung from it over the chasm.\n\nIn one place two of the cracks unite, and there is a high mound of\nblistered lava covered with turf and flowers between them.  That is\ncalled the Law Hill, because the judge and his assessors sat there, and\nno one could get to them, nor could the accused get away across the\nchasms.\n\nNow it was the law at this time in Iceland that when any man had been\nkilled his nearest relatives came to the assize, and the slayer appeared\nby proxy and offered blood-money--that is to say, to pay a fine to the\nrelations, and so patch up the quarrel.  But if they refused the money\nthen they were at liberty to pursue and kill him.  There were no police\nthen.  If the relations wanted to have the criminal punished they must\npunish him themselves.\n\nUpon this occasion the case was discussed in the court on the finger of\nrock between the two chasms, the people standing on the further sides of\nthese gulfs, listening, but unable to come a step nearer; and Thorkel\nappeared for Grettir and offered to pay the blood-money.  The relations\nof the dead Skeggi, after a little fuss, agreed to accept a certain sum,\nand Thorkel at once paid it.  But the court ordered that, as Grettir had\nacted with undue violence, and as there was no evidence except his word\nthat Skeggi had made the first attack, he should be outlawed, and leave\nIceland for three winters.  If he set his foot in Iceland till three\nwinters had passed, his life was forfeit.  He was allowed a moderate and\nreasonable time for finding a ship that would take him out of the\ncountry.\n\nWhen the assize was over all rode home, and the way that Thorkel and\nGrettir went was up the valley that had been half-choked with the lava\nthat rolled down from Broad Shield.  They came to a small grassy plain\nwith a gently-sloping hill rising out of it, a place where games took\nplace, the women sitting up the slope and watching the men below. Here\nGrettir is said to have heaved an enormous stone.  The stone is still\nshown, and I have seen it. I also know that Grettir never lifted it; for\nit has clearly been brought there by a glacier.  But this is an instance\nof the way in which stories get magnified in telling.  No doubt that\nGrettir did \"put\" there some big stone, and as it happened that at this\nspot there was a great rock standing by itself balanced on one point, in\nafter days folks concluded that this must have been the stone thrown by\nGrettir.\n\n\n\n\n                              *CHAPTER V.*\n\n                             *THE VOYAGE.*\n\n\n    _Preparations for a Voyage--His Grandfather's Sword--A Bitter\n    Jester--Vain Reproaches--Haflid's Stratagem--The Tables\n    Turned--Shipwrecked_\n\n\nGrettir, then, was doomed by the court to leave his native land whilst\nonly a boy, and remain in banishment for three years--that is to say,\ntill he was eighteen.  He was not over sorry for this, as he was tired\nof being at home, and he wanted to see the world.\n\nThere was a man called Haflid who had a ship in which he intended to\nsail that autumn to Norway, and Asmund sent to him to ask him to take\nGrettir out with him.\n\nHaflid answered that he had not heard a good account of the boy, and did\nnot particularly wish to have him in his boat; but he would stretch a\npoint, because of the regard he had for old Asmund, and he would take\nhim.\n\nGrettir got ready to start; but Asmund would not give him much wherewith\nto trade when abroad, except some rolls of home-made wadmall, a coarse\nfelty cloth, and a stock of victuals for his voyage. Grettir asked his\nfather to give him some weapon; but the old man answered that he did not\ntrust him with swords and axes, he might put them to a bad use, and it\nwould be better he went without till he had learned to control his\ntemper and keep a check on his hand.\n\nSo Grettir parted from his father without much love on either side; and\nit was noticed when he left home that, though there were plenty of folks\nready to bid him farewell, hardly anyone said that he hoped to see him\ncome home again--a certain token that he was not liked by those who had\nseen most of him.  But indeed he had taken no pains to oblige anyone and\nobtain the regard and love of anyone.\n\nHis mother was an exception.  She went along the road down the valley\nwith him, wearing a long cloak; and when they were alone, at some\ndistance from the house, she halted and drew out a sword from under her\ncloak, and handing it to Grettir, said: \"This sword belonged to\ngrandfather, and many a hard fight has it been in, and much good work\nhas it done.  I give it to you, and hope it may stand you in good\nstead.\"\n\nGrettir was highly pleased, and told his mother that he would rather\nhave the sword than anything else that could be given him.\n\nHaflid received Grettir in a friendly manner, and he went at once on\nboard; the ship's anchor was heaved, and forth they went to sea.\n\nNow, directly Grettir got on board he looked about for a place where he\ncould be comfortable, and chose to make a berth for himself under a boat\nthat was slung on deck; then he put up his wadmall, making a sort of\nfelt lining or wall round against the wind and spray, leaving open only\nthe side inwards, and inside he piled his provisions and whatever he\nhad; then he lay down there and did not stir from his snuggery.  Now, it\nwas the custom in those days for every man who went in a ship to help in\nthe navigation; but Grettir would not only do nothing, but from his den\nhe shouted or sang lampoons--that is, spiteful songs, making fun of\nevery man on board.  They were not good-natured jokes, but bitter,\nstinging ones.\n\nNaturally enough the other men were annoyed, and they were not slow to\ntell Grettir what they thought of him.  He made no other reply than a\nlampoon.\n\nAfter the ship had lost sight of land a heavy sea was encountered, and\nunfortunately the vessel was rather leaky and hardly seaworthy in dirty\nweather. The weather was squally and very cold, so that the men suffered\nmuch.  Moreover, they had to bale out the water from the hold, and this\nwas laborious work.  They had not pumps in those days.\n\nThe gale increased, and the crew and passengers had been engaged for\nseveral days and nights in baling without intermission, but Grettir\nwould not help.  He lay coiled up in his wadmall under the boat, peering\nout at the men and throwing irritating snatches of song at them.  This\nexasperated them to such an extent that they determined to take him and\nthrow him overboard.  Haflid heard what they said, and he went to\nGrettir and reproached him, and told him what was menaced.\n\n\"Let them try to use force if they will,\" said Grettir.  \"All I can say\nis that I sha'n't go overboard alone as long as my sword will bite.\"\n\n\"How can you behave as you do?\" said Haflid. \"Keep silence at least, and\ndo not madden the men with your mockery and sneers.\"\n\n\"I cannot hold my tongue from stabbing,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Very well, then, stab on, but stab me.\"\n\n\"No; you have not hurt me.\"\n\n\"I say, stab me.  Then, if the fellows hear you sing or say something\nspiteful of me, and I disregard it, they will not mind so much the\nill-natured things you say of them.\"\n\nGrettir considered a moment, and then, remembering that he had heard of\nsomething ridiculous that had once occurred to Haflid, he composed a\nverse about it and shouted it derisively at Haflid as he walked away.\n\n\"Just listen to him,\" said Haflid to the men. \"Now he is slandering and\ninsulting me.  He is an ill-conditioned cur, so ill-conditioned that I\nwill not stoop to take notice of his insolence.  And if you take my\nadvice you will disregard him as I do.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the men, \"if you shrug your shoulders and pay no regard to\nhis bark, why should we?\"\n\nSo Haflid, by his tact, smoothed over this difficulty, and averted a\ndanger from Grettir's head.\n\nThe weather slowly began to mend, and the sun shone out between the\nclouds; but the wind was still strong, and the leak gained on the ship,\nfor her bottom was rotten.  Now that the sun shone, the poor women who\nhad been aboard and under cover during the gale, crawled forth and came\nto the side where the boat was, and where was a little shelter, and\nthere sat sewing; whilst Grettir still lay, like a dog in his hutch,\nwithin.  Then the men began to laugh, and say that Grettir had found\nsuitable company at last--he was not a man among men, but a milksop\namong women.  This was turning the tables on him, and this roused him.\nOut he came crawling from his den, and ran aft to where the men were\nbaling, and asked to be given the buckets.  The way in which it was done\nwas for one to go down into the hold into the water, and fill a tub or\ncask and hoist it over his head to another man, who carried it up on\ndeck and poured it over the bulwarks.  Grettir swung himself down into\nthe hold, and filled and heaved so fast that there had to be two men set\nto carry up the baling casks, and then two more, four in all attending\nto him.  At one time he even kept eight going, so vigorously did he\nwork;--but then he was fresh, and they exhausted.\n\nWhen the men saw what a strong, active fellow Grettir was, they praised\nhim greatly, and Grettir, unaccustomed to praise, was delighted and\nworked on vigorously, and thenceforth was of the utmost assistance in\nthe ship.\n\nThey still had bad weather, thick mist, in which they drifted and lost\ntheir bearings, and one night unawares they ran suddenly on a rock, and\nthe rotten bottom of the ship was crushed in.  They had the utmost\ndifficulty in rescuing their goods and getting the boat ready; but\nfortunately they were able to put all the women and the loose goods into\nthe boat, man her, and row off before the ship went to pieces.  They\ncame to a sandy island, ran the boat ashore, and disembarked in the cold\nand wet and darkness.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER VI.*\n\n                           *THE RED ROVERS.*\n\n\n    _Rescued from the Holm--The Sullen Guest--The Outlawed\n    Rovers--Yule-tide Gatherings--The Suspicious Craft--Grettir\n    Guides the Rovers--The Worst Ruffians in Norway--Grettir\n    Entertains the Band--A Crew of Revellers--When the Wine is\n    in--Thorfin's Treasures--Prisoners and Unarmed--Mad with Drink\n    and Fury--One Against Twelve--In Hot Pursuit--The Slaughter in\n    the Boat-shed--The Last of the Band--Wearied with\n    Slaying--Thorfin's Return--A Moment of Perplexity--Better than a\n    Dozen Men--The Gift of the Sword_\n\n\nOne morning, after a night of storm on the coast of Norway, the servants\nran into the hall of a wealthy bonder, named Thorfin, to tell him that\nduring the night a ship had been wrecked off the coast, and that the\ncrew and passengers were crowded on a little sandy holm, and were\nsignalling for help.\n\nThe bonder sprang up and ran down to the shore. He ordered out a great\npunt from his boat-house, and jumping in with his thralls, rowed to the\nholm to rescue those who were there.\n\nThese were, I need not tell you, the crew and passengers of Haflid's\nmerchant vessel.  Thorfin took the half-frozen wretches on board his\nboat and rowed them to his farm, after which he returned to the islet\nand brought away the wares.  In the meantime his good housewife had been\nlighting fires, preparing beds, brewing hot ale with honey to sweeten\nit, and making every preparation she could think of for the sufferers.\n\nHaflid and the rest of the merchants or chapmen who had sailed with him\nremained at the farm a week, whilst the women were recovering from the\ncold and exposure and their goods were being dried and sorted.  Then\nthey departed, with many thanks for the hospitality shown them, on their\nway to Drontheim.\n\nGrettir, however, remained.  Thorfin, the master of the house, did not\nmuch like him.  He did not ask him to stay; but then he had not the lack\nof hospitality to bid him depart.  In the farm Grettir never offered to\nlend a hand in any of the work; he never joined in conversation, he sat\nover the fire warming himself, and ate and drank heartily.\n\nThorfin was much abroad, hunting or seeing after the wood-cutting, and\nhe often asked Grettir to come with him.  But he was granted no other\nanswer than a shake of the head and a growl.  Now the bonder was a\nmerry, kindly-hearted fellow, and he liked to have all about him\ncheerful.  It is no wonder, then, that Grettir, morose and indolent,\nfound no favour with him.\n\nYule drew near, and Thorfin busked him to depart, with a number of his\nattendants, to keep the festival at one of his farms distant a good\nday's journey. His wife was unable to accompany him, as his eldest\ndaughter was ill and needed careful nursing.  Grettir he did not invite,\nas his sullenness would have acted as a damper on the joviality of the\nbanquet.\n\nThe farmer started for his house where he was going to spend Yule some\ndays before.  A large company of guests were invited to meet him, so he\ntook thirty serving-men to attend on him and them.\n\nNorway was at this time being brought into order by Earl Erik, who was\nputting down with a high hand the bands of rovers who had been the\nterror of the country.  He had outlawed all these men, and that meant\nthat whoever killed them could not be fined or punished in any way for\nthe slaying. Now Thorfin, the farmer with whom Grettir was staying, had\nbeen very active against these rovers, and they bore him a grudge.\nAmong the worst of them were two brothers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Bad\nOgmund.  They had not yet been caught, and they defied the power of the\nEarl.  They robbed wherever they went, burned farms over the heads of\nthe sleeping inmates, and with the points of their spears drove the\nshrieking victims back into the flames when they attempted to escape.\n\nChristmas Eve was bright and sunny, and the sick girl was sufficiently\nrecovered to be brought out to take the air on the sunny side of the\ngreat hall, leaning on her mother's arm.\n\nGrettir spent the whole day out of doors, not in the most amiable mood\nat being shut out from the merry-makings, and left to keep house with\nthe women and eight dunderheaded churls.  He fed his discontent by\nsitting on a headland watching the boats glide by, as parties went to\nconvivial gatherings at the houses of their friends.  The deep blue sea\nwas speckled with sails, as though gulls were plunging in the waters.\nNow a stately dragon-ship rolled past, her fearful carved head\nglittering with golden scales, her sails spread like wings before the\nbreeze, and her banks of oars dipping into the sea and flashing as they\nrose.  Now a wherry was rowed by laden with cakes and ale, and the\nboatmen's song rang merrily through the crisp air.\n\nThe day began to decline, and Grettir was on the point of returning to\nthe farm, when the strange proceedings of a craft at no great distance\nattracted his attention.  He noticed that she stole along in the shadows\nof the islets, keeping out of sight as much as possible.  Grettir could\nmake out of her just this much, that she was floating low in the water,\nand was built for speed.  As she stranded the rowers jumped on the\nbeach.  Grettir counted them, and found they were twelve, all armed men.\nThey burst into Thorfin's boat-house, thrust out his punt, and in its\nplace drew in their own vessel, and pulled her up on the rollers.\n\nMischief was a-brewing--that was clear.  So Grettir went down the hill,\nand sauntered up to the strangers, with his hands in his pockets,\nkicking the pebbles before him.\n\n\"Who is your leader?\" he asked curtly.\n\n\"I am.  What do you want with me?\" answered a stout coarse man--\"Thorir,\nwhom they nickname 'wi' the Paunch.'  Here is my brother Ogmund. I\nreckon that Thorfin knows our names well enough. Don't you think so,\nbrother?  We have come here to settle a little outstanding reckoning.\nIs he at home?\"\n\n\"You are lucky fellows,\" laughed Grettir, \"coming here in the very nick\nof time.  The bonder is away with all his able-bodied and fighting men,\nand won't be back for a couple of days.  His wife and daughter are,\nhowever, at the farm.  Now is your time if you have old scores to wipe\noff; for he has left all his things that he values unprotected, silver,\nclothing, ale, and food in abundance.\"\n\nThorir listened, then turning to Ogmund he said, \"This is as I had\nexpected.  But what a chatterbox this fellow is, he lets out everything\nwithout being asked questions.\"\n\n\"Every man knows the use of his tongue,\" said Grettir.  \"Now, follow me,\nand I will do what I can for you.\"\n\nThe rovers at once followed.  Then Grettir took fat Thorir by the hand\nand led him to the farm, talking all the way as hard as his tongue could\nwag. Now the housewife happened at the time to be in the hall, and\nhearing Grettir thus talking, she was filled with surprise, and called\nout to know whom he had with him.\n\n\"I have brought you guests for Yule,\" said Grettir. \"We shall not keep\nit in as dull a fashion as we feared.  Here come visitors uninvited, but\nmerry, uncommon merry.\"\n\n\"Who are they?\" asked the housewife.\n\n\"Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad, and ten of their comrades.\"\n\nThen she cried out: \"What have you done?  These are the worst ruffians\nin all Norway.  Is this the way you repay the kindness Thorfin has shown\nyou in housing and keeping you here, without it's costing you anything?\"\n\n\"Stay your woman's tongue!\" growled Grettir. \"Now bestir yourself and\nbring out dry clothes for the guests.\"\n\nThen the housewife ran away crying, and her sick daughter, who saw the\nhouse invaded by ill-looking men all armed, hid herself.\n\n\"Well,\" said Grettir, \"as the women are too scared to attend on you, I\nwill do what is necessary; so give me your wet clothes, and let me wipe\nyour weapons and set them by the fire lest they get rusted.\"\n\n\"You are a different fellow from all the rest in the house.\"\n\n\"I do not belong to the house.  I am a stranger, an Icelander.\"\n\n\"Then I don't mind taking you along with us when we go away.\"\n\n\"As you will,\" answered the young fellow; \"only mind, I don't behave\nlike this to every one.\"\n\nThen the freebooters gave him their weapons, and he wiped the salt water\nfrom them, and laid them aside in a warm spot.  Next he removed their\nwet garments, and brought them dry suits which he routed out of the\nclothes-chests belonging to Thorfin and his men.\n\nBy this time it was night.  Grettir brought in logs and faggots of fir\nbranches, and made a roaring fire that filled the great hall with ruddy\nlight and warmth.  In those days the halls were long buildings with a\nset of hearths running down the middle, and benches beside the fires.\n\n\"Now, then, my men,\" said Grettir, \"come to the table and drink, for I\ndoubt not you are thirsty with long rowing.\"\n\n\"We are ready,\" said they.  \"But where are the cellars?\"\n\n\"Oh, if you please, I will bring you ale.\"\n\n\"Certainly, you shall attend on us,\" said Thorir.\n\nThen Grettir went and fetched the best and strongest ale in Thorfin's\ncellars, and poured it out for the men.  They were very tired and\nthirsty, and they drank eagerly.  Grettir did not stint them in meat or\ndrink, and at last he took his place by them, and recited many tales\nthat made them laugh, he also sang them songs; but they were becoming\nfast too tipsy to rack their brains to find out the meaning in the\npoetry.\n\nNot one of the house-churls showed his face in the hall that evening;\nthey slunk about the farm, in the stables and sheds, frightened and\ntrembling.\n\nThen said Thorir: \"I'll tell you what, my men. I like this young chap,\nand I doubt our finding another so handy and willing.  What say you all\nto our taking him into our band?\"\n\nThe pirates banged their drinking-horns on the table in token of\napproval.  Then Grettir stood up and said:\n\n\"I thank you for the offer, and if you are in the same mind to-morrow\nmorning when the ale is no longer in your heads, I will strike hands and\ngo with you.\"\n\n\"Let us drink brotherhood at once,\" shouted the rovers.\n\n\"Not so,\" said Grettir calmly.  \"I will not have it said that I took\nadvantage of you when you were not sober.  It is said that when the wine\nis in the wit is out.\"\n\nThey all protested that they would be of the same mind next morning, but\nGrettir stuck to his decision. They were now becoming so tipsy that he\nproposed they should go to bed.\n\n\"But first of all,\" said he, \"I think you will like to run your eyes\nover Thorfin's storehouse where he keeps all his treasures.\"\n\n\"That we shall!\" roared Thorir, staggering to his feet.\n\nThen Grettir took a blazing firebrand from the hearth, and led the way\nout of the hall into the night.\n\nThe storehouse was detached from the main buildings.  It was very\nstrongly built of massive logs, firmly mortised together.  The door also\nwas very solid, and the whole stood on a strong stone basement, and a\nflight of stone steps led up to the door.  Adjoining the storehouse was\na lean-to building divided off from it by a partition of planks.\n\nThe sharp frosty air of night striking on the faces of the revellers\nincreased their intoxication, and they became very riotous, staggering\nagainst each other, uttering howls and attempting to sing.\n\nDrawing back the bolt Grettir flung the door open, and showed the twelve\nrovers into the treasury; and he held the flaming torch above his head\nand showed the silver-mounted drinking-horns, the embroidered garments,\nthe rich fur mantles, gold bracelets, and bags filled with silver coins\nobtained from England.  The drunken men dashed upon the spoil, knocking\neach other over and quarrelling for the goods they wanted.\n\nIn the midst of this noise and tumult Grettir quietly extinguished the\ntorch, stepped outside and ran the bolt into its place; he had shut them\nall--all twelve, into the strong-room, and not one of them had his\nweapons about him.\n\nThen Grettir ran to the farm door and shouted for the housewife.  But\nshe would not answer, as she mistrusted him; and no wonder, for he had\nseemed to be hand and glove with the pirates.\n\n\"Come, come!\" shouted Grettir, \"I have caught all twelve, and all I need\nnow are weapons.  Call up the thralls and arm them.  Quick! not a moment\nmust be lost.\"\n\n\"There are plenty of weapons here,\" answered the poor woman, emerging\nfrom her place of concealment. \"But, Grettir, I mistrust you.\"\n\n\"Trust or no trust,\" said Grettir, \"I must have weapons.  Where are the\nserving-men?  Here, Kolbein!  Swein!  Gamli!  Rolf!  Confound the\nrascals, where are they skulking?\"\n\n\"Over Thorfin's bed hangs a great barbed spear,\" said the housewife.\n\"You will also find a sword and helmet and cuirass.  No lack of weapons,\nonly pluck to wield them is needed.\"\n\nGrettir seized the casque and spear, girded on the sword and dashed into\nthe yard, begging the woman to send the churls after him.  She called\nthe eight men, and they came up timidly--that is to say, four appeared\nand took the weapons, but the other four, after showing their faces, ran\nand hid themselves again, they were afraid to measure swords with the\nterrible rovers.\n\nIn the meantime the pirates had been trying the door, but it was too\nmassive for them to break through, so they tore down the partitions of\nboards between the store and the lean-to room at the side. They were mad\nwith drink and fury.  They broke down the door of the side-room easily\nenough, and came out on the platform at the head of the stone steps just\nas Grettir reached the bottom.\n\nThorir and Ogmund were together.  In the fitful gleams of the moon they\nseemed like demons as they scrambled out, armed with splinters of deal\nthey had broken from the planks and turned into weapons.  The brothers\nplunged down the narrow stairs with a howl that rang through the\nsnow-clad forest for miles.  Grettir planted the boar-spear in the\nground and caught Thorir on its point.  The sharp double-edged blade,\nthree feet in length, sliced into him and came out between his\nshoulders, then tore into Ogmund's breast a span deep.  The yew shaft\nbent like a bow, and flipped from the ground the stone against which the\nbutt-end had been planted. The wretched men crashed over the stair,\ntried to rise, staggered, and fell again.  Grettir trod on Thorir,\nwrenched the spear out of him, and then running up the steps cut down\nanother rover as he came through the door.  Then the rest came out\nstumbling over each other, some armed with bits of broken stick, others\nunarmed, and as they came forth Grettir hewed at them with the sword, or\nthrust at them with the spear.\n\nIn the meantime the churls had come up, armed indeed, but not knowing\nhow to use the weapons, and in a condition of too great terror to use\nthem to any purpose.  The pirates saw that they were being worsted, and\ntheir danger sobered them.  They went back into the room and ripped the\nplanks till they had obtained serviceable pieces, and then came two\ntogether down the stair, warding off Grettir's blows with their sticks,\nand not attempting to strike. Then they forced him back and allowed\nspace and time for those behind to leap down to the ground. If then they\nhad combined they might have recovered the mastery, but they did not\nbelieve that they were assailed by a single enemy, they thought that\nthere must have been many; consequently those who had leaped from the\nplatform, instead of attacking Grettir from behind, ran away across the\nfarmyard, and those who were warding off his blows, finding themselves\nunsupported, lost heart, and leaped down as well and attempted to\nescape. The yard was full of flying frightened wretches, too blinded by\ntheir fear to find the gate, and in the wildness of their terror they\nclimbed or leaped over the yard wall and ran towards the boat-house.\nGrettir went after them.  They plunged into the dark boat-shed, and\npossessed themselves of the oars, whilst some tried to run their boat\ndown into the water.  Grettir followed them in the gloom, smiting to\nright and left.  The bewildered wretches in the darkness hit each other,\nstumbled and fell in the boat, and some wounded went into the water.\n\nThe thralls, content that the pirates had cleared out of the yard, did\nnot trouble themselves to pursue them, but went into the farmhouse.  The\ngood woman in vain urged them to go after and succour Grettir.  They\nthought they had done quite enough.  It is true, they had neither killed\nnor wounded anyone, but they had seen some men killed.  So Grettir got\nno help from them.  He was still in the boat-house, and he had this\nadvantage: the boat-house was open to the air on the side that faced the\nsea, whilst the further side was closed with a door, consequently\nGrettir was himself in shadow. But the moon shone on the water, and he\ncould see the black figures of the rovers cut sharply against this\nsilver background.  So he could see where to strike, whilst he himself\nwas unseen.\n\nOne stroke from an oar reached him on the shoulder, and for the moment\nnumbed his arm; but he speedily recovered sensation, and killed two more\nof the ruffians; then the remaining four made a dash together, past him,\nthrough the door, and separating into pairs, fled in opposite\ndirections.  Grettir went after one of the couples and tracked them to a\nneighbouring farm, where they dashed into a granary and hid among the\nstraw.  Unfortunately for them most of the wheat had been thrashed out,\nso that only a few bundles remained.  Grettir shut and bolted the door\nbehind him, then chased the poor wretches like rats from corner to\ncorner, till he had cut them both down.  Then he opened the door, and\ncast the corpses outside.\n\nIn the meanwhile the weather was changing, the sky had become overcast\nwith a thick snow fog that rolled up from the sea, so that Grettir, on\ncoming out, saw that he must abandon the pursuit of the remaining two.\nMoreover, his arm pained him, his strength was failing him, and a sense\nof overpowering fatigue stole over him.\n\nThe housewife had placed a lamp in a window of a loft as a guide to\nGrettir in the fog; the stupid house-thralls could not be induced by her\nto go out in search of him, and she was becoming uneasy at his\nprotracted absence.  The fog turned into small snow, thick and blinding,\nand Grettir struggled through it with difficulty, as the weariness he\nfelt became almost overpowering.  At last he reached the farm and\nstaggered in through the door.  He could hardly speak.  He went to the\ntable, took a horn of mead, drank some, and then threw himself down\namong the rushes on the floor by the fire, full armed grasping the\nsword, and in a moment was asleep.\n\nHe did not wake for twelve hours; but the cautious and prudent housewife\nhad sent out the carles in search of the pirates.  The dead bodies were\nfound, some in the yard, some in the boat-house; then Grettir woke and\ncame to them and pointed out in what direction the only remaining two\nhad run.  The snow had fallen so thick that their traces could not be\nfollowed, but before nightfall they were discovered, dead, under a rock\nwhere they had taken refuge; they had died of cold and loss of blood.\nAll the bodies were collected and a great cairn of stones was piled over\nthem.\n\nWhen they had been buried, then the housewife made Grettir take the high\nseat in the hall, and she treated him with the utmost respect, as he\ndeserved.\n\nTime passed, and Thorfin prepared to return home; he dismissed his\nguests, and he and his men got into their boat to return home.  No\ntidings had reached him of the events that had happened whilst he had\nbeen away.  The first thing he saw as he came rowing to his harbour was\nhis punt lying stranded. This surprised and alarmed him, and he bade his\nmen row harder.  They ran to the boat-house, and then saw it occupied by\na vessel, on the rollers, which there was no mistaking; he knew it well,\nit belonged to those redoubted pirates Thorir and Ogmund.  For a moment\nhe was silent with the terror and grief that came on him.  \"The Red\nRovers!\" he said, when he recovered the stunning sense of alarm.  \"The\nRed Rovers are here--they are on my farm.  God grant they have not hurt\nmy wife and daughter!\"\n\nThen he considered what was to be done, whether it was best to go at\nonce to the farm, or to make a secret approach to it from different\nquarters, and surprise the enemy.\n\nGrettir was to blame.  He ought not to have allowed Thorfin to be thus\nthrown into uncertainty and distress.  He had seen the master's boat\nround the headland and enter the bay, but he would neither go himself to\nmeet him on the strand, nor suffer anyone else to go.\n\n\"I do not care even if the bonder be a bit disturbed at what he sees,\"\nsaid the young man.\n\n\"Then let me go,\" urged the wife.\n\n\"You are mistress, do as you like,\" said Grettir bluntly.\n\nSo the housewife and her daughter went down towards the boat-house, and\nwhen Thorfin saw them he ran to meet them, greatly relieved but much\nperplexed, and he clasped his wife to his heart and said, \"God be\npraised that you and my child are safe!  But tell me how matters have\nstood whilst I have been away, for I cannot understand the boat being\nwhere I found it.\"\n\n\"We have been in grievous peril,\" answered his wife.  \"But the\nshipwrecked boy whom you sheltered has been our protector, better than a\ndozen men.\"\n\nThen he said, \"Sit down on this rock by me and tell me all.\"\n\nThey took each other by the hand and sat on a stone; and the attendants\ngathered round, and the housewife told them the whole story from\nbeginning to end.  When she spoke of the way in which the young\nIcelander had led the tipsy rovers into the storehouse and fastened them\nin, without their swords, the men burst into a shout of joy; and when\nher tale was concluded, their exultant cries rang so loud that Grettir\nheard them in the farmhouse.\n\nThorfin said nothing to interrupt the thread of his wife's story; and\nafter she had done he remained silent, rapt in thought.  No one ventured\nto disturb him.  Presently he looked up, and said quietly, \"That is a\ngood proverb which says, 'Never despair of anyone.'  Now I must speak a\nword with Grettir.\"\n\nThorfin walked with his wife to the farm, and when he saw Grettir he\nheld out both his hands to him, and thanked him.\n\n\"This I say to you,\" said Thorfin, \"which few would say to their best of\nfriends--that I hope some day you may need my help, and then I will\nprove to you how thankful I am for what you have done. I can say no\nmore.\"\n\nGrettir thanked him, and spent the rest of the winter at his house.  The\nstory of what he had done spread through all the country, and was much\npraised, especially by such as had suffered from the violence of the Ked\nRovers.  But Thorfin made to Grettir a present, in acknowledgment of\nwhat he had done; and that present was the sword that had hung above his\nbed, with which Grettir had killed so many of the rovers.  Now,\nconcerning this sword a tale has to be told.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER VII.*\n\n                       *THE STORY OF THE SWORD.*\n\n    _The Light on the Cliff--The Grave of Karr the Old--The Visit to\n    the Ness--The Chamber of the Dead--The Shape on the Throne--In\n    the Dead Man's Arms--A Fearful Wrestle--The Dead Vanquished--The\n    Dragon's Treasure--The Tale of the Sword--The Two Swords of\n    Grettir_\n\n\nSome little while before the slaying of the Red Rovers, a strange event\nhad taken place.\n\nGrettir had made the acquaintance of a man called Audun, who lived at a\nlittle farm at some distance from the house of Thorfin, and he walked\nover there occasionally to sit and talk with his friend.  As he returned\nlate at night he noticed that a strange light used to dance at the end\nof a cliff that overhung the sea, at the end of a headland; a lonely\ndesolate headland it was, without house or stall near it.  Grettir had\nnever been there, and as it was so bare, he knew that no one lived on\nthat headland, so he could not account for the light.  One day he said\nto Audun that he had seen this strange light, which was not steady but\nflickered; and he asked him what it meant.\n\nAudun at once became very grave, and after a moment's hesitation said,\n\"You are right.  No one lives on that ness, but there is a great mound\nthere, under which is buried Karr the Old, the forefather of your host\nThorfin; and it is said that much treasure was buried with him.  That is\nwhy the ghostly light burns above the mound, for--you must know that\nflames dance over hidden treasure.\"\n\n\"If treasure be hidden there, I will dig it up,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Attempt nothing of the kind,\" said Audun, \"or Thorfin will be angry.\nBesides, Karr the Old is a dangerous fellow to have to deal with.  He\nwalks at night, and haunts all that headland and has scared away the\ndwellers in the nearest farms.  No one dare live there because of him.\nThat is why the Ness is all desolate without houses.\"\n\n\"I will stay the night here,\" said Grettir, \"and to-morrow we will go\ntogether to the Ness, and take spade and pick and a rope, and I will see\nwhat can be found.\"\n\nAudun did not relish the proposal, but he did not like to seem\nbehindhand with Grettir, and he reluctantly agreed to go with him.\n\nSo next day the two went out on the Ness together. They passed two\nruined farmhouses, the buildings rotting, the roofs fallen in.  Those\nwho had lived in them had been driven away by the dweller in the old\nburial mound, or barrow.  The Norse name for these sepulchral mounds is\n_Haug_, pronounced almost like How; and where in England we have places\nwith the names ending in _hoe_, there undoubtedly in former times were\nsuch mounds.  Thus, in Essex are Langenhoe and Fingringhoe, that is to\nsay the Long Barrow and Fingar's How.  Also, the Hoe, the great walk at\nPlymouth above the sea, derives its name from some old burial mound now\nlong ago destroyed.\n\nThe Ness was a finger of land running out into the sea, and on it grew\nno trees, only a little coarse grass; at the end rose a great circular\nbell-shaped mound, with a ring of stones set round it, to mark its\ncircumference.  Grettir began to dig at the summit, and he worked hard.\nThe day was short, and the sun was touching the sea as his pickaxe went\nthrough an oak plank, into a hollow space beneath, and he knew at once\nthat he had struck into the chamber of the dead.  He worked with\nredoubled energy, and tore away the planks, leaving a black hole beneath\nof unknown depth, but which to his thinking could not be more than seven\nfeet beneath him.  Then he called to Audun for the rope.  The end he\nfastened round his waist, and bade his friend secure the other end to a\npole thrown across the pit mouth.  When this was done, Audun cautiously\nlet Grettir down into the chamber of the dead.\n\nNow, you must know that in heathen times what was often done with old\nwarriors was to draw up a boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in\nthe cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes some of his slaves\nor thralls were also killed and put in with him, and his choicest\ntreasures were heaped about him.  This men did because they thought that\nthe dead man would want his weapons, his raiment, his ornaments, his\nhorse and his servants in the spirit world.  Of late years such a mound\nhas been opened in Norway, and a great ship found in it, well preserved,\nwith the old dead chief's bones in it.  When a ship was not buried, then\na chamber of strong planks was built, and he was put in that, and the\nearth heaped over him.  Into such a chamber had Grettir now dug.\n\nHe soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness, only a little light\ncame in from above, through the hole he had broken in the roof of the\ncabin or chamber.  His feet were among bones, and these he was quite\nsure were horse bones.  Then he groped about.\n\nAs his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he discerned a\nfigure seated in a throne.  It was the long-dead Karr the Old.  He was\nin full harness, with a helmet on his head with bull's horns sticking\nout, one on each side; his hands were on his knees, and his feet on a\ngreat chest.  Round his neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars\nof twisted gold, hooked together behind the head. Grettir in the dark\ncould only just make out the glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him\nthat a phosphorescent light played about the face of the dead chief.\n\nSo little light was left, that Grettir hasted to collect what he could.\nThere stood a brazen vessel near the chair, in which were various\narticles, probably of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what\nthey were.  He brought the vessel to the rope and fastened the end of\nthe cord to its handle.  Then he went back to the old dead man and drew\naway a short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed in the brass\nvessel.  Next he began to unhook the gold torque from his neck, and as\nhe did this the phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead\nman's face.\n\nThen, all at once, as both his hands were engaged undoing the hook\nbehind Karr's neck, he was clipped. The dead man's arms had clutched\nhim, and with a roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him\nfast, and now all the light that had played over his features gathered\ninto and glared out of his eyes.\n\nWhen Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened that he ran from the\nbarrow, and did not stay his feet till he reached home, feeling\nconvinced that the ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had\ntorn Grettir to pieces.\n\nThen began in the chamber of the dead a fearful wrestle.  Grettir was at\ntimes nigh on smothered by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had\nbeen growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had been buried.\n\nHow long that terrible struggle continued no one can tell.  Grettir had\nto use his utmost force to stand against Karr the Old.  The two wrestled\nup and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones about from side to\nside, stumbling over the coffer, and the brass vessel, and the horse's\nskull, striking against the sides, and when they did this then masses of\nearth and portions of broken plank fell in from above.\n\nAt last Karr's feet gave way under him and he fell, and Grettir fell\nover him.  Then instantly he laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old\nKarr's head and laid it beside his thigh.\n\nThis, according to Norse belief, was the only way in which to prevent a\ndead man from walking, who had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb,\nand in the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the same\nproceeding was gone through.  The Norsemen held to something more\ndreadful than ghosts walking; they thought that some evil spirit entered\ninto the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the dead no longer\ndecayed, but walked, and ate, and drank, and fought, very much like\nliving ruffians, but with redoubled strength.  Then, when this happened,\nnothing was of any avail save the digging up of the dead man, cutting\noff his head and laying it at his thigh.\n\nWhen Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr the Old of his helm, his\nbreast-plate, his torque, and he took the box on which the feet had\nrested. He fastened all together to the rope, and called to Audun to\nhaul up.  He received no answer, so he swarmed up himself, and finding\nthat his friend had run away he pulled up what he had tied together, and\ncarried the whole lot in his arms to the house of Thorfin.  Thorfin and\nhis party were at supper; and when Grettir came in, the bonder looked\nup, and asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at the table\nwhen the meal began.  Grettir made no other answer than to throw all he\ncarried down on the supper-table before the master.  Thorfin raised his\neyebrows when he saw so much treasure.\n\n\"Where did you get all this?\" he asked.\n\nThen Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:\n\n    \"Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,\n      My attempt has been to find\n    In the barrow what was hidden,\n      Deep in darkness black and blind.\n    Nothing of the dragon's treasure\n      With the dead is left behind.\"\n\n\nBy the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin; the dragon's treasure\nmeant gold, because dragons were thought to line their lairs with that\nmetal.\n\nThorfin saw that Grettir's eye looked longingly at the short sword that\nhad lain on the knees of Karr. He said: \"It was a heathen custom in old\ntimes to bury very much that was precious along with the dead.  I do not\nblame you for what you have done; but this I will say, that there is no\none else about this place who would have ventured to attempt what you\nhave done.  As for that sword on which you cast your eyes so longingly,\nit has ever been in our family, and I cannot part with it till you have\nshown that you are worthy to wear it.\"\n\nThen that sword was hung up over Thorfin's bed. You have heard how\nGrettir did show that he was worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin\ngave it him.\n\nNow, this tale about the sword will very well illustrate what was said\nat the beginning, that the history of Grettir contains, in the main,\ntruth; but that this substance of truth has been embroidered over by\nfancy.  What is true is, that during the winter in which he was with\nThorfin he did dig into the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take\nthence his treasures and his sword.  But all the story of his fight with\nthe dead man was added. The same story occurs in a good many other\nsagas, as in that of Hromund Greip's son, who also got a sword by\ndigging into a barrow for it.  When the history of Grettir was told, and\nthis adventure of his was related, those who told the story imported\ninto it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave with the dead\nman, so as to make the history of Grettir more amusing.  As you will see\nby the tale, no one else was present when it happened, for Audun had run\naway, and it was not like Grettir to boast of what he had done.  This\nwas an embellishment added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller\nthe incident passed into the volume of the story-writer.\n\nGrettir had now two good swords; one long, which he called Jokull's\nGift, that he had received from his mother, and this short one that he\nwore at his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of Karr the Old,\nand which he had won fairly by his bravery in the defence of the house\nand family of Thorfin.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER VIII.*\n\n                             *OF THE BEAR.*\n\n\n    _Grettir goes North--Biorn the Braggart--The Bear's Den--Biorn's\n    Feat--A Hunting Party--The Lost Cloak--Grettir Seeks the Bear\n    Alone--Grettir's Hardest Tussle--The Fall Over the\n    Cliff--Thorgils Acts as Peacemaker--Grettir Restrains Himself_\n\n\nWhen spring came, then Grettir left his friend Thorfin, and went north\nalong the Norwegian coast, and was everywhere well received, because the\nstory of how he had killed twelve rovers, he being as yet but a boy, was\nnoised through all the country, and every one who had anything to lose\nfelt safer because that wicked gang was broken up. Nothing of\nconsequence is told about him during that summer.  For the winter he did\nnot return to Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of another\nbonder, named Thorgils.\n\nThorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had a great company in his\nhouse that winter.  Among his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant\ncousin, a man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a slanderous-tongued\nfellow, and moreover he was a braggart.  He was one of those persons we\nmeet with not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another praised;\nwho, the moment a good word is spoken of someone, immediately puts in a\nnasty, spiteful word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that\nperson down in the general opinion.  At the same time, concerning\nhimself he had only praiseworthy and wonderful feats to relate about his\nwit, his wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about his\nstrength and courage.\n\nThorgils knew how much, or rather how little, to believe of what Biorn\nsaid, and he did not pay much regard to his talk.  But now Grettir had\nan opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken had been his\nconduct on board the ship upon which he had come to Norway, when he made\nlampoons on the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp words.\nHe saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn was, how much he was disliked,\nand by some despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and out of\nBiorn's way.  He did not wish to quarrel with him, because he was the\nrelative of his host, and he was afraid that his anger would get the\nbetter of him if he did come to words with the braggart.\n\nGrettir had grown a great deal since he left Iceland, and he was now a\nstrapping fellow, broad built but not short.  He was not handsome, but\nhis face was intelligent.\n\nIt fell out that a bear gave much trouble that winter to Thorgils and\nthe neighbouring farmers. It was so strong and so daring that no folds\nwere secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers endured\nsevere losses through the depredations of Bruin.\n\nBefore Yule, a party was formed to go in search of and kill the bear,\nbut all that was done was to find the lair.\n\nThe bear had taken up his abode in the face of a tremendous cliff that\noverhung the sea.  There was but one path up to the cave, and that was\nso narrow that only one man could creep along it at a time. Moreover, if\nhis foot slipped he would be flung over the edge upon the rocks or\nskerries below against which the waves dashed.\n\n\"When the den of the bear had been discovered,\" Biorn said, \"That is the\nmain thing.  Now I know where the rogue lies, I'll settle with him,\ntrust me. I've been the death of scores of bears.  My only dread is lest\nhe be afraid of me, and will not come on.\"\n\nAnd, actually, Biorn went out on several moonlit nights to watch for the\nbear.  He saw that the only way to deal with him would be to stop the\ntrack from the den, and fight him as he attempted to come away.  He took\nhis short sword and great shield with him covered with ox-hide, and one\nnight he laid himself down on the path of the bear, and put his shield\nover him.  He thought that Bruin would come smelling at the great\nhide-covered shield, and then all at once he (Biorn) would spring up and\ndrive his sword into the heart of the bear. That was his plan--and not a\nbad plan--only, unfortunately for Biorn, the bear did not come out for a\nlong time.  He had got an inkling that a man was watching for him, so he\nwas shy, and whilst he waited before venturing forth, Biorn, who had\nbeen drinking pretty freely that evening, went to sleep.\n\nPresently the bear came out, crept cautiously down the narrow track,\nsnuffing about, and when he came to Biorn, he plucked with his claws at\nthe shield, and with one wrench had it off and tumbled it down the\ncliff.\n\nBiorn woke with a start, rose to his knees, saw the huge bear before\nhim, and in a moment turned tail, and ran as hard as he could run to\nThorgils' house, and was too scared to be able to boast that he had\nkilled or wounded the bear.\n\nNext morning his shield was found where the bear had thrown it, and much\nfun did this adventure of the braggart occasion.  This made him very\nirritable and more spiteful than ever.\n\nThorgils now said that really something must be done to rid the\nneighbourhood of the bear, so a party of eight set out well armed with\nspears; of this party were Biorn and Grettir.  They reached the point\nwhere the track to the den ran up the cliff to the lair, and one man\nafter another tried it.  But there was no getting at the bear; for as\nsoon as a man came near the beast put his great forepaws forth and\ncaught and snapped the spear-heads or beat them down.  As already said,\nonly one could crawl up at a time.\n\nGrettir had gone out that day in a fur coat that his friend Thorfin had\ngiven him, and which he greatly valued.  When the onslaught against the\nbear began, he took off his fur coat, and folded it, and put it on a\nstone.  Biorn saw this, and, when none observed, he took the fur coat\nand threw it into the cave of the bear.  Grettir did not see what had\nbeen done till the party, disappointed with their want of success, made\nready to depart, when he missed it, and then some suspicion entered his\nhead as to what had been done with it, and by whom, but he said nothing.\n\nAs they walked home, Biorn began to taunt Grettir with having done\nnothing all day.  He could kill robbers who were unarmed and were drunk,\nperhaps asleep, but a bear was too serious an adversary for him.\n\nGrettir said nothing, but as his gaiter thong became broken, he stopped\nand stooped to mend it. Thorgils asked if they should wait for him.\nGrettir declined.\n\n\"Oh,\" said Biorn, \"it is all nonsense.  It is a pretence.  He means to\nhave all the glory of fighting the bear alone when we have gone on.\"\n\nHe said the truth, but he had no idea when he spoke that it was the\ntruth.\n\nGrettir tarried till the party had crossed a hill and was out of sight,\nthen he turned and went back to the bear's den.  He slipped his hand\nthrough the loop at the end of the handle of his short sword that he had\ntaken from the grave of Karr the Old, and let it hang on his wrist, but\nhe held the long sword, Jokull's gift, by the pommel.  His plan was to\nuse the long sword if needed, but if the bear came to close quarters he\nwould throw it down and grasp the short one without having to put his\nhand to his girdle for it.  Very cautiously he crept along the path.\nBruin saw him, and was now angry and hungry, and came down to meet him.\nThe bear was somewhat above him; Grettir halted, and the bear stood up\ngrowling on his hind-legs.\n\nAt once the long sword was whirled and fell on the right wrist above the\npaw, and cut it off.  The bear immediately fell down on all-fours; but\nthe amputated paw was on the side away from the wall of rock, and when\nhe went down on the stump he was overbalanced, and came down with his\nwhole weight on Grettir.\n\nGrettir let fall his long sword at once, and with both hands grasped the\nbrute's ears, and held his head off lest he should get a bite at him.\nGrettir, in after years, was wont to say that this was the hardest\ntussle he had in his life--it was even worse than anything he had to do\nwith the rovers.  For if the beast had but been able to nip him on the\nbreast, or shoulder, or face with his great fangs, all would have been\nup with him.  Moreover, the ears were so smooth that he had to do his\nutmost not to let them slip.  Grettir had the wit to drag back the\nbrute's head to the rock, and by so doing the bear could not use his\nonly uninjured fore-leg, armed with terrible claws, which would have\nripped Grettir's clothes and flesh.\n\nIn the struggle the two went over the edge, and for a moment Grettir\nthought, as they spun in the air, that he was lost.  But the bear was\nheavier than the lad, consequently he fell crash on the rocks at the\nbottom first, and Grettir on him, breaking Grettir's fall by his great\nbody.  The bear's back was broken.\n\nThen Grettir got up, shook himself, left the bear, went up the path and\nfound his fur coat torn to tatters, and he put it about him, recovered\nalso his long sword, and took the cut-off paw of the bear.\n\nHe now went back to Thorgils' house, and when he came into the hall\nwhere the fires were blazing, every one laughed to see him in his\ntattered coat; but when he gave the paw of the bear to Thorgils the\ngeneral merriment exchanged to surprise.  Biorn, however, could not\ncontain himself for vexation, and launched forth some coarse jest that\nmade Grettir's blood tingle in his veins.\n\n\"Do not listen to him,\" said Thorgils.  \"You are a brave fellow, and\nthere are not many your like.\"  Then turning to Biorn, he said,\n\"Kinsman, I advise and warn you to keep a civil tongue in your head, or\nyou will come to rue it, and have to be taught better manners.\"\n\n\"Oh, if I am to learn manners from Grettir, that is sending me to a cub\nindeed!\"\n\n\"I want to know,\" said Grettir, \"whether you threw my fur coat into the\nden?\"\n\n\"I am not afraid of saying that I did.\"\n\n\"Will you give me another in its place?\"\n\n\"I have not the smallest intention of doing charity to beggars.\"\n\nThe braggart knew that Grettir was restraining himself because he did\nnot wish to quarrel with his host's kinsman, and he took advantage of\nhis knowledge.  But Thorgils was greatly distressed and ashamed, and he\nsaid to Grettir:\n\n\"Pay no attention to his words.  He has insulted you, and I will pay you\na fine in compensation for his insult, that it may be buried and\nforgotten.\"\n\nThat was customary then.  When one had hurt another in body or in honour\nby blow or foul word, he was bound to pay a sum of money; if he did not\nthen the man injured was required by the laws of honour to revenge the\ninjury.\n\nBut when Biorn heard this proposal, he shouted out that he would not\nsuffer the matter to be so compromised; he was not ashamed of his words.\nThorgils drew Grettir aside, and said to him that his kinsman was a\nbadly-behaved, brutal fellow, but that he hoped Grettir would not take\nup the quarrel in his house; and Grettir promised him solemnly that he\nwould not attempt to take revenge for the rudeness of Biorn so long as\nthey were both inmates of his house.\n\n\"As for what may happen between you later,\" said Thorgils, \"I wash my\nhands of responsibility. If Biorn is offensive to those who have never\nhurt him, he must take the consequences.\"\n\nSo matters remained; only that Biorn, presuming on his position, became\ndaily more arrogant, intolerable, and abusive, so that Grettir had to\nexercise daily self-restraint to keep his hands off him.  And glad he\nwas when spring came, that he might get away to another part of Norway.\n\nAs for Biorn, he went in the summer to England in a ship that belonged\nto Thorgils, trading there for Thorgils and for himself.  Consequently,\nall that summer he and Grettir did not meet.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER IX.*\n\n                        *THE SLAYING OF BIORN.*\n\n\n    _The Meeting on the Island--Biorn's Death--Thorfin Comes to\n    Grettir's Aid--Grettir's Life in Danger--Hiarandi's Revenge--A\n    Doomed Man_\n\n\nGrettir left Thorgils very good friends, and he went with some merchants\nto the north, but when the summer was over he came back south, and\narrived at a little island in the entrance of the Drontheim firth.  His\nintention was to see Earl Sweyn, and perhaps take service under him; but\nif so, things fell out other than he had reckoned.  For, as he was in\nthis island, there came in a large merchant vessel from England, and\nGrettir and those with him at once went to see the shipmen, and among\nthem was Biorn.  The ship was, in fact, that of Thorgils, and it was\nladen with commodities bought in England, or obtained by exchange for\nthe wool, and furs, and women's embroidery sent out in the spring by\nThorgils.\n\nDirectly Biorn saw Grettir he turned red, and pretended not to recognize\nhim; but Grettir went to him at once and said:\n\n\"Now has come the time when we two can settle our differences.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" said Biorn, \"that is soon done.  I don't object to paying a\ntrifle.\"\n\n\"The time for paying is over,\" said Grettir. \"Thorgils offered an\nindemnity for your insolence, and you refused to consent to it.\"\n\nThen Biorn saw that there was no help for him but that he must fight.\nSo he girded him for the conflict, and he and Grettir went down on the\nsand, and they fought.\n\nThe fight did not last long.  Grettir's sword cut him that he fell and\ndied.\n\nWhen the news reached Thorgils, he got ready, and came by boat as fast\nas he could to see the earl at Drontheim.  He found the earl very angry,\nbut he said to him:\n\n\"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know that he treated Grettir\nwith intolerable insolence, and that he refused every compromise.  Then\nremember what a benefit has been done to the country by Grettir, who\nridded it of the Red Rovers, Thorir wi' the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad.\"\n\nThorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard of the straits into which\nGrettir had come through killing Biorn.  The earl called a council on\nthe matter, and said he would not come to a decision till he had heard\nwhat Biorn's brother Hiarandi had to say on the matter.  Hiarandi was a\nviolent man, and he was very wroth.  He would hear of no patching up of\nthe matter, and he vowed he would not, as he expressed it, \"bring his\nbrother into his purse.\"  As already said, it was customary when a man\nhad been killed to offer a sum of money to the next of kin, and if he\naccepted the money the quarrel was at an end.  When we now speak of\n\"pocketing an injury,\" reference is made to this same ancient usage, by\nwhich every offence was estimated at so much money, and if the wronged\nman took money for the offence committed against him, he was said _to\npocket it_.  When the earl went into the matter, and heard how Grettir\nhad been wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his decision that\nGrettir had not acted contrary to law, and that Biorn had justly\nforfeited his life.  Thorfin offered the sum of money which the earl\nconsidered was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death of\nBiorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.\n\nThen Thorfin knew that Grettir's life was in danger, for Hiarandi would\ncertainly try to take it; so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about\nwith Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the mischief that\nthreatened.\n\nNow it fell out one day that Grettir and Arinbiorn were walking down a\nstreet in Drontheim when their way led before a narrow lane opening into\nit.  They did not see any danger in the way, and were unaware of this\nlane.  But just as they had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in\nthe shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir between the\nshoulder-blades.  Fortunately, Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane,\nand he saw the man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward with\nsuch a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee. This saved his life, for the\naxe came on his shoulder-blade, made a gash that cut to his armpit, and\nthen the axe buried itself in the roadway.  Instantly Grettir started to\nhis feet, turned round, and with his short sword smote in the very nick\nof time as the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe to cut at\nGrettir again.  Grettir's sword fell on his upper arm near the shoulder,\nand cut it off.  Then out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn\nand Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall and defended\nthemselves with such valour that they killed or put to flight all who\nhad assailed them.\n\nNow, this had been a base and cowardly attempt on the life of Grettir,\nand Hiarandi richly deserved his fate.  But the earl was exceedingly\nangry when he heard the news, and he called a council together. Thorfin\nand Grettir attended, and the earl angrily charged Grettir with having\ncommitted great violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi\nand some of his servants.\n\nGrettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound, and stated how he had\nbeen attacked from behind; how his life had been saved by the\npromptitude of Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself against\nenemies who sought his life.\n\n\"I wish you had been killed,\" said the earl, \"and then there would have\nbeen an end to these disorders.\"\n\n\"You would not have a man not raise his hands to save his head?\" said\nGrettir.\n\n\"I see one thing,\" exclaimed the earl.  \"Ill luck attends you, and you\nare doomed to commit violences wherever you are.\"\n\nThe end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would not have Grettir to live\nin Norway any longer, lest he should be the cause of fresh troubles.\nBut he remained over the third winter, and next spring sailed for\nIceland, the time of his outlawing being ended.\n\n\n\n\n                              *CHAPTER X.*\n\n                         *OF GRETTIR'S RETURN.*\n\n\n    _Iceland Once More--Life's Bitter Lessons--Grettir Pays Audun a\n    Visit--Some Icelandic Terms--Byres and Sels--A Chief's Hall--The\n    Return of Audun--Grettir's Second Wrestle with Audun--Bard\n    Interposes--The Cousins Reconciled_\n\n\nWhen Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his father so old and infirm\nas to be no more able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for him\nalong with Illugi, Grettir's youngest brother, now grown up to be a big\nboy.  Grettir was now aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.\nIllugi was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy.  He and the kindly,\ncareful Atli were as unlike Grettir as well could be; they avoided\nquarrels, they had a civil word for every one, and took pains to make\nthemselves agreeable, whether to guests in their house, or when staying\nanywhere, to their hosts. Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous\nor to be obliging to anyone.  Now that he was back from Norway he was\nrather disposed to think much of himself as a man more brave and\naudacious than his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers, broken\ninto a barrow, slain a bear, and been the death of one man in a duel,\nand another who had attempted to assassinate him?  Atli did not much\nlike his manner, and cautioned him not to be overbearing whilst at home,\nlest he should involve himself in fresh troubles.  But words were wasted\non Grettir.  He was not the fellow to listen to advice, but one of those\nmen who must learn the bitter lessons of life by personal experience.\nIt is so with men always.  Some, who are thoughtful, see what God's law\nis which is impressed on all society, and listen to what others have\nfound out as the lessons taught them by their lives, so they are able to\ngo out equipped against the trials and difficulties of life.  But others\nwill neither look nor listen, and such have to go through every sort of\nadversity, till they have learned the great truths of social life, and\nperhaps they only acquire them when it is too late to put them in\npractice.\n\nIt is with laws and courtesies of life as with the three R's.  A man\nwill fare badly who cannot read, write, and cipher.  If he learns these\naccomplishments as a child, he does well; he is furnished for the\nstruggle of life, and starts on the same footing as other men; but if as\na child he is morose and indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all\nthrough his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his ignorance,\nand he finds that he must learn to read, write, and do sums; and he has\nto acquire these in after years with much less ease than he might have\nlearnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances of getting on\nwhich might have been seized, had he known these things before.\n\nGrettir's temper on his return may be judged by one incident that\nhappened almost directly.  He had not forgotten his struggle on the ice\nwith his cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another trial of\nstrength with him.  So he had not been home many days before he rode\nover the hill to Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful\nsaddle on his horse that had been given him by Thorfin.  The time was\nthat of hay, and he saw the field round Audun's farm full of rich grass,\nready to be cut.  He took the bridle off his horse and turned it into\nAudun's meadow.  This was not out of thoughtlessness, but out of\ninsolence, and was intended to exasperate Audun.  In Iceland grass grows\nvery little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the farms in what is\ncalled the _tun_, where it is richly dressed with stable-dung.\nConsequently hay is very scarce and very precious.  The grass never\ngrows much longer than one's fingers, and so even in the tun it is not\nplentiful.  He knocked at the door of the farm and asked for his cousin,\nand was told that Audun had gone to the highland _sel_ to fetch curds,\nand would be back later.  The _sel_ was a farm on the highland, only\noccupied in summer, when the cattle were driven to the moors and hills\nto feed on the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands against\nwinter.\n\nHere a word or two must be said about Icelandic names of places and\npeople.  When Iceland was colonized, those who first settled in the land\nand built farms, called the places after their own names in a great many\ncases; they called them so-and-so's _stead_, or so-and-so's _by_ or\nfarm.  A _by_ is the Scotch byre, and in Icelandic is _boer_, pronounced\nexactly like the Scotch word.  Wherever, in the north and east of\nEngland, Norse settlers came, there we find names of places ending in\nthe same way, and we know that these were farms and dwellings of old\nNorse settlers.  Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,\nare plenty of Norse place-names. Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or\nThorkel's-byre, near Ripon is Enderby or Andrew's-byre.  Not only so,\nbut where there are high hills there we find also _sels_, that is\nsummer-farms, like the Alps to which the cattle are driven in\nSwitzerland.  Next as to the names of people.  What is a little puzzling\nto remember is the number of persons whose names begin with Thor.  Thor,\nthe god of thunder, was regarded with the highest reverence by the\nIcelanders; they thought of him even more than they did of Odin, the\nchief god of all, who had one eye, and his one fiery eye was the sun.\nThor was called the Redbeard, and the aurora borealis was thought to be\nhis waving red-beard in the sky.  The thunderbolt they regarded as his\nhammer.  To show their respect for him, children were named after him:\nThor-grim means Thor's wrath; Thor-kel, Thor's kettle, in which the\nsacrificial meat was cooked in offering to Thor; Thor-gil was Thor's boy\nor servant; Thor-hall was Thor's flint spear-head, and so on.  The\nNorthumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name from the Hand of God, and\nthe name is the same as Asmund, the father of Grettir.  Oswald means the\nelect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be Aswald.\n\nWhen Grettir found that Audun was from home, he went into the hall and\nlay down on the bench nearest the door.  The hall was dark.\n\nThe halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies of churches, and were\ndivided into a nave with side aisles; and were lighted by windows in a\nclere-story that were covered with the skin of the lining of a sheep's\nstomach, to let in light and keep out cold, because they had no glass.\nIn the side aisles were the beds of those who lived in the house, some\nwith doors and shutters, which could be fastened from within; and a man\nin danger of his life would so sleep.  He would go to bed, and then\nclose himself in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at him\nwhen he was asleep.  The fires and benches and tables were in the nave,\nor middle of the great hall.  Over the partitions for the beds were hung\nshields and swords and spears, and on grand occasions hangings were put\nup all along the sides, hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.\nThe arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present day is much the\nsame, only on a very much reduced scale.  The people live and eat and\nsleep in the same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the berths\nround the walls.\n\nAudun arrived in the afternoon with a horse that carried curds in skins\non its back; that is to say, skins were made into bottles, as is still\ncommon in Palestine.  When he saw that a horse with a saddle on it was\nwandering about in his meadow, trampling down the grass and eating it,\nhe was very vexed; and throwing one bottle of curd over his back, and\nhanging another in front on his breast to counterbalance it, he ran into\nthe house to ask who had done this.\n\nThe hall was dusky, and Audun's eyes were accustomed to the bright\nsummer-light.  As he entered Grettir put out his foot; Audun did not see\nit, and stumbled over it, fell on the skin of curds and burst it.  Then\nhe jumped up, very angry, and asked who had played him this scurvy\ntrick.  Grettir named himself, and said he had come over about that\nmatter of the wrestle on the ice.  Audun, still very irate, all at once\nstooped, picked up the burst skin, and dashed it in Grettir's face,\nsmothering him with curds.  Then he threw down the other curd-bottle,\nand began to wrestle with Grettir.  They swung up and down the hall,\nkicking over the benches, now upon the floor, then on the stone-paved\nfire-hearth in the midst; then they crashed against the walls and\npillars of the bed-chambers, and as they did so the shields and weapons\nhung over them clashed like bells.  Some frightened servant-maids came\nin, and ran out again in alarm, calling for aid.\n\nAudun felt now that Grettir had outgrown him in strength, but he would\nnot give in; then they slipped on the curd and both fell, parted for a\nmoment, rose, and flew at each other once more. Again, up and down,\nbanging, stumbling, writhing in each other's arms, twisting legs round\neach other, to try to trip each other up, and ever Grettir bearing Audun\nbackwards, but never wholly mastering him.  Audun could not trust his\ncousin, for though they were akin, and though he had not really done him\nan injury, there was no telling to what a pitch Grettir's blood might\nmount and blind him; so as they wrestled, Audun took care to twist the\nshort sword out of Grettir's belt and throw it away.  As, to do this, he\nhad to disengage his hand from Grettir's shoulder, he lost an advantage.\nGrettir managed to trip him, and throw him flat on his back.\n\nAt that moment, fortunately, a man, big, wearing a red kirtle, and in\nfull harness, entered the hall and asked what was the meaning of the\nnoise and fight? As he did not receive an immediate answer, he came to\nthe rescue of Audun, and drew Grettir from him.\n\n\"We are only in play with each other,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Rather rough play,\" said the man, \"and likely to end in tears rather\nthan laughter.\"\n\n\"Who are you that interfere?\" asked Grettir.\n\n\"My name is Bard.\"\n\nThen Audun scrambled to his feet.\n\n\"What is the reason of this rough play?\" asked Bard.\n\nThen Grettir answered, by singing:\n\n    \"Prithee, Audun, will you say\n    How, upon the ice one day,\n    You to throttle did essay?\n    Now, for that I this have done,\n    On Audun honour I have won;\n    Curds and wrestle make good fun.\"\n\n\n\"Oh, I see,\" said Bard; \"fighting out an old grudge.  I have nothing to\nsay against that.  Now, shake hands, and be loving cousins again.\"\n\nAudun held out his hand, and Grettir agreed to let the matter end thus.\nBut he was dissatisfied, and ever after bore Bard a grudge.  However, he\nnever again wrestled with Audun, and remained on good terms with him.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XI.*\n\n                           *THE HORSE-FIGHT.*\n\n\n    _Atli's Roan--The Coming Fight--Unfair Play--Grettir\n    Retaliation--Smouldering Fire_\n\n\nOne of the rude and cruel sports that amused the Icelanders in summer\ntime was horse-fighting. A smooth piece of turf was chosen, and was\nstaked round.  Into this inclosure two or sometimes more horses were\nintroduced, and a man attended each, who urged on his own horse, armed\nwith a goad. By means of these goads the horses were stung to madness,\nand attacked each other, biting each other savagely.  Now, Atli had a\nbeautiful roan, with a black mane, which he and his old father were very\nproud of.  Lower down the valley, near the sea, was a farm called Mais,\nin which lived a bonder named Kormak, and his brother; they had in their\nhouse a man called Odd the Foundling, a sly, captious fellow, who, like\nGrettir, made verses; but his verses were not generally thought to be so\ngood as those of Grettir.  On the opposite side of the river is a\nhot-spring; it is still hot, but not so hot as it was in those days,\nwhen it boiled up and poured forth a cloud of steam, and ran in a\nscalding rill down to the river.  There was a convenient level place\nnear the river for a horse-fight, and it stood above the water on one\nside rather steeply, so that it needed only fencing on three sides.\nKormak had a brown horse that fought well, and it was resolved that\nautumn to have a fight between the horse of Kormak and the roan of Atli.\nOdd was to goad on Kormak's brown, and Grettir offered himself to his\nbrother to run with the roan.  Atli did not much like the proposal, as\nhe feared Grettir's temper; but he could not well decline his offer, so\nhe said, \"I will consent, brother; only I pray you, be peaceable, for we\nhave to do with overbearing men, and it will be very unfortunate if a\nbroil should come of this.\"\n\n\"If they begin, I shall not run away,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Not if they begin; but be very careful not to provoke a quarrel.\"\n\n\"Quarrels come and are not made,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"That I do not hold,\" answered Atli.\n\nThe day of the horse-fight arrived, and the horses were led to the place\nof contest.  They had been fed up and groomed for the occasion, and each\nhad a band round his middle of colour, by which he who went with the\nhorse could hold, and the goad of each was tied with a tuft of feathers\nat the head, stained the same colour as the belt about the horse.\n\nThe two horses were introduced within the inclosure, and were soon\ngoaded into anger, and began to plunge, and snort, and snap at each\nother.  The by-standers outside the railing cheered and shouted, and the\nhorses seemed to understand that they were to do their best; so they\npranced about each other, struck at each other, and tried to get round\neach other so as to bite the flank.  At one moment the roan bit the side\nof the brown, and held.  Odd ran his goad into the horse of Grettir to\nmake it let go;--this was against the rules; he did it to save his own\nhorse from a terrible wound.  Grettir saw what he did, but he said\nnothing.  Now the horses bore towards the river, and were rearing and\nplunging close to the edge, and the two men had much ado to hold on.\nThen Odd took the opportunity when Grettir's back was turned to drive at\nhim with his goad between the shoulders, where was the great scar still\nred, and only just fully healed, that he had received from the axe of\nHiarandi.  It was a cruel blow, and this also was against all rule of\nfair play.\n\nAt that moment the roan reared, and instantly Grettir ran under him, and\nstruck Odd with such a blow that he reeled back towards the water edge,\nand in so doing dragged the brown horse he was holding over the edge,\nand both went down into the water together.  The river was very full\nwith the melted snows, and Odd was brought ashore with difficulty.  It\nwas found that three of his ribs were broken; but whether with the blow\ndealt by Grettir, or by his fall on the rock, or by the hoof of the\nhorse as it fell and struggled in the river, cannot be said; but the\nparty of Kormak, of course, charged Grettir with having broken Odd's\nribs with his stick, and they flew to arms, and threatened the party\nfrom Biarg.  However, the people of the nearest vales and firths\ninterfered, and no bloodshed ensued.  But the men of Mais and of Biarg\nseparated bearing each other much ill-will, each charging the other with\nhaving broken the laws of the sport.\n\nAtli did not say what he felt, he was greatly annoyed; but Grettir was\nless careful of his words, he said that the matter was by no means\nended, and that he hoped there would be a meeting between the men of\nMais and the men of Biarg, and then--it would not be a fight of horses,\nbut of men; not a biting of horses, but of sharp blades.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XII.*\n\n                      *OF THE FIGHT AT THE NECK.*\n\n\n    _The Desolate Moor--Grettir challenges Kormak--Oxmain comes on\n    the Scene--Slow-coach taunts Grettir--Grettir's Vexation_\n\n\nThe next fiord on the west of that into which the river that flowed past\nBiarg poured was called the Ramsfirth, and at the head of it lived\nGrettir's married sister.\n\nIn the following summer, that is in 1014, Grettir paid his sister a\nvisit; he had with him two servant-men from Biarg, and he spent three\ndays and nights at his sister's.  Whilst there, news reached him that\nKormak, who had been away from Mais for a week or two, was on his road\nhome, and who was now staying at a house called Tongue.  Grettir at once\nmade ready to depart, and his brother-in-law sent two men with him, for\nit was not safe that Grettir should have only two churls with him, as\nthere was ill blood between him and Kormak about that affair of the\nhorse-fight.\n\nA high, long shoulder of desolate moor lies between the Ramsfirth and\nthe Westriver-dale, in which is a confluent of the river that flows past\nBiarg.  This shoulder rises to the north into a great hump, called\nBurfell, and on the saddle is a little lake.  A very fine view is\nobtained from this shoulder of moor over the northern immense bay of\nHunafloi, towards the glaciers and mountains of that curious excrescence\nof land that lies on the north-west of Iceland.  I know exactly the road\ntaken by Grettir on this occasion, for I have ridden over it.  Along the\ntop of this shoulder the rocks are scraped by glaciers, that must at one\ntime have occupied the whole centre of the island, and have slowly\nslidden down into the firths on all sides.  Here, what is curious is,\nthat the rocks are furrowed, just as if carved with a graving tool, in\nlines from south to north, showing the direction from which the glaciers\nslipped down. Now, on the slope of this bit of upland is a great stone\npoised on a point, which I have seen.  Grettir came to this stone, and\nspent a long time in trying to upset it.  It is called Grettir's-heave\nto this day. The men who were with him rather wondered at him why he\nwasted time over this, instead of pushing on.  But his sharp eye had\nnoticed the party of Kormak leaving Tongue, and he was bent on an\nencounter.  He thought that if Odd had seen him going over the hill he\nwould make a lampoon about him running away from his sister's house the\nmoment he heard that danger was threatening.  So he determined to tarry\ntill Kormak came up and fight him.  He had not long to wait, for\npresently over the top of the hill came Kormak with Odd and some others.\nGrettir at once rode to meet them, and said, \"Now we have our weapons on\nboth sides, let us fight like men of good birth, and not with sticks as\nchurls.\"\n\nThen Kormak turned to his men and bade them accept the challenge and\nfight.\n\nAccordingly they ran at one another and fought. Grettir bade his two\nserving-men stand behind his back and defend that, and he, sweeping his\nlongsword from left to right, went forward against Kormak.  Thus they\nfought for a while, and some were wounded on both sides.\n\nNow it so happened that at a rich farm in the Ramsfirth-dale lived a\nwell-to-do, and very strong man, called Thorbiorn--that is, Thor's\nBear--nicknamed Oxmain.  He had ridden that day over Burfell-heath, with\na party, and was now returning. As he came along he heard shouts and the\nclashing of arms, so he quickened his pace, and presently came in sight\nof the fighters.  He at once ordered his men to dash in between the\ncombatants.  But by this time the passions of those engaged were so\nfurious that they would not be separated.  Grettir sweeping his\nlong-sword about him strode forward, and the men of Kormak fell back\nbefore him. Down went two of those who were with Kormak, and one servant\nof Atli, Grettir's brother, was killed.\n\n[Illustration: GRETTIR CHALLENGES KORMAK AND HIS PARTY.]\n\nThen Thorbiorn Oxmain raised his great voice and roared out, that he and\nhis party would take sides against the first man who dealt another blow.\nGrettir saw that it would hardly do if Thorbiorn Oxmain brought all his\nforce against him, so he gave up the battle; but they did not part till\nevery one of those engaged was wounded, and two were killed on one side,\nand one on the other.  Grettir was ill pleased that the affray had ended\nin this manner, and he felt resentment against Oxmain for his\ninterference.  Unfortunately, Oxmain's brother, who went by the name of\nthe Slow-coach, made fun of the matter, and laughed about Grettir\nsneaking away from the fight directly he saw that he was getting the\nworst of it.  Whatever he said was reported at Biarg, and, as may well\nbe imagined, did not improve Grettir's temper, or liking for Oxmain and\nSlow-coach.  Nothing further occurred between him and Kormak, probably\nhe and Kormak were content with the trial of strength that had taken\nplace, and were disinclined to renew a profitless contest.\n\nAtli took no notice of the loss of his house-churl; he desired peace,\nand not a stirring afresh of the fires of discord.  To his peaceable\nbehaviour it was doubtless due that the quarrel with Kormak came to an\nend.  But the vexation felt by Grettir against Oxmain for his\nmeddlesomeness, and against Slow-coach for his gibes, rankled in his\nbreast.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XIII.*\n\n                 *HOW GRETTIR AND AUDUN MADE FRIENDS.*\n\n\n    _Audun's Pedigree--His relation to Grettir--Grettir's-heaves--In\n    Willowdale--The Place called Tongue--A very strange Tale_\n\n\nGrettir remained through the autumn at Biarg, after the skirmish at the\nNeck, till September, and then he thought he would ride away east and\nsee Audun again, with whom he had had that little ruffle that was almost\na quarrel, and which was fortunately interrupted by the entrance of\nBard. Audun was a cousin, though not a near one, and Grettir had no\ndesire that any bad blood should exist between kinsfolk.  Audun belonged\nto what was called the Madpate family; for it had had in it at least two\nwho had been so odd in their ways that folk said they were not quite\nright in their minds. The relationship will easily be understood by a\nlook at the pedigree.  It will be remembered that old Onund Treefoot,\nwho had settled in Iceland, had to wife secondly Thordis, an Icelandic\nwoman, and his son by her was Thorgrim Grizzlepate, and this Thorgrim\nbought the estate and house of Biarg about the year 935.  Onund Treefoot\ndied in or about 920, and then his widow Thordis married again a man\ncalled Audun Skokull, and they had a son who was called Asgeir, who\nsettled in Willowdale, and either went off his head or proved so queer\nin his ways that folks called him Madpate.  This Madpate married and had\na son Audun, and a daughter Thurid who married away west into a very\ngood family; and she had a son called Thorstein Kuggson, of whom we\nshall hear more presently.  Audun of Willowdale's son was Madpate the\nSecond, and the lad Audun who wrestled with Grettir and burst the bottle\nof curds was the son of this Madpate the Second.  Consequently the\nrelationship to Grettir was through Grettir's great-grandmother, and\nAudun belonged to a generation younger than that of Grettir, because\nGrettir was the son of Asmund's old age. Moreover, Asmund's father\nThorgrim had married somewhat late in life, whereas all the Madpate\nfamily had dashed into marriage at a very early age.  Thus it came about\nthat Grettir's great-grandmother was Audun's great-great-grandmother,\nand that, nevertheless, Audun was somewhat older than Grettir.\n\nGrettir rode straight up over the hill behind his house.  Now this hill\nlike the Neck, already described, is rather curious, for on it are a\nnumber of rocks that have been deposited by glaciers, and not only so,\nbut they have been dragged along by ice, scratching the rocks over which\nthey were driven forward, and so these beds of rock are rubbed and\nscored with lines made by the stones forced over them by ice.  Above\nBiarg there is one large stone that has scratched a deep furrow in the\nbed of rock and then has stopped at the end of the furrow it had itself\nscored.  This remarkable phenomenon tells us of a time when the whole of\nthe centre of Iceland was covered with glaciers, like the centre of\nGreenland now.  These glaciers slided down the slopes of the hills, and\nwere thrust along to the sea, where they broke off and floated away as\nicebergs.\n\nNowadays folk in Iceland do not understand these odd stones perched in\nqueer places, which were deposited by the ancient glaciers, and they\ncall them Grettir-taks or Grettir's-heaves.  So the farmer at Biarg told\nme that the curious stone at the end of the furrow in the bed of rock on\ntop of the hill was a Grettir-tak; it had been rubbed along the rock and\nleft where it stands by Grettir.  But I knew better. I knew that it was\nput there by an ancient glacier ages before Grettir was born, and before\nIceland was discovered by the Norsemen.  I have no doubt that in\nGrettir's time this stone was said to have been put there by some troll.\nAfterwards, when people ceased to believe in trolls, they said it was\nput there by Grettir.\n\nGrettir's ride led him by a pretty little blue lake that lies folded in\nbetween high hills and has a stream flowing from it into a very large\nlake near Hop.  But he did not follow the stream down; he crossed\nanother hill, not very steep and high, and reached his cousin's house at\nAudun stead in Willowdale.  Now this valley took its name from the woods\nof willows that grew in it when first settled, but at the present day\nnone remain; all have in course of time been burnt for fuel, and except\nfor scanty grass the Willowdale is very dreary-looking.  We may be sure\nthat Iceland presented a much more smiling and green appearance eight\nhundred or a thousand years ago than it does at present.\n\nWhen Grettir came to Willowdale, Audun received him in a friendly\nmanner, and Grettir made him a present of a handsome axe he had.  He\nremained with him some little while, and they talked over old tales of\nOnund Treefoot and his doings, and every shadow of rivalry and anger\ndisappeared, so that they parted at length in the best of tempers and as\ntrue and affectionate cousins.\n\nAudun would have desired to keep Grettir there longer, but Grettir would\nnot stay.  He desired to get on to the head of Waterdale, where lived an\nuncle of his called Jokull, his mother's brother, at a place called\nTongue.\n\nSo he rode away over the moor, and reached Tongue.  Here a stream comes\nrushing through a gorge in a series of waterfalls, and meets another\nstream that comes down a valley called the Valley of Shadows further\neast.\n\nTongue is so called because it lies on a grassy slope exactly in the\ntongue of land between these two streams.  There is now a good farm\nthere and a church, and there I stayed a few days.  At the back of\nTongue the hill rises rapidly to a fell called Tongue-heath.  This hill\nwas covered with snow when Grettir arrived.  This uncle Jokull was glad\nto see him.\n\nHe was a rough and violent man, very big and strong; and it was clear to\neveryone that his nephew took after his mother's family more than his\nfather's, for there was a strong likeness both in build and face and in\ncharacter between Jokull and Grettir.\n\nHe received Grettir heartily in his rough, blunt way, and bade him stay\nthere as long as he liked. Jokull had been a seafaring man, and had made\nmuch by his merchant trips.  He would probably have been a richer and\nmore respected man had he not been so violent and overbearing and ready\nto pick quarrels.\n\nNow Grettir had not been at Tongue three days before he heard a very\nstrange tale.  Jokull's mouth was full of it, and with good reason, for\nthe events had taken place not an hour's ride distant.  It was a tale\nabout the nearest farm in the Valley of Shadows, a farm called\nThorhall's-stead, which was reported to be haunted; and so serious had\naffairs become there that no servants would remain, and the farmer and\nhis family had been driven from house and home by the hauntings last\nwinter, and had come and lodged with Jokull at Tongue, and he had\nentertained them for some two or three months.  Now this was not a case\nof mere fancy and fantastic fear.  It was something very real and very\nmarvellous.  But it is a long story, and must be consigned to another\nchapter.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XIV.*\n\n                         *THE VALE OF SHADOWS.*\n\n\n    _A Turning-point in Grettir's Life--The Farm in the Valley--The\n    haunted Sheep-walks--A strange-looking Fellow--\"Here is my\n    Hand\"--Glam keeps Faith--Glam is missing--Following the Red\n    Track--The Ghost of Glam--Glam's Successor--Thorgaut is\n    Missing--From Bad to Worse--Fate of the old\n    Serving-man--Thorhall's Perplexity--Grettir offers Aid_\n\n\nWe have come now to an incident which formed a turning-point in\nGrettir's life.  It is a very mysterious and inexplicable story, not one\nthat can be put aside as we have that of his fight in the tomb with Karr\nthe Old.  This is a story even more gruesome. It relates to an event\nthat so shook Grettir's nerves that he never after could endure to be\nalone in the dark, and would risk all kinds of dangers to escape\nsolitude.  How much of truth lies under this strange narrative we cannot\nnow say, but that something really did take place is certain from the\neffect it had on Grettir ever after.\n\nThe richest valley for grass in all this quarter of Iceland, and the\nmost peopled, is the Waterdale. On the east rises a mountain ridge of\nprecipitous basaltic cliffs, down which leap waterfalls from the snows\nabove.  The river that flows through this valley is fed by two main\nstreams that unite at the farm called Tongue.  The stream on the east\nrises a long way inland in a mass of lava, and flows through a valley so\nnarrow and so gloomy that it goes by the name of the Valley of Shadows.\nThe high ranges of moor and waste to the south shut off the southern\nsun, and the lofty banks of mountain to east and west so close it in\nthat it gets no sun morning or evening.\n\nA little way up this valley--not far, and not where it is most\ngloomy--are now the scanty ruins of a farm called Thorhall's-stead.\nAbove this the valley so contracts and the hills are so steep that it is\nonly with great difficulty that a horse can be led along. This I know\nvery well; for in crossing an avalanche slide my horse and I were almost\nprecipitated into the torrent below.  Further up the valley stands a\ntongue of high land with a waterfall on one side and the ravine on the\nother, and here at one time some robbers had their fortress who were the\nterror of the neighbourhood.  No trace of their fortress remains at\npresent, but it was to find this place that I explored the valley.\n\nIn the farm that is now but a heap of ruins lived a bonder named\nThorhall and his wife.  He was not a man of much consideration in the\ndistrict, for he was planted on cold, poor land, and his wealth was but\nsmall.  Moreover, he had no servants; and the reason was that his\nsheep-walks were haunted.\n\nNot a herdsman would remain with him.  He offered high wages, he\nthreatened, he entreated, all in vain.  One shepherd after another left\nhis service, and things came to such a pass that he determined to have\nthe advice of the law-man or chief judge at the next annual assize.\n\nHe saddled his horses and rode to Thingvalla. Skapti was the name of the\njudge then, a man with a long head, and deemed the best of men for\ngiving counsel.  Thorhall told him his trouble.\n\n\"I can help you,\" said Skapti.  \"There is a shepherd who has been with\nme, a rude, strange man, but afraid of neither man nor hobgoblin, and\nstrong as a bull; but he is not very clear in his intellect.\"\n\n\"That does not matter,\" said Thorhall, \"so long as he can mind sheep.\"\n\n\"You may trust him for that,\" said Skapti.  \"He is a Swede, and his name\nis Glam.\"\n\nTowards the end of the assize two gray horses belonging to Thorhall\nslipped their hobbles and strayed; so, as he had no serving-man, he went\nafter them himself, and on his way met a strange-looking fellow, driving\nbefore him an ass laden with faggots.  The man was tall and stalwart;\nhis face attracted Torhall's attention, for the eyes were ashen gray and\nstaring.  The powerful jaw was furnished with white protruding teeth,\nand about his low brow hung bunches of coarse wolf-gray hair.\n\n\"Pray, what are you called?\" asked Thorhall, for he suspected that this\nwas the man Skapti had spoken about.\n\n\"Glam, at your service.\"\n\n\"Do you like your present duties--wood-cutting?\" asked the farmer.\n\n\"No, I do not.  I am properly a shepherd.\"\n\n\"Then, will you come with me?  Skapti has spoken of you and offered you\nto me.\"\n\n\"What are the drawbacks to your service?\" asked Glam cautiously.\n\n\"None, save that my sheep-walks are haunted.\"\n\n\"Oh! is that all?  Ghosts won't scare me.  Here is my hand.  I will come\nto you before winter.\"\n\nThey separated, and soon after the farmer found his horses; they had got\ninto a little wood, and were nibbling the willow tops.  He went home,\nhaving thanked Skapti.\n\nSummer passed, then autumn, and nothing further was heard of Glam.  The\nwinter storms began to bluster up the valley from the cold Polar Sea,\ndriving the flying snowflakes and heaping them in drifts at every turn\nof the vale.  Ice formed in the shallows of the river, and the streams\nwhich in summer trickled down the sides were now turned to icicles. I\nwas there the very end of June, and then the whole of the mountain flank\nto the west was covered with frozen streams spread like a net of icicle\nover the black and red striped bare rock.\n\nOne gusty night a violent blow at the door startled all in the farm.  In\nanother moment Glam, tall and wild, stood in the hall glowering out of\nhis gray staring eyes, his hair matted with frost, his teeth rattling\nand snapping with cold, his face blood-red in the glare of the fire that\nglowed in the centre of the hall.\n\nHe was well received by Thorhall, but the housewife did not like the\nman's looks, and did not welcome him with much heartiness.  Time passed,\nand the shepherd was on the moors every day with the flock; his loud and\ndeep-toned voice was often borne down on the wind as he shouted to the\nsheep, driving them to fold.  His presence always produced a chill in\nthe house, and when he spoke it sent a thrill through the women, who did\nnot like him.\n\nChristmas-eve was raw and windy; masses of gray vapour rolled up from\nthe Arctic Ocean, and hung in piles about the mountain tops.  Now and\nthen a scud of frozen fog, covering bar and beam with feathery\nhoar-frost, swept up the glen.  As the day declined snow began to fall\nin large flakes.\n\nWhen the wind lulled there could be heard the shout of Glam high up on\nthe hillside.  Darkness closed in, and with the darkness the snow fell\nthicker. There was a church then at Thorhall's farm; there is none there\nnow, since the valley has been abandoned from its cold and ill name.\n\nThe lights were kindled in the church, and every snowflake as it sailed\ndown past the open door burned like a golden feather in the light.\n\nWhen the service was over, and the farmer and his party returned to the\nhouse, Glam had not come home.  This was strange; as he could not live\nabroad in the cold, and the sheep would also require shelter.  Thorhall\nwas uneasy and proposed a search, but no one would go with him; and no\nwonder, it was not a night for a dog to be out in, and the tracks would\nall be buried in snow.  So the family sat up all night listening,\ntrembling and anxious.\n\nDay broke at last faintly in the south over the great white masses of\nmountains.  Now a party was formed to search for the missing man.  A\nsharp climb brought them to the top of the moor above Tongue.  Here and\nthere a sheep was found shivering under a rock or half buried in a\nsnowdrift, but of Glam--not a sign.\n\nPresently the whole party was called together about a spot on the\nhilltop where the snow was trampled and kicked about, and it was clear\nthat some desperate struggle had taken place there. There the snow was\nalso dabbled with frozen blood. A red track led further up the mountain\nside, and the searchers were following it when a boy uttered a shriek of\nfear.  In looking behind a rock he had come on the corpse of the\nshepherd lying on its back with the arms extended.  The body was taken\nup and carried to the edge of the gorge, and was there buried under a\npile of stones, heaped over it to the height of about six feet.  _How_\nGlam had died, _by whom_ killed, no one knew, nor could they make a\nguess.\n\nTwo nights after this one of the thralls who had gone for the cows burst\ninto the hall with a face blank from terror; he staggered to a seat and\nfainted.  On recovering his senses, in a broken voice he assured those\nwho were round him that he had seen Glam walking past him, with huge\nstrides, as he left the stable door.  The shepherd had turned his head\nand looked at him fixedly from his great gray staring eyes.  On the\nfollowing day a stable lad was found in a fit under a wall, and he never\nafter recovered his senses.  It was thought he must have seen something\nthat had scared him.  Next, some of the women, declared that they had\nseen Glam looking in on them through a window of the dairy.  In the dusk\nThorhall himself met the dead man, who stood and glowered at him, but\nmade no attempt to injure his master, and uttered not a word.  The\nhaunting did not end thus. Nightly a heavy tread was heard round the\nhouse, and a hand groping along the walls, and sometimes a hand came in\nat the windows, a great coarse hand, that in the red light from the fire\nseemed as though steeped in blood.\n\nWhen the spring came round the disturbances lessened, and as the sun\nobtained full power, ceased altogether.\n\nDuring the course of the summer a Norwegian vessel came into the fiord;\nThorhall went on board and found there a man named Thorgaut, who had\ncome out in search of work.  Thorhall engaged him as a shepherd, but not\nwithout honestly telling him his trouble, and what there was uncanny\nabout his sheep-walks, and how Glam had fared.  The man did not regard\nthis, he laughed, and promised to be with Thorhall at the appointed\nseason.\n\nAccordingly he arrived in autumn, and he soon established himself as a\nfavourite in the house; he romped with the children, helped his\nfellow-servants, and was as much liked as his predecessor had been\ndetested.  He was such a merry careless fellow that he did not think\nanything of the risks that lay before him, and joked about them.\n\nWhen winter set in strange sights and sounds began to alarm the folk at\nthe farm, but Thorgaut was not troubled; he slept too soundly at night\nto be disturbed by the heavy tread round the house.\n\nOn the day before Yule, as was his wont, Thorgaut drove out the sheep to\npasture.  Thorhall was uneasy.  He said to him: \"I pray you be careful,\nand do not go near the barrow under which Glam was laid.\"\n\n\"Don't fear for me,\" laughed Thorgaut, \"I shall be back in time for\nsupper, and shall attend you to church.\"\n\nNight settled in, but no Thorgaut arrived.  There was little mirth at\ntable when the supper was brought in.  All were anxious and fearful.\n\nThe wind was cold and wetting.  Blocks of ice were driving about in the\nbay, grinding against each other, and the sound could be heard far up\nthe valley.  Aloft, the aurora flames were lighting up the heavens with\nan arch of fire.  Again this Christmas night the dwellers in the farm\nsat up and did not go to bed, waiting for the return of Thorgaut, but he\ndid not arrive.\n\nNext morning he was sought, and was found lying dead across the barrow\nof Glam, with his spine and one leg and one arm broken.  He was brought\nhome and laid in the churchyard.\n\nMatters now rapidly became worse.  Outbuildings were broken into of a\nnight, and their woodwork was rent and shattered; the house door was\nviolently shaken, and great pieces of it were torn away; the gables of\nthe house were also pulled furiously to and fro.\n\nNow it fell out that one morning the only man who remained in the\nservice of the family went out early.  Not another servant dared to\nremain in the place, and this man remained because he had been with\nThorhall and with his father, and he could not make up his mind to\ndesert his master in his need. About an hour after he had gone out\nThorhall's wife took her milking cans and went to the cow-house that she\nmight milk the cows, as she had now not a maid in the house, and had to\ndo everything herself.  On reaching the door of the cow-house she heard\na terrible sound from within, the bellowing of the cattle, and the deep\nbell-notes of an unearthly voice.  She was so frightened that she\ndropped her pails and ran back to the house and called her husband.\nThorhall was in bed, but he rose instantly, caught up a weapon, and\nhastened to the cow-house.\n\nOn opening the door he found all the cattle loose and goring each other.\nSlung across the stone that separated their stalls was the old\nserving-man, perfectly dead, with his back broken.  He had, apparently,\nbeen tossed by the cows, and had fallen on this stone backwards.\n\nNeither Thorhall nor his wife explained his death in this way; they\nthought that Glam must have been there, have driven the cattle wild, and\nthat just as he had broken the back of Thorgaut, so had he now broken\nthat of the poor old serving-man.\n\nIt was impossible for the bonder to remain longer in that place; he and\nhis wife therefore removed down to Tongue, which lies at the junction of\nthe two rivers, and there things were quiet.  There he was hospitably\nreceived by Jokull.  Thorhall was able to persuade some of his runaway\nservants to come back to him, but no man all that winter would go near\nthe moor where was the barrow of the shepherd Glam.\n\nNot till the summer returned, and the sun had dispelled the darkness,\ndid Thorhall venture back to the Vale of Shadows.  In the meanwhile his\ndaughter's health had given way under the repeated alarms of the winter;\nshe became paler every day; with the autumn flowers she faded, and was\nlaid in the churchyard before the first snowflakes fell.  What was\nThorhall to do through the winter?  He knew that it was not possible for\nhim to secure servants if he remained on his own farm; besides, he did\nnot know what loss might come to his stock.  Then, he could not spend\nthe whole winter at Tongue, for that was another bonder's house, and\nthough the farmer there had kindly received him and entertained him for\nthree months the winter before, he could not ask him to give him\nhouseroom to himself, his cattle, and servants for a whole long winter.\n\nSo he was in the greatest possible perplexity what to do.  Help came to\nhim from an unexpected quarter.\n\nGrettir had heard the story of the hauntings, and he rode to Thorhall's\nfarm and asked if he might be accommodated there for the night.  He said\nthat it was his great desire to encounter Glam.\n\nThorhall was surprised, but not exactly pleased, for he thought that the\nfamily at Biarg would attribute the wrong to him were anything to happen\nto Grettir.\n\nGrettir put his horse into the stable, and retired for the night to one\nof the beds in the hall and slept soundly.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XV.*\n\n                    *HOW GRETTIR FOUGHT WITH GLAM.*\n\n\n    _Grettir awaits Glam--The Sound of Feet--Glam breaks into the\n    Hall--A Strange Figure--Grettir seizes Glam--Grettir's Last\n    Chance--Glam's Curse--The End of Glam--Was it True?_\n\n\nNext morning Grettir went with Thorhall to the stable for his horse.\nThe strong wooden door was shivered and driven in.  They stepped across\nit; Grettir called to his horse, but there was no responsive whinny.\nGrettir dashed into the stall and found his horse dead; its neck was\nbroken.\n\n\"Now,\" said Thorhall, \"I will give you a horse in exchange for that you\nhave lost.  You had better ride home to Biarg at once.\"\n\n\"Not at all.  My horse has been killed, and I must avenge it.\"  So\nGrettir remained.\n\nNight set in.  Grettir ate a hearty supper, and was right merry.  But\nnot so Thorhall, who had his misgivings.  At bed-time the latter crept\ninto a locked bedstead beside the hall; but Grettir said he would not go\ninto a bed, he would lie by the fire in the hall.  So he wrapped himself\nup in a long fur cloak and flung himself on a bench, with his feet\nagainst the posts of the high seat.  The fur cloak was over his head,\nand he kept an opening through which he could look out.\n\nThere was a fire burning on the hearth, a smouldering heap of glowing\nembers, and by the red light Grettir looked up at the rafters of the\nblackened roof.  The smoke escaped by a _louvre_ in the middle. The wind\nwhistled mournfully.  The windows high up were covered with parchment,\nand admitted now and then a sickly yellow glare from the full moon,\nwhich, however, shone in through the smoke hole, silvering the rising\nsmoke.  A dog began to bark, then bay at the moon.  Then the cat, which\nhad been sitting demurely watching the fire, stood up with raised back\nand bristling tail, and darted behind some chests.  The hall-door was in\na sad plight.  It had been so torn by Glam that it had to be patched up\nwith wattles.  Soothingly the river prattled over its shingly bed as it\nswept round the knoll on which stood the farm.  Grettir heard the\nbreathing of the sleeping women in the adjoining chamber, and the sigh\nof the housewife as she turned in her bed.\n\nThen suddenly he heard something that shook all the sleep out of him,\nhad any been stealing over his eyes.  He heard a heavy tread, beneath\nwhich the snow crackled.  Every footfall went straight to Grettir's\nheart.  A crash on the turf overhead. The strange visitant had scrambled\non the roof, and was walking over that.  The roofs of the houses in\nIceland are of turf.  For a moment the chimney gap was completely\ndarkened--the monster was looking down it--the flash of the red fire\nillumined the horrible face with its lack-lustre eyes.  Then the moon\nshone in again, and the heavy tramp of Glam was heard as he walked to\nthe other end of the hall.  A thud--he had leaped down.\n\nThen Grettir heard his steps passing to the back of the house, then the\nsnapping of wood showed that Glam was destroying some of the outhouse\ndoors. Presently the tread was heard again approaching the house, and\nthis time the main entrance.  Grettir thought he could distinguish a\npair of great hands thrust in over the broken door.  In another moment\nhe heard a loud snap--a long plank had been torn out of place, and the\nlight of the moon shone in where the gap had been made.  Then Glam began\nto unrip the wattles.\n\nThere was a cross-beam to the door, acting as bolt. Against the gray\nlight Grettir saw a huge black arm thrust in trying to remove the bar.\nIt was done, and then all the broken door was driven in and went down on\nthe floor in shivers.  Now Grettir could see a tall dark figure, almost\nnaked, with wild locks of hair about the head standing in the doorway.\nThat was but for a minute, and then Glam came in stealthily; he entered\nthe hall and was illumined by the firelight.  The figure Grettir now saw\nwas unlike anything he had seen before.  A few rags hung from the\nshoulders and waist, the long wolf-gray hair was matted.  The eyes were\nstaring and strange.  Grettir could hear Thorhall within his locked bed\ntrembling and breathing fast.\n\nPresently Glam's eyes rested on the shaggy bundle by the high seat.  He\nstepped towards it, and Grettir felt him groping about him.  Then Glam\nlaid hold of one end of the fur cloak and began to pull at it. The cloak\ndid not come away.  Another jerk.  Grettir kept his feet firmly pressed\nagainst the posts, so that the fur was not pulled away.  Glam seemed\npuzzled; he went to the other end of the bundle and began to pull at\nthat.  Grettir held to the bench, so that he was not moved himself, but\nthe fur cloak was torn in half, and the strange visitant staggered back\nholding the portion in his hand wonderingly before his eyes.  Before he\ncould recover from his surprise, Grettir started to his feet, bent his\nbody, flung his arms round Glam, and driving his head into the breast of\nthe visitor, tried to bend him backward and so snap his spine.  This was\nin vain, the cold hands grasped Grettir's arms and tore them from their\nhold. Grettir clasped them again about his body, and then Glam threw his\nalso round Grettir, and they began to wrestle.  Grettir saw that Glam\nwas trying to drag him to the door, and he was sure that if he were got\noutside he would be at a disadvantage, and Glam would break his back.\nHe therefore made a desperate effort not to be drawn forth.  He clung to\nbenches and posts, but the posts gave way, and the benches were torn\nfrom their places.\n\nAt each moment he was being dragged nearer to the door.  Sharply\ntwisting himself loose, Grettir flung his arms round a beam of the roof,\nfor the hall was low.  He was dragged off his feet at once. Glam\nclenched him about the waist, and tore at him to get him loose.  Every\ntendon in Grettir's breast was strained; still he held on.  The nails of\nGlam cut into his side like knives, then his hands gave way.  He could\nendure the strain no longer, and Glam drew him towards the doorway, in\nso doing trampling over the broken fragments of the door, and the\nwattles that lay about.  Grettir knew that the last chance was come for\nsaving himself.  Here, in the hall, he could hold to posts and beams,\nand so make some resistance; but outside he would have nothing to cling\nto, and strong though he was, his strength did not equal that of his\nopponent.\n\nNow the door-posts were of stone, and the beam that had served as bolt\nwent across the door, slid into a hollow on one side cut in the\ndoor-post, and was pulled across and fitted into another hollow in the\nother post.  As the wrestlers neared the opening, Grettir planted both\nhis feet against the stone posts, one against each, and put his arms\nround Glam.  He had the enemy now at an advantage; but then, he merely\nheld him, and could not hold him so for ever.  He called to Thorhall,\nbut Thorhall was too greatly frightened to leave his place of refuge.\n\n\"Now,\" thought Grettir, \"if I can but break his back!\" Then drawing Glam\nto him by the middle, he put his head beneath the chin of his opponent\nand forced back the head.  If he could only drive the head far enough\nback he would break his neck.\n\nAt that moment one or both of the door-posts gave way; down crashed the\ngable-trees, ripping beams and rafters from their places, frozen clods\nof turf rattled from the roof and thumped into the snow.\n\nGlam fell on his back outside the door, and Grettir on top of him.  The\nmoon was, as I said before, at her full; large white clouds chased each\nother across the sky.  Grettir's strength was failing him, his hands\nquivered in the snow, and he knew that he could not support himself from\ndropping flat on the mysterious and dreadful visitant, eye to eye, lip\nto lip.\n\nThen Glam said: \"You have done ill matching yourself with me; now know\nthat never shall you be stronger than you are to-day, and that, to your\ndying day, whenever you are in the dark you will see my eyes staring at\nyou, so that for very horror you will not dare to be alone.\"\n\nAt this moment Grettir saw his short sword in the snow, it had slipped\nfrom his belt as he fell. He put out his hand at once, clutched the\nhandle, and with a blow cut off Glam's head, and at once laid it beside\nhis thigh.\n\nThorhall came out at this juncture, his face blanched; but when he saw\nhow the fray had ended, he joyfully assisted Grettir to roll the dead\nman to the top of a pile of faggots that had been collected for winter\nfuel.  Fire was applied, and soon far down the Waterdale the flames of\nthe pyre startled folks, and made them wonder what new horror was being\nenacted in the Vale of Shadows.\n\nNext day the charred bones were conveyed a long way--some hours'\nride--into the great desert in the interior, and in one of the most\nlonely spots there a cairn or pile of stones was heaped over them. I\nhave seen this mound, which is still pointed out as that under which the\nredoubted Glam lies.\n\nAnd now we may well ask, what truth is there in the story?  That there\nis a basis of truth can hardly be denied.  The facts have been\nembellished, worked up, but not invented.  The only probable explanation\nof the story is this.\n\nAs already said, further up the valley, in a spot difficult to be\nreached, stood the old fortress of some robbers, with many caves in the\nsandstone about it very convenient for shelter.  Now, it is not\nimprobable that some madman may have taken refuge in this safe retreat,\nand may have come out at night in search of food, and carried off the\nsheep of Thorhall.  It may be that Glam caught him attempting to steal a\nsheep, and fought with him, and was killed, and that in like manner\nThorgaut was killed. Then when people saw a great wild man wandering\nabout they thought it was Glam, whereas it was the man who had haunted\nthe region before Glam came there, and had killed Glam.  This is the\nsimplest and easiest explanation of this wild and fearful tale.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XVI.*\n\n                    *HOW GRETTIR SAILED TO NORWAY.*\n\n\n    _Olaf the Saint--Slowcoach with the Nimble Tongue--Slowcoach\n    insults Grettir--Ill Words--Death of Slowcoach--In Search of\n    Luck_\n\n\nEarly in the spring of the year 1015, news reached Iceland of a change\nof rulers in Norway.  Olaf Harald's son, commonly known as Olaf the\nSaint, had come to be King of Norway; Earl Sweyn had been defeated in\nbattle and driven out of the country.  Now Grettir was remotely\nconnected with the king, that is to say, his father's grandfather was\nbrother to the grandfather of Asta, Olaf's mother.  The cousinship was\nsomewhat distant; but in those days folk held to their kin more than\nthey do now.  Grettir thought that a good chance had opened to him for\ndoing well in Norway, so he resolved to leave Iceland, and enter the\nservice of his relative, the king.  There was a ship bound for Norway\nlying in Eyjafiord, and Grettir engaged a berth in her, and made ready\nfor the voyage.\n\nNow his father Asmund was very old and feeble, and was well nigh\nbedridden.  He had given over the entire management of the farm to his\neldest son Atli, and to young Illugi, who was a few years younger than\nGrettir.  Atli was everywhere liked, he was such a prudent, peaceable,\nand kindly man.\n\nGrettir's ill-luck still followed him; for, as it chanced, Thorbiorn,\nthe Slowcoach, the relation of Thorbiorn Oxmain, had resolved to go to\nNorway also, and in the same ship.  Now the Slowcoach may have been\noverslow in his movements, but he was overnimble with his tongue, and he\nwas strongly advised either not to go in the same boat with Grettir, or,\nif he did, to mind his words.\n\nSuch advice was thrown away on the Slowcoach, who, instead of practising\ncaution, in order to show himself off, began to brag of his strength,\nand to say scurvy things of Grettir, which were duly reported by\ntale-bearers to Grettir.  Consequently, when Grettir arrived in the\nEyjafiord with his goods, he was not very amiably disposed towards the\nSlowcoach.  However Atli had impressed on him the necessity of\ncontrolling himself, and Grettir was resolved not to quarrel with the\nman unless he could not help it.\n\nAt the side of the shore, those who were about to sail had run up booths\nand cabins for themselves and their stores.  Many of those going in the\nboat were chapmen, and they took with them goods with which to traffic\nin Norway.\n\nJust as the vessel was ready, and about to sail next day, Slowcoach\narrived, slow as usual, and after every one else was ready, and their\ngoods on board. As it was the last evening on shore, all the merchants\nand seamen were sitting about their booths, when Thorbiorn Slowcoach\narrived, and rode along the lane between the wooden cabins.  The men\nshouted to him to know if he had any news to tell them.\n\nThorbiorn's eye caught that of Grettir, who was sitting on a bench, and\nhe answered, \"I don't hear any news, except that the old idiot Asmund of\nBiarg is dead.\"\n\nThis was not true; the old man was not dead, but very ill.  Some of\nthose who heard him said, \"That is sad news indeed, for he was a worthy\nand honourable old man, and he could ill be spared.\"\n\n\"I don't know that,\" said Thorbiorn with a scornful laugh.\n\n\"But how did he die?  What did he die of?\"\n\n\"Die of?\" repeated the Slowcoach loud enough to be heard by Grettir.\n\"Smothered like a dog in the poky little kennel they call their hall at\nBiarg.  As for any loss in him, it is news to me that the world is not\nwell rid of dotards.\"\n\n\"These are ill words,\" said those who heard him. \"No good man will speak\nslightingly of old and blameless chiefs.  Besides, such words as these\nGrettir will not endure.\"\n\n\"Grettir!\" scoffed Thorbiorn.  \"Before I face him I must see him use his\nweapons better than he did last summer, when engaged with Kormak.  Then\nI put my elbow between them, and Grettir was but too ready to accept the\ninterference.  I never saw a man before so shake in his shoes.\"\n\nThereat Grettir stood up, and controlling himself, said, \"If I have any\nfaculty of foresight, Slowcoach, I see that you will not be smothered\nwith smoke like a dog.  You should have done other than speak foul words\nof very aged men.  Gray hairs deserve respect.\"\n\n\"I don't think more of your foresight than I do of the wisdom of your\nold fool of a father,\" said Thorbiorn.\n\nThe end was that they fought.  The insult was too gross to be endured,\nand Grettir felt it incumbent on him to strike for his father's honour.\nThe fight did not last long; the Slowcoach was slow in his fighting,\nslow of hand, only not slow of tongue, and Grettir's sharp sword wounded\nhim to death.\n\nSlowcoach was buried in the nearest churchyard; and the chapmen gave\nGrettir credit for having restrained himself as long as possible, and\nallowed that, according to the ideas of the time, he was justified in\nfighting and killing the Slowcoach for his spiteful and strife-provoking\nwords.  But Grettir was not pleased, he regretted the contest, because\nhe knew that it left occasion of strife behind, which might occasion\nAtli trouble.  Thorbiorn Oxmain would, lie feared, be sure to take up\nthe quarrel, and then Atli would have to pay a heavy fine in silver to\natone for the death.\n\nThe vessel set sail, and reached the south of Norway.  There Grettir\ntook ship in a trading keel, to go north to Drontheim, because he heard\nthat the king was there, and his heart beat high with hopes that Olaf\nwould acknowledge him as a cousin, and would take him into his\nbody-guard, and treat him with honour; and that so, though he had had\nill-luck in Iceland, good luck might attend him in Norway.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XVII.*\n\n                         *THE HOSTEL BURNING.*\n\n\n    _Aground in the Fiord--The Light over the Water--Grettir Swims\n    Across--The Fight for Fire--The Burned Hostel--At Drontheim_\n\n\nThere lived a man named Thorir at Garth in Iceland who had spent the\nsummer in Norway when Olaf returned from England, and he had stood in\ngreat favour with the king.  He had two sons, and at this time both were\nwell-grown men.\n\nThorir left Norway for Iceland, where he broke up his ship, not\nintending again to go a seafaring. But when he heard the tidings that\nOlaf was king over the whole of Norway, then he deemed it would be well\nfor his sons to go there and pay their respects to the king, and remind\nhim of his old friendship for their father.\n\nOn reaching Norway much about the same time as had Grettir, they took a\nlong rowing-boat, and skirted the coast on their way north to Drontheim.\nThey preceded Grettir by a few days.  On reaching a fine fiord, in which\nthere was shelter from the gales that began to bluster violently with\nthe approach of winter, the sons of Thorir ran in their boat, and as\nthere was a large wooden hostelry there built for the shelter of\nweather-bound travellers, they took refuge in it, and spent their days\nin hunting and their nights in revelry.\n\nNow it so fell out that Grettir's merchant ship came into this same\nfiord one evening and ran aground on the opposite shore to that on which\nwas the hostel.  The night was bitterly cold; storms of snow drove over\nthe country, whitening the mountains.  The men from the ship were worn\nout and numbed with cold, and they had no means of kindling a fire.\nThen, all at once, they saw a light spring up on the opposite side of\nthe firth, twinkling cheerfully between the trees.  This was a sight to\nmake them more eager for a fire, and they began to wish that some one of\ntheir number would swim across and bring over a light.\n\n\"In the good old times there must have been men who would have thought\nnothing of swimming across the streak of water at night,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"No comfort to us to know that,\" said one of the crew.  \"It does not\nconcern us what may have been in the past, we are shivering in the\npresent.  Why do you not get us fire?\"\n\nGrettir hesitated.  The night was very like that on which he had fought\nwith Glam: the same full moon, with snow-laden clouds rolling over its\nface for a while obscuring it, and then the full glare falling over the\nface of earth again; and, unaccountably, a sense of doubt and depression\nhad come over him, as though that evil adversary were now about to\nrevenge his downfall upon him.  He looked round suddenly, for he thought\nthat the fearful eyes were staring at him from out of the black shadows\nof the fir-wood.\n\nThe rest of the crew united in urging him, and at length, reluctantly,\nGrettir yielded.  He flung his clothes off, and prepared himself to\nswim.  He had on him a fur cape, and a pair of wadmal breeches. He took\nup an iron pot, and jumped into the sea and swam safely across.\n\nOn reaching the further shore, he shook the water off him, but before\nlong his trousers froze like boards, and the water formed in icicles\nabout the cape. Grettir ascended through the pine-wood towards the\nlight, and on reaching the hostel from which it proceeded, walked in\nwithout speaking to anyone, and striding up to the fire, stooped and\nbegan to scrape the red-hot embers into his iron pot.  The hall was full\nof revellers, and these revellers were the sons of Thorir and their\nboat's crew.  They were already more than half intoxicated, and when\nthey saw a wild-looking man enter the hall, half naked and hung with\nicicles, they thought he must be a troll or mountain-spirit.\n\nAt once every one caught up the first weapon to hand, and rushed to the\nattack.  Grettir defended himself with a fire-brand plucked from the\nhearth; the sons of Thorir stumbled over the fire, and the embers were\nstrewn about over the floor that was covered with fresh straw.\n\nIn a few moments the hall was filled with flame and smoke, and Grettir\ntook advantage of the confusion to effect his escape.  He ran down to\nthe shore, plunged into the sea and swam across.\n\nHe found his companions waiting for him behind a rock, with a pile of\ndry wood which they had collected during his absence.  The cinders were\nblown upon, and twigs applied, till a blaze was produced, and before\nlong the whole party sat rubbing their almost frozen hands over a\ncheerful fire.\n\nNext morning the merchants recognized the fiord, and, remembering that a\nhostel stood on the further side, they crossed the water to see it,\nwhen--what was their dismay to find of it only a heap of smoking embers!\nFrom under some of the charred timber were thrust scorched human limbs.\nThe chapmen, in alarm and horror, turned upon Grettir and charged him\nwith having maliciously burned the house with all its inmates.\n\n\"See, now,\" said Grettir, \"I had a thought that this expedition would\nnot bring luck.  I would I had not taken the trouble to get fire for\nsuch a set of thankless churls.\"\n\nThe ship's crew raked out the embers, pulled aside the smoking rafters,\nin their search for the bodies. Some of these were not so disfigured but\nthat they could recognize them.  Moreover, they knew the ship that lay\nat anchor under the lee, hard by, and they saw that Grettir had brought\nthe sons of Thorir to an untimely end.  The indignation of the merchants\nbecame so vehement, and their fear so great that they might be\nimplicated in the matter, that they drove Grettir from their company,\nand refused to receive him into their vessel for the remainder of their\nvoyage.  Grettir, in sullen wrath, would say no word of self-defence; he\nhad to make his way on foot to Drontheim, where he resolved to lay the\nwhole matter before the king.\n\nThe vessel reached Drontheim before him, and the news of the hostel\nburning roused universal indignation against Grettir.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XVIII.*\n\n                         *THE ORDEAL BY FIRE.*\n\n\n    _Grettir tells his Story--Preparing for the Ordeal--The\n    Procession--Attacked by the Mob--The King Intervenes--Wicked or\n    Unlucky_\n\n\nOne day, as King Olaf sat in audience in his great hall, Grettir strode\nin, and going before his seat, greeted the king.  Olaf looked at him and\nsaid:\n\n\"Are you Grettir the Strong?\"\n\nHe answered: \"That is my name, and I have come hither, kinsman, to get a\nfair hearing, and to clear myself of the charge of having burned men\nmaliciously.  Of that I am guiltless.\"\n\nKing Olaf replied: \"I heartily trust that what you say is true, and that\nyou will be able to rid yourself of a charge so bad.\"\n\nGrettir replied that he was ready to do whatsoever the king desired, in\norder to prove his innocence.\n\nThen said the king to him, \"Tell me the whole story, that I may be able\nto judge.\"\n\nGrettir answered by relating the circumstances. He had simply taken fire\nfrom the hearth, when he was fallen upon by those who were drinking, and\nwho were too tipsy to understand his explanation. He went away with the\nred-hot embers, and did not set fire to anything, but the drunken men\nkicked the glowing coals about amidst the straw.\n\nThe king remained silent some moments, and then he said: \"There are no\nwitnesses either on your behalf or against you.  No man was by who is\nnot dead. God and his angels alone know whether you speak the truth or\nnot, therefore I must refer you to the judgment of God.\"\n\n\"What must I do?\" asked Grettir.\n\n\"You will have to go through the ordeal of fire,\" said the king.\n\n\"What is that?\" asked the young man.\n\n\"You must lift bars of red-hot iron, and walk with bare feet on\nploughshares heated red in a furnace.\"\n\n\"And what if I am burnt?\"\n\n\"Then will you be adjudged guilty.\"\n\nGrettir shrugged his shoulders: \"If it must be so, let it be at once;\nbut whether I be burnt or not, I declare that I am clear of all intent\nto hurt those men.\"\n\n\"You cannot undergo the ordeal now,\" said the king.  \"You would be\nburned to a certainty.  You must go through preparation first.\"\n\n\"What preparation?\"\n\n\"A week of fasting and prayer,\" was the reply.\n\nThen Grettir was taken away and put in ward, and fed with bread and\nwater for a week, and the bishop visited him and taught him to pray that\nif he were innocent, God would reveal his innocence by enabling him to\npass unscathed through the ordeal.\n\nThe day came, and Drontheim was thronged with people from all the\ncountry round, to see the Icelander of whom such tales were told.  A\nprocession was formed; first went the king's body-guard followed by the\nking himself, wearing his crown, then came the bishop, the choir, and\nthe clergy, and last of all Grettir, his wild red hair flying loose in\nthe breeze, his arms folded, and his eyes wandering over the sea of\nheads that filled the square before the cathedral doors.  The crowd\npressed in closer and closer.  Opinions differed as to whether he were\nguilty or not.  Among the mob was a young man of dark complexion, who\nmade a great noise, shouldering his way to the front, and shouting.\n\n\"Look at the fellow!\" he exclaimed.  \"This is the man who, in cold\nblood, burnt down a house over helpless men, and now he is to be given u\nchance of escape.\"\n\n\"But he says he is guiltless,\" argued one in the crowd.\n\n\"Guiltless!\" exclaimed the youth.  \"If one of us had done the deed,\nshould we have been trifled with?  The king wants him for his\nbody-guard, because he is so strong.\"\n\n\"He should be given a chance of clearing himself,\" said one who stood\nnear.\n\n\"Yes--of course--because he is a kinsman of the king.  So the irons have\nbeen painted red, to look as if hot.  I know how the trick is done.  But\nhe shall not escape me.\"\n\nThereupon the young man sprang at Grettir and drove his nails into his\nface so that they drew blood; at the same time he poured forth against\nhim a stream of insulting names.\n\nThis was more than the Icelander could bear; he caught the young man, as\na cat catches a mouse, held him aloft, shook him, and then threw him\naway, when he fell on the ground and was stunned. It was feared he might\nbe killed.  This act gave occasion to a general uproar; the mob wanted\nto lay hands on Grettir; some threw stones, others assaulted him with\nsticks; but he, planting his back against the church wall, turned up his\nsleeves, guarded off the blows, shouting to his assailants to come on.\nNot a man came within his reach but was sent reeling back or was felled\nto the ground. In the meantime the king and the bishop were in the choir\nwaiting.  The red-hot ploughshares which had been laid on the pavement\nwere gradually cooling, but no Grettir appeared.\n\n[Illustration: GRETTIR DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM THE MOB.]\n\nAt last the sounds of the uproar reached the king's ear, and he sent out\nto know the occasion. His messenger returned a moment after to report\nthat the Icelander was fighting the whole town and had knocked down and\nwell nigh killed several persons.  The king thereupon sprang from his\nthrone, hastened down the nave, and came out of the great western door\nwhen the conflict was at its height.\n\n\"Oh, sire,\" exclaimed Grettir, \"see how I can fight the rascals!\" and at\nthe word he knocked a man over at the king's feet.\n\nWith difficulty the tumult was arrested, and Grettir separated from the\ncombatants; and then he wanted to go with the king and try the ordeal of\nfire.\n\n\"Not so,\" answered Olaf, \"you have already incurred sin.  It is possible\nthat some of those you have knocked down may never recover, so that\ntheir blood will lie at your door.\"\n\n\"What is to be done?\" asked Grettir.\n\nThe king considered.\n\n\"I see you are a very wicked or at all events a very unlucky man.  When\nyou were here before you were the occasion of several deaths.  I do not\ndesire to keep you in Norway, but as winter has set in you may tarry\nhere till next spring, and then you shall be outlawed and return to\nIceland.\"\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XIX.*\n\n                        *THE WINTER IN NORWAY.*\n\n\n    _At Einar's Farm--The Bearsarks--A Visit from Snoekoll--The\n    Bearsark's Demand--Grettir Temporizes--The Bearsark has a\n    Fit--Death of Snoekoll--Dromund's History--Grettir's Arms--A\n    Pair of Tongs_\n\n\nKing Olaf had decided that Grettir must leave Norway and return to\nIceland.  If he was not a guilty man he was a most unfortunate one.\nNow, the Norse race, whether in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Iceland,\nbelieved in luck.  They said that certain men were born to ill-luck, and\nsuch men they avoided, because they feared lest the ill-luck that clung\nto them might attach itself to, and involve those who came in contact\nwith them.\n\nIt was not possible for Grettir to return that year to Iceland, for all\nthe ships bound for his native land had sailed before winter set in, so\nKing Olaf agreed to allow him to remain in the kingdom through the\nwinter, but bound him to depart on the first opportunity next year.\n\nSomewhat sad at heart with disappointment, and with the impression that\nperhaps Olaf the king was right, and that ill-luck really did weigh on\nhim, Grettir left the court, and went at Yule to the house of a bonder\nor yeoman called Einar, and remained with him awhile.  The farm was in a\nlonely place in a fiord opening back to the snowy mountains.  Einar was\na kindly man, hospitable, and he did his best to make Grettir's stay\nwith him pleasant.  He had a daughter, a fair, beautiful girl, with blue\neyes, and hair like amber silk, and her name was Gyrid.  Perhaps the\nbeautiful Gyrid was one attraction to Grettir, but if so he never spoke\nwhat was on his heart, because he knew it would be useless.  He was an\nunlucky man; he had made himself a name, indeed, as one of great daring,\nbut he had won for himself neither home, nor riches, nor favour.\n\nNow it fell out that at this time there were some savage ruffians in the\ncountry who were called Bearsarks.  They were outlaws in most cases, and\nthey lived in secret dens in the dense forests, whence they issued and\nswooped down on the farms, and there challenged the bonders to fight\nwith them, or to give up to them whatever they needed.  These ruffians\nwore bear-skins drawn over their bodies, and they thrust their heads\nthrough the jaws of the beasts, so that they presented a hideous and\nfrightening appearance.  Then they worked themselves into paroxysms of\nrage, when they were like madmen; they rolled their eyes, they roared\nand howled like wild beasts, and foam formed on their mouths and dropped\non the ground.  They were wont also, when these fits came on them, to\nbite the edges of their shields, and with their fangs they were known to\nhave dinted the metal quite deep.  Some folks even said they had bitten\npieces out of solid shields. It was usually supposed that these\nBearsarks were possessed by evil spirits, and it is probable that in\nmany cases they were really mad--mad through having given way to their\nviolent passions, till they knew no law, and thought to carry everything\nbefore them by their violence.  It was even at one time thought by the\nsuperstitious that they could change their shapes, and run about at will\nin the forms of bears or wolves; but this idea grew out of the fact of\ntheir clothing themselves in bear or wolf skins, and drawing the skull\nof the beast over their heads as a rude helmet, and looking out through\nthe open jaws that thus formed a visor.\n\nOne day, just after Yule, to the terror and dismay of Einar, one of the\nmost redoubtable of these Bearsarks, a fellow called Snoekoll, came\nthundering up to his door on a huge black horse, followed by three or\nfour others on foot, all clothed in skins; but Snoekoll, instead of\nwearing the bear's skin over his head, had on a helmet with great tusks\nof a boar protruding from it, and a boar's head drawn over the metal.\n\nIt is worth remark that the crests worn later by knights, and which we\nhave still on our plate and on harness, are derived from similar\nadornments to helmets.  Some warriors put wings of eagles on their\nhead-pieces, others put the paws of bears or representations of lions.\nThese were badges of their prowess, or marks whereby they might be\nknown.\n\nSnoekoll struck the door of the farmhouse with his spear, and roared to\nthe owner to come forth. At once Einar and Grettir issued from the hall,\nand Einar in great trepidation asked the Bearsark what he wanted.\n\n\"What do I want?\" shouted Snoekoll.  \"I want one of two things.  Either\nthat you give me up your beautiful daughter to be my wife, and with her\nfive-score bags of silver, or else that you fight me here. If you kill\nme, then luck is yours.  If I kill you, then I shall carry off your\ndaughter and all that you possess.\"\n\nEinar turned to Grettir and asked him in a whisper what he was to do.\nHe himself was an old man whose fighting days were over, and he had no\nchance against this savage.\n\nGrettir answered that he had better consult his honour and the happiness\nof Gyrid, and not give way to a bully.  The Bearsark sat on his horse\nrolling his eyes from one to another.  He had a great iron-rimmed shield\nbefore him.\n\nThen he bellowed forth: \"Come!  I am not going to wait here whilst you\nconsider matters.  Make your selection of the two alternatives at once.\nWhat is that great lout at your side whispering? Does he want to play a\nlittle game of who is master along with me?\"\n\n\"For my part,\" said Grettir, \"the farmer and I are about in equal\npredicament; he is too old to fight, and I am unskilled in arms.\"\n\n\"I see!  I see!\" roared Snoekoll.  \"You are both trembling in your\nshoes.  Wait till my fit is on me, and then you will shake indeed.\"\n\n\"Let us see how you look in your Bearsark fit,\" said Grettir.\n\nThen Snoekoll waxed wroth, and worked himself up into one of the fits of\nmadness.  There can be no doubt that in some cases this was all bluster\nand sham.  But in many cases these fellows really roused themselves into\nperfect frenzies of madness in which they did not know what they did.\n\nNow Snoekoll began to bellow like a bull, and to roll his eyes, and he\nput the edge of the great shield in his mouth and bit at it, and blew\nfoam from his lips that rolled down the face of the shield. Grettir\nfixed his eyes steadily on him, and put his hands into his pockets.\nSnoekoll rocked himself on his horse, and his companions began also to\nbellow, and stir themselves up into madness.  Grettir, with his eye\nfixed steadily on the ruffian, drew little by little nearer to him; but\nas he had no weapon, and held his hands confined, Snoekoll, if he did\nobserve him, disregarded him.  When Grettir stood close beside him and\nlooked up at the red glaring eyes, the foaming lips of Snoekoll, and\nheard his howls and the crunching of his great teeth against the strong\noak and iron of the shield, he suddenly laughed, lifted his foot, caught\nthe bottom of the shield a sudden kick upwards, and the shield with the\nviolence of the upward shock broke Snoekoll's jaw.  Instantly the\nBearsark stopped his bellows, let fall the shield, and before he could\ndraw his sword Grettir caught his helmet by the great boar tusks, gave\nthem a twist, and rolled Snoekoll down off his horse on the ground,\nknelt on him, and with the ruffian's own sword dealt him his death-blow.\n\nWhen the others saw the fall of their chief they ceased their antics,\nturned and ran away to hide in the woods.\n\nThe bonder, Einar, thanked Grettir for his assistance, and the lovely\nGyrid gave him also her grateful acknowledgments and a sweet smile; but\nGrettir knew that a portionless unlucky man like himself could not\naspire to her hand, and feeling that he was daily becoming more attached\nto her, he deemed it right at once to leave, and he went away to a place\ncalled Tunsberg, where lived his half-brother, Thorstein Dromund.\n\nNow, to understand the relationship of Dromund to Grettir, you must know\nthat his father, Asmund, had been twice married.  He had been in Norway\nwhen a young man with a merchant ship, and he had also gone with his\nwares to England and France, and had gained great wealth; and as he had\nmany relations in Norway he was well received there in winter, when he\ncame back from his merchant trips.  On one of these occasions he had met\na damsel called Ranveig, whose father and mother were dead.  She was of\ngood birth, and was wealthy. Asmund asked for her hand and married her,\nand settled on the lands that belonged to her in Norway. They had a son\ncalled Thorstein, who, because he was rather slow of speech and manner,\nwas nicknamed Dromund; but as we meet with other Thorsteins in this\nstory, to prevent confusion we will speak of him as Dromund.\n\nAfter a while Asmund's wife Ranveig died, and then her relatives\ninsisted on taking away all her lands and possessions and keeping them\nin trust for little Dromund.  Asmund did not care to quarrel with them,\nso he left Dromund with his late wife's relatives and went home to\nIceland, where, after a few years, he married Asdis, and by her became\nthe father of Atli, Grettir, and Illugi, and of two daughters, one of\nwhom he named after his first wife.\n\nDromund grew up in Norway on his estates at Tunsberg, and became a man\nof wealth and renown, a quiet man, but one who held his own, and was\ngenerally respected.\n\nNow Grettir went to him, and his half-brother received him very\naffectionately, and insisted on his remaining with him all the rest of\nthe winter till it was time for him to sail to Iceland.\n\nOne little incident is mentioned concerning that time that deserves to\nbe recorded.\n\nGrettir slept in the same apartment as did his brother.\n\nOne morning Dromund awoke early, and he saw how that Grettir's arms were\nout of bed, and he wondered at their size.\n\nPresently Grettir awoke, and then Dromund said to him: \"Grettir, I have\nbeen amused with looking at your bare arms.  What muscles you have got!\nI never saw the like.\"\n\n\"I need strong muscles to do what I have to do.\"\n\n\"True enough, brother,\" said Dromund.  \"But I could wish there were a\nlittle more luck as well as muscle attached to those bones.\"\n\n\"Let me look at your arms,\" said Grettir.\n\nThen Dromund put his arms out of bed, and when he saw them Grettir burst\nout laughing, for they were so thin and scraggy.\n\n\"Upon my word, brother, I never saw such a wretched pair of tongs in my\nlife,\" he said.\n\n\"They may be a pair of tongs, old boy,\" answered Dromund, \"but they are\ntongs that shall ever be extended to help you when in need.  And,\" added\nDromund in a lower tone, \"if it should ever befall you that your\nill-luck should overmaster you, and you not die in your bed; then,\nGrettir, I promise you, if I am alive, that I shall not let this pair of\ntongs rest till, with them, I have avenged you.\"\n\nNo more is related of their talk together.  The spring wore on, and in\nsummer Grettir took ship.\n\nThe brothers parted with much affection, and they never again saw each\nother's face.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XX.*\n\n                       *OF WHAT BEFELL AT BIARG.*\n\n\n    _Thorbiorn's Servant--Ali at Biarg--Seeking a Quarrel--A Fair\n    Answer--Atli's Dilemma--Thorbiorn's Revenge--The Slaying of\n    Atli--Atli's Grave_\n\n\nWhilst Grettir was in Norway, that ill-luck which pursued him did not\nfail to touch and trouble his Icelandic home as well.\n\nIt will be remembered that Grettir had been forced to fight the\nSlowcoach, and had killed him. Now the cousin of this man was Thorbiorn\nOxmain, who lived in the Ramsfirth.  This Thorbiorn had got a\nserving-man named Ali, a somewhat lazy man, strong, but unruly.  As he\ndid his work badly, and was slow about it, his master rebuked him, and\nwhen rebukes failed, he threatened him.  Threats also proved unavailing,\nso Thorbiorn one day took the stick to his back, and beat him till he\ndanced.  After this Ali would remain no longer in his service; he ran\naway, crossed the ridge to the Midfiord, and came to Biarg, where he\npresented himself before Atli, who asked him what he wanted.\n\nThe fellow said that he was in quest of service.\n\n\"But,\" said Atli, \"you are, I understand, one of Thorbiorn's workmen.\"\n\n\"I was so, but I have left his service because I was badly treated.  He\nbeat me till I was black and blue; no one can remain with him, he is so\nrough with his men, and he exacts of them too much work.  I have come\nhere because I hear that you treat your servants well.\"\n\nAtli replied: \"I have hands enough, you had better go back to Thorbiorn,\nfor I do not want you.\"\n\n\"I will never go back to him, that I declare,\" said the churl.  \"If you\nturn me away, I have nowhere to which I can go.\"\n\nSo he remained for a few nights at Biarg; and Atli did not like to turn\nhim out of the house.  Then one day he went to work with Atli's men, and\nworked hard and well, for he was a powerful man. So time passed.  Atli\ndid not agree to pay him any wage, and he did not send him away.  He did\nnot feel best pleased at having the man there, but he was too\nkind-hearted to drive him away.\n\nNot only did he remain there and work well, but he showed himself ready\nto turn his hand to anything, and was the most useful man about the\nplace.\n\nNow Thorbiorn heard that his churl was at Biarg. The death of Slowcoach\nhad rankled in his breast. He had felt that it was his duty to take up\nthe case and demand recompense, yet he had not done so; now he was\nangered that Atli had opened his doors to his runaway servant.  He had\ncovenanted with the man for a year, but the fellow was so disagreeable\nthat he would have gladly dispensed with his service; but that Atli\nshould have received him, and that the man should be making himself\nuseful at Biarg,--that made him very angry indeed.\n\nSo he mounted his horse and rode to Biarg, attended by two men, and\ncalled out Atli to talk with him.\n\nAtli came forth and welcomed him.\n\nThen Thorbiorn said: \"You are determined to pick up fresh occasion of\nquarrel, and stir ill-will between us.  Why have you enticed away my\nservant?  You had no right to behave thus to me.\"\n\nAtli replied quietly: \"You are mistaken.  I did not entice him away.\nThe fellow came to me.  I did not know for certain that he was your\nservant, nor did I know for how long he was engaged to you. Show me that\nI have done wrong and I will make reparation.  If he is yours, reclaim\nhim, I will not keep him.  At the same time I do not like to shut him\nout of my house.\"\n\n\"I claim the man,\" said Thorbiorn; \"I forbid him to do a stroke of work\nhere.  I expect him returned to me.\"\n\n\"Nay,\" said Atli, \"take the man, you are welcome to him; but I cannot\nbind him hand and foot and convey him to your house.  If you can get him\nto go with you, well and good, I will not detain him.\"\n\nAtli had answered fairly, but this did not satisfy Thorbiorn; he knew\nthat he could not drag the man back to his farm, nor could he persuade\nhim to follow, so he rode home in a mighty bad temper, his heart boiling\nwith anger against Atli.  And now he thought that he would at one and\nthe same time punish Atli for taking away his servant, and wipe out the\nwrong of the slaying of the Slowcoach.\n\nIn the evening when the men came in from work, Atli said that Thorbiorn\nhad been there and had reclaimed his churl, and Atli bade the fellow\ndepart and go back to his master.\n\nThen the man said: \"That's a true proverb, He who is most praised is\nfound most faulty at the test. I came to you because I heard so much\ngood of you, and now that I have toiled for you without wages all the\nearly summer, as I have worked for none else, you want to kick me out of\ndoors as winter draws on.  I will not go.  You will have to beat me as\nThorbiorn beat me to make me leave this house, and then, even, I am not\nsure but that I shall remain in spite of being beaten.\"\n\nAtli did not know exactly what to do.  He did not wish to ill-treat the\nfellow, and yet without ill-treatment there was no getting rid of him.\nSo he let him remain on.\n\nOne day a warm wet rainy mist covered the land, the hills were enveloped\nin cloud; Atli sent out some of his men to mow at a distance where there\nwas some grass, and others he sent out fishing.  He remained at home\nhimself with only two or three men.\n\nThat day Thorbiorn rode over the ridge that divided the dales, with a\nhelmet on his head, a sword at his side, and a barbed spear in his hand.\nHe came to Biarg, and no one noticed his approach. He went to the main\ndoor, and knocked at it.  Then he drew back behind the buildings, so\nthat no one might see him from the door.  In Iceland the walls of a\nhouse between the gables are buttressed with turf--thick walls or\nbuttresses that project several feet, and are about six or nine feet\nthick.  Such buttresses stood one on each side of the hall door at\nBiarg, and behind one of these Thorbiorn concealed himself.\n\nWhen he had knocked at the door, a woman came to it, unbarred and looked\nup and down the terrace or platform on which the house was built, but\nsaw no one.  Thorbiorn peeped from behind the wall of turf and caught a\nglimpse of her, and then backed again into his hiding-place.  The woman\nthen returned into the house, and told Atli that there was no one\noutside.\n\nShe had hardly spoken before Thorbiorn knocked again.  Then Atli jumped\nup and said: \"There must be someone there, and I will go and see myself\nwho it is.\"\n\nThen he went forth and looked out of the door, but saw no one, as\nThorbiorn had again retreated behind the bank of turf.  The water was\nstreaming down, so Atli did not go from under cover, but laid a hand on\neach of the door-posts, and looked up and down the valley.\n\nJust as he was looking away from where Thorbiorn was concealed, that man\nsuddenly swung himself round the bank of turf, and with all his might\ndrove the spear against Atli, using both his hands. The spear entered\nhim below the ribs, and ran right through him.  Atli uttered no cry, and\nfell forward over the threshold.  At that the women rushed forth, and\nthey took Atli up, but he was dead.\n\nThen Thorbiorn, who had run to his horse, which was tied up behind the\nhouse, rode out on the terrace, and halting before the door proclaimed\nthat he had done this deed.\n\nNow this was a formality which, according to Icelandic law, made his act\nto be not regarded as a murder.  A murder by law was the slaying of a\nman by one who concealed his name.\n\nThen Thorbiorn rode home.\n\nThe goodwife, Asdis, sent for her men, and Atli's body was laid out, and\nhe was buried beside his father, old Asmund, who had died during the\nwinter. There was a church in those days at Biarg, but there is none\nthere now.  When I was there I asked of the farmer now living in Biarg\nwhere was the old churchyard, but its site was lost; so I could not tell\nwhere were the graves of Atli the kind-hearted, honourable man, and the\nrest of the family.\n\nGreat was the lamentation through the district at the death of one so\nloved and respected, and hard things were said of Thorbiorn for what he\nhad done.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XXI.*\n\n                        *THE RETURN OF GRETTIR.*\n\n\n    _An Old Charge--Trial in Absence--Three Messengers of\n    Ill--Grettir and his Mother--Grettir goes to Revenge Atli_\n\n\nThat same summer news reached Iceland of the burning of the hostel by\nGrettir.  When Thorir of Garth heard of the death of his sons he was\nfurious.  He rode to the great annual assize at Thingvalla, with a large\nretinue, and charged Grettir with having killed his boys maliciously;\nand he demanded that for this offence Grettir should be outlawed.\n\nThen Skapti the judge said: \"If things are as reported, then surely\nGrettir has committed an evil deed; but we have only heard one side of\nthe story, and we only know of what has happened at third hand, by\nreport; there are two ways of telling every story.  Let us wait till\nGrettir returns to Iceland. There will be time enough for this action to\nbe taken.  I will not give my word that Grettir is guilty till we have\nheard what he has to say for himself.\"\n\nBut Thorir was such a powerful chieftain that he overbore all\nresistance.  It was said that he could not lawfully take action against\na man in his absence; but this was overridden by Thorir, who by packing\nthe court was able to carry out what he wanted.  Moreover, owing to the\ndeath of Atli there was no one to oppose him vigorously.\n\nHe pushed on matters so hard that nought could avail to acquit Grettir,\nand he was proclaimed an outlaw throughout the whole of Iceland, and\nThorir also put a price on his head of many ounces of silver, which he\nsaid he would pay to that man who would kill him in Norway or Iceland,\nor wherever he might find him.\n\nTowards the close of the summer Grettir arrived in a vessel off the\nmouth of the White-river, an exile from Norway.\n\nIt was a still summer night when the ship dropped anchor.  A boat came\nfrom the shore, and was rowed to the ship.  Grettir stood watching it\nfrom the bows, leaning on his sword.  As it touched the side of the\nship, he called, \"What news do you bring?\"\n\n\"Are you Grettir, Asmund's son?\" asked a man rising in the boat.\n\n\"I am,\" replied Grettir.\n\n\"Then we bear you ill news: your father is dead.\"\n\nAnother man stood up in the boat, and said: \"Grettir, he was an old man,\nand you can hardly have expected to hear that he was still alive.  But\nwhat I have to say concerns you as closely, and is unexpected.  Your\nbrother Atli has been slain by Thorbiorn Oxmain.\"\n\nThen a third man rose and said: \"But these tidings concern others first\nand you secondly.  What I have to say concerns you mainly.  You have\nbeen made an outlaw throughout the length and breadth of the land, and a\nprice is set on your head.\"\n\nIt is said that Grettir did not change colour, nor did a muscle in his\nwhole body quiver; but he lifted up his voice and sang this strain--\n\n    \"All at once are showered\n    Round me, the Rhymer,\n    Tidings sad--my exile,\n    Father's loss and brother's,\n    Branching boughs of battle!\n    Many a blue-blade-breaker\n    Shall suffer for my sorrow.\"\n\n\nThe branching bough of battle is a periphrasis for a man, so also is a\nblue-blade-breaker; and it is the use of such periphrases that\nconstituted poetry to Icelandic ideas.  One night Grettir swam ashore.\nHe thought that his enemies would be awaiting him, and should he venture\nto land in a boat would fall on him in overwhelming numbers; so he took\nto the water and swam to a point at some distance. Then he took a horse\nthat he found in a farm near where he came ashore, and he rode across\ncountry to the Middle-firth, and reached home in two days.  He reached\nBiarg during the night when all were asleep; so instead of disturbing\nthe household, he opened a private door, stepped into the hall, stole up\nto his mother's bed, and threw his arms round her neck.\n\nShe started up, and asked who was there.  When he told her, she clasped\nhim to her heart, and laid her head, sobbing, on his breast, saying.\n\"Oh, my son!  I am bereaved of my children!  Atli, my eldest, has been\nfoully murdered, and you are outlawed; only Illugi remains.\"\n\nGrettir remained at home a few days in close concealment.  Even the men\nof the farm were not suffered to know that he was there.  He heard the\nstory of how Thorbiorn Oxmain had basely and in cowardly manner slain\nhis brother, when Atli was unarmed; and Grettir considered that it was\nhis duty to avenge his death.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XXII*\n\n                        *THE SLAYING OF OXMAIN.*\n\n\n    _By the Boiling Spring--Grettir knocks the Nail from his\n    Spear--Oxmain places his Son in Ambush--The Fight with\n    Oxmain--Grettir's Spear-head--The Law concerning Manslaying--A\n    Rising Black Cloud_\n\n\nOne fine day, soon after his return, Grettir mounted a horse, and\nwithout an attendant rode over the hill to the Ramsfirth, and came down\nto Thorod's-stead.  This is still a good farm, the best on the fiord,\nand it is by far the best built pile of buildings thereabouts.  It faces\nthe south and is banked up with turf to the north, to shelter it against\nthe cold and furious gales from the Polar Sea.  The soil is\ncomparatively rich there, and there are tracts of good grass land on the\nslope of the hill by the side of the inlet of sea.  The farm buildings\nconsists at present of a set of wooden gable ends painted red, and the\nroofs are all of turf, where the buttercups grow and shine luxuriantly.\n\nGrettir rode up to the farmhouse, about noon, and knocked at the door.\nSome women came out and welcomed him; they did not know who he was, or\nthey would have been more sparing in their welcome.  He asked after\nThorbiorn, and was told that he was gone to the meadow, a little way\nfurther down the firth, where he had gone to bind hay, and that he had\ntaken with him his son, called Arnor, who was a boy of sixteen.\n\nWhen Grettir heard this, he said farewell to the women, and turned his\nhorse's head to ride down the fiord towards a boiling spring that\nbubbles up out of the rock, throwing up a cloud of steam, and running in\na scalding rill into the sea.  Now the rock is perhaps warm there, or\nthe warm water helps vegetation; certain it is that thereabouts the\ngrass grows thickly, and there it was that Thorbiorn was making his\nbundles of hay.  As Grettir rode along near the water, below the field,\nThorbiorn saw him. He had just made up one bundle of hay, and he was\nengaged on another.  He had set his shield and sword against the load,\nand his lad Arnor had a hand-axe beside him.\n\nThorbiorn looked hard at Grettir as he came along, and he said to the\nboy: \"There is a fellow riding this way.  I wonder who he is, and\nwhether he wants us. Leave tying up the hay, and let us find out what\nhis errand is.\"\n\nThen Grettir leaped off his horse; he had a helmet on his head, and was\ngirt with the short sword, and he bore a great spear in his hand that\nhad a long sharp blade but no barbs.  The socket was inlaid with silver,\nand a nail went through the socket fastening it on to the staff of the\nspear.  He sat down on a stone, and knocked the nail out.  His reason\nwas that he intended to throw the spear at Thorbiorn, and if he missed\nhim, he thought the spear-head and the haft would come apart, and would\nbe of no use to Thorbiorn to fling back at him.\n\nOxmain said to his son: \"I verily believe that is Grettir, Asmund's son,\nhe is so big; I know no one else so big.  He has got occasion enough\nagainst us, and if he is come here it is not with peaceable intentions.\nNow we must manage cunningly.  I do not know that he has seen you; so\nyou hide behind the bundle of hay, and lie hid till you see him engaged\nwith me.  Then you steal up noiselessly behind with your axe, and strike\nhim one blow with all your might between the shoulder-blades.  When I\nsee you coming up, I will fight the more furiously so as to draw off his\nattention, that he may not be able to look round.  Have no fear, he\ncannot hurt you, as his back will be turned to you.  Get close enough to\nmake sure, and you will kill him with one blow.\"\n\nNow Grettir came uphill into the field, and when he came within a\nspear-throw of them, he cast his spear at Thorbiorn; but the head was\nlooser on the shaft than he had expected it would be, and it became\ndetached in its flight, and fell off and dropped into a marshy place and\nsank, and the shaft flew on but a little way and then fell harmlessly to\nthe ground.\n\nThen Thorbiorn took his shield, put it before him, drew his sword and\nran against Grettir and engaged him.  Grettir had, as already said, the\nshort sword that he had taken out of the barrow, and with that he warded\noff the blows of Thorbiorn and smote at him.  Oxmain was a very strong\nman, and his shield was covered with well-tanned hide stretched over\noak, and the blade of Grettir fell on it, hacked into it, and sometimes\ncaught so that he could not at once withdraw it.  Thorbiorn now began to\ndeal more furious blows.  Now just as Grettir was wrenching his sword\naway from the shield, into which it had bitten deep, he saw someone\nclose behind him with an axe raised.  Instantly he tore out his sword\nand smote back over his head to protect his back from his assailant\nbehind, and the blow came on Arnor just as he was on the point of\ndriving his axe in between the shoulders of Grettir, so that he\nstaggered back, mortally wounded.  Thorbiorn, whose eye was on his son,\nretreated a step, lost his presence of mind for a moment, and thereupon\ndown came Grettir's sword on his shield and split it in half.  Grettir\npursued his advantage, pressed on him, and struck him down at his feet,\ndead at a blow.\n\nThen he went in search of his silver-inlaid spear-head, but could not\nfind it.  So he mounted his horse again, rode on to the nearest\nfarmhouse, and there told what he had done.  Many, many years after,\nabout 1250, the spear-head was found in the marsh.  When I was in\nIceland I also obtained a very similar spear-head, only not\nsilver-inlaid, that was found in the volcanic sand; it had probably been\nlost in a very similar manner.\n\nIt seems to us in these civilized times very horrible this continual\nslaying that took place in Iceland; but we must remember that, as\nalready said, there were in those days not a single policeman, soldier,\nor officer of justice in the island.  When a trial took place, the\nprosecutor was the person aggrieved, or the nearest akin.  The court\npronounced sentence, and then the prosecutor was required to carry out\nwhat the law had ordered.  He was to be constable and executioner.  Now\nthe law, or custom which was the same as law, for there was no written\ncode, was that when one man had been killed, the next of kin was bound\nto prosecute the slayer and obtain from him money compensation, or\noutlawry, or else he might kill the slayer himself, or one of his kin.\nThis latter provision seems to us outrageous, that because A kills B,\ntherefore that C, who is B's brother, may kill D, who is brother to A.\nBut so the law or custom stood and was recognized as binding, and not to\ncarry out the law or custom was regarded as dishonourable.  It must be\nremembered that Iceland was colonized about A.D. 900, and that Grettir\nwas born only about 97 years after, and that Christianity was adopted in\n1000; that is to say, it was sanctioned by law, but no one was forced to\nbecome a Christian unless he liked.  Also, that there was no government\nin the island, no central authority, and that the colonists lived much\nas do the first settlers now in a new colony which is not under the\ncrown, or like the diggers at the gold mines.\n\nWhen Grettir had slain Thorbiorn Oxmain, he went home to Biarg and told\nhis mother, who said it was well that Atli's blood was wiped out by the\ndeath of the man who had so basely and in such cowardly fashion slain\nhim; but she said she foresaw more trouble coming like a rising black\ncloud, and that this would make it more difficult for Grettir to get\nrelief from his outlawry.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXIII.*\n\n                             *AT LEARWOOD.*\n\n\n    _At Hvamsfiord--Iceland Scenery--An Iceland Paradise--One Lucky\n    Chance--Kuggson's Story--Onund's Voyage--In Search of\n    Uninhabited Land--The Landing--Eric's Gift--A Cold Back!--Better\n    than Nothing--An Oversight--Death of Onund--Planning a\n    Murder--Killing the Curd Bottle--The Churl's Axe--The Red\n    Stream--Hard Times--The \"Wooden-tub\"--The Stranded Whale--The\n    Fight over the Whale--Retreat of the Coldbackers--Before the\n    Assize--The Judgment--An Evil Act--Ill-luck follows Ill_\n\n\nAfter the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, Grettir would not remain at home,\nlest trouble should come on his mother; so he rode across the Neck first\nof all to his brother-in-law, at Melar, at the head of the Ramsfirth, to\nask his advice.  His brother-in-law there was called Gamli; he was not\nvery rich or powerful, and he represented to Grettir that it would never\ndo for him to remain in such near proximity to Thorod's-stead, in the\nsame valley, at the head of the same firth.  This Grettir acknowledged,\nso he stayed there but a few days, and then rode over the high\ntable-land to the Lax, or Salmon-dale, where was the watershed, and the\nriver of the salmon ran west into Hvamsfiord.  One of the most\ninteresting and best written of the Icelandic sagas relates to the\nhistory of this valley.  The Hvamsfiord is by nature wonderfully\nprotected against western storms, for the entrance is almost blocked to\nthe west by a countless multitude of islands, of which only one is\nmoderately large, and to the north-west is not only a grassy promontory,\nbut also a natural breakwater of three long narrow islands.\n\nOutside the cluster of islands are eddies and whirlpools, and the\npassage between them is not always safe; but when a vessel has passed\nthrough between the islets it enters as into a wide beautiful inland\nlake, the shape of which is that of a boot, with the sole to the east\nand the toe turned up north.  Moreover, along the north side of this\nsheltered firth are high and steep hills that screen from the water all\ngales sweeping from the Pole; and in the glens and under the crags of\nthese hills exposed to the south are beautiful woods of birch.\n\nFormerly in Iceland the woods were much more extensive than they are\nnow; for the old settlers found in them plenty of fuel, and the\nbirch-trees grew to a fair size.  Now, alas, with fatal want of\nconsideration, the trees have been so cut down that the woods are rare\nand the trees are small.  There is hardly a birch-tree whose top one\ncannot touch when riding through a wood on a little pony no bigger than\na Shetlander.\n\nExactly at the toe of the boot is a rich grassy basin, where two streams\nflow into the fiord, and here is a beautiful view from the water.  One\nsees in front the green basin, and above it rise the mountains to\nSkeggoxl, a cone covered with eternal snows and with glaciers streaming\ndown its flanks.  Here, in a sweet sheltered nook, basking in the sun,\nin spring with the river-side and the marshes blazing with immense\nmarigolds, and with the short grass slopes speckled with blue tiny\ngentianella, is the farm, and near it the wooden church of Hvam.  In\nanother part of the basin is a settlement called Asgard, the \"Home of\nthe gods;\" for those who settled there first thought the spot so\ndelightful, so warm, that they named it after the sunny land of fable,\nwhere it was said that their ancestors, the hero-gods of the northern\nrace, had lived in the east before ever they crossed Russia and settled\nin Norway.  Asgard to their minds was Paradise.\n\nParadise in Iceland is not a paradise elsewhere; nevertheless, to one\nwho has travelled over barren hills and between glaciers, this warm nook\nwith its green grass and woods of glistening birch was a place of\ninexpressible charm.  Now, just to the east, where would come the ball\nof the toe, looking across the end of this still blue lake-like fiord,\nup the valleys to the snows of Skeggoxl, is the farm of Learwood, in a\ngrassy flat by the water, backed by birchwood and hills, and screened\nfrom the east as well as from the north winds.  Here lived Thorstein\nKuggson. Kuggson's mother was the daughter of Asgeir, the father of\nAudun of Willowdale, with whom Grettir had a tussle on the ice, and whom\nhe afterwards upset with his foot when he was carrying curds. Kuggson\nthrough his father was related to the influential and wealthy family in\nthe Laxdale, whose history is well known through the noble saga that\nrelates the story of that valley.\n\nGrettir spent the autumn with his relative Kuggson.  Now, whilst he was\nthere he fell to talking one day with Kuggson about his trial of\nstrength with Audun, and Grettir said how glad he was that nothing had\ncome of it.  It was said that he was a man of ill-luck; yet luck had\nbefriended him on that occasion in sending Bard to interrupt the\nstruggle before both lost their tempers and the quarrel became serious.\n\nThen said Kuggson: \"You remind me of the story of Bottle-back, which, of\ncourse, you know.\"\n\n\"It is many years since I have heard the tale,\" answered Grettir; \"for,\nindeed, I can be little at home now, and am out of the way of hearing\nstories of one's forefathers.  Tell me the tale.\"\n\nThen Kuggson told Grettir\n\n\n\n                       *The Story of Bottle-Back*\n\n\n\"You know very surely, Grettir, that your great-grandfather was Onund\nTreefoot.  He was so called because in the great battle of Haf's fiord,\nfought against King Harald, he had one of his legs cut off below the\nknee.  You have been told how that Onund had first to wife Asa, and that\nhe settled at Cold-back; and he had by his first wife two sons, Thorgeir\nand Ufeig, who was also called Grettir, and it is after him that you are\nnamed.  Onund's second wife was the mother of Thorgrim Grizzlepate, your\ngrandfather.\n\n\"The story I am going to tell you relates to Thorgeir, the eldest son of\nOnund, and how he got the name of Bottle-back.  You might think he\nacquired the designation from a rounded back.  It was not so, he had a\nback as straight as yours.\n\n\"But to understand the story of how he got the name, I must go back to\nthe time when Onund, your great-grandfather, came to Iceland.  That was\nin the year of Christ 900; he was unable to remain any longer in Norway,\nbecause the king, Harald, was in such enmity with him.  So he resolved\nthat he would come to Iceland and seek there a new home. Now this was\nsomewhat late, for the colonization of this island had begun some five\nor six and twenty years before, and there had come out great numbers of\nNorwegian chiefs, who fled from the rapacity and the vengeance of King\nHarald Fairhair, who outlawed every man who took up arms against him.\"\n\nBut the story shall be told not in Kuggson's words, but in mine.\n\nOnund sailed to Iceland from Norway in the summer of A.D. 900, and he\nhad a hard voyage and baffling winds from the south that drove him far\naway to the north into the Polar Sea, till he came near the pack-ice;\nand then there came a change, and he made south, and after much beating\nabout, for he had lost his reckoning, he made land, and found that he\nhad come upon the north coast of Iceland, and those who knew the looks\nof the land said he was off the Strand Bay.  To the west rose the rocks\nand glaciers of the Drang Jokull, and to the east the long promontory\nthat separated the Hunafloi from Skagafiord.\n\nPresently a ten-oared boat put off from shore, rowed by six men, and\napproached Onund's vessel, and the men in the boat hailed the vessel and\nasked whose it was.  Onund gave his name and inquired to whom the men\nbelonged.  They said they were servant men belonging to a farm at\nDrangar, just under the mighty field of glacier of Drang Jokull. Onund\nasked if all the land was taken up by settlers, and the men answered\nthat along the north coast all such land as was worth anything was taken\nalready, and that most was also settled to the south.\n\nThen Onund consulted with his shipmates what was to be done, whether\ncoast along the north protuberance of Iceland in search of uninhabited\nland, or go into the great bay and see whether any chance opened for\nthem there.  They had arrived so late in Iceland after the main rush of\nsettlers that they could not expect to get any really favourable\nquarters. The men advised against exploring the north, exposed to the\ncold gales from the Polar Sea, where the fiords would be blocked with\nice half the year; and thought there would be no harm trying what they\ncould find further south.\n\nSo Onund turned his vessel in towards the head of the splendid bay\nHunafloi; but seeing a creek that seemed fairly sheltered, having on the\nnorth some quaint spikes of rock, and a great mountain to the south like\na horn, and finding that this fiord gave a turn northwards under the\nshelter of the mountains, the men with Onund's consent ran in there, and\nhaving anchored the vessel, entered a boat and rowed ashore.  On\nreaching the strand they were met by men who asked them who they were\nand what they did there.  Onund said he had come with peaceable\nintentions, and then he was told that all that fiord was occupied, and\nthat the owner of the land was Eric Trap, a wealthy man.  Eric came to\nthe beach and hospitably invited Onund and his ship's crew to his house.\nThere Onund told him his difficulty.  He had come to Iceland too late,\nand he feared that he would be able nowhere to find unclaimed lands.\n\nEric considered a while, and then said there was more land that he had\nclaimed than he could well keep in hand, and that he would be pleased to\naccommodate a man of such noble family and character as was Onund.\nOnund pressed him to receive payment for the land, but this Eric\ngenerously refused. When he had come there, said Eric, the country had\nbeen unpeopled, and he had just claimed what he liked, and had claimed\nmore than he wanted.  Now he desired to have neighbours, and if Onund\nwould be friendly none would be better pleased than himself to have him\nnear.\n\nThis gratifying offer satisfied Onund, but, as the saying is, 'Don't\nlook a gift-horse in the mouth,' he did not at once close with the\noffer, but asked to be allowed to see the land Eric was so ready to part\nwith.\n\nAccordingly he rode with Eric along the coast, passed the headland where\nwas the horn-shaped mountain, and came upon a fiord where some boiling\nsprings poured up in the sea out of its depths; the mountains on the\nnorth came down so abruptly to the water's edge that the only habitable\nground lay at the head of the firth and on the south side, having a\nnorthern aspect.  Moreover there was a lofty range to the south, so that\nin winter the sun would never light up this firth.  Onund did not much\nlike it, he thought that Eric had offered him the place because he did\nnot care for it himself; so he went across the mountain range and down\ninto the little bay south of it.  As they rode it was over snow, a long\ndescent of wintry mountain, till they reached a valley in which was a\nhot spring, a little lake, and some grass.  The situation was somewhat\nmore inviting than that Onund had already seen, but it was not very\nattractive, and looking back on the long dreary slope of snow he said,\n\"A cold back! a cold back! I would like to have had one warmer.\"  \"That\nis not easily acquired,\" answered Eric.  \"Further south there is no\nfiord for many miles till you come to one occupied by a man called\nBiarni.  That I can tell you is a fertile settlement, there are woods\nand pastures, and hot springs and good anchorage; but that is not my\nland to give you.\"\n\nThen Onund sang a stave:\n\n    \"All across life's strands do run,\n    I who many war-wagers won,\n    Meadows green and pastures fair\n    Once were mine, and woods to spare.\n    Left behind, I rid the steed\n    That o'er wave, with wind doth speed.[#]\n    Cold--cold, icy back behind,\n    This is what alone I find,\n    Hard the lot that fate doth yield\n    To the bearer of the shield.\"\n\n[#] _i.e._ a ship.\n\n\nEric answered, \"Many men have lost everything in Norway, and have got\nnothing in exchange. Cold may be the back against which to lean; but\nbetter cold back than none at all.\"\n\nThis was true.  Onund had not received Eric's offer graciously; but he\nnow accepted it, and he called the second bay he saw--that into which he\nhad descended over snow--Coldback, and that remains the name to this\nday.\n\nEric behaved very nobly; he gave up to Onund the whole tract of land\nfrom the Horn-headland to the limit where Biarni's land began.  He\nreceived the whole of Reykjafiord, Fishless Creek, and Coldback Bay.\n\nThen Onund built himself a house at Coldback; and there was no\ndifficulty about wood, for the Gulfstream flowed up past the great\nnorth-west promontory of Iceland, curled round into Hunafloi, and\ndeposited a quantity of American timber as drift all along that coast.\nIndeed, the drift was so abundant that neither Eric nor Onund made any\nagreement about it.  Now, as it happened in the sequel, this was an\noversight.\n\nOnund prospered at Coldback, and even set up for himself a second farm\nat the head of the firth to the north, called Reykja-firth, from the\nboiling springs that puffed and bubbled up in the sea at the entrance;\nand a hot spring is in Icelandic--Reykr.\n\nNow, a few years after Onund had settled in Iceland, his good wife Asa\ndied.  He had by her two sons--the elder was called Thorgeir, and the\nyounger Ufeig Grettir.  After a while Onund went courting a woman called\nThordis, in Middle-firth, and he married her, and by her had a son\ncalled Thorgrim; he grew to be a big man, very strong, wise, and a\ncapital man at husbandry.  When he was twenty-five years old his hair\ngrew gray, and so he went by the name of Thorgrim Grizzle-pate, and he\nwas the grandfather of Grettir.  After the death of Onund, his widow\nmarried, as already said, Audun of Willowdale, and their son was Asgeir,\nthe father of Grettir's cousin Audun, with whom he had that affray on\nthe ice, and then with the bottle of curds.\n\nWhen Onund was a very old man, then he died in his bed, and he was\nburied under a great mound, which you may see at Coldback if you go\nthere.  It is called Old Treefoot's cairn.  When he was dead, then\nThorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers, Thorgeir and Ufeig Grettir,\nlived together on the best of terms at Coldback, and managed the\nproperty between them.\n\nIn time Eric Trap of Arness died also, and left his lands to his son\nFlossi.  He had remained in friendship with Onund all his life; but\nFlossi, his son, was a grasping man, and he was often heard to grumble\nabout the Coldback family, and say that they were squatters on his\nfather's land, and had no title to show for the land they held.\nThorgrim Grizzlepate and his half-brothers did not wish to quarrel with\nFlossi, so they kept out of his company; and when there were sports of\nhurling, and wrestling, and horse-fighting, strayed away, so as not to\nbe involved in a quarrel with him.\n\nNow, Thorgeir was the eldest of the three brothers at Coldback, and he\nwas mightily fond of fishing.  This was known to Flossi, and he made a\nplot for slaying him; for he was envious of the brothers, and wanted to\nget back all their lands into his own possession.  He had got a\nhouse-churl called Finn, and he and Finn had some talk together. The end\nof this talk was that Finn started secretly for Coldback armed with a\nhatchet, and he hid himself in the boat-house at Coldback.\n\nEarly in the morning Thorgeir got ready to go out fishing, for the\nweather was good, the sea calm and was alive with fish.  His nets were\nin the boat, and before sunrise he left his bed and dressed, and went to\nthe boat-house to start on his excursion. He had not the smallest\nsuspicion of mischief, and as he was like to be on the water for a long\ntime, he flung a great leather bottle of curds over his back. As already\nsaid, these leather bottles were no other than the hides of goats or\nsheep, sewn up and converted into receptacles for liquid.\n\nSo Thorgeir went to the boat-house with the bottle of curd over his\nback, opened the door, and went in.  He did not look round, he had no\nsuspicion of evil, and he did not see Finn lurking in the dark corner.\nIt was, moreover, very dark in the boat-house.  Thorgeir stooped to get\nhold of the boat and thrust her out, when all at once out from the dark\ncorner leaped the churl, and brought the axe down on Thorgeir's back.\nThe blow made the bottle squeak, and all the curds gushed out.  That was\nenough for Finn.  He made sure he had killed Thorgeir, so he ran away as\nfast as he could back to Arness, burst into the house, and shouted to\nhis master \"I have killed him!  I have killed him!  And he squeaked!  he\nsqueaked!\"\n\n\"Let me look at the axe,\" said Flossi.  Then, when he had the axe in his\nhand he turned it about and laughed, and said, \"Verily, I did not think\nthat Thorgeir had milk in his veins instead of blood. That accounts for\nit, that you have been able to slay him.\"\n\nThis affair was a subject of much comment, and much laughter did it\nprovoke.  Thorgeir had not received the smallest wound, only his bottle\nwas split, and ever after he went by the name of Bottle-back.\n\nBut a song was made about this event which was never forgotten.  It runs\nthus:--\n\n      \"Of the days of old\n      Great tales are told\n    How heroes went forth to fight,\n      Their shields, for show\n      Were whitened as snow,\n    And their weapons were burnished bright\n      The battle began,\n      In the weapon-clang,\n    The red blood flowed apace\n      In rivers shed\n      It dyed red\n    The shields o'er all their face.\n      But nowaday\n      We tune our lay\n    To tell a different story.\n      The churls who fight\n      Bring axes white,\n    With curds and whey made gory.\"\n\n\nWhen Kuggson ceased, Grettir laughed heartily. \"Ah!\" said he, \"that\ncannot be said now, for indeed there flows much blood.\"\n\n\"You speak the truth,\" answered Kuggson; \"and I wish that this red\nstream flowed less abundantly.\"\n\n\"That may be,\" said Grettir; \"but I would fain hear the rest of the\nstory.  I have not heard it told me for a long time; and, indeed, to\nspeak the truth, much of it I have clean forgotten, though I did hear it\nwhen I was a boy at home.\"\n\n\"If you will hear what follows, it must be as a new story,\" said\nKuggson.  Again I will tell it in my own words.\n\n\n\n                   *The Story of the Stranded Whale*\n\n\nHard times came to Iceland, such as had not been known since it was\nsettled, for the timber that had been thrown up by the sea came to an\nend, or very nearly so.  There had been great accumulations, and these\nwere exhausted, and for some reason or other that cannot now be\nexplained the Gulf-stream ceased to carry on its current the amount of\ntimber it had formerly, the wreckage of the forests on the Mississippi,\nswept down into the great Mexican Gulf, and thence washed out over the\nvast Atlantic, borne on the warm stream to the north, to give fuel to\nthose lands which were by nature unprovided with trees.  At this time\nthe axe was laid against the largest and finest birch that grew in the\nforests in Iceland.  But none of that timber was big and good enough for\nbuilding purposes.\n\nThis deficiency in drift-wood continued for many seasons, and if men\nrequired building timber they were constrained to send to Norway for it.\nNow, it happened that about this time a great merchant vessel was\nwrecked in the fiord in the lap of which was Arness, where lived Flossi,\nand he took four or five of the chapmen to his house, and lodged them\nthere well and hospitably, and the other wrecked men were quartered in\nother farmhouses near.  All winter the men were engaged in building a\nnew ship out of the wreck and what other timber they could get; but they\nwere not skilful over their work, and they built a badly-proportioned\nvessel, over small at the stem and stern and over big amidships; and\nthis vessel was much laughed at, and men called it the Wooden-tub, and\nthat bay where Flossi lived was ever after called Wooden-tub Bay,\nbecause this broad-beamed, comical vessel was built there.[#]\n\n[#] It is still so called, Trekyllis-vic.\n\nNow, it fell out that at the spring equinox there was a great storm from\nthe north, and it lasted a week.  The waves came in huge rollers against\nthe cliffs, and spouted like geysers into the air, and all the air was\nin a haze with spray, and was full of the noise of the sea.  Those who\nlived on the coast were not sorry for the storm, because they hoped it\nwould blow in drift-wood and other spoils of the deep upon the shores;\nand sure enough, when it abated, a man who lived out on Reykja-ness came\nand told Flossi that there was a great whale washed ashore there. Then\nFlossi sent word to all the farms round to the north.  But hard-by where\nthe whale had come ashore lived a farmer named Einar, who was a tenant\nunder the brothers at Coldback, so he took a boat and rowed off to\nColdback, and told them about the monster that was stranded.\n\nWhen Thorgrim and his brothers Thorgeir and Ufeig heard this, they got\nready at once, and were twelve in a ten-oared boat, with axes and knives\nfor cutting up the whale.  Another boat put off from another of their\nfarms, with six men in it, and others were sure to come as soon as they\ncould get ready.\n\nIn the meantime, Flossi and all his company, his kindred, servants, and\ntenants, had hurried to the spot, and were already engaged in cutting up\nthe whale, when round the ness came the boat of the brothers.  Now, the\nshore where the whale was cast up belonged to the brothers, and they\ncalled out to Flossi to assert their right to whatever was found on the\nstrand.  Flossi answered that if they had any right to the drift they\nmust show their claim. They had, he said, been allowed by his father to\nsquat on his land, but his father had never given over to them all his\nrights, certainly not the lordship over the strand, and claim to flotsam\nand jetsam. Whilst the dispute continued, up came other boats of the\nColdback party, and then a long boat, that contained a fellow called\nSwan, who lived in Biornfiord, to the south of Coldback, a very warm\nfriend of the brothers, and a plucky, resolute man.\n\nThorgrim was hesitating what to do, when Swan told him it would be mean\nto allow himself to be robbed.  Moreover, this assault on his rights, if\nnot resisted would establish a precedent, and Flossi would claim\neverything found on their strand, even at their very doors.\n\nSo a fight began.  The Coldback men came ashore, and Thorgeir\nBottle-back mounted the carcase of the whale, to drive off the servants\nof Flossi. Among these was Finn; he was near the head of the whale, and\nstood in a foothold he had cut for himself.  Then Thorgeir Bottle-back\nsaid, \"Ah!  I owe you a stroke of the axe, which has not been repaid as\nyet,\" and he smote at him, and felled him.\n\nFlossi egged on his men, and a desperate fight ensued; some fought on\nthe body of the whale, some about it.  There were hardly any present who\nhad other weapons save choppers and axes, and they hewed at each other\nwith these.  But some had no other weapons than the ribs of the whale,\nand it is even said that some of the churls flourished great strips of\nblubber, with which they banged each other about, nearly smothering each\nother in oil, but not doing much harm.\n\nThe battle was going ill with Flossi, when there arrived a contingent of\nmen from Drangar, with many boats, and gave help to Flossi, and then\nthose of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they did not retreat\ntill they had loaded their boats. Swan shouted to the Coldbackers to get\non board as quickly as they could, for he saw more men coming against\nthem from the north.  Flossi received a wound, but Ufeig, one of the\nthree brothers, was dealt his death-wound before he could get into the\nboat, and he fell on the strand.  Thorgeir Bottle-back at once leaped\nout of the vessel, ran to his brother, heaved him up in his arms and\nplunged back through the surf with him, and lifted him into the boat,\nwhere he died.  It is told that in this battle one man was beaten to\ndeath by the rib of a whale, and that was one of the chapmen of the\nwrecked vessel.\n\nAfter this, the matter was brought before the assize, for the question\nof the right to the shore had to be decided one way or the other.  And\nit was decided in this manner: Flossi was condemned to outlawry for his\nhigh-handed proceeding, and because of the death of Ufeig Grettir; but\nthe question of the rights was thus settled by the judge, Thorkel Moon.\nHe said, \"I cannot see that the claim made by the Coldback men is\nestablished, for no money passed between Onund and Eric.  I know this\nabout the land that was possessed by my grandfather Ingolf, and which is\nnow my own.  He received it from Steinver the Old; but then he gave her\na mottled cloak, and that was a pledge of sale; and this has never been\ncontested.  In the matter of the lands inhabited by the Coldback men, as\nfar as I can learn, not even a straw was given in exchange.  However, it\nis proved that they have held the land, and have taken the drift for a\nlong time; and that the original owner, Eric, did not dispute their\ndoing so.  I therefore decide that a compromise shall hold good.  The\nColdback brothers must surrender all the Reykja-firth, and content\nthemselves with the land south of that.  And I also decide that they\nshall exercise full and undisputed rights to the land, to all that grows\non it, to the sea and what it throws up, along that bit of strand that\nremains to them.\"\n\n\nNow when Kuggson had finished this story, then Grettir said, \"You have\nnot told how my grandfather and great-uncle parted.\"\n\n\"No,\" said Kuggson.  \"There is not much to tell about that.  The two\nbrothers agreed to separate, as your grandfather wanted to marry in the\nMiddlefirth. Bottle-back remained at Coldback.\"\n\n\"Now that you have spoken so much about Coldback,\" said Grettir, \"I will\ntell you something, though it is to my discredit.\"\n\n\"Say on,\" answered Kuggson.  \"Men are generally more ready to boast than\nto discredit themselves.\"\n\n\"When I was a little boy,\" said Grettir, \"my father suffered from a cold\nback and great pains in it, in winter, and he only got ease when it was\nrubbed with a hot flannel.  I was a bad, idle boy, and I was set in\nwinter to rub his cold back.  This I resented.  I thought it was a work\nfit only for servants, and one day when my father had made me rub his\nold back till I was tired, then he said to me, 'You are growing slack;\nrub harder, that I may feel your hand.'  'Do you so want to feel my\nhand, father,' I said.  Then I saw a wool-comb hard by that the women\nhad used for carding wool, and I caught it and rubbed down my father's\nback with that--so that he shrieked with pain, and I made the blood\nflow.  It was a wicked act.  I think of it now the old man is dead, and\nI am sorry.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Kuggson, \"it was an evil act.  Men say that you are an\nunlucky man.  Now, I do not wonder at your ill-luck, for none ever\nraised his hand against his father but there followed him ill in\nconsequence of so doing all his days.\"\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXIV.*\n\n                         *THE FOSTER-BROTHERS.*\n\n\n    _Grettir's Promise--The Yule Ox--Holding the Boat--A Hard\n    Pull--Grettir and the Ox--Thorgeir's Hatred--The Concealed\n    Axe--Evil Sport--An Iceland Moor_\n\n\nNow, the kinsmen of Oxmain heard where Grettir was, so they resolved to\nform a party, and fall upon him at Learwood.  But Grettir's\nbrother-in-law was aware of this and forewarned Grettir, so he went away\nto the north, and he followed Gilsfiord till he reached Reyk-knolls,\nwhere was a pleasant farm near the sea, where also were a great number\nof ever-boiling springs, that poured and squirted and fizzed out of\nmounds of red-clay.  Here lived a man called Thorgils Arison, and he\nasked this man if he would give him shelter through the winter.\n\nArison said that he would.  \"But,\" said he, \"there is only plain fare in\nmy house.\"\n\n\"I am not choice as to my food, so long as I have a roof over my head,\"\nanswered Grettir.\n\n\"There is one matter further,\" said Arison. \"Somehow or other I get men\ncome to me and offer to become my guests who cannot settle elsewhere,\nand I get a rough lot at times.  That comes of being too good-hearted to\nbid them pack.  Even now I have two such good-for-naughts guesting with\nme, two foster-brothers, Thorgeir and Thormod; rough, unkempt men, of\nbad tempers both, and I wot not how you will agree together.  You may\ncome and put your head within my doors if you will, but on one\ncondition, that there be no fighting and knocking about of my other\nguests.\"\n\nGrettir answered that he would not be the first to raise strife, and\nthat if the foster-brothers provoked him beyond endurance he would go\nelsewhere, and not give his host annoyance by a brawl in his house.\n\nWith this promise Arison was content.\n\nThorgils Arison was a firm man, and he told the foster-brothers that he\nwould have no disturbance whilst they were with him, and they also\npromised to be orderly.  Thorgeir did not like Grettir.  He scowled at\nhim and contradicted him, but did not pursue his rudeness beyond bounds;\nand when Grettir was ruffled, a word from the master of the house served\nto appease the rising blood.\n\nSo the early winter wore away.\n\nNow, the good man, Thorgils Arison, owned a cluster of islands in the\nfirth that are called Olaf's Isles; they lie a good sea-mile and a half\nbeyond the ness.  On them grass grows, and there the bonder kept his\ncattle to fatten in autumn.  Now, there was an ox on one of these isles\nthat Arison said he must have home before the snows and storms of winter\ncame on, as he intended to kill the beast for the feastings of Yule.  So\nthe foster-brothers and Grettir volunteered to go out to the island, and\nfetch the ox home.\n\nThey went down to the sea and got out a ten-oared boat, and there were\nbut these three to man it.  The weather was cold, and the wind was\nshifting from the north and not settled.  They rowed hard, and reached\nthe island; but the sea was running and foaming over the shore, and they\nsaw it would be no easy matter to get the ox on board with such a surf.\nSo the brothers told Grettir he must hold the boat, whilst they got the\nox in.  He agreed, and went into the water, and stood amidships on the\nside out to sea, and thrust the boat towards the shore, whilst the\nbrothers laboured to get the ox in.  Thorgeir took up the ox by the hind\nlegs, and Thormod by the fore legs, as the beast refused to be driven on\nboard, and so they carried the animal into the boat; but Grettir, who\nheld the craft, had the sea up to his shoulder-blades, and he held her\nperfectly fast.\n\nWhen the ox was hove in, Grettir let go and got into the boat.  Thormod\ntook oar in the bows, Thorgeir amidships, and Grettir aft, and so they\nmade out into the open bay.  As they came out from the lee of the island\nthe squall caught them, the waves leaped and foamed, and Thorgeir\nshouted \"Now then, stern!  Have you gone to sleep?  Why are you\nlagging?\"\n\nGrettir answered, \"The stern will not lag when the rowing afore is\ngood.\"\n\nThereupon Thorgeir fell to rowing so furiously that both the tholes were\nbroken.  So he called to Grettir, \"Row on steadily whilst I mend the\nthole-pins.\"\n\nThen Grettir rowed so mightily, whilst Thorgeir was engaged mending the\npins, that he wore through the oars, and when Thorgeir was ready they\nsnapped like matches.\n\n\"Better row with less haste and more caution,\" growled Thormod.\n\nThen Grettir stooped and picked out of the bottom of the boat two\nunshapen oar-beams that lay there; but as they were too big to go\nbetween the thole-pins, he bored large holes in the gunwales, and thrust\nthe oars through, and rowed thus so mightily that every rib and plank of\nthe boat creaked, and the foster-brothers were in fear lest with his\nrowing he would tear the craft to pieces.  However, they reached the\nshore in safety.\n\nThen Grettir asked whether the brothers would rather haul up the boat,\nor go home with the ox. They preferred to haul the boat ashore, and\nfound that it was hung with icicles, for the water had frozen on the\nsides; but Grettir led home the ox, which was very fat, and very\nunwilling to be dragged along, so that Grettir became impatient.\n\nWhen the foster-brothers had finished bailing out the boat, and had put\nher under cover, they went up to the house, and on reaching it Thorgeir\ninquired after Grettir, but Arisen the bonder said he had not seen him\nor the ox.  Then he sent out men in quest of him, for he supposed\nsomething must have befallen him; and when they came to where the land\ndipped towards the sea they saw a strange object indeed coming towards\nthem, and did not know at first whether what they saw was a human being\nor a troll.[#]  On approaching nearer they saw that this strange object\nwas Grettir, who was carrying the ox on his back, and striding up the\nhill with the beast, which had the head hanging over his shoulder, the\ntongue out, and was lowing plaintively.  The sight was infinitely\ncomical, and the men who saw it burst out laughing, and this made\nGrettir also laugh, so that he dropped the ox.\n\n\n[#] A troll is a mountain demon or giant.\n\n\nNow, it must be known that this story is not manifestly absurd, for the\nIcelandic cattle are very small, like Brittany cows, and bear the same\nrelation to a good English ox that a pony does to a horse. Nevertheless\nthe feat was only such as a strong man could have accomplished.  It had\ntaken the two brothers to carry the ox down into the boat, and here was\nGrettir alone carrying him up hill.\n\nThis deed of Grettir was much talked of, and this made Thorgeir, the\nelder of the foster-brothers, very jealous of Grettir, and he hated him,\nand sought to do him an injury.  One day after Yule, Grettir went down\nto the bath that was made by turning a stream of hot water from one of\nthe natural boiling springs into a walled basin into which also cold\nwater could be turned from a rill.  In former times the Icelanders were\nvery particular about bathing, and were a clean people.  At the present\nday they never bathe at all, and such of the old baths as remain are out\nof order and full of grass and mud.\n\nThorgeir said to his brother, \"Let us go now and try how Grettir will\nstart, if I set upon him as he comes away from his bath.\"\n\n\"I do not like this,\" answered Thormod; \"you will vex our host, and get\nno advantage over Grettir.\"\n\n\"I will try what I can do,\" said the elder; and he took his axe, hid it\nunder his cloak, and went down towards the bathing-place.\n\nWhen he had reached it he said, \"Grettir, there is a talk that you have\nboasted that no man could make you take to your heels.\"\n\n\"I never said that,\" answered Grettir, \"but anyhow you are not the man\nto make me run.\"\n\nThen Thorgier swung up his axe and would have cut at Grettir; but\nGrettir suspected that the man meant mischief, and he was ready, so that\nthe instant he drew out the axe and swung it, Grettir clashed forward at\nhim, struck him in the chest and sent him staggering back, so that he\nsprawled his length on the ground.\n\nThen Thorgeir shouted to his brother, \"Why do you stand by and let this\nsavage kill me?\"\n\nThormod then laid hold of Grettir, and endeavoured to drag him away, but\nhis strength was not sufficient to effect this.\n\nAt that moment up came Arison, the bonder, and he bade them be quiet and\nhave nought to do with Grettir.\n\nSo the brothers stood up, and Thorgeir pretended it was all sport, that\nhe had only proposed giving Grettir a fright; but the bonder hardly\nbelieved him.  As for the younger of the brothers, it was well seen that\nhe had been drawn into the matter against his will.  So the winter\npassed, and peace was kept.  This little struggle with Grettir had shown\nThorgeir that it would be ill for him to have dealings with a man so\nprompt and strong as Grettir, and he controlled himself and did not seek\nto pick a quarrel with him any more.  At the same time he did not like\nhim any better.  Thorgils Arison got great credit, when it was reported\nthat throughout an entire winter he had maintained such turbulent men as\nthe foster-brothers and Grettir under his roof without their having\nfought.[#]\n\n\n[#] There is an entire saga relating to the history of these brothers,\ncalled the Foster-Brothers' Saga.\n\n\nBut when spring came then they went away, all of them, away over the\nheaths and moors of the interior.\n\nWhen we say that Grettir was on the heaths and moors, it must not be\nsupposed that the region so called was at all like the moors of Scotland\nor England.  The heaths and moors of Iceland are upland desert regions\nwith only here and there a scanty growth of vegetation, a little\nwhortleberry, no heath at all, but vast tracts of broken stone and mud\nand black sand, with perhaps here and there an occasional hill of yellow\nsandstone.  Most of the rock is perfectly black, and breaks into pieces\nwith sharp angles.  What is called Icelandic moss is a black lichen that\ngrows on the stones, and there is a very little gray moss to be seen.\nWhere there is a burn or a stream a little grass may grow, but the\namount is small indeed.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XXV.*\n\n                   *HOW GRETTIR WAS WELL-NIGH HUNG.*\n\n\n    _The Law-man's Judgment--Snorri's Compromise--The Compromise\n    Declined--Grettir Helps Himself--The Spy--Thirty to One--An\n    Undesirable Prisoner--The Gallows for Grettir--Thorbiorg Saves\n    Grettir--Grettir Conquers Himself_\n\n\nNow, after the slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain, his kinsman Thorod took the\nmatter up, and rode to the great assize with a large train of men.\n\nThe relatives of Grettir also appeared at the assize, and they took\nadvice of Skapti, the law-man; and he said that Atli was slain a week\nbefore the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Grettir, that\nThorbiorn Oxmain was guilty of that, and his relatives must pay a heavy\nfine for the murder.  But he said that Grettir was an outlaw when he\nslew Thorbiorn.  Now being an outlaw he was outside the cognizance of\nthe law, he was as one not a native of the country, as one over whom the\nlaw had no longer jurisdiction; that, therefore, his slaying of\nThorbiorn could not count as expiation of the slaying of Atli; that,\nmoreover, no suit against an outlawed man could stand--it was illegal:\nthat the only way in which Grettir could be brought into court was by\nthe removal of the sentence of outlawry, when at once he could be\nprosecuted.\n\nThorod was disconcerted at this; for he could not bring an action\nagainst Grettir, and the Biarg people did now bring an action against\nhim for the slaying of Atli, and the court gave sentence that he should\npay down two hundred ounces of silver as blood fine for Atli.\n\nNow, at this court, Snorri the judge proposed a compromise.  He\nsuggested that the fine should be let drop, and that Grettir should be\nheld scatheless, that the outlawry should be set aside, and the slaying\nof Thorbiorn be put against the slaying of Atli, and so reconciliation\nbe made.\n\nThorod did not at all want to pay down two hundred ounces of silver, and\nthe Biarg family were very willing to have the outlawry done away with;\nso both parties were quite willing to accept this compromise, but Thorir\nof Garth had to be reckoned with.  Grettir was outlawed at his suit for\nthe burning of his sons, and he must be brought to consent, or this\narrangement could not take place.\n\nBut Thorir was not to be moved.  In vain did the law-man Snorri urge\nhim, and represent to him that Grettir, at large, an outlaw, was a\ndanger menacing the country, that he was driven to desperation, Thorir\nabsolutely refused to allow the sentence to be withdrawn.  Not only so,\nbut he said he would set a higher price on his head than had been set on\nthe head of any outlaw before, and that was three marks of silver.  Then\nThorod, not to be behind with him, offered three more.\n\nGrettir resolved to get as much out of the way of his enemies as he\ncould, so he went into that strange excrescence, like a hand joined on\nby a narrow wrist to Iceland, that extends to the north-west.  In this\npeninsula are two great masses of snow and glacier mountain, called\nGlam-jokull and Drang-jokull.  They do not rise to any great height,\nhardly three thousand feet, but they are vast domes of snow, with\nglaciers sliding from them to the firths, and these fall over the edges\nof the precipitous cliffs in huge blocks of ice that float away on the\ntide as icebergs. The largest of all the fiords that penetrates this\nregion is called the Ice-firth, and it runs between these great\nmountains of snow and glaciers.  At the extremity of the estuary the\nvalleys are well-wooded--that is to say, well-wooded for Iceland--with\nbirch-trees, for their valleys are very sheltered, and the sea-water\nthat roll in bears with it a certain amount of heat, for it has been\naffected by the Gulf-stream.\n\nOne of these valleys is called Waterdale, and at the time of our story\nthere lived there a man named Vermund the Slim, and his wife's name was\nThorbiorg; she was a big, fine woman.  Another valley is Lang-dale.\nGrettir went to Lang-dale--there he demanded of the farmers whatever he\nwanted, food and clothing, and if they would not give him what he asked,\nhe took it.  This was not to their taste at all, and they wished that\nthey were rid of Grettir.  He could not remain long in one place, so he\nrode along the side of the Ice-firth demanding food, and sleeping and\nconcealing himself in the woods.  So in his course he came to the upland\npastures and dairy that belonged to Vermund Slim, and he slept there\nmany nights, and hid about in the woods.\n\nThe shepherds on the moors were afraid of him, and they ran down into\nthe valleys and told the farmers everywhere that there was a big strange\nman on the heights, who took from them their curd and milk, and dried\nfish, and that they were afraid to resist his demands.  They did not\nquite know what he was, whether a man or a mountain spirit.\n\nSo the farmers gathered together and took advice, and there were about\nthirty of them.  They set a shepherd to watch Grettir's movements, and\nlet them know when he could be fallen upon.  Now, it fell out one warm\nday that Grettir threw himself down in a sunny spot to sleep.  The\nglistening beech leaves were flickering behind him, the rocks were\ncovered with the pale lemon flowers of the dry as, and between the\nclefts of the stones masses of large purple-flowered geranium stood up\nand made a glow of colour deep into the wood.\n\nIt is a mistake to suppose that Iceland is bare of flowers; on the\ncontrary, there are more flowers there than grass.  Beneath Grettir the\nturf was full of tiny deep-blue gentianellas, just as if the turf were\ngreen velvet, with a thread of blue in it coming through here and there.\n\nThe shepherd stole near enough to see that Grettir really was fast\nasleep, and then he ran and told the bonders, who came noiselessly to\nthe spot.  It was arranged among them that ten men should fling\nthemselves on him, whilst the others fastened his feet with strong\ncords.\n\nThey made a noose, and cautiously without waking him managed to get it\nabout his legs; then, all at once, ten of them threw themselves on his\nbody, and tried to pin down his arms.  Grettir started from his sleep,\nand with one toss sent the men rolling off him, and he even managed to\nget to his knees. Then they pulled the noose tighter and brought him\ndown, he, however, kicked out at two, whom he tumbled head over heels,\nand they lay stunned on the earth.  Then one after another rushed at\nhim, some from behind.  He could not get at his weapons, which they had\nremoved, and though he made a long and hard fight, and struggled\nfuriously, they were too many for him, and they overcame him in the end,\nand bound his hands.\n\nNow, as he lay on the grass, powerless, they held a council over him\nwhat should be done.  The chief man of that district was Vermund Slim,\nbut he was from home.  So it was settled that a farmer named Helgi\nshould take Grettir and keep him in ward till Vermund came home.\n\n\"Thank you gratefully,\" said Helgi; \"but I have other business to attend\nto than to keep sentinel over this man.  My hands are fully occupied\nwithout this.  Not if I know it shall he cross my threshold.\"\n\nSo the farmers considered, and decided that another man who lived at\nGiorvidale should have the custody of Grettir.\n\n\"You are most obliging,\" said he; \"but I have only my old woman with me\nat home, and how can we two manage him?  Lay on a man only such a burden\nas he can bear.\"\n\nThey considered again, and came to the conclusion that one Therolf of\nEre should have the charge of Grettir.\n\nBut he replied, \"No, thank you, I am short of provisions, there is\nhardly food enough at my house for my own party.\"\n\nThen they appointed that he should be put with another farmer; but he\nsaid, \"If he had been taken in my land, well and good, but as he has\nnot, I won't be encumbered with him.\"\n\nThen every farmer was tried, and all had excuses why they should not\nhave the care of Grettir; and consequently, as no one would have him,\nthey resolved to hang him.  So they set to work and constructed a rude\ngallows there in the wood, and a mighty clatter they made over it.\n\nWhilst thus engaged, it happened that Thorbiorg, Vermund's wife, was\nriding up to her mountain dairy, attended by five servants.  She was a\nstirring, clever woman, and when she saw so many men gathered together\nand making such a noise, she rode towards them to inquire what they were\nabout.\n\n\"Who is that lying in bonds there?\" she asked.\n\nThen Grettir answered and gave his name.\n\n\"Why, now, is it, Grettir,\" she said, \"that you have given so much\ntrouble in this neighbourhood?\"\n\n\"I must needs be somewhere,\" he answered.  \"And wherever I am, there I\nmust have food.\"\n\n\"It is a piece of ill-luck that you should have fallen into the hands of\nthese bumpkins,\" said she. Then turning to the farmers she asked what\nthey purposed doing with Grettir.\n\n\"Hang him,\" answered they.\n\n\"I do not deny that Grettir may have deserved the rope,\" said Thorbiorg;\n\"but I doubt if you are doing wisely in taking his life.  He belongs to\na great family, and his death will not be to your quietness and content\nif you kill him.\"  Then she said to Grettir, \"What will you do if your\nlife be given you?\"\n\n\"You propose the conditions,\" said he.\n\n\"Very well, then you must swear not to revenge on these men what they\nhave done to you to-day, and not to do any violence more in the\nIce-firth.\"\n\nGrettir took the required oath, and so he was loosed from his bonds.  He\nsaid afterwards that never had he a harder thing to do than to control\nhis temper, when set free, and not to knock the farmers' heads together\nlike nuts and crack them, for what they had done to him.\n\nThen Thorbiorg invited him to her house, and he went with her to the\nWater-firth, and there abode till her husband returned, and when Vermund\nheard all, then he was well pleased; and deemed that his wife had acted\nwith great prudence and kindness. He asked Grettir to remain there as\nlong as was consistent with his safety, and Grettir accepted his\nhospitality, and continued there as his guest till late in the autumn,\nwhen he went south to Learwood, where was Kuggson, with whom he purposed\nspending the winter.  However, he was not able to stay there, for it\nsoon became known where he was, and his enemies prepared to take him.\nHe accordingly left and went to a friend in another fiord, and remained\na short while with him, but was obliged for the same reason to fly\nthence also; and so he spent the winter dodging about from place to\nplace, never able to remain long anywhere, because his enemies were so\nresolved on his death, and were on the alert to fall on him wherever\nthey heard he was sheltering.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXVI.*\n\n                            *IN THE DESERT.*\n\n\n    _The Center of the Island--Ice, Desert, and Volcanoes--The\n    Bubble-Caves--A Dweller in the Desert--Grettir Stops the\n    Rider--Hall-mund Stronger than Grettir--Grettir Seeks Skapti's\n    Advice--Grettir's Night Fears--Grettir Builds a House_\n\n\nThe island of Iceland is one-third larger than Ireland, but then the\npopulation is entirely confined to the coast.  All the centre of the\nisland is desert and mountain.  One mighty mass of mountain covered with\neternal snow and ice occupies the south of the island and approaches the\nsea very closely in the south-east.  Much of this is unexplored; it has\nof recent years been traversed once, across the great Vatna-jokull, but\nthere are passes west of the Vatna.  The mountain masses are broken into\nthree main masses.  The vast Vatna-jokull is to the east, then comes a\npass, and next the circular Arnafells-jokull, then another pass, and\nlastly the jumble of snow mountains that form the Ball-jokull and the\nLang-jokull, the Goatland and the Erick's-jokull. North of the\nVatna-jokull is a vast region, as large as a big county, covered with\nlava broken up into bristling spikes and deep clefts of glass-like rock,\nwhich no one can possibly get across.  In the midst of it, inaccessible,\nrise the cones of volcanoes that have poured forth this sea of molten\nrock.  East and west of this mighty tract of broken-up lava come\nextensive moors also quite desert, covered with inky-black sand which\nhas been erupted by volcanoes, burying and destroying what vegetation\nthere was. The extent of desert may be understood when you learn that\nthere are twenty thousand square miles of country perfectly barren and\nuninhabitable, and only partially explored.  There are but four thousand\nsquare miles in Iceland that are inhabited; the rest of the country is a\nchaos of ice, desert, and volcanoes. The great lava region mentioned\nnorth of the Vatna covers one thousand one hundred and sixty square\nmiles, and the Vatna envelopes three thousand five hundred square miles\nin ice.  Now, here and there in this vast region there are certain\nsheltered spots where some grass grows, valleys that have escaped the\noverflow of the molten rock, or the thrust of the glacier; and during\nthe ninety years that Iceland had been inhabited, every now and then a\nchurl who got tired of service, or a murderer afraid of his life, ran\naway into the centre of the island, and lived a precarious existence on\nthe wild birds, their eggs, and on the fish that abounded in the\ncountless lakes. Probably also they stole sheep, and carried them away\nto the mysterious recesses of the desert where they had made for\nthemselves homes.  They lived chiefly in caverns, of which there are\nplenty thus formed:--When the lava poured as a fiery stream out of the\nvolcanoes, in cooling great bubbles were formed in it, sometimes these\nbubbles exploded, blew the fragments into the air, which fell back and\nmade a mass of broken bits of rock like an exploded soda-water bottle;\nbut all the bubbles did not burst, and such hardened when the rock\nbecame cool.  These bubbles remain as great domed halls, and some of\nthem run deep underground, forming a succession of chambers.  I have\nexplored one where a band of outlaws once lived, and found numbers of\nsheep-bones frozen up in ice in the place where, after they had eaten\nthe mutton, they threw away what they could not devour.  At the end of\nthe cave they had erected a wall so as to inclose a space as a store\nchamber.\n\nThese men, living in the desert and rarely seen, were the subject of\nmany tales, and it was not clearly known who and what they really were,\nwhether altogether human, or half mountain-spirits. Imagination invested\nthem with supernatural powers.\n\nWhen spring came and the snows melted, then Grettir left the farmhouse\nwhere he had been last in hiding, and went into the desert, to find food\nand shelter for himself.\n\nOne day he saw a man on horseback alone riding over a ridge of hill.  He\nwas a very big man, and he led another horse that had bags of goods on\nhis back.  The man wore a slouched hat so that his face could not\nclearly be seen.\n\nGrettir looked hard at the horse and the goods on the pack-saddle, and\nthought he would probably find some of these latter serviceable to him,\nand in his need he was not particular how he got those things which he\nwanted.  So he went up to the rider and peremptorily ordered him to\nstand and deliver.\n\n\"Why should I give you things that are my own?\" asked the stranger.  \"I\nwill sell some of my wares if you can pay for them.\"\n\n\"I have no money,\" answered Grettir, \"what I want I take.  You must have\nheard that by report.\"\n\n\"Then I know with whom I have to deal; you are Grettir the outlaw, the\nson of Asmund of Biarg.\"  Thereat he struck spurs into his horse and\ntried to ride past.\n\n\"Nay, nay!  We part not like this,\" said Grettir, and he laid his hands\non the reins of the horse the stranger rode.\n\n\"You had better let go,\" said the mounted man.\n\n\"Nay, that I will not,\" answered Grettir.\n\nThen the rider stooped and put his hands to the reins above those of\nGrettir, between them and the bit, and he dragged them along, forcing\nGrettir's hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched them out\nof his grasp.\n\nGrettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin had been torn in the\nstruggle.  Then he found out that he had met with a man who was stronger\nthan himself.\n\n\"Give me your name,\" said he.  \"For, good faith! I have not encountered\na man like you.\"\n\nThen the horseman laughed and sang:\n\n    \"By the Caldron's side\n    Away I ride,\n    Where the waters rush and fall\n    Adown the crystal glacier wall\n    There you will find a stone\n    Joined to a hand--alone.\"\n\n\nThis was a puzzling answer.  The meaning was that he lived near a\nwaterfall that poured out of the Ice mountain, and that his name was\nHall-mund, _hall_ is a stone and _mund_ is the hand.\n\nGrettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode away Hall-mund called\nout to Grettir that he would remember this meeting, and as it ended in\nfriendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,--that when every other\nplace of refuge failed he was to seek him \"by the Caldron's side, where\nthe waters rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall\" under\nBall-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.\n\nAfter this Grettir went to the house of his friend the law-man Skapti,\nand asked his advice, and whether he would house him for the ensuing\nwinter.\n\n\"No, friend,\" answered Skapti, \"you have been acting somewhat lawlessly,\nlaying hands on other men's goods, and this ill becomes a well-born man\nsuch as you.  Now, it would be better for you not to rob and reive, but\nget your living in other fashion, even though it were poorer fare you\ngot, and sometimes you had to go without food.  I cannot house you, for\nI am a law-man, and it would not be proper for me who lay down the law\nto shelter such a notorious law-breaker as yourself.  But I will give\nyou my advice what to do.  To the north of the Erick's-jokull is a\ntangle of lakes and streams.  The lakes have never been counted they are\nin such quantities, and no one knows how to find his way among them.\nThese lakes are full of fish, and swarm with birds in summer.  There is\nalso a little creeping willow growing in the sand, and some scanty\ngrass.  It is only one hard day's ride over the waste to Biarg, so that\nyour mother can supply you thence with those things of which you stand\nin absolute need, as clothing, and you can fish and kill birds for your\nsubsistence, and will have no need to rob folk and exact food from the\nbonders, thereby making yourself a common object of terror and dislike.\nOne more piece of advice I give you--Beware how you trust anyone to be\nwith you.\"\n\nGrettir thought this advice was good--only in one point was it hard for\nhim to follow.  He was haunted with these fearful dreams at night which\nfollowed the wrestle with Glam, and in the long darkness of winter the\ndreadful eyes stared at him from every quarter whither he turned his, so\nthat it was unendurable for him to be alone in the dark.\n\nStill--he went.  He followed up the White River to the desert strewn\nwith lakes from which that river flowed, and there found himself in\nutter solitude and desolation.\n\nA good map of Iceland was made in 1844, and on that fifty-three lakes\nare marked, but the smaller tarns were not all set down.  In such a\ntangle of water and moor Grettir might be in comparative security.  He\nsettled himself on a spot of land that runs out into the waters of the\nlargest of the sheets of water, which goes by the name of the Great\nEagle Lake, and thereon he built himself a hovel of stones and turf, the\nruins of which remain to this day, and I have examined them.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXVII.*\n\n                       *ON THE GREAT EAGLE LAKE.*\n\n\n    _The Ruins of the Hut--Erick's-jokull--A Craving for\n    Companionship--A Traitor--Grim Tries to Kill Grettir--Redbeard\n    Undertakes the Task--Redbeard's Stratagem--A Base\n    Fellow--Grettir sinks to the Bottom--Caught in his own\n    Trap--Grettir attacked by Thorir--The Attack Baffled--The\n    Guardian of Grettir's Back--A Summer with Hallmund_\n\n\nGrettir was settled now on the Great Eagle Lake.  This lake is shaped\nlike the figure 8, only that the spot of land between the upper and\nlower portion of the lake does not run quite across. On one side of this\nspot the rock falls away precipitously into the water, whereas it slopes\non the other. If I had had a spade and pick, and if there had been more\ngrass on the moor so as to allow of a longer stay, I would have dug\nabout the foundations of Grettir's hut, and, who can tell!  I might\nperhaps have found some relic of him.  There is no record of anyone else\nhaving inhabited it since he was there, and in the middle of the 13th\ncentury, when the Saga of Grettir was committed to writing, there\nremained the ruins of his hut, but no one lived at the place.  Now there\nis no human habitation for many miles; the lake was a day's journey on\nhorseback from the nearest farm, where I had spent the night.  You must\nget some idea of the place where now for some years Grettir was to live.\n\nThe moor is made up of rock split to fragments by the frost, and with\nwide tracts between the ridges of rock strewn with black volcanic ash\nand sand.  It lies high; when I camped out there at the end of June,\nthere was no grass visible, only angelica shoots, and a little trailing\nwillow, so that my horses had to feed on these.  The willow does not\nrise above the surface of the ground, but its roots trail long distances\nunder the surface, groping for nutriment; and for fuel one has to dig\nout these roots with one's fingers, and employ those which are dryest.\nEvery dip in the moor is filled with a lake, and every lake has in it a\npair of swans; in addition there are abundance of other wild fowl, and\non the moor are ptarmigan that live on the flowers of the whortle or\nblae-berry.\n\nAbove the rolling horizon of moor, to the south rises the great snowy\ndome of Erick's-jokull.  This is in reality a huge volcano, with\nprecipitous sides of black lava towering up like an immense giant's\ncastle.  The great crater has been choked up with the snow of centuries,\nand the snow in falling had piled up a vast cupola of snow and ice\nstanding high above the black walls, and sliding and falling over the\nedges in a succession of avalanches.  When, at eleven o'clock at night,\nI looked out of my tent at Erick's-jokull, the scene was sublime.  The\nsun had just gone under the northern horizon of snow and hill, but shone\non the great dome of Erick's-jokull, turning it to the purest and most\ndelicate rose colour, and the walls of upright basalt that sustained the\ndome were of the purple of a plum.  Grettir obtained nets and a boat\nfrom home, and such things as he wanted for his hut.  One great\nadvantage of his present situation was that three different roads or\nrather tracks led to it from Biarg, so that those who wanted to come to\nhim from home could select their way and avoid observation, till they\ngot among the lakes, when they were in a labyrinth in which anyone might\neasily be lost, and any one could escape a pursuer. It is true that it\nwas a long and arduous day's ride from Biarg to the Eagle Lake, but the\nwhole of the course along each of the ways lay through uninhabited land.\n\nNow, when other outlaws heard that Grettir was on the Eagle Lake Heath,\nthey had a mind to join themselves to him, and Grettir was not unwilling\nto have a companion, so lonely did he feel on this waste, and also so\nfearful was he of being by himself in the dark.\n\nThere was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw; and Grettir's enemies\nmade a bargain with him, that he should go to the Eagle Lake Heath,\npretend to be friends with Grettir, seek opportunity, and kill him. They\non their side undertook, if he would do this, to get his sentence of\noutlawry reversed, and to furnish him liberally with money.\n\nAccordingly he went to the moor, and after some trouble, found Grettir,\nand asked if he might live with him.\n\nGrettir replied, \"I do not much relish such company as yours, for you\nhave got into outlawry through very infamous deeds.  I mistrust you;\nnevertheless I will suffer you to remain if you work hard and be\nobedient. I do not want idle hands here.\"\n\nGrim said he was willing, and prayed hard that he might dwell there, and\ncarried his point.  He remained with Grettir the whole of the winter;\nthere was not much friendship between them.  Grettir mistrusted him all\nalong, and was never parted from his weapons, night or day, and Grim did\nnot venture to attack him whilst he was awake.\n\nBut one morning, when Grim came in from fishing, he went into the hut\nand stamped his foot and made a noise, seeing that Grettir lay in his\nbed asleep; and he was desirous to know how soundly he slept. Grettir\ndid not start and open his eyes, but lay quite still.  Then Grim made\nmore noise, thinking that if Grettir were awake he would chide him; but\nGrettir made no motion.  Then Grim made sure that he was fast asleep,\nand he stepped to his side.  Now, the short sword that had been taken\nout of the barrow of Karr the Old hung above the bed-head.  Grim leaned\nover Grettir and laid hold of the sword, and put both hands to it to\ndraw it out of the sheath. At that instant Grettir started up, caught\nGrim round the waist and flung him backwards so that he was stunned, and\nthe sword fell from his hand.  So Grettir made him confess that he had\nbeen bribed to set on him and murder him.  And then Grettir would have\nno more of him, and resolved to live entirely alone.  Yet--directly he\nwas alone, his dreams, and his horror of the dark, returned on him. Now,\nThorir of Garth heard of an outlaw named Thorir Redbeard, a very big\nman, who for murder had been outlawed, and was therefore in hiding\nsomewhere.  Thorir of Garth sent out messengers in search of him, and at\nlast brought about a meeting, and then he offered him a great deal of\nmoney if he would kill Grettir.  Redbeard said it was no easy task, for\nthat Grettir was wise and wary.\n\n\"It is because it is no easy task that I set you to do it,\" said Thorir\nof Garth.  \"You are no milksop to do easy jobs.\"\n\nThis flattered Redbeard, and he undertook to do what was required.  He\ncame out on the Eagle Lake Heath in the autumn after that winter when\nGrim had been with Grettir and made the attempt on his life.  Grettir\nwas feeling uneasy and troubled, as the days grew shorter, with the eyes\nthat he thought stared at him from every quarter, and although his\njudgment prompted him to refuse hospitality to Redbeard, yet his dread\nof being alone in the dark induced him to disregard his doubts.  So he\nreluctantly admitted Redbeard to be an inmate of his cot.\n\n\"Now, mind this,\" said Grettir.  \"I let a man be with me here last\nwinter, and he lay wait for my life.  If I find that you are false, then\nI shall not spare you.\"\n\nRedbeard said he wished for nothing else; and so Grettir received him,\nand found him to be a very powerful man, and so energetic that he was of\nthe greatest assistance to Grettir.\n\nRedbeard was with him all that winter (1019-1020) and found no occasion\non which he could take Grettir unawares.  Then set in the next winter\n1020-1021, and Redbeard had begun to loathe his life on the heath, and\nno wonder, for he saw no one save Grettir; the cold and desolation of\nthe spot was surpassingly wretched.  Now he became impatient to kill\nGrettir and get away.\n\nOne night a great storm broke over the moor whilst he and Grettir were\nasleep.  The roar of the wind woke Redbeard and he ran outside the hut,\ndown to the water-side, and with a huge stone he smashed the\nfishing-boat, so that it sank; and the oars and bits he had broken off\nhe threw away into the lake.  So did he with the nets.\n\nWhen he came in Grettir was awake also, and he asked how fared the boat.\n\n\"She has broken from her mooring,\" answered Redbeard, \"and has been\ndashed to bits on the rocks.\"\n\nThen Grettir jumped up, and taking his weapons ran out to the end of the\nspit of land on which his hut was built, and saw how the nets were\ndrifting in the waves and were entangled with the oars.\n\n\"Jump in, swim out, and bring them to shore,\" said he to Redbeard.  The\nman shook his head and answered:\n\n\"I can do anything save swim.  I have not held back from any other work\nyou have set me, but swim I cannot.\"\n\nThen Grettir laid his weapons down by the waterside and prepared to jump\nin.  But he mistrusted Redbeard, so he said, \"I will get in the nets, as\nyou cannot; but I trust you will not deal treacherously by me.\"\n\nRedbeard answered, \"I should be a base fellow and unworthy to live if I\nwere false to you now--after you have housed me so long.\"\n\nThen Grettir put off his clothes, and went into the water, and swam out\nto the nets.\n\nHe swept them up together and brought them towards the land, and cast\nthem up on the bank; but the moment he attempted to land Redbeard caught\nup the short sword, drew it hastily and ran at Grettir and smote at him,\njust as he was heaving himself up out of the water.  The blade would\nhave cut into his neck, or between his shoulder-blades, had not Grettir\ninstantly let go, and fallen backwards into the water and sunk like a\nstone.  Sinking thus headlong he reached the bottom, and instead of\nrising to the surface again he clung to the rocks under water, and\ngroped his way along as close as he could to the bank, so that Redbeard\nmight not see him till he had reached the back of the creek and got\naland.\n\nNow, Redbeard stood at the end of the promontory, looking into the\nwater, much puzzled.  He had not cut Grettir with the sword, and yet\nGrettir was gone down, and did not rise.  He thought he must have struck\nhis head against a stone, and so have sunk, and he looked out into the\nwater wondering where and when he would rise.  Meanwhile Grettir had\ncome ashore behind him and was approaching stealthily.  Redbeard was\nunaware of his danger till Grettir had his arms about him, had heaved\nhim over his head and dashed him down on the rocks, so that his skull\nwas broken.  After that Grettir resolved not to take another outlaw into\nhis house, though he could hardly endure to be alone.\n\nThorir of Garth did not hear of the death of Redbeard till next summer\nat the great assize; and then he was so angry, and so resolved to make\nan end of Grettir, that he collected a body of resolute men, his\nservants and others whom he hired for the purpose, to the number of\nnearly eighty, to sweep the Eagle Lake Heath and take and kill Grettir.\n\nOne day, when Grettir was out on the moor, he saw a large body of armed\nmen riding towards the lake.  He had time to fly to a hill that rises at\na little distance, where there is a rift in the rock that traverses the\ntop of the hill.  When I read the account in the saga I could not quite\nunderstand what follows, but no sooner was I on the spot than all\nappeared quite clear.  One could see, at once, that Grettir, taken by\nsurprise, would run to this very spot and no other.  It was the nearest\navailable place of vantage, with stone and crag.  The situation was not\nthe best that might have been chosen, as it left Grettir's back\nunprotected; however, he had no time to seek a better.\n\n[Illustration: GRETTIR ATTACKED IN THE RIFT BY THORIR'S PARTY.]\n\nThorir came with his men to the bottom of the hill, and shouted to\nGrettir and taunted him.\n\nGrettir replied, \"Though you may have put the spoon to your lips you\nhave not swallowed the broth.\"\n\nThen Thorir egged on his men to go up the slope at Grettir, but this was\nnot easy.  It was steep, and the rocks were close on either side so that\nGrettir could not be surrounded.  Only one man could get at him from\nbefore at once.  Several attempts were made, but all failed; some of the\nassailants were killed, some wounded.  Then Thorir broke up his party\ninto two, and sent one detachment round to the back of the rocks, to\nfall on Grettir from behind. Grettir saw the manoeuvre, and did not see\nhow to meet it.  All he could do would be to sell his life dearly.  He\ncould not hold out long when assailed simultaneously from before and\nbehind.\n\nThorir bade the attack slacken till he thought those sent to the rear\nwould be ready, and then he ordered a grand, and, as he believed, a\ncombined assault.  Grettir fought with desperation, expecting every\nmoment to be cut down from behind, but to his surprise and that of\nThorir he was left unmolested in the rear.\n\nThorir called off his men, and went round the hill to inquire why the\nattack from behind had not taken place.  To his amazement he came on a\ndiscomfited party bleeding, faint, and baffled, and to find that twelve\nmen had fallen in it.[#]\n\n\n[#] At the time, or rather shortly after I had been on the spot, I\nwrote, \"There is a nook like a sentry-box in the side of the cleft, and\nit was in this that Hallmund ensconced himself, so that he could hew\ndown anyone who attempted to pass through this cleft to get at Grettir's\nback, whilst remaining himself screened from observation. I could not\nunderstand the saga account before I saw the spot, and how it was that\nthose attacking Grettir from behind did not see Hallmund. The sight of\nthe place made all plain.\"\n\n\nThen he bade a retreat.  \"Oft,\" he said, \"have I heard that Grettir is a\nman of marvel for prowess, but I never knew before that he was a wizard,\nand able to kill as many at his back as he does in front of him.\"\n\nWhen he numbered his men, Thorir found that he had lost eighteen.  Then\nhe and his retinue rode away, and they carried on them many and grievous\nwounds.\n\nNow Grettir was no less perplexed with the event than was Thorir, and\nwhen the latter had withdrawn he went through the rift in the rocks to\nsee why he had not been fallen on from the rear,--and he lighted on a\ntall strong man leaning against the rocks, sore wounded.\n\nGrettir asked his name, and the tall man replied that he was Hallmund.\n\n\"Do you remember meeting me on the heath one day?\" asked the wounded\nman, \"when you tried to stop my horse, and I pulled the reins through\nyour hands so as to skin the palms'?  Then I promised if I had the\nchance to back you up.\"\n\n\"Indeed,\" said Grettir, much moved, \"I remember that right well, and now\nI thank you with all my heart, for this day you have saved my life.\"\n\nThen Hallmund said, \"You must now come with me, for time must drag with\nyou solitary here on the heath.\"\n\nGrettir said he was glad to accept the offer; so they went together\nsouth to the Ball-jokull, and there Hallmund had a great cave, and his\ndaughter, a big muscular girl, lived there with him; there the girl\napplied plasters to the wounds of her father and healed him.\n\nGrettir remained with them in the cave all the ensuing summer.  But when\nsummer came to an end, he wearied of being so long in the desert, and\nlonged to see and be with his fellow-men in inhabited parts once more;\nso he bade farewell to Hallmund, and went away to the west to Hit-dale\nthat opens on the Marshland, through which six or seven large rivers\nflow.  Here he had a friend named Biorn living at Holm.\n\n\n\n\n                           *CHAPTER XXVIII.*\n\n                             *ON THE FELL.*\n\n\n    _The Hollow of Fairwood Fell--Above the Shale Slide--The\n    Outlaw's Lair--The Boaster--A Dandified Warrior--Hunter and\n    Hunted--A Skin-dressing--Sadder and Wiser_\n\n\nBiorn when asked by Grettir to give him shelter declined to do so, not\nthat the will was lacking, but that he had not the power to protect him.\n\"You have made,\" he said, \"enemies on all sides, and if I were to take\nyou under my roof all your enemies would become mine also, and I would\nbe involved in endless and bitter quarrels.  I cannot give you direct\nassistance and shelter, but indirectly I will do what I can for you.\nThere is a long hill, called Fairwood Fell, that runs in front of my\nhouse on the other side of the river, and ends just above the marshes.\nNow, in one place there is a steep shale slide, and above this is a\nhollow through the mountain, that might very well be made into a dry and\ncomfortable place of abode.  From the entrance every one who passes\nalong the highway, all who come across the marshes, can be seen.  I can\nsupply you with a few necessaries to fit the place up, but when there\nyou must shift for yourself.  I must not risk too much by supporting\nyou.\"\n\nGrettir consented to this.  So he went up to Fairwood Fell and built up\nthe cave, and hung gray wadmal before the entrance, so that no one below\ncould notice that there was anything peculiar or anyone living there.\nIn this eagle's nest among the rocks Grettir spent the time from the\nautumn of 1022 to the spring of 1024, that is, two winters. Whatever\nfuel he wanted, all he had to eat, everything he wanted, had to be\ncarried up this slippery and steep ascent by him.  Down the shale slide\nhe came when short of provisions, and went over the marshes to this or\nthat farm and demanded or carried off, sometimes a sheep, sometimes\ncurds, dried fish, in a word what he required; and a very great nuisance\nthe men of the district found him.  Heartily did they wish they were rid\nof him, yet they could not drive him from his place of abode, for it was\nso difficult of access and so easy of defence.\n\nNow, some years ago, in the summer of 1862, the year after I was in\nIceland, a very similar lair which Grettir inhabited a little later in\nthe east of Iceland was explored by an Icelandic farmer.  This is his\ndescription of it: \"The lair stands in the lower part of a slip of\nstones beneath some sheer rocks. It is built up of stones, straight as a\nline 4-3/4 ells long and 10 inches wide, and is within the walls 7/8 of\nan ell deep.  Half of it is roofed over with flat stones, small thin\nsplinters of stone are wedged in between these to fill up the joints,\nand these are so firmly fixed that they could not be removed without\ntools. One stone in the south wall is so large that it requires six men\nto move it.  The north wall is beginning to give way.  On the outside\nthe walls are overgrown with black lichen and gray moss.\"\n\nSomething like this was the den of Grettir on the Fairwood Fell, but it\nwas less built up, as he had the natural rock for two of the sides and\nfor the roof.\n\nWhilst Grettir was there, there came a ship into harbour, in which was a\nman named Gisli, a merchant, very fond of wearing smart clothes, and an\ninordinately vain man.  He heard the farmers talking about Grettir, and\nwhat a vexation it was to them to have him in their neighbourhood.\n\n\"Don't talk to me about Grettir,\" said Gisli; \"I've had battles with\nharder men than he.  I hope he may came in my way, that I may dress his\nskin for him.\"\n\nThe farmer to whom he said this shook his head. \"You don't know of whom\nyou are speaking.  If you were to kill him you would be well off,--six\nmarks of silver were set on his head, and Thorir of Garth has added\nthree more, so that there stand on him nine marks of silver.\"\n\n\"All things can be done for money,\" said Gisli; \"and as I am a merchant\nI'll see to it.  And when we meet--I'll dress his skin for him.\"\n\nThe farmer said it would be well not to talk about the matter.  Gisli\nagreed.  \"I will abide this winter in Snowfell-ness,\" he said.  \"If his\nlair is on my road thither I'll look out for him, and dress his skin as\nI go along.\"\n\nNow, whether he talked in spite of the caution given him, or whether\nsome one overheard what he said, who was a friend of Biorn of Holm, is\nuncertain.  Any how Gisli's threat reached the ears of Biorn, who at\nonce warned Grettir to be on his guard against the merchant.\n\n\"If he comes your way,\" said Biorn, \"teach him a lesson; but don't kill\nhim.\"\n\n\"No,\" said Grettir with a grim smile, \"I'll merely dress his skin for\nhim.\"\n\nNow it happened one day that Grettir was looking out of the entrance to\nhis lair, when he saw a man with two attendants riding along the\nhighway.  His kirtle was of scarlet, and his helmet and shield flashed\nin the sun.  Then it occurred to him that this must be the dandified\nGisli, of whom he had heard, so he came running down the shale descent\nto the road. He reached the man, and at once he went to his horse,\nclapped his hand on a bundle of clothes behind the saddle, and said,\n\"This I am going to take.\"\n\n\"Nay, not so,\" answered Gisli, for it was he. \"You do not know whom you\nare addressing.\"\n\n\"Nor do I care,\" said Grettir.  \"I have little respect for persons.  I\nam in poor and lowly condition myself, so low that I am driven to be a\nhighway robber.\"\n\nThen Gisli drew his sword, and called to his men to attack Grettir, who\ngave way a little before them. But he soon saw that Gisli kept behind\nhis servants, and never risked himself where the blows fell; so Grettir\nput the two churls aside with well-dealt strokes, and went direct upon\nthe merchant, who, seeing that he was menaced, turned and took to his\nheels.  Grettir pursued him, and Gisli in his fear cast aside his\nshield, then, a little further, threw away his helmet, and so as he ran\nhe cast away one thing after another that he had with him.  There was a\nheavy purse of silver at his girdle.  This encumbered him, and as he ran\nhe unbuckled his belt and dropped it and the purse with it.  Grettir did\nnot purposely come up with him; he could have outstripped him had he\nwilled, but he let the fellow run a couple of horse lengths before him.\nThe end of the Fell is above an old lava bed that has flowed from a\ncrater called Eldborg or the Castle of Fire, and like an old ruined\ncastle it looks.  Gisli ran over this lava bed, jumping the cracks, then\ndived through a wood of birch that intervened between the lava and the\nriver Haf.  The stream was swollen with ice, and ill to ford.  Gisli\nhalted hesitating before plunging in, and that allowed Grettir to run in\non him, seize him and throw him down.\n\n\"Are you the Gisli who were so eager to meet Grettir Asmund's son?\"\nasked the outlaw.\n\n\"I have had enough of him,\" gasped the fallen man.  \"Keep my saddle-bags\nand what I have thrown away, and let me go free.\"\n\n\"Hardly yet,\" said Grettir grimly.  \"I think something was said about\nskin-dressing, that is not to be overlooked.\"\n\nThen Grettir drew him back to the wood, took a good handful of birch\nrods, pulled Gisli's clothes up over his head, and laid the twigs\nagainst his back in none of the gentlest fashion.  Gisli danced and\nskipped about, but Grettir had him by his garments twisted about his\nhead and neck, and continued to flog till the poor fellow threw himself\ndown on the ground screaming.  Then Grettir let go, and went quietly\nback to his lair, picking up as he went the purse and the belt, the\nshield, casque, and whatever else Gisli had thrown away, also he had the\ncontents of his saddle-bags.\n\nGisli never came back to Fairwood Fell to ask for them.  When he got on\nhis legs he ran up the river to where it was not so dangerous, swam it,\nand reached a farmhouse, where he entreated to be taken in.  There he\nlay a week with his body swollen and striped; after which he went home,\nand much was he laughed at for his adventure with Grettir.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXIX.*\n\n                       *THE FIGHT ON THE RIVER.*\n\n\n    _Angry Farmers--A Large Band of Men--The Marshmen are Driven\n    Back--The Attacking Party Reinforced--Fighting in\n    Desperation--Wearied but Unwounded--The Song of Victory_\n\n\nNow, whilst Grettir was on Fairwood Fell, favoured by Biorn of Hit-dale,\nhis presence after a while became unendurable to the bonders who lived\nin the marshes.  He had been for two winters in his den on the hill, and\nwhen they saw that he intended to remain there a third winter, and rob\nthem of sheep and whatever he needed, then they took counsel together\nhow they might rid themselves of the annoyance.\n\nOne day in the winter of 1023, Grettir came down from his place of\nvantage, and went over the marshes to a farm called Acres, and drove\naway from it two bullocks fit for slaughtering, and several sheep, and\nhe had got on with them some way over the marshes, on his way to his\nlair, before the farmer at Acres was aware of his loss; he had taken six\nwethers beside from another farm named Brookbend. This angered the\nfarmers greatly, and they sent a message to the chief man of the\ndistrict, Thord at Hitness, and urged him to waylay Grettir before he\ncould reach his den.  Thord shrank from doing anything; however, they\npressed him so much that at last he consented to let his son Arnor go\nwith them.  Then messengers were sent throughout all the country side,\nto every farmer who was concerned.  And it was so planned that two\nbodies of men should march to the taking of Grettir, one on the right,\nthe other on the left bank of the Hit River, so as to take him for\ncertain.\n\nGrettir was soon aware that the country was roused.  He was not alone,\nhe had two men with him--one the son of the farmer at Fairwood Fell,\nwith whom he was on good terms, the other a farm-servant. They advised\nhim to desert the cattle and sheep and run for it, cross the river and\ntake refuge in his place of vantage; but this Grettir was too proud to\ndo.\n\nPresently he could see coming on behind him a large band of men, about\ntwenty in all, under Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend.  Now,\nas these were pursuing him over the marshes, up the opposite side of the\nriver came Arnor, the son of Thord of Hitness, and with him a farmer\nnamed Biarni of Jorvi.\n\nGrettir managed to reach the river before his enemies came up with him,\nand he had also time to secure a place of vantage.  This was a ness of\nrock that ran out into the river, or round which the river swept, so\nthat he was protected by the water on all sides but one.  Grettir said\nto the two men with him, that they must guard his back, see that none\ncame up the sides in his rear, and then he took his short-sword in both\nhis hands, planted his feet wide apart on the rock, and prepared to sell\nhis life dear.\n\nThe party headed by Thorarin of Acres and Thorfin of Brookbend came up,\ntwenty in all,--but more were coming, for Thorarin had begun the pursuit\nbefore all the farmers were collected, and he knew that a body of some\ntwenty or thirty more would arrive before long.  Thorarin himself was an\nold man, and he did not enter into the fray, but urged on his men.\n\nThe fight was hard.  Grettir was not easily reached where he stood, and\nhe smote at all who approached.  Some of the Marshmen fell, and several\nwere wounded.  In vain did they attempt to dislodge him by combined\nrushes, he drove them over the edge into the water, or cut them down\nwith his sword.  At last his arm was weary, and he called to the\nfarmer's son to step into his place.  He did so, and held the ground\nvaliantly, whilst Grettir rested.  Then the party drew back,\ndiscomfited.  At that moment up came the fresh body of men under Thrand,\nthe brother of Thorarin of Acres, and Stonewolf of Lavadale.  These\negged on their men eagerly, and they thought they would obtain an easy\nvictory, for Grettir had been fighting for some time, and was weary.\n\nThen Thorarin of Acres called out and advised delay.\n\n\"For,\" said he, \"the third party of men under Arnor and Biarni of Jorvi\nhave not come up on the other side of the river.\"\n\nThis piece of advice was rejected by the newcomers.  What did they want\nwith more men? They were a large party, fresh and untired, and Grettir\nhad but two men with him, and they were wearied with fighting.  So the\nsignal was given for the onslaught.\n\nThen Grettir saw that he must either jump into the river, swim across,\nand desert the sheep and bullocks he had driven there, or use almost\nsuperhuman exertions to defend himself.\n\nHis position was, indeed, desperate; for, even if he did hold his own\nagainst this second body of men, a third was on its way up the other\nbank of the river to intercept him on his way up to the Fell.  For one\nmoment he hesitated, and then was resolved.  No, he would not run.  He\nwould die there, and die only after having strewn the ground with his\nfoes.  Foremost among his assailants was Stonewolf of Lavadale, and\nGrettir made a sudden rush at him, and with a tremendous stroke of his\nsword he clove his head down to the shoulders. Thrand, who sprang\nforward to avenge him, Grettir struck on the thigh, and the blow took\noff all the muscle, and he fell, crippled for life.  Then Grettir fell\nback to his place of safety, and dared others to come on.  They sprang\nout on the neck of rock, but would not meet his weapon, one after\nanother fell or was beaten back.\n\nThen Thorarin cried out, and bade all draw off.\n\n\"The longer ye fight,\" said he, \"the worse ye fare.  He picks out what\nmen among you he chooses.\"\n\nThe party withdrew, and there were ten men fallen, and five had received\nmortal wounds, or were crippled; and hardly one of the two parties was\nwithout some hurt or other.\n\nGrettir, moreover, was marvellously wearied, but had received no wounds\nto speak of.\n\nNow, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying their dead and wounded, than\nup came the third detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other side\nof the river.  There can be no question but that, had they crossed and\nfallen on Grettir, he could not have defended himself longer, so\novercome was he with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father had\nentered on the matter reluctantly, and he was discouraged by the\nill-success of the other companies. Consequently, he neither waded\nthrough the river at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his\nground and cut off Grettir's retreat.  Instead, he withdrew with all his\nmen, and left Grettir to recover his strength, and cross and escape to\nthe Fell. This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment; and he was\naccused of cowardice, an accusation that clung to him through life.\nEven his father rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had\nbrought upon himself.\n\nThe point on the river Hit where this affray took place is still shown;\nand is called Grettir's-point to this day.\n\nWhen the fight was over Grettir and the two men went to the Fell, and as\nthey passed the farm the farmer's daughter came out of the door, and\nasked for tidings.\n\nThen Grettir sang:--\n\n    \"Brewer of strong barley-corn,\n    Pourer forth of drinking-horn,\n    Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,\n    Ne'er again his head be well.\n    Many more have got their bane,\n    Many in their blood lie slain;\n    Little life has Thorgils now,\n    After that bone-breaking blow.\n    Eight upon the river's bank\n    In their gore expiring sank.\"\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XXX.*\n\n                          *A MYSTERIOUS VALE.*\n\n\n    _The Dome of Snow--Cold Dale--A Fair Valley--The Mottled\n    Ewe--With Thorir and his Daughters--The Stone on\n    Broad-shield--Thorir's Cave_\n\n\nIn the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from Fairwood Fell; for he had\nbeen there so long, and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the\nmarshes, that he himself saw that it would be best for him to remove\ninto quite another part of the island.  So he visited his friend\nHallmund once more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund advised\nhim where to go.  He could not give him hospitality himself that winter,\nbecause his stock of goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice\nfor his daughter and himself; but he told him of a valley unknown to\nanyone, save a friend of his called Thorir and himself.  And he informed\nhim how it was to be reached.\n\nNow, as already said, there are passes in Iceland between the several\nblocks of ice mountains, and such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull\nand a curious domed snowy mountain called Ok.  The pass is called the\nCold Dale, because it lies for many hours ride between ice mountains,\nand under the precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned with\ngreen ice that falls over incessantly in great avalanches.  It is seven\nhours' ride from one blade of grass to another through that dale.  I\nwent through it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses lying\nabout that had died unable to get through; perhaps becoming lame or\nexhausted on the way.\n\nHalf through this long trough of the Cold Dale stands up a buttress of\nrock, or rather a sort of ness, projecting from Goatland-jokull, so\nprecipitous that hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the\nHalf-way Fell.\n\nNow, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through the Cold Dale till he\nreached the Half-way Fell, and there he must strike up over the snow and\nglaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would all at once drop\ninto a valley known to few.\n\nSo Grettir went up the moor till he struck the White River, that flowed\nout of the Eagle Lakes he knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy\ncrown of Erick's-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte rocks for\nseveral hundreds of feet, till he found himself in the Cold Dale, and\nalong that he trudged till he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up\nlike a wall as though to stop the pass.  There he turned to the left,\nand as at this point Goatland is no longer precipitous, but slopes in a\nseries of steps to the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a long\nand tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of the mountain, and there\nhe saw that the snow slopes fell away rapidly to the south, and he\ndescended and soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great many\nboiling springs that threw up clouds of steam, and he saw also, what\ngreatly pleased him, that there was rich and abundant grass in this\nvalley. This is what the saga says: \"The dale was long and somewhat\nnarrow, locked up by glaciers all round, in such a manner that the ice\nwalls overhung the dale.  He scrambled down into it, as best he could,\nand there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown and set with bushes.  Hot\nsprings were there, and it appeared to him that it was the earth-fires\nwhich prevented the ice walls from closing in on the valley.  A little\nriver ran down the dale, with level banks.  The sun rarely shone into\nthe valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly be reckoned, they\nwere so many; and nowhere had he seen any so fat and in such good\ncondition.\"\n\nGrettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund's friend, at first; so he built\nhimself a hut of such wood as he could get, and with turf.  He killed\nthe sheep he wanted, and found that there was more meat on one of them\nthan on two elsewhere.\n\nThe Saga says:--\n\n\"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with a lamb, and she was a\nbeauty.  Grettir killed the lamb, and took three stone of suet off it,\nthe meat was some of the best he had ever eaten.  But when the mottled\newe missed her lamb, she went up on Grettir's hut every night, and\nbleated so plaintively as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite\ntroubled that he had killed her lamb.\"\n\nNow Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep ran in one direction, and\nonce or twice he heard a call; so he went after the sheep one evening,\nand was led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt.  He was a strange\nman, who had spent so many years away from the society of his fellow-men\nas not to care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome Grettir very\nwarmly.  However he had three daughters, and they were glad to have\nsomeone to talk to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself became\nmore amiable, and so the winter did not pass as drearily as Grettir had\nfeared it would.  He sang his songs and related stories, and the party\nplayed draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.\n\nWhen spring came, however, he was fain to go; and he did not leave by\nthe way he came, but followed the little river, and it led him out\nbetween rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with lava beds\nthat have poured out of a volcano, or rather two that stand opposite\nthis entrance to Thorir's valley.  These two volcanoes are quite unlike\neach other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell has upright\nwalls, like Erick's-jokull, and a crater filled up and brimming over\nwith ice; but the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like a\nconical round silver shield laid on the ground. The entrance to Thorir's\nDale is completely hidden by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and\nthen a second snowy mountain stands further out in front of the opening,\nso that not a sign of any valley can be seen from anywhere.\n\nSo difficult did Grettir think it would be to find it, that he ascended\non Broad-shield and set up a stone there with a hole in it, so that\nanyone looking through this hole would see directly into the narrow\nentrance of Thorir's Dale.  This stone still stands where Grettir had\nplaced it; but has sunk on one side, so that by looking through the hole\nthe eye is no longer directed to the entrance.\n\nNo one had ever visited Thorir's Dale since Grettir left it till the\nyear 1654, when it was explored by two Icelandic clergymen, and an\naccount of their expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British\nMuseum.[#]  The valley as far as I know has not been explored since.  It\nis marked on the map of Iceland, but apparently from the description\nleft by the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it by the\nmap-maker.\n\n\n[#] I have given a translation of it in my _Curiosities of Olden Times_,\nLondon, Hayes, 1869.\n\n\nWhen the two men visited the valley they went to it in the same way as\ndid Grettir.  They found no hot springs, and the valley was utterly\nbarren; but then they had no time to descend it, they only looked down\non it from above.  They found the cave with a door, and a window to it,\nwhich was probably the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXI.*\n\n                        *THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.*\n\n\n    _Grim's Fish Disappear--The Thief Wounded and Tracked--Death of\n    Hallmund_\n\n\nNow, there was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw for his ill-deeds,\nand he thought that as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle\nLake, he might go there and occupy it.  This did not please Hallmund,\nfor Grettir had left him his nets, and he was wont to fish in the lake.\n\nGrim had supplied himself with nets, and he one day caught a hundred\nchar, large red-fleshed fish, delicious eating; so he piled them up\noutside his hut.  Next morning to his great surprise all his char had\ndisappeared.  Then he went fishing again, and caught even more fish, and\nhe brought them to land, and heaped them up as before.\n\nNext morning they also had disappeared.\n\nHe could not understand it; so he fished again, and had on this occasion\nextraordinary luck: he must have netted nearly three hundred fish.  He\nbrought them home, and put them in the same place as before; but he did\nnot go to sleep this time: he remained within, and watched his store\nthrough a peep-hole in the door.\n\nDuring the night he heard someone who trod heavily coming along the\nness, and then he saw a man picking up his fish, and putting them into a\nbasket he had on his back.  Grim watched till he had filled the basket,\nwhich he now heaved upon his shoulders.  Instantly Grim threw open the\ndoor, rushed out, and whilst the man was still stooping adjusting his\nload, he swung up a very sharp axe he held, holding it in both hands,\nand smote at the man's neck.  The axe hit the basket, and that somewhat\nbroke its force, but it glanced aside and sank into the shoulder.  Then\nthe man started aside, and set off running with the basket to the south,\nskirting a lava field that had flowed out of Erick's-jokull, and which\nnow goes by the name of Hallmund's Lava-bed.\n\nGrim ran after him, and saw that he was making for Ball-jokull; but the\nman, who was of great size and strength, though wounded and losing\nblood, ran on, and did not stay till he reached a cave in the face of\nthe cliff, above which was the ice, and with long icicles hanging over\nthe front.  Into this he entered.  There was a fire burning inside, and\na young woman sitting by it.\n\nGrim heard her welcome the man, and call him her father, and name him\nHallmund.  He cast his basket of fish down, and groaned aloud.\n\nThen the girl saw that blood was flowing from him, and she asked him\nwhat had happened.\n\nHallmund told what had befallen him, and said that he was wounded to the\ndeath, and that he trusted Grettir would avenge him, for he had no other\nfriend to do so.\n\nAfter that Hallmund began a lay, and sang the history of his life, the\nachievements he had wrought, and he sang on till his breath failed, and\neither he was unable to finish his lay, or Grim could not remember all\nof it.  A good deal, however, of Hallmund's death-song has been retained\nand is given in the saga.\n\nBut Hallmund's hope or expectation that Grettir would avenge him was\ndisappointed, for Grim managed to get away from Iceland, and did not\nreturn to it again during the lifetime of Grettir.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXII.*\n\n                 *OF ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST GRETTIR.*\n\n\n    _Thorir raises a Party against Grettir--Grettir plays the\n    Herdsman--A Daring Trick--Thorir a Laughing-Stock_\n\n\nNow, during the summer, tidings came to Thorir of Garth that Grettir was\nsomewhere about on Reekheath in the north-east.  There was his lair\nwhich was examined a few years ago, and which remains in tolerable\ncondition, as already mentioned when his lair at Fairwood Fell was\ndescribed.  Now, Thorir of Garth, when he got this tidings was resolved\nto make another attempt to kill him; and no wonder, for with singular\naudacity Grettir had come into his neighbourhood.  Grettir no doubt\nthought that he had preyed long enough on men who had not harmed him,\nand that now he would prey on the goods and cattle of the man who had\nmade an outlaw of him, and who pursued him with such remorseless\nhostility.  Thorir gathered a number of men together and went in pursuit\nof Grettir. Grettir was not at that time in his den but out on the moor,\nand he was near a mountain-dairy that stood back somewhat from the\nwayside, and there was another man with him, when they spied the party\nof Thorir, all armed, coming along.  They had not been observed, so they\nhastily led their horses into the shed attached to the dairy, and\nconcealed themselves.  Thorir came along, went to the dairy, looked\nabout to see if anyone were there who could inform him if Grettir had\nbeen seen, noticed only a couple of horses tied up, but supposed they\nbelonged to the farmer whose summer dairy this was, and, without looking\nfurther, went on.\n\nAs soon as Thorir and his band had gone out of sight, Grettir crept from\nhis place of hiding, and said to his companion:\n\n\"It is a pity they should have come such a ride to see me, and should be\ndisappointed.  You watch the horses, and I will go on and have a word\nwith them.\"\n\n\"You surely will not be so rash?\" exclaimed the other man.\n\n\"I cannot let them come all this way without exchanging words with me,\"\nsaid Grettir, and leaving the horses under the care of his comrade, he\nstrode away over the moor to a place where he was sure he could be\nobserved.  Now, Grettir had a slouched hat on and a long staff in his\nhand, and at the dairy he had found some clothes belonging to the\nherdsman usually there, and these he had put on.\n\nDirectly Thorir and his party saw a man with a staff striding about on\nthe moor they rode to him. None of them knew Grettir's face, for,\nindeed, they had not been given the chance.  So they thought this great\nrough man was the herdsman, and they asked him if he had seen the outlaw\nGrettir.\n\n\"What sort of man is he?\" asked Grettir.  \"Is he armed?\"\n\n\"Armed indeed is he, with a casque on his head, a long sword, and also a\nshort one in his girdle.\"\n\n\"Is he riding?\"\n\n\"Most certainly he is.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said Grettir, \"you had better get you along after him due south;\nhe has gone that way not so long agone.\"\n\nWhen they heard this Thorir and his party struck spurs into their\nhorses, put them into a gallop, and away they went as hard as they could\nin the direction indicated.  Now, Grettir knew the country very well,\nand he was well aware that south of where he stood were impassable bogs.\nThorir and his fellows were too eager in pursuit to attend to the nature\nof the ground over which they rode; besides, they thought that if\nGrettir had ridden that way they could ride it as well.  They were\nspeedily mistaken, for in they floundered into a bottomless morass; some\nof the horses were in to their saddles; the men got off and got out with\ndifficulty, and they had much ado to get their horses out at all.\nIndeed, some were wallowing there more than half the day. Many curses\nwere heaped on the churl who had befooled them, but they could not find\nhim when the went after him to chastise him.\n\nGrettir hastened back to the dairy, mounted his horse, and rode to Garth\nitself, whilst the master was floundering in the bog.  As he came to the\nfarm he saw a tall, well-dressed girl by the door, and he asked who she\nwas.  He was told this was Thorir's daughter.  Then Grettir sang a stave\nto her, the meaning of which was that he who came there was the man whom\nThorir was vainly pursuing.\n\nMuch laughter was occasioned by this failure of Thorir to take Grettir\nwhen he was in his own neighbourhood, and by his being so deceived and\nbefooled by Grettir when he had him in his power.\n\n\n\n\n                           *CHAPTER XXXIII.*\n\n                            *AT SANDHEAPS.*\n\n\n    _A Deadly Enemy--In the Service of Steinvor--The Way to\n    Church--Crossing the Quivering Flood--The Priest's Caution--A\n    Weird Tale--The Old Hag--The Stream-churl--Steinvor's Husband's\n    Death--The Foundation of the Story--The Troll-woman of\n    Grettir--The Basaltic Troll-wife--The Search under\n    Goda-foss--Grettir's Dive--The Fight with the\n    Stream-churl--Runes of the Fight--A Bag of Bones_\n\n\nThe summer was passing away, and Grettir could not remain without\nshelter through the winter; so he considered what was best to be done.\nHe could not ask any farmer in the north-east to shelter him, because\nthey were all afraid of Thorir of Garth, who would have pursued with\nimplacable animosity the man who befriended and housed the outlaw.\nMoreover, Thorir had his spies everywhere, and Grettir found he had to\nshift quarters repeatedly to escape his deadly enemy.\n\nNow, when the first snows fell Grettir sent his man away with his horses\nacross country to Biarg, and he went further away from where Thorir was;\nbut never stayed long anywhere, nor gave his real name.  He had no\nrelatives in this part of the island, and no friends.\n\nNow, a little before Yule--that is Christmas--he came to a farm called\nSandheaps, on that river which is called the Quivering Flood.  This farm\nbelonged to a widow woman called Steinvor, who had recently lost her\nhusband.\n\nGrettir came and offered his services; he said his name was Guest, that\nhe was out of work, and that he had come there because he heard she was\nshort of hands.\n\nSteinvor looked at him, and saw that he was a very powerfully-built man,\nand that there was a certain dignity and nobility in his face; so she\naccepted him, against the opinion of the rest in the house, who were\nfrightened at the appearance of Grettir, and did not know what to make\nof him, whether he were an ordinary human being or a wild man, half\nmountain-goblin or troll.\n\nIt came to pass on Christmas-eve that the widow Steinvor was very\ndesirous to go to church, but the church was on the further side of the\nriver, and there was no bridge.\n\nGrettir heard Steinvor lament that she could not go to church, so he\nsaid bluntly: \"You can go.  I will attend you and see you over the\nwater.\"\n\nThen she made ready for worship, and took her little daughter with her.\nNow, at times the river froze hard across, and then it was possible to\ncross on the ice.  At other times it might be traversed at a ford.  But\nwhen Grettir came to the side of the Quivering Flood, it was plain to\nhim that by the ice the water could not be crossed.  For there had been\na rapid thaw, and now the river was overflowed and very full of water;\nand, moreover, it was rolling down great masses of ice.\n\nWhen Steinvor saw the condition of the river, she said, \"There is\nplainly no way across for horse or man.\"\n\n\"I suppose there is a ford somewhere,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Steinvor, \"there is a ford at this place; but I do not\nsee how it is to be traversed.\"\n\n\"I will carry you across,\" said Grettir.\n\n\"Carry over the little maiden first,\" said the widow.  \"She is the\nlightest.\"\n\n\"I don't care about making two journeys when one will suffice,\" answered\nGrettir.  \"Come, jump up; I will carry you in my arms.\"\n\n[Illustration: FORDING THE QUIVERING FLOOD.]\n\nThe widow crossed herself, and said, \"That will never do.  How can you\nmanage such a burden?\"\n\nBut without more ado Grettir caught up Steinvor on his arm, and then he\npicked up the little girl and set her on her mother's lap, and strode\ninto the water; they were on his left arm, but he kept the right free.\nThey were so frightened that they durst not cry out.  He waded on in the\nriver, and the water foamed up to his breast; and then he saw a great\nice-floe coming bearing down upon him.  He put out his right hand, gave\nthe mass of ice a thrust, and it was whirled past them by the current.\nThen he waded further, and the water washed about his shoulders, and\nthat was the deepest point.  After that the river shallowed, and he bore\nthe mother and child safely to the shore and set them down.\n\nNow Grettir turned to go back, and he took up a great stone and set it\non his head, and so waded back.  If he had tried to go through the water\nwithout a stone he would have been washed away; but the great stone on\nhis head enabled him to stand firm and resist the current of the water.\nThose who have not been through an Icelandic river can hardly imagine\nthe intensity of the cold.  I have ridden through these rivers, my horse\nswimming under me, and when I reached the further side have thrown\nmyself off and lain on the sand for a quarter of an hour before I could\nrecover from the numbness caused by the deadly cold; for some of these\nrivers are as broad as the Thames at London Bridge, and the water is\nmilky because full of undissolved snow.\n\nWhen Steinvor reached the church every one was astonished to see her,\nand asked how she had managed to get across the Quivering Flood.  But\nwhen the priest heard the story, he called Steinvor aside, and said:\n\n\"Mind and do not say too much about your new man; do not talk about his\nstrength, and set folk a-wondering who he may be.  I have my own\nopinion, and I think you will do well to house him, and say nothing to\nanyone about his being in any way remarkable.\"\n\nAnd now there comes into the saga of Grettir a story which is certainly\nuntrue, but how it comes in can be made out pretty easily.\n\nThe real truth was, as the saga writer confesses, that Grettir remained\nhidden at Sandheaps all that winter, and no one in the country round\nknew that he was there.  But then, the saga writer did not feel\nsatisfied with such a dull winter, in which nothing happened; so, to\nfill out his story and say something interesting, he worked into his\nhistory a wonderful tale.  The story, which I tell in my own words, is\nthis:--\n\n\n\n                    *The Story of the Stream-Troll*\n\n\nThere is on the Quivering Flood some miles below Sandheaps a mighty\nfoss, or waterfall.  The whole river pours over a ledge in a thundering,\nmagnificent cascade.  The stream in the middle is broken by an island.\nYou can hear the roar of the falling water for a long way around, and\nsee the spray thrown up from the fall like a cloud or column of steam\nrising high into the air.  This waterfall is called Goda-foss, and was\nlong supposed to be the finest in the island; but there is another,\nwhich I was the first to see, on the Jokull-river, called Detti-foss,\nwhich is infinitely finer, but which is in a region of utter desert of\nsand and volcanic crater, many miles from any human habitation.\n\nIt happens that there is a curious black lava rock standing near the\nriver, higher up than the fall, which bears a quaint resemblance to an\nold woman, and this stone is called The Old Hag; and the story goes that\nit is a troll-woman turned to stone.\n\nNow, you must know that throughout Norway and Iceland, and, indeed,\nwherever the Scandinavian race is found, a superstition exists that\nevery river has its spirit, that lives in the river; and it was held\nthat these river-spirits demanded a sacrifice of a human life, at least\nonce a year.  If a sacrifice were not given to them, then they took some\nman or woman, when crossing the water, and carried the victim away.  And\nin heathen times there can be no doubt whatever that human sacrifices\nwere offered to every river; generally an evildoer or a prisoner was\nthrown in and drowned, to propitiate the Stream-churl, as he was called,\nso that he should not snap at and carry off other and more valuable\nlives.  Wherever there was a cataract, there the Stream-churl was\nbelieved to live, hidden away behind the curtain of falling water.  If\nthe stream was small, then this spirit or demon was small; if, however,\nit were a mighty river, then the spirit was a great troll or giant.\nEven to this day in Iceland and Norway, the ignorant and superstitious\nbelieve that there are these Stream-churls, and tell stories about them,\nand cannot but suspect that, when anyone is drowned, it is the\nStream-churl exacting his toll.\n\nNow, it is quite certain that Steinvor, although she was a Christian,\nbelieved in there being a great Stream-churl living under Goda-foss; and\nas she had lost her husband and one of her servants who had been drowned\nin the Quivering Flood, she held that they had been carried off by the\nTroll of the waterfall.\n\nThere had been, as it happened, something mysterious about the death of\nSteinvor's husband.  Two years before Grettir came to Sandheaps, on\nChristmas-eve, he had disappeared.  She had gone off to see some friends\nat a distance, and when she returned home next day she heard that her\nhusband had not been seen--he was gone, and not a trace of him remained.\nIt occurred to her that in all probability he had gone across the river\nto church, and had been carried off by the river--that is, by the\nStream-churl. But she could be certain of nothing, and she was greatly\ndistressed because she could not give his body burial.  A year passed\nand not a word about her husband could she hear.  His body had not be\nfound anywhere washed up by the river, supposing he had been drowned.\n\nNext year she lost one of her men-servants in the same way.  He\nvanished, and none knew how or whither he had gone.  If he had run away,\nshe would probably have had tidings of him; but she heard none, and his\nbody was also never found.\n\nI have no doubt that she told Grettir about this, and also that she\nbelieved that the Stream-churl who lived under Goda-foss had carried off\nboth her husband and the servant.  I believe also that, to satisfy her,\nGrettir undertook to look, and that he actually dived under the fall,\nand came up and searched between the sheet of falling water and the\nrock, and found--nothing.\n\nThat is the foundation of a wonderful story which has found its way into\nthe saga.  It did not satisfy those who told the tale of Grettir that he\nshould have spent the winter at Sandheaps and done nothing--that he\nshould have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing.\n\nSo by degrees old nursery tales got mixed up with this incident about\nGrettir's search for the Stream-churl, and all was worked into a\nwonderful story, which you shall hear.\n\nOn that night on which Grettir had carried Steinvor across the river, he\nreturned to the farm, and lay down in his bed.\n\nWhen midnight arrived, then a great din was heard outside, and presently\nthe hall door was thrown open and in through it came a gigantic woman, a\nTroll-wife, with a trough in one hand and a huge chopper in the other.\n\nAs she entered she peered about her, and saw Grettir where he lay, and\nshe ran at him.  Then he jumped up and went to meet her, and they fell\na-wrestling terribly, and struggled together so furiously, that all the\npanelling of the hall side was broken.\n\nShe was the stronger, and she dragged Grettir towards the door, and\nforth towards the entrance, in spite of all his efforts.  She had got\nhim as far as the entrance, when there he made a final struggle, and in\nthe struggle the door-posts and fittings were torn from their place, and\nfell outwards.\n\nThen the Troll-woman laboured away with him towards the river, and right\ndown towards the gulfs.\n\nGrettir was exceedingly weary, yet he saw that his only chance was to\nmake a last effort, or be flung by her over the edge into the deep,\nboiling river.\n\nAll night they contended in such fashion, and ever was he drawing nearer\nto the edge.  But just as she was preparing to fling him into the water,\nhe got his right hand free, and he swiftly seized his short-sword, and\nstruck off her arm; and at that moment the sun rose, and the Troll-woman\nwas turned into stone.  There she stands with her amputated arm-socket,\nas a mass of black basalt or lava to this day.\n\nIf the reader will recall the story of Grettir's struggle with Glam at\nThorod's-stead, in the valley of Shadows, he will see that this is only\nthe same story over again almost in every particular,--except that the\nfirst fight was with a man, and this is with a woman.  The reason why\nthis story was concocted and put in here, was to account for the stone\nfigure which stands by the river, and which is called the Troll-wife.\nSo far the story carries its character on its face.\n\nNow we will go on to the next part of the tale. It did not satisfy\npeople that Grettir should have dived under Goda-foss and found nothing,\nso the story was thus told:\n\nWhen the goodwife, Steinvor, came from church, she thought that her\nhouse had been rudely handled; so she went to Grettir and asked him what\nhad occurred.  Then he told her all, and she prayed him to go and make a\nsearch for her husband's bones, under Goda-foss.\n\nGrettir consented, but he asked that the priest might be sent for.  His\nname was Stone.  Steinvor sent for him, and Stone was curious to know\nwhether his suspicions about this stranger were true.  So he asked him\nquestions, but Grettir answered that if the priest wanted to know who he\nwas, he must find out.  The priest laughed at the story of the\nTroll-wife, and said he did not believe a word about the struggle.\n\nThen Grettir said, \"Well, priest, I see that you have no faith in my\ntale; now I propose that you accompany me to Goda-foss, and we will\nsearch for the Troll himself, and see if we can recover the bones of\nSteinvor's husband.\"\n\nThe priest, Stone, agreed, and they went together to the side of the\nwaterfall, and they had a rope with them.\n\nStone shook his head, and he said, \"It would be too risky for anyone to\nventure down there.\"\n\n\"I will go,\" said Grettir.  \"But you mind the rope.\"\n\nThe priest drove a peg into the sward on the cliff, and heaped stones\nover it, so as to make the end firm, and then he seated himself by the\nheap.\n\nThen Grettir made a loop in the end of the rope, and put a stone through\nthe loop, and threw the stone down, and the end of the rope went to the\nbottom of the gulf.\n\n\"How are you going down?\" asked Stone.\n\n\"I shall dive,\" said Grettir.\n\nThen he stripped, but girt on a short-sword, and so leaped off the cliff\ninto the foss.  The priest saw only the soles of his feet as he went\ninto the water, and then saw no more.\n\nNow, Grettir had gone in below the fall, and he dived and went under the\ncurtain of water and came up near the rock.  The whirlpool below the\nfalls was so strong that he had a desperate struggle with the water\nbefore he could reach the rock.\n\nWhen he rose, he saw that the water fell over a lip of rock, quite\nclear, and that in the face of the rock was a cavern, and that smoke\nissued from this cave, and mingling with the spray and foam passed away,\nand was not discerned beyond.\n\nGrettir climbed over the stones into the cave, and there he saw a great\nfire flaming from amidst brands of drift-wood; and there was the\nStream-churl seated there, a great Troll with a hideous face.  When he\nsaw Grettir he roared and jumped up, and caught a glaive that was near\nhim, and smote at the newcomer.  Grettir hewed back at him with his\nshort-sword, and smote the handle of the glaive and broke it.  Then the\ngiant stretched back for a sword that hung up to a peg against the side\nof the cave, but as he was thus leaning back Grettir smote him across\nthe breast, and cut through to the ribs, and gashed open his belly.  The\nblood poured forth out of the cave and mingled with the stream.  When\nthe priest saw the bloody foam beneath the fall, he was so frightened\nthat he ran away, for he made sure that Grettir was dead.\n\nGrettir remained in the cave, standing across the giant, till he had\nkilled him.  Then he took up a flaming brand and searched the cave\nthrough.  He found nothing more than dead men's bones, and these he put\ntogether into a bag, threw that over his shoulder, and went again into\nthe water.\n\nHe rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could see nothing of the\npriest; so he caught the rope, and by means of that he swarmed up to the\ntop of the cliff.\n\nThen he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut runes on a staff.  And\nwhat he wrote was this:\n\n    \"Down into the gulf I went,\n    Where the rocks are widely rent;\n    Where the swirling waters fall\n    O'er the black basaltic wall;\n    Where, with voice of thunder, leap\n    In the foaming darkling deep.\n    There the stream with icy wave\n    Washes the grim giant's cave.\"\n\nHe had cut as much as he could on one stick, so now he took another, and\non that he cut:\n\n    \"Dreadful dweller in the cave\n    Underneath the falling wave,\n    Fierce at me he brandished glaive;\n    Full of rage at me he drove,\n    Desperate we together strove.\n    Lo!  I smote his halft in twain,\n    Lo!  I smote and he was slain,\n    Bleeding from each riven vein.\"\n\n\nThen Grettir carried the bag of bones and the staves to the church, and\nlaid them in the porch.\n\nNext morning when the priest came to the church he found the bag of\nbones and the staves.\n\nSuch is the story.\n\nNow, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply transferred from the\nstory of Grettir going down into the cairn of Karr the Old.\n\nThe real truth of the tale is no more than what has been stated, that\nGrettir went under the waterfall and found nothing.  It is, of course,\npossible that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it more\nprobable that all this marvellous matter is simply tacked on to one\nsimple fact, and that it was taken, partly from the story of Grettir in\nthe barrow of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.\n\nWhat the saga writer does admit is that the versions of the story do not\nquite agree, and that--in spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did\nnot know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXIV.*\n\n                    *HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.*\n\n\n    _Thorir comes too Late--The Needle of Basalt--The Island of\n    Drangey--The Terrors of the Dark--Brother holds to Brother_\n\n\nAfter a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth that either Grettir, or\nsomeone very like Grettir,--a tall, powerful man with reddish hair, and\none who gave no account of whence he came,--was lodging at Sandheaps,\nand Thorir made ready to go there after him.  Fortunately Grettir, or\nrather the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention, and so Grettir\nmade off out of the valley of the Quivering Flood before Thorir came\nthere in quest of him.\n\nHe escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river Dale.  This is a noble\nvalley of the Horg River, with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of\npeculiar shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie slopes of\nsnow.\n\nSome way up this valley are some very remarkable spires of basaltic\nrock, one of which that is like a needle is said to have been climbed by\nGrettir whilst staying in this valley.  It is not so said in the saga,\nbut I was told so on the spot, and the tale goes that when he climbed to\nthe top he slipped his belt round the needle, and there it hangs round\nit still--but no one has been up since to find if it be there where he\nleft it.\n\nHe could not remain long there, for Gudmund the Rich, who was farmer at\nMaddervales, was afraid to house him for long.  Thorir of Garth would\ncome and burn his house if he harboured Grettir.  However, he kept him\nfor some little while, and then he gave him advice what he should do.\n\nIt had come to such a pass with Grettir now that no one dared to shelter\nhim for long, and Thorir had spies everywhere to inform him where\nGrettir was.\n\nGudmund the Rich said to Grettir: \"You can find no safety anywhere that\nmen dwell; for if there be not treachery, yet the news flies about that\nyou are there.  So I advise you to go where you shall be alone.\"\n\n\"Where shall I go?\" asked Grettir.  \"I am hunted like a dog.\"\n\n\"There is an island,\" answered Gudmund, \"lying in the Skagafirth, called\nDrangey.  It is a place excellent for defence, as no one can reach it\nwithout a ladder.  If you could get upon Drangey, no one could come on\nyou unawares.  You would see anyone who came by boat to the island, and\nyou could pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would be able to\nascend.\"\n\n\"I will try that,\" said Grettir; \"but I have become so fearsome in the\ndark that not even at the risk of my life can I endure to be alone.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Gudmund, \"that is my counsel. Trust none but yourself.\nTreachery lies where least expected.\"\n\nGrettir thanked him for his advice, and went away west to see his\nmother.  And he was most joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother\nIllugi at Biarg.  There he remained some nights--not many; for Ramsfirth\nwas only over a brow of hill, and the tidings of his return home was\nsure in a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when he would again\nbe set on.\n\nI said, after giving an account of Grettir's adventure at\nThorhall's-stead with Glam, that there must have been something of fact\nin that story, and not pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that\nevent coloured and affected his whole after life, leaving his nerves so\nshaken, that he could not drive off the impression then made on him, and\nhe was ready to run serious risks rather than be subject to the terrors\nthat came on him in the dark when alone.\n\nHe told his mother and Illugi how it was with him, and how that he had\nbeen advised to go to Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in\nthe long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.\n\nThen Illugi his brother said, \"Grettir, I will be with you.\"\n\n\"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand,\" answered Grettir, and so\nthey parted.  All that summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting\nhis quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXV.*\n\n                             *ON THE ISLE.*\n\n\n    _Illugi will go to Drangey--Asdis gives Consent--Asdis\n    prophesies Woe--Within Sight of Drangey--Glaum becomes Grettir's\n    Servant--Thorwald rows Grettir to Drangey--Thorbiorn Hook--The\n    Bonders visit the Island--Grettir in Possession--An Inaccessible\n    Spot_\n\n\nWhen summer was now over, and the first snow of winter began to fall,\nwhen the days were rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the\nnorth to the south, where it began to move in a rapidly narrowing arc,\nGrettir returned to Biarg and remained there a while.  \"But,\" says the\nsaga, \"so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst go nowhere as\nsoon as dusk set in.\"  We can see that the many years strain on his\nnerves had broken them.  Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced to\nbe on his guard, never able to sleep without fear of being murdered in\nhis sleep, the trial had told on him.  This was now the winter of 1028.\nHe was aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not abated, only\nhis nervous force.  He had been in outlawry altogether fifteen years,\nthree for the slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King Olaf\nin 1016.  On his return to Iceland he had been outlawed in 1017; this\nwas the eleventh year of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an\noutlawry not only unjust, but according to general opinion illegal,\nbecause he had been tried and sentenced in his absence, and without any\nwitnesses having been called to establish his guilt--condemned on\nhearsay evidence, and he never allowed to defend himself.\n\nNow Illugi, Grettir's sole surviving brother, was aged fifteen, and was\na very handsome, honest-looking boy.\n\n\"Grettir,\" said he, \"you know what I said.  I will go with you to\nDrangey, if you will take me. I know not that I will be of much help to\nyou, but this I know, that I will be ever true to you, and will never\nrun from you so long as you stand up. Besides, I shall like to be with\nyou, for here at home we are ever in anxiety for news about you, always\nfearing the worst; but if I am at your side, I shall know how you fare.\"\n\n\"I would rather have you with me than anyone else,\" answered Grettir.\n\"But I cannot take you unless our mother consent.\"\n\nThen said Asdis, \"Now I can see that I have the choice of evils.  I can\nill spare Illugi; yet I know your trouble, Grettir, and that something\nmust be done for you.  It grieves me, my sons, to see you both leave me;\nyet I will not withhold my youngest from you, Grettir.  It is right that\nbrother should help brother.\"\n\nThat rejoiced Illugi.  Then Asdis gave her sons what things she thought\nthey might want on the island, and they made them ready to depart.\n\nShe led them outside the farm inclosure, and then she took farewell of\nthem, saying, \"My two sons! There you depart from me, and I dreamed last\nnight that you left me for ever, and would fall together. What is fated\nnone may fly from.  Never shall I see you again, either of you.  Be it\nso, that one fate overtake you both.  In my dream I saw your bones\nwhitening on Drangey.  Be careful and watchful. My dreams have troubled\nme greatly.  Above all beware of witchcraft.  None can cope with the\ncraft of the old.\"\n\nWhen she had said this she wept sore.\n\nThen said Grettir, \"Weep not, mother, for if we be set on with weapons\nit will be said of thee that thou hadst men and not girls for thy\nchildren.  Live on well, and be hale.\"\n\nSo they parted.  Grettir and Illugi went to their relatives and visited\nthem, never, however, staying long in any place, and so on by Swine\nLake, a long sheet of water in a shallow basin, to the Blend River. This\nriver is of the colour of milk and water, because it is so full of\nundissolved snow, and milk and water is called Bland, _i.e._ Blend, in\nIcelandic.  Another river enters it that is called the Black Stream,\nbecause of the dark colour of the water.  Grettir turned up the valley\nof the Black River and then over a pass by a pretty lake lying in a\nmountain lap, down into a broad marshy valley in which are three or four\nrivers, and boiling springs pouring forth clouds of steam on the\nhill-slopes.  The valley is commanded by a beautiful mountain peak,\ncalled the Measuring Peak, because the natives thereabouts reckon\ndistances from it.\n\nGrettir and Illugi went down this valley till they reached the sea, and\nnow there opened before them a glorious view of the fiord, extending out\nnorth about forty miles, and from ten to fifteen miles across, between\nmountains and precipitous cliffs.  A little way back from the eastern\nshore stood up the Unadals Jokull, crowned with perpetual snows and with\nglaciers rolling down the sides, and on the west, close to the sea,\nseeming to rise in a wall out of it and running up into fantastic peaks,\nwas the range of Tindastoll, famous for its cornelians and agates and\nother precious stones.  In the offing, fifteen miles out, right in the\nmidst of the fiord, stood up the isle of Drangey with sheer cliffs,\nabout which the sea perpetually danced and foamed.\n\nGrettir and Illugi skirted the shore on the west. The wind was blowing\ncold, and snow was driving before it, as they passed a farm.  The farmer\nstood in his door, and saw a great man stride by with an axe over his\nshoulder, his hood thrown back, and his wild red hair blowing about in\nthe gale.  \"Verily,\" said the farmer, \"that must be a strange fellow not\nto cover his head with his hood in such weather as this.\"  Near this\nlittle farm the brothers stumbled upon a tall, thin man, dressed in rags\nand with a very big head.  They asked each other's names, and the fellow\ncalled himself Glaum.  He was out of work, and he went along with the\nbrothers chatting, and telling them all the gossip of the neighbourhood.\nThen Glaum asked if they were in want of a servant, and Grettir gladly\naccepted him, and the man became thenceforth his constant attendant. But\nthe fellow was a sad boaster, and most people thought him both a fool\nand a coward.  He was not fond of work, and he spent his time strolling\nabout the country picking up and retailing news.\n\nGrettir and his brother and Glaum reached a farm called Reykir as the\nday closed in, where was a hot spring in the farm paddock.  The farmer's\nname was Thorwald; and Grettir asked him to put him across in a boat to\nDrangey.  Thorwald shook his head and said, \"I shall get into trouble\nwith those who have rights of pasturage on the island. I had rather\nnot.\"\n\nThen Grettir offered him a bag of silver which his mother had given him,\nand at the sight of this, Thorwald raised his eyebrows and thought that\nhe might perhaps do what was asked.  The distance was just five miles.\n\nSo on a moonshiny night Thorwald got three of his churls and they rowed\nGrettir and the two who went with him over.  On reaching his destination\nGrettir was well pleased with the spot, for it was covered with a\nprofusion of grass, and the sides were so precipitous that it seemed a\nsheer impossibility for anyone to ascend it without the aid of the\nrope-ladder that hung from strong staples at the summit. In summer the\nplace would swarm with sea-birds, and at the time there were eighty\nsheep left on the island for fattening.\n\nA good many farmers had rights of pasturage on the island.  Hialti of\nHof was one, whose brother's name was Thorbiorn Hook, of whom more\nhereafter. Another was Haldor, who lived at Head-strand; he had married\nthe sister of these brothers.  Biorn, Eric, and Tongue-stone were the\nnames of three others.\n\nThorbiorn Hook was a hard-headed, ill-disposed fellow.  His father had\nmarried a second time, and there was no love lost between the stepmother\nand Thorbiorn.  It is said that one day as The Hook was sitting at\ndraughts, she passed, and looking over his shoulder laughed, because he\nhad made a bad move. Thorbiorn Hook thereupon said something abusive and\ninsulting; this so enraged her that she snatched up a draught-man, and\npressing it against his eye-socket, drove the eyeball out.  He started\nto his feet, and with the draught-board struck her over the head such a\nblow that she took to her bed, and died of the injury.  The Hook now\nwent from bad to worse, and leaving home settled at Woodwick on the\nfiord, a small farm.  It will be understood from this story that he was\na violent and brutal fellow, and that, indeed, the life in his father's\nhouse had not been of an orderly description.\n\nAs many as twenty farmers claimed rights to turn out their sheep on\nDrangey in summer.  The way they managed it is the way still employed by\ntheir successors.  They take the sheep out in boats, and then put them\nover their shoulders, with the feet tied under their chins, and so they\nclimb the rope-ladder, carrying the sheep up on their backs. Though all\nthese farmers claimed rights on Drangey, The Hook and his brother had\nthe largest share, that is to say, the right to turn out more sheep than\nthe rest.\n\nNow, about the time of the winter solstice, that is just before Yule,\nthe bonders made ready to visit the island, and bring home their sheep\nfor slaughtering for the Christmas feasting.  They rowed out in a large\nboat, and on nearing the island were much surprised to see figures\nmoving on top of the cliffs.  How anyone had got there without their\nknowledge puzzled them, for Thorwald had kept his counsel, and told no\none what he had done for Grettir.  They pulled hard for the\nlanding-place, where hung the ladder, but Grettir drew it up before they\nlanded.\n\nThe bonders shouted to know who were on the crags, and Grettir, looking\nover, told his name and those of his companions.  The farmers then asked\nhow he had got there? who had put him across?\n\nGrettir answered, \"If you very much wish to know, it was not one of you\nbelow now speaking to us.  It was someone else, who had a good boat and\na pair of lusty arms.\"\n\n\"Let us fetch our sheep away,\" called the bonders, \"then you come to\nland with us.  We will not make you pay for the sheep you have eaten,\nand we will do you no harm.\"\n\n\"Well offered,\" answered Grettir; \"but he who takes keeps hold; and a\nbird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Believe me, I will not leave\nthis island till the time of my outlawry is expired, unless I be carried\nfrom it dead.\"\n\nThe bonders were silenced, it seemed to them that they had got an ugly\ncustomer on Drangey, to get rid of whom would be no easy matter; so they\nrowed home, very ill-satisfied with the result of their expedition.\n\nThe news spread like wildfire, and was talked about all through the\nneighbourhood.  Thorir of Garth was the more embittered, because he\ncould see no way in which Grettir could be reached and overmastered in\nthis inaccessible spot.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXVI.*\n\n                      *OF GRETTIR ON HERON-NESS.*\n\n\n    _Grettir goes to Heron-ness--At the Games--The Hook's\n    Challenge--Amongst Strangers--The Oath of Safe-conduct--An old\n    Formula--A Surprise for the Bonders--Regretting the Oath--The\n    two Brothers--Grettir returns to Drangey_\n\n\nWinter passed, and at the beginning of summer the whole district met at\nan assize held on the Herons'-ness, a headland in the Skaga-firth,\nbetween the rivers that discharge into the fiord. It is, in fact, the\nseaward point of a large island in the delta of the river that divides\nabout eight miles higher up, inland.  The gathering was thronged, and\nthe litigations and merry-makings made the assize last over many days.\nGrettir guessed what was going on by seeing a number of boats pass to\nthe head of the fiord.  He became restless, and at last announced to his\nbrother that he intended being present at the assize, cost what it\nmight.  Illugi thought it was sheer madness, but Grettir was resolute.\nHe begged his brother and Glaum to watch the ladder and await his\nreturn.\n\nNow, Grettir was on very good terms with the farmer at Reykir, and with\nsome others on that side of the firth, and they were not unwilling to\nhelp him.  Sometimes his mother sent things to the brothers that she\nthought they would need, and then there were not wanting men to take\nthese over to the island.  So Grettir got put across by his friend\nThorwald to the mainland, and he borrowed of him a set of old clothes,\nand thus attired he went along the coast boldly to Heron-ness.  He had\non a fur cap, which was drawn closely over his eyes, and concealed his\nface, so that no one might recognize him.  Now, in parts of Iceland, the\nflies are such torments that men have to wear literally cloth helmets,\nwith only nose and eyes showing, the cloth fitting tight to the head,\nand round over the ears and neck, exactly like a helmet, or a German\nknitted sledging cap.  When I was in Iceland, when the flies were\ntroublesome, I put my head into a butterfly net, and buckled it round my\nneck tightly with a leather strap.  Now, Grettir's cap was something\nlike those I have described, and no one was surprised at his wearing it,\nas the whole of that valley is one vast marsh, and is infested with\nflies that blacken the air and madden men and beasts.\n\nGrettir thus attired sauntered between the booths erected on the\nheadland, till he reached the spot where games were going on.\n\nNow, Hialti and Thorbiorn Hook were the chief men in these sports.  Hook\nwas specially noisy and boisterous, and drove men together to the\nsports, and whether men liked it or not, he insisted on their\nattendance.  He would take this man and that by the hands and drag him\nforth to the field, where the wrestling and other games went on.\n\nNow, first wrestled those who were weakest, and then each man in turn,\nand great fun there was. But when most men had tried their strength\nexcept the very strongest, it was asked who would be a match for Hialti\nand The Hook.  These two being the strongest and the roughest of all,\nwent round inviting each man in turn to wrestle with them, but all\ndeclined.\n\nThen Thorbiorn Hook, looking round, spied a tall fellow in the shabbiest\nand quaintest of suits, sitting by himself, speaking to no one.\nThorbiorn walked up to him, laid his hands on his shoulders and asked\nhim to wrestle.\n\nThe man sat still, and The Hook could not drag him from his seat.\n\n\"Well!\" exclaimed The Hook, \"no one else has kept his place before me\nto-day.  Who are you?\"\n\n\"Guest,\" answered Grettir shortly.\n\n\"A wished-for guest thou wilt be, if thou furnish some entertainment to\nthe company,\" said Thorbiorn Hook.\n\nGrettir answered, \"I am indisposed to make a fool of myself before\nstrangers.  How am I to know, supposing that I give you a fall, that I\nshall not be set upon by you or your kindred, and be unfairly treated?\"\n\nThen many exclaimed that there should be fair play.\n\n\"It is all very well your saying Fair-play now; but will you say\nFair-play, and stick to it, supposing I get the better of this man.  You\nare all akin, or friends, and I am a stranger to you all.\"\n\nAgain he was assured that no one would resent what he did.\n\n\"But see,\" said Grettir, \"I have not wrestled for many years, and have\nlost all skill in the matter.\"\n\nYet they pressed him the more.\n\nThen he said, \"I will wrestle with whom you will, if you will swear to\nshow me no violence so long as I am among you as a guest.\"\n\nThis all agreed to, and an oath of safe conduct was made, the form of\nwhich is so curious that it must be given.\n\nA man named Hafr recited the terms of the oath, and the rest agreed to\nit.\n\n\"Here set I peace among all men towards this man Guest, who sits before\nus, and in this oath I bind all magistrates and well-to-do bonders, and\nall men who bear swords, and all men whatsoever in this district,\npresent or absent, named or unnamed. These are to show peace to, and\ngive free passage to the aforenamed stranger, that he may sport,\nwrestle, make merry, abide with us and depart from us, without stay,\nwhether he go by land or flood. He shall have peace where he is, in all\nplaces where he may be till he reaches his house whence he set out, so\nlong and no longer.\n\n\"I set this treaty of peace between him and us, our kinsmen male and\nfemale, our servants and children.  May the breaker of this compact be\ncast out of the favour of God and good men, out of his heavenly\ninheritance and the society of just men and angels.  May he be an\noutcast from land to its farthest limits, far as men chase wolves, as\nChristians frequent churches, as heathen men offer sacrifices, as flame\nburns, earth produces herb, as baby calls its mother, and mother rocks\nher child; far as fire is kindled, ships glide, lightnings flicker, sun\nshines, snow lies, Finns slide on snow-shoes, fir-trees grow, falcons\nfly on a spring day with a breeze under their wings; far as heaven\nbends, earth is peopled, winds sweep the water into waves, churls till\ncorn; he shall be banished from churches and the company of Christian\nmen, from heathen folk, from house and den, from every house--save hell!\nNow let us be agreed whether we be on mountain or shore, on ship or\nskate, on ground or glacier, at sea or in saddle, as friend with friend,\nas brother with brother, as father with son, in this our compact.  Lay\nwe now hand to hand, and hold we true peace and keep every word of this\noath.\"\n\nNow, this formula is very curious.  It must have been brought by the\nIcelandic settlers with them from Norway, for parts of it are\ninappropriate to their land.  There are no Finns there, nor do fir-trees\ngrow there, nor is any corn tilled.  But all that about Christians is of\nlater origin.\n\nAfter a little hesitation the oath was taken by all.\n\nThen said Grettir, \"You have done well, only beware of breaking your\noath.  I am ready to do my part, without delay, to fulfil your wishes.\"\n\nThereupon he flung aside his hood and garments, and the assembled\nbonders looked at each other, and were disconcerted, for they saw that\nthey had in their midst Grettir Asmund's son.  They were silent, and\nthought that they had taken the oath somewhat unadvisedly, and they\nwhispered the one into another, to find if there were not some loophole\nby which they might evade the obligation to observe the oath.\n\n\"Come now,\" said Grettir, \"let me know your purpose, for I shall not\nlong stand stripped.  It will be worse for you than for me if you break\nyour oath, for it will go down in story to the end of time that the men\nof Heron-ness swore and were perjured.\"\n\nHe received no answer.  The chiefs moved away; some wanted to break the\ntruce, and argued that an oath taken to an outlaw was not legally\nbinding; others insisted that the oath must be observed. Then Grettir\nsang:\n\n    \"Many trees-of-wealth (_men_) this morn,\n    Failed the well-known well to know,\n    Two ways turn the sea-flame-branches (_men_),\n    When a trick on them is tried;\n    Falter folk in oath fulfilling,\n    Hafr's talking lips are dumb.\"\n\n\nThen Tongue-stone said, \"You think so, do you, Grettir?  Well, I will\nsay this of you, you are a man of dauntless courage.  Look how the\nchiefs are deep in discussion how to deal with you.\"\n\nThen Grettir sang:\n\n    \"Shield-lifters (_men_) rubbing of noses,\n    Shield-tempest-senders (men) shake beards,\n    Fierce-hearted serpent's-lair-scatterers (_men_),\n    Lay their heads one 'gainst another,\n    Now that they know, are regretting\n    The peace they have sworn to to-day.\"\n\n\nIn these staves a number of periphrases for men or warriors are\nused--and the use of these periphrases constitute the charm of these\nverses.\n\nThen Hialti of Hof burst away from the rest, and said, \"No, never, never\nshall it be said of us men of Heron-ness, that we have broken an oath\nbecause we have found it inconvenient to keep it.  Grettir shall be at\nfull liberty to go to his place in peace, and woe betide him who lays\nhand on him, to do him an injury.  But an oath no longer binds us should\nhe venture ashore again.\"\n\nAll except Thorbiorn Hook, Hialti's brother, agreed to this, and felt\ntheir minds and consciences relieved, that he had spoken out as a man of\nhonour.  And thus was seen how of those two brothers, rude and violent\nthough both were, Hialti had some nobleness in him that was lacking in\nthe other.\n\nThe wrestling began by Grettir being matched with Thorbiorn Hook, and\nafter a very brief struggle Grettir freed himself from his antagonist,\nleaped over his back, caught him by the belt, lifted him off his legs,\nand flung him over his back.  This is a throw called \"showing the white\nmare,\" among Cornish wrestlers of the present day, and a very dangerous\nthrow it is, for it sometimes breaks the back of the man thrown.  The\nHook, however, picked himself up, and the wrestling continued with\nunabated vigour, and it was impossible to tell which side had the\nmastery, for, though Grettir was matched against both brothers, and\nafter each bout with one brother fell to with the other, he was never\nthrown down. After all three were covered with blood and bruises the\nmatch was closed, the judges deciding that the two brothers conjointly\nwere not stronger than Grettir alone, though they were each of them as\npowerful as two ordinary able-bodied men.\n\nGrettir at once left the place of gathering, rejecting all the\nentreaties of the farmers that he would leave Drangey.  And, so, after\nall but The Hook had thanked him for his wrestling and praised his\nactivity and strength, he departed.  He was put across from Reykir to\nhis island, and was received with open arms by Illugi.\n\nThere now they abode peaceably, and Grettir told his brother and his\nchurl Glaum the story of what had taken place at the assize, and thus\nthe summer wore away.\n\nThere was much talk through the island of Iceland about this adventure,\nand all good men approved the conduct of the men of the Skagafiord that\nthey had kept the oath they had so inconsiderately taken.\n\n\n\n\n                           *CHAPTER XXXVII.*\n\n                          *OF HOERING'S LEAP.*\n\n\n    _The Piebald Ram--In want of Fire--Not born to be\n    Drowned--Thorwald aids Grettir--A Stratagem--Hoering climbs the\n    Cliff--Hoering's Leap_\n\n\nThe smaller farmers began seriously to feel their want of the islet\nDrangey for pasture in summer, and, as there seemed no chance of their\ngetting rid of Grettir, they sold their rights to Thorbiorn Hook, who\nset himself in earnest to devise a plan by which he might possess\nhimself of the island.\n\nWhen Grettir had been two winters on the island, he had eaten all the\nsheep except one piebald ram, with magnificent horns, which became so\ntame that he ran after them wherever they went, and in the evening came\nto the hut Grettir had erected and butted at the door till let in.\n\nThe brothers liked this place of exile, as there was no dearth of eggs\nand birds, besides which, some drift-wood was thrown upon the strand,\nand served as fuel.\n\nGrettir and Illugi spent their days in clambering among the rocks, and\nrifling nests, and the occupation of the thrall was to collect drift\ntimber and keep up the fire in the hut.  He was expected to remain awake\nand watch the fire whilst the others slept. He got very tired of his\nlife on the islet, became idle, morose, and reserved.  One night,\nnotwithstanding Grettir's warnings to him to be more careful, as they\nhad no boat, he let the fire go out. Grettir was very angry, and told\nGlaum that he deserved a sound thrashing for his neglect.  The thrall\nreplied that he loathed the life he led; and that it seemed it was not\nenough to Grettir that he should keep him there as a prisoner, he must\nalso maltreat him.\n\nGrettir consulted his brother what was best to be done, and Illugi\nreplied that the only thing that could be done was to await the arrival\nof a boat from the friendly farmer at Reykir.\n\n\"We shall have to wait long enough for that,\" said Grettir.  \"The\nbonders have taken it ill that he has favoured us, and he is now\nunwilling to be seen visiting Drangey.  The only chance is for me to\nswim ashore and secure a light.\"\n\n\"Do not attempt that!\" exclaimed Illugi.  \"That is what you did in\nNorway, and that led to all your misfortune.\"\n\n\"This case is different,\" answered Grettir.  \"Then I brought fire for\nill-conditioned men, now it is for ourselves.  Then I knew not who was\non the other side, but now I can get the fire for the asking from\nThorwald.\"\n\n\"But the distance is so great!\" remonstrated Illugi.\n\n\"Do not fear for me,\" said Grettir; \"I was not born to be drowned.\"\n\nFrom Drangey to Reykir is, as already said, about five English miles.\n\nGrettir prepared for swimming, by dressing in loose thin drawers and a\nsealskin hood; he tied his fingers together, that they might offer more\nresistance to the water when he struck out.\n\nThe day was fine and warm.  Grettir started in the evening, when the\ntide was in his favour, setting in; and his brother anxiously watched\nhim from the rocks.  At sunset he reached the land, after having floated\nand swum the whole distance.  Immediately on coming ashore, he went to\nthe warm spring and bathed in it, before entering the house.  The hall\ndoor was open, and Grettir stepped in.  A large fire had been burning on\nthe hearth, so that the room was very warm; Grettir was so thoroughly\nexhausted that he lay down beside the hot embers, and was soon fast\nasleep.  In the morning he was found by the farmer's daughter, who gave\nhim a bowl of milk, and brought her father to him.  Thorwald furnished\nhim with fire, and rowed him back to the island, astonished beyond\nmeasure at his achievement, in having swum such a distance.\n\nNow, the farmers on the Skagafiord began to taunt Thorbiorn Hook with\nhis unprofitable purchase of the island, and Hook was greatly irritated\nand perplexed what to do.\n\nDuring the summer, a ship arrived in the firth, the captain of which was\na young and active man called Hoering.  He lodged with Thorbiorn Hook\nduring the autumn, and was continually urging his host to row him out to\nDrangey, that he might try to climb the precipitous sides of the island.\nThe Hook required very little pressing; and one fine afternoon he rowed\nhis guest out to Drangey, and put him stealthily ashore, without\nattracting the notice of those on the height.  For in some places the\ncliffs overhung, so that a boat passing beneath could not be seen from\nabove.  Now Hoering had lain in the bottom of the boat, covered with a\npiece of sailcloth, so that the brothers saw nothing of him as the boat\nwas approaching the islet.\n\nThey saw and recognized Thorbiorn Hook and his churls, and at once drew\nup the ladder.  Now it was whilst they were watching at the\nlanding-place that Thorbiorn put Hoering out on another point, where the\ncliffs seemed possible to be climbed by a very skilful man, and then\ncame on to the usual landing place, and there shouted to Grettir.\nGrettir replied, and then Thorbiorn began the usual arguments to\npersuade the outlaw to leave the isle.  He promised to give him shelter\nin his house the winter, if he would do so.  All was in vain.  What he\nsought was to divert Grettir's attention so as to allow time and\noccasion for Hoering to climb the cliffs unobserved and unresisted.\n\nThe discussion went on but led to nothing.  In the meantime Hoering had\nmanaged most cleverly to get up by a way never ascended by man before or\nafter; and when he came to the top and had his feet on the turf, he saw\nwhere the brothers stood with their backs turned towards him, and he\nthought that now an opportunity had come for him to make himself a great\nname.  Grettir suspected nothing, and continued talking to Thorbiorn,\nwho was getting, or feigning to get, angry, and used big and violent\nwords.\n\nNow, as luck would have it, Illugi chanced to turn his head, and he saw\na man approaching from behind.\n\nThen he cried out, \"Brother!  Brother!  Here comes a man at us with\nuplifted axe!\"\n\n\"You go after him,\" said Grettir.  \"I will watch at the ladder.\"\n\nSo Illugi started to his feet and went to meet Hoering, and when the\nyoung merchant saw that he was discovered, he fled away across the\nislet, and Illugi went after him.  And when Hoering came to the edge he\nleaped down, hoping to fall into the sea; but he had missed his\nreckoning, and he went upon some skerries over which the waves tossed,\nand broke every bone in his body, and so ended his life.  The spot is\ncalled Hoering's Leap to this day.\n\nIllugi came back, and Grettir asked him what had been the end of the\nencounter.  Illugi told him.\n\n\"Now, Thorbiorn,\" shouted Grettir; \"we have had enough of profitless\ntalk.  Go round to the other side of the island and gather up the\nremains of your friend.\"\n\nThe Hook pushed off from the strand and returned home, ill pleased with\nthe result of the expedition, and Grettir remained unmolested on Drangey\nthe ensuing winter.\n\n\n\n\n                           *CHAPTER XXXVIII.*\n\n              *OF THE ATTEMPT MADE BY GRETTIR's FRIENDS.*\n\n\n    _The New Law-man--The Outlawry almost at an End_\n\n\nThe ensuing summer, that is to say, the summer of 1031, at the great\nannual assize at Thingvalla, all Grettir's kin and friends brought up\nthe matter of outlawry, and contended that he ought to have his sentence\ndone away with.  They said that no man could be an outlaw all his life,\nthat was not a condition contemplated by their laws.  They said that he\nhad been outlawed first in 1011 for the slaying of Skeggi, and that he\nhad been in outlawry ever since, which made nineteen years.\n\nThe old law-man was dead, and now there was another at the assize, whose\nname was Stein.  He laid down that no man might by law be in outlawry\nmore than twenty years.  Now, when they came to reckon since 1011 it was\nnineteen years.  It was true that he had been outlawed thrice, once for\nSkeggi, then by King Olaf, and lastly by the court for the burning of\nthe sons of Thorir of Garth, still--the fact remained that for nineteen\nyears he had been an outlaw, and Stein laid down that by next assize,\nthat is to say in one year, his outlawry would have expired.\n\nThereat Grettir's kinsfolk were pleased, for they thought that he would\nonly have to spend one winter more on Drangey, and afterwards his\ntroubles would be at an end; Thorir of Garth and his other foes could no\nmore pursue him, and the price set on his head would fall away.\n\nBut on the other hand, Thorir of Garth, who had not become more\ncharitable and forgiving as he grew old, became still more incensed and\nimpatient to have Grettir killed before this year would expire, also\nThorbiorn Hook cast about how he might be avenged for the deprivation of\nhis rights over Drangey.  The men who had sold their claims came to\nThorbiorn, and told him he must do one of two things: get rid of Grettir\nand assert his rights by turning out sheep on the islet, or they would\nregard the sale as quashed, by his non-usance of the pasture, and they\nwould reclaim their shares of the island as soon as Grettir's outlawry\nwas at an end, and he left the place.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XXXIX.*\n\n                           *OF THE OLD HAG.*\n\n\n    _The Hook's Foster-mother--The Hag's Request--The Witch in the\n    Boat--The Hag's Dooming--An Unlucky Throw--Working Bane--The\n    Magic Runes_\n\n\nNow it was so, that Thorbiorn Hook had a foster-mother, a woman advanced\nin age, and of a very malicious disposition.  When the people of Iceland\naccepted Christianity, she, in her heart, remained a heathen, and would\nnot be baptized and have anything to do with the new religion.  She had\nalways been reckoned a witch, but with the introduction of Christianity\nwitchcraft had been made illegal, and anyone who had recourse to sorcery\nwas severely dealt with.  The old woman had not forgotten her\nincantations and strange ceremonies, whereby she thought to be able to\nconjure the spirits of evil, and send ill on such as offended her.\n\nWhen Thorbiorn Hook found that he could contrive in no way to get\nGrettir out of Drangey, and when he saw that if his expulsion were\ndelayed, and Grettir left of his own accord, he would forfeit the money\nhe had paid for the rights of pasturage on the island, he went to his\nfoster-mother, and told her his difficulty, and pretty plainly let her\nunderstand that as he could get help nowhere else, he did not mind\nhaving recourse to the black art.\n\n\"Ah!\" cackled she, \"I see how it is, when all else fails, man's arms and\nman's wit, then you come to the bed-ridden crone and seek her aid.\nWell, I will assist you to the best of my power, on one condition, and\nthat is, that you obey me without questioning.\"\n\nThe Hook agreed to what she said, and so all rested till August without\nthe matter being again alluded to.\n\nThen one beautiful day the hag said to Thorbiorn, \"Foster-son, the sea\nis calm and the sky bright, what say you to our rowing over to Drangey\nand stirring up the old strife with Grettir?  I will go with you and\nhear what he says, then I shall be able to judge what fate lies before\nhim, and I can death-doom him accordingly.\"\n\nThe Hook answered, \"It is waste of labour going out to Drangey.  I have\nbeen there several times and never return better off than when I went.\"\n\n\"You promised to obey me without questioning,\" said the crone.  \"Follow\nmy advice and all will be well for you and ill for Grettir.\"\n\n\"I will do as you bid me, foster-mother,\" said Thorbiorn, \"though I had\nsworn not to go back to Drangey till I was sure I could work the bane of\nGrettir.\"\n\n\"That man is not laid low hastily, and patience is needed; but his time\nwill come, and may be close at hand.  What the end of this visit will be\nI cannot say.  It is hid from me, but I know very well that it will lead\nto his or to your destruction.\"\n\nThorbiorn ran out a long boat, and entered it with twelve men.  The hag\nsat in the bows coiled up amongst rugs and wadmal.  When they reached\nthe island, at once Grettir and Illugi ran to the ladder, and Thorbiorn\nagain asked if Grettir would come to his house for the winter.\n\nGrettir made the same reply as before, \"Do what you will, in this spot I\nawait my fate.\"\n\nNow Thorbiorn saw that this expedition also was likely to be resultless,\nand he became very angry. \"I see,\" he said, \"that I have to do with an\nill-conditioned churl, who does not know how to accept a good offer when\nmade.  I shall not come here again with such an offer.\"\n\n\"That pleases me well,\" said Grettir, \"for you and I are not like to\ncome to terms that will satisfy both.\"\n\nAt that moment the hag began to wriggle out of her wraps in the bows.\nGrettir had not perceived her hitherto.  Now she screamed out, \"These\nmen may be strong, but their strength is ebbing.  They may have had\nluck, but luck has left.  See what a difference there is between men.\nThorbiorn makes good offers, and such they blindly, foolishly reject.\nThose who are blinded and cast away chances do not have chances come to\nthem again.  And now Grettir\"--she raised her withered arms over her\nhead--\"I doom you to all ill, I doom you to loss of health, to loss of\nwisdom and of foresight.  I doom you to decline and to death.  I doom\nyour blood to fester, and your brain to be clouded.  I doom your marrow\nto curdle and chill.  Henceforth, so is my doom, all good things will\nwane from you, and all evil things will wax and overwhelm you.  So be\nit.\"  As she spoke a shudder ran over Grettir's limbs, and he asked who\nthat imp was in the boat.  Illugi told him he fancied it must be that\nold heathen woman, the foster-mother of Thorbiorn Hook.\n\n\"Since the powers of evil are with our foes,\" said Grettir, \"how may we\noppose them?  Never before has anything so shaken me with presentiment\nof evil as have the curses of this witch.  But she shall have a reminder\nof her visit to Drangey.\"\n\nThereupon he snatched up a large stone and threw it at the boat, and it\nfell on the bundle of rags, in the midst of which lay the old hag.  As\nit struck there rose a wild shriek from the witch, for the stone had hit\nand broken her leg.\n\n\"Brother!\" exclaimed Illugi, \"you should not have done this.\"\n\n\"Blame me not,\" answered Grettir gloomily.  \"It had been well had the\nstone fallen on her head.  But I trow the working of her curse is begun,\nand what I have done has been because my understanding and wit are\nalready clouded.\"\n\nOn the return of Thorbiorn to the mainland the crone was put to bed, and\nThe Hook was less pleased than ever with his trip to the island.  His\nfoster-mother, however, consoled him.\n\n\"Do not be discouraged,\" she said.  \"Now is come the turning-point of\nGrettir's fortunes, and his luck will leave him more and more as the\nlight dies away up to Yule.  But the light dies and comes again.  With\nGrettir it will not be so, it will die, and die, till it goes out in\nendless night.\"\n\n\"You are a confident woman, foster-mother,\" said Thorbiorn.\n\nWhen a month had elapsed, the old woman was able to leave her bed, and\nto limp across the room.\n\nOne day she asked to be led down to the beach. Thorbiorn gave her his\narm, and she had her crutch, and she hobbled down to where the water was\nlapping on the shingle.  And there, just washed up on the beach, lay a\nlog of drift-timber, just large enough for a man to carry upon his\nshoulder.  Then she gave command that the log should be rolled over and\nover that she might examine each side.  The log on one side seemed to\nhave been charred, and she sent to the house for a plane, and had the\nburnt wood smoothed away.\n\nWhen that was done she dismissed every one save her foster-son, and then\nwith a long knife she cut runes on the wood where it had been\nplaned--that is to say, words written in the peculiar characters made of\nstrokes which Odin was supposed to have invented.  Then she cut herself\non the arm, and smeared the letters she had cut with her blood. After\nthat she rose and began to leap and dance, screaming a wild spell round\nthe log, making the most strange and uncouth contortions, and waving her\ncrutch in the air, making with it mysterious signs over the log.\nPresently, when the incantation was over, she ordered the log to be\nrolled back into the sea.  The tide was now ebbing, and with the tide\nthe log went out to sea further and further from land till Thorbiorn saw\nit no more.\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XL.*\n\n                     *HOW THE LOG CAME TO DRANGEY.*\n\n\n    _Food for the Winter--Cast up by the Sea--The Log comes back\n    again--The Worst is come--An ugly Wound--The Hag's\n    Revenge--Grettir sings his Great Deeds--Presage of Evil_\n\n\nIn the meantime Grettir, Illugi, and the churl Glaum were on Drangey\ncatching fish and fowl for winter supplies.  The fish in Iceland are\nbeaten hard with stones and then dried in the wind, that makes them like\nleather; but it preserves them for a very long time, and they form the\nstaple of food, as the people have no corn, and consequently no bread.\nThey put butter on these dry fish, and tear them with their teeth.  What\nGrettir did with the fowl he caught was to pickle them with salt water\nfrom the sea, and when the frost and snow came on then he would take\nthem out of pickle and freeze them.  Now, the whole of the sheep had\nbeen eaten some time ago, except the old mottled ram, which Grettir\ncould not find in his heart to kill; and, as may be supposed, he and his\nbrother suffered from want of change of food.  Especially deficient were\nthey in any green food; and we know, though he did not, that the eating\nof green food is a very essential element of health.  He had nothing for\nconsumption but salted birds and dried fish--no milk, no bread, no\nvegetables.  Such a diet was certain to disorder his health.\n\nThe day after that on which the hag had charmed the piece of timber, the\ntwo brothers were walking on the little strand to the west of the island\nlooking for drift-wood.\n\n\"Here is a fine beam!\" exclaimed Illugi.  \"Help me to lift it on to my\nshoulder, and I will carry it up the ladder.\"\n\nGrettir spurned the log with his foot, saying, \"I do not like the looks\nof it, Little brother.  Runes are cut on it, and what they portend I do\nnot know. There may be written there something that may bring ill.  Who\ncan tell but this log may have been sent with ill wishes against us.\"\nThey set the log adrift, and Grettir warned his brother not to bring it\nto their fire.\n\nIn the evening they returned to their cabin, and nothing was said about\nthe log to Glaum.  Next day they found the same beam washed up not far\nfrom the foot of the ladder.  Grettir was dissatisfied, and again he\nthrust it from the shore, saying that he hoped they had seen the last of\nit, and that the stream and tide would catch it and waft it elsewhere.\nAnd now the equinoctial gales began to rage.  The fine Martinmas summer\nwas over.  The weather changed to storm and rain; and so bad was it that\nthe three men remained indoors till their supply of firewood was\nexhausted.\n\nThen Grettir ordered the thrall to search the shore for fuel.  Glaum\nstarted up with an angry remonstrance that the weather was not such as a\ndog should be turned out in, with unreason, not considering that a fire\nwas as necessary to him as to his master.  He went to the ladder,\ncrawled down it, and found the same beam cast at its very foot.\n\nGlad not to have to go far in his search, Glaum shouldered the log,\ncrept up the ladder, bore it to the hut, and throwing open the door,\ncast it down in the midst.\n\nGrettir jumped up, \"Well done,\" said he, \"you have been quick in your\nquest.\"\n\n\"Now I have brought it, you must chop it up,\" said Glaum.  \"I have done\nmy part.\"\n\nGrettir took his axe.  The fire was low and wanted replenishing, and\nwithout paying much attention to the log, he swung his axe and brought\nit down on the log.  But the wood was wet and greasy with sea-weed, and\nthe axe slipped, glanced off the beam, and cut into Grettir's leg below\nthe knee, on the shin, with such force that it stuck in the bone.\n\nGrettir looked at the beam; the fire leaped up, and by its light the\nrunic inscription on it was visible.  Grettir at once saw evil.  \"The\nworst is come upon us,\" he said sadly, as he cast the axe away, and\nthrew himself down by the fire.  \"This is the same log that I have twice\nrejected.  Glaum, you have done us two ill turns, first when you\nneglected the fire and let it go out, and now in that you have brought\nthis beam to us.  Beware how you commit a third, for that I foresee will\nbe your bane as well as ours.\"\n\nIllugi bound up his brother's wound with rag; there was but a slight\nflow of blood, but it was an ugly gash.  That night Grettir slept\nsoundly.  For three days and nights he was without pain, and the wound\nseemed to be healing healthily, the skin to be forming over it.\n\n\"My dear brother,\" said Illugi, \"I do not think that this cut will\ntrouble you long.\"\n\n\"I hope not,\" answered Grettir.  \"But none can see where a road leads\ntill they have gone through to the end.\"\n\nOn the fourth evening they laid them down to sleep as usual.  About\nmidnight the lad, Illugi, awoke hearing Grettir tossing in his bed as\nthough suffering.\n\n\"Why are you so uneasy?\" asked the boy.\n\nGrettir replied that he felt great pain in his leg, and he thought, he\nsaid, that some change must have taken place in the condition of the\nwound.\n\nIllugi at once blew up the embers on the hearth into a flame, and by its\nlight examined his brother's leg.  He found that the foot was swollen\nand discoloured, and that the wound had reopened, and looked far more\nangry than he had seen it yet. Intense pain ensued, so that poor Grettir\ncould not remain quiet for a moment, but tossed from side to side.  His\ncheeks were fevered, and his tongue parched.  He could obtain no sleep\nat all.\n\nIllugi never left him, he sat beside him holding his hand, or bringing\nhim water to slake his unquenchable thirst.\n\n\"The worst approaches, and there is no avoiding it,\" said Grettir.\n\"This sickness is sent by the old witch in revenge for the stone I had\ncast at her.\"\n\n\"I misliked the casting of that stone,\" said Illugi.\n\n\"It was ill that it did not fall on her head,\" said Grettir.  \"But what\nis done may not be undone.\"  Then he heaved himself up into a sitting\nposture and sang, supporting himself against his brother's shoulder, a\nlay, of which only fragments have come down to us.  A good deal of the\nlay refers to incidents in Grettir's life, of which no record remains in\nthe saga, and many staves have fallen away and been lost.  So we give\nbut a few verses:--\n\n    \"I fought with the sword in the bye-gone day,\n      In the day when I was young;\n    When the Rovers I slew in old Norway,\n      The land with my action rung.\n\n    \"I entered the grave of Karr the Old,\n      I rived his sword away;\n    I strove with the Troll at Thorod's-stead,\n      Before the break of day.\n\n    \"With Thorbiorn Oxmain in the marsh\n      I fought, and his blood I shed;\n    Against Thorir of Garth have I stood in arms,\n      Who long would have me dead.\n\n    \"For nineteen years, I a hunted man,\n      On mountain, on moor, and fen;\n    For nineteen years had to shun and flee\n      The face of my fellow men.\n\n    \"For nineteen years all bitter to bear\n      Both hunger and cold and pain;\n    And never to know when I laid me down,\n      If I might awake again.\n\n    \"And now do I lie with a burning eye,\n      As a wolf is fain to die;\n    Whilst the skies are dripping and ocean roars,\n      And the winds sob sadly by--\"\n\n\nThe song was probably composed before, as otherwise it is not easy to\naccount for its preservation. His head was burning, his thoughts\nwandered, and he ceased singing.  He seemed to be dozing off.  But\npresently he started and shivered, and looked hastily about him.\n\n\"Let us be cautious now,\" he said, \"for Thorbiorn Hook will make another\nattempt.  To me it matters little--but to you, brother.  Glaum, watch\nthe ladder by day, and draw it up at night.  Be a faithful servant, for\nnow all depends on you.  Illugi will not leave me, so we are in your\nhands.\"\n\n\n\n\n                             *CHAPTER XLI.*\n\n                        *THE END OF THE OUTLAW.*\n\n\n    _The Shadow of Death--Thorbiorn and his Foster-mother--The Hook\n    sails for Drangey--Out in the Gale--The Unguarded Ladder--Glaum\n    is Captured--The Brothers' last Evening--Defending the\n    Hut--Grettir Wounded--Illugi Taken--The Notch in the\n    Sword--Illugi vows Vengeance--Death of Illugi_\n\n\nThe weather became daily worse, and a fierce north-east wind raged over\nthe country, bearing with it cold and sleet, and covering the fells with\nthe first snows of winter.  Grettir inquired every night if the ladder\nhad been drawn up, according to order.  Glaum answered churlishly, \"How\ncan you expect folk to live out in such a storm as this?  Do you think\nthey are so eager to kill you that they will jeopardize their lives in\ntrying to do this?  It is easy to see that a little cut was all that\nlacked to let your courage leak out.\"\n\nGrettir answered, \"Go! and do not argue with us; guard the ladder as you\nhave been bidden!\"\n\nSo Illugi drove the churl from the hut every morning, notwithstanding\nhis angry remonstrances; and Glaum was in the worst of humours.\n\nThe pain became more acute, and the whole leg inflamed and swollen,\nsigns of mortification appeared, and wounds opened in different parts of\nthe limb, so that Grettir felt that the shadow of death hung over him.\nIllugi sat night and day with his brother's head on his shoulder,\nbathing his forehead, and doing his utmost to console the fleeting\nspirit. A week had elapsed since the wound had been made.\n\nNow, Thorbiorn Hook was at home, ill-pleased at the failure of all his\nschemes for dispossessing Grettir of the island.\n\nOne day his foster-mother came to him, and asked whether he were ready\nnow to pay his final visit to the outlaw?\n\nThorbiorn replied that he had paid quite as many visits to him as he\nliked, and that he should not go to Drangey again till Grettir left it;\nand then, with a sneer he asked his foster-mother whether she wanted to\nhave her second leg broken, and was not satisfied with the fracture of\none.\n\n\"I will not go to Drangey myself,\" answered the old woman.  \"That is\nunnecessary.  I have sent him my salutation, and by this he has received\nit.  Speed away now to Drangey, and find how he relishes my message.\nBut I warn you, you must go now or you will be too late.\"\n\nThorbiorn would not listen; he said that her advice last time had led to\nno advantage when he followed it, and that the weather was too bad to go\nout in.\n\n\"You need go but this once,\" said the crone. \"The storm is of my\nsending, and is sent to work my ends.\"\n\nFinally he allowed himself to be persuaded.  So he got together men, and\nasked his neighbours to help him; and a large vessel was manned.  That\nis to say, the other farmers consented to lend him men, but none of them\nwould accompany him themselves.  The Hook took twelve of his own men;\nhis brother, Hialti, lent him three; Erick of Gooddale sent one man;\nTongue-stone furnished him with two; another, named Halldor, let him\nhave six.  Of all these, the only two whose name need be mentioned are\nKarr and Vikarr.\n\nThorbiorn got a large sailing-boat for his purpose, and started from\nHeron-ness.  None of the men were in good spirits, as the weather was\nbad; moreover, they had no liking for their leader.  By dusk the boat\nwas afloat, the sail spread, and they ran out to sea.  As the wind was\nfrom the north-east, they were under the lee of the high cliffs, and\nwere not exposed to the full violence of the storm.\n\nHeavy scuds of rain and sleet swept the fiord; the sky was overcast with\nwhirling masses of vapour, charged with snow, and beneath their shadow\nthe waters of the firth were black as ink.  For one moment the clouds\nwere parted by the storm, the rowers looked up, and saw the heavens\ntinged with the crimson rays of the northern light.  A flame ran along\nthe cordage, and finally settled on the masthead of the vessel, swaying\nand dancing with the motion of the boat.  It was that electric spark,\nwhich is called in the Mediterranean S. Elmo's fire.\n\nA line of white foam marked the base of Drangey; and now and then a\ngreat wave from the mouth of the fiord boomed against the crags, and\nshot in spouts of foam high into the air.  Along the western shore of\nthe firth, which was exposed to the full brunt of the gale, the mighty\nbillows were beaten into white yeasty heaps of water.  From the top of\nDrangey one tiny spark shone from the window of the hovel where lay the\ndying outlaw.\n\nNow let us look again at Grettir.\n\nHe had been in less pain that day.  Illugi had not left him, but\nremained faithful at his post.\n\nThe thrall, Glaum, had been sent out as usual to collect fuel and to\nwatch the ladder, and to draw it up at nightfall.  But instead of doing\nas he was bidden, the fellow laid himself down at the head of the steps,\nunder a shelter-hut of turf that had been there erected, and went to\nsleep.\n\nWhen Thorbiorn and his party reached the shore, they found to their\ncontent that the ladder had not been removed.\n\n\"Good luck attends on those who wait,\" said The Hook \"Now, my fellows!\nthe journey will not prove as bootless as you expected.  Up the ladder\nwith you! and let us all be cautious and bold!\"\n\nSo they ascended, one after the other, The Hook taking the lead.  On\nreaching the top he looked into the shelter-hut, and there found Glaum,\nasleep and snoring.  Thorbiorn struck him over the shoulders, and asked\nhim who he was.\n\nGlaum turned on his side, rubbed his eyes, and growled forth, \"Can you\nnot leave a poor wretch alone?  Never was a man so ill-treated as am I.\nI may not even sleep out here in the cold.\"\n\nThe Hook then knew who this was.  \"Fool!\" shouted he.  \"Look up, and see\nwho are come.  We are your foes, and intend to kill every one of you.\"\n\nGlaum started now to his feet full awake, and shrieked with dismay when\nhe saw the black figures crowding up from the ladder and surrounding\nhim.\n\n\"Make no noise,\" said Thorbiorn Hook.  \"I give you the choice of two\nthings; answer the questions I put to you truthfully, or die at once.\"\n\nThe churl answered sullenly that he would speak, and he had nothing to\nconceal.\n\n\"Then tell me where the brothers are?\"\n\n\"In the hovel I left them, where there is a fire. Not out in the cold.\nGrettir is sick and nigh on death, and Illugi is with him.\"\n\nThe Hook asked for particulars, and then Glaum told him about the log,\nand how Grettir was wounded.  Thereat the Hook burst out laughing, and\nsaid, \"Woe to the man that leans on a churl! That is a true proverb.\nShamefully have you betrayed your trust, Glaum.\"\n\nThereupon Glaum was dragged along to the cabin where Grettir lay, and\nthey treated him so roughly, that what with their blows and what with\nfear, he was nearly senseless when he reached it.\n\nIllugi had been sitting by the fire with his brother's head in his lap,\nwhilst Grettir lay in some sheepskins beside the hearth.  All that\nevening the sick man's eyes had been wandering about the roof, watching\nthe light play among the rafters, as the firewood blazed up or\nsmouldered away.  Illugi saw that his fingers plucked at the wool of the\nsheep-skins, riving it out, and that he knew was a bad sign.  He felt\nsure that Grettir would die that night, and he watched his face\nintently, and could not bear to withdraw his eyes from him, for he loved\nhim dearly. Presently Grettir turned his head, and smiled when he saw\nhow he was watching him, and said that he felt easier, and would sleep.\nIn a few moments his eyes closed.\n\nAs he dozed, his face became calmer than Illugi had seen it before; the\nmuscles relaxed, and the wrinkles furrowed in his brow by care and\nsuffering were now smoothed quite away.  Grettir's face was never\nhandsome, but it was grave and earnest, and the sorrow and trial he had\npassed through had left its trace on his features.  His breath now came\nmore evenly in sleep.\n\nAll at once there sounded a crash at the door, and the sleeper opened\nhis eyes dreamily.\n\n\"It is only the old ram, brother,\" said Illugi. \"He is butting, because\nhe wants to come in.\"\n\n\"He butts hard! he butts hard!\" muttered Grettir, and at that moment the\ndoor burst open.  They saw faces looking in.\n\nIllugi was on his feet in a moment.  He seized his sword, flew to the\ndoorway and defended it bravely, so that no one could pass through.\n\nThorbiorn called to some of the men to get upon the roof, and he was\nobeyed.  The hovel was low, and in a moment four or five were on top of\nit tearing off the turf that covered it.  Grettir tried to rise to his\nfeet, but could only stagger to his knees. He seized his spear and drove\nit through the roof, so that it struck Karr in the breast, and the wound\nwas his death.\n\nThorbiorn Hook called to the men to act more warily--they were\ntwenty-five in all against two men, and one dying.\n\nSo the men pulled at the gable ends of the house and got the ridge-piece\nout, that it broke and fell, and with it a shower of turfs, into the\nhut.\n\nGrettir drew his short-sword--the sword he had taken from the barrow of\nKarr the Old--and smote at the men as they leaped upon him from the\nwall. With one blow he struck Vikarr over the left shoulder, as he was\non the point of springing down. The sword cut off his arm.  But the blow\nwas so violent, that Grettir, having dealt it, fell forward, and before\nhe could raise himself Thorbiorn Hook struck him between the shoulders,\nand made a fearful wound.\n\nThen cried Grettir, \"Bare is the back without brother behind it!\" and\ninstantly Illugi threw his shield over him, planted one foot on each\nside of him as he lay on the floor, and defended him with desperate\ncourage.\n\n[Illustration: ILLUGI DEFENDS THE DYING GRETTIR.]\n\nThe mist of death was in Grettir's eyes; he attempted in vain to raise\nhimself, but sank again on the sheep-skins, which were now drenched in\nblood.\n\nNo one could touch him, for the brave boy warded off every blow that was\naimed at his brother.\n\nThen Thorbiorn Hook ordered his men to form a ring round and close in on\nthem with their shields and with beams.  They did so, and Illugi was\ntaken and bound; but not till he had wounded most of his opponents, and\nhad killed three of Thorbiorn's men.\n\n\"Never have I seen one braver of your age,\" said The Hook.  \"I will say\nthat you have fought well.\"\n\nThen they went to Grettir, who lay where he had fallen, unable to resist\nfurther, for he had lost consciousness.  They dealt him many a blow, but\nhardly any blood flowed from his wounds.  When all supposed he was dead,\nthen Thorbiorn tried to disengage the sword from his cold fingers,\nsaying that he considered Grettir had wielded it long enough.  But the\nstrong man's hand was clenched around the handle so firmly that his\nenemy could not free the sword from his grasp.\n\nSeveral of the men came up, and tried to unweave the fingers, but were\nunable to do so.  Then the Hook said, \"Why should we spare this wretched\noutlaw?  Off with his hand!\"  And his men held down the arm whilst\nThorbiorn hewed off the hand at the wrist with his axe.\n\nAfter that, standing over the body, and grasping the hilt of the sword\nin both hands, he smote at Grettir's head; the edge of the blade was\nnotched by the blow.\n\n\"Look!\" laughed Thorbiorn.  \"This notch will be famous in story for many\ngenerations; for men will point to it and say, 'This was made by\nGrettir's skull.'\"  He struck twice and thrice at the outlaw's neck,\ntill the head came off in his hands.\n\n\"Now have I slain a notable man!\" exclaimed Thorbiorn.  \"I will take\nthis head with me to land, and claim the price that was set on it; and\nnone shall deny that it was my hand that slew that Grettir whom all else\nfeared.\"\n\nThe men present said he might say what he liked, but that they believed\nGrettir was already dead when he smote him.\n\nThorbiorn now turned to Illugi, and said, \"It is a pity that a brave lad\nlike you should die, because you are associated with outlaws and\nevil-doers.\"\n\n\"I tell you this,\" said Illugi, \"that I will appear before you at the\ngreat assize, and there will charge you with having practised witchcraft\nto effect my brother's death.\"\n\n\"You hearken to me, boy,\" said Thorbiorn.  \"Put your hand to mine, and\nswear that you will not seek to avenge the death of your brother, and I\nwill let you go; but if you will not take this oath, you shall die.\"\n\n\"And hearken to me, Thorbiorn,\" said lllugi. \"If I live, but one thought\nshall occupy my heart night and day, and that will be how I may best\navenge my brother.  Now that you know what to expect of me--take what\ncourse you will.\"\n\nThorbiorn drew his companions aside to ask their advice; but they\nshrugged their shoulders, and replied that, as he had planned the\nexpedition, he must carry it out as he thought best.\n\n\"Well,\" said The Hook, \"I have no fancy for having the young viper lying\nin wait to sting me wherever I tread.  He shall die.\"\n\nNow, when Illugi knew that they had determined on slaying him, he smiled\nand said, \"You have chosen that course which is best to my mind.  I do\nnot desire to be parted from my brother.\"\n\nThe day was breaking.  They led Illugi to the east side of the island,\nand there they slew him.\n\nIt is told that they neither bound his eyes nor his hands, and that he\nlooked fearlessly at them when they smote him, and neither changed\ncolour nor even blinked.\n\nThen they buried the brothers beneath a cairn in the island, but they\ntook the head of Grettir and bore it to land.  On the way they also slew\nthe thrall Glaum.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XLII.*\n\n                     *HOW ASDIS RECEIVED THE NEWS.*\n\n\n    _A Charge of Witchcraft--A Heroic Mother--Thorbiorn's\n    Sentence--Burial of the Brothers_\n\n\nHad the old hag, Thorbiorn's foster-mother, any hand in the death of\nGrettir?  Certainly none. It was true that Grettir was wounded in the\nway described, by his own axe, but the condition of the wound was due to\nthe scorbutic condition of his blood, through lack of green food.  This\nthe Icelanders did not understand; they could not comprehend how a wound\ncould seem to be healing well and then break out and mortify afterwards,\nand they supposed that this was due to witchcraft. Then, again,\nGrettir's kin could not take the case of Grettir's murder into court,\nbecause Thorbiorn had acted within the law when killing him; but by\ncharging him with the practice of witchcraft they made him amenable to\nthe law.  So, partly, no doubt, in good faith, they trumped up against\nThorbiorn the accusation of having effected Grettir's death by\nwitchcraft.\n\nNow, it must be told how that, one day after the slaying of Grettir,\nThorbiorn Hook at the head of twenty armed men rode to Biarg, in the\nMidfirth-dale, with Grettir's head slung from his saddlebow. On reaching\nthe house he dismounted and strode into the hall, where Grettir's mother\nwas seated with a servant.  Thorbiorn threw her son's head at her feet,\nand said: \"See!  I have been to the island and have prevailed.\"\n\nThe lady sat proudly in her seat, and did not shed a tear; but lifting\nher voice in reply, she sang:\n\n    \"Milk-sop--as timid sheep\n    Before a fox all cow'ring keep;\n    So did you--nor could prevail\n    So long as Grettir's strength was hale.\n    Woe is on the Northland side,\n    Nor can I my loathing hide!\"\n\n\nAfter this The Hook returned home, and folk wondered at Asdis, saying\nthat only a heroic mother could have had sons so heroic.  When Yule was\nover The Hook rode east away to Garth, and told Thorir what he had done,\nand claimed the money set on Grettir's head.\n\nBut Thorir was crafty, and just as the Biarg folk sought a charge\nagainst Thorbiorn for his deed, so did Thorir, that he might escape\nhaving to pay the silver.  He answered, \"I do not deny that I offered\nthe money on Grettir's head, promising it to whomsoever should slay\nGrettir, but I will pay nothing to him who compassed his death by\nwitchcraft; and if what the men who went with you say be true, you did\nnot slay him with a sword, but hacked off his head after he was dead.\"\n\nThis made Thorbiorn Hook very angry, and when summer came he brought his\nsuit against Thorir for the money.  But simultaneously Grettir's kin\nbrought a charge against Thorbiorn for having practised witchcraft.\nAlso they had a summons against him for the slaying of Illugi.  Now, the\ncase was tried, and hotly discussed, and it ended this way:--It was\njudged that Thorbiorn had struck off the head of a man who was already\ndead, and that he had brought about the death of that man by witchcraft;\nthereupon it was judged that he should receive nothing of the money, and\nthat he should be outlawed from Iceland.\n\nSo he went away and never returned.\n\nNow, Grettir and Illugi were brought to land, and their bones lie at\nReykir, where was the friendly farmer who had helped them when they were\nat Drangey.  But Grettir's head was buried at Biarg. There is now no\nchurch or churchyard there, but there is a mound in the _tun_ where his\nhead is said to lie.  I obtained leave to dig there, and I examined the\nspot, but found only a great stone under the turf, and this we had not\nthe appliances to move. And perhaps it was as well; for if Grettir's\nhead be there, it were better that there it should rest undisturbed.\n\n\n\n\n                            *CHAPTER XLIII.*\n\n                      *HOW DROMUND KEPT HIS WORD.*\n\n\n    _Thorbiorn Hook in Norway--Dromund on Thorbiorn's Track--The\n    Varangians--Grettir's Sword--Grettir is Avenged_\n\n\nNow, after that Thorbiorn Hook had been outlawed, he found that he had\ngotten to himself no advantage, but great harm by what he had done upon\nDrangey.  He was forced to leave Iceland; and he saw, withal, that never\nagain might he set foot therein again with safety, for all the relatives\nof the Biarg family would seek his life.  Accordingly he made over his\nfarm at Woodwick to his brother Hialti, and also all his rights over the\nisland of Drangey, such as they were.  Then he collected together what\nmoveable goods he had, and went on board ship and sailed for Norway.\n\nOn reaching Norway he bragged much of what he had done in having slain\nGrettir, of whom tales were told in Norway; and, as may well be\nunderstood, he told the tale of the slaying of Grettir in his own way,\nmagnifying his heroism, and saying nothing about such matters as\nlessened the greatness of his deed.\n\nDuring the early winter tidings reached Thorstein Dromund at Tunsberg\nthat his brother Grettir was dead, and also that the man who slew him\nwas in the north of the country.  When Dromund heard the tidings he was\nvery sorrowful, and he called to mind the words he had said to Grettir\nwhen they showed each other what sort of arms they had. Dromund\nconsidered that he was bound to avenge his brother's death on his\nmurderer.\n\nThorbiorn Hook also was aware that there was a half-brother of Grettir\nin Norway, and when he knew that he was wary, for he suspected that\nDromund would seek his life.  And, indeed, Thorstein Dromund sent spies\nto watch Thorbiorn Hook; but the latter was so careful of himself that\nDromund was not able to attempt anything against him all that winter.\nNo sooner did the soft, warm, spring breezes begin to blow, than The\nHook got away out of Norway by the earliest opportunity.  He had heard\nmuch talk how that the Emperors of the East, at Constantinople, kept a\nguard of Norsemen about them, and paid them well, and how that this\nguard was held in high esteem.  So Thorbiorn Hook considered he could\nnot do better than go to Constantinople, and try his fortune there.  But\nbefore he left Norway he talked of his intention, and this was reported\nto Dromund at Tunsberg.  So Dromund put his lands and affairs into the\nhands of his kinsmen, and got ready for journeying in search of Hook,\nwhom he had never seen.\n\nHe sailed away after him, and wherever he came he made inquiries after\nthe ship in which Thorbiorn Hook had been, and he was always just too\nlate. He never could catch the ship up.  And then finally Thorbiorn left\nthe vessel and journeyed overland, and Thorstein lost his traces.\n\nHowever, Dromund knew that Thorbiorn Hook was going to Constantinople,\nso he travelled thither also, and reached the imperial city.  Now there\nwere a great many Norsemen and Icelanders there in the company called\nthe Varangians, who acted as a bodyguard to the Emperor, and among these\nmen were some twenty or more called Thorbiorn, and which among them was\nthe murderer of Grettir, Thorstein Dromund did not know.  The Hook, as\nmay well be imagined, did not tell anyone what his nickname was; not\nthat he imagined he was pursued, but because it was not a pretty and\nflattering name. Thorstein also offered himself as a soldier in the\nguard, and was enrolled.  He also merely gave his name as Thorstein, and\ntold no one of his nickname of Dromund, lest the man he pursued should\ntake alarm and leave.\n\nSo time passed, and Thorstein Dromund could not find out his man; and he\nlay awake in bed many nights musing on what he had undertaken, on the\nsad lot of Grettir, and on his ill-success in finding the murderer of\nhis half-brother.  Now, it fell out that on a certain day the order came\nto the Varangian guard that they were to be ready, as they were about to\nbe sent on an expedition of importance.\n\nIt was usual, before any such an expedition, that all the men of the\nguard should burnish up their weapons and armour, and show them, that\nthey were in condition.\n\nSo was it on this occasion also.  They were assembled in the guard-room,\nand each produced his weapon.  Then Thorbiorn held forth his\nshort-sword--the very weapon that Grettir had taken from the tomb of\nKarr the Old, the sword with which he The Hook had hewed off Grettir's\nhead.\n\nNow, when Thorbiorn held forth the sword all the other guardsmen praised\nit, and said it was an excellent weapon; but it had one grievous\nblemish, for that there was a notch in the edge.\n\n\"Oh!\" laughed Thorbiorn, \"that notch is no blemish at all.  It is a\nmemorial of one of my greatest achievements.\"\n\n\"What was that?\" asked one of the Varangians.\n\n\"With this sword,\" answered Thorbiorn, \"I slew the man who was esteemed\nthe greatest and most powerful champion of his time; a man who was in\noutlawry for twenty years, who had in his time fought and beaten off as\nmany as thirty or forty who attacked him.  But I was too much for him.\nWhen I went against him, then he had to give way. We fought for an hour\nwithout flagging, and finally I smote him down.  Then I took from him\nhis own sword, and with it I smote off his neck; and thus got the sword\nits notch.\"\n\n\"And his name?\" asked Thorstein Dromund.\n\n\"His name was Grettir the Strong.\"\n\nThere was a pause; and in that pause the sword was handed to Dromund for\nhim to look at.\n\n\"Thus is Grettir avenged!\" suddenly exclaimed Dromund.  He struck across\nthe table at Thorbiorn with Grettir's own sword; and so great was the\nstroke that it smote through his skull to the jaw-teeth, and The Hook\nfell without a word, dead.\n\nIt was said, in after times, that Grettir was wonderful in his life, and\nwonderful in his death--for in life no man had been his equal in\nstrength, and had had a sadder span of life; and in death he was\nwonderful--for of all Icelanders he was the only one who was avenged far\naway from home by the shores of the Bosphorus, in the City of the\nEmperors.\n\n\n\n\n                              *EPILOGUE.*\n\n\n    _Date of Grettir's Death--Mention of Grettir in other\n    Sagas--Historical Basis of the Grettir Story_\n\n\nIn the Icelandic annals the death of Grettir is set down as having\noccurred in 1033, but the dates are not quite correct, and the real date\nshould be 1031.\n\nGrettir is mentioned in other Icelandic sagas. He is spoken of and his\npedigree given in the Landnama Book, the Icelandic Domesday, the most\nreliable book for history they have.  The persons spoken of in the saga\nof Grettir are heard of in several other quite independent sagas, and in\nno case is there any serious anachronism.\n\nGrettir, it will be recalled, was taken by the farmers in the Ice-firth.\nThis incident is also related in the saga of the Foster-brothers; so is\nanother incident about a contest concerning a dead whale I have not\nrelated, as likely to break the continuity of the history.  In the saga\nof Thord, the hero is said to have blessed the Middle-firth in these\nwords: \"Let the man who grows up in this vale never be hung.\"  And this\nblessing was thought to have had something to do with the saving of\nGrettir's neck in the Ice-firth.  The story of Gisli has been told whom\nGrettir whipped.  Now, in the Viga-styr saga, the most ancient of all\nIcelandic sagas, we hear of this same Gisli, and his character is\npainted in the same colours as in the saga of Grettir, but no mention is\nmade of the whipping administered by Grettir.  The murder of Atli, the\nbrother of our outlaw, and the consequent slaying of Thorbiorn Oxmain is\nspoken of in the saga of Bard.  The circumstance of Grettir having lived\nin a cave on the farm in Hit-dale is spoken of in the saga of Biorn. In\nthe history of Grettir mention is made of the strife which took place\nbetween Biorn and Thord, but the full particulars of what is there\nalluded to casually are given in the saga of Biorn of Hit-dale. In our\nsaga, Grettir is spoken of as meeting Bard wounded after a hard fight,\nin which he had avenged the death of his brother, but no particulars are\ngiven. In the saga of the Heath-fights we recover the whole story.  Thus\none saga explains and supports another.\n\nIt is therefore impossible to set down the story of Grettir as fabulous.\nIt is historical; but the history has been somewhat embellished, partly\nby family vanity which led to the undue glorification of their hero, and\npartly by superstition which imagined the marvellous where all was\nreally natural.\n\n\n\n                                THE END.\n\n\n\n\n                          Transcriber's note:\n\n    The source book's pages had variant headers.  These headers have\n    been collected into the introductory paragraph at the start of\n    each chapter.","title":"Grettir the Outlaw: A Story of Iceland","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":71427}