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+Project Gutenberg's Etext:  "Life and Death of Cormac the Skald"
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+The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
+
+Anonymous Icelandic Epic
+
+May, 1995  [Etext #265]
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Etext of Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
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+
+
+
+
+
+Originally written in Icelandic sometime between 1250 - 1300 A.D.
+although parts may be based on a now lost 12th century saga.
+
+Author unknown.
+
+Translation by W.G. Collingwood & J. Stefansson (Ulverston, 1901). 
+
+This electronic text edited, proofed, and prepared by
+Doublas B. Killings (DeTroyes@AOL.COM), March 1995.
+
+
+
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext of Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+Cormac's Fore-Elders.
+
+Harald Fairhair was king of Norway when this tale begins.  There
+was a chief in the kingdom in those days and his name was Cormac;
+one of the Vik-folk by kindred, a great man of high birth.  He
+was the mightiest of champions, and had been with King Harald in
+many battles.
+
+He had a son called Ogmund, a very hopeful lad; big and sturdy
+even as a child; who when he was grown of age and come to his
+full strength, took to sea-roving in summer and served in the
+king's household in winter.  So he earned for himself a good name
+and great riches.
+
+One summer he went roving about the British Isles and there he
+fell in with a man named Asmund Ashenside, who also was a great
+champion and had worsted many vikings and men of war.  These two
+heard tell of one another and challenges passed between them. 
+They came together and fought.  Asmund had the greater following,
+but he withheld some of his men from the battle: and so for the
+length of four days they fought, until many of Asmund's people
+were fallen, and at last he himself fled.  Ogmund won the victory
+and came home again with wealth and worship.
+
+His father said that he could get no greater glory in war, --
+"And now," said he, "I will find thee a wife.  What sayest thou
+to Helga, daughter of Earl Frodi?"
+
+"So be it," said Ogmund.
+
+Upon this they set off to Earl Frodi's house, and were welcomed
+with all honour.  They made known their errand, and he took it
+kindly, although he feared that the fight with Asmund was likely
+to bring trouble.  Nevertheless this match was made, and then
+they went their ways home.  A feast was got ready for the wedding
+and to that feast a very great company came together.
+
+Helga the daughter of Earl Frodi had a nurse that was a wise
+woman, and she went with her.  Now Asmund the viking heard of
+this marriage, and set out to meet Ogmund.  He bade him fight,
+and Ogmund agreed.
+
+Helga's nurse used to touch men when they went to fight: so she
+did with Ogmund before he set out from home, and told him that he
+would not be hurt much.
+
+Then they both went to the fighting holm and fought.  The viking
+laid bare his side, but the sword would not bite upon it.  Then
+Ogmund whirled about his sword swiftly and shifted it from hand
+to hand, and hewed Asmund's leg from under him: and three marks
+of gold he took to let him go with his life.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+How Cormac Was Born and Bred.
+
+About this time King Harald Fairhair died, and Eric Bloodaxe
+reigned in his stead.  Ogmund would have no friendship with Eric,
+nor with Gunnhild, and made ready his ship for Iceland.
+
+Nor Ogmund and Helga had a son called Frodi: but when the ship
+was nearly ready, Helga took a sickness and died; and so did
+their son Frodi.
+
+After that, they sailed to sea.  When they were near the land,
+Ogmund cast overboard his high-seat-pillars; and where the high-
+seat-pillars had already been washed ashore, there they cast
+anchor, and landed in Midfiord.
+
+At this time Skeggi of Midfiord ruled the countryside.  He came
+riding toward them and bade them welcome into the firth, and gave
+them the pick of the land: which Ogmund took, and began to mark
+out ground for a house.  Now it was a belief of theirs that as
+the measuring went, so would the luck go: if the measuring-wand
+seemed to grow less when they tried it again and again, so would
+that house's luck grow less: and if it grew greater, so would the
+luck be.  This time the measure always grew less, though they
+tried it three times over.
+
+So Ogmund built him a house on the sandhills, and lived there
+ever after.  He married Dalla, the daughter of Onund the Seer,
+and their sons were Thorgils and Cormac.  Cormac was dark-haired,
+with a curly lock upon his forehead: he was bright of blee and
+somewhat like his mother, big and strong, and his mood was rash
+and hasty.  Thorgils was quiet and easy to deal with.
+
+When the brothers were grown up, Ogmund died; and Dalla kept
+house with her sons.  Thorgils worked the farm, under the eye of
+Midfiord-Skeggi.
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+How Cormac Fell In Love.
+
+There was a man named Thorkel lived at Tunga (Tongue).  He was a
+wedded man, and had a daughter called Steingerd who was fostered
+in Gnupsdal (Knipedale).
+
+Now it was one autumn that a whale came ashore at Vatnsnes
+(Watsness), and it belonged to the brothers, Dalla's sons. 
+Thorgils asked Cormac would he rather go shepherding on the fell,
+or work at the whale.  He chose to fare on the fell with the
+house-carles.
+
+Tosti, the foreman, it was should be master of the sheep-
+gathering: so he and Cormac went together until they came to
+Gnupsdal.  It was night: there was a great hall, and fires for
+men to sit at.
+
+That evening Steingerd came out of her bower, and a maid with
+her.  Said the maid, "Steingerd mine, let us look at the guests."
+
+"Nay," she said, "no need": and yet went to the door, and stepped
+on the threshold, and spied across the gate.  Now there was a
+space between the wicker and the threshold, and her feet showed
+through.  Cormac saw that, and made this song: --
+
+                    (1)
+     "At the door of my soul she is standing,
+     So sweet in the gleam of her garment:
+     Her footfall awakens a fury,
+     A fierceness of love that I knew not,
+     Those feet of a wench in her wimple,
+     Their weird is my sorrow and troubling,
+     -- Or naught may my knowledge avail me --
+     Both now and for aye to endure."
+
+Then Steingerd knew she was seen.  She turned aside into a corner
+where the likeness of Hagbard was carved on the wall, and peeped
+under Hagbard's beard.  Then the firelight shone upon her face.
+
+"Cormac," said Tosti, "seest eyes out yonder by that head of
+Hagbard?"
+
+Cormac answered in song: --
+
+                    (2)
+     "There breaks on me, burning upon me,
+     A blaze from the cheeks of a maiden,
+     -- I laugh not to look on the vision --
+     In the light of the hall by the doorway.
+     So sweet and so slender I deem her,
+     Though I spy bug a glimpse of an ankle
+     By the threshold: -- and through me there flashes
+     A thrill that shall age never more."
+
+And then he made another song: --
+
+                    (3)
+     "The moon of her brow, it is beaming
+     'Neath the bright-litten heaven of her forehead:
+     So she gleams in her white robe, and gazes
+     With a glance that is keen as the falcon's.
+     But the star that is shining upon me
+     What spell shall it work by its witchcraft?
+     Ah, that moon of her brow shall be mighty
+     With mischief to her -- and to me?"
+
+Said Tosti, "She is fairly staring at thee!" -- And he answered:
+--
+
+                    (4)
+     "She's a ring-bedight oak of the ale-cup,
+     And her eyes never left me unhaunted.
+     The strife in my heart I could hide not,
+     For I hold myself bound in her bondage.
+     O gay in her necklet, and gainer
+     In the game that wins hearts on her chessboard, --
+     When she looked at me long from the doorway
+     Where the likeness of Hagbard is carved."
+
+Then the girls went into the hall, and sat down.  He heard what
+they said about his looks, -- the maid, that he was black and
+ugly, and Steingerd, that he was handsome and everyway as best
+could be, -- "There is only one blemish," said she, "his hair is
+tufted on his forehead:" -- and he said: --
+
+                    (5)
+     "One flaw in my features she noted
+     -- With the flame of the wave she was gleaming
+     All white in the wane of the twilight --
+     And that one was no hideous blemish.
+     So highborn, so haughty a lady
+     -- I should have such a dame to befriend me:
+     But she trows me uncouth for a trifle,
+     For a tuft in the hair on my brow!"
+
+Said the maid, "Black are his eyes, sister, and that becomes him
+not."  Cormac heard her, and said in verse: --
+
+                    (6)
+     "Yes, black are the eyes that I bring ye,
+     O brave in your jewels, and dainty.
+     But a draggle-tail, dirty-foot slattern
+     Would dub me ill-favoured and sallow.
+     Nay, many a maiden has loved me,
+     Thou may of the glittering armlet:
+     For I've tricks of the tongue to beguile them
+     And turn them from handsomer lads."
+
+At this house they spent the night.  In the morning when Cormac
+rose up, he went to a trough and washed himself; then he went
+into the ladies' bower and saw nobody there, but heard folk
+talking in the inner room, and he turned and entered.  There was
+Steingerd, and women with her.
+
+Said the maid to Steingerd, "There comes thy bonny man,
+Steingerd."
+
+"Well, and a fine-looking lad he is," said she.
+
+Now she was combing her hair, and Cormac asked her, "Wilt thou
+give me leave?"
+
+She reached out her comb for him to handle it.  She had the
+finest hair of any woman.  Said the maid, "Ye would give a deal
+for a wife with hair like Steingerd's, or such eyes!"
+
+He answered: --
+
+                    (7)
+     "One eye of the far of the ale-horn
+     Looking out of a form so bewitching,
+     Would a bridegroom count money to buy it
+     He must bring for it ransom three hundred.
+     The curls that she combs of a morning,
+     White-clothed in fair linen and spotless,
+     They enhance the bright hoard of her value, --
+     Five hundred might barely redeem them!"
+
+Said the maid, "It's give and take with the two of ye!  But
+thou'lt put a big price upon the whole of her!"  He answered: --
+
+                    (8)
+     "The tree of my treasure and longing,
+     It would take this whole Iceland to win her:
+     She is dearer than far-away Denmark,
+     And the doughty domain of the Hun-folk.
+     With the gold she is combing, I count her
+     More costly than England could ransom:
+     So witty, so wealthy, my lady
+     Is worth them, -- and Ireland beside!"
+
+Then Tosti came in, and called Cormac out to some work or other;
+but he said: --
+
+                    (9)
+     "Take m swift-footed steel for thy tiding,
+     Ay, and stint not the lash to him, Tosti:
+     On the desolate downs ye may wander
+     And drive him along till he weary.
+     I care not o'er mountain and moorland
+     The murrey-brown weathers to follow, --
+     Far liefer, I'd linger the morning
+     In long, cosy chatter with Steingerd."
+
+Tosti said he would find it a merrier game, and went off; so
+Cormac sat down to chess, and right gay he was.  Steingerd said
+he talked better than folk told of; and he sat there all the day;
+and then he made this song: --
+
+                    (10)
+     " 'Tis the dart that adorneth her tresses,
+     The deep, dewy grass of her forehead.
+     So kind to my keeping she gave it,
+     That good comb I shall ever remember!
+     A stranger was I when I sought her
+     -- Sweet stem with the dragon's hoard shining --"
+     With gold like the sea-dazzle gleaming --
+     The girl I shall never forget."
+
+Tosti came off the fell and they fared home.  After that Cormac
+used to go to Gnupsdal often to see Steingerd: and he asked his
+mother to make him good clothes, so that Steingerd might like him
+the most that could be.  Dalla said there was a mighty great
+difference betwixt them, and it was far from certain to end
+happily if Thorkel at Tunga got to know.
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+How Cormac Liked Black-Puddings.
+
+Well Thorkel soon heard what was going forward, and thought it
+would turn out to his own shame and his daughter's if Cormac
+would not pledge himself to take her or leave her.  So he sent
+for Steingerd, and she went home.
+
+Thorkel had a man called Narfi, a noisy, foolish fellow,
+boastful, and yet of little account.  Said he to Thorkel, "If
+Cormac's coming likes thee not, I can soon settle it."
+
+"Very well," says Thorkel.
+
+Now, in the autumn, Narfi's work it was to slaughter the sheep. 
+Once, when Cormac came to Tunga, he saw Steingerd in the kitchen. 
+Narfi stood by the kettle, and when they had finished the
+boiling, he took up a black-pudding and thrust it under Cormac's
+nose, crying: --
+
+                    (11)
+     "Cormac, how would ye relish one?
+     Kettle-worms I call them."
+
+To which he answered: --
+
+                    (12)
+     "Black-puddings boiled, quoth Ogmund's son,
+     Are a dainty, -- fair befall them!"
+
+And in the evening when Cormac made ready to go home he saw
+Narfi, and bethought him of those churlish words.  "I think,
+Narfi," said he, "I am more like to knock thee down, than thou to
+rule my coming and going."  And with that struck him an axe-
+hammer-blow, saying: --
+
+                    (13)
+     "Why foul with thy clowning and folly,
+     The food that is dressed for thy betters?
+     Thou blundering archer, what ails thee
+     To be aiming thy insults at me?"
+
+And he made another song about: --
+
+                    (14)
+     "He asked me, the clavering cowherd
+     If I cared for -- what was it he called them? --
+     The worms of the kettle.  I warrant
+     He'll be wiping his eyes by the hearth-stone.
+     I deem that yon knave of the dunghill
+     Who dabbles the muck on the meadow
+     -- Yon rook in his mud-spattered raiment --
+     Got a rap for his noise -- like a dog."
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+They Waylay Cormac: And The Witch Curses Him.
+
+There was a woman named Thorveig, and she knew a deal too much. 
+She lived at Steins-stadir (Stonestead) in Midfiord, and had two
+sons; the elder was Odd, and the younger Gudmund.  They were
+great braggarts both of them.
+
+This Odd often came to see Thorkel at Tunga, and used to sit and
+talk with Steingerd.  Thorkel made a great show of friendship
+with the brothers, and egged them on to waylay Cormac.  Odd said
+it was no more than he could do.
+
+So one day when Cormac came to Tunga, Steingerd was in the
+parlour and sat on the dais.  Thorveig's sons sat in the room,
+ready to fall upon him when he came in; and Thorkel had put a
+drawn sword on one side of the door, and on the other side Narfi
+had put a scythe in its shaft.  When Cormac came to the hall-door
+the scythe fell down and met the sword, and broke a great notch
+in it.  Out came Thorkel and began to upbraid Cormac for a
+rascal, and got fairly wild with his talk: then flung into the
+parlour and bade Steingerd out of it.  Forth they went by another
+door, and he locked her into an outhouse, saying that Cormac and
+she would never meet again.
+
+Cormac went in: and he came quicker than folk thought for, and
+they were taken aback.  He looked about, and no Steingerd: but he
+saw the brothers whetting their weapons: so he turned on his heel
+and went, saying: --
+
+                    (14)
+     "The weapon that mows in the meadow
+     It met with the gay painted buckler,
+     When I came to encounter a goddess
+     Who carries the beaker of wine.
+     Beware!  for I warn you of evil
+     When warriors threaten me mischief.
+     It shall not be for nought that I pour ye
+     The newly mixed mead of the gods."
+
+And when he could find Steingerd nowhere, he made this song: --
+
+                    (15)
+     "She has gone, with the glitter of ocean
+     Agleam on her wrist and her bosom,
+     And my heart follows hard on her footsteps,
+     For the hall is in darkness without her.
+     I have gazed, but my glances can pierce not
+     The gloom of the desolate dwelling;
+     And fierce is my longing to find her,
+     The fair one who only can heal me."
+
+After a while he came to the outhouse where Steingerd was, and
+burst it open and had talk with her.
+
+"This is madness," cried she, "to come talking with me; for
+Thorveig's sons are meant to have thy head."
+
+But he answered: --
+
+                    (16)
+     "There wait they within that would snare me;
+     There whet they their swords for my slaying.
+     My bane they shall be not, the cowards,
+     The brood of the churl and the carline.
+     Let the twain of them find me and fight me
+     In the field, without shelter to shield them,
+     And ewes of the sheep should be surer
+     To shorten the days of the wolf."
+
+So he sat there all day.  By that time Thorkel saw that the plan
+he had made was come to nothing; and he bade the sons of Thorveig
+waylay Cormac in a dale near his garth.  "Narfi shall go with ye
+two," said he; "but I will stay at home, and bring you help if
+need be."
+
+In the evening Cormac set out, and when he came to the dale, he
+saw three men, and said in verse: --
+
+                    (17)
+     "There sit they in hiding to stay me
+     From the sight of my queen of the jewels:
+     But rude will their task be to reave me
+     From the roof of my bounteous lady.
+     The fainer the hatred they harbour
+     For him that is free of her doorway,
+     The fainer my love and my longing
+     For the lass that is sweeter than samphire."
+
+Then leaped up Thorveig's sons, and fought Cormac for a time:
+Narfi the while skulked and dodged behind them.  Thorkel saw from
+his house that they were getting but slowly forward, and he took
+his weapons.  In that nick of time Steingerd came out and saw
+what her father meant.  She laid hold on his hands, and he got no
+nearer to help the brothers.  In the end Odd fell, and Gudmund
+was so wounded that he died afterwards.  Thorkel saw to them, and
+Cormac went home.
+
+A little after this Cormac went to Thorveig and said he would
+have her no longer live there at the firth.  "Thou shalt flit and
+go thy way at such a time," said he, "and I will give no blood-
+money for thy sons."
+
+Thorveig answered, "It is like enough ye can hunt me out of the
+countryside, and leave my sons unatoned.  But this way I'll
+reward thee.  Never shalt thou have Steingerd."
+
+Said Cormac, "That's not for thee to make or to mar, thou wicked
+old hag!"
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+Cormac Wins His Bride and Loses Her.
+
+After this, Cormac went to see Steingerd the same as ever: and
+once when they talked over these doings she said no ill of them:
+whereupon he made this song: --
+
+                    (18)
+     "There sat they in hiding to slay me
+     From the sight of my bride and my darling:
+     But weak were the feet of my foemen
+     When we fought on the island of weapons.
+     And the rush of the mightiest rivers
+     Shall race from the shore to the mountains
+     Or ever I leave thee, my lady,
+     And the love that I feast on to-day!"
+
+"Say no such big words about it," answered she; "Many a thing may
+stand in the road."
+
+Upon which he said: --
+
+                    (19)
+     "O sweet in the sheen of thy raiment,
+     The sight of thy beauty is gladdening!
+     What man that goes marching to battle,
+     What mate wouldst thou choose to be thine?"
+
+And she answered: --
+
+                    (20)
+     "O giver of gold, O ring-breaker,
+     If the gods and the high fates befriend me,
+     I'd pledge me to Frodi's blithe brother
+     And bind him that he should be mine."
+
+Then she told him to make friends with her father and get her in
+marriage.  So for her sake Cormac gave Thorkel good gifts. 
+Afterwards many people had their say in the matter; but in the
+end it came to this, -- that he asked for her, and she was
+pledged to him, and the wedding was fixed: and so all was quiet
+for a while.
+
+Then they had words.  There was some falling-out about
+settlements.  It came to such a pass that after everything was
+ready, Cormac began to cool off.  But the real reason was, that
+Thorveig had bewitched him so that they should never have one
+another.
+
+Thorkel at Tunga had a grown-up son, called Thorkel and by-named
+Tooth-gnasher.  He had been abroad some time, but this summer he
+came home and stayed with his father.
+
+Cormac never came to the wedding at the time it was fixed, and
+the hour passed by.  This the kinsfolk of Steingerd thought a
+slight, deeming that he had broken off the match; and they had
+much talk about it.
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+How Steingerd Was Married To Somebody Else.
+
+Bersi lived in the land of Saurbae, a rich man and a good fellow:
+he was well to the fore, a fighter, and a champion at the
+holmgang.  He had been married to Finna the Fair: but she was
+dead: Asmund was their son, young in years and early ripe.  Helga
+was the sister of Bersi: she was unmarried, but a fine woman and
+a pushing one, and she kept house for Bersi after Finna died.
+
+At the farm called Muli (the Mull) lived Thord Arndisarson: he
+was wedded to Thordis, sister of Bork the Stout.  They had two
+sons who were both younger than Asmund the son of Bersi.
+
+There was also a man with Vali.  His farm was named Vali's stead,
+and it stood on the way to Hrutafiord.
+
+Now Thorveig the spaewife went to see Holmgang Bersi and told him
+her trouble.  She said that Cormac forbade her staying in
+Midfiord: so Bersi bought land for her west of the firth, and she
+lived there for a long time afterwards.
+
+Once when Thorkel at Tunga and his son were talking about
+Cormac's breach of faith and deemed that it should be avenged,
+Narfi said, "I see a plan that will do.  Let us go to the west-
+country with plenty of goods and gear, and come to Bersi in
+Saurbae.  He is wifeless.  Let us entangle him in the matter.  He
+would be a great help to us."
+
+That counsel they took.  They journeyed to Saurbae, and Bersi
+welcomed them.  In the evening they talked of nothing but
+weddings.  Narfi up and said there was no match so good as
+Steingerd, -- "And a deal of folk say, Bersi, that she would suit
+thee."
+
+"I have heard tell," he answered, "that there will be a rift in
+the road, though the match is a good one."
+
+"If it's Cormac men fear," cried Narfi, "there is no need; for he
+is clean out of the way."
+
+When Bersi heard that, he opened the matter to Thorkel
+Toothgnasher, and asked for Steingerd.  Thorkel made a good
+answer, and pledged his sister to him.
+
+So they rode north, eighteen in all, for the wedding.  There was
+a man named Vigi lived at Holm, a big man and strong of his
+hands, a warlock, and Bersi's kinsman.  He went with them, and
+they thought he would be a good helper.  Thord Arndisarson too
+went north with Bersi, and many others, all picked men.
+
+When they came to Thorkel's, they set about the wedding at once,
+so that no news of it might get out through the countryside: but
+all this was sore against Steingerd's will.
+
+Now Vigi the warlock knew every man's affairs who came to the
+steading or left it.  He sat outmost in the chamber, and slept by
+the hall door.
+
+Steingerd sent for Narfi, and when they met she said, -- "I wish
+thee, kinsman, to tell Cormac the business they are about: I wish
+thee to take this message to him."
+
+So he set out secretly; but when he was a gone a little way Vigi
+came after, and bade him creep home and hatch no plots.  They
+went back together, and so the night passed.
+
+Next morning Narfi started forth again; but before he had gone so
+far as on the evening, Vigi beset him, and drove him back without
+mercy.
+
+When the wedding was ended they made ready for their journey. 
+Steingerd took her gold and jewels, and they rode towards
+Hrutafiord, going rather slowly.  When they were off, Narfi set
+out and came to Mel.  Cormac was building a wall, and hammering
+it with a mallet.  Narfi rode up, with his shield and sword, and
+carried on strangely, rolling his eyes about like a hunted beast. 
+Some men were up on the wall with Cormac when he came, and his
+horse shied at them.  Said Cormac, -- "What news, Narfi?  What
+folk were with you last night?"
+
+"Small tidings, but we had guests enough," answered he.
+
+"Who were the guests?"
+
+"There was Holmgang Bersi, with seventeen more to sit at his
+wedding."
+
+"Who was the bride?"
+
+"Bersi wed Steingerd Thorkel's daughter," said Narfi.  "When they
+were gone she sent me here to tell thee the news."
+
+"Thou hast never a word but ill," said Cormac, and leapt upon him
+and struck at the shield: and as it slipped aside he was smitten
+on the breast and fell from his horse; and the horse ran away
+with the shield (hanging to it).
+
+Cormac's brother Thorgils said this was too much.  "It serves him
+right," cried Cormac.  And when Narfi woke out of his swoon they
+got speech of him.
+
+Thorgils asked, "What manner of men were at the wedding?"
+
+Narfi told him.
+
+"Did Steingerd know this before?"
+
+"Not till the very evening they came," answered he; and then told
+of his dealings with Vigi, saying that Cormac would find it
+easier to whistle on Steingerd's tracks and go on a fool's errand
+than to fight Bersi.  Then said Cormac: --
+
+                    (21)
+     "Now see to thy safety henceforward,
+     And stick to thy horse and thy buckler;
+     Or this mallet of mine, I can tell thee,
+     Will meet with thine ear of a surety.
+     Now say no more stories of feasting,
+     Though seven in a day thou couldst tell of,
+     Or bumps thou shalt comb on thy brainpan,
+     Thou that breakest the howes of the dead.
+
+Thorgils asked about the settlements between Bersi and Steingerd. 
+Her kinsmen, said Narfi, were now quit of all farther trouble
+about that business, however it might turn out; but her father
+and brother would be answerable for the wedding.
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+How Cormac Chased Bersi And His Bride.
+
+Cormac took his horse and weapons and saddle-gear.
+
+"What now, brother?" asked Thorgils.
+
+He answered: --
+
+                    (22)
+     "My bride, my betrothed has been stolen,
+     And Bersi the raider has robbed me.
+     I who offer the song-cup of Odin --
+     Who else? -- should be riding beside her.
+     She loved me -- no lord of them better:
+     I have lost her -- for me she is weeping:
+     The dear, dainty darling that kissed me,
+     For day upon day of delight."
+
+Said Thorgils, "A risky errand is this, for Bersi will get home
+before you catch him.  And yet I will go with thee."
+
+Cormac said he would away and bide for no man.  He leapt on his
+horse forthwith, and galloped as hard as he could.  Thorgils made
+haste to gather men, -- they were eighteen in all, -- and came up
+with Cormac on the hause that leads to Hrutafiord, for he had
+foundered his horse.  So they turned to Thorveig the spaewife's
+farmsteading, and found that Bersi was gone aboard her boat.
+
+She had said to Bersi, "I wish thee to take a little gift from
+me, and good luck follow it."
+
+This was a target bound with iron; and she said she reckoned
+Bersi would hardly be hurt if he carried it to shield him, --
+"but it is little worth beside this steading thou hast given me." 
+He thanked her for the gift, and so they parted.  Then she got
+men to scuttle all the boats on the shore, because she knew
+beforehand that Cormac and his folk were coming.
+
+When they came and asked her for a boat, she said she would do
+them no kindness without payment; -- "Here is a rotten boat in
+the boathouse which I would lend for half a mark."
+
+Thorgils said it would be in reason if she asked two ounces of
+silver.  Such matters, said Cormac, should not stand in the way;
+but Thorgils said he would sooner ride all round the water-head. 
+Nevertheless Cormac had his will, and they started in the boat;
+but they had scarcely put off from shore when it filled, and they
+had hard work to get back to the same spot.
+
+"Thou shouldst pay dearly for this, thou wicked old hag," said
+Cormac, "and never be paid at all."
+
+That was no mighty trick to play them, she said; and so Thorgils
+paid her the silver; about which Cormac made this song: --
+
+                    (23)
+     "I'm a tree that is tricked out in war-gear,
+     She, the trim rosy elf of the shuttle:
+     And I break into singing about her
+     Like the bat at the well, never ceasing.
+     With the dew-drops of Draupnir the golden
+     Full dearly folk buy them their blessings;
+     Then lay down three ounces and leave them
+     For the leaky old boat that we borrowed."
+
+Bersi got hastily to horse, and rode homewards; and when Cormac
+saw that he must be left behind, he made this song: --
+
+                    (24)
+     "I tell you, the goddess who glitters
+     With gold on the perch of the falcon,
+     The bride that I trusted, by beauty,
+     From the bield of my hand has been taken.
+     On the boat she makes glad in its gliding
+     She is gone from me, reft from me, ravished!
+     O shame, that we linger to save her,
+     Too sweet for the prey of the raven!
+
+They took their horses and rode round the head of the firth. 
+They met Vali and asked about Bersi; he said that Bersi had come
+to Muli and gathered men to him, -- "A many men."
+
+"Then we are too late," said Cormac, "if they have got men
+together."
+
+Thorgils begged Cormac to let them turn back, saying there was
+little honour to be got; but Cormac said he must see Steingerd.
+
+So Vali went with them and they came to Muli where Bersi was and
+many men with him.  They spoke together.  Cormac said that Bersi
+had betrayed him in carrying off Steingerd, "But now we would
+take the lady with us, and make him amends for his honour."
+
+To this said Thord Arndisarson, "We will offer terms to Cormac,
+but the lady is in Bersi's hands."
+
+"There is no hope that Steingerd will go with you," said Bersi;
+"but I offer my sister to Cormac in marriage, and I reckon he
+will be well wedded if take Helga."
+
+"This is a good offer," said Thorgils; "let us think of it,
+brother."
+
+But Cormac started back like a restive horse.
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+Of Another Witch, And Two Magic Swords.
+
+There was a woman called Thordis -- and a shrew she was -- who
+lived at Spakonufell (Spaequean's-fell), in Skagastrand.  She,
+having foresight of Cormac's goings, came that very day to Muli,
+and answered this matter on his behalf, saying, "Never give him
+yon false woman.  She is a fool, and not fit for any pretty man. 
+Woe will his mother be at such a fate for her lad!"
+
+"Aroint thee, foul witch!" cried Thord.  They should see, said
+he, that Helga would turn out fine.  But Cormac answered, "Said
+it may be, for sooth it may be: I will never think of her."
+
+"Woe to us, then," said Thorgils, "for listening to the words of
+yon fiend, and slighting this offer!"
+
+Then spoke Cormac, "I bid thee, Bersi, to the holmgang within
+half a month, at Leidholm, in Middal."
+
+Bersi said he would come, but Cormac should be the worse for his
+choice.
+
+After this Cormac went about the steading to look for Steingerd. 
+When he found her he said she had betrayed him in marrying
+another man.
+
+"It was thou that made the first breach, Cormac," said she, "for
+this was none of my doing."
+
+Then said he in verse: --
+
+                    (25)
+     "Thou sayest my faith has been forfeit,
+     O fair in thy glittering raiment;
+     But I wearied my steed and outwore it,
+     And for what but the love that bare thee?
+     O fainer by far was I, lady,
+     To founder my horse in the hunting --
+     Nay, I spared not the jade when I spurred it --
+     Than to see thee the bride of my foe."
+
+After this Cormac and his men went home.  When he told his mother
+how things had gone, "Little good," she said, "will thy luck do
+us.  Ye have slighted a fine offer, and you have no chance
+against Bersi, for he is a great fighter and he has good
+weapons."
+
+Now, Bersi owned the sword they call Whitting; a sharp sword it
+was, with a life-stone to it; and that sword he had carried in
+many a fray.
+
+"Whether wilt thou have weapons to meet Whitting?" she asked. 
+Cormac said he would have an axe both great and keen.
+
+Dalla said he should see Skeggi of Midfiord and ask for the loan
+of his sword, Skofnung.  So Cormac went to Reykir and told Skeggi
+how matters stood, asking him to lend Skofnung.  Skeggi said he
+had no mind to lend it.  Skofnung and Cormac, said he, would
+never agree:  "It is cold and slow, and thou art hot and hasty."
+
+Cormac rode away and liked it ill.  He came home to Mel and told
+his mother that Skeggi would not lend the sword.  Now Skeggi had
+the oversight of Dalla's affairs, and they were great friends; so
+she said, "He will lend the sword, though not all at once."
+
+That was not what he wanted, answered Cormac, -- "If he withhold
+it not from thee, while he does withhold it from me."  Upon which
+she answered that he was a thwart lad.
+
+A few days afterwards Dalla told him to go to Reykir.  "He will
+lend thee the sword now," said she.  So he sought Skeggi and
+asked for Skofnung.
+
+"Hard wilt thou find it to handle," said Skeggi.  "There is a
+pouch to it, and that thou shalt let be.  Sun must not shine on
+the pommel of the hilt.  Thou shalt not wear it until fighting is
+forward, and when ye come to the field, sit all alone and then
+draw it.  Hold the edge toward thee, and blow on it.  Then will a
+little worm creep from under the hilt.  Then slope thou the sword
+over, and make it easy for that worm to creep back beneath the
+hilt."
+
+"Here's a tale of tricks, thou warlock!" cried Cormac
+
+"Nevertheless," answered Skeggi, "it will stand thee in good
+stead to know them."
+
+So Cormac rode home and told his mother, saying that her will was
+of great avail with Skeggi.  He showed the sword, and tried to
+draw it, but it would not leave the sheath.
+
+"Thou are over wilful, my son," said she.
+
+Then he set his feet against the hilts, and pulled until he tore
+the pouch off, at which Skofnung creaked and groaned, but never
+came out of the scabbard.
+
+Well, the time wore on, and the day came.  He rode away with
+fifteen men; Bersi also rode to the holm with as many.  Cormac
+came there first, and told Thorgils that he would sit apart by
+himself.  So he sat down and ungirt the sword.
+
+Now, he never heeded whether the sun shone upon the hilt, for he
+had girt the sword on him outside his clothes.  And when he tried
+to draw it he could not, until he set his feet upon the hilts. 
+Then the little worm came, and was not rightly done by; and so
+the sword came groaning and creaking out of the scabbard, and the
+good luck of it was gone.
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+The Fight On Leidarholm.
+
+After that Cormac went to his men.  Bersi and his party had come
+by that time, and many more to see the fight.
+
+Cormac took up Bersi's target and cut at it, and sparks flew out.
+
+Then a hide was taken and spread for them to stand on.  Bersi
+spoke and said, "Thou, Cormac, hast challenged me to the
+holmgang; instead of that, I offer thee to fight in simple sword-
+play.  Thou art a young man and little tried; the holmgang needs
+craft and cunning, but sword-play, man to man, is an easy game."
+
+Cormac answered, "I should fight no better even so.  I will run
+the risk, and stand on equal footing with thee, every way."
+
+"As thou wilt," said Bersi.
+
+It was the law of the holmgang that the hide should be five ells
+long, with loops at its corners.  Into these should be driven
+certain pins with heads to them, called tjosnur.  He who made it
+ready should go to the pins in such a manner that he could see
+sky between his legs, holding the lobes of his ears and speaking
+the forewords used in the rite called "The Sacrifice of the
+tjosnur."  Three squares should be marked round the hide, each
+one foot broad.  At the outermost corners of the squares should
+be four poles, called hazels; when this is done, it is a hazelled
+field.  Each man should have three shields, and when they were
+cut up he must get upon the hide if he had given way from it
+before, and guard himself with his weapons alone thereafter.  He
+who had been challenged should strike the first stroke.  If one
+was wounded so that blood fell upon the hide, he should fight no
+longer.  If either set one foot outside the hazel poles "he went
+on his heel," they said; but he "ran" if both feet were outside. 
+His own man was to hold the shield before each of the fighters. 
+The one who was wounded should pay three marks of silver to be
+set free.
+
+So the hide was taken and spread under their feet.  Thorgils held
+his brother's shield, and Thord Arndisarson that of Bersi.  Bersi
+struck the first blow, and cleft Cormac's shield; Cormac struck
+at Bersi to the like peril.  Each of them cut up and spoilt three
+shields of the other's.  Then it was Cormac's turn.  He struck at
+Bersi, who parried with Whitting.  Skofnung cut the point off
+Whitting in front of the ridge.  The sword-point flew upon
+Cormac's hand, and he was wounded in the thumb.  The joint was
+cleft, and blood dropped upon the hide.  Thereupon folk went
+between them and stayed the fight.
+
+Then said Cormac, "This is a mean victory that Bersi has gained;
+it is only from my bad luck; and yet we must part."
+
+He flung down his sword, and it met Bersi's target.  A shard was
+broken out of Skofnung, and fire flew out of Thorveig's gift.
+
+Bersi asked the money for release, Cormac said it would be paid;
+and so they parted.
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+The Songs That Were Made About The Fight.
+
+Steinar was the name of a man who was the son of Onund the Seer,
+and brother of Dalla, Cormac's mother.  He was an unpeaceful man,
+and lived at Ellidi.
+
+Thither rode Cormac from the holme, to see his kinsman, and told
+him of the fight, at which he was but ill pleased.  Cormac said
+he meant to leave the country, -- "And I want thee to take the
+money to Bersi."
+
+"Thou art no bold man," said Steinar, "but the money shall be
+paid if need be."
+
+Cormac was there some nights; his hand swelled much, for it was
+not dressed.
+
+After that meeting, Holmgang Bersi went to see his brother.  Folk
+asked how the holmgang had gone, and when he told them they said
+that two bold men had struck small blows, and he had gained the
+victory only through Cormac's mishap.  When Bersi met Steingerd,
+and she asked how it went, he made this verse: --
+
+                    (26)
+     "They call him, and truly they tell it,
+     A tree of the helmet right noble:
+     But the master of manhood must bring me
+     Three marks for his ransom and rescue.
+     Though stout in the storm of the bucklers
+     In the stress of the Valkyrie's tempest
+     He will bid me no more to the battle,
+     For the best of the struggle was ours."
+
+Steinar and Cormac rode from Ellidi and passed through Saurbae. 
+They saw men riding towards them, and yonder came Bersi.  He
+greeted Cormac and asked how the wound was getting on.  Cormac
+said it needed little to be healed.
+
+"Wilt thou let me heal thee?" said Bersi; "though from me thou
+didst get it: and then it will be soon over."
+
+Cormac said nay, for he meant to be his lifelong foe.  Then
+answered Bersi: --
+
+                    (27)
+     "Thou wilt mind thee for many a season
+     How we met in the high voice of Hilda.
+     Right fain I go forth to the spear-mote
+     Being fitted for every encounter.
+     There Cormac's gay shield from his clutches
+     I clave with the bane of the bucklers,
+     For he scorned in the battle to seek me
+     If we set not the lists of the holmgang."
+
+Thus they parted; and then Cormac went home to Mel and saw his
+mother.  She healed his hand; it had become ugly and healed
+badly.  The notch in Skofnung they whetted, but the more they
+whetted the bigger it was.  So he went to Reykir, and flung
+Skofnung at Skeggi's feet, with this verse: --
+
+                    (28)
+     "I bring thee, thus broken and edgeless,
+     The blade that thou gavest me, Skeggi!
+     I warrant thy weapon could bite not:
+     I won not the fight by its witchcraft.
+     No gain of its virtue nor glory
+     I got in the strife of the weapons,
+     When we met for to mingle the sword-storm
+     For the maiden my singing adorns."
+
+Said Skeggi, "It went as I warned thee."  Cormac flung forth and
+went home to Mel: and when he met with Dalla he made this song:--
+
+                    (29)
+     "To the field went I forth, O my mother
+     The flame of the armlet who guardest, --
+     To dare the cave-dweller, my foeman
+     And I deemed I should smite him in battle.
+     But the brand that is bruited in story
+     It brake in my hand as I held it;
+     And this that should thrust men to slaughter
+     Is thwarted and let of its might.
+
+                    (30)
+     For I borrowed to bear in the fighting
+     No blunt-edged weapon of Skeggi:
+     There is strength in the serpent that quivers
+     By the side of the land of the girdle.
+     But vain was the virtue of Skofnung
+     When he vanquished the sharpness of Whitting;
+     And a shard have I shorn, to my sorrow,
+     From the shearer of ringleted mail.
+
+                    (31)
+     Yon tusker, my foe, wrought me trouble
+     When targe upon targe I had carven:
+     For the thin wand of slaughter was shattered
+     And it sundered the ground of my handgrip.
+     Loud bellowed the bear of the sea-king
+     When he brake from his lair in the scabbard,
+     At the hest of the singer, who seeketh
+     The sweet hidden draught of the gods.
+
+                    (32)
+     Afar must I fare, O my mother,
+     And a fate points the pathway before me,
+     For that white-wreathen tree may woo not
+     -- Two wearisome morrows her outcast.
+     And it slays me, at home to be sitting,
+     So set is my heart on its goddess,
+     As a lawn with fair linen made lovely
+     -- I can linger no third morrow's morn."
+
+After that, Cormac went one day to Reykir and talked with Skeggi,
+who said the holmgang had been brought to scorn.  Then answered
+Cormac: --
+
+                    (33)
+     "Forget it, O Frey of the helmet,
+     -- Lo, I frame thee a song in atonement --
+     That the bringer of blood, even Skofnung,
+     I bare thee so strangely belated.
+     For by stirrers of storm was I wounded;
+     They smote me where perches the falcon:
+     But the blade that I borrowed, O Skeggi,
+     Was borne in the clashing of edges.
+
+                    (34)
+     I had deemed, O thou Grey of fighting,
+     Of the fierce song of Odin, -- my neighbour,
+     I had deemed that a brand meet for bloodshed
+     I bare to the crossways of slaughter.
+     Nay, -- thy glaive, it would gape not nor ravin
+     Against him, the rover who robbed me:
+     And on her, as the surge on the shingle,
+     My soul beats and breaks evermore."
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+Bersi's Bad Luck At The Thor's-Ness Thing.
+
+In the winter, sports were held at Saurbae.  Bersi's lad, Asmund,
+was there, and likewise the sons of Thord; but they were younger
+than he, and nothing like so sturdy.  When they wrestled Asmund
+took no heed to stint his strength, and the sons of Thord often
+came home blue and bleeding.  Their mother Thordis was ill
+pleased, and asked her husband would he give Bersi a hint to make
+it up on behalf of his son.  Nay, Thord answered, he was loath to
+do that.
+
+"Then I'll find my brother Bork," said she, "and it will be just
+as bad in the end."
+
+Thord bade her do no such thing.  "I would rather talk it over
+with him," said he; and so, at her wish, he met Bersi, and hinted
+that some amends were owing.
+
+Said Bersi, "Thou art far too greedy of getting, nowadays.  This
+kind of thing will end in losing thee thy good name.  Thou wilt
+never want while anything is to be got here."
+
+Thord went home, and there was a coolness between them while that
+winter lasted.
+
+Spring slipped by, until it was time for the meeting at Thor's-
+ness.  By then, Bersi thought he saw through this claim of
+Thord's, and found Thordis at the bottom of it.  For all that, he
+made ready to go to the Thing.  By old use and wont these two
+neighbours should have gone riding together; so Bersi set out and
+came to Muli, but when he got there Thord was gone.
+
+"Well," said he, "Thord has broken old use and wont in awaiting
+me no longer."
+
+"If breach there be," answered Thordis, "it is thy doing.  This
+is nothing to what we owe thee, and I doubt there will be more to
+follow."
+
+They had words.  Bersi said that harm would come of her evil
+counsel; and so they parted.
+
+When he left the house he said to his men, "Let us turn aside to
+the shore and take a boat; it is a long way to ride round the
+waterhead."  So they took a boat -- it was one of Thord's -- and
+went their way.
+
+They came to the meeting when most other folks were already
+there, and went to the tent of Olaf Peacock of Hjardarholt
+(Herdholt), for he was Bersi's chief.  It was crowded inside, and
+Bersi found no seat.  He used to sit next Thord, but that place
+was filled.  In it there sat a big and strong-looking man, with a
+bear-skin coat, and a hood that shaded his face.  Bersi stood a
+while before him, but the seat was not given up.  He asked the
+man for his name, and was told he might call him Bruin, or he
+might call him Hoodie -- which-ever he liked; whereupon he said
+in verse: --
+
+                    (35)
+     "Who sits in the seat of the warriors,
+     With the skin of the bear wrapped around him,
+     So wild in his look? -- Ye have welcomed
+     A wolf to your table, good kinsfolk!
+     Ah, now may I know him, I reckon!
+     Doth he name himself Bruin, or Hoodie? --
+     We shall meet once again in the morning,
+     And maybe he'll prove to be -- Steinar."
+
+"And it's no use for thee to hide thy name, thou in the
+bearskin," said he.
+
+"No more it is," he answered.  "Steinar I am, and I have brought
+money to pay thee for Cormac, if so be it is needed.  But first I
+bid thee to fight.  It will have to be seen whether thou get the
+two marks of silver, or whether thou lose them both."
+
+Upon which quoth Bersi: --
+
+                    (36)
+     "They that waken the storm of the spear-points --
+     For slaughter and strife they are famous --
+     To the island they bid me for battle,
+     Nor bitter I think it nor woeful;
+     For long in that craft am I learned
+     To loosen the Valkyrie's tempest
+     In the lists, and I fear not to fight them --
+     Unflinching in battle am I.
+
+"Well I wot, though," said he, "that ye and your gang mean to
+make away with me.  But I would let you know that I too have
+something to say about it -- something that will set down your
+swagger, maybe."
+
+"It is not thy death we are seeking," answered Steinar; "all we
+want is to teach thee thy true place."
+
+Bersi agreed to fight him, and then went out to a tent apart and
+took up his abode there.
+
+Now one day the word went round for bathing in the sea.  Said
+Steinar to Bersi, "Wilt try a race with me, Bersi?"
+
+"I have given over swimming," said he, "and yet I'll try."
+
+Bersi's manner of swimming was to breast the waves and strike out
+with all his might.  In so doing he showed a charm he wore round
+his neck.  Steinar swam at him and tore off the lucky-stone with
+the bag it was in, and threw them both into the water, saying in
+verse: --
+
+                    (37)
+     "Long I've lived,
+     And I've let the gods guide me;
+     Brown hose I never wore
+     To bring the luck beside me.
+     I've never knit
+     All to  keep me thriving
+     Round my neck a bag of worts,
+     -- And lo!  I'm living!"
+
+Upon that they struck out to land.
+
+But this turn that Steinar played was Thord's trick to make Bersi
+lose his luck in the fight.  And Thord went along the shore at
+low water and found the luck-stone, and hid it away.
+
+Now Steinar had a sword that was called after Skrymir the giant:
+it was never fouled, and no mishap followed it.  On the day
+fixed,  Thord and Steinar went out of the tent, and Cormac also
+came to the meeting to hold the shield of Steinar.  Olaf Peacock
+got men to help Bersi at the fight, for Thord had been used to
+hold his shield, but this time failed him.  So Bersi went to the
+trysting-place with a shield-bearer who is not named in the
+story, and with the round target that once had belonged to
+Thorveig.
+
+Each man was allowed three shields.  Bersi cut up two, and then
+Cormac took the third.  Bersi hacked away, but Whitting his sword
+stuck fast in the iron border of Steinar's shield.  Cormac
+whirled it up just when Steinar was striking out.  He struck the
+shield-edge, and the sword glanced off, slit Bersi's buttock,
+sliced his thigh down to the knee-joint, and stuck in the bone. 
+And so Bersi fell.
+
+"There!" cried Steinar, "Cormac's fine is paid."
+
+But Bersi leapt up, slashed at him, and clove his shield.  The
+sword-point was at Steinar's breast when Thord rushed forth and
+dragged him away, out of reach.
+
+"There!" cried Thord to Bersi, "I have paid thee for the mauling
+of my sons."
+
+So Bersi was carried to the tent, and his wound was dressed. 
+After a while, Thord came in; and when Bersi saw him he said: --
+
+                    (38)
+     "When the wolf of the war-god was howling
+     Erstwhile in the north, thou didst aid me:
+     When it gaped in my hand, and it girded
+     At the Valkyries' gate for to enter.
+     But now wilt thou never, O warrior,
+     At need in the storm-cloud of Odin
+     Give me help in the tempest of targes
+     -- Untrusty, unfaithful art thou.
+
+                    (39)
+     "For when I was a stripling I showed me
+     To the stems of the lightning of battle
+     Right meet for the mist of the war-maids;
+     -- Ah me!  that was said long ago.
+     But now, and I may not deny it
+     My neighbours in earth must entomb me,
+     At the spot I have sought for grave-mound
+     Where Saurbae lies level and green."
+
+Said Thord, "I have no wish for thy death; but I own it is no
+sorrow to see thee down for once."
+
+To which Bersi answered in song: --
+
+                    (40)
+     "The friend that I trusted has failed me
+     In the fight, and my hope is departed:
+     I speak what I know of; and note it,
+     Ye nobles, -- I tell ye no leasing.
+     Lo, the raven is ready for carnage,
+     But rare are the friends who should succour.
+     Yet still let them scorn me and threaten,
+     I shrink not, I am not dismayed."
+
+After this, Bersi was taken home to Saurbae, and lay long in his
+wounds.
+
+But when he was carried into the tent, at that very moment
+Steinar spoke thus to Cormac: --
+
+                    (41)
+     "Of the reapers in harvest of Hilda
+     -- Thou hast heard of it -- four men and eight men
+     With the edges of Skrymir to aid me
+     I have urged to their flight from the battle.
+     Now the singer, the steward of Odin,
+     Hath smitten at last even Bersi
+     With the flame of the weapon that feedeth
+     The flocks of the carrion crows."
+
+"I would have thee keep Skrymir now for thy own, Cormac," said
+he, "because I mean this fight to be my last."
+
+After that, they parted in friendly wise: Steinar went home, and
+Cormac fared to Mel.
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+Steingerd Leaves Bersi.
+
+Next it is told of Bersi.  His wound healed but slowly.  Once on
+a time a many folk were met to talk about that meeting and what
+came of it, and Bersi made this song: --
+
+                    (42)
+     "Thou didst leave me forlorn to the sword-stroke,
+     Strong lord of the field of the serpent!
+     And needy and fallen ye find me,
+     Since my foeman ye shielded from danger.
+     Thus cunning and counsel are victors,
+     When the craft of the spear-shaft avails not;
+     But this, as I think, is the ending,
+     O Thord, of our friendship for ever!"
+
+A while later Thord came to his bedside and brought back the
+luck-stone; and with it he healed Bersi, and they took to their
+friendship again and held it unbroken ever after.
+
+Because of these happenings, Steingerd fell into loathing of
+Bersi and made up her mind to part with him; and when she had got
+everything ready for going away she went to him and said: --
+"First ye were called Eygla's-Bersi, and then Holmgang-Bersi, but
+now your right name will be Breech-Bersi!" and spoke her divorce
+from him.
+
+She went north to her kinsfolk, and meeting with her brother
+Thorkel she bade him seek her goods again from Bersi -- her pin-
+money and her dowry, saying that she would not own him now that
+he was maimed.  Thorkel Toothgnasher never blamed her for that,
+and agreed to undertake her errand; but the winter slipped by and
+his going was put off.
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+The Bane Of Thorkel Toothgnasher.
+
+Afterwards, in the spring, Thorkel Toothgnasher set out to find
+Bersi and to seek Steingerd's goods again.  Bersi said that his
+burden was heavy enough to bear, even though both together
+underwent the weight of it.  "And I shall not pay the money!"
+said he.
+
+Said Thorkel, "I bid thee to the holmgang at Orrestholm beside
+Tjaldanes (Tentness)."
+
+"That ye will think hardly worth while," said Bersi, "such a
+champion as you are; and yet I undertake for to come."
+
+So they came to the holme and fell to the holmgang.  Thord
+carried the shield before Bersi, and Vali was Thorkel's shield-
+bearer.  When two shields had been hacked to splinters, Bersi
+bade Thorkel take the third; but he would not.  Bersi still had a
+shield, and a sword that was long and sharp.
+
+Said Thorkel, "The sword ye have, Bersi, is longer than lawful."
+
+"That shall not be," cried Bersi; and took up his other sword,
+Whitting, two-handed, and smote Thorkel his deathblow.  Then sang
+he:--
+
+                    (43)
+     "I have smitten Toothgnasher and slain him,
+     And I smile at the pride of his boasting.
+     One more to my thirty I muster,
+     And, men!  say ye this of the battle: --
+     In the world not a lustier liveth
+     Among lords of the steed of the oar-bench;
+     Though by eld of my strength am I stinted
+     To stain the black wound-bird with blood."
+
+After these things Vali bade Bersi to the holmgang, but he
+answered in this song: --
+
+                    (44)
+     "They that waken the war of the mail-coats,
+     For warfare and manslaying famous,
+     To the lists they have bid me to battle,
+     Nor bitter I think it not woeful.
+     It is sport for yon swordsmen who goad me
+     To strive in the Valkyries' tempest
+     On the holme; but I fear not to fight them --
+     Unflinching in battle am I!"
+
+The were even about to begin fighting, when Thord came and spoke
+to them saying: -- "Woeful waste of life I call it, if brave men
+shall be smitten down for the sake of any such matters.  I am
+ready to make it up between ye two."
+
+To this they agreed, and he said: -- "Vali, this methinks is the
+most likely way of bringing you together.  Let Bersi take thy
+sister Thordis to wife.  It is a match that may well be to thy
+worship."
+
+Bersi agreed to this, and it was settled that the land of Brekka
+should go along with her as a dowry; and so this troth was
+plighted between them.  Bersi afterwards had a strong stone wall
+built around his homestead, and sat there for many winters in
+peace.
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+The Rescue Of Steinvor Slim-ankles.
+
+There was a man named Thorarin Alfsson, who lived in the north at
+Thambardal; that is a dale which goes up from the fiord called
+Bitra.  He was a big man and mighty, and he was by-named Thorarin
+the Strong.  He had spent much of his time in seafaring (as a
+chapman) and so lucky was he that he always made the harbour he
+aimed at.
+
+He had three sons; one was named Alf, the next Loft, and the
+third Skofti.  Thorarin was a most overbearing man, and his sons
+took after him.  They were rough, noisy fellows.
+
+Not far away, at Tunga (Tongue) in Bitra, lived a man called Odd. 
+His daughter was named Steinvor, a pretty girl and well set up;
+her by-name was Slim-ankles.  Living with Odd were many
+fisherman; among them, staying there for the fishing-season, was
+one Glum, an ill-tempered carle and bad to deal with.
+
+Now once upon a time these two, Odd and Glum, were in talk
+together which were the greatest men in the countryside.  Glum
+reckoned Thorarin to be foremost, but Odd said Holmgang Bersi was
+better than he in every way.
+
+"How can ye make that out?" asked Glum.
+
+"Is there any likeness whatever," said Odd, "between the bravery
+of Bersi and the knavery of Thorarin?"
+
+So they talked about this until they fell out, and laid a wager
+upon it.
+
+Then Glum wend and told Thorarin.  He grew very angry and made
+many a threat against Odd.  And in a while he went and carried
+off Steinvor from Tunga, all to spite her father; and he gave out
+that if Odd said anything against it, the worse for him: and so
+took her home to Thambardal.
+
+Things went on so for a while, and then Odd went to see Holmgang
+Bersi, and told him what had happened.  He asked him for help to
+get Steinvor back and to wreak vengeance for that shame.  Bersi
+answered that such words had been better unsaid, and bade him go
+home and take no share in the business.  "But yet," added he, "I
+promise that I will see to it."
+
+No sooner was Odd gone than Bersi made ready to go from home.  He
+rode fully armed, with Whitting at his belt, and three spears; he
+came to Thambardal when the day was far spent and the women were
+coming out of the bower.  Steinvor saw him and turning to meet
+him told of her unhappiness.
+
+"Make ready to go with me," said he; and that she did.
+
+He would not go to Thambardal for nothing, he said; and so he
+turned to the door where men were sitting by long fires.  He
+knocked at the door, and out there came a man -- his name was
+Thorleif.  But Thorarin knew Bersi's voice, and rushed forth with
+a great carving-knife and laid on to him.  Bersi was aware of it,
+and drew Whitting, and struck him his death-blow.
+
+Then he leapt on horseback and set Steinvor on his knee and took
+his spears which she had kept for him.  He rode some way into the
+wood, where in a hidden spot he left his horse and Steinvor,
+bidding her await him.  Then he went to a narrow gap through
+which the high-road ran, and there made ready to stand against
+his foes.
+
+In Thambardal there was anything but peace.  Thorleif ran to tell
+the sons of Thorarin that he lay dead in the doorway.  They asked
+who had done the deed.  He told them.  Then they went after Bersi
+and steered the shortest way to the gap, meaning to get there
+first; but by that time he was already first at the gap.
+
+When they came near him, Bersi hurled a spear at Alf, and it went
+right through him.  Then Loft cast at Bersi, but he caught the
+spear on his target and it dropped off.  Then Bersi threw at Loft
+and killed him, and so he did by Skofti.
+
+When all was over, the house-carles of the brothers came up. 
+Thorleif turned back to meet them, and they all went home
+together.
+
+After that Bersi went to find Steinvor, and mounted his horse. 
+He came home before men were out of bed.  They asked him about
+his journey and he told them.  When Odd met him he asked about
+the fight and how it had passed, and Bersi answered in this
+verse: --
+
+                    (45)
+     "There was one fed the wolves has encountered
+     His weird in the dale of the Bowstring --
+     Thorarin the Strong, 'neath the slayer
+     Lay slain by the might of my weapon.
+     And loss of their lives men abided
+     When Loft fell, and Alf fell, and Skofti.
+     They were four, yonder kinsmen, and fated --
+     They were fey -- and I met them, alone!"
+
+After that Odd went home, but Steinvor was with Bersi, though it
+misliked Thordis, his wife.  By this time his stone wall was
+some-what broken down, but he had it built up again; and it is
+said that no blood-money was ever paid for Thorarin and his sons. 
+So the time went on.
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+How Vali Fell Before An Old Man And A Boy.
+
+Once on a day when Thordis and Bersi were talking together, said
+he, "I have been thinking I might ask Olaf Peacock for a child of
+his to foster."
+
+"Nay," said she, "I think little of that.  It seems to me a great
+trouble, and I doubt if folk will reckon more of us for it."
+
+"It means that I should have a sure friend," answered he.  "I
+have many foes, and I am growing heavy with age."
+
+So he went to see Olaf, and asked for a child to foster.  Olaf
+took it with thanks, and Bersi carried Halldor home with him and
+got Steinvor to be nurse.  This too misliked Thordis, and she
+laid hands on every penny she could get (for fear it should go to
+Steinvor and the foster-child).
+
+At last Bersi took to ageing much.  There was one time when men
+riding to the Thing stayed at his house.  He sat all by himself,
+and his food was brought him before the rest were served.  He had
+porridge while other folk had cheese and curds.  Then he made
+this verse: --
+
+                    (46)
+     "To batten the black-feathered wound-bird
+     With the blade of my axe have I stricken
+     Full thirty and five of my foemen;
+     I am famed for the slaughter of warriors.
+     May the fiends have my soul if I stain not
+     My sharp-edged falchion once over!
+     And then let the breaker of broadswords
+     Be borne -- and with speed -- to the grave!"
+
+"What?" said Halldor; "hast thou a mind to kill another man,
+then?"
+
+Answered Bersi, "I see the man it would rightly serve!"
+
+Now Thordis let her brother Vali feed his herds on the land of
+Brekka.  Bersi bade his house-carles work at home, and have no
+dealings with Vali; but still Halldor thought it a hardship that
+Bersi had not his own will with his own wealth.  One day Bersi
+made this verse: --
+
+                    (47)
+     "Here we lie,
+          Both on one settle --
+     Halldor and I,
+          Men of no mettle.
+     Youth ails thee,
+          But thou'lt win through it;
+     Age ails me,
+          And I must rue it!"
+
+"I do hate Vali," said Halldor; and Bersi answered thus in
+verse: --
+
+                    (48)
+     "Yon Vali, so wight as he would be,
+     Well wot I our pasture he grazes;
+     Right fain yonder fierce helmet-wearer
+     Under foot my dead body would trample!
+     But often my wrongs have I wreaked
+     In wrath on the mail-coated warrior --
+     On the stems of the sun of the ocean
+     I have stained the wound-serpent for less!"
+
+And again he said: --
+
+                    (49)
+     "With eld I am listless and lamed --
+     I, the lord of the gold of the armlet:
+     I sit, and am still under many
+     A slight from the warders of spear-meads.
+     Though shield-bearers shape for the singer
+     To shiver alone in the grave-mound,
+     Yet once in the war would I redden
+     The wand that hews helms ere I fail."
+
+"Thy heart is not growing old, foster-father mine!" cried
+Halldor.
+
+Upon that Bersi fell into talk with Steinvor, and said to her "I
+am laying a plot, and I need thee to help me."
+
+She said she would if she could.
+
+"Pick a quarrel," said he, "with Thordis about the milk-kettle,
+and do thou hold on to it until you whelm it over between you. 
+Then I will come in and take her part and give thee nought but
+bad words.  Then go to Vali and tell him how ill we treat thee."
+
+Everything turned out as he had planned.  She went to Vali and
+told him that things were no way smooth for her; would he take
+her over the gap (to Bitra to her father's:) and so he did.
+
+But when he was on the way back again, out came Bersi and Halldor
+to meet him.  Bersi had a halberd in one hand and a staff in the
+other, and Halldor had Whitting.  As soon as Vali saw them he
+turned and hewed at Bersi.  Halldor came at his back and fleshed
+Whitting in his hough-sinews.  Thereupon he turned sharply and
+fell upon Halldor.  Then Bersi set the halberd-point betwixt his
+shoulders.  That was his death-wound.
+
+Then they set his shield at his feet and his sword at his head,
+and spread his cloak over him; and after that got on horseback
+and rode to five homesteads to make known the deed they had done
+and then rode home.  Men went and buried Vali, and the place
+where he fell has ever since been called Vali's fall.
+
+Halldor was twelve winters old when these doings came to pass.
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+How Steingerd Was Married Again.
+
+Now there was a man named Thorvald, the son of Eystein, bynamed
+the Tinker: he was a wealthy man, a smith, and a skald; but he
+was mean-spirited for all that.  His brother Thorvard lived in
+the north country at Fliot (Fleet); and they had many kinsmen, --
+the Skidings they were called, -- but little luck or liking.
+
+Now Thorvald the Tinker asked Steingerd to wife.  Her folk were
+for it, and she said nothing against it; and so she was wed to
+him in the very same summer in which she left Bersi.
+
+When Cormac heard the news he made as though he knew nothing
+whatever about the matter; for a little earlier he had taken his
+goods aboard ship, meaning to go away with his brother.  But one
+morning early he rode from the ship and went to see Steingerd;
+and when he got talk with her, he asked would she make him a
+shirt.  To which she answered that he had no business to pay her
+visits; neither Thorvald nor his kinsmen would abide it, she
+said, but have their revenge.
+
+Thereupon he made his voice: --
+
+                    (50)
+     "Nay, think it or thole it I cannot,
+     That thou, a young fir of the forest
+     Enwreathed in the gold that thou guardest,
+     Shouldst be given to a tinkering tinsmith.
+     Nay, scarce can I smile, O thou glittering
+     In silk like the goddess of Baldur,
+     Since thy father handfasted and pledged thee,
+     So famed as thou art, to a coward."
+
+"In such words," answered Steingerd, "an ill will is plain to
+hear.  I shall tell Thorvald of this ribaldry: no man would sit
+still under such insults."
+
+Then sang Cormac: --
+
+                    (51)
+     "What gain is to get if he threatens,
+     White goddess in raiment of beauty,
+     The scorn that the Skidings may bear me?
+     I'll set them a weft for their weaving!
+     I'll rhyme you the roystering caitiffs
+     Till rocks go afloat on the water;
+     And lucky for them if they loosen
+     The line of their fate that I ravel!"
+
+Thereupon they parted with no blitheness, and Cormac went to his
+ship.
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+Cormac's Voyage To Norway.
+
+The two brothers had but left the roadstead, when close beside
+their ship, uprose a walrus.  Cormac hurled at it a pole-staff,
+which struck the beast, so that it sank again: but the men aboard
+thought that they knew its eyes for the eyes of Thorveig the
+witch.  That walrus came up no more, but of Thorveig it was heard
+that she lay sick to death; and indeed folk say that this was the
+end of her.
+
+Then they sailed out to sea, and at last came to Norway, where at
+that time Hakon, the foster-son of Athelstan, was king.  He made
+them welcome, and so they stayed there the winter long with all
+honour.
+
+Next summer they set out to the wars, and did many great deeds. 
+Along with them went a man called Siegfried, a German of good
+birth; and they made raids both far and wide.  One day as they
+were gone up the country eleven men together came against the two
+brothers, and set upon them; but this business ended in their
+overcoming the whole eleven, and so after a while back to their
+ship.  The vikings had given them up for lost, and fain were
+their folk when they came back with victory and wealth.
+
+In this voyage the brothers got great renown: and late in the
+summer, when winter was coming on, they made up their minds to
+steer for Norway.  They met with cold winds; the sail was behung
+with icicles, but the brothers were always to the fore.  It was
+on his voyage that Cormac made the song: --
+
+                    (52)
+     "O shake me yon rime from the awning;
+     Your singer's a-cold in his berth;
+     For the hills are all hooded, dear Skardi,
+     In the hoary white veil of the firth.
+     There's one they call Wielder of Thunder
+     I would were as chill and as cold;
+     But he leaves not the side of his lady
+     As the lindworm forsakes not its gold."
+
+"Always talking of her now!" said Thorgils; "and yet thou wouldst
+not have her when thou couldst."
+
+"That was more the fault of witchcraft," answered Cormac, "that
+any want of faith in me."
+
+Not long after they were sailing hard among crags, and shortened
+sail in great danger.
+
+"It is a pity Thorvald Tinker is not with us here!" said Cormac.
+
+Said Thorgils with a smile, "Most likely he is better off than
+we, to-day!"
+
+But before long they came to land in Norway.
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+How Cormac Fought In Ireland, And Went Home To Iceland; And How
+He Met Steingerd Again.
+
+While they were abroad there had been a change of kings; Hakon
+was dead, and Harald Greyfell reigned in his stead.  They offered
+friendship to the king, and he took their suit kindly; so they
+went with him to Ireland, and fought battles there.
+
+Once upon a time when they had gone ashore with the king, a great
+host came against him, and as the armies met, Cormac made this
+song: --
+
+                    (53)
+     "I dread not a death from the foemen,
+     Though we dash at them, buckler to buckler,
+     While our prince in the power of his warriors
+     Is proud of me foremost in battle.
+     But the glimpse of a glory comes o'er me
+     Like the gleam of the moon on the skerry,
+     And I faint and I fail for my longing,
+     For the fair one at home in the North."
+
+"Ye never get into danger," said Thorgils, "but ye think of
+Steingerd!"
+
+"Nay," answered Cormac, "but it's not often I forget her."
+
+Well: this was a great battle, and king Harald won a glorious
+victory.  While his men drove the rout before him, the brothers
+were shoulder to shoulder; and they fell upon nine men at once
+and fought them.  And while they were at it, Cormac sang: --
+
+                    (54)
+     "Fight on, arrow-driver, undaunted,
+     And down with the foemen of Harald!
+     What are nine?  they are nought!  Thou and I, lad,
+     Are enough; -- they are ours! -- we have won them!
+     But -- at home, -- in the arms of an outlaw
+     That all the gods loathe for a monster,
+     So white and so winsome she nestles
+     -- Yet once she was loving to me!"
+
+"It always comes down to that!" said Thorgils.  When the fight
+was over, the brothers had got the victory, and the nine men had
+fallen before them; for which they won great praise from the
+king, and many honours beside.
+
+But while they were ever with the king in his warfarings,
+Thorgils was aware that Cormac was used to sleep but little; and
+he asked why this might be.  This was the song Cormac made in
+answer: --
+
+                    (55)
+     "Surf on a rock-bound shore of the sea-king's blue domain --
+     Look how it lashes the crags, hark how it thunders again!
+     But all the din of the isles that the Delver heaves in foam
+     In the draught of the undertow glides out to the sea-gods'
+                                   home.
+     Now, which of us two should test?  Is it thou, with thy
+                                   heart at ease,
+     Or I that am surf on the shore in the tumult of angry seas?
+     -- Drawn, if I sleep, to her that shines with the ocean-
+                                   gleam,
+     -- Dashed, when I wake, to woe, for the want of my
+                                   glittering dream."
+
+"And now let me tell you this, brother," he went on.  "Hereby I
+give out that I am going back to Iceland."
+
+Said Thorgils, "There is many a snare set for thy feet, brother,
+to drag thee down, I know not whither."
+
+But when the king heard of his longing to begone, he sent for
+Cormac, and said that he did unwisely, and would hinder him from
+his journey.  But all this availed nothing, and aboard ship he
+went.
+
+At the outset they met with foul winds, so that they shipped
+great seas, and the yard broke.  Then Cormac sang: --
+
+                    (56)
+     "I take it not ill, like the Tinker
+     If a trickster had foundered his muck-sled;
+     For he loves not rough travelling, the losel,
+     And loath would he be of this uproar.
+     I flinch not, -- nay, hear it, ye fearless
+     Who flee not when arrows are raining, --
+     Though the steeds of the ocean be storm-bound
+     And stayed in the harbour of Solund."
+
+So they pushed out to sea, and hard weather they tholed.  Once on
+a time when the waves broke over the deck and drenched them all,
+Cormac made this song: --
+
+                    (57)
+     "O the Tinker's a lout and a lubber,
+     And the life of a sailor he dares not,
+     When the snow-crested surges caress us
+     And sweep us away with their kisses,
+     He bides in a berth that is warmer,
+     Embraced in the arms of his lady;
+     And lightly she lulls him to slumber,
+     -- But long she has reft me of rest!"
+
+They had a very rough voyage, but landed at last in Midfiord, and
+anchored off shore.  Looking landward they beheld where a lady
+was riding by; and Cormac knew at once that it was Steingerd.  He
+bade his men launch a boat, and rowed ashore.  He went quickly
+from the boat, and got a horse, and rode to meet her.  When they
+met, he leapt from horseback and helped her to alight, making a
+seat for her beside him on the ground.
+
+Their horses wandered away: the day passed on, and it began to
+grow dark.  At last Steingerd said, "It is time to look for our
+horses."
+
+Little search would be needed, said Cormac; but when he looked
+about, they were nowhere in sight.  As it happened, they were
+hidden in a gill not far from where the two were sitting.
+
+So, as night was hard at hand, they set out to walk, and came to
+a little farm, where they were taken in and treated well, even as
+they needed.  That night they slept each on either side of the
+carven wainscot that parted bed from bed: and Cormac made this
+song: --
+
+                    (58)
+     "We rest, O my beauty, my brightest,
+     But a barrier lies ever between us.
+     So fierce are the fates and so mighty
+     -- I feel it -- that rule to their rede.
+     Ah, nearer I would be, and nigher,
+     Till nought should be left to dispart us,
+     -- The wielder of Skofnung the wonder,
+     And the wearer of sheen from the deep."
+
+"It was better thus," said Steingerd: but he sang: --
+
+                    (59)
+     "We have slept 'neath one roof-tree -- slept softly,
+     O sweet one, O queen of the mead-horn,
+     O glory of sea-dazzle gleaming,
+     These grim hours, -- these five nights, I count them.
+     And here in the kettle-prow cabined
+     While the crow's day drags on in the darkness,
+     How loathly me seems to be lying,
+     How lonely, -- so near and so far!"
+
+"That," said she, "is all over and done with; name it no more." 
+But he sang: --
+
+                    (60)
+     "The hot stone shall float, -- ay, the hearth-stone
+     Like a husk of the corn on the water,
+     -- Ah, woe for the wight that she loves not! --
+     And the world, -- ah, she loathes me! -- shall perish,
+     And the fells that are famed for their hugeness
+     Shall fail and be drowned in the ocean,
+     Or ever so gracious a goddess
+     Shall grow into beauty like Steingerd."
+
+Then Steingerd cried out that she would not have him make songs
+upon her: but he went on: --
+
+                    (61)
+     "I have known it and noted it clearly,
+     O neckleted fair one, in visions,
+     -- Is it doom for my hopes, -- is it daring
+     To dream? -- O so oft have I seen it! --
+     Even this, -- that the boughs of thy beauty,
+     O braceleted fair one, shall twine them
+     Round the hill where the hawk loves to settle,
+     The hand of thy lover, at last."
+
+"That," said she, "never shall be, if I can help it.  Thou didst
+let me go, once for all; and there is no more hope for thee."
+
+So then they slept the night long; and in the morning, when
+Cormac was making ready to be gone, he found Steingerd, and took
+the ring off his finger to give her.
+
+"Fiend take thee and thy gold together!" she cried.  And this is
+what he answered: --
+
+                    (62)
+     "To a dame in her broideries dainty
+     This drift of the furnace I tendered;
+     O day of ill luck, for a lover
+     So lured, and so heartlessly cheated!
+     Too blithe in the pride of her beauty --
+     The bliss that I crave she denies me;
+     So rich that no boon can I render,
+     -- And my ring she would hurl to the fiends!"
+
+So Cormac rode forth, being somewhat angry with Steingerd, but
+still more so with the Tinker.  He rode home to Mel, and stayed
+there all the winter, taking lodgings for his chapmen near the
+ship.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+Of A Spiteful Song That Cormac Never Made; And How Angry
+Steingerd Was.
+
+Now Thorvald the Tinker lived in the north-country at Svinadal
+(Swindale), but his brother Thorvard at Fliot.  In the winter
+Cormac took his way northward to see Steingerd; and coming to
+Svinadal he dismounted and went into the chamber.  She was
+sitting on the dais, and he took his seat beside her; Thorvald
+sat on the bench, and Narfi by him.
+
+Then said Narfi to Thorvald, "How canst thou sit down, with
+Cormac here?  It is no time, this, for sitting still!"
+
+But Thorvald answered, "I am content; there is no harm done it
+seems to me, though they do talk together."
+
+"That is ill," said Narfi.
+
+Not long afterwards Thorvald met his brother Thorvard and told
+him about Cormac's coming to his house.
+
+"Is it right, think you," said Thorvard, "to sit still while such
+things happen?"
+
+He answered that there was no harm done as yet, but that Cormac's
+coming pleased him not.
+
+"I'll mend that," cried Thorvard, "if you dare not.  The shame of
+it touches us all."
+
+So this was the next thing, -- that Thorvard came to Svinadal,
+and the Skiding brothers and Narfi paid a gangrel beggar-man to
+sing a song in the hearing of Steingerd, and to say that Cormac
+had made it, -- which was a lie.  They said that Cormac had
+taught this song to one called Eylaug, a kinswoman of his; and
+these were the words: --
+
+                    (63)
+     "I wish an old witch that I know of,
+     So wealthy and proud of her havings,
+     Were turned to a steed in the stable
+     -- Called Steingerd -- and I were the rider!
+     I'd bit her, and bridle, and saddle,
+     I'd back her and drive her and tame her;
+     So many she owns for her masters,
+     But mine she will never become!"
+
+Then Steingerd grew exceedingly angry, so that she would not so
+much as hear Cormac named.  When he heard that, he went to see
+her.  Long time he tried in vain to get speech with her; but at
+last she gave this answer, -- that she misliked his holding her
+up to shame, -- "And now it is all over the country-side!"
+
+Cormac said it was not true; but she answered, "Thou mightest
+flatly deny it, if I had not heard it."
+
+"Who sang it in thy hearing?" asked he.
+
+She told him who sang it, -- "And thou needest not hope for
+speech with me if this prove true."
+
+He rode away to look for the rascal, and when he found him the
+truth was forced out at last.  Cormac was very angry, and set on
+Narfi and slew him.  That same onset was meant for Thorvald, but
+he hid himself in the shadow and skulked, until men came between
+then and parted them.  Said Cormac: --
+
+                    (64)
+     "There, hide in the house like a coward,
+     And hope not hereafter to scare me
+     With the scorn of thy brethren the Skidings, --
+     I'll set them a weft for their weaving!
+     I'll rhyme on the swaggering rascals
+     Till rocks go afloat on the water;
+     And lucky for you if ye loosen
+     The line of your fate that I ravel!"
+
+This went all over the country-side and the feud grew fiercer
+between them.  The brothers Thorvald and Thorvard used big words,
+and Cormac was wroth when he heard them.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+How Thorvard Would Not Fight, But Tried To Get The Law Of Cormac.
+
+After this Thorvard sent word from Fliot that he was fain to
+fight Cormac, and he fixed time and place, saying that he would
+now take revenge for that song of shame and all other slights.
+
+To this Cormac agreed; and when the day came he went to the spot
+that was named, but Thorvard was not there, nor any of his men. 
+Cormac met a woman from the farm hard by, who greeted him, and
+they asked each other for news.
+
+"What is your errand?" said she; "and why are you waiting here?"
+
+Then he answered with this song: --
+
+                    (65)
+     "Too slow for the struggle I find him,
+     That spender of fire from the ocean,
+     Who flung me a challenge to fight him
+     From Fleet in the land of the North.
+     That half-witted hero should get him
+     A heart made of clay for his carcase,
+     Though the mate of the may with the necklace
+     Is more of a fool than his fere!"
+
+"Now," said Cormac, "I bid Thorvard anew to the holmgang, if he
+can be called in his right mind.  Let him be every man's nithing
+if he come not!" and then he made this song: --
+
+                    (66)
+     "The nithing shall silence me never,
+     Though now for their shame they attack me,
+     But the wit of the Skald is my weapon,
+     And the wine of the gods will uphold me.
+     And this they shall feel in its fulness;
+     Here my fame has its birth and beginning;
+     And the stout spears of battle shall see it,
+     If I 'scape from their hands with my life."
+
+Then the brothers set on foot a law-suit against him for libel. 
+Cormac's kinsmen backed him up to answer it, and he would let no
+terms be made, saying that they deserved the shame put upon them,
+and no honour; he was not unready to meet them, unless they
+played him false.  Thorvard had not come to the holmgang when he
+had been challenged, and therefore the shame had fallen of itself
+upon him and his, and they must put up with it.
+
+So time passed until the Huna-water Thing.  Thorvard and Cormac
+both went to the meeting, and once they came together.
+
+"Much enmity we owe thee," said Thorvard, "and in many ways.  Now
+therefore I challenge thee to the holmgang, here at the Thing."
+
+Said Cormac, "Wilt thou be fitter than before?  Thou hast drawn
+back time after time."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Thorvard, "I will risk it.  We can abide thy
+spite no longer."
+
+"Well," said Cormac, "I'll not stand in the way;" and went home
+to Mel.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+What The Witch Did For Them In Their Fights.
+
+At Spakonufell (Spae-wife's-fell) lived Thordis the spae-wife, of
+whom we have told before, with her husband Thorolf.  They were
+both at the Thing, and many a man thought her good-will was of
+much avail.  So Thorvard sought her out, to ask her help against
+Cormac, and gave her a fee; and she made him ready for the
+holmgang according to her craft.
+
+Now Cormac told his mother what was forward, and she asked if he
+thought good would come of it.
+
+"Why not?" said he.
+
+"That will not be enough for thee," said Dalla.  "Thorvard will
+never make bold to fight without witchcraft to help him.  I think
+it wise for thee to see Thordis the spae-wife, for there is going
+to be foul play in this affair."
+
+"It is little to my mind," said he; and yet went to see Thordis,
+and asked her help.
+
+"Too late ye have come," said she.  "No weapon will bite on him
+now.  And yet I would not refuse thee.  Bide here to-night, and
+seek thy good luck.  Anyway, I can manage so that iron bite thee
+no more than him."
+
+So Cormac stayed there for the night; and, awaking, found that
+some one was groping round the coverlet at his head.  "Who is
+there?" he asked, but whoever it was made off, and out at the
+house-door, and Cormac after.  And then he saw it was Thordis,
+and she was going to the place where the fight was to be,
+carrying a goose under her arm.
+
+He asked what it all meant, and she set down the goose, saying,
+"Why couldn't ye keep quiet?"
+
+So he lay down again, but held himself awake, for he wanted to
+know what she would be doing.  Three times she came, and every
+time he tried to find out what she was after.  The third time,
+just as he came out, she had killed two geese and let the blood
+run into a bowl, and she had taken up the third goose to kill it.
+
+"What means this business, foster-mother?" said he.
+
+"True it will prove, Cormac, that you are a hard one to help,"
+said she.  "I was going to break the spell Thorveig laid on thee
+and Steingerd.  Ye could have loved one another been happy if I
+had killed the third goose and no one seen it."
+
+"I believe nought of such things," cried he; and this song he
+made about it: --
+
+                    (67)
+     "I gave her an ore at the ayre,
+     That the arts of my foe should not prosper;
+     And twice she has taken the knife,
+     And twice she has offered the offering;
+     But the blood is the blood of a goose --
+     What boots it if two should be slaughtered? --
+     Never sacrifice geese for a Skald
+     Who sings for the glory of Odin!"
+
+So they went to the holmgang: but Thorvald gave the spae-wife a
+still greater fee, and offered the sacrifice of geese; and Cormac
+said: --
+
+                    (68)
+     "Trust never another man's mistress!
+     For I know, on this woman who weareth
+     The fire of the field of the sea-king
+     The fiends have been riding to revel.
+     The witch with her hoarse cry is working
+     For woe when we go to the holmgang,
+     And if bale be the end of the battle
+     The blame, be assured, will be hers."
+
+"Well," she said, "I can manage so that none shall know thee." 
+Then Cormac began to upbraid her, saying she did nought but ill,
+and wanting to drag her out to the door to look at her eyes in
+the sunshine.  His brother Thorgils made him leave that: -- "What
+good will it do thee?" said he.
+
+Now Steingerd gave out that she had a mind to see the fight; and
+so she did.  When Cormac saw her he made this song: --
+
+                    (69)
+     "I have fared to the field of the battle,
+     O fair one that wearest the wimple!
+     And twice for thy sake have I striven;
+     What stays me as now from thy favour?
+     This twice have I gotten thee glory,
+     O goddess of ocean!  and surely
+     To my dainty delight, to my darling
+     I am dearer by far than her mate."
+
+So then they set to.  Cormac's sword bit not at all, and for a
+long while they smote strokes one upon the other, but neither
+sword bit.  At last Cormac smote upon Thorvard's side so great a
+blow that his ribs gave way and were broken; he could fight no
+more, and thereupon they parted.  Cormac looked and saw where a
+bull was standing, which he slew for a sacrifice; and being
+heated, he doffed his helmet from his head, saying this song: --
+
+                    (70)
+     "I have fared to the field of the battle,
+     O fair one that wearest the bracelet!
+     Even three times for thee have I striven,
+     And this thou canst never deny me.
+     But the reed of the fight would not redden,
+     Though it rang on the shield-bearer's harness;
+     For the spells of a spae-wife had blunted
+     My sword that was eager for blood."
+
+He wiped the sweat from him on the corner of Steingerd's mantle;
+and said: --
+
+                    (71)
+     "So oft, being wounded and weary,
+     I must wipe my sad brow on thy mantle.
+     What pangs for thy sake are my portion,
+     O pine-tree with red gold enwreathed!
+     Yet beside thee he snugs on the settle
+     As thou seamest thy broidery, -- that rhymester!
+     And the shame of it whelms me in sorrow,
+     O Steingerd! -- that rascal unslain!"
+
+And then Cormac prayed Steingerd that she would go with him: but
+Nay, she said; she would have her own way about men.  So they
+parted, and both were ill pleased.
+
+Thorvard was taken home, and she bound his wounds.  Cormac was
+now always meeting with Steingerd.  Thorvard healed but slowly;
+and when he could get on his feet he went to see Thordis, and
+asked her what was best to help his healing.
+
+"A hill there is," answered she, "not far away from here, where
+elves have their haunt.  Now get you the bull that Cormac killed,
+and redden the outer side of the hill with its blood, and make a
+feast for the elves with its flesh.  Then thou wilt be healed."
+
+So they sent word to Cormac that they would buy the bull.  He
+answered that he would sell it, but then he must have the ring
+that was Steingerd's.  So they brought the ring, took the bull,
+and did with it as Thordis bade them do.  On which Cormac made a
+song: --
+
+                    (72)
+     "When the workers of wounds are returning,
+     And with them the sacrifice reddened,
+     Then a lady in raiment of linen,
+     Who loved me, time was, -- she will ask: --
+     My ring, -- have ye robbed me? -- where is it?
+     -- I have wrought them no little displeasure:
+     For the swain that is swarthy has won it,
+     The son of old Ogmund, the skald."
+
+It fell out as he guessed.  Steingerd was very angry because they
+had sold her ring.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+How Cormac Beat Thorvard Again.
+
+After that, Thorvard was soon healed, and when he thought he was
+strong again, he rode to Mel and challenged Cormac to the
+holmgang.
+
+"It takes thee long to tire of it," said Cormac: "but I'll not
+say thee nay."
+
+So they went to the fight, and Thordis met Thorvard now as
+before, but Cormac sought no help from her.  She blunted Cormac's
+sword, so that it would not bite, but yet he struck so great a
+stroke on Thorvard's shoulder that the collarbone was broken and
+his hand was good for nothing.  Being so maimed he could fight no
+longer, and had to pay another ring for his ransom.
+
+Then Thorolf of Spakonufell set upon Cormac and struck at him. 
+He warded off the blow and sang this song: --
+
+                    (73)
+     "This reddener of shields, feebly wrathful,
+     His rusty old sword waved against me,
+     Who am singer and sacred to Odin!
+     Go, snuffle, most wretched of men, thou!
+     A thrust of thy sword is as thewless
+     As thou, silly stirrer of battle.
+     What danger to me from thy daring,
+     Thou doited old witch-woman's carle?"
+
+Then he killed a bull in sacrifice according to use and wont,
+saying, "Ill we brook your overbearing and the witchcraft of
+Thordis:" and he made this song: --
+
+                    (74)
+     "The witch in the wave of the offering
+     Has wasted the flame of the buckler,
+     Lest its bite on his back should be deadly
+     At the bringing together of weapons.
+     My sword was not sharp for the onset
+     When I sought the helm-wearer in battle;
+     But the cur got enough to cry craven,
+     With a clout that will mind him of me!"
+
+After that each party went home, and neither was well pleased
+with these doings.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+How They All Went Out To Norway.
+
+Now all the winter long Cormac and Thorgils laid up their ship in
+Hrutafiord; but in spring the chapmen were off to sea, and so the
+brothers made up their minds for the voyage.  When they were
+ready to start, Cormac went to see Steingerd: and before they two
+parted he kissed her twice, and his kisses were not at all hasty. 
+The Tinker would not have it; and so friends on both sides came
+in, and it was settled that Cormac should pay for this that he
+had done.
+
+"How much?" asked he.
+
+"The two rings that I parted with," said Thorvard.  Then Cormac
+made a song: --
+
+                    (75)
+     "Here is gold of the other's well gleaming
+     In guerdon for this one and that one, --
+     Here is treasure of Fafnir the fire-drake
+     In fee for the kiss of my lady.
+     Never wearer of ring, never wielder
+     Of weapon has made such atonement;
+     Never dearer were deeply-drawn kisses, --
+     For the dream of my bliss is betrayed."
+
+And then, when he started to go aboard his ship he made another
+song: --
+
+                    (76)
+     "One song from my heart would I send her
+     Ere we shall, ere I leave her and lose her,
+     That dainty one, decked in her jewels
+     Who dwells in the valley of Swindale.
+     And each word that I utter shall enter
+     The ears of that lady of bounty,
+     Saying -- Bright one, my beauty, I love thee,
+     Ah, better by far than my life!"
+
+So Cormac went abroad and his brother Thorgils went with him; and
+when they came to the king's court they were made welcome.
+
+Now it is told that Steingerd spoke to Thorvald the Tinker that
+they also should abroad together.  He answered that it was mere
+folly, but nevertheless he could not deny her.  So they set off
+on their voyage: and as they made their way across the sea, they
+were attacked by vikings who fell on them to rob them and to
+carry away Steingerd.  But it so happened that Cormac heard of
+it; and he made after them and gave good help, so that they saved
+everything that belonged to them, and came safely at last to the
+court of the king of Norway.
+
+One day Cormac was walking in the street, and spied Steingerd
+sitting within doors.  So he went into the house and sat down
+beside her, and they had a talk together which ended in his
+kissing her four kisses.  But Thorvald was on the watch.  He drew
+his sword, but the women-folk rushed in to part them, and word
+was sent to King Harald.  He said they were very troublesome
+people to keep in order. -- "But let me settle this matter
+between you," said he; and they agreed.
+
+Then spake the king: -- "One kiss shall be atoned for by this,
+that Cormac helped you to get safely to land.  The next kiss is
+Cormac's, because he saved Steingerd.  For the other two he shall
+pay two ounces of gold."
+
+Upon which Cormac sang the same song that he had made before: --
+
+                    (77)
+     "Here is gold of the otter's well gleaming
+     In guerdon for this one and that one, --
+     Here is treasure of Fafnir the fire-drake
+     In fee for the kiss of my lady.
+     Never wearer of ring, never wielder
+     Of weapon has made such atonement;
+     Never dearer were deeply-drawn kisses --
+     And the dream of my bliss is betrayed."
+
+Another day he was walking in the street and met Steingerd again. 
+He turned to her and prayed her to walk with him.  She would not;
+whereupon he laid hand on her, to lead her along.  She cried out
+for help; and as it happened, the king was standing not far off,
+and went up to them.  He thought this behaviour most unseemly,
+and took her away, speaking sharply to Cormac.  King Harald made
+himself very angry over this affair; but Cormac was one of his
+courtiers, and it was not long before he got into favour again,
+and then things went fair and softly for the rest of the winter.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+How They Cruised With The King's Fleet, And Quarrelled, And Made
+It Up.
+
+In the following spring King Harald set forth to the land of
+Permia with a great host.  Cormac was one of the captains in that
+warfaring, and in another ship was Thorvald: the other captains
+of ships are not named in our story.
+
+Now as they were all sailing in close order through a narrow
+sound, Cormac swung his steering-oar and hit Thorvald a clout on
+the ear, so that he fell from his place at the helm in a swoon;
+and Cormac's ship hove to, when she lost her rudder.  Steingerd
+had been sitting beside Thorvald; she laid hold of the tiller,
+and ran Cormac down.  When he saw what she was doing, he sang: --
+
+                    (78)
+     "There is one that is nearer and nigher
+     To the noblest of dames than her lover:
+     With the haft of the helm is he smitten
+     On the hat-block -- and fairly amidships!
+     The false heir of Eystein -- he falters --
+     He falls in the poop of his galley!
+     Nay!  steer not upon me, O Steingerd,
+     Though stoutly ye carry the day!"
+
+So Cormac's ship capsized under him; but his crew were saved
+without loss of time, for there were plenty of people round
+about.  Thorvald soon came round again, and they all went on
+their way.  The king offered to settle the matter between them;
+and when they both agreed, he gave judgment that Thorvald's hurt
+was atoned for by Cormac's upset.
+
+In the evening they went ashore; and the king and his men sat
+down to supper.  Cormac was sitting outside the door of a tent,
+drinking out of the same cup with Steingerd.  While they were
+busy at it, a young fellow for mere sport and mockery stole the
+brooch out of Cormac's fur cloak, which he had doffed and laid
+aside; and when he came to take his cloak again, the brooch was
+gone.  He sprang up and rushed after the young fellow, with the
+spear that he called Vigr (the spear) and shot at him, but
+missed.  This was the song he made about it: --
+
+                    (79)
+     "The youngster has pilfered my pin,
+     As I pledged the gay dame in the beaker;
+     And now must we brawl for a brooch
+     Like boys when they wrangle and tussle.
+     Right well have I shafted my spear,
+     Though I shot nothing more than the gravel:
+     But sure, if I missed at my man,
+     The moss has been prettily slaughtered!"
+
+After this they went on their way to the land of Permia, and
+after that they went home again to Norway.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+How Cormac Saved Steingerd Once More From Pirates; And How They
+Parted For Good And All.
+
+Thorvald the Tinker fitted out his ship for a cruise to Denmark,
+and Steingerd sailed with him.  A little afterwards the brothers
+set out on the same voyage, and late one evening they made the
+Brenneyjar.
+
+There they saw Thorvald's ship riding, and found him aboard with
+part of his crew; but they had been robbed of all their goods,
+and Steingerd had been carried off by Vikings.  Now the leader of
+those Vikings was Thorstein, the son of that Asmund Ashenside,
+the old enemy of Ogmund, the father of Cormac and Thorgils.
+
+So Thorvald and Cormac met, and Cormac asked how came it that his
+voyage had been so unlucky.
+
+"Things have not turned out for the best, indeed," said he.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Cormac.  "Is Steingerd missing?"
+
+"She is gone," said Thorvald, "and all our goods."
+
+"Why don't you go after her?" asked Cormac.
+
+"We are not strong enough," said Thorvald.
+
+"Do you mean to say you can't?" said Cormac.
+
+"We have not the means to fight Thorstein," said Thorvald.  "But
+if thou hast, go in and fight for thy own hand."
+
+"I will," said Cormac.
+
+So at nightfall the brothers went in a boat and rowed to the
+Viking fleet, and boarded Thorstein's ship.  Steingerd was in the
+cabin on the poop; she had been allotted to one of the Vikings;
+but most of the crew were ashore round the cooking-fires.  Cormac
+got the story out of the men who were cooking, and they told all
+the brothers wanted to know.  They clambered on board by the
+ladder; Thorgils dragged the bridegroom out to the gunwale, and
+Cormac cut him down then and there.  Then he dived into the sea
+with Steingerd and swam ashore; but when he was nearing the land
+a swarm of eels twisted round his hands and feet, so that he was
+dragged under.  On which he made this song: --
+
+                    (80)
+     "They came at me yonder in crowds,
+     O kemp of the shield-serpents' wrangle!
+     When I fared on my way through the flood,
+     That flock of the wights of the water.
+     And ne'er to the gate of the gods
+     Had I got me, if there had I perished;
+     Yet once and again have I won,
+     Little woman, thy safety in peril!"
+
+So he swam ashore and brought Steingerd back to her husband.
+
+Thorvald bade Steingerd to go, at last, along with Cormac, for he
+had fairly won her, and manfully.  That was what he, too,
+desired, said Cormac; but "Nay," said Steingerd, "she would not
+change knives."
+
+"Well," said Cormac, "it was plain that this was not to be.  Evil
+beings," he said, "ill luck, had parted them long ago."  And he
+made this song: --
+
+                    (81)
+     "Nay, count not the comfort had brought me,
+     Fair queen of the ring, thy embrace!
+     Go, mate with the man of thy choosing,
+     Scant mirth will he get of thy grace!
+     Be dearer henceforth to thy dastard,
+     False dame of the coif, than to me; --
+     I have spoken the word; I have sung it; --
+     I have said my last farewell to thee."
+
+And so he bade her begone with her husband.
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+The Swan-Songs of Cormac.
+
+After these things the brothers turned back to Norway, and
+Thorvald the Tinker made his way to Iceland.  But the brothers
+went warfaring round about Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland,
+and they were reckoned to be the most famous of men.  It was they
+who first built the castle of Scarborough; they made raids into
+Scotland, and achieved many great feats, and led a mighty host;
+and in all that host none was like Cormac in strength and
+courage.
+
+Once upon a time, after a battle, Cormac was driving the flying
+foe before him while the rest of his host had gone back aboard
+ship.  Out of the woods there rushed against him one as monstrous
+big as an idol -- a Scot; and a fierce struggle began.  Cormac
+felt for his sword, but it had slipped out of the sheath; he was
+over-matched, for the giant was possessed; but yet he reached
+out, caught his sword, and struck the giant his death-blow.  Then
+the giant cast his hands about Cormac, and gripped his sides so
+hard that the ribs cracked, and he fell over, and the dead giant
+on top of him, so that he could not stir.  Far and wide his folk
+were looking for him, but at last they found him and carried him
+aboard ship.  Then he made this song: --
+
+                    (82)
+     "When my manhood was matched in embraces
+     With the might of yon horror, the strangler,
+     Far other I found it than folding
+     That fair one ye know in my arms!
+     On the high-seat of heroes with Odin
+     From the horn of the gods I were drinking
+     O'er soon -- let me speak it to warriors --
+     If Skrymir had failed of his aid."
+
+Then his wounds were looked to; they found that his ribs were
+broken on both sides.  He said it was no use trying to heal him,
+and lay there in his wounds for a time, while his men grieved
+that he should have been so unwary of his life.
+
+He answered them in song: --
+
+                    (83)
+     "Of yore never once did I ween it,
+     When I wielded the cleaver of targets,
+     That sickness was fated to foil me --
+     A fighter so hardy as I.
+     But I shrink not, for others must share it,
+     Stout shafts of the spear though they deem them,
+     -- O hard at my heart is the death-pang, --
+     Thus hopeless the bravest may die."
+
+And this song also: --
+
+                    (84)
+     "He came not with me in the morning,
+     Thy mate, O thou fairest of women,
+     When we reddened for booty the broadsword,
+     So brave to the hand-grip, in Ireland:
+     When the sword from its scabbard was loosened
+     And sang round my cheeks in the battle
+     For the feast of the Fury, and blood-drops
+     Fell hot on the neb of the raven."
+
+And then he began to fail.
+
+This was his last song: --
+
+                    (85)
+     "There was dew from the wound smitten deeply
+     That drained from the stroke of the sword-edge;
+     There was red on the weapon I wielded
+     In the war with the glorious and gallant:
+     Yet not where the broadsword, -- the blood wand, --
+     Was borne by the lords of the falchion,
+     But low in the straw like a laggard,
+     O my lady, dishonoured I die!"
+
+He said that his will was to give Thorgils his brother all he
+had, -- the goods he owned and the host he led; for he would like
+best, he said, that his brother should have the use of them.
+
+So then Cormac died.  Thorgils became captain over the host, and
+was long time in viking.
+
+And so ends the story.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
+
+
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